“There’s a lot of things to be corrected, the score doesn’t indicate how poorly we played offensively and we can get a hell of a lot better”.
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“We’ll continue to grow and continue to get better on the practice field”, Arians said at his Monday press conference. “Communication was not very good in the beginning of the game, way too many mental errors, especially by a couple of younger players”. He’s one of only three National Football League players who have interception returns for scores to this point of the season, joining Minnesota’s Eric Kendricks and Denver’s Aqib Talib.
“Because we should have had 50, you know?” Arians lamented, though no doubt he was cheered up afterward by the thoughtful bouquet of flowers Buccaneers counterpart Dirk Koetter had delivered to his offense along with an eloquent note of encouragement. They are in games.
Two interceptions, one he returned for a 60-yard touchdown, made Cardinals cornerback Marcus Cooper the NFC Defensive Player of the Week for Week 2 of the season.
Overall, they’ve played seven consecutive solid quarters after struggling mightily in the first 15 minutes of their season against Jimmy Garoppolo and the Patriots.
The 26-year-old had three interceptions in three seasons with Kansas City, all coming in his rookie season in 2013.
The difference is coach Bruce Arians stayed out of the defense.
Arians was asked why he was so upset about the offense’s performance, despite rushing for 101 yards, throwing for 319 and hanging 40 points on the Bucs. Sunday in Week 1 that saw just about every game come down to the wire is more the norm.
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Rex Ryan was effusive in his praise of the Arizona Cardinals and how well rounded they are as a club. “We were playing our style of defense (against Tampa)”. No matter what happens this week, we likely still won’t know everything there is to know about this season’s Cardinals squad.
