The Arizona Cardinals did not come to play in their first game of the season. The Cardinals looked mediocre on defense and out of sync on offense. Their general manager Steve Keim took to the radio this morning and had some strong words about his team. During his scheduled Monday morning interview with Arizona Sports 98.7 FM he had this to say.
Arizona Cardinals General Manager Steve Keim Was Not Happy After Week One Loss
Steve Keim Evaluating the Game
“You wake up Monday morning with a loss, you’re angry, disappointed and embarrassed, and that’s the way we should all feel.”
Very strong words from a man that has assembled one of the most talented rosters in the league, at least on paper. He went on to talk specifically about the offense.
“I thought we were out of sync in the passing game in the first half, receivers and Carson (Palmer) were not on the same page.”
On his first three throws to Michael Floyd, Carson Palmer threw to completely different spots than his receiver ran to. This inconsistency cost them very important possessions and let the New England Patriots get out to an early lead.
Steve Keim Evaluating Tyrann Mathieu
“Well he tried to fly around. Again, I think that he’d be the first to tell you that he was disappointed in some of the missed tackles that he had specifically in the alley. He’s got to get better in that area and I don’t know if the knee’s bothering him or not. As far as I can tell it’s not, but knocking the rust off, reminding yourself to come to balance and bend your knees and play in space; I think that’s something he’ll continue to grow and get better.”
At half time, Tyrann Mathieu was tied for the team lead with five tackles. He could have had seven tackles at that point if he didn’t miss two easy plays on Julian Edelman. He played far more free safety and was not near the line of scrimmage as much last year. Here are some numbers from pro football focus.
Cardinals using Tyrann Mathieu differently so far. 69.4% of snaps have been as a deep safety (was 8.3% in 2015) pic.twitter.com/NB5JI6VpMP
— PFF (@PFF) September 12, 2016
Steve Keim Evaluating DJ Humphries
“He had two pressures that I saw just because of technique. I saw in the run game he was excellent. He rolled people out of there on the goal line. The run by David Johnson, he drove a guy about six yards into the end zone and dumped him. I thought he played solid. He’s playing physical, he’s playing with urgency, continues to get better and better with his technique, but there were certainly some issues with all those guys; Jared Veldheer, all the guys across the front of the offensive line can continue to grow and get better.”
That is strong praise from Keim on his first round pick from last year. D.J. Humphries earned the unenviable nick name of “Knee Deep” last year, after needing some extra motivation during training camp. That nickname seems to have gone away after his first time suiting up for the Cardinals.
Steve Keim Evaluating Brandon Williams
“You can play well, as Brandon played well a majority of the plays, but there were two or three plays that he made critical errors, and that was one of them. The other was when he went up for the ball on that one pass on the perimeter, and he mistimed it and it resulted in a big gain. There were some mistakes that he made that were very very critical to the game that he’s got to clean up and improve on.”
Brandon Williams gave up the Patriots only passing touchdown on a blown coverage. He thought they were playing cover two with help over top and it was actually single high, man coverage. This left his man running free down the sideline wide open for the score. You could hear in Keim’s tone that he was not happy with the performance of his rookie corner back.
Final Thoughts
The eventual Super Bowl winners are 41-8-1 in their opening game. However, there is still hope. In each of the last five seasons, at least four teams that lost their first game ended up in the playoffs. This includes five teams from last year (Pittsburgh Steelers, Houston Texans, Seattle Seahawks, Minnesota Vikings, Washington Redskins). Clearly, things are just getting started in Arizona.
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