What The Cardinals Are Saying About The Seahawks

Check out what Cardinals coaches and players are saying about the Seahawks before the two teams meet for Thursday Night Football in Week 10 at University of Phoenix Stadium, via azcardinals.com Head Coach Bruce Arians (On the quick turnaround this week playing on Thursday night against the Seahawks and if he feels he has to somewhat manage Adrian Peterson’s workload…) “I think we just have to see how it goes. He’s a phenomenal athlete, but I wouldn’t anticipate thirty-seven more carries, that’s for sure though. We’ll try to watch it in the first half, especially.” (On what he remembers about the 6-6 tie from last season against Seattle and if there is anything worth remembering from that game heading into this matchup Thursday night…) “Well, there was a lot of good football, and a lot of poor special teams; the field goals for both teams, and a punt blocked, but that game was a very physical one. You just can’t make those kind of critical errors and win ballgames. I still feel like it was a loss.” (On what the biggest challenge is of playing on Thursday night…) “Just getting the guys mentally fresh. I mean, it’s an exhausting game physically, but it’s also exhausting mentally. To try and get a team prepared for a different style of offense and a different style of defense in two days with primarily walk-thrus, it’s hard. The first day, they’re still mentally shot and they’re used to that day-off of refreshing their minds and their bodies, but the physical part, yeah, you know that’s tough, and the mental part is really hard.” (On how Russell Wilson is one of the most mobile quarterbacks in the league right now and if they have to prepare for him any differently than they would normally for any other type of quarterback…) “Heck yeah, heck yeah. He’s so different, and he’s so good at what he does; he’ll kill you from the pocket, but he’ll really kill you out of the pocket. You have to get pressure, but you have to be smart about it.” Wide Receiver Jaron Brown (On preparing for Thursday Night Football…) “It’s more mental this week than physical. Just do the little things, cold tub, ice tub get the recovery in but we’ll be ready to play.” (On it being a division game…) “It’s just one of those games. One of those games that guys get high up for. Division game obviously. Just one of those games that we always want to go out there and perform our best. We have a tough task ahead of us. They do a lot of great things. Switching up the man-to-man coverage and zone. You know the safeties fly around, very physical cornerbacks so it’ll be a good test for us.” Wide Receiver Larry Fitzgerald (On the Seahawks defense…) “They have a few different guys I’ve never played against. You know Richardson, and obviously Freeney’s a new addition and they have some new defensive backs in the back end and this game is always close. I mean the few times we’ve played them it’s been back and forth, you know slugfest and I would imagine it’s going to be the same way on Thursday.” (On Earl Thomas not playing changing the defense…) “I mean you talk about taking a leader, one of the top five defensive players regardless of position off the field and that’s saying a lot. His range is unbelievable, his instincts, his leadership, and then his play making ability. I mean you can’t say enough about what he’s capable of doing. He’s the best middle guy in the business. Obviously if he’s not playing playing, that will probably hurt their defense a little bit. It’s impossible to replace a player of his quality. Regardless of whoever they put out there, they’ll be ready. They’re well coached, all of them. Their defensive coordinator and staff does an unbelievable job of getting those guys ready to play every week.” (On the importance of this game…) “It’s the most important because it’s the next game on the schedule. Obviously when you play a team in your division and especially a team that’s pretty much run this division for the last few years you understand the brand of football you have to play. This is a great test of where we are as a football team. We’re a .500 club right now. We know for us to be an elite team, we’ve got to beat elite football teams and Seattle is that.” Cornerback Patrick Peterson (On Seattle’s offense…) “They’re very in sync with one another. They know exactly where to go depending on which side he breaks the huddle. Those guys do a great job of finding the open space on the field when he does have the opportunity to create more time with his legs." (On playing against Russell…) “Going against Russell the last five years means we pretty much understand what he’s going to do. We don’t know when he’s going to do it, but we know at some point in the game he’s going to buy time for his receivers and we just have to be ready for it. It’s just something that we can’t practice for. We can look at it all day, you know, we just have to be disciplined. The main thing he does is try to buy time with his legs, we have to be disciplined for it. With the pass rushes we have to make sure that they’re staying in their lanes, not jumping when he pump fakes because he gets everyone like that each and every week. Making sure we don’t fall on the back end. Making sure we’re plastering the receivers every time he tries to break the pocket so for the most part we understand what Russell is capable of doing. We just have to make sure we’re disciplined on a defensive side to make sure that he doesn’t hurt us with those plays."Defensive Coordinator James Bettcher (On preparing for Seattle’s offense…) “It’s one of those things where the rushes got to work with the coverage and the coverage has got to save the rush on some downs. There’s going to be an opportunity for him (Russell) to get outside the pocket and he’s going to try to extend the play and we’re going to have to plaster, stay on our men, cover 3,4,5 seconds longer on a couple downs during this game and if we do that in the back end, and if we handle those things upfront we’ll give ourselves a chance to win the game. But it’s got to be in unison.” Offensive Coordinator Harold Goodwin (Opening…) “Big week. Thursday night game, division opponent. Good defense, good pass-rush, good secondary so heck of a challenge for us. Hopefully we can come out, play better than we did last week versus San Fransisco.” (On the defense…) “You can’t prepare for the type of speed you’re going to see out here like today in the walk-thru. It’s a whole different level of speed between Frank (Clark), Bennett, the linebackers, the secondary it’s a whole different level. Those guys are famous for being a great defense for a reason and we’ve got to make sure we rise to the occasion. Sometimes we have, and sometimes we haven’t but hopefully we do on Thursday night and get off that hump of not winning at home against these guys.”

What The Cardinals Are Saying About The Seahawks

Check out what Cardinals coaches and players are saying about the Seahawks before the two teams meet for Thursday Night Football in Week 10 at University of Phoenix Stadium.