A Week 1 loss isn't changing the Cardinals' Super Bowl aspirations
TEMPE, Ariz. — The Cardinals may have suffered an upset defeat at home to the undermanned Patriots in Week 1, but that doesn’t change anything about the expectations in Arizona for the 2016 season. They entered the season as legitimate Super Bowl contenders, and those opinions won't be reversed by Sunday's false start.
Though there was still a bit of simmering over the 23-21 loss at practice on Wednesday, the Cardinals seemed ready to move on, and sounded like anything but a team that was shaken to its core.
“Really good start to the week,” head coach Bruce Arians said. “I liked the way our guys bounced back and practiced — good, spirited practice, and they know the challenge that’s ahead of them right now.”
Quarterback Carson Palmer echoed that sentiment.
“Just very business-like,” was how he described the team’s approach. “It was one of the louder practices, as far as pads smashing. We started off in a run drill, and we got great looks from our show team today. It was a very physical practice — which is good. It’s a very focused group right now and very determined to take care of business this weekend.”
The main reason the Cardinals were ready to move beyond the events of Sunday is because to a man, they didn’t feel like the better team won. Despite the defense allowing the Patriots to convert a ridiculous 62 percent of their third-down plays (second-highest in the league in Week 1 behind only the Steelers), Arizona still might have won if not for a low snap on a 47-yard field goal attempt that ended up sailing wide left with just 37 seconds on the clock.
“Not stopping them in the fourth quarter when we took the lead was the biggest thing,” Arians said. “When the crowd was going strong and we did everything we could, and then obviously the snap, hold and kick. We should’ve won the ballgame.”
“We felt like we gave them a couple touchdowns,” safety Tyrann Mathieu said. “Obviously we didn’t play our best football. It’s something we can learn from. We’ll definitely grow from it, and we’re on to next week.”
“When you [let the other team] go 10-for-16 [on third down], that’s not very good,” safety Tony Jefferson said.”They completed a lot of balls that shouldn’t have been completed, but at the end of the day, a lot of it was on us. So it’s correctable, and we’ll fix that this week."
Players pointed out individual mistakes and showed a remarkable sense of accountability, but the team’s 13-year veteran quarterback made sure not to put too much stock into what transpired in the first week of the season.
“Win or lose, you always have to address things,” Palmer said. “There’s always things that come up — room for improvement, things you’ve got to work on. Those things have been addressed, they’ve been improved, but there’s too many games, there’s too much football. You’ve got to get ready to play the next one, and that’s what we’re focused on right now.”
Next up for the Cardinals is a Tampa Bay team that saw quarterback Jameis Winston throw for 281 yards and four touchdowns in its opening week road win over the Falcons, so the defense will immediately find out whether the mistakes the players believe are correctable can be fixed in a single week. It started with a renewed sense of focus at a strong practice on Wednesday, but Mathieu was quick to point out that it won’t mean anything unless he and his teammates bring it on Sunday.
“Obviously anytime you lose, you approach the next week different,” he said. “Everybody was serious today, but we don’t play football on Wednesdays — we play football on Sundays. So we need to have that same mindset, that same attitude come Sunday.”
