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Conference Call Transcript: Cardinals' Head Coach Ken Whisehunt

Posted Dec 16, 2009

Comments:
On coming off the San Francisco loss and whether it an aberration
“No. Well, I think you have to say it was an aberration. We started with a turnover early and it seemed like watershed. Everything’s started happening. Everything that could go wrong seemed like it went wrong. Sometimes you have those games. Hopefully, we got everything out of our system in one game.
On if there has been a pattern in Tim Hightower
“Well, I haven’t really necessarily tried calling it a pattern. I know he’s had two in a row. He had one against Minnesota and one against San Francisco early. I hope it’s not a pattern. We are certainly working to try to keep it from being that. He runs hard and he’s done a very good job for us. We’re all disappointed that the ball came but sometimes those things are hard to avoid when the helmet hits right on the ball. When you’re a tough runner like he is and he’s working to get the extra yards. That’s certainly something that puts you at risk of that happening, so we’re going to continue to work on securing the ball and make a conscience effort to know that people are now going just a little bit more to try to strip it because of that. Hopefully, it won’t be a problem.”
On when you have many weapons, how do you keep everybody happy
“Sometimes it’s a good problem to have but generally you can’t keep everybody happy because there’s not enough to go around. The biggest thing for our guys is that they want to win and it’s a lot easier to except the fact that you didn’t get as many touches when you win a game. Usually it’s going to happen by game. We have a number of plays that we hope or are designed to go to different guys, and the ball will actually end up that way, but during the course of the game you just never know. I think Kurt Warner does a great job of reading things out and getting the ball to the open guy. That’s why he’s been so successful and I think our players understand that. I really think that we have a tight knit group that it does make it a little bit easier to get along when you’re not getting as many touches."
On if he thinks Larry Fitzgerald is healthy
“Is anybody healthy in the 14th, 15th week in the season? That’s the question. His knee is a little bit sore. He had a little bruise from the game. He did do some work in practice today and we’re going to try to keep him as calm as we can. We have to hold Larry back because it wants to get in there and work. We found with Steven Breaston, who we had to deal with in a similar type situation earlier in the year that the more work he does in practice, it seems that later in the week he gets sore, and we don’t want that to happen with Larry. Today he worked on the field with limited capacity without a setback, without much pain, so hopefully he’ll to improve as the week goes on.”
On if he wants to get a shot at this Lions secondary
“Well, you know what? Those guys play hard. We’re really focused in on trying to not play the way we played on Monday night and that’s really the issue for us.”
On his thoughts of the Lions secondary
“I don’t think there is any such thing in the NFL. I put the Seattle tape on and it certainly didn’t look like a mismatch early in that game, so I think that they have NFL players on that roster. I know Coach Schwartz does a very good job with those guys. The one thing I’ll say about them is they play hard. That whole defense plays hard and they do enough different things that they can force you into turnovers if you’re not operating or you’re not as sharp. So, I don’t think there is any underestimation on our part as far as their ability to make plays.”
On QB Kurt Warner’s numbers after a loss and does he think there is a reason for that
“Yeah. I haven’t put a lot of thought into that. It’s obviously disappointing better in the game Monday night. I think the seven turnovers led to more to a loss than anything Kurt did. He’s been playing very well for us this year. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t play better on Monday because Kurt had been on a hot streak leading up to that.”
On how it seems that Warner is able to bounce back very well
“I think that’s our team in general. I think that’s one of things that we’ve been able to do and that’s a tribute to our guys and their ability to bounce back. We’re trying to find our way as a mature team where we don’t have let downs, like we did on Monday night. We’re not always going to be successful, but the one thing that we’ve been able to do is bounce back. Maybe it’s because, I know for Kurt, how hard he works at the game and how disappointed we were after the game that maybe we put that much more work the next week, and certainly go in with a little bit more of an edge and that’s benefited us in the past.”
On what makes the Lions scheme difficult to play against
“They’ll drop in coverage. They’ll blitz. They’ll bring all out blitzes. They’ll move guys around. I’ve gone against Coach Schwartz a number of times when he was a coordinated in Tennessee. The versatility of the defense has been one of the things that always make it tough to prepare for. You have to be ready for a number of different looks and you could certainly see where that’s coming with that defense.”

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