Detroit Lions Store

News

Conference Call Transcript: Cardinals' QB Kurt Warner

Posted Dec 16, 2009

Comments:
On what went wrong on Monday night
“Everything. The 49ers played well, they had a good scheme, they did a lot of good things both up front and in the secondary, coupled with a lot of mistakes that we made. You put those things together and we could never really get into the game. We fought our way back there in the third quarter, early fourth quarter, but then we just continued to make mistakes. It was one of those games where we couldn’t seem to get out of our own way, knowing it was going to be hard enough against that team and a team that plays us so well like the 49ers do, and then to do the things that we did, make the mistakes that we did, it was definitely frustrating because we could never really get going. Any time you felt like you were going to make a play and kind of get back into it we’d do something and set ourselves back. You just hate those kinds of games where you just never give yourself a chance to win.”
On seeing the Lions as a chance to get back on track given his history against them
“We just need to get back on track and win a game. We’re going to back to work and we’re preparing and we want to get back to playing the football that we were playing before this last game. That’s really the only thing that matters right now is us getting back to our business and focusing on the little things and the details and trying to get a win. That’s what we’re going to do this week and we want to get back on track and we want to get on a roll, so we’re working to try to correct those things and hopefully that win will come this week against Detroit.”
On the Lions’ secondary
“It’s hard to say. I haven’t watched them a lot yet, just a little bit today. But the one thing is, as I was watching them, I didn’t see anything jump out at me or any glaring weaknesses there. I saw a solid unit. They were running around, flying around, flying to the football, and that was the thing that impressed me about them. I haven’t had a chance to really study player-by-player yet to know how we’re going to match up in those kinds of things, I’ve looked more from a scheme standpoint up to this point. We’ll look at it more throughout the week but you just never know. The one thing I’ve found out in this business is that certain teams match up better against you than others, and you might not be impressed necessarily by the name on the back of the jersey or what you’ve seen in previous games, but a lot of it is how they match up and how they play against your guys. That’s what we’re going to have to see on Sunday. Like I said, I haven’t seen a lot of tape, I don’t know a great deal about Detroit, being that I haven’t played them in a while, but that’s the initial thoughts that I’ve had just watching them up to this point this week.”
On if the Cardinals’ offense can match up with anybody when they’re playing well
“We like to think that. I think when we’re rolling we’ve been really successful, but the one thing is with any great offense you want to be able to do it week-in and week-out, and that’s what makes a great offense. Nobody can stop you, you feel invincible, and I can’t say that we’re at that point, especially coming off the game that we had on Monday night. I think there’s been times over the last few years where we’ve gotten on those rolls, we’ve gotten on those two-, three-, four-game runs where we felt like that, where we felt like we were invincible, that we couldn’t be stopped. And I remember my time with the Rams. That was so much what we were built on was that confidence to believe that nobody was going to stop us; we were going to score every time we touched it. Although we’ve had those moments here, we still have to be more consistent and we’ve still had games where we haven’t been productive. So we know that we’ve still got to work, we’ve still got to go back to the drawing board, we’ve still got to get better, because we’re not at that point yet, and again, all you have to do is look at our last game. We definitely weren’t invincible or unstoppable in that game. There’s still a lot of work to be done.”
On his success this season coming off of a loss
“When you lose you’ve got to get focused again and it’s important to get back on track and get a win. You hate to think that you get more focused after a loss, that you weren’t focused going into that game where you lost or you didn’t perform as well, but I do think that there’s something to having your backs against the wall a little bit or being pressed and in a corner, knowing that you don’t want to lose two games in a row where that focus goes up and you prepare as hard as you ever do. I guess I’ve been fortunate to be able to come out after those games and make sure I don’t stack a couple bad games together.”
On playing against coach Schwartz’s defensive scheme from Tennessee
“The times that I’ve played against those schemes and what they do I think the variety of what they do has always been the thing that makes it difficult to compete against. You’ll see a number of different fronts, a number of different blitzes, a number of different looks, even though you may see similar coverages they’ll show you some different looks and then run to those coverages and they’ve always done a good job of trying to confuse the quarterback and giving you that variety of different looks that what you saw last week probably isn’t what you’ll see this week. Preparing for those teams it’s always that you have to be ready for the unexpected. You have to be ready for the different blitzes that you maybe haven’t seen the last four or five weeks but they’ve got a handful of them that they can throw at you at any time.”
On dealing with his concussion earlier in the season
“It was definitely a difficult decision and I think the more people talk about it and the more you find out or the more people question you about it, the more skepticism there is as a player. When I talked to people 10 years ago when I had a concussion I was trying to get back on the field as soon as I could. If I could function on the sideline I was going back in the game. Now it’s different because people are talking about it differently, they’re talking about long-term effects, they’re talking about the knowledge they have now that they maybe didn’t have then, and it makes you a lot more cautious moving forward than I think we were before. It makes it more difficult when you finally go back into a game because you’re just never sure after hearing the doctors talk and after hearing the people and all the specialists that you talked to, they all say, ‘Well, we feel pretty good about it, but we don’t know.’ So every time you start hearing ‘We don’t know, we don’t know, we don’t know,’ it makes you a little more skeptical, and it was a tough process. It was tough to sit out and to choose to sit out. It’s a lot harder than deciding to play, that’s for sure. And then when you finally do go back in after taking a week off you start to wonder. You’re a little scared going in, there’s a little bit of fear taking that first hit, or if I take another hit what does that mean for my future? And all those things. It was a tough process, tougher obviously than the ones that I had dealt with before and it was difficult to make the right decision and I think that’s been the problem for so long with the league is that it’s hard for guys to make the right decision not knowing what the right decision is. To be honest and tell your symptoms if it means you can’t play even though we don’t really know the future status, and all of those things. And I think the league is trying to do the right thing. They’re trying to take a little bit of the power out of a player’s hands, which I think is important because we have the mentality of play at all costs if you can get out there, but I’m not sure that’s the best thing. I’m not sure that’s the best approach, especially when you’re talking about head injuries, even though some of the knowledge is limited. But the limited knowledge we have on the possibility of what it could do to your future if you’re not fully healthy and you go back and take another hit, how that can affect you for the long haul; so I think the NFL is trying to do the right thing by it, although it’s still just not an exact science and that’s what makes it more difficult.”
On if he has changed his equipment since his concussion
“I did try the different helmets, the new helmets, right after I had the concussion. I tried to find something that I felt comfortable with. Again, limited knowledge with the new helmets, but they seem to think that they’re going to be better across the board at protecting guys but I couldn’t really find a good fit, so I’m actually wearing the same equipment that I was wearing during and before the concussion. It’s the same equipment, same helmet that I’ve been wearing pretty much my whole career. I had been very fortunate in my career, I think I suffered three very minor concussions in my career and hadn’t suffered one since 2003, so the equipment did good and is still good, but I just couldn’t get comfortable and I think that’s a big part of the process, making sure whatever equipment you’re wearing you feel good with it, you feel safe in it, you feel comfortable in it, it’s a good fit for you, for your head, so that’s why. I tried that stuff in a little bit of a panic or a little bit of an ‘I want to do everything I possibly can to protect myself.’ But at the end of the day I went back to what I was most comfortable with and felt good with that decision as I went back to play.”

Next LIVE Event

Recent Videos

More Video

Twentyman Articles

Lions Insider »
  • No portion of this site may be reproduced without the express written permission of the Detroit Lions.
  • © 2010 Detroit Lions, Ltd.