Reacting to Another Tough Arizona Cardinals Loss

After the loss, Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon met with reporters:

Opening statement:

“OK, on the injury front (WR) Simi (Fehoko) is being evaluated for a concussion. He could not finish.  ‘D Rob’ (DL Darius Robinson) I think had a chest (and) could not finish. Obviously, a disappointing finish to lose again here on a walk off, and I just told them I appreciate the resiliency that's there. No one has their head down. Everyone believes we can win. We're not doing enough in all three phases to win these games, and that's very clear. I just told them they need to get rested up this weekend. That's tough to play two games like that—everybody has to do it. Seattle played well, (I) give them credit. (We) have to get rested up, reset our mind and our body and then come back to Monday and get better at playing football. Three phases really for now four games (in), (that's) a pretty good sample size. We just haven't put it together like I think we're capable of putting it together. Those are just words. It's my job to make sure that we put it together, so that's what we'll be working on.”

On the disconnect offensively through the first three quarters:

“Yeah, we're not doing enough to win a game right now. Point blank. Our run efficiency is not where it needs to be, generating explosives not where it needs to be. Penalties are killing drives, sacks are killing drives. It's everybody and it starts with me, so we have to find some solutions so we can play a little better because when we get it rolling we can put points on the board. I know that. We just haven't done it for four quarters, and I know in an NFL game there's going to be ebbs and flows. That's a good way to put it, but we're not doing enough so we have to find some solutions.”

On whether there are reasons for the offensive inefficiencies:

“No, there's not. We start with we have to coach better, but we do have to take a good hard look and look what's going on and adapt. Because if we keep doing the same thing, in my mind when you've been in the NFL long enough, you've got these stretches where you feel like you're letting some games slip away. If you keep just doing the same thing and hoping, that's not good coaching so we will change and adapt some things. There's no doubt.”

On what happened on the kickoff near the end of the game that gave the Seahawks the ball at the 40-yard line: 

“Keep it in play. That's kind of one of the things we talk about late in the game there with the amount of timeouts and time and what they needed, we were trying to burn off some time there. (K) Chad (Ryland) played his ass off. The game doesn't come down to one play. We didn't do enough collectively for 60 minutes to win the game.”

On Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba:

“He is a good player. It's tough to contain him for a whole game. He had some critical downs there. That was a component of the game we knew going in. I thought the corners battled him and the safeties that were on him battled him pretty good. He made some good plays, and that's what it takes to win. They made a couple more plays than we did. It's life in the NFL, so we have to make some of those.”:

On WR Marvin Harrison Jr.:

“The response was fantastic. I thought he came and lit it up in the second half. Yeah, absolutely. He got involved, made some big time plays. The touchdown catch, a big time play and couple catches in those drives. He is winning one-on-one. I'm not worried about Marv at all. He's going to be just fine. I thought he played faster today too. That's what I told him. That's what I wanted to see. On a short week, there's not a lot you can work on because you're not practicing. I said just let it rip and play fast, and I thought he did that. I'm not worried about Marv at all. He's resilient just like that whole crew is. The good thing from my view is I know we have a connected team. I know we will go down swinging. I know we ain't going to quit. I know we're going to fight tooth and nail. We just have to do a little bit better.”

On why the offense took so long to connect:

“I don't know. We have to figure it out because up until the fourth quarter we were not putting enough points on the board right now. We have to score more and all those things that I just talked about. It's not one thing. It's not one guy, It's not anything. It's collectively as a unit and as a whole coaching and playing that we have to score more points.”

On whether the fourth quarter was an example of all three phases playing collectively:

“Yeah, I think the defense (held out) until the end there, but I thought the defense got off the field when we needed some critical stops. Our offense, your back's against the wall, you're down two touchdowns, right? 14 points—go all the way down, score, get the ball back, go all the way down and score. There were some big time plays in there too to extend those drives. I mean (WR) Michael Wilson on a fourth and 'gotta have it.' That was a huge play. (RB) Emari (Demercado), Marv, (TE) Trey (McBride), so we're going to be fine. It's my job and the coach's job to make sure that we're doing enough throughout 60 minutes of football that we don't have this keep happening.”

On the six sacks tonight on offense and how to correct it:

“Yeah it's all 11. It's everything from the quarterback to the O-line to the receivers, the timing, all that. And truthfully, I knew we were going to give up some sacks as much as we were going to throw it today. That's a good front. They've got good rushers. They play a lot of different things in the back end, which makes you hold it a tick, and I'm crediting Seattle, but we can't give up six sacks and think we're going to score points. They just kill drives. A third down sack, I get it but it's the sacks on early downs. Good luck trying to keep a drive going when you're behind the sticks like that, so we have to clean that up.”

On 11 personnel looks in the first half and whether they were because of Seattle or if they decided to switch things up:

“A little bit of both, truthfully. What they've shown going into the game where if you play them in a phone booth, you ain't going to like the results. We didn't want to play them in a phone booth all day. That was part of the game plan of what we thought we had to do to win the game. I liked how we operated out of 11. I did.”

On RB Trey Benson’s performance:

“I have to watch the tape on that one. I thought he made some plays. He had the one explosive, he caught a couple check downs and made some guys miss. I thought he was pretty decisive. Again though, Trey's a component of the run game. It takes all 11. We have to run the ball better. It's just not where it needs to be right now. That's a part that going into the year, you think that you'd be able to run it a little bit better through four weeks. We've played some good fronts, but we have to take a good hard look of what we're doing in the run game and have that become more efficient.”

On the reasoning for the pass/run game disparity tonight:

“Truthfully, I thought to win the game we're going to have to throw it all over the yard. Now with saying that, the last two drives obviously we went past that because we're down 14. I don't know if that was straight up (the way) it would've kicked out, but yeah, that was the plan to throw it more this week.”

On Harrison Jr.’s resilient effort in the second half tonight and what helped him bounce back:

“Control the controllables. Being psychologically trained, which he is. He wants to help the team win. He gets down on himself. He's got to let that go and control the controllables, which for him is just play fast. Control your effort, your mode to play and play fast. I thought that's what he did, so that was good to see. I really liked his response. I said keep playing fast. Let me see your effort. He said, ‘I got you’. And he did.”