FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Sunday, August 28, 2016 POSTGAME QUOTES FROM HOUSTON TEXANS Head Coach Bill O Brien T Duane Brown OLB Jadeveon Clowney S K.J. Dillon WR Will Fuller V WR DeAndre Hopkins OLB Whitney Mercilus QB Brock Osweiler OLB Brennan Scarlett OLB John Simon HEAD COACH BILL O BRIEN (Transcribed by Katie Karsh) Can you talk about QB Brock Osweiler s two incompletions and WR Will Fuller V s touchdown and drop? I thought Brock went in there and obviously from field level there, I thought he managed the offense well, made some good throws. I was pleased with the way he played. I like Brock s (Osweiler) demeanor during the game, too. He comes over to the sideline between series or at a timeout. He s very observant and he s a good communicator with the coaches. That s something that stood out to me. I would say with Fuller, look he made some good catches and then the one I think that you re talking about was the special seam route that was an over-the-shoulder type catch. Tough catch. Got to make that catch and I m sure he ll work hard to improve on it this week. How would you evaluate QB Brock Osweiler s ability to run the offense? I think there s always things that you can improve on. We had a good quarterback meeting yesterday. We got a lot of things covered with all three guys. Every day there is something to improve upon, but at this stage, after the third preseason game, I think he has made a lot of progress. He has improved every day. He s a very easy guy to coach. He s very hardworking. Good communicator. He asks good questions. He studies the night before, comes in the next day and has good questions about the plays that are going in that day. I m pleased with where he is right now. Can you talk about WR Will Fuller V s touchdown and his progression as a rookie? He s a good player. Fuller is a good player. He s a smart player. He understands route running. He understands coverage. I think he was very well coached at Notre Dame, as was Braxton Miller at Ohio State. Those guys were very well coached. I think that says a lot. When you get guys from those types of college programs that have been exposed to some really good coaching, that helps you when you get them as rookies. On the touchdown, I believe it was a double move and it was a nice throw. He was able to make the play, keep his feet inbounds if I remember the one you re talking about correctly. He has done that a lot during training camp. I think the big thing with Braxton and Will is to just continue to be as consistent as they can. Just continue to be consistent day in and day out, put the work in and they ll have a lot of success. Were you and Offensive Coordinator George Godsey able to see QB Brock Osweiler make adjustments on the field? I was saying before, I think that s something that s important about this game. This will be the, probably the last time Brock (Osweiler) plays and a number of these guys play until the Chicago game, so we wanted to play him for an extended time, not only to get him into a rhythm, but also be able to talk to him in between series and see if we can adjust things from series to series. There were some things that we need to improve upon, coaching and playing, but I thought overall he did a good job of coming over and calmly observing the plays that we had just run or understanding what we re going to try to do to improve on what we had just run. It was good. What are your thoughts about the running game through the three preseason games? We ve put some basic runs in runs that we ve been practicing for a while here since the spring through training camp. We basically want to try and run those runs. We don t game plan those runs. It hasn t looked great all the time, but look there s times where it has looked pretty decent. I think what we have to do there is make sure that
we do a good job of game planning, make sure that our lineman and our backs and our tight ends really understand how we re trying to block different fronts and things like that. Just really work to be consistent these next ten days. How do you evaluate the team heading into Week 1? You definitely like to win no matter if it counts or not. You want to go out there in between the lines and try to win the game and 3 and 0 is certainly better than 0 and 3. Obviously, you guys know better than me, you can go back through the history of this league, 4 and 0 in the preseason doesn t necessarily always translate to great records in the regular season. What I just told the team there, one day at a time. Let s correct the film when we get you guys back in here. Let s correct the mistakes. Let s think about the things we re doing well and let s move on to the next phase of basically preseason. We ve got to cut the team down to 75 and then after Dallas, we ve got a 53 cut. Just one day at a time. Let s not put too much into it than what it is. Can you talk about S K.J. Dillon s aggressiveness and nose for the ball? He s a contact player. He s a good tackler. He loves football. He s around the ball quite a bit. He has improved a lot. In the spring when you re not wearing pads, those players don t always stand out to you. But when the pads come on sometimes certain players like a K.J., that s the type of player he is. He s a padded player. He s a contact player, so I thought that there were some good tackles that he made out there today. He has been better on special teams so he s got a shot. How bad is NT D.J. Reader s injury? I don t think it s very, very serious. I believe it s a concussion, but he was cleared. He was cleared, so I think it s going to be fine. Can you talk about OLB John Simon s interception and also about OLB Brennan Scarlett? John (Simon), those guys on defense, that have been in there this training camp, they ve got a knack for the ball. John and Whitney (Mercilus) and Simon. (Brennan) Scarlett showed a good knack for rushing the passer and hawking the ball out. I thought that was a good job today. Those guys, over the years that I ve been here, they ve created, not Scarlett, I m talking about Simon and Whitney and (Jadeveon) Clowney. Those guys have created turnovers and that s a big thing. You know people ask me Hey, are you worried that you get too many in the preseason and does that bode well? That s what you re trying to coach. You re trying to coach taking the ball away. So the more we can do that, the better we re going to be as a team. How would you evaluate the offensive line? I thought it was better. I thought it was better. I think we have to be better versus the blitz. I think there were times versus the blitz where maybe we didn t point it correctly and didn t get it picked up correctly, and we have to fix that. But, I thought overall that Brock (Osweiler) had some time. There were times when he didn t, but I thought, for the most part, he had time to throw the ball versus a four-man rush. We just need to keep working to get better. That s what I m saying. It s one day at a time, correct the mistakes, let s get better, let s learn from them and do a better job next time out. Do you expect the high number of forced turnovers to carry over into the regular season? We coach that. I think everybody coaches it I m not saying we have the market cornered on taking the ball away but we spend a lot of time talking about that. We show a lot of clips from around the league and we really are big believers in the turnover/takeaway margin. That really equals winning and losing. If you can win that battle, the field position battle, the turnover/takeaway battle, the penalty battle, the third down battle, you ve got a real shot to win games. I think that s something that we really coach, and hopefully we can continue that because it s been good this preseason but continue that into the regular season. RB Tyler Ervin gave you a big kick return and a long run. Can you talk about his game? I thought it was better today. I was happy to see, that because I told the coaches last night that I really wanted to see him more. I think, here s a guy that was injured during the spring. He had a quad pull, so he missed all of OTAs, so this is really kind of his OTA, if that makes sense, because he missed the whole spring. I thought it was good to see him really go out there and do a couple things tonight that were pretty decent. There s a lot of competition in the running back group. Is it hard to evaluate them with the struggles on the ground? No. When you think back to all of our practices, we ve had 20 practices, we ve had two really good practices against other teams in addition to the games. It s more of we re looking at the whole picture there. We ve had
practices and games where we re running the ball pretty well at times. I think it is very competitive. It ll be a very hard decision but we feel like we have a number of good players that can run the ball there. T DUANE BROWN (Transcribed by Taylor Turner) When you see the offense getting on a roll like you did the first half, you really had to be anxious to get in? It s amazing. Watching those guys work and the weapons that we have. I m definitely on the sideline itching. I d love to be out there with my guys, but they re definitely doing a good job with my absence. Going a little bit more on that, how do you think they ve responded with so much adversity and mixing and matching the line overall? They ve done great. That s just kind of been the theme around here. Injury is part of the game. With us up front, it s next man up. Guys play in different positions. It doesn t matter. You do what you have to do to get the job done and they ve done a heck of a job. We ve added a couple of veterans, but for the most part we re a very young O- Line. The way those guys have responded has been encouraging. Do you have a target date on when you might be back? No not yet. We re still trying to figure that out, but I had a good week last week. How hopeful are you that you ll be ready for the regular season? Very hopeful, but it s not decided yet. You think it s 50/50 you re back for the opener? We re not going to do numbers. Just taking it a day at a time. That s something I don t want to rush on. I want to make sure I m Duane Brown that I ve become over the years when I m out there. OLB JADEVEON CLOWNEY (Transcribed by Hector Castelltort) How do you think the defense played today? I think we played great, we won the game. How about forcing all those turnovers? Great. That s what we expect from our defense, to go out and make the plays. Win the game. Whatever it takes to win the game that is what we are to do every week, week in and week out. Do you think this was a pretty good measuring stick against this team that s a Super Bowl contender? That s what we ve been told. It is preseason, so nobody knows right now. We are going to play games and try to get better at our craft. Just try to win. Can you talk about the turnovers you guys have been able to create so far? It has been great. I hope we can keep it up, we got to keep it up. As far as turnovers go, just get the offense the ball. Play complementary football, then they go and score. We go back there and do it again. S K.J. DILLON (Transcribed by Hector Castelltort) Is obvious you like contact, what do you like about it? I just like hitting people. Once you hit somebody, they are going to be looking for you. Once you put that fear into their heart, they are not going to want to run the ball the same way, or catch the ball the same, or throw the ball the same, or whatever they are doing once you put fear in their hearts, it s pretty much over. Head Coach Bill O Brien mention that some guys are different once they put the pads on, he talked about you. You think coaches are noticing what you are doing? I hope so. I just go out there and just try to do my best every time I step onto the field. Once I am on the field, I am in my sanctuary, I can act however I like to act. I am a wild child. That s how I am. I just like to go out there and have a good time.
What are two things you have learned being the NFL level from being around players that you have share time with? I learned that getting in your playbook is the most important thing, watching the film and taking care of your body. The more you are on the field, the more they can count on you. I try to take to take care of my body and then once I did that, I try to stay on top of my playbook. Stay fresh on our next opponent and what I have to do. How can you treat this week and one more opportunity against Dallas? This week, we had a lot of time to watch up on Arizona. Next week, we don t have a lot of time. That means you have to do a lot more things outside the stadium and off field to help for this Thursday night game. WR WILL FULLER V (Transcribed by Stefan Nolet) Talk about the offense s performance in the first half: We re just trying to get better each week, working hard in practice, so you can see the results in the game. How has your college coaching helped you adapt to the NFL? I would say a lot. I was coached real well at Notre Dame, so I think it s helping me translate to the NFL real easily. Not easy, but better, because I got coached real well at Notre Dame. Could you take us through your touchdown catch? I actually wasn t expecting it. Brock (Osweiler) threw a great ball like he did last week. The cornerback was playing off, so I just had to fight through at the last second and push through and catch it and tap my toes. It was a perfect pass by Brock, and I just did what I had to do. How did QB Brock Osweiler play today? Brock is always great. He always puts us in the right place, so I just have to do my job and I know he ll do his job the right way. How have the offensive players started to come together? The connection is great, and that just shows how hard we re working in practice. With new parts, practice is a real important thing, and we go at it every day like it s our last. So, we just have to keep practicing the right way. WR DEANDRE HOPKINS (Transcribed by Hector Castelltort) How big can RB Tyler Ervin be in setting up field position for you? Tyler (Ervin) has a lot of speed, he can do a lot of things. Punt, kick return, he showed it out here. Get the ball and go in the middle and not just a speed guy, who typically goes to the side. He is a tough kid. I am excited to see what he is going to do the rest of the season. Did you expect the younger receivers to be this far along despite the fact that they are rookies? Oh yes, of course. We demand the best out of all the rookies. Especially, in that receiving group, I demand the best out of you. QB Brock Osweiler kind of opened it up a little bit more today. Was that good to see, taking some shots down the field? Oh yeah, always. We took shots down the field last game. He stayed in the game a little longer, and you know one-on-one coverage. Pick your poison What was different about you today? I just go out and make plays. Whatever I can do to help this team win, that s what I am going to do. OLB WHITNEY MERCILUS (Transcribed by Stefan Nolet) How well did you guys play complimentary football?
Exactly, so it showed in the game quite a few times. That s what we want to do all 16 games. Did OLB John Simon surprise you with his speed on his touchdown? Not exactly. We ve seen him move pretty quickly on the field. He was pushing it on all cylinders, maxing out that tank, and definitely got the touchdown, so it was good. How about both of OLB John Simon s touchdowns being long runs this preseason? I know, right? I know he was winded, especially when the defense had to go back out there. It helps his conditioning out, no doubt. If the team gets in the habit of creating turnovers, can you keep that habit going? Yeah, exactly. We work on it in practice so that it shows up in the games, and when it shows up in the preseason, definitely it s going to show up in the regular season. So, that s what we re hopeful for and we just have to keep that going. QB BROCK OSWEILER (Transcribed by Hannah Pietsch) How would you describe your confidence level in running this offense? After going 3-0, you must be pretty comfortable going in to Week 1. My confidence continues to grow every single day. It definitely grows every single time I step on the game field because you can t really replace anything with game reps, so the more I m able to rep this offense, the more comfortable I become with it. My confidence is growing also in practice. Practice is the place that really prepares you for the games. I believe if you practice well, you re going to play well. I know this entire football team, but specifically in the offensive room, we come out to practice every single day trying to get better. We try to treat practice just like a game, and because of that I think the entire group s confidence is growing and we re all becoming more comfortable in this system and we re getting better at the system. You seem to have developed a rapport with WR Will Fuller V. How long did it take for you to get to that point and how much better can it get? About 5,000 balls, and we still have a long way to go. The thing about Will is he s such a talented athlete. Obviously, we all know about his speed, but what everybody doesn t know is his work ethic. He studies extremely hard, he practices very hard every day. Because of that, we get a lot of those game-like reps in practice. I jokingly said 5,000, but we ve thrown a lot of go balls throughout practice and individual drills trying to prepare for these moments because we know of his skill set. What did it mean to you to see the play of the receivers today? There is a lot of competition at that position, and I m guessing it makes your job easier. Absolutely. When we get in to a five wide set, and I look out and see obviously all five guys who are extremely talented and can get open on any given play. There was a play, and you go to the sideline and look at the pictures, and shoot, there was four guys open. It s just very impressive to see that. We have a very talented, skilled group in the offensive room, but they don t rest on their talent. I think that entire group works extremely hard. Our coaches prepare us, our coaches push us hard. Our biggest thing is we just try to get a little bit better every single day and that s really where we re at right now. You easily could have been 13-for-13 today. Did you feel on today or feel differently today than any other game? I wouldn t say on, but I would say I felt more comfortable than I have in the past. It goes back to every single time I get the opportunity to rep this offense, whether that be in a game or practice, I become a little more familiar with things. I m understanding how the footwork should tie in to my progression, where we re trying to go, which matchups we re trying to exploit. A large credit has to go to our coaching staff getting us prepared. Me, especially, with Coach Godsey, there s not a minute during the day we don t spend together at least talking some kind of conversation about football, and you re definitely seeing that pay off come game time. Because you re not really game planning for these three games, are you pleased with what you re getting as an offense? Our biggest goal in the preseason one was obviously to protect the football, score points, and then to get better week to week. If you go back and look at San Francisco to New Orleans to now, I would say we have gotten better.
I had one turnover in the red zone last week against the Saints. I made a horrible decision, but I learned from that decision. Outside of that, I think we ve done a fairly good job of protecting the ball, scoring some points, but trust me, there s always room for improvement. There s a laundry list of things that we need to clean up from tonight, and we ll do that as soon as we get back to work on Tuesday. Do you feel that turning the turnovers the defense got for you in to points was huge and something that you really have to do? It s extremely important, just even for the momentum shift of the entire football game. Our defense is playing tremendous football right now. It s a lot of fun to watch those guys play, and it s a lot of fun to compete against them in practice because it makes us as an offensive unit better. But when they create turnovers, it s our job now as an offense to ride that momentum and get points off that turnover. I know we were able to do that early, but there is always room for improvement and we ll constantly strive to get better. How ready do you feel for Week 1 and the Chicago Bears at home on Sept. 11 after all of the waiting for this moment? We re ready, but there s still work to be done. There s a lot of practice opportunities prior to that September 11 game against the Bears. There s a lot of good things that happened tonight, but there s also a lot of things that need to be cleaned up, especially on my end. I made a few errors out there tonight that I will certainly clean up, but between now and that Bears game, we re going to make the most of every practice opportunity and we will be ready to go. OLB BRENNAN SCARLETT (Transcribed by Hector Castelltort) How do you feel about your performance today? I think I did a decent job today, I mean there is always room to get better. You had a couple of sacks, you had one that they called an incomplete pass and a fumble as well. Take us through your day. Just working on what I can. I been working on a couple of good techniques over the past couple of weeks. Just trying to put it to use and play hard. You missed some time because of the injury, how do you bounce back so quickly? Just staying in the playbook when I was out and just watching the guys ahead of me. (Whitney) Mercilus, (John) Simon and Jadeveon (Clowney), I am just lucky I m able to watch them, watch what they do and put it in my own game. OLB JOHN SIMON (Transcribed by Stefan Nolet) Take us through your touchdown return: I was just coming off the ball and just felt the tight end kind of let me go a little bit. We ve been trained through practice to kind of realize that s a screen. I haven t been too good at it in practice, but fortunately, in the game, I was able to react quick and make a play for us. How cool was it to be wide open like that and running free? I think someone got a good hit on (Cardinals QB Carson) Palmer. I don t know who it was, but I heard he took a lick. I was just going to try and run as fast as I could, and fortunately for us, it got us six on the board. After your fumble return against San Francisco, you said you were winded. Were you winded here? A little better this week, but it was a longer return, so I was a bit tired: had to hit the oxygen before we went back out there. But, I m in better shape because of that San Francisco one. Could creating takeaways become a habit for the defense? We re really stressing it at practice, creating turnovers and attacking the ball and things of that sort. So far in the preseason, we ve been able to do that, but we re going to have to carry it into the regular season, because that s when it counts.
How cool is it for you to have two long returns in the preseason? It s exciting, and we re making keys to attack the ball and start fast. So far I think we ve done a decent job at that. There s always things we can improve on, and that s what the film study is for tomorrow, and we ll get back to work. OLB Whitney Mercilus says you re all arms running down the field. Do you think your speed is underrated? You have to listen to Whit (Whitney Mercilus) on that. I think I can run decently fast. I had to run fast enough for that, so that s a good thing. I was able to get into the end zone without getting caught, so that s important POSTGAME QUOTES FROM ARIZONA CARDINALS Head Coach Bruce Arians CB Justin Bethel DT Red Bryant OLB Chandler Jones DT Robert Nkemdiche QB Carson Palmer HEAD COACH BRUCE ARIANS (Transcribed by Stephanie Weaver) Opening statement: It s easy to evaluate that game. It s just called turnovers. It s been a problem each of the three games. We had a touchdown pass, then got it batted down, they run it back for a touchdown when all we ve got to do is complete the ball on a screen play. You know, it s just got to get corrected. Having a no huddle offense on the road, two tipped balls for interceptions killed the first team offense then Matt (Barkley) just overthrowing people at the end. We had some nice drives, had a lot of yardage, third down, red zone, all those statistics look good, but you don t win your games turning the ball over. Do you feel any better about QB Carson Palmer s interceptions the past few games having been tipped balls? They re going to the right guys and they re just bad luck. You know, the screen pass you just got to get it to him somehow, someway, because we had them all knocked down. You can t throw it through the guy. Did QB Carson Palmer come out okay? Yeah, he just chipped a tooth. How is CB Mike Jenkins? He has a knee injury and Stepfan Taylor has a knee injury. Don t know the extent of either one yet. Do you want to get these bad luck plays out of the way in preseason? Well, yeah. You hope that we can learn from them and get them out of the way. The second half was just inaccuracy. The first one was just two tips and going to the right guy, like I said. Hopefully it s gone. Do you feel like you ve accomplished what you wanted to in the preseason? Yeah, we ve had great practices ever since the spring. Our first team offense hasn t done anything to make me feel like we re not where we need to be other than turning the ball over. Is there an update on S Tyrann Mathieu? He ll be fine. He s not ready to play yet. Did CB Patrick Peterson tweak his ankle in practice this week? Yeah, the last day the last period. Felt real fine yesterday and tried to run out there a little bit, and I said no. We re not risking it at all on the turf. How did you think CB Justin Bethel played today?
Rusty. You know, he got a good jam, and then trails the guy instead of getting back on top. With his speed, he should be back on top of that receiver making him throw back shoulder balls. How do you think DT Robert Nkemdiche looked in his first half? You can never tell with linemen. You can t see crap from the sideline. We ll watch the tape and see how he did. Does CB Justin Bethel just need to get to game speed? Yeah, he s had very little practice. He gutted it out and played a little bit more than I was hoping he would play because of Mike s (Jenkins) injury. He wanted to keep going. So he felt good, and that s a good sign. Is the no huddle something you can use more than in the past three years? Yeah, we finally feel very comfortable in it and practice it a lot. I like to always test it on the road. That s usually the best. If you can communicate on the road with the snap counts going, you ve got a chance with it so yeah, I like where that s at. What did the ref say on RB Andre Ellington s not catch? No comment. Are you concerned about special teams? No, just because half the guys that are on there aren t going to be here. The ones that are going to be here, we need to iron out our returns because we ve got a dynamic return guy but we don t block it well enough. We gave up the one coverage return and got the rest of them behind the 20. Just the returns, I would like to see us break some returns. That s going to have to wait now. CB JUSTIN BETHEL (Transcribed by Julien Demers) Excited to get back out there? Oh yeah for sure. It s always good to get back on the field. Anything you re going to work on going forward? Most of it, just finishing stuff. That first deep ball, batted it at the line. That last play, I kind of fell out of position. I felt I had a little push off with the receiver. Obviously, it wasn t enough for them to overcall it. Were you expecting to go in there as early as you did? Yeah, I was going to get in, probably first half, something like that. We re supposed to get 10-15 plays each or something like that. I was prepared to go in. I hate to see anybody down like that, but yeah, I was ready. What happened on that touchdown? So, I was on top of him. I saw him look back for the ball, so I looked up. You don t see the ball coming down. I keep looking, and I felt they pushed off a little bit. Obviously, it wasn t enough for the ref to call it. He got that separation and he got behind me, and he got in the end zone. It s a lesson learned, just keep finishing and they re going to make plays, you re going to make plays. Either way, whatever happens, you re going to come back the next play. DT RED BRYANT (Transcribed by Julien Demers) You got a contract extension for the one year before this. What s been going on in the offseason up to this point? Just really been trying to work. Got a chance to go through the offseason program. Got a chance to come back in training camp. We actually probably got one of the strongest position groups on the team. It s been really competitive and I look forward to seeing what happens. Where do you stand in this roster here? What s your feeling on the defensive line? Most important, I think for me, the help. They already got great defensive linemen, great leadership, and I m just grateful that they thought enough of me to bring me back and getting an opportunity. As a football player, that s all you can ask for, an opportunity. If I m here, I m going to be ecstatic. If I m not, I m still going to be rooting for them because that s how good of a group it is here.
Today you had a couple opportunities, including that goal line play. What was it like in that opportunity? It was an opportunity to just show what our character is about. Got to give Houston a lot of credit. They did some good things and I believe they got a turnover when they were inside the five [yard line]. It was an opportunity for us to show who we are and we were able to hold them. That s always good. Any indicators that today s game with one preseason game left and the deadline coming up, what are your thoughts on how it might stand and turn out? My thoughts are whatever happens, it s going to be good either way. I m just going to enjoy like I ve been enjoying it. I didn t come into it with any expectations other than just doing my best. If it works out in my favor, great. If it doesn t, it s been a great career. That s how I m looking at it. OLB CHANDLER JONES (Transcribed by Adam Rauch) Despite the loss, do you guys tell yourself it s just preseason, you don t have any major injuries and you ll be okay? Ultimately, when you come out to play a football game, you want to win. It was very unfortunate that we didn t win, but we got an opportunity to see our team and step forward and looking forward to getting better. Can you take us through your sack on QB Brock Osweiler? Yeah, I didn t wrap up so next time, on my next sack I ll have to try and definitely wrap up. He s a bigger quarterback and luckily he went down. What are your thoughts on the defense as a whole? We have to sit there and look at film and break down some film and see what we can do better. You can never say we played a perfect game. There s always room for improvement, so that s what we re going to do tomorrow is get in the film room and see how we can fix that. Can a loss like this put a bit of extra motivation on the team heading into the regular season? Yeah, that s what preseason is for, to find an identity for your team, build confidence and build a swagger about yourself. Like you said, you asked about the defense, it s our job as leaders on the defense to do what we can do and help this team, so that s what we re going to do. With starters not playing next week, does this last preseason stretch feel long? No, not at all. For a lot of the starters and a lot of guys that are going to be playing on this team, it s a great advantage. It s an opportunity for us to get our legs back, to take care of our bodies and get ready for Week 1. DT ROBERT NKEMDICHE (Transcribed by Julien Demers) How do you feel you ve progressed this preseason since being drafted? I feel great. I got hurt, but I m moving forward and keep progressing. I m happy to be back out here with my brothers. The outcome wasn t what we wanted, but we played our asses off and just keep moving forward from here. How do you feel the defensive line has been doing so far? I think we re doing great. We re just going to keep growing as a team and as brothers. As the season goes forward, get used to each other. That s just how we do things. We ll keep progressing. What personal goals have you set out for yourself going into the season? I m not a guy that really sets goals. I just kind of play at my max effort every time I m on the field and see what happens. QB CARSON PALMER (Transcribed by Adam Rauch) Are you feeling okay after the hit you took during the game? I m fine. It looked bad but he just caught a weird spot on my helmet. Nothing. No big deal.
Head Coach Bruce Arians says he s not worried about this offense, would you agree? I m excited about what we have getting going here in two weeks. We ve run the ball effectively, we converted on third downs, we ve made tough catches in tight coverage and what we ve done throughout practice and what we ve done throughout camp is improve. You don t always get to see that in a couple series in a couple of preseason games but I like where we are, I m excited about where we are and we re looking to improve as the season goes on like last year. Can this be a good thing when you get your bad luck plays, such as the tipped pass INT, out of the way now? Sure, you can look at it like that. But like I said, I like where we are as a group, as a unit, without Larry (Fitzgerald) for the last couple of games, without Smokey (John Brown) for all the games. It looks like they re getting more and more healthy as we go and we re getting healthy as a team, as a unit and I like where we re headed. You guys had a good, long touchdown drive with RB David Johnson capping it off with a touchdown. Dave s (Johnson) looked really good all camp long. You don t get to see him break tackles during training camp practices because we re very rarely live. But there s a lot of practices that he s hit holes in practice and the defensive guy thinks he made the tackle and all of us on offense are going I don t know if that s a tackle, and he proved that today. One guy is rarely going to bring him down and with some of the seams we had and some of the lanes we had to run the ball. When the twos went in too they did a great job up front so it s exciting to see that offensive line gel together because there are a couple of new guys in very important, key positions and playing next to each other and getting that rhythm and getting that groove going was good to see. -END-