ARZ Post-Game Quotes & Videos
Head Coach Kliff Kingsbury
Video: Here
Katherine Fitzgerald, Arizona Republic: The offense was a lot more effective today. Kyler Murray was able to throw for 380 yards and get so many receivers involved. What are your thoughts on that?
I thought as a group, we played harder. It’s still not the rhythm with which we want to play. (We had) a lot of penalties that moved us backwards and put us in some second-and-long, first-and-long situations that we didn’t overcome. I think (Murray) was poised and progressing through his reads and (the receivers) made some really nice plays for him on the perimeter.
Bob McManaman, Arizona Republic: Can you give us any injury update on Chandler Jones, plus the offensive lineman and Rashard Lawrence?
(Jones) looks like a bicep, so if that is confirmed, then that would probably be a season ending injury. (J.R.) Sweezy, we’ll see there. I’m not sure the extent of that. (Lawrence) I think just got rolled up on that ankle a little bit. I think he’ll be fine.
Kent Somers, Arizona Republic: How important was the juice that Chase Edmonds was able to give you today. I know we ask you this multiple times a week about one player or another, but do you have to find a way to get him the ball more?
No question. He’s a dynamic player and great in the passing game. He can run it. He’s fun to watch everyday in practice. His work ethic, whether it’s special teams or offense, he’s got real juice, like you said. We have to continue to find ways to get him the ball. There are a lot of playmakers and he’s one that can make things happen.
Josh Weinfuss, ESPN: What was the difference with Murray today? He went from 133 yards last week to a career high of 380 today.
We just hit some throws we didn’t hit the week before. (Last week) I don’t think we ever got into a rhythm. I did a poor job of getting us started with play calls and we never got into a rhythm. It was real disjointed and we didn’t hit the shots we did take down the field. We did hit them today. I thought guys were aggressive in the way they played on the perimeter and made some of those screens work. It was just a better overall effort.
Siera Santos, Fox 10: How did it feel to get the overall win, snap a two game losing streak and do it in a dominant fashion?
Anytime you go on the road and can handle your business, that’s what we wanted to do. (There’s) a lot to clean up, but I thought we played with a lot more energy, a lot more intensity, throughout the week as well. We came in here with the right mindset and were able to get it done. We have to continue to get better and build, but the guys were focused all week, so that was a big step in the right direction.
Chierstin Susel. 12News AZ: You just touched on the energy. It seemed like you came out of the gate this week with a lot more energy. Did it seem like that and if so, what was the biggest difference?
It did. There’s not doubt. I mentioned yesterday to the people doing the game, that to me, after the first month of playing in front of no fans or limited fans, is a distinct advantage. The team that has the best energy on their sideline has won the game in the games we’ve played. That’s real and we wanted to work at it. I thought our guys did a good job of creating their own energy out their today.
Katherine Fitzgerald, Arizona Republic: Were you able see Larry Fitzgerald’s one-handed catch and what was your angle on that?
I could. It’s insane what he can do. I’m glad we got him involved. We should have got him involved a little bit more, but we’ll continue to get there with him. He’s a guy that makes huge plays and gets us going. It’s incredible what he does. He makes those every day in practice. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Tresa Tudrick, KTVK 3TV & CBS 5: If Jones is ruled out with a season ending injury, how nice was it to see Dennis Gardeck have a game like he did? He said that he told the Jets that he’s just a special teams guy, but he really didn’t play like it.
I see it every day in practice. He’s hell on wheels going on scout team against our offensive line. They hate trying to block him because he’s non-stop. He’s relentless. That’s what you saw out there today. He just keeps going and the play’s never over for him. He’s a guy that gets there earlier than everybody, studies harder than any player I’ve ever seen and it’s awesome to see what a great story he is. It’s fun to watch him.
David Brandt, Associated Press: A little more on Gardeck. It seems like really good teams have guys like that who come out of nowhere and have two defensive sacks on their first defensive snaps of the season. Is it an encouraging sign for the overall growth of the team that somebody like Gardeck can come in, have success right away and the team doesn’t really miss a beat?
No question. Especially a guy like that, who was voted a captain, coming from where he’s come from, who brings it everyday. You can point to it has coaches, look at this guy, there’s a reason he’s able to go in there when gets the opportunity to go in there and make those plays because he does it every single day as hard as he can go, so there’s no doubt a piece like that on your team brings a lot of inspiration.
Craig Fouhy, ABC 15: Last week, you had 55 plays total, today, 68 and almost 500 yards of offense. What was the difference this week in terms of your game plan or your strategy?
I said it last week, I didn’t think I got us going early with my play calling. I had some disjointed calls and was sporadic getting the plays in late. We just got it going a little bit earlier and hit some deep shots. Defensively, we got off the field on third down which is going to give us more possessions and more plays. We want to be in the 70 range of plays every week. We feel like that’s a good number for us to wear down a defense. We came close to that today.
Bob McManama, ABC15: How well did that fourth down play-action call to Darrell Daniels go for you?
It worked out. (Tight ends coach) Steve Heiden brought it to me earlier in the week and showed me the look and said, “Hey this what will happen on third and short, fourth and short type calls.” It was a beautiful play designed by him and it worked out. I was happy to see Darrell catch it. The role he’s come in and provided since Maxx (Williams) been out has been huge. That was a big play to keep us going.
Howard Balzer, Sports Illustrated: Last week there weren’t a lot of big plays. A lot of guys had big plays in this game. How important was that?
It starts with me putting those guys in position to be successful, calling the right plays that allow them to make plays. They make them. I have to do a good job of doing more of that because when the ball is in the air, we have guys – Fitzgerald, (Christian) Kirk, Hop (DeAndre Hopkins), Chase (Edmonds) and (Kenyan) Drake. Those guys are going to go make plays on the ball. We have to continue to give them that opportunity. (Murray) made some beautiful throws and the guys finished it for him.
Katherine Fitzgerald, Arizona Republic: What made you want to go for two?
It was just that we got the penalty and it was one yard instead of two. There was some confusion and we put the ball on the wrong hash for the play, but they did a nice job of defending it. That was it.
Kyler Murray
Video: Here
On throwing for a career-high 380 yards today…
I thought the o-line blocked well today. We had some good looks as far as the passing game goes out there. I felt like we were a little sloppy at times with penalties and stuff like that. Running backs ran well; defense played great. To throw for that many yards, it’s not just me out there on the field. It’s obviously a team effort. Coach called a great game. I thought we came out there, we played with energy, we played with effort, and I felt like we played well today. Obviously, we have some things we need to clean up, but I thought overall it was a decent day.
On throwing the ball more down the field today and whether there was a difference in philosophy this week…
We’ve got weapons. I think we’ve got to use our guys. I think you see that with the plays out there. Just letting D-Hop (Deandre Hopkins) do his thing, letting C-Kirk (Christian Kirk) do his thing, Andy (Isabella), all the guys that we have. We have a lot of dudes, like I said before the season, so at some point you’ve just got to let them go. Let them do what they do. Try to get the ball in their hands, and that’s my job. Try to execute what coach calls and we did that better today.
On the wide receivers making plays and hauling in tough catches…
It’s huge. You throw a good ball up, especially that one to D-Hop, I didn’t even know if he was going to catch it. He shows you time and time again why he’s the best receiver in the league. And then, you’ve got guys that you just put the ball in their hands and they make plays for you. It makes my job a whole lot easier.
On RB Chase Edmonds…
He can do it all. He can run the ball, he can catch it out of the backfield, he can block. He’s a smart football player. He loves the game. I can’t say enough about Chase, to be honest. He’s a great football player.
On DeAndre Hopkins’ two big plays coming on the same drive…
I think it does a lot for the offense. Talking in the huddle, I think guys would rather have two plays, 90 yards, rather than driving for eight minutes and punching it in at the end. My personal preference, I’d rather take the two plays. It energizes the whole sideline, the whole team really. They feed off that energy. Those two plays that he made, and then we punch it in with that touchdown on that catch, so it does wonders for the team.
On the fourth-down conversion to TE Darrell Daniels…
That’s huge. Fourth down, (we’ve) got to convert. We connected on that play, a play that we’ve been practicing. And to execute in the game, is huge.
On Christian Kirk’s performance today after overcoming injuries earlier in the season…
I thought it was good, kind of got him into a rhythm early on in the game, getting him the ball. You can kind of just tell when your guys are feeling it. I can tell he was feeling good. He talked to me on the sideline afterwards. For me, personally, like I said, I try to get them the ball as much as possible. I know how hard he works, I know how much he puts into it, so to get him going is a good feeling.
On how critical the running game was today…
I think it’s huge as well. When you can run the ball, it opens everything up. Obviously, they started to pack the box in and that’s when it was just like, we’ve got to take our shots if they’re going to play it like that, we’ve got guys as well that we feel very confident in, so why not? We obviously forced them to do that with the run game. I think you can call it a three-headed monster, with just the versatility of the both of them being able to catch the ball out of the backfield, being able to run the ball as well as they do, and then when my number is called, or if I get a chance to pull it, having the ability to take off.
On whether he shares the same mindset as Head Coach Kliff Kingsbury that they haven’t played their best as a team yet…
Yeah, I don’t want anybody on the team to feel satisfied with what happened today, just because that’s not what it’s going to be every weekend. I hope everybody knows that, just because Sundays aren’t easy. We’ve got a good Dallas Cowboys team we’ve got on Monday next week. And it should be a lot of adversity, and we’re going to have to fight it and stick through it, stay together and keep fighting. I’m with coach. My heads down, stay on the grind, and I think that’s got to be the mindset of this team. Any given Sunday you can lose and I think we’ve experienced that.
On whether he saw better energy from the team this week…
Yeah, you can feel it from the jump. In the locker room, before we went out, you can just tell. I can’t really tell you what went on in the locker room, but it was a lot more juice, a lot more energy and I think that translated to the field. You’ve got guys like (Dennis) Gardeck, who goes in, his first couple of plays, gets two sacks, give him the game ball and the whole team just erupts. When you’ve got guys that put the work in, you know how much they deserve it. And they go out there and make plays. But that’s just one of the deals that happened today. It’s just everybody feeding off each other, playing for each other, and when you do that, good things happen.
Budda Baker
Video: Here
Chase Edmonds
Video: Here
Dennis Gardeck
Video: Here
DeAndre Hopkins
Video: Here
Christian Kirk
Video: Here