Will Wade's AP Comments Become Bulletin Board Material?

Wade is a standup guy but I was still surprised when said the following:

"Adrian Peterson had a tremendous game and then when we played him, he couldn’t make the line of scrimmage."

My take is that bulletin board stuff does not fly these days but still you have to wonder if will catch up to the Rams. Arians will no doubt pull out every stop to win one here. The last thing we need is for AP to get bent out of shape and take it out on us. OTOH, AP has a neck injury and DNP today, so maybe I just need to take a chill pill.

[www.azcardinals.com]

Defensive Coordinator Wade Phillips – Media Availability – November 23, 2017

(Opening Remarks)
“Happy Thanksgiving. It’s another revenge game for me – I’ve got Dallas, Houston and now New Orleans. I think I’ve got three or four more (laughs). They’ve got a great offense, (Saints Qcool smiley Drew Brees, I was lucky enough to be with Drew Brees when he was at San Diego. In fact, we went from 4-12 and the first pick in the draft to 12-4 and won the division, so I know what he can do. I’ve admired him throughout and he’s just an all-time great. But they’ve got the best running game they’ve had since they won the Super Bowl and I think that’s the real key. They’re really powerful offensively now. They can run the ball and win or they can throw the ball and win. Before, it was all on him and this year’s team is different, so it’s a big challenge for us. We had some injuries at the end of the last game that hurt us secondary-wise. (CB Nickell) Robey(-Coleman) will probably be out, but I think (Ccool smiley Kayvon (Webster) will be back. We’ve had a couple guys like (Ccool smiley Blake (Countess) and (S) Lamarcus (Joyner) certainly can play nickel if we need it. So as long as we have one guy out, we should be alright.”

(On if he would be fine with moving S Lamarcus Joyner to nickel or if he would prefer to leave him at safety)
“Well, we’re not going to give away the gameplan yet, but we can do either. Yeah, I mean Lamarcus can play. Robey does such a great job there, but Lamarcus is a great player there too. So, it just depends on where we want to put Lamarcus. He’s a tremendous player wherever we play him, it’s just where we need to play him in this game, so we’ve worked some things out there. You may see him at both.”

(On how he feels about his run defense)
“You know, we’ve been up and down on the run obviously, but you can see a lot of teams are that way. (Cardinals Rcool smiley Adrian Peterson had a tremendous game and then when we played him, he couldn’t make the line of scrimmage. So, we can play good run defense and I think we will – it’s a work in progress. Points are the key thing. I think we get overzealous on how many yards they made sometimes – or didn’t make, or what they made rushing or passing. You’ve got to keep them out of the end zone, you’ve got to keep them from scoring. We had a game that was 7-7 last week going into the fourth quarter against a pretty good team on the road. Now, we’re playing at home against a really good offensive team, too, so that’s going to be challenge. But it’s week-to-week on trying to improve in every area.”

(On what kind of problems the Saints running backs cause)
“They remind me of Atlanta last year. You know, one guy can – two different backs, but they’re both especially good. One of them is more into the running game, the other is more into the passing game, so both of them give you problems at both. (Saints RB Alvin) Kamara is really the big threat out of the backfield and of course (Saints RB Mark) Ingram is running the ball. But, they can do either one, so planning for both of them is not easy because like I said, they can interchange or both do run and pass. But you’ve got stop Ingram from running the football and I think you’ve got to stop the other guy from catching the ball as much as you can and then try to hold them down in the other area.”

(On if there is anything that he can do to increase the sacks this week)
“We had a lot of pressure on (Vikings QB Case Keenum) him and I think he played really well. I think he played well again today. They hadn’t been sacked in four games going into our game, I’m not sure they got sacked today either. Their protection was good. I still thought we had a lot of pressure. Obviously, the one where he had two guys miss him and he ducked out of it and they ended up scoring on that drive, so we’ve got to make the plays when we get there. I still think our rush is good. We have a good rush team and of course we have (DT) Aaron Donald, if you can get him one-on-one, which he did quite a bit, he gave him a lot of pressure.”

(On DT Tanzel Smart’s decrease in snaps)
“Yeah, I mean we’re looking at different people to see how they fit. We know (DT Michael) Brockers plays end real well. We’re looking at a couple guys at the nose guard rotating in. I think (DE) Ethan (Westbrooks) has got a lot of ability. We put him in there and I think he really came along during the game. We felt like he’s a guy that can play that position, but it’s a position change for him, so I think he’ll get stronger and stronger as we go. He’s a powerful guy.”

(On if Westbrooks played nose tackle)
“He did play. He started at nose. He started and ended the game and played quite a bit.”

(On if there is anything he can do to surprise Saints QB Drew Brees)
“No. Not only does he see things, he studies. If a guy has a different stance, if a guy puts his hands on his hips and does this (motions to his hips) then he’s doing to blitz – he knows those things too. He’s a really smart guy, but he utilizes it. Like a lot of players in the league, a lot of players have talent, but he has great talent and he learned to utilize it. So, I admire him for the way he prepares. The Peyton Manning type preparation, that’s Drew Brees.”

[ramsrule.com]

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RFS69