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Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher
Opening statement:
“When you come into this ball game with their front; outstanding work against the run. I thought we’d do a better job than we did, but we couldn’t run the football today and that’s disappointing. Stats certainly are misleading with Tavon’s (Austin) reverse, but really that’s the difference in the ball game. They did an outstanding job against our run game. We turned the ball over, we had too many penalties and we got beat.”
On the Jim Dray catch that was initially ruled a touchdown and reversed to a fumble and the penalty called on the play:
“They ruled it a touchdown. It was ruled a touchdown on the field. Side official blew the whistle. He said, ‘I didn’t hear it.’ Nobody else blew the whistle. Back officials didn’t know what was going on, so Jenks (Janoris Jenkins) picked the ball up like you’re coached to do and run with it. Then we got a penalty on top of it.”
On the penalty during the fumble return:
“I didn’t see it, but I don’t think it was cheap. There was nothing wrong with that. There was no whistle there. These guys were going to try to talk Walt (Coleman) into picking up the flag because they didn’t hear a whistle. As it turns out, it was a fumble, and because it was ruled a touchdown when he blows the whistle, it was ruled dead at the time.”
On whether the officials should have let the play continue or not:
“Well it’s a difficult call. It was Rick’s (Side Judge Rick Patterson) call. He said ‘I thought he scored. I didn’t see the ball come out.’ It’s a difficult call. It’s just one of those things that happens. I’m not mad at them. I’m a little disappointed in the fact that they enforced the penalty.”
On the Rams’ 11 penalties in the game:
“We had our first special teams penalty in seven weeks on a return. Not good. It put us in a hole. I have to look at them and see. Our penalties are coming down field. You guys saw the frustration on Rob (Quinn). I didn’t see it. They told me he was pulled down from behind. He took his helmet off. There was a penalty. Tru’s (Trumaine Johnson) penalty, I didn’t see it. We’ve got to get the penalties down, nonetheless.”
On the Rams lack of a pass rush:
“Ball is out and they were blocking their way out. We’re going to do a better job in the back seven when the ball is coming out that fast.”
On their lack of divisional wins compared to last year:
“We’ve got one more game in the division. Who knows how that’s going to go because they’ll probably have things wrapped up, but I’m disappointed that we didn’t play better in the division. Throwing the ball at the end zone to win the last play of the game against Seattle at home, that’s not bad, but we’ve got to win football games. If you’re going to do anything in this league, you’ve got to win football games in your division and we haven’t done that this year.”
On starting Harvey Dahl at guard and Rodger Saffold at right tackle:
“Our plan going in was we were going to let Harvey go in and start at guard. Generally speaking, we’re not going to demote a guy because of injury when someone else comes in. We wanted to get Harvey an opportunity to play. He worked hard to come back. We also had Rodger play right tackle. I don’t believe Rodger came out of the game. Our plan was not to bring Rodger out of the game. It was to let him play, and so Rodger played right tackle and right guard. So I have to look at tape, talk to (Paul T. Boudreau), see how Harvey did.”
On what the expectations are now that the Rams have been officially eliminated from playoff contention:
“We’re going to get better, and our focus is going on the Saints. That’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to get better. We’re going to take it one game at a time and we’re going to get better. We’ve got some guys banged up. I don’t know about Tavon (Austin). We’ll check his ankle, and Mike McNeill didn’t return with an ankle. So we’ve got some guys banged up. If that’s the case, we’ll play some other guys.”
Rams QB Kellen Clemens
On having a tough time getting the running game going:
“That’s a talented front seven that we were going against. They’ve certainly played well all season against the run. We weren’t able to lean on it in the second half because we got down quite as much as we would have liked. We’ll stick with it. It’s still the strength of our offense. We’ll come back against New Orleans, and hopefully, get some good runs.”
On the field position in the second half:
“Their punter did a good job of getting us backed up. Our defense got some stops and their punter did a very good job of getting us backed up—really almost had us again there at the end. They did a good job, and we didn’t do a good enough job offensively of flipping the field on them. We have to be better on third down.”
On the difference of playing divisional games:
“The NFC West is probably the best division in football. Obviously for us, when we play within the division, we’re playing good teams. Certainly Seattle is in. San Francisco and Arizona, who knows, they might both get in. It’s good opponents. It’s very good defenses. We have to play better, and we will.”
On the interception returned for a touchdown:
“They had a good coverage for what we had dialed up. I went to just throw it away and avoid the sack and got spun around a little bit. The ball came out not where I wanted it, obviously, and a good play by him. I wish I would have just either held on to it or found a way to dirt it in a different location.”
On his thoughts on why it was hard to run the football:
“Without looking at the tape, I couldn’t tell you. The one fact that I can give you is that they are very talented. It’s a very good front seven, so we’ll give them credit. Without looking at the tape, I couldn’t tell you exactly.”
On if he approaches divisional games differently:
“When you talk about the playoff picture, especially early in the season, I was always told that division games count for one and a half. From here, we’ve got three games to go. One of them is a division game. We’ll do our best to get a win against New Orleans and go from there.”
On being mathematically eliminated from the playoffs:
“I think that the veterans in this locker room will probably step up—we’ve already heard from some of them. We’re going to go back to work. I think the thing that we want to see now going forward is finish—finish the season strong. We want to see improvement. We’ll go back to work. We’re eliminated, but we still have to play them. Let’s go back to work on Monday, get better and try to win them.”
Rams DE Robert Quinn
On what Arizona did passing-wise to have such a high completion percentage:
“They were getting the ball off fast—chipping a lot. His receivers were making plays. Like I said, he was getting the ball out fast. They just executed on all phases of the game today.”
On the outlook for the remaining games after being officially eliminated from the playoffs:
“We just have to finish strong. You don’t want to look into next year; you want to finish strong. We’ll take it one game at a time. Like I keep saying, finish the year strong.”
On the disappointment of being eliminated from the playoffs:
“We had a couple tough losses earlier in the season. It’s in the past. It’s been a tough year for us. One thing about this crew is the guys never quit. We have three more games to finish the year strong and on a good note or the best note as possible.”
On the struggles within the division that were not present last season:
“It’s frustrating. We have a tough division—from Seattle, 49ers and Arizona, including ourselves. Comparing to last year, of course we would like to win those games, but as we got better, they got better as well. They’re great teams. We just have to play better each game and go from there.”
On how much better the Arizona Cardinals are this season compared to last:
“I think their defense is playing solid. They have a veteran quarterback. Their receivers are making plays. Their running backs are making plays. Like I said, they’re making plays. They have a great defense. When you extend drives as an offense and your defense is playing excellent, that’s a pretty good way to win games. They’ve definitely elevated on all levels and phases, so kudos to them.”
Rams WR Austin Pettis
On the loss:
“We weren’t clicking as well as we had planned on. Our offense was at a tough position for the majority of the day with the field position. It seemed like we were backed up every time we got the ball. We weren’t able to flip the field enough for us.”
On coming off big wins to being officially eliminated from the playoffs:
“We were taking everything one game at a time. We knew that we would have to do something real special to give ourselves a chance to be in the playoffs after starting off the year not as fast as we had wanted to. It being more of a reality now, I guess it definitely hurts. We have to continue to be professionals and go out there and compete for three more weeks and try to get three wins.”
On the difficulty running the ball today:
“Our run game has been very successful these past few weeks. It was probably their goal all week to make sure they stopped that and have us beat them a different way. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to find that other way today.”
Rams LB Jo-Lonn Dunbar
On coming off big wins to being officially eliminated from the playoffs:
“It’s always sad. That’s what you play for. You play for opportunities to play in the playoffs and be able to win that Super Bowl. That definitely hurts to be officially eliminated, especially in the middle of December. We just have to keep getting better each and every week and make sure we build on this thing for next year.”
On how he assesses the situation now with Arizona ahead of them this year:
“Obviously, they’re a much better team than they were last year. They have a really good coach. They bought into the system, and they’re playing effectively. It sucks for us to not be able to get this game, but I think we’re a good team. We’re going in the right direction. It’s just sometimes you have to take those lumps and bruises on the way.”
On being at the bottom of the division after being near the top last season and if it is alarming that there is another team they have to overcome:
“Obviously, it’s a little alarming when you’re that close to the top last year and now you’re at the bottom of your division. Again, I think we’re a really good team. We’re a really good defense. We’re a really good offense. We have a really good coaching staff. I’m not that worried about the situation. It’s going to play itself out next year, and we’ll see what happens.”
Rams T Rodger Saffold
On the loss:
“You can’t really put it any other way. You have to look at what you’ve been doing, then what you’re going to do to fix it, and then how you’re going to fix it. The way that we fix things is we work. I don’t see anything changing in the grand scheme of things. What I do know is that we’re going to get better from this week. We have a home game, and we’re going to try to do our best to really raise that bar up to a whole other level to put ourselves at a decent position to win the game.”
On trying to get to the level of Seattle and San Francisco last year, to now having to get to Arizona’s level:
“I don’t think that we try to get to anybody’s level. We try to raise the bar on ourselves. Like I said, we’re a hard working group. We’re never chasing anybody. We’re never looking to get to anybody’s potential. If you look at the games we’ve played, there are times where we have exceeded people’s physicality, our aggressiveness, the way that we play, and it’s constantly changing. Everybody talks about how we’re a young team. That’s all well and good, but at the end of the day, we take more accountability in ourselves, and we are Rams. We don’t care about what anybody is doing. What we’re trying to do is get ourselves better and get ourselves to the point where we can put ourselves ahead of any team, not even just the division. We never look at any type of team like they’re the bar that we’re supposed to go get. We’re setting our own standards. That’s the way guys are going to take it this week. Like I said, that fire is building. It built from San Francisco, it’s continuing to build now. It’s like, what’s going to happen next?”
On how fair or unfair is it to judge the offense without their starting quarterback:
“I think that Kellen (Clemens) is an excellent quarterback. I think that he can handle the job just fine. The way that we play as an offense is as an offense. It’s all the positions. It’s not just on Kellen, and we know this. We have to do better with protection. We have to do better with routes. We have to do better throwing the ball, running the ball. All those things have to happen in order to make us a really productive offense.”
Cardinals Head Coach Bruce Arians
On the team’s overall performance:
“Obviously, it was a very good performance by all the guys who dressed out today. It was a true team victory. I can’t say enough about our defense, coming out at halftime and setting the tempo for the second half that the offense had set by finishing that drive for a touchdown at the end of the (first) half. We wanted to start fast and finish strong. That was on the board. We started the game with a touchdown. We ended the (first) half with a touchdown. We start the second half with a defensive score and I thought that was huge. For us to stop the run in the way we did against a team that has been running the football pretty well speaks highly of our guys, especially the front seven. The only injury that I know right now is Tyrann’s (Mathieu). It appears to be an ACL. We don’t know for sure, but that’s the only one that is severe enough to report right now. It was a hard fought game.”
On the play of Carson Palmer and his rest this week in preparation for today’s game:
“I think the rest did him well. I think he set the second-highest completion percentage in club history. This was exactly the performance that we needed. He protected the ball extremely well. I can’t say enough about the way he is right now and how the level he is playing at is extremely high.”
On throwing the ball to Larry Fitzgerald more today:
“It’s just part of the game plan each week. We throw it where they will let us throw it. Carson (Palmer) was spot on it. Some of those catches were really good and were running plays called, and Larry got us six or seven yards on running plays with his slant or his one-on-one is a better play than a running play. I really like the way Carson handled that. On a couple blitzes, Larry got us six or seven yards on running plays, which is outstanding.”
On the team making a statement with today’s game:
“We want to win at home and we don’t want to lose in this building. We had to win a division game and this is our first one. We’re really pleased that that monkey is off our back, and you guys can write about something else now.”
On if they will rest Carson Palmer again this week in practice:
“We’ll see how it feels on Wednesday. It could be one of those things that does linger throughout the season and it wouldn’t hurt Drew (Stanton) to get those snaps, just in case.”
On the defense’s pressure upfront:
“It was huge. Once you shut down the run against a team like St. Louis, that is built on running the football, the frenzy can feed. That’s what our whole goal was: shut down the run and then get after the quarterback and good things will happen.”
On the improved play of the offensive line:
“We probably did a better job coaching, to be honest with you. We covered our guys up, and chipped and helped a little bit more than we have in the past. It was still empty and it was other things. The guys that kept getting open were the chippers and Carson was very adept at throwing the ball to the guy that came out open and getting it out of his hand. This was a great front four, and kudos to our offensive line.”
On changing the team’s focus from last week’s loss to the Eagles:
“After that loss in Philadelphia, it gave us a common goal from Monday all the way to today and now. Now it’s going to go back to winning one on the road. We’ll start that commitment right away.”
On what John Abraham has been able to do well over the course of the season:
“Just whip everybody they put in front of him. I don’t know how many sacks he had today, or how many he’ll get credit for. But when you pass Lawrence Taylor, and you get in the Top 10 of all-time, that’s something special.”
On whether it means anything to him that John Abraham is accomplishing so much at age 35:
“It just meant more for me that he’s doing it as a Cardinal.”
On whether he knew that John Abraham had so much left in the tank when the team signed him:
“You never knew. He played at a high level last year. I think he had 10 sacks last year. He takes care of himself extremely well, and we’re just going to keep letting him go.”
On when he knew Carson Palmer would be able to play today’s game:
“I knew about two hours before the game.”
On how many passes Carson Palmer threw at practice last week:
“None. Not one.”
On the defense’s coverage of Rams TE Jared Cook:
“I thought our guys did a really good job of matching and mixing and staying with him this time.”
On whether he thinks Tyrann Mathieu has torn his ACL and is out for the season:
“We’ll wait and see. I think that’s just the early prognosis of the exam we have right now. He’ll go through the MRI and the rest of the tests and we’ll just keep our fingers crossed.”
On whether he thinks Tyrann Mathieu will be the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year:
“To me, he’s a lock. I think no one else has played as much as he’s played, and all the positions he’s played. I just wish that he’d kicked that damn ball to Patrick (Peterson).”
Cardinals QB Carson Palmer
On not throwing in practice being the new plan after a successful game:
“No, no I need to practice. I didn’t throw one ball and was definitely worried about that, but that was the plan. (Head Athletic Trainer) Tom Reed and his staff, they are the best in the business. We are fortunate to have them. He had a plan from Monday on, and we stuck to it. I had 100 percent faith and trust in him that he knew what he was doing and that he and his staff would have me ready to play.”
On how he felt:
“I felt great. I felt great all day.”
On when he knew he was going to play:
“When Tom (Reed) told me I would be fine and that I just needed to stick with what he was saying I knew I was going to play all week.”
On seeing Larry Fitzgerald’s excitement on the field today:
“How many catches did he have? Did he have 12? That’s how Larry is whether he’s catching the ball or not. You saw him on Andre’s (Roberts) touchdown. You see that excitement, that joy. He loves playing the game whether he’s the guy that’s the focal point or we’re running the ball or the defense is playing great. I didn’t notice anything. I see that every time we score in practice even.”
On if it was in the plan to get Larry Fitzgerald the ball or if targeting him was a reflection of coverage:
“No, I mean I think that in this offense the coverage dictates where the ball goes and sometimes it’s Larry and sometimes it’s … Last time we played against them it was Andre (Roberts). Andre had a bunch of catches and a bunch of third down conversions. So, we rarely ever go into a game plan saying we are going to force feed the ball to this guy or this guy. Bruce (Arians) had a really good feel, had some phenomenal calls, I thought. He had a couple of good calls where we really just didn’t execute correctly, but he was on a little bit of a roll, and Larry wasn’t getting doubled all of the time and there were some opportunities to get him the ball.”
On the protection:
“We had a great game plan protection-wise. I think I was sacked maybe one time. That defense rarely only ever gets one sack, and they always get quarterback pressures and quarterback hits and knock downs, but protection was phenomenal. You got two of the, one of the best pass-rushers in the game in Chris Long and right behind (Robert) Quinn. The two guys inside are very good, and we did a great job of … The run game too, the run game was very good. “
On the first half rhythm:
“We did some good things. We were moving the ball on third down. We had a couple of third downs we should have had also, but they were mixing up a lot of coverages. I felt like B.A. (Bruce Arians) had a really good feel for what was coming, and we had opportunities to get guys singled up and one-on-one. They did their job to win, and they did a great job winning. We did a good job mixing the run and the pass, a couple screens, couple quick kind of side screens, just a really good feel that B.A. had all day.”
On if he was curious pregame about how he would play:
“No, I mean I, like I said before, I trusted in Tom Reed and his staff, and what they were telling me. They had a plan from Monday on, and what they said would happen today happened.”
On if the game plan took into account his injury:
“Some of it did just with the lack of practice reps. Knowing from Monday on, letting the coaches game plan what was going to happen during the week, that was definitely a little bit of a factor.”
On if it was helpful to focus on playing the Rams after last week’s loss to the Eagles and the NFC West losing streak:
“No, I mean that’s … These guys are really good on defense, and they’ve been playing really good. They beat good teams. They’ve had some big wins. They handled Indianapolis with ease. They handled Chicago with ease. When you turn on the film, that’s a very good defense. It’s young. It’s inexperienced, and it’s really going to get better with time. You don’t turn on the film and look forward to playing against these guys. You turn on the film and look for all of the problems they pose, and you have to find ways, you have to find answers because they can rush the passer with four guys. They can drop seven guys into coverage, and that’s never easy. They can get to the passer with four guys, and that’s not something you look forward to playing against.”
On having one of the highest completion percentages in Cardinals history:
“I didn’t know that, and I didn’t feel that way. I really didn’t think about it. I was thinking about the lull we had at the beginning of the second half and being a little frustrated with that, but I wasn’t thinking about completion percentage or where I was statistically whatsoever.”
On being in a rhythm:
“Yeah, I just … I felt confident with the plays that were coming. I felt confident with the guys that we had in the certain matchups we were getting. Comfortable with that, but as far as feeling a different rhythm than I normally feel, I didn’t feel any different just that when the plays were coming in I knew exactly where to go with the ball, and we were getting the right guys against the right guys in the matchups.”
On being right in the midst of playoffs:
“It’s just fun being on a good football team. It’s fun being in that locker room with that group of guys. With this coaching staff we have fun. We work hard. We enjoy each other. We enjoy watching our defense play the way that they did tonight. They enjoy watching us. So it’s been a really fun year, and we just want to keep it rolling.”
Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald
On him and Carson Palmer having a rhythm from the first play on:
“We just had a good connection. Everything worked pretty good. As a whole throwing the ball today I think we were pretty effective, and we were able to move the ball up and down the field
Opening statement:
“When you come into this ball game with their front; outstanding work against the run. I thought we’d do a better job than we did, but we couldn’t run the football today and that’s disappointing. Stats certainly are misleading with Tavon’s (Austin) reverse, but really that’s the difference in the ball game. They did an outstanding job against our run game. We turned the ball over, we had too many penalties and we got beat.”
On the Jim Dray catch that was initially ruled a touchdown and reversed to a fumble and the penalty called on the play:
“They ruled it a touchdown. It was ruled a touchdown on the field. Side official blew the whistle. He said, ‘I didn’t hear it.’ Nobody else blew the whistle. Back officials didn’t know what was going on, so Jenks (Janoris Jenkins) picked the ball up like you’re coached to do and run with it. Then we got a penalty on top of it.”
On the penalty during the fumble return:
“I didn’t see it, but I don’t think it was cheap. There was nothing wrong with that. There was no whistle there. These guys were going to try to talk Walt (Coleman) into picking up the flag because they didn’t hear a whistle. As it turns out, it was a fumble, and because it was ruled a touchdown when he blows the whistle, it was ruled dead at the time.”
On whether the officials should have let the play continue or not:
“Well it’s a difficult call. It was Rick’s (Side Judge Rick Patterson) call. He said ‘I thought he scored. I didn’t see the ball come out.’ It’s a difficult call. It’s just one of those things that happens. I’m not mad at them. I’m a little disappointed in the fact that they enforced the penalty.”
On the Rams’ 11 penalties in the game:
“We had our first special teams penalty in seven weeks on a return. Not good. It put us in a hole. I have to look at them and see. Our penalties are coming down field. You guys saw the frustration on Rob (Quinn). I didn’t see it. They told me he was pulled down from behind. He took his helmet off. There was a penalty. Tru’s (Trumaine Johnson) penalty, I didn’t see it. We’ve got to get the penalties down, nonetheless.”
On the Rams lack of a pass rush:
“Ball is out and they were blocking their way out. We’re going to do a better job in the back seven when the ball is coming out that fast.”
On their lack of divisional wins compared to last year:
“We’ve got one more game in the division. Who knows how that’s going to go because they’ll probably have things wrapped up, but I’m disappointed that we didn’t play better in the division. Throwing the ball at the end zone to win the last play of the game against Seattle at home, that’s not bad, but we’ve got to win football games. If you’re going to do anything in this league, you’ve got to win football games in your division and we haven’t done that this year.”
On starting Harvey Dahl at guard and Rodger Saffold at right tackle:
“Our plan going in was we were going to let Harvey go in and start at guard. Generally speaking, we’re not going to demote a guy because of injury when someone else comes in. We wanted to get Harvey an opportunity to play. He worked hard to come back. We also had Rodger play right tackle. I don’t believe Rodger came out of the game. Our plan was not to bring Rodger out of the game. It was to let him play, and so Rodger played right tackle and right guard. So I have to look at tape, talk to (Paul T. Boudreau), see how Harvey did.”
On what the expectations are now that the Rams have been officially eliminated from playoff contention:
“We’re going to get better, and our focus is going on the Saints. That’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to get better. We’re going to take it one game at a time and we’re going to get better. We’ve got some guys banged up. I don’t know about Tavon (Austin). We’ll check his ankle, and Mike McNeill didn’t return with an ankle. So we’ve got some guys banged up. If that’s the case, we’ll play some other guys.”
Rams QB Kellen Clemens
On having a tough time getting the running game going:
“That’s a talented front seven that we were going against. They’ve certainly played well all season against the run. We weren’t able to lean on it in the second half because we got down quite as much as we would have liked. We’ll stick with it. It’s still the strength of our offense. We’ll come back against New Orleans, and hopefully, get some good runs.”
On the field position in the second half:
“Their punter did a good job of getting us backed up. Our defense got some stops and their punter did a very good job of getting us backed up—really almost had us again there at the end. They did a good job, and we didn’t do a good enough job offensively of flipping the field on them. We have to be better on third down.”
On the difference of playing divisional games:
“The NFC West is probably the best division in football. Obviously for us, when we play within the division, we’re playing good teams. Certainly Seattle is in. San Francisco and Arizona, who knows, they might both get in. It’s good opponents. It’s very good defenses. We have to play better, and we will.”
On the interception returned for a touchdown:
“They had a good coverage for what we had dialed up. I went to just throw it away and avoid the sack and got spun around a little bit. The ball came out not where I wanted it, obviously, and a good play by him. I wish I would have just either held on to it or found a way to dirt it in a different location.”
On his thoughts on why it was hard to run the football:
“Without looking at the tape, I couldn’t tell you. The one fact that I can give you is that they are very talented. It’s a very good front seven, so we’ll give them credit. Without looking at the tape, I couldn’t tell you exactly.”
On if he approaches divisional games differently:
“When you talk about the playoff picture, especially early in the season, I was always told that division games count for one and a half. From here, we’ve got three games to go. One of them is a division game. We’ll do our best to get a win against New Orleans and go from there.”
On being mathematically eliminated from the playoffs:
“I think that the veterans in this locker room will probably step up—we’ve already heard from some of them. We’re going to go back to work. I think the thing that we want to see now going forward is finish—finish the season strong. We want to see improvement. We’ll go back to work. We’re eliminated, but we still have to play them. Let’s go back to work on Monday, get better and try to win them.”
Rams DE Robert Quinn
On what Arizona did passing-wise to have such a high completion percentage:
“They were getting the ball off fast—chipping a lot. His receivers were making plays. Like I said, he was getting the ball out fast. They just executed on all phases of the game today.”
On the outlook for the remaining games after being officially eliminated from the playoffs:
“We just have to finish strong. You don’t want to look into next year; you want to finish strong. We’ll take it one game at a time. Like I keep saying, finish the year strong.”
On the disappointment of being eliminated from the playoffs:
“We had a couple tough losses earlier in the season. It’s in the past. It’s been a tough year for us. One thing about this crew is the guys never quit. We have three more games to finish the year strong and on a good note or the best note as possible.”
On the struggles within the division that were not present last season:
“It’s frustrating. We have a tough division—from Seattle, 49ers and Arizona, including ourselves. Comparing to last year, of course we would like to win those games, but as we got better, they got better as well. They’re great teams. We just have to play better each game and go from there.”
On how much better the Arizona Cardinals are this season compared to last:
“I think their defense is playing solid. They have a veteran quarterback. Their receivers are making plays. Their running backs are making plays. Like I said, they’re making plays. They have a great defense. When you extend drives as an offense and your defense is playing excellent, that’s a pretty good way to win games. They’ve definitely elevated on all levels and phases, so kudos to them.”
Rams WR Austin Pettis
On the loss:
“We weren’t clicking as well as we had planned on. Our offense was at a tough position for the majority of the day with the field position. It seemed like we were backed up every time we got the ball. We weren’t able to flip the field enough for us.”
On coming off big wins to being officially eliminated from the playoffs:
“We were taking everything one game at a time. We knew that we would have to do something real special to give ourselves a chance to be in the playoffs after starting off the year not as fast as we had wanted to. It being more of a reality now, I guess it definitely hurts. We have to continue to be professionals and go out there and compete for three more weeks and try to get three wins.”
On the difficulty running the ball today:
“Our run game has been very successful these past few weeks. It was probably their goal all week to make sure they stopped that and have us beat them a different way. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to find that other way today.”
Rams LB Jo-Lonn Dunbar
On coming off big wins to being officially eliminated from the playoffs:
“It’s always sad. That’s what you play for. You play for opportunities to play in the playoffs and be able to win that Super Bowl. That definitely hurts to be officially eliminated, especially in the middle of December. We just have to keep getting better each and every week and make sure we build on this thing for next year.”
On how he assesses the situation now with Arizona ahead of them this year:
“Obviously, they’re a much better team than they were last year. They have a really good coach. They bought into the system, and they’re playing effectively. It sucks for us to not be able to get this game, but I think we’re a good team. We’re going in the right direction. It’s just sometimes you have to take those lumps and bruises on the way.”
On being at the bottom of the division after being near the top last season and if it is alarming that there is another team they have to overcome:
“Obviously, it’s a little alarming when you’re that close to the top last year and now you’re at the bottom of your division. Again, I think we’re a really good team. We’re a really good defense. We’re a really good offense. We have a really good coaching staff. I’m not that worried about the situation. It’s going to play itself out next year, and we’ll see what happens.”
Rams T Rodger Saffold
On the loss:
“You can’t really put it any other way. You have to look at what you’ve been doing, then what you’re going to do to fix it, and then how you’re going to fix it. The way that we fix things is we work. I don’t see anything changing in the grand scheme of things. What I do know is that we’re going to get better from this week. We have a home game, and we’re going to try to do our best to really raise that bar up to a whole other level to put ourselves at a decent position to win the game.”
On trying to get to the level of Seattle and San Francisco last year, to now having to get to Arizona’s level:
“I don’t think that we try to get to anybody’s level. We try to raise the bar on ourselves. Like I said, we’re a hard working group. We’re never chasing anybody. We’re never looking to get to anybody’s potential. If you look at the games we’ve played, there are times where we have exceeded people’s physicality, our aggressiveness, the way that we play, and it’s constantly changing. Everybody talks about how we’re a young team. That’s all well and good, but at the end of the day, we take more accountability in ourselves, and we are Rams. We don’t care about what anybody is doing. What we’re trying to do is get ourselves better and get ourselves to the point where we can put ourselves ahead of any team, not even just the division. We never look at any type of team like they’re the bar that we’re supposed to go get. We’re setting our own standards. That’s the way guys are going to take it this week. Like I said, that fire is building. It built from San Francisco, it’s continuing to build now. It’s like, what’s going to happen next?”
On how fair or unfair is it to judge the offense without their starting quarterback:
“I think that Kellen (Clemens) is an excellent quarterback. I think that he can handle the job just fine. The way that we play as an offense is as an offense. It’s all the positions. It’s not just on Kellen, and we know this. We have to do better with protection. We have to do better with routes. We have to do better throwing the ball, running the ball. All those things have to happen in order to make us a really productive offense.”
Cardinals Head Coach Bruce Arians
On the team’s overall performance:
“Obviously, it was a very good performance by all the guys who dressed out today. It was a true team victory. I can’t say enough about our defense, coming out at halftime and setting the tempo for the second half that the offense had set by finishing that drive for a touchdown at the end of the (first) half. We wanted to start fast and finish strong. That was on the board. We started the game with a touchdown. We ended the (first) half with a touchdown. We start the second half with a defensive score and I thought that was huge. For us to stop the run in the way we did against a team that has been running the football pretty well speaks highly of our guys, especially the front seven. The only injury that I know right now is Tyrann’s (Mathieu). It appears to be an ACL. We don’t know for sure, but that’s the only one that is severe enough to report right now. It was a hard fought game.”
On the play of Carson Palmer and his rest this week in preparation for today’s game:
“I think the rest did him well. I think he set the second-highest completion percentage in club history. This was exactly the performance that we needed. He protected the ball extremely well. I can’t say enough about the way he is right now and how the level he is playing at is extremely high.”
On throwing the ball to Larry Fitzgerald more today:
“It’s just part of the game plan each week. We throw it where they will let us throw it. Carson (Palmer) was spot on it. Some of those catches were really good and were running plays called, and Larry got us six or seven yards on running plays with his slant or his one-on-one is a better play than a running play. I really like the way Carson handled that. On a couple blitzes, Larry got us six or seven yards on running plays, which is outstanding.”
On the team making a statement with today’s game:
“We want to win at home and we don’t want to lose in this building. We had to win a division game and this is our first one. We’re really pleased that that monkey is off our back, and you guys can write about something else now.”
On if they will rest Carson Palmer again this week in practice:
“We’ll see how it feels on Wednesday. It could be one of those things that does linger throughout the season and it wouldn’t hurt Drew (Stanton) to get those snaps, just in case.”
On the defense’s pressure upfront:
“It was huge. Once you shut down the run against a team like St. Louis, that is built on running the football, the frenzy can feed. That’s what our whole goal was: shut down the run and then get after the quarterback and good things will happen.”
On the improved play of the offensive line:
“We probably did a better job coaching, to be honest with you. We covered our guys up, and chipped and helped a little bit more than we have in the past. It was still empty and it was other things. The guys that kept getting open were the chippers and Carson was very adept at throwing the ball to the guy that came out open and getting it out of his hand. This was a great front four, and kudos to our offensive line.”
On changing the team’s focus from last week’s loss to the Eagles:
“After that loss in Philadelphia, it gave us a common goal from Monday all the way to today and now. Now it’s going to go back to winning one on the road. We’ll start that commitment right away.”
On what John Abraham has been able to do well over the course of the season:
“Just whip everybody they put in front of him. I don’t know how many sacks he had today, or how many he’ll get credit for. But when you pass Lawrence Taylor, and you get in the Top 10 of all-time, that’s something special.”
On whether it means anything to him that John Abraham is accomplishing so much at age 35:
“It just meant more for me that he’s doing it as a Cardinal.”
On whether he knew that John Abraham had so much left in the tank when the team signed him:
“You never knew. He played at a high level last year. I think he had 10 sacks last year. He takes care of himself extremely well, and we’re just going to keep letting him go.”
On when he knew Carson Palmer would be able to play today’s game:
“I knew about two hours before the game.”
On how many passes Carson Palmer threw at practice last week:
“None. Not one.”
On the defense’s coverage of Rams TE Jared Cook:
“I thought our guys did a really good job of matching and mixing and staying with him this time.”
On whether he thinks Tyrann Mathieu has torn his ACL and is out for the season:
“We’ll wait and see. I think that’s just the early prognosis of the exam we have right now. He’ll go through the MRI and the rest of the tests and we’ll just keep our fingers crossed.”
On whether he thinks Tyrann Mathieu will be the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year:
“To me, he’s a lock. I think no one else has played as much as he’s played, and all the positions he’s played. I just wish that he’d kicked that damn ball to Patrick (Peterson).”
Cardinals QB Carson Palmer
On not throwing in practice being the new plan after a successful game:
“No, no I need to practice. I didn’t throw one ball and was definitely worried about that, but that was the plan. (Head Athletic Trainer) Tom Reed and his staff, they are the best in the business. We are fortunate to have them. He had a plan from Monday on, and we stuck to it. I had 100 percent faith and trust in him that he knew what he was doing and that he and his staff would have me ready to play.”
On how he felt:
“I felt great. I felt great all day.”
On when he knew he was going to play:
“When Tom (Reed) told me I would be fine and that I just needed to stick with what he was saying I knew I was going to play all week.”
On seeing Larry Fitzgerald’s excitement on the field today:
“How many catches did he have? Did he have 12? That’s how Larry is whether he’s catching the ball or not. You saw him on Andre’s (Roberts) touchdown. You see that excitement, that joy. He loves playing the game whether he’s the guy that’s the focal point or we’re running the ball or the defense is playing great. I didn’t notice anything. I see that every time we score in practice even.”
On if it was in the plan to get Larry Fitzgerald the ball or if targeting him was a reflection of coverage:
“No, I mean I think that in this offense the coverage dictates where the ball goes and sometimes it’s Larry and sometimes it’s … Last time we played against them it was Andre (Roberts). Andre had a bunch of catches and a bunch of third down conversions. So, we rarely ever go into a game plan saying we are going to force feed the ball to this guy or this guy. Bruce (Arians) had a really good feel, had some phenomenal calls, I thought. He had a couple of good calls where we really just didn’t execute correctly, but he was on a little bit of a roll, and Larry wasn’t getting doubled all of the time and there were some opportunities to get him the ball.”
On the protection:
“We had a great game plan protection-wise. I think I was sacked maybe one time. That defense rarely only ever gets one sack, and they always get quarterback pressures and quarterback hits and knock downs, but protection was phenomenal. You got two of the, one of the best pass-rushers in the game in Chris Long and right behind (Robert) Quinn. The two guys inside are very good, and we did a great job of … The run game too, the run game was very good. “
On the first half rhythm:
“We did some good things. We were moving the ball on third down. We had a couple of third downs we should have had also, but they were mixing up a lot of coverages. I felt like B.A. (Bruce Arians) had a really good feel for what was coming, and we had opportunities to get guys singled up and one-on-one. They did their job to win, and they did a great job winning. We did a good job mixing the run and the pass, a couple screens, couple quick kind of side screens, just a really good feel that B.A. had all day.”
On if he was curious pregame about how he would play:
“No, I mean I, like I said before, I trusted in Tom Reed and his staff, and what they were telling me. They had a plan from Monday on, and what they said would happen today happened.”
On if the game plan took into account his injury:
“Some of it did just with the lack of practice reps. Knowing from Monday on, letting the coaches game plan what was going to happen during the week, that was definitely a little bit of a factor.”
On if it was helpful to focus on playing the Rams after last week’s loss to the Eagles and the NFC West losing streak:
“No, I mean that’s … These guys are really good on defense, and they’ve been playing really good. They beat good teams. They’ve had some big wins. They handled Indianapolis with ease. They handled Chicago with ease. When you turn on the film, that’s a very good defense. It’s young. It’s inexperienced, and it’s really going to get better with time. You don’t turn on the film and look forward to playing against these guys. You turn on the film and look for all of the problems they pose, and you have to find ways, you have to find answers because they can rush the passer with four guys. They can drop seven guys into coverage, and that’s never easy. They can get to the passer with four guys, and that’s not something you look forward to playing against.”
On having one of the highest completion percentages in Cardinals history:
“I didn’t know that, and I didn’t feel that way. I really didn’t think about it. I was thinking about the lull we had at the beginning of the second half and being a little frustrated with that, but I wasn’t thinking about completion percentage or where I was statistically whatsoever.”
On being in a rhythm:
“Yeah, I just … I felt confident with the plays that were coming. I felt confident with the guys that we had in the certain matchups we were getting. Comfortable with that, but as far as feeling a different rhythm than I normally feel, I didn’t feel any different just that when the plays were coming in I knew exactly where to go with the ball, and we were getting the right guys against the right guys in the matchups.”
On being right in the midst of playoffs:
“It’s just fun being on a good football team. It’s fun being in that locker room with that group of guys. With this coaching staff we have fun. We work hard. We enjoy each other. We enjoy watching our defense play the way that they did tonight. They enjoy watching us. So it’s been a really fun year, and we just want to keep it rolling.”
Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald
On him and Carson Palmer having a rhythm from the first play on:
“We just had a good connection. Everything worked pretty good. As a whole throwing the ball today I think we were pretty effective, and we were able to move the ball up and down the field