Our weekly Q&A with one of the Cardinals assistant coaches. This week it was OL Coach Klayton Adams.
The Arizona Cardinals offensive line had a lot accolades thrown their way during their four-game winning streak that ended last week in Seattle.
One of the factors in the loss to the Seahawks was a disappointing performance by the line that led to an inconsistent offensive performance that included trouble running the ball and protecting quarterback Kyler Murray.
Offensive line coach Klayton Adams talked to the media Friday after practice and was open about the issues that occurred while looking ahead to playing in another hostile environment. His thoughts are presented in our weekly Q&A.
Q: After last week, just as a coach, how do you approach that kind of situation after a game like that?
A: I think it’s the same approach that you take every week. And I think one of the things that I said to the guys in the room on Monday because they knew it before we even watched the tape. It wasn’t our best effort and we didn’t play as cleanly as we needed to. But then, like Week 16 last year, when maybe people on the outside aren’t paying as much attention, it’s really important to us. And so whether you think you played good or you think you played bad, you got a lot of stuff to get better at. And so that’s the approach every single week for us is, how do we maximize our opportunity to play well and get what we need to get done during the week? So to me, the mindset doesn’t change at all.
Q: What stood out on the film in terms of addressing pressing needs or what’s most important coming off that game?
A: Probably just as a whole, I won’t go into the specifics or coach a player through the media, but I just think as a whole, just us getting off on the snap count together and having kind of the synergy that we’ve had at other points throughout the year. And so there’s probably a lot of things that go into that. But just a lot of little things really is ultimately what it is. And what it amounts to is not playing as cleanly as you want to play.
Q: With all those things, how do you balance the challenge of who you’re going against and being on the road and a loud environment and balancing all that in your evaluation?
A: I mean, it’s the NFL. So we’re going to play in loud environments, and we’re going to play on the road. And that’s one of the keystones in our room is like we need to be the best silent-count team in the NFL. And if you do that, then you give yourself a chance to play more than 17 games. We know when we go into those environments that that’s going to be one of the critical factors for winning the game.
Q: How do you counsel the guys if they weren’t getting off the snap as good as they been?
A: I think environment certainly always goes into it, but like I said, that’s expected. This is the National Football League. And so, you’re going to play in those types of environments. You need to be great in those type of environments. And it doesn’t need to be a situation where you’re creating anxiety or stress for yourself. You need to be excited about playing in those environments and I think that we do that generally. We didn’t do it as well as we wanted to last week.
A: It seemed like there were a lot of plays where guys, especially in the middle, were pushed back in the pocket. Is that related to not getting off immediately or is that a technique thing or something else?
A: No. I think that it’s just one of those games where there’s a couple of those reps. And the good thing is I really believe and trust the guys in the room that we’ll put our best foot forward the next time that we take the field and that’s what everybody’s really focused on right now is let’s get back out there and play football.
Q: (Right tackle) Jonah (Williams) mentioned after the game about understandably knocking some rust off. How do you evaluate that? And then now going forward what do you expect you’ll see from him after getting that game back under his belt?
A: I think that there are a lot of good things that he did. I expect him to play better this week than he did last week, but I could say that about every single guy out there. Having said that, he hadn’t played a full NFL football game since, not just training camp, but the season before. So I expect the progression to be there and that’s what we’re looking at right now is how do we just play better than we did last week and that was our goal last week too. So you got to continue to take steps forward and that’s where we’re at.
Q: What are the keys up front for going up against a Vikings defense that disguises their packages so well?
A: I think ultimately it’s about knowing what you’re supposed to do at such a high level that there doesn’t have to be tons of communication. You don’t have to have all these different adjustments. Do what you’re good at doing and do it at a high level. And I think where people get in trouble with these guys is they probably try to get too specific and do too much. And you could probably say that about most defenses, but if you just do what you do well at a high level, you give yourself a chance in any football game, but that’s even more true in this game.
Q: Aside from last week, how do you look at how this entire line has done this season as it’s progressed?
A: I think like I said what I said to the players in there on Monday. There’s been some good things, we got a lot to clean up, and I think that there’s more ahead of us. And I don’t feel any different about that this week than I did the week before.
Q: What have you seen from Isaiah’s (Adams) game so far?
A: You can tell that he’s getting more comfortable. You can tell that he’s getting more confident and there’s a difference between knowing what to do at practice and then getting out in a game and being able to execute something that has a little bit higher degree of difficulty. And you can see him getting more comfortable with doing those type of things during the game.
Q: They’re No. 2 in blitz rate. What becomes most important for your O-line going against that front in this game?
A: Just knowing the plan. Knowing the plan and being able to execute it and trusting that we haven’t tried to overcomplicate it. And I think one of the keys when you’re playing in a loud environment is obviously you’re not going to be able to just have a conversation with the tackle if you’re the center where you can do that in some environments and so it’s all five guys knowing what to do and not having to have a discussion about it. And I think that those guys have done a good job of that this week.
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