Protection not falling in line for Cardinals
Arians, Keim: O-line needs to improve
When is the number “three” greater than the sum power of “five?”
When the Cardinals’ five offensive linemen keep getting beat and pushed around by a Cowboys three-man pass rush, like they were on Monday night during a 28-17 loss to Dallas at University of Phoenix Stadium.
The math isn’t supposed to add up, but it did and coach Bruce Arians doesn’t need any trigonometry refresher courses to figure out what went wrong from any angle. Go ahead, just ask him.
“We’ve got to protect better,” Arians said Tuesday. “There’s no question how to do it. You’ve just got to do your technique and block your guy. It’s not schemes, it’s not anything else. It’s just one-on-one football and we’re not doing a good enough job of protecting our quarterback.”
The Cardinals' offensive line, particularly the right side featuring guard Evan Boehm and tackle Jared Veldheer, made Cowboys defensive end Demarcus Lawrence look like Lawrence Taylor or at least DeMarcus Ware in his prime. Lawrence finished with three sacks for minus-24 yards, added three tackles for loss and registered six quarterback hits.
He was in the backfield almost as often as the man he was chasing all night, quarterback Carson Palmer. Arians was asked whether Lawrence is really that good or if it was Arians' staggering offensive line that made him look great.
“I think we made him look great,” the coach said. “He won his one-on-ones because it wasn’t like they were blitzing or anything.”
Cardinals General Manager Steve Keim said the play of the offensive line overall was “unacceptable” and singled out Veldheer, whom he said isn’t using the
proper technique. Though he’s a hulk at 6 feet, 8 inches tall, Veldheer can be prone to bull-rushing defenders off the edge because the tackle doesn’t use his hands or his feet properly.
“The fact of the matter is he’s got to get better,” Keim said Tuesday during his weekly appearance on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM. “He’s got to improve all those little things. … He’s got to improve his footwork, his technique, his hand placement and get back to basics. Again, 64,000 people saw it last night and Jared’s a prideful guy and I’d expect nothing less from him to be in here this week and make some improvements.”
To his credit, Veldheer owned up to his inefficiency immediately after the game. He knows he hasn’t played well for three weeks now and he isn’t about to make excuses.
“Just wasn’t good enough. We need to improve, especially myself,” Veldheer said, adding he can improve “just by being critical of what you see on tape and going out and working on it and doing it with all the intent in the world to fix it and get better at it.
"I don’t know if there’s any other thing you can do. I know I need to block my guy, I know I need to improve on that.”
Making matters worse, the Cardinals’ present starters at left tackle and left guard both suffered pectoral strains late in Monday night’s game and were scheduled to have MRIs on Tuesday. Keim sounded optimistic the team might get back both of its original starters at those positions, tackle D.J. Humphries (knee) and guard Mike Iupati (guard).
Arians wasn’t so positive when asked if Humphries and Iupati will be available for this Sunday’s game against the visiting 49ers (0-3).
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” he said. “All those guys that have missed (time), I want to see them out there in practice at a very high level before I think they can play in this game.”
As poor as the line played up front and failed in its job to protect Palmer, the Cardinals have other issues. The defense one again allowed two fourth-quarter touchdowns. Special teams didn’t play up to expectations, either, as kicker Phil Dawson missed his third field-goal attempt in three games and punter Andy Lee didn’t get distance or hang time on a few of his punts, which gave the Cowboys excellent field position.
Keim was asked specifically about Dawson’s three missed attempts and what his level of concern about that is three weeks into the season.
“Well, like any other position, when you don’t produce there’s always concern,” Keim said. “Now what gives me confidence is Phil’s body of work, the fact that he’s been such a consistent kicker for his entire career. But at the same, it doesn’t minimize that we have to be concerned with missing those types of kicks.
“So he’s got to continue to improve and again, knowing Phil like I do, I’m sure he’ll be back in here working this week to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
Making moves
The team announced Tuesday it signed two free agents to the practice squad: tight end Anthony Denham Jr. and linebacker Earl Okine.
Denham Jr. spent the preseason with the Eagles after entering the league with the Texans as an undrafted rookie free agent out of Utah in 2014. Okine entered the league with the Texans also as an undrafted rookie free agent out of Florida in 2013. He appeared in five games for the Colts in 2015 and most recently spent time on the practice squads with Detroit and Kansas City.