Safety Mathieu says ‘splash plays will come’
azcentral sports’ Kent Somers is in London covering the Arizona Cardinals as they prepare to face the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. Follow his updates.
LONDON – Cardinals safety Tyrann Mathieu’s performances will always be judged by the standard he set in 2015 when he was a candidate for defensive player of the year before suffering a season-ending knee injury.
Earlier this week, Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said Mathieu wasn’t playing at the 2015 level, possibly because Mathieu wasn’t as confident as he was then. On Thursday, however, Mathieu said confidence was not a problem.
“For the most part, I’m just trying to stay consistent,” he said, “not really worrying about splash plays or how my stat sheet may look like right now. Because at the end, I feel like I’m going to have five or more interceptions, have 80 or more tackles. It’s about me playing well in critical situations.”
Mathieu has 24 tackles, one sack, one interception and no passes defensed this season. In 14 games in 2015, he had five interceptions, 89 tackles, one sack and 15 passes defensed.
For now, Mathieu is concentrating on playing better on important downs, such as third-and-2.
“I’ve given up a few plays on third down,” he said. “I had a few (mistakes) in the Dallas game. The splash plays will come. I just have to play more consistent in critical situations.”
Taking lessons
The Cardinals are practicing at the training facility of the London Irish Rugby Club, and the rugby team practiced on Thursday just before the Cardinals started working on a distant field.
Receiver Larry Fitzgerald said NFL players could probably learn better fundamentals by watching rugby.
“Those guys have much better technique than we have,” Fitzgerald said. “They tackle proper – heads up, wrap-and-run. They have less issues than we do. We can learn a thing or two from the way they play.”
Like Fitzgerald, Mathieu admired rugby players for playing a physical sport without pads.
“I played sandlot football growing up a lot, but we were 80 pounds back then,” he said. “I can’t imagine somebody 240 hitting me without any pads on. Pretty sure I’d be on IR (injured reserve).”
A changed team
The Cardinals seem to be aware they are facing a much different Rams team on Sunday than the one they played last year.
Quarterback Jared Goff has been efficient and running back Todd Gurley has 521 yards rushing already. He’s averaging 3.8 yards a carry. Last year Gurley gained 885 yards and averaged 2.7 yards a carry.
The Rams (4-2) lead the NFC West over the Seahawks (3-2), Cardinals (3-3) and 49ers (0-6).
“Now, late in games he’s been turning it on,” said defensive tackle Frostee Rucker of Gurley. “They’ve been wearing teams out and turning him loose toward the finish of games. We’ve got our hands full.”
Coordinator James Bettcher thinks Gurley is running with “a ton of confidence. You see him hurdling guys. You see him running through people. You see him finishing runs. It’s going to be a big challenge for us.”
Injury report
Running back Andre Ellington (quadriceps) wasn’t in pads for Thursday’s practice. Defensive tackle Olsen Pierre (ankle), who missed last week, was in pads.