Cardinals coach Bruce Arians hasn’t been bashful about calling out players in the aftermath of a Week One loss to the Patriots. He’s now putting the onus on them to avoid losing in Week Two.
“Where I think we failed a little bit last week was from Friday afternoon to Sunday night before the game of mentally preparing more for a game,” Arians said Friday, via Bob McManaman of azcentral.com. “We’re focusing on hopefully doing more mental preparation between now and game time than we did last week.”
So what will Arians do to get the players more mentally prepared?
“That’s their job, not mine,” Arians said. “I’ve already prepared them. That’s their job. It’s how you do your homework.”
It’s important that they do their homework; if they don’t, the Cardinals will start with back-to-back losses at home.
“[A]ny good team never wants to lose,” Arians said. “Especially if you have character, you never lose two in a row. That’s always about the character in your locker room. We’ve talked about it since I’ve been here. It hasn’t happened very often, and there should be a heightened sense of urgency, especially among the veteran players for making sure everybody’s ready to play.”
If the Cardinals aren’t ready to play on Sunday, their next challenge could be to figure out how to dig their way out of an 0-2 hole.