Head coach Steve Wilks lost his first game as the head coach in Arizona and his review of the film of the 24-6 Washington win left him with one diagnosis for what went wrong.
Wilks said that he thought players were overly excited for the first game of the season and wound up breaking from their responsibilities in hopes of making plays. He applied that observation to the team’s defense in particular.
“From what I was able to see, from watching the tape, I think guys are trying to do too much instead of just trying to do their job,” Wilks said, via AZCentral.com. “That’s what we talked about this morning, being one of 11, just trying to go out and do your job and trusting the man beside you. Guys trying to make plays when it’s not their play, and they’re getting out of their gaps.”
When Cardinals defenders were in the right spot, they frequently failed to secure tackles on Adrian Peterson and Chris Thompson on their way to giving up 294 combined yards from scrimmage to the duo. If that doesn’t get better, the Cardinals may continue to be guilty of doing both too much and too little.