Sports360AZ
Of course no NFL head coach wants to lose a game, whether it’s in the preseason, regular season or the playoffs, but it happens to the best of them.
The Cardinals loss to the Chiefs on Friday was especially frustrating for head coach Ken Whisenhunt, because of the level of play, or lack thereof, that the Cardinals displayed.
“I’m not happy with the way we played,” Whisenhunt said. “We had situations where we had some pretty basic stuff where we didn’t execute it correctly, and that’s what’s gotta get better.”
As far as making the proper corrections to those mistakes (i.e. poor tackling, missed reads and runs), Whisenhunt didn’t say it was for a lack of effort on the part of the players.
Whisenhunt said the mistakes will be addressed and corrected going forward.
“If we have to play our guys the whole game in order to do it, then we’ll do that,” Whisenhunt said.
Kevin Kolb came in relief of John Skelton at quarterback, and had another sub-par performance, going 1-of-5, for 21 yards in his brief time on the field.
Kolb’s protection seemed to break down quite a bit, forcing him to roll out and try to create a play, which was quite unsuccessful.
“He’s got to do a better job of staying in the pocket,” Whisenhunt said. “We need more reps. We’re working on getting better at that.”
Whisenhunt said Kolb will get the start on Friday night against the Oakland Raiders at University of Phoenix Stadium, with Skelton coming in with the second team offense.
Whisenhunt said Kolb’s chest flared up a bit against the Chiefs, which shortened up his night.
“I wanted him to get some plays, get in the game and understand what it takes to get back in there and he did, to his credit,” Whisenhunt said.
Beanie Wells came off the PUP list this week, and practiced with the team a bit while they were in Missouri with the Chiefs.
As far as Wells getting his first snaps of the preseason, possibly on Friday night, Whisenhunt said there’s going to be some determining factors come this week in camp.
“He’ll get some reps in practice, and we’ll see how he feels with that,” Whisenhunt said. “If we feel like we can get him a couple of plays, then yea I’d like to do that.”
Ryan Williams falls into the same category as far as playing time against Oakland. Whisenhunt liked the way Williams responded in practice situations against the Chiefs this week.
“The next stage for him is probably to get some play time this week,” Whisenhunt said. “If I had to guess right now, I’d say Ryan’s just a little closer to that than Beanie is.”
Whisenhunt is ready for some home cooking on Friday night, after being on the road for the first two preseason games.
“It’s a great environment, it’s a great stadium,” Whisenhunt said. “It’s been great for us from a home-field advantage standpoint. I’d like to go out and play well for them [fans] at home, I think that’s important this week.”
