Are Cardinals asking too much of Isaiah Simmons?
Have the Cardinals placed too much on linebacker Isaiah Simmons’ plate?
That argument could surely be made after Sunday’s game against Kansas City, where Simmons was relaying the defensive plays from coordinator Vance Joseph for the first time in a regular-season game while also having to do his own job from different spots on the field.
Simmons said Wednesday, “It’s a little more difficult just for the fact of you have to talk a lot more, so just making sure I was adamant about making sure all 10 guys had the call. With that also comes your own communication within the play. It’s a little harder to be conditioned for that, but that’s really the biggest thing.
“Just a different level of conditioning, having to be able to verbalize the call and verbalize the checks that we’re making.”
It can get to be a continuous grind, especially when a team like the Chiefs strings together three scoring drives with a total of 31 snaps, including penalties, plays in the first 22:38 of the game.
“With the green dot, you learn that once that play is over, you may not be able to run down and celebrate with your guys or you may not be able to be upset about what just happened,” he said. “You have to move on and go back and relay the call to everybody because ultimately, everything is running through the green dot.”
On Monday, linebacker Nick Vigil pointed to communication as the biggest factor that resulted in numerous breakdowns leading to the Chiefs totaling 488 yards and 44 points.
Defensive end J.J. Watt said Thursday, “It’s an area we want to have no issues in, so we need to be rock solid in our communication. I think that we are taking steps toward improving that significantly this week.”
Joseph went in depth Thursday and said “communication did suffer some, but it was more about the operation. The entire thing suffered. Our guys played hard, they tried to make plays, but the total operation just wasn’t good. They (the Chiefs) played very well and we played awful. And that’s the bottom line.
“It was more the operation than it was effort or anything else. We just didn’t play fast. We couldn’t get lined up, the calls were coming out slow, and we didn’t play clean enough. And they did. And when you play good people who are playing clean, and you’re not, it looks that way.”
Joseph said he never expected it to happen as it did, but added, “Week 1 in a NFL season, no one knows how good you’re going to be because you hadn’t played anybody. And that’s always the issue Week 1. So you have to be careful of your entire process during camp, during preseason, of trying to simulate playing fast and playing under pressure and doing things at a full-speed rate versus good people. It’s hard to simulate that. And, obviously, Sunday, our operation of playing defense wasn’t good enough. And theirs was almost flawless. That’s why it looked so bad.”
Joseph didn’t want to address Simmons’ role that might have created some of the problems, saying, “It wasn’t just him, it was just a total operation of playing fast. Hearing the calls, hearing the personnel, knowing your job, matching their routes. That obviously was the biggest issue for us on defense. The operation wasn’t tested before that game, so we had no idea how it was going to look. I was hoping it was going to look good because in practice, it looked great. But in practice it’s no stress. It’s a controlled environment. And I thought the operation killed us along with them being very good.
“That’s a double-edged sword. If you’re not playing good and you’re playing slow, they’re playing really good and playing fast, it looks like that. And it felt that way on the sideline.”
To his credit, Joseph didn’t stop explaining. He said, “It was a lack of awareness and alignments and leverage and all those things, so the entire thing failed. And it wasn’t every play. It was probably 14 or 15 plays, but in a football game, that’s a lot of plays to make errors, and especially on critical downs: second-and-10, second-and-13, we’re making mistakes. Third down, fourth-and-2. Playing your best ball in those moments is always key. You have 15 bad plays in a game, it can be 44 points, unfortunately.”
When it was suggested that the preseason philosophy could be changed next year, Joseph didn’t dismiss that thought, but emphasized this is not the time or the place.
“Camp’s next year,” he said. “We’re past camp; that’s over. We can’t redo camp, but what we can redo is Week 2 and play better than Week 1. So that’s our focus. It’s not training camp. That’s next year’s problem.
“Next year we’ll deal with next year, but right now we’re on to Week 2, and hopefully last week’s lesson helps.”
One key could be Simmons. It’s likely a non-starter to have someone else with the green dot because that would engender more change. Plus, safety Jalen Thompson, who thought it was going to be him entering camp, might not be able to play Sunday because of a toe injury.
Still, as Joseph said, the entire operation has to improve and Simmons, among others, has to play better. The question is whether he would be able to play faster if he was freed of the green-dot responsibilities.
When Joseph was asked how linebacker Zaven Collins played, he answered and then volunteered his assessment of Simmons.
“I thought Zaven improved and played good football,” Joseph said. “He wasn’t perfect, but I thought he played good football. I thought Isaiah played good in spurts and he had some plays where he hurt us, and on some critical downs that we have to rectify and fix.”
However, Joseph isn’t worried about Simmons or his confidence waning, even with the prospect of facing Raiders tight end Darren Waller this week after dealing with Travis Kelce on Sunday. He said, “He’s fine. He knew he didn’t play great last week. We had a good plan for Kelce to get him leveraged or doubled on most of those targets, but he was drafted to cover tight ends.
“So next week he has to wash his brain and go try again, but it’s a tough job in this league. Those guys are more receivers than they are tight ends now and obviously playing within the scheme and playing your proper leverage and playing the coverage called will help him. Unfortunately, last week he didn’t do that.”
Even when he knew the play-call before everyone else.
Inside Slant
*Raiders wide receiver Hunter Renfrow attended Clemson and Simmons has tremendous respect for his former teammate who had 103 receptions for 1,038 yards and nine touchdowns last season.
“We all know about Renfrow, especially me. I think a lot of people underestimate him because of his visual presence,” Simmons said. “He kind of just looks like your average dad, but he’s actually a really, really phenomenal football player.
“In college, I used to fool around with him, call him old and whatnot — not that he’s old, but he just doesn’t look like a football player. He’s actually very, very good. I think a lot of people in the league have learned that. He’s getting respect from everyone.”
*Joseph isn’t totally confident that Thompson or defensive end J.J. Watt will play Sunday. Watt (calf) practiced Thursday for the first time since mid-August and was listed as limited, while Thompson hasn’t practiced this week.
Noting how important Watt is, Joseph said, “He’s a guy that’s a great leader. He’s a great player, he’s a calming voice in a huddle when things get crazy. So having him back hopefully this week will help. He’s close. He’s practicing. JJ wants to play every game and play every snap. So we got to be careful with him to make sure he’s ready to play.”
Watt told reporters it was a “good first day” back practicing and said he “would imagine” playing Sunday.
As for Thompson, Joseph said, “When you miss two days of football practice, it’s always tough to come back and play at full speed on Sunday. So we’ll see about him tomorrow.”
*Cornerback Trayvon Mullen Jr. (toe) was also on the field again, but didn’t do a lot and Joseph said, “He’s coming along. He’s played a bunch of ball in this time. He looks good in practice, but he’s not quite there yet.”
When the attrition in the secondary was noted, Joseph fell on the sword with customary coach-speak: “I’ll say this about our defense. I have no excuses, right? We have guys who can do their jobs. And on Sunday, we didn’t do it. And that’s my fault. Absolutely my fault as a coach, but we have guys who are capable, so whoever plays on Sunday, I expect us to play good … and win.”
*Left guard Justin Pugh, who has been dealing with a neck injury, said Thursday he was optimistic he will be able to play against the Raiders.
“Feel good,” he said. “Good to get back out there. Last week I kinda was able to get some plays under my belt and see how the neck was feeling. It was feeling good last week, but it just wasn’t all the way there. I need to get a full week of practice, get a padded practice under my belt. Felt really good today, so all signs point to getting out there.” He was listed as limited on the injury report.
*Tight end Zach Ertz was happy to be back on the field for a full practice Thursday after being on a “pitch count” in Sunday’s game against the Chiefs.
He said, “It’s been a while since I really got to practice in full pads. So it’s great to be out there with the guys, great to run around. Feel great. Now, God willing, the calf is behind me. So I can really just focus on being the best I can be on Sunday.”
Ertz talked about how difficult it can be with soft-tissue injuries to know when it’s safe to go all out.
“Eventually, you get to the point where you got to either trust it’s gonna hold up, or it’s not,” Ertz said. “And I got to the point after the first one; it was a very low strain. The first calf, I was pretty much full speed for nine days and on the 10th day, it wasn’t feeling great. And I’ve had soft-tissue injuries where it’s like, maybe you just need to push through it and it will be good. And it just wasn’t the case.
“So we had a setback; it was a little worse than the first one. So I had to start from scratch, which was mentally extremely difficult. But my faith was a huge part of it, having a son and going home and worrying about him versus myself was a big blessing for me at the time. And now I’m fully healthy, excited. But it is tough for sure when you have soft-tissue injuries.”
Don’t hesitate to comment or ask questions on Twitter @hbalzer721 or email me: howard@gophnx.com
