Following the Arizona Cardinals‘ loss to the Broncos last Saturday, head coach Jonathan Gannon said one of the issues with the pass defense was penalties.
He said then, “The big thing with me that jumps out, this is kind of a snap judgement, is we were fouling too much. So that’s happening in practice, and then what you do in practice is going to show up in the game. So we’ve got to make sure we play with better fundamentals and cover people.”
Thursday, in the final press conference of the week prior to Saturday’s game against the Raiders, the fouling was mentioned and Gannon was asked if he believes it’s a mental focus problem or with technique.
As is often the case, when the question is about secondary play, Gannon does a deep dive into analysis, considering his background as a player and seven seasons as an NFL assistant coach working with defensive backs.
He said, “There’s a reason you’ve got your hands up. I just think we got to do a better job of keeping our hands where they need to be. And those guys understand, I think they understand the rules, and truthfully all the crews call it differently. You understand that there’s going to be contact, especially at the top of the route. It’s just how much you can can use your hands and get away with it, I guess. But I think a lot of those are just avoidable, especially if we’re cognizant about it.”
They can be back-breakers and potentially game-changers.
As Gannon emphasized, “Those are big penalties. It’s a third-down sack that’s now negated because you foul and it’s an automatic first down where you think you’re off the field and now you’re not. Incidental contacts; those kill me when you got them behind the well on second down. It’s incomplete, it’s going to be third-and-long and it’s a free first down; five-yard penalty. Those just hurt.
“So, as much as we can, control those. I understand they’re going to happen. Bang-bang plays happen, but we made an emphasis this week to make sure we got our hands down.”
Gannon then acknowledged that the red zone is another story, where much of the focus was in Thursday’s final practice before the game.
“I tell them you need to have some contact and you need to grab a little bit, because it’s called differently down in the red zone,” he said. “(But) we just got to do a good job of playing penalty-free.”
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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Keeping hands down in pass coverage is key for Cardinals DBs