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http://mmqb.si.com/2014/11/10/nfl-week-10-arizona-cardinals-detroit-lions/
John Biever/Sports Illustrated/The MMQB
Don’t Count Out the Cards
The NFC's best team lost its starting quarterback Sunday, but Arizona isn't feeling sorry for itself in the least. Plus, inside Detroit's remarkable turnaround, an unlikely hero helps the Jets topple Big Ben, and more from Week 10
By Peter King
Rams/Cards game mentions: (To read the entire article click the link at the top of the page)
While Carson Palmer gently weeps.
It seems particularly cruel this morning to write about the team with the best record in football in a life-goes-on sort of way. Carson Palmer was the quarterback coach Bruce Arians and GM Steve Keim chose to be their franchise leader when they got their jobs in January 2013. Palmer finally felt like he was in football nirvana. He quit football at 31 rather than continue playing for a franchise he didn’t trust to put a winner on the field, Cincinnati. He was traded to the Raiders, another pit of despair, and played two years there. Then the Cardinals plucked him away for a song 19 months ago. “It’s the most important acquisition we made,” Keim said a couple of weeks ago, and the Cardinals went out and put a backbone to that: On Friday, Arizona signed Palmer to a three-year contract extension worth $50 million.
On Sunday, against St. Louis, it appeared that Palmer, on a play early in the fourth quarter, tried to change his protection just before the snap to account for an extra rusher. As the play progressed, Palmer’s left knee caved in as he tried to avoid the rush on a sack, and he lay on the field, writhing in agony. Nothing is official, and Arians told me Sunday night he wasn’t sure of anything, but all signs point to a torn ACL in Palmer’s left knee, the second time he has suffered that injury, to that knee, in his career.
“We just did the contract, and everybody was on cloud nine,” Arians said from Arizona. “Now this.”
Backup Drew Stanton entered the game with 9:45 left and Arizona trailing 14-10. “Being around Carson now for the last couple of years,” Stanton said Sunday night, “I knew something was wrong when he stayed down. That is not Carson.”
This was the second bit of major drama in Stanton’s day. He and his wife, Kristin, are expecting a child. She was due last Wednesday. He got a text from her Sunday morning, when he’d arrived at the stadium for the game. “The text basically said, Just so you know, you might want to get home pretty quick after the game. She felt like the contractions were coming,” Stanton said.
This was an hour or so after the game, and Stanton had ducked into a Whole Foods on his way home, shopping for dinner. And champagne, in case the baby came. As he checked out and got in his car, Stanton explained the strangeness of the day.
“All week at practice, Carson loved this deep throw to John Brown,” Stanton said. “We had it in the game plan, and at halftime we said, ‘We want to take our shot with this play. It’s going to be there.'” Arians is famous for not dumbing-down his game plan; whoever is in the game is going to run the stuff they planned for the week. So even though Stanton was shaken to the core by the injury to Palmer, he listened to Arians before he went out for his first play, first-and-10 at the Arizona 11. We’re gonna stay with what we planned. Just try to put some points on the board. Nothing different from what Arians would have said to anyone subbing for an injured player.
I did an interview with Arians for The MMQB that ran last week, and what he said about dealing with injured players impressed me. He said: “Injuries happen to everybody. Free-agent losses happen to everybody. I preach and preach and preach, ‘The most valuable player on the team is not Larry Fitzgerald. It’s who’s gonna take his place after Larry Fitzgerald gets hurt.’ It happened to me. I was the next man up. I was the assistant coach in Indianapolis, and 20 hours after Chuck [Pagano] goes down [with leukemia] I am running the team. I always tell the Wally Pipp story, even though the players never know who he is, that he’s the guy Lou Gehrig replaced and Wally Pipp could never get his job back. The worst part? They don’t know who Lou Gehrig is.”
Stanton came in and found two quick completions to his tight ends, who often are the forgotten men in the Arizona offense because of the wideout threats the Cardinals have. On first down from the Rams’ 48, Arians thought he’d get the single-high safety look the Rams had shown on similar plays at similar points of the field. He called the play for Brown. In it, the Cards flank Brown and Fitzgerald left. Fitzgerald takes a corner with him trolling across the field. Brown presses his corner toward the left corner, then sprints inside toward the post. If he’s right, Brown will have beaten the corner already, then will outrun the safety on the way to the ball. That’s exactly what happened.
“I didn’t know if I had enough arm on the throw,” said Stanton. “John’s so fast.”
Stanton definitely had enough arm. For the third time this season, Brown made the game-winning catch on a fourth-quarter deep ball. Arizona added two late defensive touchdowns, and this improbable 8-1 team had a muted celebration, players going into the trainers’ room to pay their respects to Palmer. “You try to be respectful,” said Stanton. “You know he’s down. It’s so tough to see someone in pain like that.”
I asked Arians how many more body blows his team could take and still keep ticking. Daryl Washington and Karlos Dansby at linebacker, gone. Darnell Dockett, gone. Calais Campbell, missing for a month. Now the quarterback they’d built the offense around, most likely gone. “It’s not gonna stop,” Arians said. “It’s football. There’s gonna be another one, I just don’t know who and when. That’s what we believe. We don’t let up, and we don’t make excuses.”
One more thing.
“We can win the Super Bowl with Drew Stanton,” Arians said. “There is no doubt in my mind.”
There will be a few people in the Cardinals’ offices today pulling for Kristin Stanton to have that baby early in the week. Her husband’s got another big job this week. The football calendar is unforgiving that way.
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I think this is what I liked about Week 10:
Patrick Peterson’s two interceptions in two and a half minutes in the fourth quarter. If this had been a baseball game, Peterson would have been credited with a six-out save.
--------------
. I think Carson Palmer re-signing Friday is a tremendous boost to Brian Hoyer’s prospective new deal, wherever it ends up being done. There is not a marquee quarterback (is there ever?) in the 2015 free-agent quarterback pool. The two most interesting—which could change, depending on how Ryan Mallett does with his chance in Houston in the last half of the season—are Hoyer and restricted free-agent Austin Davis of the Rams. How I would rate the top five prospective quarterback free-agents-to-be, in order:
• Brian Hoyer, Cleveland. Quick release, ability to process info. Has made some big throws under pressure for the Browns during their surprising 6-3 start, and the Browns have had zero conversations about a new contract for Hoyer since May, agent Joe Linta said Sunday. Linta also had Joe Flacco a couple of years ago. Flacco played out his deal and was rewarded after the Ravens won the Super Bowl. Hoyer has nowhere near the résumé of Flacco, of course. But he’s got one thing in common with Flacco. “He’s like Joe,” Linta said. “He’s bet on himself.”
• Mark Sanchez, Philadelphia. Much to see in the next two months, but in the right system, running a fast-paced offense (more to his liking), I think he has a chance to compete to be someone’s starter for a few years.
• Austin Davis, St. Louis. He’s restricted, meaning the Rams will have the right to match any offer he gets. But Davis has been impressive under tough circumstances, and much more accurate than the Rams had any right to expect. He’s had 76 percent, 71 percent and 85 percent passing games in the past two months.
• Drew Stanton, Arizona. Can he take Bruce Arians with him?
• Ryan Mallett, Houston. Just a hunch, because I’ve soured so much on Jake Locker.
• Jake Locker, Tennessee. Maybe, just maybe, the right coach can work on his accuracy issues, which are major. I don’t know what anyone can do about his injury issues, which also are many.
John Biever/Sports Illustrated/The MMQB
Don’t Count Out the Cards
The NFC's best team lost its starting quarterback Sunday, but Arizona isn't feeling sorry for itself in the least. Plus, inside Detroit's remarkable turnaround, an unlikely hero helps the Jets topple Big Ben, and more from Week 10
By Peter King
Rams/Cards game mentions: (To read the entire article click the link at the top of the page)
While Carson Palmer gently weeps.
It seems particularly cruel this morning to write about the team with the best record in football in a life-goes-on sort of way. Carson Palmer was the quarterback coach Bruce Arians and GM Steve Keim chose to be their franchise leader when they got their jobs in January 2013. Palmer finally felt like he was in football nirvana. He quit football at 31 rather than continue playing for a franchise he didn’t trust to put a winner on the field, Cincinnati. He was traded to the Raiders, another pit of despair, and played two years there. Then the Cardinals plucked him away for a song 19 months ago. “It’s the most important acquisition we made,” Keim said a couple of weeks ago, and the Cardinals went out and put a backbone to that: On Friday, Arizona signed Palmer to a three-year contract extension worth $50 million.
On Sunday, against St. Louis, it appeared that Palmer, on a play early in the fourth quarter, tried to change his protection just before the snap to account for an extra rusher. As the play progressed, Palmer’s left knee caved in as he tried to avoid the rush on a sack, and he lay on the field, writhing in agony. Nothing is official, and Arians told me Sunday night he wasn’t sure of anything, but all signs point to a torn ACL in Palmer’s left knee, the second time he has suffered that injury, to that knee, in his career.
“We just did the contract, and everybody was on cloud nine,” Arians said from Arizona. “Now this.”
Backup Drew Stanton entered the game with 9:45 left and Arizona trailing 14-10. “Being around Carson now for the last couple of years,” Stanton said Sunday night, “I knew something was wrong when he stayed down. That is not Carson.”
This was the second bit of major drama in Stanton’s day. He and his wife, Kristin, are expecting a child. She was due last Wednesday. He got a text from her Sunday morning, when he’d arrived at the stadium for the game. “The text basically said, Just so you know, you might want to get home pretty quick after the game. She felt like the contractions were coming,” Stanton said.
This was an hour or so after the game, and Stanton had ducked into a Whole Foods on his way home, shopping for dinner. And champagne, in case the baby came. As he checked out and got in his car, Stanton explained the strangeness of the day.
“All week at practice, Carson loved this deep throw to John Brown,” Stanton said. “We had it in the game plan, and at halftime we said, ‘We want to take our shot with this play. It’s going to be there.'” Arians is famous for not dumbing-down his game plan; whoever is in the game is going to run the stuff they planned for the week. So even though Stanton was shaken to the core by the injury to Palmer, he listened to Arians before he went out for his first play, first-and-10 at the Arizona 11. We’re gonna stay with what we planned. Just try to put some points on the board. Nothing different from what Arians would have said to anyone subbing for an injured player.
I did an interview with Arians for The MMQB that ran last week, and what he said about dealing with injured players impressed me. He said: “Injuries happen to everybody. Free-agent losses happen to everybody. I preach and preach and preach, ‘The most valuable player on the team is not Larry Fitzgerald. It’s who’s gonna take his place after Larry Fitzgerald gets hurt.’ It happened to me. I was the next man up. I was the assistant coach in Indianapolis, and 20 hours after Chuck [Pagano] goes down [with leukemia] I am running the team. I always tell the Wally Pipp story, even though the players never know who he is, that he’s the guy Lou Gehrig replaced and Wally Pipp could never get his job back. The worst part? They don’t know who Lou Gehrig is.”
Stanton came in and found two quick completions to his tight ends, who often are the forgotten men in the Arizona offense because of the wideout threats the Cardinals have. On first down from the Rams’ 48, Arians thought he’d get the single-high safety look the Rams had shown on similar plays at similar points of the field. He called the play for Brown. In it, the Cards flank Brown and Fitzgerald left. Fitzgerald takes a corner with him trolling across the field. Brown presses his corner toward the left corner, then sprints inside toward the post. If he’s right, Brown will have beaten the corner already, then will outrun the safety on the way to the ball. That’s exactly what happened.
“I didn’t know if I had enough arm on the throw,” said Stanton. “John’s so fast.”
Stanton definitely had enough arm. For the third time this season, Brown made the game-winning catch on a fourth-quarter deep ball. Arizona added two late defensive touchdowns, and this improbable 8-1 team had a muted celebration, players going into the trainers’ room to pay their respects to Palmer. “You try to be respectful,” said Stanton. “You know he’s down. It’s so tough to see someone in pain like that.”
I asked Arians how many more body blows his team could take and still keep ticking. Daryl Washington and Karlos Dansby at linebacker, gone. Darnell Dockett, gone. Calais Campbell, missing for a month. Now the quarterback they’d built the offense around, most likely gone. “It’s not gonna stop,” Arians said. “It’s football. There’s gonna be another one, I just don’t know who and when. That’s what we believe. We don’t let up, and we don’t make excuses.”
One more thing.
“We can win the Super Bowl with Drew Stanton,” Arians said. “There is no doubt in my mind.”
There will be a few people in the Cardinals’ offices today pulling for Kristin Stanton to have that baby early in the week. Her husband’s got another big job this week. The football calendar is unforgiving that way.
--------------
I think this is what I liked about Week 10:
Patrick Peterson’s two interceptions in two and a half minutes in the fourth quarter. If this had been a baseball game, Peterson would have been credited with a six-out save.
--------------
. I think Carson Palmer re-signing Friday is a tremendous boost to Brian Hoyer’s prospective new deal, wherever it ends up being done. There is not a marquee quarterback (is there ever?) in the 2015 free-agent quarterback pool. The two most interesting—which could change, depending on how Ryan Mallett does with his chance in Houston in the last half of the season—are Hoyer and restricted free-agent Austin Davis of the Rams. How I would rate the top five prospective quarterback free-agents-to-be, in order:
• Brian Hoyer, Cleveland. Quick release, ability to process info. Has made some big throws under pressure for the Browns during their surprising 6-3 start, and the Browns have had zero conversations about a new contract for Hoyer since May, agent Joe Linta said Sunday. Linta also had Joe Flacco a couple of years ago. Flacco played out his deal and was rewarded after the Ravens won the Super Bowl. Hoyer has nowhere near the résumé of Flacco, of course. But he’s got one thing in common with Flacco. “He’s like Joe,” Linta said. “He’s bet on himself.”
• Mark Sanchez, Philadelphia. Much to see in the next two months, but in the right system, running a fast-paced offense (more to his liking), I think he has a chance to compete to be someone’s starter for a few years.
• Austin Davis, St. Louis. He’s restricted, meaning the Rams will have the right to match any offer he gets. But Davis has been impressive under tough circumstances, and much more accurate than the Rams had any right to expect. He’s had 76 percent, 71 percent and 85 percent passing games in the past two months.
• Drew Stanton, Arizona. Can he take Bruce Arians with him?
• Ryan Mallett, Houston. Just a hunch, because I’ve soured so much on Jake Locker.
• Jake Locker, Tennessee. Maybe, just maybe, the right coach can work on his accuracy issues, which are major. I don’t know what anyone can do about his injury issues, which also are many.
