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These are only excerpts from this article. Rams mentions are first. To read the whole thing click the link below.
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http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/11/23/monday-morning-quarterback-nfl-week-11-brock-osweiler-broncos
Drama Builds in Denver
Brock Osweiler’s performance in a road win puts the pressure on the Broncos to make a decision on the ailing, aging Peyton Manning. Plus the mid-tier teams to fear, a crucial call aids the Cards and more from Week 11
Peter King
The Concussion Blog @concussionblog
To recap, Case Keenum allowed to play after what you see In video, didn't miss a snap. Utterly ridiculous, @nfl
Case Keenum, you’ve got to be more accurate if you want to start in this league.
I think the NFL has a huge issue on its hands stemming from the unaffiliated neurological consultant on the St. Louis sideline Sunday missing the obvious play where Rams quarterback Case Keenum was knocked woozy. For those unfamiliar with how the program works, there is a brain-trauma specialist with no tie to either team on each sideline of every NFL game. That medical professional's job is to monitor all players on the field for any evidence of a debilitating hit.
It's stunning to try to figure how the Rams' consultant missed Keenum's head slamming against the turf, and it's also inexplicable as to how the independent eye-in-the-sky medical consultant upstairs missed it as well. What was startling to me is that so many on the Rams sideline saw it.
Backup quarterback Nick Foles immediately began to loosen up as if he was going to have to enter the game. This loophole absolutely must be closed or viewers and the teams themselves are going to lose faith in the system designed to protect players after undergoing head trauma.
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What do we do now?
Osweiler winning this game in Chicago wasn’t the biggest surprise in the league this year. But the way he won it was notable. Osweiler played with confidence and a self-assuredness that belied his experience. His experience, basically, was that he had none. In his last start, nearly four years ago, Osweiler and his Arizona State teammates got their clocks cleaned in the Maaco Bowl in Las Vegas. Asked late Sunday afternoon if he had any doubts about his ability to play well in an NFL game, Osweiler said from Chicago: “When you haven’t started a game in three-and-a-half years, those thoughts do creep in.”
Manning was intercepted in every game he played this year—a league-high 17 in all.
Osweiler was not intercepted in 12 drives in Chicago on Sunday.
Manning, with sore ribs and plantar fasciitis in a heel, was left home to rest and rehab by the Broncos, and I’m told he did a lot of both over the weekend. Everyone was mum on what the Broncos were likely to do this week, but let’s go on coach Gary Kubiak’s word. He said Manning is the starting quarterback when healthy. Eight days ago, Manning’s throws were weaker than they’d ever been, and he wasn’t comfortable moving on his sore heel. His ribs ached. Is there any chance all of those things heal enough to be fully healthy in a week? Kubiak can always say, “Peyton’s not fully there yet, so we’re giving him at least another week to get himself right.” Manning may not like that, but lions in winter don’t like being told it’s wintertime either.
Manning’s highest passer rating in a game this year: 101.7.
Osweiler’s passer rating Sunday: 127.1.
Osweiler looked like more of a Kubiak quarterback than Manning has this year—though that’s a bit unfair because Manning just hasn’t had the same arm strength and admitted in training camp he had no feeling in his passing fingertips. Osweiler is fine being under center, which fits more of the Kubiak mold; Manning vastly prefers the shotgun or pistol. Osweiler is more athletic and is comfortable running bootlegs.
Manning doesn’t like throwing on the run. Kubiak said of Osweiler: “He can do everything. He’s a very composed young man, and the more he plays, I think, the better he’s going to get. We booted a little bit, not a lot. They [the Bears’ defenders] were up the field quite a bit, but the threat of us [running bootlegs], I think, helped us run the ball.” Osweiler finished 20 of 27, and more importantly, took care of the ball.
“One thing we stressed all week was ball security,” Osweiler told reporters after the game, “and coming out of this game with no turnovers. To be able to play the entire 60 minutes and have a zero in that turnover column was huge for the offense.”
Manning’s passes are slow and sailing this year.
Osweiler’s fastball, right now, clearly has more velocity.
Mike Florio of NBC and Pro Football Talkreported on the Sunday night NBC game that Manning was planning to play in 2016, even if he had to play somewhere other than Denver. Manning’s former coach, Tony Dungy, said on TV that he was surprised by the story. I can’t imagine Manning would be happy with that report, though as someone who has worked with Florio for several years at NBC, I know he’s got his ears to the ground and is a very solid reporter. Manning has told me the past three years that he’s playing it one year at a time, and will decide after each season whether he’s going to play another. But minds change sometimes. We shall see.
My gut feeling is that the Broncos will let Manning heal and rehab at least one more week, though all voices on this topic, including Manning’s, were silent Sunday night. If this is the case, and Osweiler either plays valiantly and very close against New England, or beats the Patriots, then I think the Broncos have to face the reality that Osweiler should continue to play. Those, of course, are very big ifs.
This time is coming. It comes for every player. I would be careful about putting Manning out to pasture just yet, but I would also be pragmatic and smart. Every decision Kubiak and Elway make has to be for the team first and Manning—and all individuals—after that. What do we do now? Play Osweiler at least one more week is my guess. But whatever happens, the near future will be high drama in Denver.
* * *
And down the stretch they come …
About six weeks ago, Denver linebacker DeMarcus Ware said his years in football had taught him this about the peaks and valleys of a season: “It’s great to be playing well now, but when I really want to be playing well is at the end of the year. Look at the league. In so many years, the Super Bowl teams are the teams playing best in late December, not now.”
The four middle-of-the-pack teams I’d fear right now if I coached a team preparing to play one:
1. Kansas City (5-5). Easy pickings here. The Chiefs started 1-5, but they’ve won four straight by an average of 20.3 points. Last three wins: by 35, 16 and 30, the latter a 33-3 pulverizing of the Chargers in San Diego Sunday. I’ll have more about the Chiefs in the next couple of days—including the answer to this question: What in tarnation has gotten into this team?—but suffice to say that the running game has gotten good enough to succeed with interchangeable parts, and though Alex Smith isn’t throwing any deeper than usual, he is throwing with his usual efficiency.
Smith hasn’t thrown an interception in the past seven games. Kansas City is 4-2 in conference games, the key tiebreaker, and I really like the remaining schedule: Buffalo (5-4), at Oakland (4-6), San Diego (2-8), at Baltimore (3-7), Cleveland (2-8), Oakland (4-6). Four home, two road. Would anyone be shocked if the Chiefs finished 10-6 and and beat up the AFC South champ in a wild-card game? I wouldn’t be.
2. Indianapolis (5-5). There’s not a lot predictable about a season that has Andrew Luck going 2-5 and Matt Hasselbeck 3-0. So let’s not try to make a lot of sense of this. “You kept throwing haymakers!” coach Chuck Pagano told his team in the locker room after the 24-21 win at Atlanta. “You kept throwing haymakers, 52!” That would be veteran inside linebacker D’Qwell Jackson, who benefited from one of the brainlock interceptions of the year, Matt Ryan’s third of the day, to decide this game.
Ryan, throwing from his end zone, woefully undershot his receiver and hit Jackson at the Falcons’ six-yard line. Jackson turned it into a touchdown. Seven straight Colts games have been decided by a touchdown or less, so Indy better keep throwing. Slight problem to the Colt euphoria: Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh are on the schedule the next two weeks. Both are playing better than Atlanta.
3. Houston (5-5). Aside from playing the Patriots in three weeks, the schedule can be dominated, and the Texans are just the team to do it. They’ve allowed 9.7 points per game over the past three (all wins), and it’s not just J.J. Watt. As a team, the Texans are the stingiest third-down team in the league, holding foes to 26.4-percent conversions. Like Watt, Whitney Mercilus and Jadeveon Clowney are playing exceedingly well against the run and pass, and that’s made all the difference. New England (home) and Indy (road) will be the toughest games down the stretch.
4. Tampa Bay (5-5). The Bucs have turned into a force of nature. Who expected 45-17 over Philadelphia, at Philly? Who expected .500 before 2016? Not I. It’s exaggerating reality to say it’s all Jameis Winston, but he’s the biggest part of it, by far. On Sunday he threw five touchdown passes with no interceptions—against the team he grew up in Alabama rooting for. He loved Randall Cunningham and Donovan McNabb. “I just won a game in a place I always dreamed of playing in,” Winston said from Philadelphia. “My whole entire life I wondered what it would be like to play here.”
The Bucs are 4-2 in their last six games, and Winston has thrown nine touchdown passes and just two interceptions over that time. Road games with the Colts, Rams and Panthers will determine the Bucs’ fate over the next six weeks, and it’s probably a year too soon for a playoff trip, particularly with the second team in the NFC North and Seattle to overcome in order to make it. But there’s nothing guaranteed in the NFL this year, other than New England and Carolina being home on the second playoff weekend.
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The story behind the late-night flag ...
Explaining the strange penalty that helped decide the Cincinnati-Arizona game…With the score at 31 and the ball at the Bengals’ 28-yard line, quarterback Carson Palmer stood at the line of scrimmage, under center, and waited for the clock to get down to about six seconds so he could spike the ball and afford kicker Chandler Catanzaro the chance to try a field goal. Palmer waited, and just as the clock got to :06, guard Ted Larsen jumped and immediately began pointing at the Cincinnati line. The Bengals did the same, pointing at the Cardinals.
Now the officials would have to sort this out—and if they ruled against Arizona, the fourth quarter would be over due to the NFL’s 10-second-runoff rule. (When there’s a dead-ball penalty at this time of game against the offense, 10 seconds are run off the clock automatically unless the offense chooses to use a timeout; the Cardinals had no timeouts left.)
The officials ruled that Bengals defensive tackle Domata Peko was mimicking Palmer’s snap count, which is called “disconcerting signals,” and results in a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. So a half-the-distance penalty was marked off, putting the ball at the Cincinnati 14. And Catanzaro made the 32-yard field goal to win it. Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said, “I don’t see how they make that call at that point of the game,” and Peko said he was simply telling his teammates to “get set.”
But this is what Palmer told me an hour after the game: “I don’t know who it was who was saying it, but it was obvious. He was saying ‘Set, Go!’” That is what Palmer says at the line. “The ref ran right in. They heard it. They knew.” Sure enough, that’s what the crew maintained after the game as well. Doesn’t sound like the Bengals have much of a case here.
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What’s next for Kaepernick
The future of Colin Kaepernick, who went on injured reserve Saturday with a shoulder injury that might require surgery... Obviously the likely scenario, with Kaepernick’s contract not being guaranteed in San Francisco beyond next April 1, is for the Niners to either trade him or cut him and move on to the next quarterback prospect. I doubt San Francisco will be able to make a trade, because who’s going to want to pay Kaepernick a total of $13.9 million next year when they’re not sure he can be their quarterback of the short- or long-term? I talked to a few league people over the weekend about possible landing spots for Kaepernick, and the ones that seem to make the most sense, in order:
1. Philadelphia. If Chip Kelly is, as expected, still the coach, he’ll need a quarterback with his QB depth chart a disastrous minefield right now.
2. The Jets. Because they’re in need of a quarterback of the future, and offensive coordinator Chan Gailey likes versatile athlete types.
3. Baltimore. Because of the Harbaugh connection—and now, because there’s no guarantee Joe Flacco will come back from his torn ACL and MCL suffered Sunday, considering that the third preseason game for the 2016 season comes exactly nine months from this week.
4. Oakland. But as a backup only, obviously, and that would only be if no team would be interested in Kaepernick as a starter or to compete for a starting job. Why the Raiders? Because not long before Al Davis died, he hosted Kaerpernick for a pre-draft visit, and the Raiders likely would have picked Kaepernick if the 49ers didn’t trade ahead of them to pick him during the 2011 draft. “Al was upset,” Hue Jackson, the coach at the time, told me a couple of years ago. “So was I. Scouting him, I fell in love with the kid.” I hear that some in the building still like Kaepernick and think he can be saved, but again, Derek Carr’s their guy, and the only way this works is if there are no starting prospects elsewhere.
One other thing on Kaepernick: Inside the Niners, there’s a prevailing opinion that he has to rededicate himself to football and approach the game the way he did in his first couple of years with the Niners. He’s always been a worker bee in regards to his physical condition, and now he has to be that way, tirelessly, about the mechanics and study of the position.
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Joe Flacco’s dedication
Since 2008, John Harbaugh has been on the sidelines coaching all 137 of the Baltimore Ravens’ regular-season and playoff games. His starting quarterback for every one of those games: Joe Flacco. That will end, but not without a great illustration of who Flacco is.
He’s been having a crummy year, and he had a poor throw for a costly interception against the Rams. But after getting his left knee rolled up during the final series of the game, Flacco stayed in to hand off twice, and then for another play to spike it before Justin Tucker kicked a 47-yard field goal to win it. When he was examined shortly thereafter, he got the news: torn ACL, likely torn MCL.
Maybe that’s not the smartest thing, to stay out there. But that’s the person Flacco is: not the lead-by-hollering guy, but the lead-by-example guy. Now the question is: Can he be ready for the start of the 2016 season? Until this injury happened, the plague of Ravens injuries would all seemingly be confined to 2015. But if Flacco’s prognosis is shaky for 2016, the Ravens may have to enter the competition for a quarterback who is better than just an insurance policy next year. A lot of that will have to do with how current backup Matt Schaub plays over the final six games. He was on a fast spiral downward when Baltimore signed him to back up Flacco.
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Photo: The MMQB
Once the game plan turns up in his inbox on Tuesday, Palmer sets down to a serious study session in his office at home in Paradise Valley.
On Carson Palmer and the Cardinals’ game plan
Last week, I wrote about the nuts-and-bolts (with a little Kipling and meteorology and a weird-looking virtual-reality headset included) of a quarterback, Arizona’s Carson Palmer, absorbing a game plan. I didn’t concentrate at all on the actual invention of the 171-play game plan. I didn’t see it. Instead, I focused on what happened from the moment the game plan pinged into Palmer’s email in his home in Paradise Valley, Ariz., at 7:25 p.m. on the Tuesday before Arizona faced Cleveland in Week 8. In particular, the story dissected one play of the 171, and how it met the fate it did.
A couple of things many of you have wondered about in the wake of the series:
• Arizona coach Bruce Arians has been organizing the game plan the same way for years as offensive coordinator or head coach—it’s very quarterback-friendly. Palmer surprised me when he said he picks the first 15 passes Arians is likely to call in the game. Late during game week, Palmer walks into the room where the Cardinals’ offensive coaches have the game plan hand-written on a whiteboard and Palmer marks with a blue Sharpie his favorite 15 pass plays in the game plan. Then he circles the four he likes the most and wants to see called early in the game. Invariably, Arians follows Palmer’s lead when he called plays on gameday. “I never want to call a pass a quarterback is not comfortable with,” Arians said.
So Arians picks the first 15 runs. Palmer picks the first 15 passes. Those become the first 30 plays on Arians’ call sheet. But I wondered: Palmer is a veteran quarterback; did Arians do the same things with all his quarterbacks—rookie Andrew Luck with the Colts, for instance, in 2012? “Sure did,” Arians said. He feels quarterbacks take more ownership in a play if the quarterback has in effect told the coach, I love that play. Call that play early.Giving the quarterback power over the plays puts the heat on the quarterback to know the plays inside and out, and to be comfortable with every call early in the game.
I asked one NFL offensive coordinator last week what he thought of what Arians did, and this coordinator said he loved it; each week, he tells his quarterback to throw out the plays he doesn’t want to run, and they’ll be thrown out. But giving the quarterback the power over the first 15 passes? This coordinator said he preferred to get the quarterback’s input, then call the game himself.
• I don’t think this was any grand plan by the Cardinals to set a trap for future foes; in fact, I know it wasn’t. When the Cardinals were in West Virginia to practice before playing at Pittsburgh Oct. 18, I asked Palmer if he would consider giving me a window into how he prepares for a game, from the time he got the game plan until the time he played the game. At the time, I wasn’t sure it would turn into Palmer “absorbing the game plan,” because I wasn’t sure how open he’d be.
Palmer was concerned it would take away from the very limited time he has during the week with his family. I proposed some hard-and-fast times during the week, the biggest piece of which would be simply observing him Tuesday evening. He agreed, but was stern about the limits. When I saw him the Tuesday before the Cleveland game at his home, it was clear he wanted to tell the story of the week and was into the educational aspect of it. I did spend time with Arians, and he was open and good, but this was mostly a deal between me and Palmer, and he didn’t do this to send any messages to any future opponents—unless I read him 100 percent wrong.
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The Award Section
OFFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Apologies to Doug Martin. How does one man have 84-yard and 58-yard runs, and 235 yards on the day, and not win this august honor? The judge is a strange judge.
Thomas Rawls, running back, Seattle. With Marshawn Lynch an unexpected injury scratch, Rawls had the kind of day that will make the Seahawks consider letting Lynch walk after the season. His 255 rushing-receiving yards is the most by an NFL back in three years: 209 yards on 30 carries, with 46 yards on three receptions—with one touchdown on the ground and one through the air in Seattle’s 29-13 win over San Francisco.
Cam Newton, quarterback, Carolina. He threw his 100th career touchdown pass in the first half against Washington—a half that was a milestone in another way. It was the first time that Newton threw at least three touchdown passes in a half. And he threw four—in the first 25 minutes. Newton was 16 of 24 for 187 yards, with four touchdowns and no picks, before halftime.
Jameis Winston, quarterback, Tampa Bay. Don’t look now, but the first pick the draft this year has gone interception-free in five of his past six games. Playing against the team he idolized as a kid—visiting the Philly stadium complex for the first time in his life—Winston was 19 of 29 for 246 yards, with five touchdowns and no interceptions, for a rating of 131.6. I talk to guys after games quite often during the NFL season, and few have had as ebullient a tone of voice as Winston did when we spoke 50 minutes after Tampa Bay 45, Philadelphia 17.
Brock Osweiler, quarterback, Denver. Ebullient … That was Osweiler too. Maybe not the same as Winston, but pretty excited, after starting his first NFL game Sunday in Chicago, an important 17-15 Broncos victory. Osweiler, playing with the pressure of The Man Who Would Succeed Peyton Manning on his shoulders, had a tidy 20-of-27, 250-yard, two-touchdown performance. Most importantly, in 12 possessions, he didn’t throw an interception nor did he fumble. A terrific performance with so much on the line.
DEFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
J.J. Watt, defensive line, Houston. “He is so stupendous that you almost take it for granted, unfortunately,” Houston owner Bob McNair said after another Tour de Watt performance in Houston’s 24-17 dismantling of the Jets. He sacked New York quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick twice, knocked him down three more times, had three more tackles for loss, and recorded a team-high eight tackles. McNair’s right. Just another day in the life and great career of the unquestioned best defensive player in football.
Datone Jones, defensive end, Green Bay. A first-round pick by the Pack in 2013, Jones had one of his most impactful days as a pro, sacking Teddy Bridgewater twice—for losses of 28 yards—along with a pass defensed. He wasn’t alone. Green Bay had been sackless for three straight games, and the Packer front snowed under Bridgewater for six sacks in one of their most impressive days of the year.
SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Mason Crosby, kicker, Green Bay. Great day for a kicker who’s made a nice home in the great north. Kicking outside in the chill of Minneapolis, Crosby converted field goals in every quarter—from 42, 47, 40, 42 and 52 yards—without missing in Green Bay’s decisive 30-13 win over the arch-rival Vikings.
Andre Roberts, kick-returner/wide receiver, Washington. It’s been a roller-coaster year for Roberts, who has fallen out of favor in the regular offense. But at Charlotte on Sunday, with the Panthers on such a roll, Washington needed to make some plays on defense and special teams to have a chance. They made next to none on defense, but Roberts’ shifty and speedy 99-yard romp through the Carolina kickoff coverage late in the first quarter tied the game at 14 and gave Washington hope. For a few minutes, anyway.
COACH OF THE WEEK
Mike Shula, offensive coordinator, Carolina. Just another day in paradise for the 10-0 Panthers on Sunday, with the 44-16 rout of Washington. No one—not Don Shula, not David Shula—expected the Panthers to be averaging 29.9 points per game at the 10-game mark of the season. With Cam Newton improvising to a mostly new cast of characters, Mike Shula made it his point to not allow anyone in the offensive meeting room to make excuses about all the new faces Newton had to use—even after Kelvin Benjamin was lost for the season with an ACL injury in the preseason. Even with the newness, look at Shula’s Panthers compared to the offensive powers (or so we thought entering the season) in the league: Denver 22 a game, Green Bay 25 a game, Carolina 30 a game?
GOATS OF THE WEEK
Cordarrelle Patterson, kick-returner/wide receiver, Minnesota. This didn’t cost the Vikings a vital NFC North game, but it was the dumbest play of Week 11. By far. After the Packers scored to go up 27-13 early in the fourth quarter, Patterson returned the kickoff 52 yards to the Vikes’ 49 … and followed up on that by head-butting the Green Bay kicker, Mason Crosby. Unsportsmanlike conduct. Loss of 15 yards. If anything will put Patterson, a talented but underachieving player, further in Mike Zimmer’s doghouse, this would be it.
Mark Sanchez, quarterback, Philadelphia. I watch Sanchez play, and for a quarter I get excited, and I think he’s going to turn the corner and then he just makes brainlocked plays, the kind that eventually made the Jets sour on him. That’s the same thing happening in Philadelphia with Chip Kelly, who has to have seen enough. In the span of five drives beginning late in the second quarter, Sanchez threw three interceptions, two deep in Tampa territory. He’s just not the answer for what Kelly will do at quarterback in 2016.
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http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/11/23/monday-morning-quarterback-nfl-week-11-brock-osweiler-broncos
Drama Builds in Denver
Brock Osweiler’s performance in a road win puts the pressure on the Broncos to make a decision on the ailing, aging Peyton Manning. Plus the mid-tier teams to fear, a crucial call aids the Cards and more from Week 11
Peter King
The Concussion Blog @concussionblog
To recap, Case Keenum allowed to play after what you see In video, didn't miss a snap. Utterly ridiculous, @nfl
Case Keenum, you’ve got to be more accurate if you want to start in this league.
I think the NFL has a huge issue on its hands stemming from the unaffiliated neurological consultant on the St. Louis sideline Sunday missing the obvious play where Rams quarterback Case Keenum was knocked woozy. For those unfamiliar with how the program works, there is a brain-trauma specialist with no tie to either team on each sideline of every NFL game. That medical professional's job is to monitor all players on the field for any evidence of a debilitating hit.
It's stunning to try to figure how the Rams' consultant missed Keenum's head slamming against the turf, and it's also inexplicable as to how the independent eye-in-the-sky medical consultant upstairs missed it as well. What was startling to me is that so many on the Rams sideline saw it.
Backup quarterback Nick Foles immediately began to loosen up as if he was going to have to enter the game. This loophole absolutely must be closed or viewers and the teams themselves are going to lose faith in the system designed to protect players after undergoing head trauma.
* * *
What do we do now?
Osweiler winning this game in Chicago wasn’t the biggest surprise in the league this year. But the way he won it was notable. Osweiler played with confidence and a self-assuredness that belied his experience. His experience, basically, was that he had none. In his last start, nearly four years ago, Osweiler and his Arizona State teammates got their clocks cleaned in the Maaco Bowl in Las Vegas. Asked late Sunday afternoon if he had any doubts about his ability to play well in an NFL game, Osweiler said from Chicago: “When you haven’t started a game in three-and-a-half years, those thoughts do creep in.”
Manning was intercepted in every game he played this year—a league-high 17 in all.
Osweiler was not intercepted in 12 drives in Chicago on Sunday.
Manning, with sore ribs and plantar fasciitis in a heel, was left home to rest and rehab by the Broncos, and I’m told he did a lot of both over the weekend. Everyone was mum on what the Broncos were likely to do this week, but let’s go on coach Gary Kubiak’s word. He said Manning is the starting quarterback when healthy. Eight days ago, Manning’s throws were weaker than they’d ever been, and he wasn’t comfortable moving on his sore heel. His ribs ached. Is there any chance all of those things heal enough to be fully healthy in a week? Kubiak can always say, “Peyton’s not fully there yet, so we’re giving him at least another week to get himself right.” Manning may not like that, but lions in winter don’t like being told it’s wintertime either.
Manning’s highest passer rating in a game this year: 101.7.
Osweiler’s passer rating Sunday: 127.1.
Osweiler looked like more of a Kubiak quarterback than Manning has this year—though that’s a bit unfair because Manning just hasn’t had the same arm strength and admitted in training camp he had no feeling in his passing fingertips. Osweiler is fine being under center, which fits more of the Kubiak mold; Manning vastly prefers the shotgun or pistol. Osweiler is more athletic and is comfortable running bootlegs.
Manning doesn’t like throwing on the run. Kubiak said of Osweiler: “He can do everything. He’s a very composed young man, and the more he plays, I think, the better he’s going to get. We booted a little bit, not a lot. They [the Bears’ defenders] were up the field quite a bit, but the threat of us [running bootlegs], I think, helped us run the ball.” Osweiler finished 20 of 27, and more importantly, took care of the ball.
“One thing we stressed all week was ball security,” Osweiler told reporters after the game, “and coming out of this game with no turnovers. To be able to play the entire 60 minutes and have a zero in that turnover column was huge for the offense.”
Manning’s passes are slow and sailing this year.
Osweiler’s fastball, right now, clearly has more velocity.
Mike Florio of NBC and Pro Football Talkreported on the Sunday night NBC game that Manning was planning to play in 2016, even if he had to play somewhere other than Denver. Manning’s former coach, Tony Dungy, said on TV that he was surprised by the story. I can’t imagine Manning would be happy with that report, though as someone who has worked with Florio for several years at NBC, I know he’s got his ears to the ground and is a very solid reporter. Manning has told me the past three years that he’s playing it one year at a time, and will decide after each season whether he’s going to play another. But minds change sometimes. We shall see.
My gut feeling is that the Broncos will let Manning heal and rehab at least one more week, though all voices on this topic, including Manning’s, were silent Sunday night. If this is the case, and Osweiler either plays valiantly and very close against New England, or beats the Patriots, then I think the Broncos have to face the reality that Osweiler should continue to play. Those, of course, are very big ifs.
This time is coming. It comes for every player. I would be careful about putting Manning out to pasture just yet, but I would also be pragmatic and smart. Every decision Kubiak and Elway make has to be for the team first and Manning—and all individuals—after that. What do we do now? Play Osweiler at least one more week is my guess. But whatever happens, the near future will be high drama in Denver.
* * *
And down the stretch they come …
About six weeks ago, Denver linebacker DeMarcus Ware said his years in football had taught him this about the peaks and valleys of a season: “It’s great to be playing well now, but when I really want to be playing well is at the end of the year. Look at the league. In so many years, the Super Bowl teams are the teams playing best in late December, not now.”
The four middle-of-the-pack teams I’d fear right now if I coached a team preparing to play one:
1. Kansas City (5-5). Easy pickings here. The Chiefs started 1-5, but they’ve won four straight by an average of 20.3 points. Last three wins: by 35, 16 and 30, the latter a 33-3 pulverizing of the Chargers in San Diego Sunday. I’ll have more about the Chiefs in the next couple of days—including the answer to this question: What in tarnation has gotten into this team?—but suffice to say that the running game has gotten good enough to succeed with interchangeable parts, and though Alex Smith isn’t throwing any deeper than usual, he is throwing with his usual efficiency.
Smith hasn’t thrown an interception in the past seven games. Kansas City is 4-2 in conference games, the key tiebreaker, and I really like the remaining schedule: Buffalo (5-4), at Oakland (4-6), San Diego (2-8), at Baltimore (3-7), Cleveland (2-8), Oakland (4-6). Four home, two road. Would anyone be shocked if the Chiefs finished 10-6 and and beat up the AFC South champ in a wild-card game? I wouldn’t be.
2. Indianapolis (5-5). There’s not a lot predictable about a season that has Andrew Luck going 2-5 and Matt Hasselbeck 3-0. So let’s not try to make a lot of sense of this. “You kept throwing haymakers!” coach Chuck Pagano told his team in the locker room after the 24-21 win at Atlanta. “You kept throwing haymakers, 52!” That would be veteran inside linebacker D’Qwell Jackson, who benefited from one of the brainlock interceptions of the year, Matt Ryan’s third of the day, to decide this game.
Ryan, throwing from his end zone, woefully undershot his receiver and hit Jackson at the Falcons’ six-yard line. Jackson turned it into a touchdown. Seven straight Colts games have been decided by a touchdown or less, so Indy better keep throwing. Slight problem to the Colt euphoria: Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh are on the schedule the next two weeks. Both are playing better than Atlanta.
3. Houston (5-5). Aside from playing the Patriots in three weeks, the schedule can be dominated, and the Texans are just the team to do it. They’ve allowed 9.7 points per game over the past three (all wins), and it’s not just J.J. Watt. As a team, the Texans are the stingiest third-down team in the league, holding foes to 26.4-percent conversions. Like Watt, Whitney Mercilus and Jadeveon Clowney are playing exceedingly well against the run and pass, and that’s made all the difference. New England (home) and Indy (road) will be the toughest games down the stretch.
4. Tampa Bay (5-5). The Bucs have turned into a force of nature. Who expected 45-17 over Philadelphia, at Philly? Who expected .500 before 2016? Not I. It’s exaggerating reality to say it’s all Jameis Winston, but he’s the biggest part of it, by far. On Sunday he threw five touchdown passes with no interceptions—against the team he grew up in Alabama rooting for. He loved Randall Cunningham and Donovan McNabb. “I just won a game in a place I always dreamed of playing in,” Winston said from Philadelphia. “My whole entire life I wondered what it would be like to play here.”
The Bucs are 4-2 in their last six games, and Winston has thrown nine touchdown passes and just two interceptions over that time. Road games with the Colts, Rams and Panthers will determine the Bucs’ fate over the next six weeks, and it’s probably a year too soon for a playoff trip, particularly with the second team in the NFC North and Seattle to overcome in order to make it. But there’s nothing guaranteed in the NFL this year, other than New England and Carolina being home on the second playoff weekend.
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The story behind the late-night flag ...
Explaining the strange penalty that helped decide the Cincinnati-Arizona game…With the score at 31 and the ball at the Bengals’ 28-yard line, quarterback Carson Palmer stood at the line of scrimmage, under center, and waited for the clock to get down to about six seconds so he could spike the ball and afford kicker Chandler Catanzaro the chance to try a field goal. Palmer waited, and just as the clock got to :06, guard Ted Larsen jumped and immediately began pointing at the Cincinnati line. The Bengals did the same, pointing at the Cardinals.
Now the officials would have to sort this out—and if they ruled against Arizona, the fourth quarter would be over due to the NFL’s 10-second-runoff rule. (When there’s a dead-ball penalty at this time of game against the offense, 10 seconds are run off the clock automatically unless the offense chooses to use a timeout; the Cardinals had no timeouts left.)
The officials ruled that Bengals defensive tackle Domata Peko was mimicking Palmer’s snap count, which is called “disconcerting signals,” and results in a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. So a half-the-distance penalty was marked off, putting the ball at the Cincinnati 14. And Catanzaro made the 32-yard field goal to win it. Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said, “I don’t see how they make that call at that point of the game,” and Peko said he was simply telling his teammates to “get set.”
But this is what Palmer told me an hour after the game: “I don’t know who it was who was saying it, but it was obvious. He was saying ‘Set, Go!’” That is what Palmer says at the line. “The ref ran right in. They heard it. They knew.” Sure enough, that’s what the crew maintained after the game as well. Doesn’t sound like the Bengals have much of a case here.
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What’s next for Kaepernick
The future of Colin Kaepernick, who went on injured reserve Saturday with a shoulder injury that might require surgery... Obviously the likely scenario, with Kaepernick’s contract not being guaranteed in San Francisco beyond next April 1, is for the Niners to either trade him or cut him and move on to the next quarterback prospect. I doubt San Francisco will be able to make a trade, because who’s going to want to pay Kaepernick a total of $13.9 million next year when they’re not sure he can be their quarterback of the short- or long-term? I talked to a few league people over the weekend about possible landing spots for Kaepernick, and the ones that seem to make the most sense, in order:
1. Philadelphia. If Chip Kelly is, as expected, still the coach, he’ll need a quarterback with his QB depth chart a disastrous minefield right now.
2. The Jets. Because they’re in need of a quarterback of the future, and offensive coordinator Chan Gailey likes versatile athlete types.
3. Baltimore. Because of the Harbaugh connection—and now, because there’s no guarantee Joe Flacco will come back from his torn ACL and MCL suffered Sunday, considering that the third preseason game for the 2016 season comes exactly nine months from this week.
4. Oakland. But as a backup only, obviously, and that would only be if no team would be interested in Kaepernick as a starter or to compete for a starting job. Why the Raiders? Because not long before Al Davis died, he hosted Kaerpernick for a pre-draft visit, and the Raiders likely would have picked Kaepernick if the 49ers didn’t trade ahead of them to pick him during the 2011 draft. “Al was upset,” Hue Jackson, the coach at the time, told me a couple of years ago. “So was I. Scouting him, I fell in love with the kid.” I hear that some in the building still like Kaepernick and think he can be saved, but again, Derek Carr’s their guy, and the only way this works is if there are no starting prospects elsewhere.
One other thing on Kaepernick: Inside the Niners, there’s a prevailing opinion that he has to rededicate himself to football and approach the game the way he did in his first couple of years with the Niners. He’s always been a worker bee in regards to his physical condition, and now he has to be that way, tirelessly, about the mechanics and study of the position.
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Joe Flacco’s dedication
Since 2008, John Harbaugh has been on the sidelines coaching all 137 of the Baltimore Ravens’ regular-season and playoff games. His starting quarterback for every one of those games: Joe Flacco. That will end, but not without a great illustration of who Flacco is.
He’s been having a crummy year, and he had a poor throw for a costly interception against the Rams. But after getting his left knee rolled up during the final series of the game, Flacco stayed in to hand off twice, and then for another play to spike it before Justin Tucker kicked a 47-yard field goal to win it. When he was examined shortly thereafter, he got the news: torn ACL, likely torn MCL.
Maybe that’s not the smartest thing, to stay out there. But that’s the person Flacco is: not the lead-by-hollering guy, but the lead-by-example guy. Now the question is: Can he be ready for the start of the 2016 season? Until this injury happened, the plague of Ravens injuries would all seemingly be confined to 2015. But if Flacco’s prognosis is shaky for 2016, the Ravens may have to enter the competition for a quarterback who is better than just an insurance policy next year. A lot of that will have to do with how current backup Matt Schaub plays over the final six games. He was on a fast spiral downward when Baltimore signed him to back up Flacco.
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Photo: The MMQB
Once the game plan turns up in his inbox on Tuesday, Palmer sets down to a serious study session in his office at home in Paradise Valley.
On Carson Palmer and the Cardinals’ game plan
Last week, I wrote about the nuts-and-bolts (with a little Kipling and meteorology and a weird-looking virtual-reality headset included) of a quarterback, Arizona’s Carson Palmer, absorbing a game plan. I didn’t concentrate at all on the actual invention of the 171-play game plan. I didn’t see it. Instead, I focused on what happened from the moment the game plan pinged into Palmer’s email in his home in Paradise Valley, Ariz., at 7:25 p.m. on the Tuesday before Arizona faced Cleveland in Week 8. In particular, the story dissected one play of the 171, and how it met the fate it did.
A couple of things many of you have wondered about in the wake of the series:
• Arizona coach Bruce Arians has been organizing the game plan the same way for years as offensive coordinator or head coach—it’s very quarterback-friendly. Palmer surprised me when he said he picks the first 15 passes Arians is likely to call in the game. Late during game week, Palmer walks into the room where the Cardinals’ offensive coaches have the game plan hand-written on a whiteboard and Palmer marks with a blue Sharpie his favorite 15 pass plays in the game plan. Then he circles the four he likes the most and wants to see called early in the game. Invariably, Arians follows Palmer’s lead when he called plays on gameday. “I never want to call a pass a quarterback is not comfortable with,” Arians said.
So Arians picks the first 15 runs. Palmer picks the first 15 passes. Those become the first 30 plays on Arians’ call sheet. But I wondered: Palmer is a veteran quarterback; did Arians do the same things with all his quarterbacks—rookie Andrew Luck with the Colts, for instance, in 2012? “Sure did,” Arians said. He feels quarterbacks take more ownership in a play if the quarterback has in effect told the coach, I love that play. Call that play early.Giving the quarterback power over the plays puts the heat on the quarterback to know the plays inside and out, and to be comfortable with every call early in the game.
I asked one NFL offensive coordinator last week what he thought of what Arians did, and this coordinator said he loved it; each week, he tells his quarterback to throw out the plays he doesn’t want to run, and they’ll be thrown out. But giving the quarterback the power over the first 15 passes? This coordinator said he preferred to get the quarterback’s input, then call the game himself.
• I don’t think this was any grand plan by the Cardinals to set a trap for future foes; in fact, I know it wasn’t. When the Cardinals were in West Virginia to practice before playing at Pittsburgh Oct. 18, I asked Palmer if he would consider giving me a window into how he prepares for a game, from the time he got the game plan until the time he played the game. At the time, I wasn’t sure it would turn into Palmer “absorbing the game plan,” because I wasn’t sure how open he’d be.
Palmer was concerned it would take away from the very limited time he has during the week with his family. I proposed some hard-and-fast times during the week, the biggest piece of which would be simply observing him Tuesday evening. He agreed, but was stern about the limits. When I saw him the Tuesday before the Cleveland game at his home, it was clear he wanted to tell the story of the week and was into the educational aspect of it. I did spend time with Arians, and he was open and good, but this was mostly a deal between me and Palmer, and he didn’t do this to send any messages to any future opponents—unless I read him 100 percent wrong.
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The Award Section
OFFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Apologies to Doug Martin. How does one man have 84-yard and 58-yard runs, and 235 yards on the day, and not win this august honor? The judge is a strange judge.
Thomas Rawls, running back, Seattle. With Marshawn Lynch an unexpected injury scratch, Rawls had the kind of day that will make the Seahawks consider letting Lynch walk after the season. His 255 rushing-receiving yards is the most by an NFL back in three years: 209 yards on 30 carries, with 46 yards on three receptions—with one touchdown on the ground and one through the air in Seattle’s 29-13 win over San Francisco.
Cam Newton, quarterback, Carolina. He threw his 100th career touchdown pass in the first half against Washington—a half that was a milestone in another way. It was the first time that Newton threw at least three touchdown passes in a half. And he threw four—in the first 25 minutes. Newton was 16 of 24 for 187 yards, with four touchdowns and no picks, before halftime.
Jameis Winston, quarterback, Tampa Bay. Don’t look now, but the first pick the draft this year has gone interception-free in five of his past six games. Playing against the team he idolized as a kid—visiting the Philly stadium complex for the first time in his life—Winston was 19 of 29 for 246 yards, with five touchdowns and no interceptions, for a rating of 131.6. I talk to guys after games quite often during the NFL season, and few have had as ebullient a tone of voice as Winston did when we spoke 50 minutes after Tampa Bay 45, Philadelphia 17.
Brock Osweiler, quarterback, Denver. Ebullient … That was Osweiler too. Maybe not the same as Winston, but pretty excited, after starting his first NFL game Sunday in Chicago, an important 17-15 Broncos victory. Osweiler, playing with the pressure of The Man Who Would Succeed Peyton Manning on his shoulders, had a tidy 20-of-27, 250-yard, two-touchdown performance. Most importantly, in 12 possessions, he didn’t throw an interception nor did he fumble. A terrific performance with so much on the line.
DEFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
J.J. Watt, defensive line, Houston. “He is so stupendous that you almost take it for granted, unfortunately,” Houston owner Bob McNair said after another Tour de Watt performance in Houston’s 24-17 dismantling of the Jets. He sacked New York quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick twice, knocked him down three more times, had three more tackles for loss, and recorded a team-high eight tackles. McNair’s right. Just another day in the life and great career of the unquestioned best defensive player in football.
Datone Jones, defensive end, Green Bay. A first-round pick by the Pack in 2013, Jones had one of his most impactful days as a pro, sacking Teddy Bridgewater twice—for losses of 28 yards—along with a pass defensed. He wasn’t alone. Green Bay had been sackless for three straight games, and the Packer front snowed under Bridgewater for six sacks in one of their most impressive days of the year.
SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Mason Crosby, kicker, Green Bay. Great day for a kicker who’s made a nice home in the great north. Kicking outside in the chill of Minneapolis, Crosby converted field goals in every quarter—from 42, 47, 40, 42 and 52 yards—without missing in Green Bay’s decisive 30-13 win over the arch-rival Vikings.
Andre Roberts, kick-returner/wide receiver, Washington. It’s been a roller-coaster year for Roberts, who has fallen out of favor in the regular offense. But at Charlotte on Sunday, with the Panthers on such a roll, Washington needed to make some plays on defense and special teams to have a chance. They made next to none on defense, but Roberts’ shifty and speedy 99-yard romp through the Carolina kickoff coverage late in the first quarter tied the game at 14 and gave Washington hope. For a few minutes, anyway.
COACH OF THE WEEK
Mike Shula, offensive coordinator, Carolina. Just another day in paradise for the 10-0 Panthers on Sunday, with the 44-16 rout of Washington. No one—not Don Shula, not David Shula—expected the Panthers to be averaging 29.9 points per game at the 10-game mark of the season. With Cam Newton improvising to a mostly new cast of characters, Mike Shula made it his point to not allow anyone in the offensive meeting room to make excuses about all the new faces Newton had to use—even after Kelvin Benjamin was lost for the season with an ACL injury in the preseason. Even with the newness, look at Shula’s Panthers compared to the offensive powers (or so we thought entering the season) in the league: Denver 22 a game, Green Bay 25 a game, Carolina 30 a game?
GOATS OF THE WEEK
Cordarrelle Patterson, kick-returner/wide receiver, Minnesota. This didn’t cost the Vikings a vital NFC North game, but it was the dumbest play of Week 11. By far. After the Packers scored to go up 27-13 early in the fourth quarter, Patterson returned the kickoff 52 yards to the Vikes’ 49 … and followed up on that by head-butting the Green Bay kicker, Mason Crosby. Unsportsmanlike conduct. Loss of 15 yards. If anything will put Patterson, a talented but underachieving player, further in Mike Zimmer’s doghouse, this would be it.
Mark Sanchez, quarterback, Philadelphia. I watch Sanchez play, and for a quarter I get excited, and I think he’s going to turn the corner and then he just makes brainlocked plays, the kind that eventually made the Jets sour on him. That’s the same thing happening in Philadelphia with Chip Kelly, who has to have seen enough. In the span of five drives beginning late in the second quarter, Sanchez threw three interceptions, two deep in Tampa territory. He’s just not the answer for what Kelly will do at quarterback in 2016.