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Peter King: MMQB - 10/3/16
- By Prime Time
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 4 Replies
These are only excerpts. To read the whole article click the link below. The Rams got a few grudging comments which are in bold font. 
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http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/10/02/nfl-week-4-julio-jones-300-atlanta-falcons-peter-king
Julio Jones: The 300 Game
The Falcons receiver hit a rare milestone Sunday as Atlanta took it to the defending NFC champs. Plus more from a wild Week 4 including the Bills blanking the Pats, the impact of Russell’s rehab and our weekly awards
By Peter King
Photo: Rainier Ehrhardt/AP
The smart people in 2011 said the bounty Atlanta GM Thomas Dimitroff paid the Browns to move up 21 spots in the draft to pick Julio Jones was excessive. Two ones, a two and two fours is quite a premium to move from 27 to six. “Probably one of the greatest trades in draft history,” Cleveland coach Pat Shurmur said then.
Five years is probably adequate time to judge a trade, so let’s see.
For the Falcons, Jones caught 12 passes for 300 yards Sunday in a 48-33 victory over Carolina. It’s the sixth time in NFL history that a player has amassed 300 receiving yards in a game. Jones led the NFL in receiving yards last year. He leads the NFL in receiving yards this year. He’s 27.
For the Browns, the five players acquired through those draft picks—Phil Taylor, Greg Little, Owen Marecic, Trent Richardson and Brandon Weeden—are no longer on the team.
Phil Taylor, Greg Little, Owen Marecic, Trent Richardson and Brandon Weeden did not play Sunday in the NFL. In fact, none of them dressed. Weeden’s a third-string quarterback in Houston. Taylor’s on IR in Denver. The other three are out of football.
Atlanta’s 3-1 this morning. Cleveland, 0-4, is the only winless team in the NFL.
Shurmur turned out to be half-right. It was one of the greatest trades in draft history—for Atlanta.
* * *
What an eventful NFL Sunday. Rex Ryan did his latest haunt job on the Patriots. Case Keenum won to raise his record to 3-1; Cam Newton lost, and he’s 1-3. Raiders won on the road again, and they’re 3-1. Cardinals lost at home again, and they’re 1-3. Denver, playing Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch at quarterback, buried the Bucs in Tampa and sit atop the league, the NFL’s lone 4-0 team.
But whoa, Atlanta’s a steamroller right now, with 35, 45 and 48 points in its past three games, respectively. Matt Ryan to Jones is the envy of the league. Ryan threw for 503 yards and Jones caught for 300, the first time ever a that quarterback/receiver pair has gone for 500/300.
In his best play Sunday, Jones ran a short crossing route against Carolina cornerback Bene Benwikere, caught a short toss from Ryan, ran away from Benwikere and turned upfield, beating the safety and leaving others in his wake. He just outran them all, for 75 yards and a shockingly easy touchdown. Jones is so tall, and you don’t think a 6'3" guy would have his acceleration. But he runs away from fast corners.
That may not be the best thing to like about him. He’s the anti-Dez. I forget who told me this in my trip to Falcons training camp in August, but someone with the team said the thing he liked most about Jones is you walk into the practice facility on Monday, and you have no idea if he caught two passes on Sunday or 12. Just a total flat-liner, the way GM Thomas Dimitroff remembers from his scouting research on him.
“I saw him live twice at Alabama and obviously did a lot of work on him,” Dimitroff said Sunday night. “What really interested me was what he was—driven—and what he wasn’t—a diva. I mean, I was numb at what we were going to have to pay to get him. But I always felt strongly that a difference-maker like him, with an attitude like he had, would always be worth it.”
After games, the Falcons bring the head coach and quarterback to a press-conference room to accommodate the media.On Sunday, Atlanta director of football communication, Brian Cearns approached Jones to say he should probably go to the podium instead of talking at his locker, because of the overflow he’d get with the big day.
“Absolutely not,” Jones said. “I will do it at my locker. This was a team win. I don’t want to do anything different than normal.” Cearns said okay. “He’s the same guy if he catches one ball, like he did Monday night [in New Orleans] or he catches 12 for 300, like he did today,” Cearns said.
I spoke to Jones on the phone after the game. “You’re the sixth player ever to have 300 receiving yards in a game,” I said. “Has that hit you?”
“No, it hasn’t,” he said. “To me, they’re just numbers. Stats. I went out and did what my team needed me to do today for us to win. Just like Matt did, just like the line did all day. I’m no different.”
The Panthers, Jones said, singled him more than he thought they would, “and we kind of exploited that. When you’re playing a team in your division that you see all the time, you know each other so well and you really don’t know which way they’re going to play you. But me and Matt have great chemistry. So a day like this can happen.”
Jones barely sounded happy. “I am,” he said. “I’m very pleased. All I can do is go out and play 100 percent and let my production speak. But in this game, you rely so much on everyone else. We had a good team game today.”
I really like players who have Jones’s attitude. They do everything they can, and what happens happens, and then they come back the next game and repeat it. We want our players to have head in hands after a tough loss, to mourn. But we shouldn’t make players be something they’re not. Jones doesn’t take his game home.
He’s no football junkie, flipping the TV from game to game on an off day. It’s his job, and he tries to be perfect, and then he goes home. In his second year, Jones had a tremendous performance in the NFC Championship Game against San Francisco—11 catches, 182 yards, two touchdowns. Lots of players in the Atlanta locker room were crestfallen after the 28-24 loss. Not Jones. “I gave everything I had out there,” he said. “I’m fine.”
The next two weeks should be very interesting for Jones and the Falcons: next Sunday against Aqib Talib and the great Broncos defense, in Denver; and the following Sunday against Richard Sherman and the great Seattle secondary. That’s going to be some fun football.
* * *
Four teams, four quick stories
1. Seattle: Russell Wilson works harder than you—or anyone. Albert Breer of The MMQB reported Thursday that a rehab specialist, Drew Morcos, had moved into Wilson’s home last week after the Seahawks quarterback sprained his left MCL (on top of a right high ankle sprain) to give Wilson round-the-clock rehab in advance of leaving for the East Coast on Friday.
Seattle played the Jets in New Jersey on Sunday. I didn’t know quite how to ask this question to Wilson on Sunday before the Seahawks left Newark for the flight home, so I basically said, You’re a newlywed. How does your wife feel about a rehab guy living in your home for a week? “We were all in,” Wilson said. “Ciara’s great about it. She was at the game today too, with about 30 family and friends.”
Wilson’s such an insane rehabber that he interrupted sleep to do it. “Drew’s a movement specialist,” Wilson said, “so I was pretty much keeping it moving all week. I’m on a bike, or I’m doing one-legged squats. I’d go to bed maybe at 1, then wake up super early to do more icing around 3 or 4.”
It paid off, obviously. Wilson played nimbly against a strong pass-rush, completed 72 percent of his throws and never looked like he favored either leg. “Felt great,” he said. “Now I’ve got 14 days ’til the next game. I’ll be fine.” Fortunate week, in some ways, for a bye, but Wilson—who’s never missed a game since being drafted in 2012—would have been ready to go anyway.
2. Los Angeles: Road sweet road. In Week 5, the Rams play their only home game between Sept. 19 and Nov. 5, when the Bills come to the Coliseum. What’s happened is quite remarkable. Since getting skunked by the Niners 28-0 in Week 1, the Rams have reeled off three straight wins.
You can bet there will be 80,000 fans, minimum, at Bills-Rams Sunday, and you can bet they won’t be leaving early. Since Jeff Fisher took the Rams job in 2012, teams in his division (Arizona, Seattle or San Francisco) have been to the NFC title game all four seasons and made the Super Bowl in three of those years. All except the Rams have made the title game. And the Rams are a respectable 13-13-1 against division foes under Fisher.
3. Buffalo: Something pretty familiar helped the Bills rise from the ashes. After the Bills got waylaid by the Jets in Week 2, falling to 0-2, crisis was in the air. Rex Ryan fired his offensive coordinator, Greg Roman. The season teetered on the edge. In a team meeting, assistant defensive backfield coach Ed Reed got up and quoted a certain New England genius to the rest of the team. “Just do your job,” Reed said, invoking a phrase Bill Belichick has made famous in New England. It's on T-shirts, walls of businesses and in the minds of all of the Patriots’ players. The mantra means: If we have 53 guys concerned with doing their jobs the best they can, we’ll be fine. Don’t worry about the other guy.
And now it's helped the Bills, or at least one Bill, put the awful play of the first five days of the season in the rearview mirror. "Hey, I’ll always listen to what a Hall of Famer has to say,” said linebacker Zach Brown after the Bills handed New England its first home shutout loss since 1993, 16-0, on Sunday. Brown had 18 tackles and a sack of Jacoby Brissett. “I have never been in this division before this year, so I never knew about this series. But today the message was pretty simple. Stop the run, and make the quarterback be a quarterback. Make him make plays."
Brissett couldn’t breathe for much of the game, and New England didn’t have a series of longer than four plays until the second half. So nothing is forever in the NFL, and an 0-2 start can be overcome. "Nobody in here thought our season was over,” Brown said. “But I do think the only people who believed in us were the guys in this room and the Bills Mafia.” That’s a fiercely loyal local fan group.
But I bet even a few of them were shaky before the Bills waxed two major preseason Super Bowl contenders—Arizona and New England. With the Rams, Niners and Dolphins coming up, Buffalo has a chance to right the ship for good and give Rex Ryan a fighting chance to see year three.
4. New England: This is the week to use the Patriots in your knockout pool, folks. It’s a virtual certainty that if you’re reading this after 6:30 a.m. ET on Monday, Tom Brady is inside the Patriots’ facility at Gillette Stadium, preparing to face Cleveland on Sunday. He is not sunbathing in Italy, or making an UnderArmour commercial, or throwing the football to his son Jack in Ann Arbor. “Knowing Tom,” someone close to him said last week, “he’s going to come back without bitterness and just get back to football.”
* * *
The Steve Young book is gold
Photo: Focus on Sport/Getty Images
The life story of Steve Young—“QB: My Life Behind the Spiral” by Steve Young with Jeff Benedict (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), due out Oct. 11, but available for preorder now—is the rare sports book in which the heretofore pristine hero admits to some legitimate human scars. Young grew up so close to his parents that he could never attend sleepovers at friends’ homes, and the separation anxiety and homesickness was a real problem.
He threatened to quit Brigham Young multiple times. Young had such performance anxiety that, before a 1993 game, he didn’t sleep for 36 hours, so petrified he was that he’d fail, and spent hours with a psychologist. In fact, that year, Young admits in the book that a depression specialist in San Francisco diagnosed him with separation anxiety and told him: “Never once have I seen an adult with the kind of separation anxiety that you have.”
This was months after Young was named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player, in 1992.
No one knew.
Young’s always been one of the most interesting men I’ve covered in my time covering this game. A Mormon growing up among non-Mormons in ritzy Greenwich, Connecticut. Playing behind Jim McMahon at Brigham Young. Signing the biggest contract in football history, with the USFL’s Los Angeles Express, and being sick over all the money.
Jumping to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers when the USFL died, and then dealt to San Francisco when Bill Walsh wanted him to replace the great Joe Montana. And trying to live a normal Mormon life amidst the mayhem of the NFL. I covered Young a lot in my life, and I never knew so much of what he went through.
A few examples of the stuff I never knew, or was just plain so interesting:
• On a day spent at Joe Montana’s house, in the middle of their competition:
Bill [Walsh] scheduled a practice on Christmas. Afterward the players who were single were offered dinner at the homes of the married players. Joe invited me to dinner at his place. It was my first visit to Joe’s house. The meal was magnificent. His beautiful wife was gracious. While we were at the dinner table, Joe and I were talking when Joe’s daughter, who was probably around three years old raised her hand.
“Dad,” she said. “Dad.” Joe kept talking to me. “Dad,” she repeated. “Dad.”
“What?” Joe said sweetly.
“Is this the guy we hate?” she said innocently. It was all I could do to not burst out laughing.
“No,” Joe told her. “That was someone else.”
• On being traded from Tampa Bay to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1987:
I get a call from [Bucs coach] Ray Perkins. He said, “Congratulations, you’re a St. Louis Cardinal.” I called [agent Leigh Steinberg]. He told me the Cardinals had offered the Buccaneers their first-round pick for me. That meant Tampa would have the first and second picks overall. Perkins had his eye on Alabama's All-American linebacker, Cornelius Bennett. I told Lee there was no way I was going to St. Louis. The Cardinals were another team that was going nowhere.
But I didn’t sit back and wait. I immediately called [Bucs owner] Hugh Culverhouse. I didn't even give him a chance to say hello. “You traded me to the Cardinals? You tell me I’m your quarterback for life and you send me to the Cardinals? You can’t do that to me!”
After I talk to Culverhouse, Leigh called him and issued a threat. He told him I would retire rather than go to St. Louis. Two hours later Culverhouse called me back and told me he had called off the trade.
• On the unending attention he got once the USFL died and he went to the Bucs:
Even on the field, I can’t escape the craziness. We play the Colts at home. Partway through the second quarter I’m in the huddle when the head referee taps me on the shoulder. “Can I talk to you for a second?” he says. I step away from the huddle. “Hey, listen, my daughter’s going to BYU,” he whispers. Next thing I know he starts trying to convince me that I should meet his daughter. “I'd like you to take her out,” he says.
I cannot believe this. We’re in the middle of a game! “Oh, okay,” I said. “What's her name?’’ He tells me and I return to the huddle ... Late in the game we’re down 31-23 and I'm trying to mount a comeback. I scramble out of the pocket and take a brutal hit. It causes me to fumble just before the whistle blows to stop the play.
I am lying on the ground when the defense recovers the loose ball, all but sealing our defeat. Suddenly out of nowhere a yellow flag lands next to me. The referee whose daughter is headed to BYU calls a personal foul on the defense. First down, Tampa Bay. I get up and brush myself off. Then the ref walks past me and whispers she likes Italian food.
That’s why this book is life. It’s amazing, with an athlete covered so thoroughly as the NFL was getting so huge, that there’s so much you won’t know. I think you’ll like digging into it. You can preorder it here.
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“After the play is over, unsportsmanlike conduct, number 24. Shooting a bow and arrah. That foul counts as one of those that leads to a disqualification. First and 10 Washington, after the 15-yard penalty.”
—Referee Jeff Triplette, explaining a foul on Washington cornerback Josh Norman in the game against Cleveland.
And he did say “arrah,” not “arrow.”
And don’t miss the if-looks-could-kill glare from Norman toward Triplette when he was announcing the call.
“If I had young kids, to be honest, and if they came and said, ‘Dad, I want to play football,’ I’d smack them in the mouth. No. No. Because if I’d have known back then what I know now, to be honest with you, I probably would have taken a different path. I probably just would have played baseball.”
—Bo Jackson, in an interview with Dominic Bonvissuto of The MMQB.
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The Award Section
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Many deserving candidates, including Matt Ryan, who had the league’s 19th game of 500 passing yards Sunday. However, just one winner.
Julio Jones, wide receiver, Atlanta. Twelve catches, 300 yards, 25.0 yards per catch, second man since 1990 to have 300 receiving yards in a game.
DEFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Aqib Talib, cornerback, Denver. Actually, Derek Wolfe, who was unblockable for the parts of the rout of Tampa Bay that I saw, might have been in this space with his 2.5 sacks and two additional quarterback hits. The NFL had Denver hitting Jameis Winston 16 times in the 27-7 win. But I’m giving it to Talib, for his star turn early in this game. He ended two of the Bucs’ first four possessions with interceptions—against the team that made him its first-round pick eight years ago—and the Broncos turned both interceptions into touchdowns. They’d never relinquish the lead after the second one.
Zach Brown, linebacker, Buffalo. In the first home shutout suffered by New England in 23 years, Brown starred all game long. After four starless seasons in Tennessee, Brown found the kind of seek-and-hit defense that suits him, along with a cadre of linemen in front of him that keeps him clean. He had 18 tackles, two forced fumbles and one sack of Jacoby Brissett. Brown is only 26, but he’ll be hard-pressed to have another game like this in his career, and against the dominant team in Buffalo’s division for years.
SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Andy Lee, punter, Carolina. The Panthers were in danger of getting blown out when Lee had the best 20 minutes of his career Sunday in Atlanta. With Carolina down 14-0 and four minutes left in the first quarter, Lee boomed a 50-yard punt that pinned Atlanta at its 2-yard line. In the second quarter, he hit a 42-yard punt that was downed at the Atlanta 1-yard line, and then a 54-yarder downed at the Falcons’ 2. Three punts, 20 minutes, all pinning the Falcons insidetheir own 3-yard line. Anyone question about Carolina paying a fourth-round pick for him now?
Adam Vinatieri, kicker, Indianapolis. Dude’s amazing. With his 44th birthday less than three months away, Vinatieri on Sunday hit 53-yard and 49-yard field goals in the 30-27 loss to Jacksonville, on the slippery Wembley Stadium pitch.
Will Fuller IV, wide receiver/punt returner, Houston. He supplemented another good game catching passes (seven receptions, 81 yards, one touchdown) with a 67-yard weave-and-sprint through a Tennessee punt team that looked like it was playing in slow-motion. The return TD was the final score in a 27-20 Houston win that was tougher than it should have been.
COACH OF THE WEEK
Rex Ryan, head coach, Buffalo. Ryan’s fifth win over the Patriots in eight seasons of coaching against Bill Belichick (Belichick is 12-5 versus Rex, so this recent run hasn’t been anything like a Ryan domination) was his most impressive in a regular-season game. Yes, the Patriots were quarterbacked by a third-string rookie, but winning 16-0 when the Patriots were on a 3-0 season-opening roll and looking like the best team in the league, and winning in Foxboro, was a great accomplishment. Ryan played this one smart, pressuring Jacoby Brissett from the start. New England didn’t have a drive over four plays until the second half.
GOAT OF THE WEEK
Melvin Gordon, running back, and Travis Benjamin, wide receiver, San Diego. I cannot believe I’m writing this. With the Chargers leading 34-21, San Diego had three more possessions against the Saints’ porous defense (that’s being charitable) in the final seven minutes. Gordon coughed up one fumble with 6:50 to play, leading to a Saints touchdown. And on the first play of the ensuing series, with Benjamin barely touched, he fumbled away another gimme to New Orleans, handing the Saints the chance for the winning touchdown. Which, of course, they scored. Ridiculous errors for a team that deserves to be 1-3.
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Right Combination of the Week
Derek Carr, quarterback, and Michael Crabtree, wide receiver, Oakland. The most beautiful throw-and-catch of the day belonged to these two, and it came at the biggest moment of the day. With 2:12 left in the game and Oakland down 27-21, Carr took the snap from the Baltimore 23, and Crabtree went up the right seam, making a neat move on two defenders and breaking two steps away from coverage near the goal line. Carr lofted a perfect strike right into Crabtree’s hands for the winning touchdown … on a day when Carr and Crabtree combined for three touchdowns in all—of 5, 13 and 23 yards.
Don’t forget: In addition to Crabtree, the Raiders also have young star Amari Cooper. Carr is going to be in this space a few more times, because he’s young and full of talent, and because he’s got a great crew of offensive skill players with him.
* * *
• Baltimore receiver Steve Smith Sr., on being a man people love to hate: “I’ve rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, and I’d say 70 percent of it has been intentional on my part. It’s competitive, and I’m a people person. I watch people. I say things to see how they respond … I’ve met business people and I’ll talk and they say, ‘Oh, you’re a lot different than I thought.’ I don’t think people understand that off the field I can be different. The best way I can put it in perspective is that a person that is a salesman is going to operate totally different as a salesman to make a deal than [he] would if he is at home with his kids.”
• ESPN’s Ron Jaworski, on the good mechanics of Carson Wentz and bad ones of Jay Cutler: “Wentz has great mechanics. It was almost a clear difference … when you watched Jay Cutler, who is a veteran quarterback in this league with incredible arm talent—sloppy mechanics. Sloppy. And then you watch Carson Wentz get on that back foot, weight transfer, all of those little things about playing this position. That was his second start in the NFL [when he faced Cutler]. His mechanics were superior to Jay Cutler, who may have the best arm talent of any QB in this league. But you’ve got to coach the QB position, and you’ve got to coach it hard.”
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Things I Think I Think
1. I think these are my one-liners of analysis as Week 4 nears the end:
a. Free gambling advice: Never, ever, ever wager against Mike Tomlin coming off a blowout loss.
b. We’ll find out everything about the Falcons in the next two weeks, when they go to Denver and Seattle.
c. I hate Week 4 byes, and I’d really hate them if I were a player, because you’ll get to Week 8 needing a break, and the break will be a month in the rearview mirror.
d. I have no idea what constitutes pass interference.
e. If the over-under on games missed for Trevor Siemian (shoulder) is 1.5, I’m taking the under.
f. Minnesota is the biggest threat to my Green Bay-Pittsburgh Super Bowl pick.
g. Jenny Vrentas will have some quality words on the Raiders on Tuesday, but I will make this one point: I never thought I’d see the day when Oakland would win three straight 10 a.m. body-clock starts (at New Orleans, at Tennessee, at Baltimore) to begin a season—or at any point in a season, for that matter.
h. I have no idea why Rob Gronkowski is invisible, except that in Bill Belichick’s world the healthy guys play and contribute, so …
i. Presented Without Comment Dept.: Over the past 10 months, Case Keenum is 6-2 as a Rams’ starting quarterback, with just four interceptions.
j. I sometimes watch 27-year-old Andrew Luck and wonder if he’ll turn into David Carr or Tim Couch, the kind of quarterback who never reached his potential because he got battered so much.
k. Because I know I should have an opinion about another sellout game (83,764) at Wembley Stadium in the International Series, this is it: It’d be nice to see a game between two winning teams, or two storied teams.
2. I think the Football Story of the Week is a simple call. It’s fantastic. Bleacher Report’s Dan Pompei writes one of the best stories I’ve ever read on the real life of a coach—an offensive coordinator (New England’s Josh McDaniels) who admits he’s flawed and does something about it. The story is so real. Congrats to Pompei for writing it, and to McDaniels for opening himself up so thoroughly.
3. I think this taunting thing has to get re-evaluated by the NFL. Like, now. Jags receiver Allen Robinson catches a tough pass over the middle, gets leveled by D’Qwell Jackson and gets up, fired up, and spins the ball on the ground. Because Jackson is in the area, Robinson gets an unsportsmanlike conduct foul—with the bonus being that one more such foul gets him tossed from the game. That shouldn’t be what the two-unsportsmanlike-conducts-and-you’re-out is about.
Verbal abuse, verbal taunting, punching, kicking, illegal use of the helmet … those are fair game. But the simple, “Hey, I made a big catch and held onto the ball” spinning of the football absolutely was not what this rule was installed for last March. It will be up to the Competition Committee and VP of Officiating Dean Blandino to do something about that next offseason.
4. I think I’m sympathetic to the plight of anyone with a substance or addiction issue—Josh Gordon entered rehab the other day for an alcohol problem, according to Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer—but enough is enough. I’d give Gordon every chance at rehab if I were the Browns, then wish him well for the rest of his life. He’s just too unreliable for a team trying to build a future.
5. I think I like Dirk Koetter, and I hope this is just growing pains for him as a head coach. But what an awful call he made in the fourth quarter against Denver. With 7:30 left in the game, and trailing 27-7, and with a fourth-and-six at the Denver 46, Koetter chose to punt. That is a ridiculous play call. How do you assume you’ll get the ball three times in the last six minutes (max) of the game?
6. I think I was sure it was over for the Saints midway through the fourth quarter at San Diego, staring at a 13-point deficit and not having the ball. But the Chargers handed them the game, with three turnovers in the last seven minutes. Give Drew Brees and his mates credit for never saying die. But that doesn’t mean it’s suddenly sunny in Louisiana.
Brees is three months from his 38th birthday, with no great defensive playmakers, with more dead cap money than any team in football in 2017, and with this daunting slate coming out of the bye in 13 days—Carolina, at Chiefs, Seattle, at Niners, Denver, at Panthers. Not sure how the Saints can salvage a good season, despite the miracle of Sunday.
7. I think Andrew Brandt’s two-part series on the CBA at the halfway point should be required reading for all who cover, follow or love the NFL. Here is part one, and part two. Insightful points by the former NFL executive, not the least of which was this: “As one NFL owner said to me during the negotiations, ‘I said to Roger, You mean we give them less hitting in practice and we can get the money we want? Where do I sign?’ ” I still can’t find anyone who seriously thinks the NFL is pursuing or will lobby hard for an 18-game regular-season schedule. But we’ll see what the landscape is like in four years, when the negotiations for a new deal ought to be seriously underway.
8. I think I am hoping against hope that one of the best defensive players of his era—still only 28—doesn’t have a serious Achilles injury. San Francisco linebacker NaVorro Bowman was carted off the field against Dallas after grabbing his ankle area in obvious pain. Very good player, very good man, excellent leader, and overcame a horrific knee injury in the playoffs against Seattle in 2013 to come back nobly last year.
I’m being selfish here; I know Bowman some and really appreciate the kind of person and player he is. I remember talking to him about the early retirement of Chris Borland, and Bowman saying how much he liked and respected Borland and his decision, and it had to be a personal decision from the heart; nothing remotely critical or judgmental. I really wish Bowman the best.
9. I think the Cardinals being 1-3, and Carson Palmer quite possibly out of a crucial game Thursday night in San Francisco, is the most impactful story of Week 4. Drew Stanton needing to win a vital division road game is not what Bruce Arians had in mind when Stanton became entrenched as Palmer’s backup. The Cards are in trouble.
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http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/10/02/nfl-week-4-julio-jones-300-atlanta-falcons-peter-king
Julio Jones: The 300 Game
The Falcons receiver hit a rare milestone Sunday as Atlanta took it to the defending NFC champs. Plus more from a wild Week 4 including the Bills blanking the Pats, the impact of Russell’s rehab and our weekly awards
By Peter King
Photo: Rainier Ehrhardt/AP
The smart people in 2011 said the bounty Atlanta GM Thomas Dimitroff paid the Browns to move up 21 spots in the draft to pick Julio Jones was excessive. Two ones, a two and two fours is quite a premium to move from 27 to six. “Probably one of the greatest trades in draft history,” Cleveland coach Pat Shurmur said then.
Five years is probably adequate time to judge a trade, so let’s see.
For the Falcons, Jones caught 12 passes for 300 yards Sunday in a 48-33 victory over Carolina. It’s the sixth time in NFL history that a player has amassed 300 receiving yards in a game. Jones led the NFL in receiving yards last year. He leads the NFL in receiving yards this year. He’s 27.
For the Browns, the five players acquired through those draft picks—Phil Taylor, Greg Little, Owen Marecic, Trent Richardson and Brandon Weeden—are no longer on the team.
Phil Taylor, Greg Little, Owen Marecic, Trent Richardson and Brandon Weeden did not play Sunday in the NFL. In fact, none of them dressed. Weeden’s a third-string quarterback in Houston. Taylor’s on IR in Denver. The other three are out of football.
Atlanta’s 3-1 this morning. Cleveland, 0-4, is the only winless team in the NFL.
Shurmur turned out to be half-right. It was one of the greatest trades in draft history—for Atlanta.
* * *
What an eventful NFL Sunday. Rex Ryan did his latest haunt job on the Patriots. Case Keenum won to raise his record to 3-1; Cam Newton lost, and he’s 1-3. Raiders won on the road again, and they’re 3-1. Cardinals lost at home again, and they’re 1-3. Denver, playing Trevor Siemian and Paxton Lynch at quarterback, buried the Bucs in Tampa and sit atop the league, the NFL’s lone 4-0 team.
But whoa, Atlanta’s a steamroller right now, with 35, 45 and 48 points in its past three games, respectively. Matt Ryan to Jones is the envy of the league. Ryan threw for 503 yards and Jones caught for 300, the first time ever a that quarterback/receiver pair has gone for 500/300.
In his best play Sunday, Jones ran a short crossing route against Carolina cornerback Bene Benwikere, caught a short toss from Ryan, ran away from Benwikere and turned upfield, beating the safety and leaving others in his wake. He just outran them all, for 75 yards and a shockingly easy touchdown. Jones is so tall, and you don’t think a 6'3" guy would have his acceleration. But he runs away from fast corners.
That may not be the best thing to like about him. He’s the anti-Dez. I forget who told me this in my trip to Falcons training camp in August, but someone with the team said the thing he liked most about Jones is you walk into the practice facility on Monday, and you have no idea if he caught two passes on Sunday or 12. Just a total flat-liner, the way GM Thomas Dimitroff remembers from his scouting research on him.
“I saw him live twice at Alabama and obviously did a lot of work on him,” Dimitroff said Sunday night. “What really interested me was what he was—driven—and what he wasn’t—a diva. I mean, I was numb at what we were going to have to pay to get him. But I always felt strongly that a difference-maker like him, with an attitude like he had, would always be worth it.”
After games, the Falcons bring the head coach and quarterback to a press-conference room to accommodate the media.On Sunday, Atlanta director of football communication, Brian Cearns approached Jones to say he should probably go to the podium instead of talking at his locker, because of the overflow he’d get with the big day.
“Absolutely not,” Jones said. “I will do it at my locker. This was a team win. I don’t want to do anything different than normal.” Cearns said okay. “He’s the same guy if he catches one ball, like he did Monday night [in New Orleans] or he catches 12 for 300, like he did today,” Cearns said.
I spoke to Jones on the phone after the game. “You’re the sixth player ever to have 300 receiving yards in a game,” I said. “Has that hit you?”
“No, it hasn’t,” he said. “To me, they’re just numbers. Stats. I went out and did what my team needed me to do today for us to win. Just like Matt did, just like the line did all day. I’m no different.”
The Panthers, Jones said, singled him more than he thought they would, “and we kind of exploited that. When you’re playing a team in your division that you see all the time, you know each other so well and you really don’t know which way they’re going to play you. But me and Matt have great chemistry. So a day like this can happen.”
Jones barely sounded happy. “I am,” he said. “I’m very pleased. All I can do is go out and play 100 percent and let my production speak. But in this game, you rely so much on everyone else. We had a good team game today.”
I really like players who have Jones’s attitude. They do everything they can, and what happens happens, and then they come back the next game and repeat it. We want our players to have head in hands after a tough loss, to mourn. But we shouldn’t make players be something they’re not. Jones doesn’t take his game home.
He’s no football junkie, flipping the TV from game to game on an off day. It’s his job, and he tries to be perfect, and then he goes home. In his second year, Jones had a tremendous performance in the NFC Championship Game against San Francisco—11 catches, 182 yards, two touchdowns. Lots of players in the Atlanta locker room were crestfallen after the 28-24 loss. Not Jones. “I gave everything I had out there,” he said. “I’m fine.”
The next two weeks should be very interesting for Jones and the Falcons: next Sunday against Aqib Talib and the great Broncos defense, in Denver; and the following Sunday against Richard Sherman and the great Seattle secondary. That’s going to be some fun football.
* * *
Four teams, four quick stories
1. Seattle: Russell Wilson works harder than you—or anyone. Albert Breer of The MMQB reported Thursday that a rehab specialist, Drew Morcos, had moved into Wilson’s home last week after the Seahawks quarterback sprained his left MCL (on top of a right high ankle sprain) to give Wilson round-the-clock rehab in advance of leaving for the East Coast on Friday.
Seattle played the Jets in New Jersey on Sunday. I didn’t know quite how to ask this question to Wilson on Sunday before the Seahawks left Newark for the flight home, so I basically said, You’re a newlywed. How does your wife feel about a rehab guy living in your home for a week? “We were all in,” Wilson said. “Ciara’s great about it. She was at the game today too, with about 30 family and friends.”
Wilson’s such an insane rehabber that he interrupted sleep to do it. “Drew’s a movement specialist,” Wilson said, “so I was pretty much keeping it moving all week. I’m on a bike, or I’m doing one-legged squats. I’d go to bed maybe at 1, then wake up super early to do more icing around 3 or 4.”
It paid off, obviously. Wilson played nimbly against a strong pass-rush, completed 72 percent of his throws and never looked like he favored either leg. “Felt great,” he said. “Now I’ve got 14 days ’til the next game. I’ll be fine.” Fortunate week, in some ways, for a bye, but Wilson—who’s never missed a game since being drafted in 2012—would have been ready to go anyway.
2. Los Angeles: Road sweet road. In Week 5, the Rams play their only home game between Sept. 19 and Nov. 5, when the Bills come to the Coliseum. What’s happened is quite remarkable. Since getting skunked by the Niners 28-0 in Week 1, the Rams have reeled off three straight wins.
You can bet there will be 80,000 fans, minimum, at Bills-Rams Sunday, and you can bet they won’t be leaving early. Since Jeff Fisher took the Rams job in 2012, teams in his division (Arizona, Seattle or San Francisco) have been to the NFC title game all four seasons and made the Super Bowl in three of those years. All except the Rams have made the title game. And the Rams are a respectable 13-13-1 against division foes under Fisher.
3. Buffalo: Something pretty familiar helped the Bills rise from the ashes. After the Bills got waylaid by the Jets in Week 2, falling to 0-2, crisis was in the air. Rex Ryan fired his offensive coordinator, Greg Roman. The season teetered on the edge. In a team meeting, assistant defensive backfield coach Ed Reed got up and quoted a certain New England genius to the rest of the team. “Just do your job,” Reed said, invoking a phrase Bill Belichick has made famous in New England. It's on T-shirts, walls of businesses and in the minds of all of the Patriots’ players. The mantra means: If we have 53 guys concerned with doing their jobs the best they can, we’ll be fine. Don’t worry about the other guy.
And now it's helped the Bills, or at least one Bill, put the awful play of the first five days of the season in the rearview mirror. "Hey, I’ll always listen to what a Hall of Famer has to say,” said linebacker Zach Brown after the Bills handed New England its first home shutout loss since 1993, 16-0, on Sunday. Brown had 18 tackles and a sack of Jacoby Brissett. “I have never been in this division before this year, so I never knew about this series. But today the message was pretty simple. Stop the run, and make the quarterback be a quarterback. Make him make plays."
Brissett couldn’t breathe for much of the game, and New England didn’t have a series of longer than four plays until the second half. So nothing is forever in the NFL, and an 0-2 start can be overcome. "Nobody in here thought our season was over,” Brown said. “But I do think the only people who believed in us were the guys in this room and the Bills Mafia.” That’s a fiercely loyal local fan group.
But I bet even a few of them were shaky before the Bills waxed two major preseason Super Bowl contenders—Arizona and New England. With the Rams, Niners and Dolphins coming up, Buffalo has a chance to right the ship for good and give Rex Ryan a fighting chance to see year three.
4. New England: This is the week to use the Patriots in your knockout pool, folks. It’s a virtual certainty that if you’re reading this after 6:30 a.m. ET on Monday, Tom Brady is inside the Patriots’ facility at Gillette Stadium, preparing to face Cleveland on Sunday. He is not sunbathing in Italy, or making an UnderArmour commercial, or throwing the football to his son Jack in Ann Arbor. “Knowing Tom,” someone close to him said last week, “he’s going to come back without bitterness and just get back to football.”
* * *
The Steve Young book is gold
Photo: Focus on Sport/Getty Images
The life story of Steve Young—“QB: My Life Behind the Spiral” by Steve Young with Jeff Benedict (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), due out Oct. 11, but available for preorder now—is the rare sports book in which the heretofore pristine hero admits to some legitimate human scars. Young grew up so close to his parents that he could never attend sleepovers at friends’ homes, and the separation anxiety and homesickness was a real problem.
He threatened to quit Brigham Young multiple times. Young had such performance anxiety that, before a 1993 game, he didn’t sleep for 36 hours, so petrified he was that he’d fail, and spent hours with a psychologist. In fact, that year, Young admits in the book that a depression specialist in San Francisco diagnosed him with separation anxiety and told him: “Never once have I seen an adult with the kind of separation anxiety that you have.”
This was months after Young was named the NFL’s Most Valuable Player, in 1992.
No one knew.
Young’s always been one of the most interesting men I’ve covered in my time covering this game. A Mormon growing up among non-Mormons in ritzy Greenwich, Connecticut. Playing behind Jim McMahon at Brigham Young. Signing the biggest contract in football history, with the USFL’s Los Angeles Express, and being sick over all the money.
Jumping to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers when the USFL died, and then dealt to San Francisco when Bill Walsh wanted him to replace the great Joe Montana. And trying to live a normal Mormon life amidst the mayhem of the NFL. I covered Young a lot in my life, and I never knew so much of what he went through.
A few examples of the stuff I never knew, or was just plain so interesting:
• On a day spent at Joe Montana’s house, in the middle of their competition:
Bill [Walsh] scheduled a practice on Christmas. Afterward the players who were single were offered dinner at the homes of the married players. Joe invited me to dinner at his place. It was my first visit to Joe’s house. The meal was magnificent. His beautiful wife was gracious. While we were at the dinner table, Joe and I were talking when Joe’s daughter, who was probably around three years old raised her hand.
“Dad,” she said. “Dad.” Joe kept talking to me. “Dad,” she repeated. “Dad.”
“What?” Joe said sweetly.
“Is this the guy we hate?” she said innocently. It was all I could do to not burst out laughing.
“No,” Joe told her. “That was someone else.”
• On being traded from Tampa Bay to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1987:
I get a call from [Bucs coach] Ray Perkins. He said, “Congratulations, you’re a St. Louis Cardinal.” I called [agent Leigh Steinberg]. He told me the Cardinals had offered the Buccaneers their first-round pick for me. That meant Tampa would have the first and second picks overall. Perkins had his eye on Alabama's All-American linebacker, Cornelius Bennett. I told Lee there was no way I was going to St. Louis. The Cardinals were another team that was going nowhere.
But I didn’t sit back and wait. I immediately called [Bucs owner] Hugh Culverhouse. I didn't even give him a chance to say hello. “You traded me to the Cardinals? You tell me I’m your quarterback for life and you send me to the Cardinals? You can’t do that to me!”
After I talk to Culverhouse, Leigh called him and issued a threat. He told him I would retire rather than go to St. Louis. Two hours later Culverhouse called me back and told me he had called off the trade.
• On the unending attention he got once the USFL died and he went to the Bucs:
Even on the field, I can’t escape the craziness. We play the Colts at home. Partway through the second quarter I’m in the huddle when the head referee taps me on the shoulder. “Can I talk to you for a second?” he says. I step away from the huddle. “Hey, listen, my daughter’s going to BYU,” he whispers. Next thing I know he starts trying to convince me that I should meet his daughter. “I'd like you to take her out,” he says.
I cannot believe this. We’re in the middle of a game! “Oh, okay,” I said. “What's her name?’’ He tells me and I return to the huddle ... Late in the game we’re down 31-23 and I'm trying to mount a comeback. I scramble out of the pocket and take a brutal hit. It causes me to fumble just before the whistle blows to stop the play.
I am lying on the ground when the defense recovers the loose ball, all but sealing our defeat. Suddenly out of nowhere a yellow flag lands next to me. The referee whose daughter is headed to BYU calls a personal foul on the defense. First down, Tampa Bay. I get up and brush myself off. Then the ref walks past me and whispers she likes Italian food.
That’s why this book is life. It’s amazing, with an athlete covered so thoroughly as the NFL was getting so huge, that there’s so much you won’t know. I think you’ll like digging into it. You can preorder it here.
* * *
“After the play is over, unsportsmanlike conduct, number 24. Shooting a bow and arrah. That foul counts as one of those that leads to a disqualification. First and 10 Washington, after the 15-yard penalty.”
—Referee Jeff Triplette, explaining a foul on Washington cornerback Josh Norman in the game against Cleveland.
And he did say “arrah,” not “arrow.”
And don’t miss the if-looks-could-kill glare from Norman toward Triplette when he was announcing the call.
“If I had young kids, to be honest, and if they came and said, ‘Dad, I want to play football,’ I’d smack them in the mouth. No. No. Because if I’d have known back then what I know now, to be honest with you, I probably would have taken a different path. I probably just would have played baseball.”
—Bo Jackson, in an interview with Dominic Bonvissuto of The MMQB.
* * *
The Award Section
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Many deserving candidates, including Matt Ryan, who had the league’s 19th game of 500 passing yards Sunday. However, just one winner.
Julio Jones, wide receiver, Atlanta. Twelve catches, 300 yards, 25.0 yards per catch, second man since 1990 to have 300 receiving yards in a game.
DEFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Aqib Talib, cornerback, Denver. Actually, Derek Wolfe, who was unblockable for the parts of the rout of Tampa Bay that I saw, might have been in this space with his 2.5 sacks and two additional quarterback hits. The NFL had Denver hitting Jameis Winston 16 times in the 27-7 win. But I’m giving it to Talib, for his star turn early in this game. He ended two of the Bucs’ first four possessions with interceptions—against the team that made him its first-round pick eight years ago—and the Broncos turned both interceptions into touchdowns. They’d never relinquish the lead after the second one.
Zach Brown, linebacker, Buffalo. In the first home shutout suffered by New England in 23 years, Brown starred all game long. After four starless seasons in Tennessee, Brown found the kind of seek-and-hit defense that suits him, along with a cadre of linemen in front of him that keeps him clean. He had 18 tackles, two forced fumbles and one sack of Jacoby Brissett. Brown is only 26, but he’ll be hard-pressed to have another game like this in his career, and against the dominant team in Buffalo’s division for years.
SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Andy Lee, punter, Carolina. The Panthers were in danger of getting blown out when Lee had the best 20 minutes of his career Sunday in Atlanta. With Carolina down 14-0 and four minutes left in the first quarter, Lee boomed a 50-yard punt that pinned Atlanta at its 2-yard line. In the second quarter, he hit a 42-yard punt that was downed at the Atlanta 1-yard line, and then a 54-yarder downed at the Falcons’ 2. Three punts, 20 minutes, all pinning the Falcons insidetheir own 3-yard line. Anyone question about Carolina paying a fourth-round pick for him now?
Adam Vinatieri, kicker, Indianapolis. Dude’s amazing. With his 44th birthday less than three months away, Vinatieri on Sunday hit 53-yard and 49-yard field goals in the 30-27 loss to Jacksonville, on the slippery Wembley Stadium pitch.
Will Fuller IV, wide receiver/punt returner, Houston. He supplemented another good game catching passes (seven receptions, 81 yards, one touchdown) with a 67-yard weave-and-sprint through a Tennessee punt team that looked like it was playing in slow-motion. The return TD was the final score in a 27-20 Houston win that was tougher than it should have been.
COACH OF THE WEEK
Rex Ryan, head coach, Buffalo. Ryan’s fifth win over the Patriots in eight seasons of coaching against Bill Belichick (Belichick is 12-5 versus Rex, so this recent run hasn’t been anything like a Ryan domination) was his most impressive in a regular-season game. Yes, the Patriots were quarterbacked by a third-string rookie, but winning 16-0 when the Patriots were on a 3-0 season-opening roll and looking like the best team in the league, and winning in Foxboro, was a great accomplishment. Ryan played this one smart, pressuring Jacoby Brissett from the start. New England didn’t have a drive over four plays until the second half.
GOAT OF THE WEEK
Melvin Gordon, running back, and Travis Benjamin, wide receiver, San Diego. I cannot believe I’m writing this. With the Chargers leading 34-21, San Diego had three more possessions against the Saints’ porous defense (that’s being charitable) in the final seven minutes. Gordon coughed up one fumble with 6:50 to play, leading to a Saints touchdown. And on the first play of the ensuing series, with Benjamin barely touched, he fumbled away another gimme to New Orleans, handing the Saints the chance for the winning touchdown. Which, of course, they scored. Ridiculous errors for a team that deserves to be 1-3.
* * *
Right Combination of the Week
Derek Carr, quarterback, and Michael Crabtree, wide receiver, Oakland. The most beautiful throw-and-catch of the day belonged to these two, and it came at the biggest moment of the day. With 2:12 left in the game and Oakland down 27-21, Carr took the snap from the Baltimore 23, and Crabtree went up the right seam, making a neat move on two defenders and breaking two steps away from coverage near the goal line. Carr lofted a perfect strike right into Crabtree’s hands for the winning touchdown … on a day when Carr and Crabtree combined for three touchdowns in all—of 5, 13 and 23 yards.
Don’t forget: In addition to Crabtree, the Raiders also have young star Amari Cooper. Carr is going to be in this space a few more times, because he’s young and full of talent, and because he’s got a great crew of offensive skill players with him.
* * *
• Baltimore receiver Steve Smith Sr., on being a man people love to hate: “I’ve rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, and I’d say 70 percent of it has been intentional on my part. It’s competitive, and I’m a people person. I watch people. I say things to see how they respond … I’ve met business people and I’ll talk and they say, ‘Oh, you’re a lot different than I thought.’ I don’t think people understand that off the field I can be different. The best way I can put it in perspective is that a person that is a salesman is going to operate totally different as a salesman to make a deal than [he] would if he is at home with his kids.”
• ESPN’s Ron Jaworski, on the good mechanics of Carson Wentz and bad ones of Jay Cutler: “Wentz has great mechanics. It was almost a clear difference … when you watched Jay Cutler, who is a veteran quarterback in this league with incredible arm talent—sloppy mechanics. Sloppy. And then you watch Carson Wentz get on that back foot, weight transfer, all of those little things about playing this position. That was his second start in the NFL [when he faced Cutler]. His mechanics were superior to Jay Cutler, who may have the best arm talent of any QB in this league. But you’ve got to coach the QB position, and you’ve got to coach it hard.”
* * *
Things I Think I Think
1. I think these are my one-liners of analysis as Week 4 nears the end:
a. Free gambling advice: Never, ever, ever wager against Mike Tomlin coming off a blowout loss.
b. We’ll find out everything about the Falcons in the next two weeks, when they go to Denver and Seattle.
c. I hate Week 4 byes, and I’d really hate them if I were a player, because you’ll get to Week 8 needing a break, and the break will be a month in the rearview mirror.
d. I have no idea what constitutes pass interference.
e. If the over-under on games missed for Trevor Siemian (shoulder) is 1.5, I’m taking the under.
f. Minnesota is the biggest threat to my Green Bay-Pittsburgh Super Bowl pick.
g. Jenny Vrentas will have some quality words on the Raiders on Tuesday, but I will make this one point: I never thought I’d see the day when Oakland would win three straight 10 a.m. body-clock starts (at New Orleans, at Tennessee, at Baltimore) to begin a season—or at any point in a season, for that matter.
h. I have no idea why Rob Gronkowski is invisible, except that in Bill Belichick’s world the healthy guys play and contribute, so …
i. Presented Without Comment Dept.: Over the past 10 months, Case Keenum is 6-2 as a Rams’ starting quarterback, with just four interceptions.
j. I sometimes watch 27-year-old Andrew Luck and wonder if he’ll turn into David Carr or Tim Couch, the kind of quarterback who never reached his potential because he got battered so much.
k. Because I know I should have an opinion about another sellout game (83,764) at Wembley Stadium in the International Series, this is it: It’d be nice to see a game between two winning teams, or two storied teams.
2. I think the Football Story of the Week is a simple call. It’s fantastic. Bleacher Report’s Dan Pompei writes one of the best stories I’ve ever read on the real life of a coach—an offensive coordinator (New England’s Josh McDaniels) who admits he’s flawed and does something about it. The story is so real. Congrats to Pompei for writing it, and to McDaniels for opening himself up so thoroughly.
3. I think this taunting thing has to get re-evaluated by the NFL. Like, now. Jags receiver Allen Robinson catches a tough pass over the middle, gets leveled by D’Qwell Jackson and gets up, fired up, and spins the ball on the ground. Because Jackson is in the area, Robinson gets an unsportsmanlike conduct foul—with the bonus being that one more such foul gets him tossed from the game. That shouldn’t be what the two-unsportsmanlike-conducts-and-you’re-out is about.
Verbal abuse, verbal taunting, punching, kicking, illegal use of the helmet … those are fair game. But the simple, “Hey, I made a big catch and held onto the ball” spinning of the football absolutely was not what this rule was installed for last March. It will be up to the Competition Committee and VP of Officiating Dean Blandino to do something about that next offseason.
4. I think I’m sympathetic to the plight of anyone with a substance or addiction issue—Josh Gordon entered rehab the other day for an alcohol problem, according to Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer—but enough is enough. I’d give Gordon every chance at rehab if I were the Browns, then wish him well for the rest of his life. He’s just too unreliable for a team trying to build a future.
5. I think I like Dirk Koetter, and I hope this is just growing pains for him as a head coach. But what an awful call he made in the fourth quarter against Denver. With 7:30 left in the game, and trailing 27-7, and with a fourth-and-six at the Denver 46, Koetter chose to punt. That is a ridiculous play call. How do you assume you’ll get the ball three times in the last six minutes (max) of the game?
6. I think I was sure it was over for the Saints midway through the fourth quarter at San Diego, staring at a 13-point deficit and not having the ball. But the Chargers handed them the game, with three turnovers in the last seven minutes. Give Drew Brees and his mates credit for never saying die. But that doesn’t mean it’s suddenly sunny in Louisiana.
Brees is three months from his 38th birthday, with no great defensive playmakers, with more dead cap money than any team in football in 2017, and with this daunting slate coming out of the bye in 13 days—Carolina, at Chiefs, Seattle, at Niners, Denver, at Panthers. Not sure how the Saints can salvage a good season, despite the miracle of Sunday.
7. I think Andrew Brandt’s two-part series on the CBA at the halfway point should be required reading for all who cover, follow or love the NFL. Here is part one, and part two. Insightful points by the former NFL executive, not the least of which was this: “As one NFL owner said to me during the negotiations, ‘I said to Roger, You mean we give them less hitting in practice and we can get the money we want? Where do I sign?’ ” I still can’t find anyone who seriously thinks the NFL is pursuing or will lobby hard for an 18-game regular-season schedule. But we’ll see what the landscape is like in four years, when the negotiations for a new deal ought to be seriously underway.
8. I think I am hoping against hope that one of the best defensive players of his era—still only 28—doesn’t have a serious Achilles injury. San Francisco linebacker NaVorro Bowman was carted off the field against Dallas after grabbing his ankle area in obvious pain. Very good player, very good man, excellent leader, and overcame a horrific knee injury in the playoffs against Seattle in 2013 to come back nobly last year.
I’m being selfish here; I know Bowman some and really appreciate the kind of person and player he is. I remember talking to him about the early retirement of Chris Borland, and Bowman saying how much he liked and respected Borland and his decision, and it had to be a personal decision from the heart; nothing remotely critical or judgmental. I really wish Bowman the best.
9. I think the Cardinals being 1-3, and Carson Palmer quite possibly out of a crucial game Thursday night in San Francisco, is the most impactful story of Week 4. Drew Stanton needing to win a vital division road game is not what Bruce Arians had in mind when Stanton became entrenched as Palmer’s backup. The Cards are in trouble.
Jeff Fisher has Rams Riding High: Michael Silver (article)
- By Florida_Ram
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 7 Replies
Jeff Fisher has Rams riding high after victory in desert
By Michael SilverNFL Media columnist Published: Oct. 3, 2016
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- He sat in a folding chair a few feet from the showering area of the visitors' locker room at University of Phoenix Stadium, flashing the tiniest hint of a self-satisfied smile under his ubiquitous Highway Patrolman's mustache.
Jeff Fisher, perhaps the NFL's most maligned coach heading into the 2016 season, was doing his best to low-key the Los Angeles Rams' 17-13 victory over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday afternoon, calling his team's third consecutive triumph after a putrid season opener "an under-the-radar win by a quiet team just going about its business."
It was a valiant effort -- until I asked Fisher what he'd told his pumped-up players before reporters had entered the locker room, and a man who has spent 22 years of his adult life as an NFL head coach finally stopped concealing the edge that has helped him connect with several generations worth of gridiron warriors and fessed up: "I told them, 'This was (the Cardinals') Christmas present. We see them after Christmas (a Jan. 1 rematch at the L.A. Coliseum). This was their Christmas present. We just gave it to them early, OK?'"
More specifically, Fisher's trash talk was a parting gift for a certain white-haired gentleman who, at the moment, was feeling pretty far from jolly. Certainly, after watching his highly regarded team fall to 1-3 and seeing his franchise quarterback suffer a concussion on a jarring fourth-quarter takedown,Cardinals coach Bruce Arians did not need to have insult added to injury. Yet Fisher did it anyway, because frankly, at that particular moment -- and I paraphrase -- he did not give a damn.
"Go back and see all the s--- Bruce said against us a couple of years ago," Fisher said, referring to Arians' comments following a 12-6 road victory over the then-St. Louis Rams in December of 2014. ("I love it when nobody says that you will have a chance to win," Arians had said. "There is an 11-3 team, and a team that is always 8-8. You figure it out.")
It's not hard to figure out why Fisher remains so perturbed by that particular taunt: The always 8-8stereotype is one that has been used against him increasingly as he struggles to shake the Rams out of their recent pattern of perpetual mediocrity. It's true that Fisher has had his share of middling campaigns: In 10 of his 20 full seasons as the head coach of the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Oilers/Tennessee Titans and Rams,
Fisher's teams have gone either 8-8, 7-9 or 7-8-1. In fairness, he has also had a trio of 13-3 regular seasons, including one from the gritty Titans squad that fell a mere yard short in Super Bowl XXXIV --but it has been 13 years since his last postseason victory, and the noise questioning his credentials has grown more deafening than a Metallica concert.
The outside world got a glimpse of Fisher's frustration when, in the season premiere of Hard Knocks:Training Camp With the Los Angeles Rams in August, Fisher referenced the "7-9 bulls---" he vowed no longer to tolerate from his players.
It was a stirring storyline -- until the relocated Rams headed north for their season opener against theSan Francisco 49ers last month and soiled themselves on Monday Night Football, suffering a 28-0 defeat in which they mustered only 186 yards of total offense.
At that point, it looked like Fisher would have trouble winning one game, let alone seven -- and that he might not make it past September. Instead, for theRams and their suddenly swagger-drenched coach, it's Christmas in October, something exactly no one on the outside saw coming a few weeks ago.
"Hey, it's L.A." quarterback Case Keenum joked as he sat at his locker after Sunday's victory. "It's Hollywood. It's a storyline... and it's not short on drama."
It certainly wasn't on Sunday, as the Rams pulled out a come-from-behind victory on the strength of a timely Tavon Austin punt return, a second Keenum touchdown pass to receiver Brian Quick with 2:36 remaining and a trio of fourth-quarter takeaways, the last a T.J. McDonald interception of a Drew Stanton Hail Mary as time expired.
The Rams' defensive devastation was an all-day affair, as they forced five turnovers and knocked out Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer, whose head slammed violently against the turf when he was sacked by L.A. linemen Aaron Donald and Eugene Sims with five-and-a-half minutes remaining.
And when it was over, for the second consecutive Sunday, the Rams had won a road game they had to sweat out until the final snap -- and, with a 3-1 record, remained tied for the NFC West lead with theSeattle Seahawks (a team they defeated in their lone home game of the 2016 season), two games ahead of the struggling Cardinals and Niners.
To understand how the Rams got here, you have to go back to that abysmal opening night in Santa Clara. As Fisher trudged off the Levi's Stadium turf, he was being lambasted across the football-watching land -- partly because his team looked overmatched, and partly because Jared Goff, the rookie quarterback for whom his team made a blockbuster trade to draft with the first overall pick, was in street clothes while the unheralded Keenum ran (or, in that case, attempted to run) the offense.
We'll get to the Goff situation in a moment. First, let's appreciate the fact that Fisher resisted the compulsion to panic, and that his team responded accordingly.
"My mindset was really simple," Fisher recalled. "It was a Monday Night game, and earlier that weekend 15 other teams had lost... and a lot of 'em were good football teams. That was the message to our team, that we're just one of the 16 teams that lost our opener. I told them, 'We're a good football team.' We put it behind us as quick as we could."
Amazingly, Fisher seemed to be speaking the truth. And as the Rams prepared to host the NFL's first regular-season game in Los Angeles in more than two decades, they vibed off their coach's calm demeanor.
"Jeff's one of the better coaches in the league, in my opinion," said middle linebacker Alec Ogletree, who had seven tackles against the Cardinals. "He does a great job of taking care of his players, and of getting us prepared, and we love playing for him. We've just got to keep playing the way he wants us to play."
Added Austin, who likely would have scored Sunday's winning touchdown had Arizona's Ifeanyi Momah not dragged him down by the facemask to short-circuit a 47-yard punt return with 5:09 remaining: "After (the 49ersdefeat), I definitely was shocked.
That wasn't us. Looking back, I think we were just smelling ourselves -- thinking we had arrived without putting in the work we need to put in. One thing about Coach Fisher, he always calms us down and helps us fight back. That's where the mindset comes from that has allowed us to win these games."
Even after their 9-3 victory over the Seahawks at the Coliseum, the Rams still seemed shaky -- in two games, they had yet to score a touchdown, which amplified the calls from outsiders for Fisher to make the switch to Goff. Instead, the coach chose to make light of the Rams' offensive struggles, telling his players in a team meeting two days after the Seahawks victory,
"I just unpacked one of the boxes from the move (to the team's temporary training facility at Cal Lutheran University), and guess what I found in there? Some touchdowns. They do exist!"
Later that day at practice, Fisher pulled the entire offense out of a drill and asked them to gather at the far side of one of the team's practice fields. "This is the end zone," Fisher deadpanned. "See, this is what it feels like."
Last Sunday, the Rams' air attack got untracked in a 37-32 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Keenum (18 of 30, 266 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions) wasn't as prolific against theCardinals, and with star second-year running back Todd Gurley (19 carries, 33 yards) continuing to struggle to find any semblance of running room, it took a full-team effort to vanquish the Cardinals (1-3), who have now lost as many regular-season games as they did in all of 2015.
In other words, the NFC West Crisis Watch has officially migrated east to the Valley of the Sun, while the Rams head back to Tinseltown riding high in advance of Sunday's home game against the Buffalo Bills. And while it's still possible Keenum could give way to Goff at some point this season, he remains the Rams' leading man -- at least in the eyes of the people who matter most.
"Here's what Case is to us: He's 6-2 in our last eight games," Rams general manager Les Snead said. "That's the definition of him."
And Goff, who was the team's second-string quarterback Sunday, says he's perfectly cool with Fisher's patient approach -- with a not-so-surprising caveat.
"As long as we're winning, I'm good," he said after Sunday's game. "We're 3-1, and I'm just trying to enjoy it."
For one thing, Goff understands that Fisher's preference for easing him into his lofty role is a philosophical one. This was the way the coach handled the early stages of the late Steve McNair'sTitans career, with highly successful results, and Fisher says he will do what he believes is best for Goff's development and for the franchise's long-term interests, period.
"That's clear -- and it's been that way from Day 1," Fisher said. "Our rookie quarterback is making really good progress. Our rookie quarterback is a Case Keenum fan, and Case is a Jared fan. It's all good."
While Fisher and his assistants would like to see Goff reduce the amount of interceptions he throws against the scout team, they're convinced that if thrown into the fray immediately, he has the physical skill, instincts and intelligence to thrive. That said, they recognize that he is only 21, and that many successful quarterbacks -- including Palmer, now 36 -- benefitted by observing and learning in the early part of their careers.
So, even though No. 2 overall draft pick Carson Wentz has had a strong start for the Philadelphia Eagles, and other rookie quarterbacks have been effective in the first month of the 2016 season, Fisher has no qualms about playing the long game with Goff.
Said one Rams assistant coach: "Wentz turns 24 later this year. Goff is 21. This is a lot to take in for a 21-year-old. We said in our draft meetings, if you had to play a guy right away, you'd probably take Wentz, cause he played in a pro-style system and is older. The whole point with Jared is that he doesn't have to play right away. We love the kid."
Staying patient with the future face of the franchise would not seem to be the preferred approach of a man coaching for his job -- but Fisher, to his credit, doesn't seem to be especially stressed out by any of that. He declined to comment on his contract status, including the whispers that he and the Ramshave already hammered out a multi-year extension that has yet to be announced, but he certainly exudes the confidence of a man who feels very secure about his present situation.
Fisher is the first to concede that his immediate past wasn't as fulfilling as it might have been: His first four seasons with the Rams -- and the first week of his fifth season -- were not without their share of 7-9 BS, or worse.
"I know what took place here from the day we walked in the door," Fisher said. "We took over a 2-14 team that was depleted. And we played six different quarterbacks. And now we're starting to get some stability, and we think we can take it a lot further."
And if Fisher's right? Well, Christmas in Tinseltown could be pretty festive this year, and January could be even better.
By Michael SilverNFL Media columnist Published: Oct. 3, 2016
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- He sat in a folding chair a few feet from the showering area of the visitors' locker room at University of Phoenix Stadium, flashing the tiniest hint of a self-satisfied smile under his ubiquitous Highway Patrolman's mustache.
Jeff Fisher, perhaps the NFL's most maligned coach heading into the 2016 season, was doing his best to low-key the Los Angeles Rams' 17-13 victory over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday afternoon, calling his team's third consecutive triumph after a putrid season opener "an under-the-radar win by a quiet team just going about its business."
It was a valiant effort -- until I asked Fisher what he'd told his pumped-up players before reporters had entered the locker room, and a man who has spent 22 years of his adult life as an NFL head coach finally stopped concealing the edge that has helped him connect with several generations worth of gridiron warriors and fessed up: "I told them, 'This was (the Cardinals') Christmas present. We see them after Christmas (a Jan. 1 rematch at the L.A. Coliseum). This was their Christmas present. We just gave it to them early, OK?'"
More specifically, Fisher's trash talk was a parting gift for a certain white-haired gentleman who, at the moment, was feeling pretty far from jolly. Certainly, after watching his highly regarded team fall to 1-3 and seeing his franchise quarterback suffer a concussion on a jarring fourth-quarter takedown,Cardinals coach Bruce Arians did not need to have insult added to injury. Yet Fisher did it anyway, because frankly, at that particular moment -- and I paraphrase -- he did not give a damn.
"Go back and see all the s--- Bruce said against us a couple of years ago," Fisher said, referring to Arians' comments following a 12-6 road victory over the then-St. Louis Rams in December of 2014. ("I love it when nobody says that you will have a chance to win," Arians had said. "There is an 11-3 team, and a team that is always 8-8. You figure it out.")
It's not hard to figure out why Fisher remains so perturbed by that particular taunt: The always 8-8stereotype is one that has been used against him increasingly as he struggles to shake the Rams out of their recent pattern of perpetual mediocrity. It's true that Fisher has had his share of middling campaigns: In 10 of his 20 full seasons as the head coach of the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Oilers/Tennessee Titans and Rams,
Fisher's teams have gone either 8-8, 7-9 or 7-8-1. In fairness, he has also had a trio of 13-3 regular seasons, including one from the gritty Titans squad that fell a mere yard short in Super Bowl XXXIV --but it has been 13 years since his last postseason victory, and the noise questioning his credentials has grown more deafening than a Metallica concert.
The outside world got a glimpse of Fisher's frustration when, in the season premiere of Hard Knocks:Training Camp With the Los Angeles Rams in August, Fisher referenced the "7-9 bulls---" he vowed no longer to tolerate from his players.
It was a stirring storyline -- until the relocated Rams headed north for their season opener against theSan Francisco 49ers last month and soiled themselves on Monday Night Football, suffering a 28-0 defeat in which they mustered only 186 yards of total offense.
At that point, it looked like Fisher would have trouble winning one game, let alone seven -- and that he might not make it past September. Instead, for theRams and their suddenly swagger-drenched coach, it's Christmas in October, something exactly no one on the outside saw coming a few weeks ago.
"Hey, it's L.A." quarterback Case Keenum joked as he sat at his locker after Sunday's victory. "It's Hollywood. It's a storyline... and it's not short on drama."
It certainly wasn't on Sunday, as the Rams pulled out a come-from-behind victory on the strength of a timely Tavon Austin punt return, a second Keenum touchdown pass to receiver Brian Quick with 2:36 remaining and a trio of fourth-quarter takeaways, the last a T.J. McDonald interception of a Drew Stanton Hail Mary as time expired.
The Rams' defensive devastation was an all-day affair, as they forced five turnovers and knocked out Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer, whose head slammed violently against the turf when he was sacked by L.A. linemen Aaron Donald and Eugene Sims with five-and-a-half minutes remaining.
And when it was over, for the second consecutive Sunday, the Rams had won a road game they had to sweat out until the final snap -- and, with a 3-1 record, remained tied for the NFC West lead with theSeattle Seahawks (a team they defeated in their lone home game of the 2016 season), two games ahead of the struggling Cardinals and Niners.
To understand how the Rams got here, you have to go back to that abysmal opening night in Santa Clara. As Fisher trudged off the Levi's Stadium turf, he was being lambasted across the football-watching land -- partly because his team looked overmatched, and partly because Jared Goff, the rookie quarterback for whom his team made a blockbuster trade to draft with the first overall pick, was in street clothes while the unheralded Keenum ran (or, in that case, attempted to run) the offense.
We'll get to the Goff situation in a moment. First, let's appreciate the fact that Fisher resisted the compulsion to panic, and that his team responded accordingly.
"My mindset was really simple," Fisher recalled. "It was a Monday Night game, and earlier that weekend 15 other teams had lost... and a lot of 'em were good football teams. That was the message to our team, that we're just one of the 16 teams that lost our opener. I told them, 'We're a good football team.' We put it behind us as quick as we could."
Amazingly, Fisher seemed to be speaking the truth. And as the Rams prepared to host the NFL's first regular-season game in Los Angeles in more than two decades, they vibed off their coach's calm demeanor.
"Jeff's one of the better coaches in the league, in my opinion," said middle linebacker Alec Ogletree, who had seven tackles against the Cardinals. "He does a great job of taking care of his players, and of getting us prepared, and we love playing for him. We've just got to keep playing the way he wants us to play."
Added Austin, who likely would have scored Sunday's winning touchdown had Arizona's Ifeanyi Momah not dragged him down by the facemask to short-circuit a 47-yard punt return with 5:09 remaining: "After (the 49ersdefeat), I definitely was shocked.
That wasn't us. Looking back, I think we were just smelling ourselves -- thinking we had arrived without putting in the work we need to put in. One thing about Coach Fisher, he always calms us down and helps us fight back. That's where the mindset comes from that has allowed us to win these games."
Even after their 9-3 victory over the Seahawks at the Coliseum, the Rams still seemed shaky -- in two games, they had yet to score a touchdown, which amplified the calls from outsiders for Fisher to make the switch to Goff. Instead, the coach chose to make light of the Rams' offensive struggles, telling his players in a team meeting two days after the Seahawks victory,
"I just unpacked one of the boxes from the move (to the team's temporary training facility at Cal Lutheran University), and guess what I found in there? Some touchdowns. They do exist!"
Later that day at practice, Fisher pulled the entire offense out of a drill and asked them to gather at the far side of one of the team's practice fields. "This is the end zone," Fisher deadpanned. "See, this is what it feels like."
Last Sunday, the Rams' air attack got untracked in a 37-32 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Keenum (18 of 30, 266 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions) wasn't as prolific against theCardinals, and with star second-year running back Todd Gurley (19 carries, 33 yards) continuing to struggle to find any semblance of running room, it took a full-team effort to vanquish the Cardinals (1-3), who have now lost as many regular-season games as they did in all of 2015.
In other words, the NFC West Crisis Watch has officially migrated east to the Valley of the Sun, while the Rams head back to Tinseltown riding high in advance of Sunday's home game against the Buffalo Bills. And while it's still possible Keenum could give way to Goff at some point this season, he remains the Rams' leading man -- at least in the eyes of the people who matter most.
"Here's what Case is to us: He's 6-2 in our last eight games," Rams general manager Les Snead said. "That's the definition of him."
And Goff, who was the team's second-string quarterback Sunday, says he's perfectly cool with Fisher's patient approach -- with a not-so-surprising caveat.
"As long as we're winning, I'm good," he said after Sunday's game. "We're 3-1, and I'm just trying to enjoy it."
For one thing, Goff understands that Fisher's preference for easing him into his lofty role is a philosophical one. This was the way the coach handled the early stages of the late Steve McNair'sTitans career, with highly successful results, and Fisher says he will do what he believes is best for Goff's development and for the franchise's long-term interests, period.
"That's clear -- and it's been that way from Day 1," Fisher said. "Our rookie quarterback is making really good progress. Our rookie quarterback is a Case Keenum fan, and Case is a Jared fan. It's all good."
While Fisher and his assistants would like to see Goff reduce the amount of interceptions he throws against the scout team, they're convinced that if thrown into the fray immediately, he has the physical skill, instincts and intelligence to thrive. That said, they recognize that he is only 21, and that many successful quarterbacks -- including Palmer, now 36 -- benefitted by observing and learning in the early part of their careers.
So, even though No. 2 overall draft pick Carson Wentz has had a strong start for the Philadelphia Eagles, and other rookie quarterbacks have been effective in the first month of the 2016 season, Fisher has no qualms about playing the long game with Goff.
Said one Rams assistant coach: "Wentz turns 24 later this year. Goff is 21. This is a lot to take in for a 21-year-old. We said in our draft meetings, if you had to play a guy right away, you'd probably take Wentz, cause he played in a pro-style system and is older. The whole point with Jared is that he doesn't have to play right away. We love the kid."
Staying patient with the future face of the franchise would not seem to be the preferred approach of a man coaching for his job -- but Fisher, to his credit, doesn't seem to be especially stressed out by any of that. He declined to comment on his contract status, including the whispers that he and the Ramshave already hammered out a multi-year extension that has yet to be announced, but he certainly exudes the confidence of a man who feels very secure about his present situation.
Fisher is the first to concede that his immediate past wasn't as fulfilling as it might have been: His first four seasons with the Rams -- and the first week of his fifth season -- were not without their share of 7-9 BS, or worse.
"I know what took place here from the day we walked in the door," Fisher said. "We took over a 2-14 team that was depleted. And we played six different quarterbacks. And now we're starting to get some stability, and we think we can take it a lot further."
And if Fisher's right? Well, Christmas in Tinseltown could be pretty festive this year, and January could be even better.
This magic moment belongs to Rams’ Tavon Austin
- By Mojo Ram
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 5 Replies
By Vincent Bonsignore, Los Angeles Daily News
http://www.dailynews.com/sports/20161002/this-magic-moment-belongs-to-rams-tavon-austin
GLENDALE >> As much lip as Tavon Austin gives his defensive teammates – and the quietest guy you’ll ever meet freely admits he’s the loudest guy in the stadium come game day – even he knew it was time to shut up and step up late in the fourth quarter against the Cardinals on Sunday.
“Someone needs to make a play,” he thought to himself as he lined up to take a punt return with just over five minutes left in the game.
The crazy thing is, from the blockers in front of Austin to the teammates standing on the sideline, there was a feeling among the Rams that someone was about to get sprinkled with the pixie dust again.
Just as Alec Ogletree did two weeks ago against the Seahawks while forcing a fumble to preserve a Rams win and Robert Quinn did seven days ago when he chased down Jameis Winston to save the day against the Buccaneers.
“We’re starting the get that feeling that someone, somehow, is going to make the play that needs to be made,” said defensive tackle Michael Brockers.
Austin was about to be that guy.
And you know what, if you’re being honest with yourself, you sensed something was about to happen too.
That is, when you weren’t screaming bloody murder wondering if they’d ever get out of their own way long enough to beat what’s turned out to be the very beatable Cardinals.
Just as you did the last three games, only for it to improbably all work out in the end.
Makes you wonder if something special is happening to the suddenly tough-minded and gritty Rams.
We can’t quite put a finger to it, but it’s fun and fascinating and absolutely surprising. And it’s pushed them to an improbable 3-1 start after Sunday’s 17-13 win over the Cardinals and first place in the NFC West and a growing sense of confidence within locker room.
“We’re starting to believe,” Austin said.
Maybe we all are.
It might not be pretty and it can be downright maddening watching them play offense, but they’re suddenly figuring out ways to win games they typically lost in years past.
In what’s becoming a bit of a theme to the Rams first season back in Los Angeles, they muddle around through long afternoons and sometimes force you to turn away in disgust at the lack of offensive imagination and the silly penalties and passes that miss the mark or catchable balls that fall to the ground.
You’ll cuss at them and throw your hands up in frustration. You’ll threaten to change the channel in anger or lose hope and give up.
But you don’t, because it’s becoming a thing now to – wait for it - stick it out to the very end with the Rams.
And witness some game-changing or game-saving play that rips victory from the jaws of defeat.
Like, say, the smallest guy on the team making the biggest play of the game to set the Rams up for the go-ahead touchdown and first place in the division.
And in the process, alter the way we look at the Rams and the way the Rams look at themselves.
“I feel when you win and you’re a 3-1 team, that will change the look of your team,” Rams linebacker Mark Barron said.
Amen to that.
With a tip of the hat to Austin.
As usual, the Rams defense was playing lights out against the high-powered Cardinals, building a near impenetrable wall at the goal line and battering Carson Palmer so viciously he eventually had to leave the game with a concussion.
The Rams offense, not so much.
Once again, they couldn’t get Todd Gurley off in the run game and while Keenum played admirably, it wasn’t reflected in points or production. With Gurley getting stonewalled again, and penalties sabotaging potential scoring drives, it was a mostly frustrating afternoon for the Rams offense.
Which is why the very reasonable 13 points the defense had surrendered to the Cardinals by the six-minute mark of the fourth quarter was only enough to keep the Rams in the game and not lead it.
Austin, as honest and conscientious as they come, bore his share of the responsibility for the offensive struggles, taking his spot in line with all the rest of the players on that side of the ball.
“Thing is, the defense was playing so great,” Austin said. “We put them in such tough positions but they kept fighting though. They kept us in the game. They did their job. So you want so badly to do your part.”
After Quinn and Aaron Donald sandwiched Palmer on a vicious sack to force a punt with 5:26 remaining, Austin lined up at the Rams 20-yard-line hoping against hope Cardinals punter Ryan Quigley would give him a chance.
I thought they were going to sky it, which is what they were doing all game,” Austin said.
Inexplicably Quigley sent a perfectly returnable ball floating in Austin’s direction.
“I lucked out and he gave me one,” Austin said.
Upon catching the punt Austin leaned right, and immediately saw on-coming Cardinals tackler Justin Bethel trip and fall.
“Once he fell down, that was the key,” said Austin, who raced to the right sideline and turned up the field. “We got some great blocks out there (special teams coach John Fassel) put a great return together and just did what I do best.”
The result was a 51-yard return that set the Rams up at the Cardinals 19. In fact, had it not been for a face mask penalty on Ifeanyi Momah it might have been more.
“I was gonna walk it in,” Austin said, laughing.
He didn’t need too. Two plays after Austin’s game-changing return Keenum hooked up with Brian Quick on a 4-yard touchdown pass and the Rams led 17-14.
“I gave us the momentum. Quicky finished it up,” Austin said.
Well, actually it was the defense that put the finishing touch on the Rams third straight win, with Barron intercepting Drew Stanton to end one comeback drive and T.J. McDonald picking off another Stanton pass at the back of the end zone as time expired to end another.
But Austin’s point was clear.
For the third week in a row, the Rams needed someone to step up and save the day. And for the third straight week someone did just that.
“At any given time, someone can pop,” Austin said.
It was his turn with the pixie dust Sunday.
You’re starting to believe next week, it’ll be someone else.
http://www.dailynews.com/sports/20161002/this-magic-moment-belongs-to-rams-tavon-austin
GLENDALE >> As much lip as Tavon Austin gives his defensive teammates – and the quietest guy you’ll ever meet freely admits he’s the loudest guy in the stadium come game day – even he knew it was time to shut up and step up late in the fourth quarter against the Cardinals on Sunday.
“Someone needs to make a play,” he thought to himself as he lined up to take a punt return with just over five minutes left in the game.
The crazy thing is, from the blockers in front of Austin to the teammates standing on the sideline, there was a feeling among the Rams that someone was about to get sprinkled with the pixie dust again.
Just as Alec Ogletree did two weeks ago against the Seahawks while forcing a fumble to preserve a Rams win and Robert Quinn did seven days ago when he chased down Jameis Winston to save the day against the Buccaneers.
“We’re starting the get that feeling that someone, somehow, is going to make the play that needs to be made,” said defensive tackle Michael Brockers.
Austin was about to be that guy.
And you know what, if you’re being honest with yourself, you sensed something was about to happen too.
That is, when you weren’t screaming bloody murder wondering if they’d ever get out of their own way long enough to beat what’s turned out to be the very beatable Cardinals.
Just as you did the last three games, only for it to improbably all work out in the end.
Makes you wonder if something special is happening to the suddenly tough-minded and gritty Rams.
We can’t quite put a finger to it, but it’s fun and fascinating and absolutely surprising. And it’s pushed them to an improbable 3-1 start after Sunday’s 17-13 win over the Cardinals and first place in the NFC West and a growing sense of confidence within locker room.
“We’re starting to believe,” Austin said.
Maybe we all are.
It might not be pretty and it can be downright maddening watching them play offense, but they’re suddenly figuring out ways to win games they typically lost in years past.
In what’s becoming a bit of a theme to the Rams first season back in Los Angeles, they muddle around through long afternoons and sometimes force you to turn away in disgust at the lack of offensive imagination and the silly penalties and passes that miss the mark or catchable balls that fall to the ground.
You’ll cuss at them and throw your hands up in frustration. You’ll threaten to change the channel in anger or lose hope and give up.
But you don’t, because it’s becoming a thing now to – wait for it - stick it out to the very end with the Rams.
And witness some game-changing or game-saving play that rips victory from the jaws of defeat.
Like, say, the smallest guy on the team making the biggest play of the game to set the Rams up for the go-ahead touchdown and first place in the division.
And in the process, alter the way we look at the Rams and the way the Rams look at themselves.
“I feel when you win and you’re a 3-1 team, that will change the look of your team,” Rams linebacker Mark Barron said.
Amen to that.
With a tip of the hat to Austin.
As usual, the Rams defense was playing lights out against the high-powered Cardinals, building a near impenetrable wall at the goal line and battering Carson Palmer so viciously he eventually had to leave the game with a concussion.
The Rams offense, not so much.
Once again, they couldn’t get Todd Gurley off in the run game and while Keenum played admirably, it wasn’t reflected in points or production. With Gurley getting stonewalled again, and penalties sabotaging potential scoring drives, it was a mostly frustrating afternoon for the Rams offense.
Which is why the very reasonable 13 points the defense had surrendered to the Cardinals by the six-minute mark of the fourth quarter was only enough to keep the Rams in the game and not lead it.
Austin, as honest and conscientious as they come, bore his share of the responsibility for the offensive struggles, taking his spot in line with all the rest of the players on that side of the ball.
“Thing is, the defense was playing so great,” Austin said. “We put them in such tough positions but they kept fighting though. They kept us in the game. They did their job. So you want so badly to do your part.”
After Quinn and Aaron Donald sandwiched Palmer on a vicious sack to force a punt with 5:26 remaining, Austin lined up at the Rams 20-yard-line hoping against hope Cardinals punter Ryan Quigley would give him a chance.
I thought they were going to sky it, which is what they were doing all game,” Austin said.
Inexplicably Quigley sent a perfectly returnable ball floating in Austin’s direction.
“I lucked out and he gave me one,” Austin said.
Upon catching the punt Austin leaned right, and immediately saw on-coming Cardinals tackler Justin Bethel trip and fall.
“Once he fell down, that was the key,” said Austin, who raced to the right sideline and turned up the field. “We got some great blocks out there (special teams coach John Fassel) put a great return together and just did what I do best.”
The result was a 51-yard return that set the Rams up at the Cardinals 19. In fact, had it not been for a face mask penalty on Ifeanyi Momah it might have been more.
“I was gonna walk it in,” Austin said, laughing.
He didn’t need too. Two plays after Austin’s game-changing return Keenum hooked up with Brian Quick on a 4-yard touchdown pass and the Rams led 17-14.
“I gave us the momentum. Quicky finished it up,” Austin said.
Well, actually it was the defense that put the finishing touch on the Rams third straight win, with Barron intercepting Drew Stanton to end one comeback drive and T.J. McDonald picking off another Stanton pass at the back of the end zone as time expired to end another.
But Austin’s point was clear.
For the third week in a row, the Rams needed someone to step up and save the day. And for the third straight week someone did just that.
“At any given time, someone can pop,” Austin said.
It was his turn with the pixie dust Sunday.
You’re starting to believe next week, it’ll be someone else.
How did the L.A. Rams get to 3-1 and what does that mean for No. 1 pick Jared Goff?
- By Mojo Ram
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 5 Replies
By Chris Chase
http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/...oes-that-mean-for-no-1-pick-jared-goff-100216
The Los Angeles Rams are 3-1, and if you saw that coming after the team's disastrous 28-0 season-opening loss on Monday Night Football, then, regrettably, I have to declare you, sir or madam, a liar. It doesn't matter if you had a crystal ball. You'd have just thought it was scuffed. If doesn't matter if you're Marty McFly and had a copy of Gray's Sports Almanac. You'd assume it was a typo. Heck, I'm looking at the standings right now and still can't believe it. The Los Angeles Rams are 3-1, and they're doing it all without the No. 1 pick in this year's draft, quarterback Jared Goff, during a year in which rookie quarterbacks are off to prolific and historic starts.
It would have been unbelievable enough to predict the Rams' start at the beginning of the season, but after that loss to the 49ers, in which the team was unwatchable, there was legitimate (if ridiculous) belief that the Rams could be bad enough to flirt with 0-16. They had 185 total yards. Quarterback Case Keenum had 3.7 yards per pass attempt (the worst QBs in the NFL hover around 6.5 ypa). L.A. had more penalty yards (100) than rushing yards (65). It had seven drives of three-and-out, punted 10 times and didn't run a single play from inside the red zone.
The last time a team had been shut out in Week 1 was 2009. It was these same Rams (playing in St. Louis, of course), and they lost to a division rival by a familiar score of 28-0. That squad went 1-15. At that moment less than three weeks ago, there were exactly two things to be excited about if you were a new Rams fan: that Los Angeles had a football team again and that sometimes it would break out those sweet throwbacks.
And then, without warning, came a win in Week 2 over the perennial power Seattle Seahawks.
Yeah, but it was a weird game won by the bizarre score of 9-3 (just the 11th time a game had finished that way since the merger). Maybe the Seahawks weren't any good (they'd only defeated the lowly Dolphins 12-10 in Week 1), and it's not exactly as if three field goals and nine total points in two games is anything to pique excitement.
The next week, like dominoes of worry toppling one-by-one, the offense came to life, scoring 37 points in a win over Tampa Bay. After not scoring a touchdown in the first 120 minutes of the season, the Rams scored five in 50 minutes of the Bucs game. Not only did they come back from a 10-point deficit (again -- they'd scored nine points total coming into the game) but they made a defensive stand to win when Jameis Winston had his offense running six plays from inside the red zone in the game's final seconds. It counted the same in the win column but was of an entirely different nature.
And then came Sunday, when the Rams scored a touchdown in the final three minutes to upset last year's NFC West champion Arizona Cardinals 17-13 and move to 3-1 for the first time in a decade. Yes, the Cards are struggling in 2016. They committed far too many penalties and had five giveaways. Carson Palmer getting hurt didn't help matters. But the 16-game NFL schedule is about taking advantage of opportunities, and plenty of teams don't -- including the Rams for about the last 13 years. These Rams have and, stunningly, they are tied with the Seahawks and have a two-game lead on the Cardinals a quarter of the way into the season. Plus they hold tiebreakers on both teams.
They're doing all this with Jared Goff, the No. 1 pick in April's draft and the team's would-be savior, sitting on the sideline. Meanwhile, five rookie quarterbacks, all drafted below (and in some cases, way below) Goff have played this year, going 9-4 in games they've started or in which they've gotten serious playing time.
That shouldn't be a knock on Goff. How can he be better than Carson Wentz when he's not on the field? Remember, Wentz didn't win a starting job in Philly. Like all four of the other rookies to get playing time this year, he only got on the field because of an injury to somebody else. Goff might be a victim of circumstance. The guy he's backing up hasn't gotten hurt.
It's absurd. Sitting as a rookie, even as a No. 1 pick, has been the rule for most of the common-draft era, not the exception. The difference with the others is that they weren't immediately dismissed as busts because of a bad preseason and the success of guys taken below him.
Goff's image isn't helped by the nonstop NFL news cycle, which declares successes or failures every week. There was a way to finesse the narrative and the Rams trampled all over it. It wasn't as if Fisher badmouthed Goff, but everything he said sounded like a dig. The coach qualified his statements."Jared's had a great camp. So has [then second-string quarterback] Sean [Mannion]." He bit when asked questions about Goff's status and implicitly confirmed these negative rumors. "It's unfair to compare him to anybody else."(Well, now that's exactly what we're doing!) And then did it some more."Regardless of what everybody else is saying out there, [Goff is] our quarterback; he's going to be our franchise player. It's just not right now." It was baffling. Jeff Fisher knows everything he says will dissected into minutiae. Yet there he was, burying his quarterback while tacitly defending him.
L.A. set up its preseason like a competition, one that Goff finished in a distant third with his unsure play and constant fumbles. Had Fisher set expectations lower, saying Goff was likely to sit early, then the entire idea of Goff as a disappointment never gets started. The Rams started this, not the media or the fans.
Maybe the Rams blew it trading up and taking Goff. Maybe Wentz was the pick. Maybe they should have waited and taken a Paxton Lynch or a Dak Prescott later. Or maybe they did it exactly right, making Goff a rookie backup -- the same as other No. overall 1 picks like Palmer, Michael Vick and Eli Manning -- and waiting for him to blossom into the talent everybody anticipated him becoming.
For the Rams, it's a wonderful problem. You have a young quarterback improving each week. You have a team left for dead in Week 1 that is now atop of what's been the NFL's most competitive division in the last five years. And you have a No. 1 pick waiting in the wings, his future unwritten despite attempts to the contrary.
http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/...oes-that-mean-for-no-1-pick-jared-goff-100216
The Los Angeles Rams are 3-1, and if you saw that coming after the team's disastrous 28-0 season-opening loss on Monday Night Football, then, regrettably, I have to declare you, sir or madam, a liar. It doesn't matter if you had a crystal ball. You'd have just thought it was scuffed. If doesn't matter if you're Marty McFly and had a copy of Gray's Sports Almanac. You'd assume it was a typo. Heck, I'm looking at the standings right now and still can't believe it. The Los Angeles Rams are 3-1, and they're doing it all without the No. 1 pick in this year's draft, quarterback Jared Goff, during a year in which rookie quarterbacks are off to prolific and historic starts.
It would have been unbelievable enough to predict the Rams' start at the beginning of the season, but after that loss to the 49ers, in which the team was unwatchable, there was legitimate (if ridiculous) belief that the Rams could be bad enough to flirt with 0-16. They had 185 total yards. Quarterback Case Keenum had 3.7 yards per pass attempt (the worst QBs in the NFL hover around 6.5 ypa). L.A. had more penalty yards (100) than rushing yards (65). It had seven drives of three-and-out, punted 10 times and didn't run a single play from inside the red zone.
The last time a team had been shut out in Week 1 was 2009. It was these same Rams (playing in St. Louis, of course), and they lost to a division rival by a familiar score of 28-0. That squad went 1-15. At that moment less than three weeks ago, there were exactly two things to be excited about if you were a new Rams fan: that Los Angeles had a football team again and that sometimes it would break out those sweet throwbacks.
And then, without warning, came a win in Week 2 over the perennial power Seattle Seahawks.
Yeah, but it was a weird game won by the bizarre score of 9-3 (just the 11th time a game had finished that way since the merger). Maybe the Seahawks weren't any good (they'd only defeated the lowly Dolphins 12-10 in Week 1), and it's not exactly as if three field goals and nine total points in two games is anything to pique excitement.
The next week, like dominoes of worry toppling one-by-one, the offense came to life, scoring 37 points in a win over Tampa Bay. After not scoring a touchdown in the first 120 minutes of the season, the Rams scored five in 50 minutes of the Bucs game. Not only did they come back from a 10-point deficit (again -- they'd scored nine points total coming into the game) but they made a defensive stand to win when Jameis Winston had his offense running six plays from inside the red zone in the game's final seconds. It counted the same in the win column but was of an entirely different nature.
And then came Sunday, when the Rams scored a touchdown in the final three minutes to upset last year's NFC West champion Arizona Cardinals 17-13 and move to 3-1 for the first time in a decade. Yes, the Cards are struggling in 2016. They committed far too many penalties and had five giveaways. Carson Palmer getting hurt didn't help matters. But the 16-game NFL schedule is about taking advantage of opportunities, and plenty of teams don't -- including the Rams for about the last 13 years. These Rams have and, stunningly, they are tied with the Seahawks and have a two-game lead on the Cardinals a quarter of the way into the season. Plus they hold tiebreakers on both teams.
They're doing all this with Jared Goff, the No. 1 pick in April's draft and the team's would-be savior, sitting on the sideline. Meanwhile, five rookie quarterbacks, all drafted below (and in some cases, way below) Goff have played this year, going 9-4 in games they've started or in which they've gotten serious playing time.
That shouldn't be a knock on Goff. How can he be better than Carson Wentz when he's not on the field? Remember, Wentz didn't win a starting job in Philly. Like all four of the other rookies to get playing time this year, he only got on the field because of an injury to somebody else. Goff might be a victim of circumstance. The guy he's backing up hasn't gotten hurt.
It's absurd. Sitting as a rookie, even as a No. 1 pick, has been the rule for most of the common-draft era, not the exception. The difference with the others is that they weren't immediately dismissed as busts because of a bad preseason and the success of guys taken below him.
Goff's image isn't helped by the nonstop NFL news cycle, which declares successes or failures every week. There was a way to finesse the narrative and the Rams trampled all over it. It wasn't as if Fisher badmouthed Goff, but everything he said sounded like a dig. The coach qualified his statements."Jared's had a great camp. So has [then second-string quarterback] Sean [Mannion]." He bit when asked questions about Goff's status and implicitly confirmed these negative rumors. "It's unfair to compare him to anybody else."(Well, now that's exactly what we're doing!) And then did it some more."Regardless of what everybody else is saying out there, [Goff is] our quarterback; he's going to be our franchise player. It's just not right now." It was baffling. Jeff Fisher knows everything he says will dissected into minutiae. Yet there he was, burying his quarterback while tacitly defending him.
L.A. set up its preseason like a competition, one that Goff finished in a distant third with his unsure play and constant fumbles. Had Fisher set expectations lower, saying Goff was likely to sit early, then the entire idea of Goff as a disappointment never gets started. The Rams started this, not the media or the fans.
Maybe the Rams blew it trading up and taking Goff. Maybe Wentz was the pick. Maybe they should have waited and taken a Paxton Lynch or a Dak Prescott later. Or maybe they did it exactly right, making Goff a rookie backup -- the same as other No. overall 1 picks like Palmer, Michael Vick and Eli Manning -- and waiting for him to blossom into the talent everybody anticipated him becoming.
For the Rams, it's a wonderful problem. You have a young quarterback improving each week. You have a team left for dead in Week 1 that is now atop of what's been the NFL's most competitive division in the last five years. And you have a No. 1 pick waiting in the wings, his future unwritten despite attempts to the contrary.
Week 4 Cheerleader winner:
- By Merlin
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 1 Replies
Think it's time to start giving the workin girls some recognition!
*** Winner ***
Congrats Falcons!
*** Runner up ***
Congrats Cardinals! (It's not easy lookin that delicious when your team gets punked by a division rival)
*** Winner ***
Congrats Falcons!
*** Runner up ***
Congrats Cardinals! (It's not easy lookin that delicious when your team gets punked by a division rival)
Game 4 Photos!!!!
- By DaveFan'51
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 7 Replies
Just grabbed these up for you!!
MORE TO COME!!
MORE TO COME!!
