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These are only excerpts from this article. To read the whole thing click the link below. Btw there's a story on Lawrence Phillips, Jeff Fisher and the Rams included here further down the page.
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http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/01/18/cardinals-packers-hail-mary-coin-flip-nfl-divisional-playoffs
‘Game Over. Nope.’
Hail Mary heaves, coins that don't flip and a play Bruce Arians had been saving for two years: Everything from the Cardinals-Packers playoff game for the ages. Plus a look at the wins by Carolina, New England and Denver, title game previews and more
By Peter King
Christian Petersen/Getty Images
A day later, it still felt unreal to Bruce Arians. All of it. Since 1967, Arians has played high school and college football, then coached college and pro football … 48 years altogether … and on Sunday morning in Arizona, he considered this question: Of all the games you’ve ever played and coached, where does Saturday night’s overtime win over Green Bay rank?
Forty-eight years now. Keep that in mind. Coaching under Bear Bryant, coaching Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger and Andrew Luck and now Carson Palmer and Larry Fitzgerald—14 coaching jobs in all.
“That probably was the most dramatic up-and-down, end-to-end game and finish of my life,” Arians said. “We stop ’em on fourth down. Game over. Nope. We got ’em fourth-and-20 way back at the goal line. Game over. Nope. We blew that one. Then they throw a Hail Mary on the last play of the fourth quarter and we get good pressure. Game over. Nope.
“And then overtime. They can’t even flip a coin. Then Larry makes that first play—unbelievable—75 yards, thought he was going to score. And then the play I’ve been saving for two years. I love that touchdown play.”
Very good weekend of football. Start with the very slow hurry-up offense by the Chiefs, trying in vain to catch New England. Then Arizona 26, Green Bay 20, in overtime. Then bizarro world hits Charlotte. First half Sunday: Carolina 31, Seattle 0. Second half: Seattle 24, Carolina 0. Finally, in what looked like it might be The Last Game of Peyton Manning’s Life, Denver rallied late and survived the Steelers. Oh, and happy birthday, Deflategate. You’re 1 today.
If we go over every crazy thing, it’d be a novella. I will bypass Carson Palmer throwing the inexplicable end-zone pick to Damarious Randall, and Fitzgerald playing Gumby to stretch for the last few centimeters of a 13-yard gain on a second-and-13, and the ping-pong Fitzgerald/Randall/Michael Floyd touchdown connection, and Rodgers throwing the fourth-and-five pass to James Jones about 4.9 yards but just not enough, and Jeff Janis catching two passes from Rodgers for 101 yards:
• In 55 seconds.
• On the same drive.
• Both times with two defenders hanging all over him.
• After having 95 yards receiving for his career entering the game.
• After not having a 100-yard receiving game since getting 230 yards against Northern Michigan for the Saginaw Valley State Cardinals in 2013.
Photo: Norm Hall/Getty Images
Aaron Rodgers completed two desperation heaves down the stretch, including this one at the end of regulation.
And then the overtime coin flip, when the coin didn’t flip, and on the spur of the moment, despite there being nothing in the rule book about it, ref Clete Blakeman picked up the heavy gold coin that did not flip and decided to just flip it again—which, probably, was the most judicious thing to do, and lucky for him the coin came up heads both times and the Cardinals got the ball, and …
Remember that story I did on Carson Palmer learning and absorbing and putting into action a game plan? And I wrote about this play called Pistol Strong Right Stack Act 6 Y Cross Divide? On the first play of overtime, its cousin got used.
“We used your play!” Larry Fitzgerald said Sunday. And the Cardinals did—almost.
In Pistol Strong, the play is designed to get one deep receiver isolated in a mismatch. When I wrote about it in November, the deep man was Fitzgerald, on Cleveland safety Donte Whitner. Fitzgerald had Whitner beaten by a couple of steps, but the ball fell about four to six inches past the receiver’s lunging dive. This time John Brown and Michael Floyd started from the left, Brown streaking to the post in the Fitzgerald role, and Floyd running the deep cross. Tight end Darren Fells was Palmer’s hot man, just beyond the flat, and Fitzgerald, from a tight right spot next to the right tackle, flashed across the formation, underneath the two deeper routes.
“We called it earlier in the game,” Arians said, “but Carson audibled to a run. This time I told him to stay with it—I thought something would be there. That’s the ‘divide’ play. You’re going to get an open man.”
“That’s Bruce,” Fitzgerald said. “A savant. He just knows.”
One problem: Palmer got flushed to his right immediately, and looked like he might have to throw it away or dump it off. “But the good thing about Carson,” said Fitzgerald, “is that even when he’s flushed, he keeps his eyes downfield, looking to make a play.”
And there was Fitzgerald, all alone, stuck in a hole in the zone. Sometimes these things happen. You can’t explain them. Someone on defense errs, and leaves a Hall of Fame receiver open in overtime of a playoff game in one of the biggest and costliest mistakes a defense could ever make. Palmer flung it across the field and Fitzgerald caught it and headed up the left sideline. “Sam Shields was converging on me pretty quick,” said Fitzgerald, “and he thought probably I would just go out bounds. I just put my foot in the ground, changed directions a little and said, ‘Heck with it. I’m going for it.’ ”
Photo: John W. McDonough for Sports Illustrated/The MMQB
Fitzgerald cuts back during his 75-yard catch-and-run in the Cardinals’ wild win over the Packers.
He was tackled at the Green Bay five. Gain of 75, on what looked like it would be a sack.
On TV, it sounded like the NBC truck in Glendale had to muffle the sound or it would pop eardrums. That’s how crazy the place was going.
Second-and-goal from the five now.
“Since the start of training camp last year, we’ve had this play we’ve practiced I’d say almost every week,” Fitzgerald said. “I bet we’ve practiced it 30 to 40 times. Bruce was just waiting for the right time.”
Palmer in shotgun. Brown in motion from left to right. Quick snap. If the defensive end bears down on Palmer, he flips to Fitzgerald, who tried to find a crease in the line so he can burrow into the end zone. If the flow goes to Fitzgerald, Palmer keeps and throws a fade into the end zone.
“There are plays you just save for times like this,” Arians said. “I thought they would pay so much attention down there to [running back] David Johnson, and they’d never seen this on tape, Larry taking it.”
“Why Bruce picks this time, I don’t know, but he just knew,” Fitzgerald said.
Snap, flip to Fitzgerald, Lyle Sendlein and Mike Iupati pave the way, and it’s not even that hard. Larry Fitzgerald has never taken a Favrian flip from the quarterback in the middle of the line of scrimmage and run it through the line for a touchdown. It’s not just the imagination of a play like that. It’s the shock of it. The timing, the situation. Practice made perfect. It looked so natural, like they’d rehearsed it 30 to 40 times over the past two years. That’s because they had. That’s what great play-callers with great players do.
The greatest touchdown pass of Carson Palmer’s professional life, the one that won him his first playoff game of a distinguished 13-year NFL career …
Thrown left-handed. About three yards in the air.
And that’s one of about 67 reasons why Saturday night’s playoff game—Arizona 26, Green Bay 20, overtime—is one none of us will ever forget.
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Photo: Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Tom Brady and Peyton Manning will meet for the 17th—and final?—time Sunday.
Now a quick early preview of Sunday’s championship games. Interesting so far. On wild-card weekend, road teams won all four games. On divisional weekend, home teams won all four games.
Victory margins in the past seven games, after the playoff-opening 30-0 Kansas City rout of Houston: 2, 1, 17, 7, 6, 7 and 7.
First time since 2004 each conference has a second seed-at-first seed championship game, by the way. That year, New England also won on the road, beating previously 16-1 Pittsburgh and rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger 41-27.
AFC Championship Game: No. 2 New England (13-4) at No. 1 Denver (13-4), Sports Authority Field at Mile High, Denver, 1:05 p.m. Mountain Time (3:05 ET), CBS.
I’m not going to be much into the myth-making this week, because Brady-Manning 17 is far different from almost every one of the previous models. I will give you this little bit of history, from Gary Myers’ book about the two quarterbacks: Brady-Manning I was Tom Brady’s first NFL start. It came in September 2001, two games after 9/11. Before the game, Myers writes, Manning walked from his side of the field to Brady’s and stuck his hand out. “Hey, Tom,” said the first pick in the 1998 draft to the 199th pick in 2000. “Peyton.” Manning threw three interceptions that day and was yanked for—ready for this?—Mark Rypien.
The Patriots rolled, 44-13. Fourteen years and four months later, they meet for what might be the last time; this could be it for Manning, 39, in Denver. He realizes this is not going to be a match of him versus Brady. It’s much more Brady vs. Denver D. “Our defense has been outstanding all season,” Manning said Sunday evening, after Denver 23, Pittsburgh 16, when the kicker scored all but eight of the Denver points. “They have led us to this point—let’s make that clear. Offensively, we did just enough to win.” I’ll give a slew of praise later in the column to the New England offensive line and its coach, Dave DeGuglielmo, because the line was phenomenal in the win over Kansas City.
But it’s going to have to be equally strong against Denver. The Broncos got four sacks and 20 hurries of Ben Roethlisberger (according to Pro Football Focus) on Sunday, with rising star Derek Wolfe beginning to justify his $36 million contract, signed last week, with a sack and five hurries. The Patriots will have to be stout on the edges, as they were against the Chiefs, for Brady to have the kind of time he needs to have a big day in his fifth straight AFC title game.
NFC Championship Game: No. 2 Arizona (14-3) at No.1 Carolina (16-1), Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, 6:40 p.m. Eastern Time, FOX.
The Carolina locker room was abuzz with talk about what they’d seen Saturday night in Arizona’s 26-20 overtime thrill ride over Green Bay. “What a game!” Ron Rivera said. And this from Josh Norman on the 32-playing-like-25 Larry Fitzgerald: “The guy is crafty. What’s the saying? The older you get the finer the wine. Is that what it is? The man is ballin’, and he’s doing it at a high level.” Carolina’s a strange team, capable of being dominant like no other, then letting teams off the hook.
First half Sunday: Carolina 31, Seattle 0. Second half: Seattle 24, Carolina 0. “My fault,” said Rivera. “I’ve got to make sure we retain that sense of urgency.” Maybe … but the trend is concerning. Over the past six weeks, Carolina’s defense has surrendered 22 (New Orleans), 28 (Giants) and 24 (Seattle) points in the second half. The offense is always good enough to outscore people—all but once this year. Green Bay’s pressure packages got to Carson Palmer on Saturday night, so look for Carolina’s diverse and deep group of interior and exterior rushers—defensive tackle Kawann Short is growing to be a superstar before our eyes—to be turned loose by defensive coordinator Sean McDermott in Charlotte on Sunday.
That makes shorter routes by Fitzgerald and emerging receiving weapon David Johnson (23 targets the past three weeks) important for Carolina to monitor. But Arizona coach Bruce Arians is going to call six or eight deep throws for Palmer, because that’s what he does. So Norman had better be ballin’ at a high level too.
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Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Sunday might have been the final time Marshawn Lynch puts on a Seahawks helmet.
Memo to teams 5 through 8: You’re not far away
What should be on the to-do lists of the weekend’s four losers:
Kansas City: The Chiefs will have an offensive coordinator job to fill, and odds are that Andy Reid will tab quarterbacks coach Matt Nagy to replace new Eagles coach Doug Pederson … Reid, likely, will keep calling the plays. He needs someone on his staff to challenge him about clock management. The hurry-up offense exhibited against New England was stuck in concrete Saturday. Sometimes a head coach is so all-powerful that staffers are reticent to speak up and tell him when something’s wrong. Well, something in the hurry-up is very, very wrong …
Very big free-agency year, with elder statesmen Derrick Johnson and Tamba Hali, drafted 11 and 10 years ago, respectively, both on the market. GM John Dorsey’s not likely to keep both. Or either. I would think he’d be more inclined to spend for 28-year-old corner Sean Smith and 27-year-old safety Eric Berry, who had a very good bounce-back year after his treatment for cancer.
Pittsburgh: The Steelers won’t get slugged in free agency, with no stars on the market. They could re-sign versatile inside/outside cornerback William Gay and guard Ramon Foster … It’s time for the Steelers to invest a high draft choice in a tight end to become the sort of offensive threat the Chiefs have developed with Travis Kelce and the Bengals with Tyler Eifert—and one the rival Ravens think they have with Maxx Williams.
Ben Roethlisberger has enough deep weapons. Now he needs an athletic intermediate weapon … If I were the Rooneys, I’d be very encouraged looking at my team. The defense is getting rebuilt on the fly under a new coordinator who had a good year, Keith Butler, and the offense is potent and fun and put up 396 yards on the best defense in the conference without Antonio Brown on Sunday … Steelers need a backup quarterback to challenge Landry Jones, with Mike Vick likely not in the plans …
Pittsburgh shouldn’t lose its edge, nor should it back down from opponents. But having an assistant coach like Joey Porter mouthing off to even the most obnoxious of foes is not a good look for a proud franchise … It’s amazing to say, but the Steelers should bring back James Harrison at 38 next year.
Green Bay: I’ll probably disagree with the common green-and-gold wisdom here, but I don’t think Green Bay has a crying need at receiver. How do you not like the competitive zeal of Jeff Janis, the 2014 seventh-rounder who came up so big in the playoff game at Arizona? With Jordy Nelson back and the pressure off Randall Cobb, Janis (strong and unafraid on balls he has to fight for) and Ty Montgomery and Davante Adams are certainly capable of filling out a wideout depth chart …
James Jones is a free agent and might be a luxury Thompson decides he can’t afford … Someone’s got to get to Eddie Lacy. His long run against Arizona was more something to cringe at than to celebrate. Lacy is overweight, slow and unfocused. If I were Ted Thompson, I’d draft his replacement, sign James Starks in free agency, and make Lacy come back and earn his playing time … Green Bay needs to invest in a pass-rusher. Julius Peppers turns 36 today.
Seattle: Even the most ardent Marshawn Lynch fan has to see it’s over for him, with the Seahawks needing cap space to sign cornerstone players. They’d save $6.5 million if they cut him, and Thomas Rawls, if he rehabs well, is a good and cheap candidate to replace him … GM John Schneider has bigger problems than the public outcry when he lets Lynch walk. No longer can Seattle have the attitude that Tom Cable can fix everything on the offensive line. It was too consistently a sieve, and Schneider needs to spend multiple draft picks fixing it this spring …
Of course, he also has a big decision to make on a player who’s supposed to be a franchise left tackle, Russell Okung. He’s actually average to good … The reason the line’s probably more important than anything else: Russell Wilson bounced up from every hit this year, and there were some monstrous blows. But that can’t last forever, and Wilson is far and away the most important player for this franchise
… It’ll be interesting to see if Schneider address Kam Chancellor’s contract, or Michael Bennett’s, with two years left on each … I remember how high the Seahawks were in training camp on rookie corner Tye Smith. Now will they figure they can let Jeremy Lane walk and give Smith a shot at the full-time corner opposite Richard Sherman?
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Photo: Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images
ESPN’s Chris Mortensen is taking a leave of absence after being diagnosed with throat cancer.
Get well, Chris Mortensen
Today’s a day I hope we can pause and send our best wishes and prayers to information maestro Chris Mortensen of ESPN. Mort announced Friday he was taking a leave of absence from on-air work covering the NFL to fight throat cancer. “More than a week ago,” he said in a statement, “I was diagnosed with a Stage IV throat cancer.
The initial diagnosis was confirmed Friday and there is another test remaining that will determine the best possible treatment plan that will commence in the very immediate future … I have many inspirational examples of men, women and children who have faced this very fight … I have a peace about this and look forward to the battle.”
Mortensen will be treated at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for what has been described as a treatable form of cancer. Before starting treatment, he did have one great family moment, being in Arizona for Alabama’s 45-40 national championship victory over Clemson. His son Alex is a graduate assistant coach on Nick Saban’s staff, and father and son got to take a picture together on the field after the game.
When I think of the 63-year-old Mortensen, who has been at the pinnacle of the NFL information game for two decades, I think of two competing traits that don’t always mesh, but in his case they do: ardent competitor, incredibly nice person. “We’ve been going at it in this business pretty much every week since 1999,” said Jay Glazer of FOX, “and you know me—I enjoy the fight. So does he.
But while this business has gotten so much more competitive, and lousier, he’s never gone there, once. I mean, I’m his main competitor, and there were times I’d call him and ask for professional advice, and he’d call me back as quick as he’d call back his best sources. He’s the epitome of a good person.”
Mortensen is respected in the business, and by the players he covers. That showed Saturday after the breathless end to Packers-Cards, when Larry Fitzgerald, the hero of the game, was interviewed onfield by ESPN and said, “Mort, want to tell you we’re thinking about you. Fight baby. Love you.”
“He's the best in the business,” Tony Romo said via text on Saturday. “He’s reached out to me during the good times and bad. If we talked 30 times he’s probably only used it on air twice. He just likes to catch up and cares about the people he knows. He’s as genuine a person as I know in the business.”
Then Romo said what a lot of people who know Mort were saying over the weekend.
“We are praying for him.”
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Photo: Paul Nisely/Sporting News via Getty Images
Drafted sixth overall in 1996, Lawrence Phillips rushed for 1,453 yards in parts of four seasons with three teams. He was out of the NFL by 1999.
Lawrence Phillips: Born 1975. Died 2016.
Lawrence Phillips died in his California prison cell, a suicide, on Wednesday while he served a 31-year sentence for domestic abuse and assault with a deadly weapon, among other things. Phillips had a rough upbringing, living in a juvenile home for a time, in the foster-case system starting at 11, and for awhile not attending school at all. When Phillips enrolled Nebraska, trouble followed. He was arrested for assaulting a woman there, then entered the NFL draft in 1996 as the most talented running back coming out that year.
Owner Art Modell of the recently relocated Baltimore Ravens (having moved from Cleveland) wanted new GM Ozzie Newsome to draft Phillips to help the Ravens sell tickets. Newsome politely but firmly said no and chose Jonathan Ogden number four overall. Phillips went sixth, to the Rams. The next year I chronicled Dick Vermeil’s first season back in football after a long absence. There were three parts of the story that had to do with Phillips, and they might help explain what happened to this talented player that would lead him to live a life as marked by turmoil and tragedy as it was by football.
July 17, 1997, Macomb, Ill. (training camp): The coach has organized a large support system for Phillips: front-office people, a psychotherapist, lawyers and peers. Rams vice president Lynn Stiles devoted much of the off-season to helping Phillips resolve his myriad legal problems and schedule his community service. Kevin Warren, another Rams vice president, has just joined the team and is also on the Phillips watch. And late yesterday, hours before veterans were to report to camp, Warren spirited Phillips out of his dorm and drove him to St. Louis.
Today Phillips will complete the 80 hours of off-season service he was ordered to perform after his probation violation. He presents himself at the city morgue to do manual labor. He and Warren are ushered into a room where the coroner unzips a body bag. Inside it lies the corpse of a woman riddled with 16 bullet holes, most around the groin. She was shot outside a riverboat casino, reportedly by an angry boyfriend. Phillips has never seen anything so gruesome.
“Her poor family,” he says. He and Warren see other bodies—one of a man who overdosed on heroin and another, badly decomposed, of a man found in the woods. Warren and Phillips skip lunch. On the way back to camp in the afternoon, Warren pulls into a McDonald’s drive-thru. Phillips orders nothing. Still too shaken.
Aug. 31, 1997, St. Louis (after the opening game of the season): The day is close to perfect. The Rams win, and Phillips rushes for 125 yards and three touchdowns. In the locker room the coach’s lip quivers. “Gimme the ball,” Vermeil says, palming the game ball. “Game ball goes to one man. I’m so proud of this guy. He’s been through so much. I’ve been to jail with him, and we’ve talked about everything. Now his life’s turning around. It’s all looking up for him now …
Lawrence Phillips!” The players pump their fists and yell “WOO-WOO-WOO!” All eyes are on Phillips. He takes the ball, casts his glance toward the floor and says quietly, “Can't do it without the linemen.” That’s it. A wet blanket over the moment.
Nov. 16, 1997, St. Louis: The Rams lose to Atlanta 27-21. Compounding the problem: the I.V. line stuck in Phillips’s arm. Vermeil says the running back has the flu. What he has is the alcohol-related flu. Already getting fined daily for being eight pounds over his prescribed playing weight of 225, Phillips is still dehydrated after a Friday night of drinking. Adding the drinking bout, in violation of a rider Phillips signed to his rookie contract, to the approximately 20 fines he has accumulated this year for mostly minor infractions, Vermeil knew he had to do something.
Vermeil calls Phillips and tells him that he isn’t sure what he’s going to do, but that this accumulation of black marks will have some consequences. “When you go to practice today,” Vermeil says, “you'll go out as Jerald Moore’s backup.” The coach sees no difference in Phillips’s demeanor. He doesn’t get the apology he wanted.
Finally, Vermeil says, “Lawrence, tell me something. What would you do if you were me?”
Phillips thinks for a moment. “Coach,” he says, “I’d cut me.”
The next day, Vermeil cuts him. Phillips shows no sadness, no anger. Nothing.
Over the next six years, Phillips was released by Miami and San Francisco of the NFL, Florida of the Arena Football League, and Montreal and Calgary of the Canadian Football League. In 2005, while wanted in connection with two domestic violence incidents, he drove his car into a crowd of three teenagers after a dispute during a pickup football game. Last Sept. 1, incarcerated in California, Phillips was charged with choking to death his cellmate.
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Jeff Fisher will enter his 22nd season as head coach in 2016, working in his second organization. He will be coaching in his sixth home stadium. Pretty odd, for someone who has worked for two teams. The roll call of his home fields:
Years........... Seasons........ Team..........................Stadium........................................ Record
1994-96....... 3................... Oilers......................... Astrodome (Houston).................... 16-22
1997............ 1................... Titans......................... Liberty Bowl (Memphis)................ 8-8
1998............ 1................... Titans......................... Vanderbilt Stadium (Nashville)........8-8
1999-2010.. 12.................. Titans......................... Multi-named stadium (Nashville)....115-88
2012-15...... 4.................... Rams.......................... Edward Jones Dome (St. Louis)..... 27-36-1
2016........... -- ................... Rams.......................... L.A. Coliseum (Los Angeles)......... --
Coaching seasons: 21. Venues: 6. Record: 174-162-1.
II
Just for the record, the Rams were born in Cleveland in 1937. Follow the bouncing franchise:
• Seasons in Cleveland: 8. (No team fielded in 1943 due to World War II.)
• Seasons in Los Angeles/Anaheim: 49 (34 in L.A., 14 in Anaheim).
• Seasons in St. Louis: 21.
How odd that the Rams, if they so choose, will celebrate their 50th season in southern California this year.
After a 37-year absence, the Rams will resume playing football games in the Los Angeles Coliseum next fall. The winning quarterback in the last NFL game played by the Rams in the Los Angeles Coliseum, in 1979?
Archie Manning.
Saints 29, Rams 14.
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http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/01/18/cardinals-packers-hail-mary-coin-flip-nfl-divisional-playoffs
‘Game Over. Nope.’
Hail Mary heaves, coins that don't flip and a play Bruce Arians had been saving for two years: Everything from the Cardinals-Packers playoff game for the ages. Plus a look at the wins by Carolina, New England and Denver, title game previews and more
By Peter King
Christian Petersen/Getty Images
A day later, it still felt unreal to Bruce Arians. All of it. Since 1967, Arians has played high school and college football, then coached college and pro football … 48 years altogether … and on Sunday morning in Arizona, he considered this question: Of all the games you’ve ever played and coached, where does Saturday night’s overtime win over Green Bay rank?
Forty-eight years now. Keep that in mind. Coaching under Bear Bryant, coaching Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger and Andrew Luck and now Carson Palmer and Larry Fitzgerald—14 coaching jobs in all.
“That probably was the most dramatic up-and-down, end-to-end game and finish of my life,” Arians said. “We stop ’em on fourth down. Game over. Nope. We got ’em fourth-and-20 way back at the goal line. Game over. Nope. We blew that one. Then they throw a Hail Mary on the last play of the fourth quarter and we get good pressure. Game over. Nope.
“And then overtime. They can’t even flip a coin. Then Larry makes that first play—unbelievable—75 yards, thought he was going to score. And then the play I’ve been saving for two years. I love that touchdown play.”
Very good weekend of football. Start with the very slow hurry-up offense by the Chiefs, trying in vain to catch New England. Then Arizona 26, Green Bay 20, in overtime. Then bizarro world hits Charlotte. First half Sunday: Carolina 31, Seattle 0. Second half: Seattle 24, Carolina 0. Finally, in what looked like it might be The Last Game of Peyton Manning’s Life, Denver rallied late and survived the Steelers. Oh, and happy birthday, Deflategate. You’re 1 today.
If we go over every crazy thing, it’d be a novella. I will bypass Carson Palmer throwing the inexplicable end-zone pick to Damarious Randall, and Fitzgerald playing Gumby to stretch for the last few centimeters of a 13-yard gain on a second-and-13, and the ping-pong Fitzgerald/Randall/Michael Floyd touchdown connection, and Rodgers throwing the fourth-and-five pass to James Jones about 4.9 yards but just not enough, and Jeff Janis catching two passes from Rodgers for 101 yards:
• In 55 seconds.
• On the same drive.
• Both times with two defenders hanging all over him.
• After having 95 yards receiving for his career entering the game.
• After not having a 100-yard receiving game since getting 230 yards against Northern Michigan for the Saginaw Valley State Cardinals in 2013.
Photo: Norm Hall/Getty Images
Aaron Rodgers completed two desperation heaves down the stretch, including this one at the end of regulation.
And then the overtime coin flip, when the coin didn’t flip, and on the spur of the moment, despite there being nothing in the rule book about it, ref Clete Blakeman picked up the heavy gold coin that did not flip and decided to just flip it again—which, probably, was the most judicious thing to do, and lucky for him the coin came up heads both times and the Cardinals got the ball, and …
Remember that story I did on Carson Palmer learning and absorbing and putting into action a game plan? And I wrote about this play called Pistol Strong Right Stack Act 6 Y Cross Divide? On the first play of overtime, its cousin got used.
“We used your play!” Larry Fitzgerald said Sunday. And the Cardinals did—almost.
In Pistol Strong, the play is designed to get one deep receiver isolated in a mismatch. When I wrote about it in November, the deep man was Fitzgerald, on Cleveland safety Donte Whitner. Fitzgerald had Whitner beaten by a couple of steps, but the ball fell about four to six inches past the receiver’s lunging dive. This time John Brown and Michael Floyd started from the left, Brown streaking to the post in the Fitzgerald role, and Floyd running the deep cross. Tight end Darren Fells was Palmer’s hot man, just beyond the flat, and Fitzgerald, from a tight right spot next to the right tackle, flashed across the formation, underneath the two deeper routes.
“We called it earlier in the game,” Arians said, “but Carson audibled to a run. This time I told him to stay with it—I thought something would be there. That’s the ‘divide’ play. You’re going to get an open man.”
“That’s Bruce,” Fitzgerald said. “A savant. He just knows.”
One problem: Palmer got flushed to his right immediately, and looked like he might have to throw it away or dump it off. “But the good thing about Carson,” said Fitzgerald, “is that even when he’s flushed, he keeps his eyes downfield, looking to make a play.”
And there was Fitzgerald, all alone, stuck in a hole in the zone. Sometimes these things happen. You can’t explain them. Someone on defense errs, and leaves a Hall of Fame receiver open in overtime of a playoff game in one of the biggest and costliest mistakes a defense could ever make. Palmer flung it across the field and Fitzgerald caught it and headed up the left sideline. “Sam Shields was converging on me pretty quick,” said Fitzgerald, “and he thought probably I would just go out bounds. I just put my foot in the ground, changed directions a little and said, ‘Heck with it. I’m going for it.’ ”
Photo: John W. McDonough for Sports Illustrated/The MMQB
Fitzgerald cuts back during his 75-yard catch-and-run in the Cardinals’ wild win over the Packers.
He was tackled at the Green Bay five. Gain of 75, on what looked like it would be a sack.
On TV, it sounded like the NBC truck in Glendale had to muffle the sound or it would pop eardrums. That’s how crazy the place was going.
Second-and-goal from the five now.
“Since the start of training camp last year, we’ve had this play we’ve practiced I’d say almost every week,” Fitzgerald said. “I bet we’ve practiced it 30 to 40 times. Bruce was just waiting for the right time.”
Palmer in shotgun. Brown in motion from left to right. Quick snap. If the defensive end bears down on Palmer, he flips to Fitzgerald, who tried to find a crease in the line so he can burrow into the end zone. If the flow goes to Fitzgerald, Palmer keeps and throws a fade into the end zone.
“There are plays you just save for times like this,” Arians said. “I thought they would pay so much attention down there to [running back] David Johnson, and they’d never seen this on tape, Larry taking it.”
“Why Bruce picks this time, I don’t know, but he just knew,” Fitzgerald said.
Snap, flip to Fitzgerald, Lyle Sendlein and Mike Iupati pave the way, and it’s not even that hard. Larry Fitzgerald has never taken a Favrian flip from the quarterback in the middle of the line of scrimmage and run it through the line for a touchdown. It’s not just the imagination of a play like that. It’s the shock of it. The timing, the situation. Practice made perfect. It looked so natural, like they’d rehearsed it 30 to 40 times over the past two years. That’s because they had. That’s what great play-callers with great players do.
The greatest touchdown pass of Carson Palmer’s professional life, the one that won him his first playoff game of a distinguished 13-year NFL career …
Thrown left-handed. About three yards in the air.
And that’s one of about 67 reasons why Saturday night’s playoff game—Arizona 26, Green Bay 20, overtime—is one none of us will ever forget.
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Photo: Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Tom Brady and Peyton Manning will meet for the 17th—and final?—time Sunday.
Now a quick early preview of Sunday’s championship games. Interesting so far. On wild-card weekend, road teams won all four games. On divisional weekend, home teams won all four games.
Victory margins in the past seven games, after the playoff-opening 30-0 Kansas City rout of Houston: 2, 1, 17, 7, 6, 7 and 7.
First time since 2004 each conference has a second seed-at-first seed championship game, by the way. That year, New England also won on the road, beating previously 16-1 Pittsburgh and rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger 41-27.
AFC Championship Game: No. 2 New England (13-4) at No. 1 Denver (13-4), Sports Authority Field at Mile High, Denver, 1:05 p.m. Mountain Time (3:05 ET), CBS.
I’m not going to be much into the myth-making this week, because Brady-Manning 17 is far different from almost every one of the previous models. I will give you this little bit of history, from Gary Myers’ book about the two quarterbacks: Brady-Manning I was Tom Brady’s first NFL start. It came in September 2001, two games after 9/11. Before the game, Myers writes, Manning walked from his side of the field to Brady’s and stuck his hand out. “Hey, Tom,” said the first pick in the 1998 draft to the 199th pick in 2000. “Peyton.” Manning threw three interceptions that day and was yanked for—ready for this?—Mark Rypien.
The Patriots rolled, 44-13. Fourteen years and four months later, they meet for what might be the last time; this could be it for Manning, 39, in Denver. He realizes this is not going to be a match of him versus Brady. It’s much more Brady vs. Denver D. “Our defense has been outstanding all season,” Manning said Sunday evening, after Denver 23, Pittsburgh 16, when the kicker scored all but eight of the Denver points. “They have led us to this point—let’s make that clear. Offensively, we did just enough to win.” I’ll give a slew of praise later in the column to the New England offensive line and its coach, Dave DeGuglielmo, because the line was phenomenal in the win over Kansas City.
But it’s going to have to be equally strong against Denver. The Broncos got four sacks and 20 hurries of Ben Roethlisberger (according to Pro Football Focus) on Sunday, with rising star Derek Wolfe beginning to justify his $36 million contract, signed last week, with a sack and five hurries. The Patriots will have to be stout on the edges, as they were against the Chiefs, for Brady to have the kind of time he needs to have a big day in his fifth straight AFC title game.
NFC Championship Game: No. 2 Arizona (14-3) at No.1 Carolina (16-1), Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, 6:40 p.m. Eastern Time, FOX.
The Carolina locker room was abuzz with talk about what they’d seen Saturday night in Arizona’s 26-20 overtime thrill ride over Green Bay. “What a game!” Ron Rivera said. And this from Josh Norman on the 32-playing-like-25 Larry Fitzgerald: “The guy is crafty. What’s the saying? The older you get the finer the wine. Is that what it is? The man is ballin’, and he’s doing it at a high level.” Carolina’s a strange team, capable of being dominant like no other, then letting teams off the hook.
First half Sunday: Carolina 31, Seattle 0. Second half: Seattle 24, Carolina 0. “My fault,” said Rivera. “I’ve got to make sure we retain that sense of urgency.” Maybe … but the trend is concerning. Over the past six weeks, Carolina’s defense has surrendered 22 (New Orleans), 28 (Giants) and 24 (Seattle) points in the second half. The offense is always good enough to outscore people—all but once this year. Green Bay’s pressure packages got to Carson Palmer on Saturday night, so look for Carolina’s diverse and deep group of interior and exterior rushers—defensive tackle Kawann Short is growing to be a superstar before our eyes—to be turned loose by defensive coordinator Sean McDermott in Charlotte on Sunday.
That makes shorter routes by Fitzgerald and emerging receiving weapon David Johnson (23 targets the past three weeks) important for Carolina to monitor. But Arizona coach Bruce Arians is going to call six or eight deep throws for Palmer, because that’s what he does. So Norman had better be ballin’ at a high level too.
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Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Sunday might have been the final time Marshawn Lynch puts on a Seahawks helmet.
Memo to teams 5 through 8: You’re not far away
What should be on the to-do lists of the weekend’s four losers:
Kansas City: The Chiefs will have an offensive coordinator job to fill, and odds are that Andy Reid will tab quarterbacks coach Matt Nagy to replace new Eagles coach Doug Pederson … Reid, likely, will keep calling the plays. He needs someone on his staff to challenge him about clock management. The hurry-up offense exhibited against New England was stuck in concrete Saturday. Sometimes a head coach is so all-powerful that staffers are reticent to speak up and tell him when something’s wrong. Well, something in the hurry-up is very, very wrong …
Very big free-agency year, with elder statesmen Derrick Johnson and Tamba Hali, drafted 11 and 10 years ago, respectively, both on the market. GM John Dorsey’s not likely to keep both. Or either. I would think he’d be more inclined to spend for 28-year-old corner Sean Smith and 27-year-old safety Eric Berry, who had a very good bounce-back year after his treatment for cancer.
Pittsburgh: The Steelers won’t get slugged in free agency, with no stars on the market. They could re-sign versatile inside/outside cornerback William Gay and guard Ramon Foster … It’s time for the Steelers to invest a high draft choice in a tight end to become the sort of offensive threat the Chiefs have developed with Travis Kelce and the Bengals with Tyler Eifert—and one the rival Ravens think they have with Maxx Williams.
Ben Roethlisberger has enough deep weapons. Now he needs an athletic intermediate weapon … If I were the Rooneys, I’d be very encouraged looking at my team. The defense is getting rebuilt on the fly under a new coordinator who had a good year, Keith Butler, and the offense is potent and fun and put up 396 yards on the best defense in the conference without Antonio Brown on Sunday … Steelers need a backup quarterback to challenge Landry Jones, with Mike Vick likely not in the plans …
Pittsburgh shouldn’t lose its edge, nor should it back down from opponents. But having an assistant coach like Joey Porter mouthing off to even the most obnoxious of foes is not a good look for a proud franchise … It’s amazing to say, but the Steelers should bring back James Harrison at 38 next year.
Green Bay: I’ll probably disagree with the common green-and-gold wisdom here, but I don’t think Green Bay has a crying need at receiver. How do you not like the competitive zeal of Jeff Janis, the 2014 seventh-rounder who came up so big in the playoff game at Arizona? With Jordy Nelson back and the pressure off Randall Cobb, Janis (strong and unafraid on balls he has to fight for) and Ty Montgomery and Davante Adams are certainly capable of filling out a wideout depth chart …
James Jones is a free agent and might be a luxury Thompson decides he can’t afford … Someone’s got to get to Eddie Lacy. His long run against Arizona was more something to cringe at than to celebrate. Lacy is overweight, slow and unfocused. If I were Ted Thompson, I’d draft his replacement, sign James Starks in free agency, and make Lacy come back and earn his playing time … Green Bay needs to invest in a pass-rusher. Julius Peppers turns 36 today.
Seattle: Even the most ardent Marshawn Lynch fan has to see it’s over for him, with the Seahawks needing cap space to sign cornerstone players. They’d save $6.5 million if they cut him, and Thomas Rawls, if he rehabs well, is a good and cheap candidate to replace him … GM John Schneider has bigger problems than the public outcry when he lets Lynch walk. No longer can Seattle have the attitude that Tom Cable can fix everything on the offensive line. It was too consistently a sieve, and Schneider needs to spend multiple draft picks fixing it this spring …
Of course, he also has a big decision to make on a player who’s supposed to be a franchise left tackle, Russell Okung. He’s actually average to good … The reason the line’s probably more important than anything else: Russell Wilson bounced up from every hit this year, and there were some monstrous blows. But that can’t last forever, and Wilson is far and away the most important player for this franchise
… It’ll be interesting to see if Schneider address Kam Chancellor’s contract, or Michael Bennett’s, with two years left on each … I remember how high the Seahawks were in training camp on rookie corner Tye Smith. Now will they figure they can let Jeremy Lane walk and give Smith a shot at the full-time corner opposite Richard Sherman?
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Photo: Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images
ESPN’s Chris Mortensen is taking a leave of absence after being diagnosed with throat cancer.
Get well, Chris Mortensen
Today’s a day I hope we can pause and send our best wishes and prayers to information maestro Chris Mortensen of ESPN. Mort announced Friday he was taking a leave of absence from on-air work covering the NFL to fight throat cancer. “More than a week ago,” he said in a statement, “I was diagnosed with a Stage IV throat cancer.
The initial diagnosis was confirmed Friday and there is another test remaining that will determine the best possible treatment plan that will commence in the very immediate future … I have many inspirational examples of men, women and children who have faced this very fight … I have a peace about this and look forward to the battle.”
Mortensen will be treated at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for what has been described as a treatable form of cancer. Before starting treatment, he did have one great family moment, being in Arizona for Alabama’s 45-40 national championship victory over Clemson. His son Alex is a graduate assistant coach on Nick Saban’s staff, and father and son got to take a picture together on the field after the game.
When I think of the 63-year-old Mortensen, who has been at the pinnacle of the NFL information game for two decades, I think of two competing traits that don’t always mesh, but in his case they do: ardent competitor, incredibly nice person. “We’ve been going at it in this business pretty much every week since 1999,” said Jay Glazer of FOX, “and you know me—I enjoy the fight. So does he.
But while this business has gotten so much more competitive, and lousier, he’s never gone there, once. I mean, I’m his main competitor, and there were times I’d call him and ask for professional advice, and he’d call me back as quick as he’d call back his best sources. He’s the epitome of a good person.”
Mortensen is respected in the business, and by the players he covers. That showed Saturday after the breathless end to Packers-Cards, when Larry Fitzgerald, the hero of the game, was interviewed onfield by ESPN and said, “Mort, want to tell you we’re thinking about you. Fight baby. Love you.”
“He's the best in the business,” Tony Romo said via text on Saturday. “He’s reached out to me during the good times and bad. If we talked 30 times he’s probably only used it on air twice. He just likes to catch up and cares about the people he knows. He’s as genuine a person as I know in the business.”
Then Romo said what a lot of people who know Mort were saying over the weekend.
“We are praying for him.”
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Photo: Paul Nisely/Sporting News via Getty Images
Drafted sixth overall in 1996, Lawrence Phillips rushed for 1,453 yards in parts of four seasons with three teams. He was out of the NFL by 1999.
Lawrence Phillips: Born 1975. Died 2016.
Lawrence Phillips died in his California prison cell, a suicide, on Wednesday while he served a 31-year sentence for domestic abuse and assault with a deadly weapon, among other things. Phillips had a rough upbringing, living in a juvenile home for a time, in the foster-case system starting at 11, and for awhile not attending school at all. When Phillips enrolled Nebraska, trouble followed. He was arrested for assaulting a woman there, then entered the NFL draft in 1996 as the most talented running back coming out that year.
Owner Art Modell of the recently relocated Baltimore Ravens (having moved from Cleveland) wanted new GM Ozzie Newsome to draft Phillips to help the Ravens sell tickets. Newsome politely but firmly said no and chose Jonathan Ogden number four overall. Phillips went sixth, to the Rams. The next year I chronicled Dick Vermeil’s first season back in football after a long absence. There were three parts of the story that had to do with Phillips, and they might help explain what happened to this talented player that would lead him to live a life as marked by turmoil and tragedy as it was by football.
July 17, 1997, Macomb, Ill. (training camp): The coach has organized a large support system for Phillips: front-office people, a psychotherapist, lawyers and peers. Rams vice president Lynn Stiles devoted much of the off-season to helping Phillips resolve his myriad legal problems and schedule his community service. Kevin Warren, another Rams vice president, has just joined the team and is also on the Phillips watch. And late yesterday, hours before veterans were to report to camp, Warren spirited Phillips out of his dorm and drove him to St. Louis.
Today Phillips will complete the 80 hours of off-season service he was ordered to perform after his probation violation. He presents himself at the city morgue to do manual labor. He and Warren are ushered into a room where the coroner unzips a body bag. Inside it lies the corpse of a woman riddled with 16 bullet holes, most around the groin. She was shot outside a riverboat casino, reportedly by an angry boyfriend. Phillips has never seen anything so gruesome.
“Her poor family,” he says. He and Warren see other bodies—one of a man who overdosed on heroin and another, badly decomposed, of a man found in the woods. Warren and Phillips skip lunch. On the way back to camp in the afternoon, Warren pulls into a McDonald’s drive-thru. Phillips orders nothing. Still too shaken.
Aug. 31, 1997, St. Louis (after the opening game of the season): The day is close to perfect. The Rams win, and Phillips rushes for 125 yards and three touchdowns. In the locker room the coach’s lip quivers. “Gimme the ball,” Vermeil says, palming the game ball. “Game ball goes to one man. I’m so proud of this guy. He’s been through so much. I’ve been to jail with him, and we’ve talked about everything. Now his life’s turning around. It’s all looking up for him now …
Lawrence Phillips!” The players pump their fists and yell “WOO-WOO-WOO!” All eyes are on Phillips. He takes the ball, casts his glance toward the floor and says quietly, “Can't do it without the linemen.” That’s it. A wet blanket over the moment.
Nov. 16, 1997, St. Louis: The Rams lose to Atlanta 27-21. Compounding the problem: the I.V. line stuck in Phillips’s arm. Vermeil says the running back has the flu. What he has is the alcohol-related flu. Already getting fined daily for being eight pounds over his prescribed playing weight of 225, Phillips is still dehydrated after a Friday night of drinking. Adding the drinking bout, in violation of a rider Phillips signed to his rookie contract, to the approximately 20 fines he has accumulated this year for mostly minor infractions, Vermeil knew he had to do something.
Vermeil calls Phillips and tells him that he isn’t sure what he’s going to do, but that this accumulation of black marks will have some consequences. “When you go to practice today,” Vermeil says, “you'll go out as Jerald Moore’s backup.” The coach sees no difference in Phillips’s demeanor. He doesn’t get the apology he wanted.
Finally, Vermeil says, “Lawrence, tell me something. What would you do if you were me?”
Phillips thinks for a moment. “Coach,” he says, “I’d cut me.”
The next day, Vermeil cuts him. Phillips shows no sadness, no anger. Nothing.
Over the next six years, Phillips was released by Miami and San Francisco of the NFL, Florida of the Arena Football League, and Montreal and Calgary of the Canadian Football League. In 2005, while wanted in connection with two domestic violence incidents, he drove his car into a crowd of three teenagers after a dispute during a pickup football game. Last Sept. 1, incarcerated in California, Phillips was charged with choking to death his cellmate.
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Jeff Fisher will enter his 22nd season as head coach in 2016, working in his second organization. He will be coaching in his sixth home stadium. Pretty odd, for someone who has worked for two teams. The roll call of his home fields:
Years........... Seasons........ Team..........................Stadium........................................ Record
1994-96....... 3................... Oilers......................... Astrodome (Houston).................... 16-22
1997............ 1................... Titans......................... Liberty Bowl (Memphis)................ 8-8
1998............ 1................... Titans......................... Vanderbilt Stadium (Nashville)........8-8
1999-2010.. 12.................. Titans......................... Multi-named stadium (Nashville)....115-88
2012-15...... 4.................... Rams.......................... Edward Jones Dome (St. Louis)..... 27-36-1
2016........... -- ................... Rams.......................... L.A. Coliseum (Los Angeles)......... --
Coaching seasons: 21. Venues: 6. Record: 174-162-1.
II
Just for the record, the Rams were born in Cleveland in 1937. Follow the bouncing franchise:
• Seasons in Cleveland: 8. (No team fielded in 1943 due to World War II.)
• Seasons in Los Angeles/Anaheim: 49 (34 in L.A., 14 in Anaheim).
• Seasons in St. Louis: 21.
How odd that the Rams, if they so choose, will celebrate their 50th season in southern California this year.
After a 37-year absence, the Rams will resume playing football games in the Los Angeles Coliseum next fall. The winning quarterback in the last NFL game played by the Rams in the Los Angeles Coliseum, in 1979?
Archie Manning.
Saints 29, Rams 14.