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http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/01/24/nfl-championship-games-broncos-patriots-panthers-cardinals
On Championship Sunday, It Was Manning’s Moment
Peyton Manning’s Broncos got the best of Tom Brady’s Patriots thanks to a defensive performance for the ages. Denver now heads to Santa Clara to meet the Panthers in Super Bowl 50. Here’s a breakdown of both games, plus the latest NFL offseason news and details on a Super-sized cross-country road trip
By Peter King
Peyton Manning is headed to his fourth Super Bowl and second with the Broncos.
Christian Petersen/Getty Images
DENVER — There was an emotional Archie Manning, looking all wrung out, near the Broncos’ locker room on Sunday after his son’s team prevailed in a three-hour, 29-minute festival of noise and emotion, the most momentous and likely last of the 17 Tom Brady-Peyton Manning meetings. This had the air of the final game of Peyton Manning’s life early Sunday afternoon, but Manning and the Denver defense sent the script to rewrite.
In a quiet moment just before leaving the stadium, his 4-year-old son Marshall clinging to his legs (“Can we go NOW, Daddy?”), Manning considered this question: Did you think when you walked on the field for warmups today that you might be walking on a football field for the last time as a player?
Quick shake of the head no, and this:
“I didn’t have that thought,” Manning said. “I had a peaceful feeling going out onto that field. Not that I knew we were going to win by any means, I just had a peaceful feeling. I didn’t add that to my plate, because there was a lot on it already. This has been—ah, a unique season. Today I did the same routine I’ve been doing the past couple weeks and tried to follow that.”
But this day was anything but routine. “After the adversity of this season, I just never thought he’d have this opportunity,” said Manning confidant and former Bronco John Lynch, who huddled with Manning for a few minutes afterward at his locker. “But today, it’s like the stars just aligned for him.”
The stars, plus one of the most vicious defenses Tom Brady has ever faced.
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Photo: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Brady owns an 11-6 all-time record against Manning but is just 1-3 in AFC title games against him.
Hard to imagine Vince Lombardi and Hank Stram on the sidelines of the Los Angeles Coliseum 49 years ago at the first Super Bowl, thinking of the monstrosity the game would become. Much harder to think anyone in the Coliseum that day could have envisioned teams from Charlotte and Denver playing a few hours up Route 101 in Santa Clara in the 50th such championship game. The NFL has taken some unforeseeable turns, such as the 49ers building a home stadium 46.2 miles from Fisherman’s Wharf.
Of course you couldn’t have seen a Super Bowl in Santa Clara 49 years ago. Or a franchise from Charlotte playing in it. But how about 49 weeks ago? Or, in Denver’s case, 49 days?
But it is what it is, a statement that seems cruelly apropos for the Patriots and the coiner of that ism, Bill Belichick, 20-18 losers to Denver in the AFC title game here Sunday. And to Arizona, a 49-15 loser to juggernaut Carolina in the NFC Championship Game. So on Feb. 7 it’s the 17-1 Panthers and new-age quarterback Cam Newton against the 14-4 Broncos with star-in-the-twilight Peyton Manning, who turns 40 in eight weeks, in the golden Super Bowl.
I’ll focus mostly on the AFC game, where I was on Sunday, but get in a section about the Panthers through the experience of a incredible play by Ted Ginn Jr., the kind that will give Ron Rivera goosebumps when he and the team review the tape early this week in Charlotte. Also, you can read The MMQB’sRobert Mays on the Panthers victory and what it means to their veteran leader, Thomas Davis, who vows to play despite a broken arm.
The early line on Super Bowl 50 from the intelligentsia is that Carolina’s offense, and the irrepressible Newton, will be too much for Denver, because the Broncos won’t be able to score with the Panthers. That could well be so. But just as Denver will have to find answers for the quick road-graders on the Panthers’ defensive line and the ball-hawking back seven, so too will Carolina need its edge protectors to neutralize Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware (three sacks, 11 quarterback hits combined against New England). More about the defense in a moment, but first the headline act—which did not disappoint.
Interesting to note coming into this game that the 17th meeting between Brady and Manning seemed to be the first real mismatch between the two. Not between the two teams, because the Denver D has held down foe after foe this year. But while in 2015 Brady still played like he was in his prime, Manning was stumbling to the finish line of a historic career. And though during the week Belichick said, “I would never, ever, ever underestimate Peyton Manning,” it was clear that the balance of power in the rivalry had shifted to Brady once and for all.
But this game can humble you, and it can fool you. Last week Manning survived throwing horizontally and short. On Sunday, on a lovely day for football (46 degrees, clear at the start, 6 mph winds barely felt on the field), Lynch knew it could be different for his friend. That’s what he meant by the stars aligning for Manning. “No wind, no rain, a perfect day for throwing for Peyton,” Lynch said. “I thought the ball came out of his hand the best it has all year.”
Early, Manning, heading into the slight wind, took the Broncos 69 yards in 11 plays, throwing it 15, 11, 11 and 18 yards past the line of scrimmage on the drive, completing three of those passes. The final one, the 21-yard touchdown pass to well-traveled tight end Owen Daniels, came on a double-move against linebacker Jamie Collins. Early in the second quarter, incredibly, Collins bit again on the double-move, and this time it was a 12-yard touchdown.
Photo: Donald Miralle for Sports Illustrated/The MMQB
Daniels snared his second touchdown pass from Manning in the second quarter.
“Twice!” Manning exclaimed later, with Marshall pawing at him. “One was inside, one was outside. We thought we needed to take some shots, and we said, hey, if we get into the red zone and we can just score some touchdowns as opposed to field goals, they can make a difference, and it ended up being the difference in the game. Later, we just missed on the one to Jordan Norwood and I would have loved to hit that.”
“I was in shock,” said Daniels, and let the record show that Manning threw three touchdown passes at home all year, each one to Daniels. “I just wanted to contribute in any way. I’ll block the whole game; I don’t care. But two touchdowns … incredible.”
The Denver defense did much of the rest, with Manning being asked, as he has been since he re-entered the lineup a month ago, just to manage the clock and the game. The end of this one made it the classic of classics. Trailing 20-12 (the most painful missed kick of Stephen Gostkowski’s career robbed the Patriots of an oh-so-vital point; more about that later), Brady had four fourth-down conversion attempts, three of them inside the Denver 20, in the final seven minutes.
On the first attempt, from the Broncos’ 16-yard line, Ware blew by left tackle Sebastian Vollmer (that happened all day) and pressured Brady into an arcing throw to Julian Edelman, who was crushed by Chris Harris for a loss of one; no conversion. The second time, from the Denver 14, Brady, under pressure, lofted a pass to Gronkowski that was defended closely in the end zone by Talib; incomplete. Finally Brady made two terrific conversions on the last drive.
After Ware embarrassed Vollmer twice and leveled Brady, the plucky QB laid a perfect rainbow into Gronkowski’s hands for a 40-yard gain. But even when New England scored on the last fourth-down conversion, a four-yard pass to Gronkowski with 17 seconds left, heavy pressure on the two-point try foiled the attempt to force overtime.
What drama, though. How Brady hung in, and how Manning hung on, will be a story replayed by NFL Films for years. The outcome will be reviled in New England and replayed endlessly in the Mountain Time Zone. After the clock hit zero, Manning had a 12-second moment with Brady, and another almost as long with Belichick, amid the crush on the field.
“I really feel that when everybody tries to analyze me versus Tom and me versus Belichick, I think it’s more about enjoying the games and the rivalry,” Manning said. “And today I hope everybody enjoyed that game. I know I enjoyed being there. That’s what I told Tom and Bill—that I’ve enjoyed this game and I’ve enjoyed all of them. I’ve enjoyed the rivalry and all the games we’ve been in. It’s been such an honor to play against both of them.
This is my seventeenth time playing against the Patriots with Tom at quarterback. It’s my 24th against Belichick as head coach or defensive coordinator. I can’t shake either one of them. They are always there. They’re always standing between me and where our team wants to go. What a rivalry. It’s been such a big part of my career. So I wanted to take the time to pass that along to them, with how much respect I have for both of them.”
Hints of the end for Manning? Stay tuned. If it is, consider this: John Elway brought Manning to Denver in 2012 to solidify a weak position and to win a Super Bowl. Since that day the Broncos have had the best winning percentage in football—54-17, .761—and have been to two Super Bowls. (New England is 54-19 since 2012, with one Super Bowl appearance and victory.) Denver has been the AFC’s first seed three times and second seed once in the last four postseasons. Manning’s job won’t be complete unless the Broncos beat Carolina in what, obviously, might be his curtain call in Denver.
If Manning doesn’t win in two weeks … if he exits Denver with two conference titles and with the Broncos owning the best winning record over his time here, would you call the experiment a failure? I don’t see how. Disappointment, surely, for not winning a world title. But averaging 13.5 wins a year? Most markets would say, Sign me up for that.
So maybe it is the end for Manning, except for one more thing—the biggest Super Bowl there’s ever been.
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Photo: Dustin Bradford/Getty Images
Rob Gronkowski finished with eight catches for 144 yards and a touchdown.
Postmortem on the Patriots
A few things now about the Patriots. I’m left to think about why they’re cleaning out their lockers today, and four things come to mind:
1. The tenuousness of football. Last season ended with Malcolm Butler making the singularly brilliant interception at the goal line to win a game for New England that looked so lost. This season ended with Tom Brady converting a fourth-and-10 pass for 40 yards with 90 seconds to play, then a fourth-and-goal for a touchdown to Gronkowski, and then a two-point conversion pass to force overtime being tipped away from Julian Edelman. They won a Super Bowl by four points, agonizingly. They lost an AFC Championship by two, agonizingly. That’s postseason football.
2. As great as he is, Stephen Gostkowski did not have a good day … and the new rule pushing back the PAT was a monstrous factor. Don’t argue about the efficacy of the new rule, which pushed back the line of scrimmage for extra points to the 15-yard line. Under the old system Gostkowski had made 468 straight PATs. Throughout the league, the point-after was a non-competitive play, a waste of time, the kind of play that, were you inventing rules for a new game, would never be on the books. You don’t design plays in a fair athletic contest that are successful 99.6 percent of the time, which the PAT was in 2014.
Even under the new system, Gostkowski had made 55 more in a row entering Sunday. That’s still incredibly lopsided in the kicker’s favor. But the equivalent to a 33-yard field goal is slightly challenging, and the fact that Gostkowski pushed his attempt a foot right shows that the kick is not the gimme it was a year ago. That’s bad for the Patriots this morning. It’s good for the game overall. The stratagem in play for three quarters after Gostkowski’s miss changed the game.
If the late Gronkowski touchdown had made it 20-19, a Gostkowski PAT would have forced overtime … and you might have liked the Patriots’ chances there, despite the fact that Brady was running for his life throughout the fourth quarter: In the second half, Denver’s possessions ended thusly: punt, punt, punt, field goal, punt, punt.
3. Home-field advantage was huge. Since Manning was signed by the Broncos in 2012, New England has lost all three of its games in Denver. In New England’s last three AFC title games against Manning—all home games for Manning—the Patriots are 0-3. I was amazed during the course of the game at the sustained intensity of the 77,000 in the stadium here. The scoreboard would plead for noise, the scoreboard would show the decibel level in the stadium, and the scoreboard would show fans in full throat, all while the Patriots had the ball.
The noise contributed to two penalties, at least, for New England. Meanwhile, when Denver had the ball it was library-quiet, marvelous for Manning to audible without having to scream or hand-signal. Think back to Week 17, when New England could have clinched home-field in the AFC playoffs with a win over the Dolphins, who had nothing to play for. The Patriots put the emphasis on healing for the playoffs, playing passively, almost like a get-through-this-thing-unscathed preseason game. Miami won 20-10, and that was the big difference between playing in Denver instead of Foxboro. Big difference.
4. New England’s got to be more competitive on the offensive line next season. Left tackle Sebastian Vollmer was a fourth-quarter turnstile for DeMarcus Ware, and Marcus Cannon was no better on the right side. Tough break to see incumbent left tackle Nate Solder go down in October for the year with a biceps tear, but that’s football. It was amazing, really, that New England had a shot to win late in this game with the abuse that Tom Brady took all afternoon—20 significant quarterback hits in all.
It’s a credit to Brady that he played so gamely under the kind of 60-minute pressure he faced. It might have been the most he’s been beat up in a game in his career; his first Super Bowl against the Giants may be the only game to compare.
The Patriots certainly aren’t done. The defense is young and a potential top-five NFL unit in 2016. Brady shows no signs of being at the end—though the NFL’s scheduled March appeal of the Deflategate case theoretically could take Brady off the field for the first four games of 2016 if the league prevails. Regardless of the outcome of the case (the NFL doesn’t have the goods on Brady, but that hasn’t stopped the snowplow of league justice), I expect New England to be back atop the AFC East in 2016 and playing in the Super Bowl tournament next January.
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Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Cam Newton accounted for four touchdowns—two passing and two leaping at the goal line.
The play of the day in Carolina, and it wasn’t a touchdown.
Carson Palmer and his mates did enough on Sunday to self-destruct in the NFC Championship Game, and it’s a virtual certainty that even if Ted Ginn Jr. doesn’t resuscitate his track days late in the first half in Charlotte, the Panthers still would be headed to Super Bowl 50. But knowing Ron Rivera a bit, I bet the play Ginn made, which most people in the stadium had little idea was even being made, will be a highlight for Rivera this week as he discusses why he loves this team. When we spoke last week, he said, “What I like so much about this team is the consistent effort and the unselfishness.’’
You can’t describe Ginn’s play any better than with those two words. And you can’t define what the NFC’s Super Bowl team is about any better than with this play.
The situation: Carolina led 24-7 late in the second quarter, and Cam Newton was trying for one more score before the half. He overshot tight end Ed Dickson up the right seam, and the ball was picked off by Patrick Peterson at the Arizona six-yard line. At that moment Ginn was a yard deep in the end zone, about six yards wide of Peterson. The Cardinals cornerback began his dash up the left sideline, and Ginn did too, sprinting and weaving through traffic. At one point near the Arizona 35, Peterson had a lead of more than 10 yards on Ginn. But Ginn kept coming. And when Peterson had to slow and turn a bit because of traffic, Ginn pounced, tackling him at the Carolina 22.
For a moment Ginn had saved an Arizona touchdown. And on the next snap, Carson Palmer was intercepted by Panthers safety Kurt Coleman. So now, truly, Ginn had prevented Arizona from cutting the lead to 24-14 at halftime and giving the Cardinals life.
“I just tried my hardest to run him down, and basically I hoped to help turn the game around,” Ginn said from the winners’ locker room Sunday night. “I used to be a track athlete, and sometimes in football you just have to get into track mode, put your head down and just go. I didn’t think I had much of a chance.’’
But in that case, you don’t think … you just sprint until the other guy’s out of bounds or tackled or in the end zone.
“I’ve played football for a long time,” said Ginn, a nine-year veteran who played for the Cardinals in 2014, “and the way I analyze it is, it’s a good football play. Stick with a play. You have to feel it’s never over, and it can work out. That’s part of what this team does.’’
Ginn scored Carolina’s first touchdown of the game on a 22-yard end-around in the first quarter. He’s been that versatile guy the Panthers hoped he’d be when they signed him in free-agency after last year’s lost season in Arizona. Carline GM Dave Gettleman has made a lot of smart moves with veteran players, but none smarter than Ginn. Gettleman’s strength is in tuning out the negativity others might have about players he likes. And he liked Ginn’s speed, hands and skill set as a receiver/runner/returner.
“Maybe I was an afterthought to other people, but I came out and showed them what I had,” Ginn said. “One thing I could say is, I am a fighter. I made a play that helped our team win. That’s something I take pride in.”
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The out-of-work coaching unemployment line is long. Jobless as of this morning are former head coaches of note: Tom Coughlin, Lovie Smith, Mike Pettine, Eric Mangini, Mike Singletary and Jim Tomsula, For the record, Minnesota hired two former head coaches as assistants—Tony Sparano (offensive line) and Pat Shurmur (undisclosed role). And the Ravens hired former Vikings head coach Leslie Frazier, who was let go with the Lovie Smith staff in Tampa Bay, to run Baltimore’s secondary. That means three former head coaches are on John Harbaugh’s staff: Frazier joins Marty Mornhinweg (quarterbacks) and Marc Trestman (offensive coordinator).
It continues to astound me that smart people who run football teams do not wait for coaches on the teams in the final four. That’s not apropos of this list, but the paranoia of the race to get head coaches and staffs hired works to the detriment of the Sean McDermotts and Matt Patricias, assistants whose teams were still playing when the last hire was made.
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Credit Tom Gamble for Chip Kelly being the Niners coach today. Niners GM Trent Baalke told me that team senior personnel executive Tom Gamble, who is his right-hand man in all things personnel and the sacrificial scout in Philadelphia when Kelly and Howie Roseman clashed, was the key man in turning San Francisco on to Kelly. “I talked to my most trusted agent, Tom Gamble, and I got the answers to every question I had,” said Baalke. “All I had to do was ask Tom. That drove the decision-making process as much as anything. Actually, there’s some similarities with Chip’s situation [in Philadelphia] and what I’ve gone through here. You’re valued one way, say, three years ago, and now you’re valued a totally different way today [by the public and media].”
Baalke and Niners CEO Jed York spent five-and-a-half hours with Kelly at Kelly’s home in New Hampshire, where he’s from. “I like the person, and I like the coach,” Baalke said. “He’s passionate about learning more every day. He’s a strong leader, and I believe he’s an excellent communicator. I think Chip has an openness to collaborate. None of us has all the answers. Certainly I don’t. I think it’s going to work out.” The key will be an open dialogue among the three men—Kelly, Gamble and Baalke—and the ability of Kelly to trust the personnel side of the building. It’s clear he didn’t trust Roseman, and that led to the downfall of the great idea of hiring Kelly in Philadelphia.
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Photo: Nick Ut/AP
Owner Stan Kroenke is bringing the Rams back to Los Angeles, which last had an NFL teain 1994.
L.A.: One team or two?
Eric Grubman, the NFL executive vice president in charge of the Los Angeles decision, worked for six years on market studies of L.A. as well as the competing franchises to move there. So there’s no one inside the NFL—except possibly Roger Goodell, whose job for years before becoming commissioner was to weigh Los Angeles options—more qualified to answer this question: Why is the NFL so set on making Los Angeles a two-team market again, when the league failed so notably in 1994?
“I think that L.A. is a one-team market, I think L.A. is a two-team market, I think L.A. is a three-team market, I think L.A. is a four-team market,” Grubman told me. “But each of those models is going to rest on a couple of essential foundations. One is you have to a have a killer stadium, and two is you have to have flawless execution of the market because you have to have an identity that is unique, and your brand has to really resonate. As big as it is, it is a very competitive place, and second place in anything in Los Angeles, in anything, gets no air time.
So if you have two teams in one stadium and they execute flawlessly and it’s a great stadium, they’ll be terrific. If you have two stadiums and each of them execute flawlessly, they’ll be terrific. If you have two stadiums and one executes well and one executes poorly, it doesn’t matter what that second stadium is. It is all about execution, plus a great stadium. With that, I think you can have any number of teams, up to a point of course. And Los Angeles loves a winner. They love a winner, they love sizzle, they love being first.”
For years the Clippers didn’t win, and for years they didn’t register on the L.A. sports meter. Odds are that if Los Angeles hosts two football teams, at least one will be like the Clippers of old (or the Lakers of today). The Rams, for instance, have played an astounding 12 consecutive seasons without being over .500, and the Chargers, should they come, haven’t had a double-digit-winning season since 2009.
Then there’s the matter of the quarterback position. Philip Rivers turns 35 this year; this will be his 13th NFL season. The Rams don’t have a quarterback of the long-term future unless either Case Keenum or Nick Foles shocks the world. So what we have here is one team for sure and maybe a second, and an iffy future for both in terms of on-field success.
“Grading NFL clubs’ probability to win looking forward is the same as grading history on stocks to try to predict future performance,” said Grubman. “And every expert in the world will tell you that you can’t do that. You can grade a management team that is running a company, and you can grade a coach who is running a team, but as long as those variables can change, then performance can change. I think when you raise the stakes and you raise the bar, you generally get a response. Owners are not dumb and owners aren’t shy. They don't want to be second place wherever they live and play.”
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“I dissented because I felt the NFL would be best served by having less realignment. Moving one team would be less disruptive to our fan base. And, also, having just one team in Los Angeles would give the league the best chance to be successful.”
—Kansas City owner Clark Hunt, to me, for a story on why the owners chose the Rams to move to Los Angeles instead of the Chargers and Raiders moving to a stadium in Carson, Calif.
Hunt believes what I do: that the NFL should not go to L.A. with two teams now. The league and Rams owner Stan Kroenke should make the 283-acre Inglewood site a dream location for a single team, and make that team a part of the fabric of Los Angeles, before trying to add a franchise that the locals don’t care much about.
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Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think this is what I liked about championship weekend:
a. The Carolina player you’re about to get to know a lot better: Carolina defensive tackle Kawann Short. What a force. Makes three plays every game that influence the outcome. Had a sack of Carson Palmer and a forced fumble Sunday.
b. Luke Kuechly. A pick returned for touchdown for the second straight week. What linebacker does that?
c. Lawrence Taylor, in 15 career playoff games: one interception returned for touchdown.
d. Luke Kuechly, past two weeks: two.
e. The NFL has dozens of players like Kurt Coleman, the hard-hitting and reliable safety who has moved around in a decent career. He had two interceptions for the Panthers in what surely is the highlight of his professional career.
f. You had to be in the stadium Sunday in Denver to feel how much the fans affected the game. That was one loud place.
g. Patriots gunner Brandon King waylaying Jordan Norwood on the first punt of the AFC title game. Great pursuit. King’s always around the return man.
h. Linebacker Jamie Collins with a textbook wrap-up of Ronnie Hillman for minus-one on the first Denver run.
i. Brandon McManus’s kickoffs.
j. Danny Amendola making three Broncos miss on his 28-yard first-quarter punt return.
k. Good challenge by Bill Belichick on the Manning horizontal pass. I didn’t think there was indisputable evidence, but I don’t have a vote in this particular election.
l. The on-field mike of ref Ed Hochuli in Denver: “Please clear the field! Please clear the field! What are you doin’ out here?” That’s what Hochuli said to a live audience when photographers rushed onto the field before the clock hit zero.
2. I think this is what I didn’t like about championship weekend:
a. Larry Fitzgerald, with a 30-yard day and a big second-half drop when the NFC championship was still sort of a game.
b. Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd and John Brown, the receiving brain trust for Arizona, putting up 90 yards and no points.
c. Demaryius Thomas, with another big drop for Denver. This will not go down as his finest year. Or close.
d. The big lost fumble by Patrick Peterson.
e. The (supposedly) powerful and explosive Cardinals being outgained by 189 yards.
f. Sad to realize that a consummate pro, Carson Palmer, will go through the offseason and perhaps the rest of his career, after having the best regular season of his life, with this poor performance haunting him.
g. Sad, too, to realize that we’re going to get harangued for the next 12 days about Cam Newton and whether he’s allowed to have so much fun and be so demonstrative in playing a game. If his teammates and coaches like and admire him—and they do—then why does anyone care how much he celebrates?
h. Bill Belichick not deferring. Why change?
i. No pass interference call on Denver’s T.J. Ward for a clear penalty on the second New England series.
j. It’s a week old, but former Pats quarterback-turned-talk-show-host Scott Zolak’s tip and subsequent confirmation that the NFL crew of officials—a playoff crew, mind you—forgot the K balls and the gauges at the hotel last week … I’m not sure what deleterious term to give this, but it is something beyond wicked bad, as they’d say in New England. It’s reprehensible. If remembering the game balls for special-teams play is not on the checklist for the officials when they leave the hotel for the game, then you better get either a different checklist or some different officials.
3. I think the saddest thing coming out of Sunday’s game was the broken arm suffered by Carolina linebacker Thomas Davis, one of the good men in the game. Davis suffered torn ACLs in three consecutive years to the same knee but came back each time and has been a top player and leader for the defense. After the rout of Arizona on Sunday, Davis said, “I’ve got to two weeks to heal up. I ain’t missing the Super Bowl.” That’s probably his optimistic side speaking. In the life-is-unfair-sometimes department, the Carolina player who has worked the hardest to get to the Super Bowl should be in it if there is any justice.
4. I think I’m a big fan of Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy telling Eddie Lacy he’d better get in good shape in 2016, or else.
5. I think Hue Jackson and the Browns now have the most important information about their draft fate on April 28, when they (almost certainly) will select a quarterback with the second pick. With the NFL’s announcement of the 96 underclass players who declared for the draft, Jackson and his front office will have a decent crop to choose from: Cal’s Jared Goff, Paxton Lynch of Memphis (underclassmen) and North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz (a fifth-year senior). If they want to trade down a bit, there’s Christian Hackenberg of Penn State, Connor Cook of Michigan State, or Ohio State’s Cardale Jones.
9. I think the best game of what-if, maybe all season, was played the other day on Dallas radio station KTCK by Troy Aikman, about what might have been if Jimmy Johnson had stayed longer than five seasons in Dallas. Here it is: “Bill Belichick, fortunately for Tom [Brady], doesn’t want to do anything other than coach. That’s good, because he’s really good at it. There’s this tendency among all his former players to say, ‘What would it have been like if Jimmy stayed around?’
And I find myself around this time every year, when the Patriots are playing in another AFC Championship Game, I find myself thinking, ‘Man, I wish Jimmy didn’t have any other interests other than football back when he was coaching, and didn’t want to fish, and didn’t want to get on a boat out in the Keys.’ Because he was, essentially, at that time, Bill Belichick. But unfortunately for us, and for all Cowboy fans, he had other interests. Bill doesn’t. It’s made a huge impact in the history of our game.”
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http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/01/24/nfl-championship-games-broncos-patriots-panthers-cardinals
On Championship Sunday, It Was Manning’s Moment
Peyton Manning’s Broncos got the best of Tom Brady’s Patriots thanks to a defensive performance for the ages. Denver now heads to Santa Clara to meet the Panthers in Super Bowl 50. Here’s a breakdown of both games, plus the latest NFL offseason news and details on a Super-sized cross-country road trip
By Peter King
Peyton Manning is headed to his fourth Super Bowl and second with the Broncos.
Christian Petersen/Getty Images
DENVER — There was an emotional Archie Manning, looking all wrung out, near the Broncos’ locker room on Sunday after his son’s team prevailed in a three-hour, 29-minute festival of noise and emotion, the most momentous and likely last of the 17 Tom Brady-Peyton Manning meetings. This had the air of the final game of Peyton Manning’s life early Sunday afternoon, but Manning and the Denver defense sent the script to rewrite.
In a quiet moment just before leaving the stadium, his 4-year-old son Marshall clinging to his legs (“Can we go NOW, Daddy?”), Manning considered this question: Did you think when you walked on the field for warmups today that you might be walking on a football field for the last time as a player?
Quick shake of the head no, and this:
“I didn’t have that thought,” Manning said. “I had a peaceful feeling going out onto that field. Not that I knew we were going to win by any means, I just had a peaceful feeling. I didn’t add that to my plate, because there was a lot on it already. This has been—ah, a unique season. Today I did the same routine I’ve been doing the past couple weeks and tried to follow that.”
But this day was anything but routine. “After the adversity of this season, I just never thought he’d have this opportunity,” said Manning confidant and former Bronco John Lynch, who huddled with Manning for a few minutes afterward at his locker. “But today, it’s like the stars just aligned for him.”
The stars, plus one of the most vicious defenses Tom Brady has ever faced.
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Photo: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Brady owns an 11-6 all-time record against Manning but is just 1-3 in AFC title games against him.
Hard to imagine Vince Lombardi and Hank Stram on the sidelines of the Los Angeles Coliseum 49 years ago at the first Super Bowl, thinking of the monstrosity the game would become. Much harder to think anyone in the Coliseum that day could have envisioned teams from Charlotte and Denver playing a few hours up Route 101 in Santa Clara in the 50th such championship game. The NFL has taken some unforeseeable turns, such as the 49ers building a home stadium 46.2 miles from Fisherman’s Wharf.
Of course you couldn’t have seen a Super Bowl in Santa Clara 49 years ago. Or a franchise from Charlotte playing in it. But how about 49 weeks ago? Or, in Denver’s case, 49 days?
But it is what it is, a statement that seems cruelly apropos for the Patriots and the coiner of that ism, Bill Belichick, 20-18 losers to Denver in the AFC title game here Sunday. And to Arizona, a 49-15 loser to juggernaut Carolina in the NFC Championship Game. So on Feb. 7 it’s the 17-1 Panthers and new-age quarterback Cam Newton against the 14-4 Broncos with star-in-the-twilight Peyton Manning, who turns 40 in eight weeks, in the golden Super Bowl.
I’ll focus mostly on the AFC game, where I was on Sunday, but get in a section about the Panthers through the experience of a incredible play by Ted Ginn Jr., the kind that will give Ron Rivera goosebumps when he and the team review the tape early this week in Charlotte. Also, you can read The MMQB’sRobert Mays on the Panthers victory and what it means to their veteran leader, Thomas Davis, who vows to play despite a broken arm.
The early line on Super Bowl 50 from the intelligentsia is that Carolina’s offense, and the irrepressible Newton, will be too much for Denver, because the Broncos won’t be able to score with the Panthers. That could well be so. But just as Denver will have to find answers for the quick road-graders on the Panthers’ defensive line and the ball-hawking back seven, so too will Carolina need its edge protectors to neutralize Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware (three sacks, 11 quarterback hits combined against New England). More about the defense in a moment, but first the headline act—which did not disappoint.
Interesting to note coming into this game that the 17th meeting between Brady and Manning seemed to be the first real mismatch between the two. Not between the two teams, because the Denver D has held down foe after foe this year. But while in 2015 Brady still played like he was in his prime, Manning was stumbling to the finish line of a historic career. And though during the week Belichick said, “I would never, ever, ever underestimate Peyton Manning,” it was clear that the balance of power in the rivalry had shifted to Brady once and for all.
But this game can humble you, and it can fool you. Last week Manning survived throwing horizontally and short. On Sunday, on a lovely day for football (46 degrees, clear at the start, 6 mph winds barely felt on the field), Lynch knew it could be different for his friend. That’s what he meant by the stars aligning for Manning. “No wind, no rain, a perfect day for throwing for Peyton,” Lynch said. “I thought the ball came out of his hand the best it has all year.”
Early, Manning, heading into the slight wind, took the Broncos 69 yards in 11 plays, throwing it 15, 11, 11 and 18 yards past the line of scrimmage on the drive, completing three of those passes. The final one, the 21-yard touchdown pass to well-traveled tight end Owen Daniels, came on a double-move against linebacker Jamie Collins. Early in the second quarter, incredibly, Collins bit again on the double-move, and this time it was a 12-yard touchdown.
Photo: Donald Miralle for Sports Illustrated/The MMQB
Daniels snared his second touchdown pass from Manning in the second quarter.
“Twice!” Manning exclaimed later, with Marshall pawing at him. “One was inside, one was outside. We thought we needed to take some shots, and we said, hey, if we get into the red zone and we can just score some touchdowns as opposed to field goals, they can make a difference, and it ended up being the difference in the game. Later, we just missed on the one to Jordan Norwood and I would have loved to hit that.”
“I was in shock,” said Daniels, and let the record show that Manning threw three touchdown passes at home all year, each one to Daniels. “I just wanted to contribute in any way. I’ll block the whole game; I don’t care. But two touchdowns … incredible.”
The Denver defense did much of the rest, with Manning being asked, as he has been since he re-entered the lineup a month ago, just to manage the clock and the game. The end of this one made it the classic of classics. Trailing 20-12 (the most painful missed kick of Stephen Gostkowski’s career robbed the Patriots of an oh-so-vital point; more about that later), Brady had four fourth-down conversion attempts, three of them inside the Denver 20, in the final seven minutes.
On the first attempt, from the Broncos’ 16-yard line, Ware blew by left tackle Sebastian Vollmer (that happened all day) and pressured Brady into an arcing throw to Julian Edelman, who was crushed by Chris Harris for a loss of one; no conversion. The second time, from the Denver 14, Brady, under pressure, lofted a pass to Gronkowski that was defended closely in the end zone by Talib; incomplete. Finally Brady made two terrific conversions on the last drive.
After Ware embarrassed Vollmer twice and leveled Brady, the plucky QB laid a perfect rainbow into Gronkowski’s hands for a 40-yard gain. But even when New England scored on the last fourth-down conversion, a four-yard pass to Gronkowski with 17 seconds left, heavy pressure on the two-point try foiled the attempt to force overtime.
What drama, though. How Brady hung in, and how Manning hung on, will be a story replayed by NFL Films for years. The outcome will be reviled in New England and replayed endlessly in the Mountain Time Zone. After the clock hit zero, Manning had a 12-second moment with Brady, and another almost as long with Belichick, amid the crush on the field.
“I really feel that when everybody tries to analyze me versus Tom and me versus Belichick, I think it’s more about enjoying the games and the rivalry,” Manning said. “And today I hope everybody enjoyed that game. I know I enjoyed being there. That’s what I told Tom and Bill—that I’ve enjoyed this game and I’ve enjoyed all of them. I’ve enjoyed the rivalry and all the games we’ve been in. It’s been such an honor to play against both of them.
This is my seventeenth time playing against the Patriots with Tom at quarterback. It’s my 24th against Belichick as head coach or defensive coordinator. I can’t shake either one of them. They are always there. They’re always standing between me and where our team wants to go. What a rivalry. It’s been such a big part of my career. So I wanted to take the time to pass that along to them, with how much respect I have for both of them.”
Hints of the end for Manning? Stay tuned. If it is, consider this: John Elway brought Manning to Denver in 2012 to solidify a weak position and to win a Super Bowl. Since that day the Broncos have had the best winning percentage in football—54-17, .761—and have been to two Super Bowls. (New England is 54-19 since 2012, with one Super Bowl appearance and victory.) Denver has been the AFC’s first seed three times and second seed once in the last four postseasons. Manning’s job won’t be complete unless the Broncos beat Carolina in what, obviously, might be his curtain call in Denver.
If Manning doesn’t win in two weeks … if he exits Denver with two conference titles and with the Broncos owning the best winning record over his time here, would you call the experiment a failure? I don’t see how. Disappointment, surely, for not winning a world title. But averaging 13.5 wins a year? Most markets would say, Sign me up for that.
So maybe it is the end for Manning, except for one more thing—the biggest Super Bowl there’s ever been.
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Photo: Dustin Bradford/Getty Images
Rob Gronkowski finished with eight catches for 144 yards and a touchdown.
Postmortem on the Patriots
A few things now about the Patriots. I’m left to think about why they’re cleaning out their lockers today, and four things come to mind:
1. The tenuousness of football. Last season ended with Malcolm Butler making the singularly brilliant interception at the goal line to win a game for New England that looked so lost. This season ended with Tom Brady converting a fourth-and-10 pass for 40 yards with 90 seconds to play, then a fourth-and-goal for a touchdown to Gronkowski, and then a two-point conversion pass to force overtime being tipped away from Julian Edelman. They won a Super Bowl by four points, agonizingly. They lost an AFC Championship by two, agonizingly. That’s postseason football.
2. As great as he is, Stephen Gostkowski did not have a good day … and the new rule pushing back the PAT was a monstrous factor. Don’t argue about the efficacy of the new rule, which pushed back the line of scrimmage for extra points to the 15-yard line. Under the old system Gostkowski had made 468 straight PATs. Throughout the league, the point-after was a non-competitive play, a waste of time, the kind of play that, were you inventing rules for a new game, would never be on the books. You don’t design plays in a fair athletic contest that are successful 99.6 percent of the time, which the PAT was in 2014.
Even under the new system, Gostkowski had made 55 more in a row entering Sunday. That’s still incredibly lopsided in the kicker’s favor. But the equivalent to a 33-yard field goal is slightly challenging, and the fact that Gostkowski pushed his attempt a foot right shows that the kick is not the gimme it was a year ago. That’s bad for the Patriots this morning. It’s good for the game overall. The stratagem in play for three quarters after Gostkowski’s miss changed the game.
If the late Gronkowski touchdown had made it 20-19, a Gostkowski PAT would have forced overtime … and you might have liked the Patriots’ chances there, despite the fact that Brady was running for his life throughout the fourth quarter: In the second half, Denver’s possessions ended thusly: punt, punt, punt, field goal, punt, punt.
3. Home-field advantage was huge. Since Manning was signed by the Broncos in 2012, New England has lost all three of its games in Denver. In New England’s last three AFC title games against Manning—all home games for Manning—the Patriots are 0-3. I was amazed during the course of the game at the sustained intensity of the 77,000 in the stadium here. The scoreboard would plead for noise, the scoreboard would show the decibel level in the stadium, and the scoreboard would show fans in full throat, all while the Patriots had the ball.
The noise contributed to two penalties, at least, for New England. Meanwhile, when Denver had the ball it was library-quiet, marvelous for Manning to audible without having to scream or hand-signal. Think back to Week 17, when New England could have clinched home-field in the AFC playoffs with a win over the Dolphins, who had nothing to play for. The Patriots put the emphasis on healing for the playoffs, playing passively, almost like a get-through-this-thing-unscathed preseason game. Miami won 20-10, and that was the big difference between playing in Denver instead of Foxboro. Big difference.
4. New England’s got to be more competitive on the offensive line next season. Left tackle Sebastian Vollmer was a fourth-quarter turnstile for DeMarcus Ware, and Marcus Cannon was no better on the right side. Tough break to see incumbent left tackle Nate Solder go down in October for the year with a biceps tear, but that’s football. It was amazing, really, that New England had a shot to win late in this game with the abuse that Tom Brady took all afternoon—20 significant quarterback hits in all.
It’s a credit to Brady that he played so gamely under the kind of 60-minute pressure he faced. It might have been the most he’s been beat up in a game in his career; his first Super Bowl against the Giants may be the only game to compare.
The Patriots certainly aren’t done. The defense is young and a potential top-five NFL unit in 2016. Brady shows no signs of being at the end—though the NFL’s scheduled March appeal of the Deflategate case theoretically could take Brady off the field for the first four games of 2016 if the league prevails. Regardless of the outcome of the case (the NFL doesn’t have the goods on Brady, but that hasn’t stopped the snowplow of league justice), I expect New England to be back atop the AFC East in 2016 and playing in the Super Bowl tournament next January.
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Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Cam Newton accounted for four touchdowns—two passing and two leaping at the goal line.
The play of the day in Carolina, and it wasn’t a touchdown.
Carson Palmer and his mates did enough on Sunday to self-destruct in the NFC Championship Game, and it’s a virtual certainty that even if Ted Ginn Jr. doesn’t resuscitate his track days late in the first half in Charlotte, the Panthers still would be headed to Super Bowl 50. But knowing Ron Rivera a bit, I bet the play Ginn made, which most people in the stadium had little idea was even being made, will be a highlight for Rivera this week as he discusses why he loves this team. When we spoke last week, he said, “What I like so much about this team is the consistent effort and the unselfishness.’’
You can’t describe Ginn’s play any better than with those two words. And you can’t define what the NFC’s Super Bowl team is about any better than with this play.
The situation: Carolina led 24-7 late in the second quarter, and Cam Newton was trying for one more score before the half. He overshot tight end Ed Dickson up the right seam, and the ball was picked off by Patrick Peterson at the Arizona six-yard line. At that moment Ginn was a yard deep in the end zone, about six yards wide of Peterson. The Cardinals cornerback began his dash up the left sideline, and Ginn did too, sprinting and weaving through traffic. At one point near the Arizona 35, Peterson had a lead of more than 10 yards on Ginn. But Ginn kept coming. And when Peterson had to slow and turn a bit because of traffic, Ginn pounced, tackling him at the Carolina 22.
For a moment Ginn had saved an Arizona touchdown. And on the next snap, Carson Palmer was intercepted by Panthers safety Kurt Coleman. So now, truly, Ginn had prevented Arizona from cutting the lead to 24-14 at halftime and giving the Cardinals life.
“I just tried my hardest to run him down, and basically I hoped to help turn the game around,” Ginn said from the winners’ locker room Sunday night. “I used to be a track athlete, and sometimes in football you just have to get into track mode, put your head down and just go. I didn’t think I had much of a chance.’’
But in that case, you don’t think … you just sprint until the other guy’s out of bounds or tackled or in the end zone.
“I’ve played football for a long time,” said Ginn, a nine-year veteran who played for the Cardinals in 2014, “and the way I analyze it is, it’s a good football play. Stick with a play. You have to feel it’s never over, and it can work out. That’s part of what this team does.’’
Ginn scored Carolina’s first touchdown of the game on a 22-yard end-around in the first quarter. He’s been that versatile guy the Panthers hoped he’d be when they signed him in free-agency after last year’s lost season in Arizona. Carline GM Dave Gettleman has made a lot of smart moves with veteran players, but none smarter than Ginn. Gettleman’s strength is in tuning out the negativity others might have about players he likes. And he liked Ginn’s speed, hands and skill set as a receiver/runner/returner.
“Maybe I was an afterthought to other people, but I came out and showed them what I had,” Ginn said. “One thing I could say is, I am a fighter. I made a play that helped our team win. That’s something I take pride in.”
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The out-of-work coaching unemployment line is long. Jobless as of this morning are former head coaches of note: Tom Coughlin, Lovie Smith, Mike Pettine, Eric Mangini, Mike Singletary and Jim Tomsula, For the record, Minnesota hired two former head coaches as assistants—Tony Sparano (offensive line) and Pat Shurmur (undisclosed role). And the Ravens hired former Vikings head coach Leslie Frazier, who was let go with the Lovie Smith staff in Tampa Bay, to run Baltimore’s secondary. That means three former head coaches are on John Harbaugh’s staff: Frazier joins Marty Mornhinweg (quarterbacks) and Marc Trestman (offensive coordinator).
It continues to astound me that smart people who run football teams do not wait for coaches on the teams in the final four. That’s not apropos of this list, but the paranoia of the race to get head coaches and staffs hired works to the detriment of the Sean McDermotts and Matt Patricias, assistants whose teams were still playing when the last hire was made.
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Credit Tom Gamble for Chip Kelly being the Niners coach today. Niners GM Trent Baalke told me that team senior personnel executive Tom Gamble, who is his right-hand man in all things personnel and the sacrificial scout in Philadelphia when Kelly and Howie Roseman clashed, was the key man in turning San Francisco on to Kelly. “I talked to my most trusted agent, Tom Gamble, and I got the answers to every question I had,” said Baalke. “All I had to do was ask Tom. That drove the decision-making process as much as anything. Actually, there’s some similarities with Chip’s situation [in Philadelphia] and what I’ve gone through here. You’re valued one way, say, three years ago, and now you’re valued a totally different way today [by the public and media].”
Baalke and Niners CEO Jed York spent five-and-a-half hours with Kelly at Kelly’s home in New Hampshire, where he’s from. “I like the person, and I like the coach,” Baalke said. “He’s passionate about learning more every day. He’s a strong leader, and I believe he’s an excellent communicator. I think Chip has an openness to collaborate. None of us has all the answers. Certainly I don’t. I think it’s going to work out.” The key will be an open dialogue among the three men—Kelly, Gamble and Baalke—and the ability of Kelly to trust the personnel side of the building. It’s clear he didn’t trust Roseman, and that led to the downfall of the great idea of hiring Kelly in Philadelphia.
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Photo: Nick Ut/AP
Owner Stan Kroenke is bringing the Rams back to Los Angeles, which last had an NFL teain 1994.
L.A.: One team or two?
Eric Grubman, the NFL executive vice president in charge of the Los Angeles decision, worked for six years on market studies of L.A. as well as the competing franchises to move there. So there’s no one inside the NFL—except possibly Roger Goodell, whose job for years before becoming commissioner was to weigh Los Angeles options—more qualified to answer this question: Why is the NFL so set on making Los Angeles a two-team market again, when the league failed so notably in 1994?
“I think that L.A. is a one-team market, I think L.A. is a two-team market, I think L.A. is a three-team market, I think L.A. is a four-team market,” Grubman told me. “But each of those models is going to rest on a couple of essential foundations. One is you have to a have a killer stadium, and two is you have to have flawless execution of the market because you have to have an identity that is unique, and your brand has to really resonate. As big as it is, it is a very competitive place, and second place in anything in Los Angeles, in anything, gets no air time.
So if you have two teams in one stadium and they execute flawlessly and it’s a great stadium, they’ll be terrific. If you have two stadiums and each of them execute flawlessly, they’ll be terrific. If you have two stadiums and one executes well and one executes poorly, it doesn’t matter what that second stadium is. It is all about execution, plus a great stadium. With that, I think you can have any number of teams, up to a point of course. And Los Angeles loves a winner. They love a winner, they love sizzle, they love being first.”
For years the Clippers didn’t win, and for years they didn’t register on the L.A. sports meter. Odds are that if Los Angeles hosts two football teams, at least one will be like the Clippers of old (or the Lakers of today). The Rams, for instance, have played an astounding 12 consecutive seasons without being over .500, and the Chargers, should they come, haven’t had a double-digit-winning season since 2009.
Then there’s the matter of the quarterback position. Philip Rivers turns 35 this year; this will be his 13th NFL season. The Rams don’t have a quarterback of the long-term future unless either Case Keenum or Nick Foles shocks the world. So what we have here is one team for sure and maybe a second, and an iffy future for both in terms of on-field success.
“Grading NFL clubs’ probability to win looking forward is the same as grading history on stocks to try to predict future performance,” said Grubman. “And every expert in the world will tell you that you can’t do that. You can grade a management team that is running a company, and you can grade a coach who is running a team, but as long as those variables can change, then performance can change. I think when you raise the stakes and you raise the bar, you generally get a response. Owners are not dumb and owners aren’t shy. They don't want to be second place wherever they live and play.”
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“I dissented because I felt the NFL would be best served by having less realignment. Moving one team would be less disruptive to our fan base. And, also, having just one team in Los Angeles would give the league the best chance to be successful.”
—Kansas City owner Clark Hunt, to me, for a story on why the owners chose the Rams to move to Los Angeles instead of the Chargers and Raiders moving to a stadium in Carson, Calif.
Hunt believes what I do: that the NFL should not go to L.A. with two teams now. The league and Rams owner Stan Kroenke should make the 283-acre Inglewood site a dream location for a single team, and make that team a part of the fabric of Los Angeles, before trying to add a franchise that the locals don’t care much about.
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Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think this is what I liked about championship weekend:
a. The Carolina player you’re about to get to know a lot better: Carolina defensive tackle Kawann Short. What a force. Makes three plays every game that influence the outcome. Had a sack of Carson Palmer and a forced fumble Sunday.
b. Luke Kuechly. A pick returned for touchdown for the second straight week. What linebacker does that?
c. Lawrence Taylor, in 15 career playoff games: one interception returned for touchdown.
d. Luke Kuechly, past two weeks: two.
e. The NFL has dozens of players like Kurt Coleman, the hard-hitting and reliable safety who has moved around in a decent career. He had two interceptions for the Panthers in what surely is the highlight of his professional career.
f. You had to be in the stadium Sunday in Denver to feel how much the fans affected the game. That was one loud place.
g. Patriots gunner Brandon King waylaying Jordan Norwood on the first punt of the AFC title game. Great pursuit. King’s always around the return man.
h. Linebacker Jamie Collins with a textbook wrap-up of Ronnie Hillman for minus-one on the first Denver run.
i. Brandon McManus’s kickoffs.
j. Danny Amendola making three Broncos miss on his 28-yard first-quarter punt return.
k. Good challenge by Bill Belichick on the Manning horizontal pass. I didn’t think there was indisputable evidence, but I don’t have a vote in this particular election.
l. The on-field mike of ref Ed Hochuli in Denver: “Please clear the field! Please clear the field! What are you doin’ out here?” That’s what Hochuli said to a live audience when photographers rushed onto the field before the clock hit zero.
2. I think this is what I didn’t like about championship weekend:
a. Larry Fitzgerald, with a 30-yard day and a big second-half drop when the NFC championship was still sort of a game.
b. Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd and John Brown, the receiving brain trust for Arizona, putting up 90 yards and no points.
c. Demaryius Thomas, with another big drop for Denver. This will not go down as his finest year. Or close.
d. The big lost fumble by Patrick Peterson.
e. The (supposedly) powerful and explosive Cardinals being outgained by 189 yards.
f. Sad to realize that a consummate pro, Carson Palmer, will go through the offseason and perhaps the rest of his career, after having the best regular season of his life, with this poor performance haunting him.
g. Sad, too, to realize that we’re going to get harangued for the next 12 days about Cam Newton and whether he’s allowed to have so much fun and be so demonstrative in playing a game. If his teammates and coaches like and admire him—and they do—then why does anyone care how much he celebrates?
h. Bill Belichick not deferring. Why change?
i. No pass interference call on Denver’s T.J. Ward for a clear penalty on the second New England series.
j. It’s a week old, but former Pats quarterback-turned-talk-show-host Scott Zolak’s tip and subsequent confirmation that the NFL crew of officials—a playoff crew, mind you—forgot the K balls and the gauges at the hotel last week … I’m not sure what deleterious term to give this, but it is something beyond wicked bad, as they’d say in New England. It’s reprehensible. If remembering the game balls for special-teams play is not on the checklist for the officials when they leave the hotel for the game, then you better get either a different checklist or some different officials.
3. I think the saddest thing coming out of Sunday’s game was the broken arm suffered by Carolina linebacker Thomas Davis, one of the good men in the game. Davis suffered torn ACLs in three consecutive years to the same knee but came back each time and has been a top player and leader for the defense. After the rout of Arizona on Sunday, Davis said, “I’ve got to two weeks to heal up. I ain’t missing the Super Bowl.” That’s probably his optimistic side speaking. In the life-is-unfair-sometimes department, the Carolina player who has worked the hardest to get to the Super Bowl should be in it if there is any justice.
4. I think I’m a big fan of Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy telling Eddie Lacy he’d better get in good shape in 2016, or else.
5. I think Hue Jackson and the Browns now have the most important information about their draft fate on April 28, when they (almost certainly) will select a quarterback with the second pick. With the NFL’s announcement of the 96 underclass players who declared for the draft, Jackson and his front office will have a decent crop to choose from: Cal’s Jared Goff, Paxton Lynch of Memphis (underclassmen) and North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz (a fifth-year senior). If they want to trade down a bit, there’s Christian Hackenberg of Penn State, Connor Cook of Michigan State, or Ohio State’s Cardale Jones.
9. I think the best game of what-if, maybe all season, was played the other day on Dallas radio station KTCK by Troy Aikman, about what might have been if Jimmy Johnson had stayed longer than five seasons in Dallas. Here it is: “Bill Belichick, fortunately for Tom [Brady], doesn’t want to do anything other than coach. That’s good, because he’s really good at it. There’s this tendency among all his former players to say, ‘What would it have been like if Jimmy stayed around?’
And I find myself around this time every year, when the Patriots are playing in another AFC Championship Game, I find myself thinking, ‘Man, I wish Jimmy didn’t have any other interests other than football back when he was coaching, and didn’t want to fish, and didn’t want to get on a boat out in the Keys.’ Because he was, essentially, at that time, Bill Belichick. But unfortunately for us, and for all Cowboy fans, he had other interests. Bill doesn’t. It’s made a huge impact in the history of our game.”
