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These are only excerpts from this article. To read the whole thing click the link below. Any mention of the Rams is listed first to save you the time looking for it.
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http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/12/14/andy-dalton-thumb-injury-panthers-perfect-week-14-nfl
Just When We Had Everything Figured Out...
All the NFL truths went flying out the window in Week 14, from Cincy’s supremacy to Carolina’s vulnerability to New England’s uncertainty. A review of Sunday, plus the MVP race, playoff thoughts and much more
by Peter King
Photo: Getty Images (2) :: AP (2)
Just some of the many combinations of the Rams’ “uniforms” this season.
And another thing about uniforms …
Three weeks ago, I wrote this: The NFL does not have uniforms anymore. The NFL has costumes. It was prompted by many things, not the least of which was the “Color Rush” series, which had the Jaguars dressed in a sort of mustard/dung color for their Nov. 19 game against the Titans. I'm also tired of the fact that the NFL will stop at nothing to sell sell sell jerseys and odd-colored trinkets that really and truly no one would want to own. To those points, I present the uniforms of the 2015 St. Louis Rams.
Including the bright-urine full-body uniforms they will wear Thursday night when they play the all-red Bucs in St. Louis, the Rams will have worn eight different uniform combinations in the first 14 games of this season. That includes the three games in October, when customary uniforms were festooned with all things pink—pink cleats, pink socks, pink uniform towels, pink wristbands—in honor of the NFL’s nod to breast cancer awareness all month.
The Rams’ uniform combinations, and how often they have worn each this regular season:
Blue shirts, blue pants: 2.
White shirts, blue pants: 2.
Blue shirts, white pants: 1.
White shirts, blue pants, pink adornments: 2.
Blue shirts, white pants, pink adornments: 1.
Classic Rams blue shirts, gold pants: 2.
White shirts, white pants: 2.
Yellow shirts, yellow pants, yellow adornments (including gloves): 1.
Fourteen games, eight uniforms: 1.7 games per uniform combination. Even if you don’t consider the pink adornments a different uniform, the most common “uniform” would have been worn by the Rams four times in 14 games.
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I think this is what I liked about Week 14:
Trumaine Johnson, with a great baiting move, making Matthew Stafford believe he would not be in position on Calvin Johnson, then bolting to intercept the ball as soon as Stafford committed. Johnson ran it back for a touchdown, a perfect play.
OFFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Todd Gurley, running back, St. Louis. There is some connection to what I am about to write: Rams had a 3-1 stretch starting Oct. 4, during which Gurley gained more than 125 yards on the ground every time. Then they lost five straight entering Sunday’s game against Detroit; in all five, Gurley was held under 90 yards rushing. And Sunday against the Lions, Gurley went for 140 on 16 carries, an 8.8-yard average. How about this: Gurley had nine rushing yards in September, and this morning he’s fourth in the league with 975.
Doug Baldwin, wide receiver, Seattle. Not a fan of invented stats like this, but it’s an interesting one: Baldwin is the only receiver in the past 10 seasons to have eight touchdown catches over three weeks. Three TD balls came at Baltimore on Sunday, of 14, 22 and 16 yards in the second, third and fourth quarters of Seattle’s 35-6 win. Baldwin has Russell Wilson’s implicit trust, and the combo platter of Baldwin and rookie Tyler Lockett accounted for all five of Wilson’s TD passes Sunday.
Russell Wilson, quarterback, Seattle. Speaking of invented stats, this one’s a doozy: Wilson’s the first quarterback in NFL to have four straight games with a quarterback rating of 138 or more. Incredible: His ratings and touchdowns passes and interceptions in the past four weeks—138.5, 3 and 0 … 147.9, 5 and 0 … 146.0, 3 and 0 … 139.6, 5 and 0. You cannot play the position better than Wilson’s playing it right now. Well, actually...
Cam Newton, quarterback, Carolina. ...Unless it’s Cam Newton. He’s showing a mastery of the position now, with better touch than he’s ever used, and better knowledge of when he has to make a Matt Harvey throw too. On a four-yard touchdown throw to tight end Ed Dickson, Newton threw a ball as hard as he could throw it. It went whizzing past a Falcon defensive lineman’s helmet, through the first line of Atlanta’s defense, to the spot where only Dickson could have nabbed him. (How ironic Dickson had a reputation for dropping balls in Baltimore. This ball was away from his body, and as fast a ball as a quarterback could throw, a bullet, and Dickson reeled it in.) For the day, Newton had a season-high 153.3 rating. He’s going to be very hard to stop in January.
DEFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Khalil Mack, outside linebacker, Oakland. Mack is threatening to become the most feared edge player in the game. He’s right there with Justin Houston now. With a five-sack game in Denver on Sunday—as the Raiders stunned the Broncos in Denver—Mack took advantage of a weak right side of the Denver line and tormented Broncos quarterback Brock Osweiler with three additional pressures and two points. (One of his sacks was for a safety.) Then, for his fourth sack, he abused left tackle Ryan Harris. Mack now has nine sacks in the past three games.
Muhammad Wilkerson, defensive end, New York Jets. Unless your name is J.J. Watt, it’s hard to have a better defensive game than Wilkerson had in the Jets’ rout of Tennessee. Three sacks for 27 yards in loss—and the sacks came against one of the most mobile quarterbacks in football, Marcus Mariota. Two more tackles for loss. A pass batted down. A forced fumble. Wilkerson continues to put the Jets in a dilemma. They need to sign him; he’s their best defensive player. And he’s getting into the Watt/Suh stratosphere in terms of average pay.
Stephon Tuitt, defensive end, Pittsburgh. Tuitt, 22, a second-round pick from Notre Dame last year, picked a great time for the first interception of his career. It was also the last Andy Dalton pass of the day; Dalton left with an injured throwing thumb after this interception. Tuitt played it perfectly—lying in wait on a pass near the goal line for Gio Bernard. That was the single biggest play of a game the Steelers needed desperately to stay playoff-relevant.
SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Jeff Janis, wide receiver, Green Bay. In a special-teams performance reminiscent of Steve Tasker, Janis had three tackles for loss on Dallas punt returns. One was a combo tackle with teammate Demetri Goodson, but the other two were solos on Dallas punt-returner Lucky Whitehead. Slithering between blocks and running around them, both of Janis’ tackles were for two-yard losses. A superb performance.
Marquette King, punter, Oakland. In a classic field-position game—Oakland at Denver, with both defenses playing peak football—King was a dominant force: 10 punts, 46.0-yard average, five punts inside the 20, a huge net average of 44.3 yards per punt. What makes King such a weapon is the way he punts—high, sacrificing distance for his teammates’ ability to cover punts well, which led to a fumbled Denver punt and a Jon Condo fumble recovery. The Raiders played the kind of game they had to play to compete with Denver and Kansas City, the best in their division: a ball-control game, using field position football. King’s a huge weapon.
COACH OF THE WEEK
Mike McCarthy, head coach, Green Bay. For two reasons: 1) Taking the play-calling from associate head coach Tom Clements before Sunday’s game against Dallas. This had to be really hard for McCarthy, because it will likely doom Clements’ hopes for ever being an NFL head coach, getting play-calling taken away after 12 shaky games. But McCarthy knew he couldn’t sit by and watch the offense stink the way it stunk in recent weeks. And McCarthy got 28 points and 435 yards (against a good Dallas defense), in part because of his play-calling. 2) Unlocking the doghouse and letting Eddie Lacy out of it. The result was 24 carries for Lacy and 124 yards. “I’ve always believed in Eddie,” McCarthy said. “We all make a couple of bad decisions along the way. He needed to refocus, and he did.”
GOATS OF THE WEEK
The Buffalo Bills. Fifteen penalties, 101 yards. When will it end, Rex?
Matt Kalil, left tackle, and Teddy Bridgewater, quarterback, Minnesota.Thought long and hard about whether to make Dwight Freeney defensive player of the week for his spin move on Kalil and strip-sack of Bridgewater on the Vikings’ last play of the game Thursday night, or whether to make Kalil the goat, or Bridgewater the goat, or both of the latter two the co-goats. I settled on Kalil and Bridgewater. Kalil is supposed to be the franchise left tackle, the man Bridgewater trusts to keep 35-year-old pass-rushers away from him when he drops back to pass.
But Kalil let Freeney spin on him, watched Freeney lunge to the inside and strip Bridgewater of the ball. That’s on Kalil. The rest is on Bridgewater. No matter the play-call—and Norv Turner should have had a couple of quick outs called, just to get six or eight yards closer for a Blair Walsh field-goal try—Bridgewater had 3.13 seconds from the time the ball nestled in his hands until the time Freeney dislodged it. That’s enough time to find a target, or to get rid of the ball if he can’t find one. Bridgewater should have known to throw it away earlier, and not throwing it away cost the Vikings an attempt at the game-tying field goal.
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Remember those thrilling days of last week, when you knew everything about the NFL in 2015?
1. Finally, this is the Bengals’ year. And Andy Dalton’s.
2. The Patriots, all beat up, are in real trouble.
3. The Packers won’t figure it out this year, with the play-calling a mess, Eddie Lacy dog-housed and the receivers slumping.
4. Brock Osweiler must be declared Denver’s quarterback for the rest of the year.
5. The Colts had a blip against Pittsburgh, but they’re clearly the best team in a bad AFC South.
6. The Saints showed how vulnerable Carolina was in the secondary.
7. The Ravens can’t get any worse.
8. Here come the Bills.
9. Here come the Bucs.
10. Atlanta’s done.
Well, one out of 10’s not bad.
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Photo: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
The perfect Panthers have already clinched a bye in the NFC playoffs.
What will Riverboat Ron do?
Will Carolina coach Ron Rivera play for a perfect season, or to ensure the best health for his team entering the playoffs?
We are rapidly approaching the time when Rivera could have a big decision to make. It's the kind of decision that has tormented some coaches and caused others to second-guess their choice to rest players rather than expose them to injury as teams approach the playoffs. The Panthers (13-0) have clinched the NFC South and a first-round bye. Their magic number for clinching home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs, over the 11-2 Arizona Cardinals, is two. Any combination of two Carolina victories or Arizona losses will hand the Panthers the No. 1 seed in the conference.
Rivera told me after Sunday's 38-0 victory over Atlanta that he has not decided how he will play the final game or games of the regular season if he has the top seed clinched.
He sounded a bit vexed by the prospect.
“I really don’t know what we are going to do if we are faced with that,” Rivera said from Charlotte on Sunday. “All along I have told our guys we are taking each week one at a time. But if we get to that point, then I will have a decision to make. It obviously isn't an easy decision. I remember back in 2005 when I was on coach [Lovie] Smith’s staff in Chicago and we had a bye going into the playoffs. We rested guys at the end, and we lost our first game to Carolina. After that game I think some of the guys on our team felt that maybe they were a little rusty because they had sat out. I have always thought about that.”
In Week 15, Carolina plays at the 5-7 Giants (who are at Miami tonight). Arizona plays at Philadelphia on Sunday night. Should the top spot not be clinched after next weekend, Carolina would play another game to the fullest—at Atlanta on Dec. 27, because Arizona plays a late game that day against Green Bay. The most logical scenario, then, would be for Rivera to have one game to play his players—or to rest some. As some coaches have said, you wouldn’t play your quarterback without playing your starting offensive line as a unit, because you don’t want to risk your quarterback getting hurt behind two or three backup linemen.
Players, of course, will want to go for perfection. “It would be silly to say we don't want to do that,” said tight end Greg Olsen, “but we will see what the future holds when the time comes. All season we have thought about one week at a time. We are going to prepare like we’re going to play every week. Then the powers that be will tell us if were playing or not and how much were going to play.”
That’s the kind of chemistry Rivera has with his team now. You get the feeling if the Panthers decide to hold their guys out in Week 17 against Tampa Bay, the locker room will be OK with it. Interesting side note: The only perfect team in the modern era of pro football to go unbeaten through the regular season and playoffs is the 1972 Dolphins. Don Shula coached that team, of course. And his son, Mike Shula, is Carolina’s offensive coordinator. I asked Mike Shula to be honest: Does his father want Carolina to go unbeaten, or is he just saying he does because he’s a good dad?
“Deep down?” said Mike Shula. “I think he’s rooting harder than anyone for us to do it.”
The one thing I like about Rivera’s approach is that he appreciates where Carolina is, and he appreciates what the team is doing. That comes from this statistic, and the perspective of a coach who understands the building process:
• Rivera’s first 60 regular-season games: 28-31-1.
• Rivera’s last 17 regular-season games: 17-0.
Rivera said he took a moment during the win over Atlanta to think about how good his team actually is. As Olsen said: “This was pretty amazing today. Atlanta’s playing for their lives. This is their game of the year—they’ve got to have it to stay alive [in the playoff race]. They gave us everything they had.” And the Panthers just smoked them; 369 yards by halftime, and it could have been a bigger margin had Carolina not called off the dogs in the second half.
Photo: Grant Halverson/Getty Images
Ginn had just two catches against the Falcons, for a mere 120 yards and two TDs.
“This is such a talented football team,” said Rivera. “Last week [a 41-38 win over New Orleans] we didn’t play to our ability. But we were playing a Hall of Fame quarterback and a great coach [Drew Brees, Asshole Face]. This week I felt we played the way we’re capable of. We can attack in a lot of different ways. Today we had Cam Newton to Ted Ginn over the top, with two long touchdown passes. But we can win other ways too. We’ve shown that.”
If Rivera is faced with the decision of whether to go for perfection, maybe he’ll think of the 2005 rust with the Bears. Or maybe how close he came to losing Olsen, who tweaked a knee but is fine, or running back Jonathan Stewart, who left with a sore foot—but that’s apparently all it is. What if either of those went down for the season in Week 17, in a game the Panthers were playing for posterity and not for what’s best for this season alone?
My take is you play your guys and go for the brass ring. It’s a risk, yes, and you’d be haunted if you lost Cam Newton or Greg Olsen or Kawann Short or Luke Kuechly in the second half of a Week 17 game with everything clinched. But look at it this way: You’re 15-0, and you choose to sit eight key guys against Tampa Bay, and you lose, and you go on to win the Super Bowl.
You’re 18-1. You have a parade. You get your rings. You’re the coach. Won’t you always ask yourself:What if? What if we’d played to join the Dolphins as the only perfect team ever?That’s an intoxicating thought, and knowing Rivera, it’s something he’ll think about if he gets to cross that bridge.
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MVP Watch
My first one of the year. I will do one each of the next three Mondays, through the end of the regular season. It’s still a fairly open field, albeit a boring one. I can’t make a great case for a non-quarterback here.
1. Cam Newton, quarterback, Carolina. Not sure this needs to be stat-supported. Watch Carolina play. The Panthers are 13-0, and far and away the most important player on football’s only perfect team is a quarterback who is significantly better than he’s ever been, with players around him on offense who are pretty average. Newton’s the rising tide lifting all Panther boats.
2. Tom Brady, quarterback, New England. Righted the ship Sunday night with a dominating win over Houston after the return of Rob Gronkowski. This could be Carson Palmer’s spot too; all that will shake out over the next three weeks.
3. Carson Palmer, quarterback, Arizona. Want to put him first? I’d disagree. Want to put him second? I can live with that.
4. Andy Dalton, quarterback, Cincinnati. The sheer level of sobriety inside the Bengals organization Sunday evening showed exactly how much of a gut punch Dalton’s busted thumb was. Dalton has been a strong MVP candidate all season, because he’d improved steadily in almost every way, from leadership to deep passing. Now, as he helps A.J. McCarron prepare to step in as starter, we’ll see if Dalton can add “quarterback whisperer” to his strong team-first résumé.
5. Russell Wilson, quarterback, Seattle. And climbing, with a league-high 110.0 rating, and a 16-to-0 touchdown-to-interception differential in the past four weeks.
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This might be the most amazing thing about Jerry Rice’s career.
With two new additions to the 1,000-reception club (making it 12 in history who have caught 1,000 passes or more), this note struck me about the No. 1 receiver on that list:
Jerry Rice caught 571 NFL passes after his 34th birthday.
I mention that because of a fellow 544 catches behind Rice.
I was talking with Larry Fitzgerald the other day about the Rice record of 1,549 receptions, and a couple of things he said were interesting.
“I don’t think the record’s attainable,” Fitzgerald said.
No. 2 on the all-time list for receptions is Tony Gonzalez, who had 1,325 catches, putting him 224 behind Rice. Gonzalez played 17 years. Rice played 20. As far as wide receivers go, Rice has 447 catches more than the next man on the list. Marvin Harrison, with 1,102 catches, played 13 seasons; Cris Carter, with 1,101 receptions, played 16 seasons.
Fitzgerald is the youngest receiver ever to hit 1,000; he is 32 years, 3 months old. Rice didn’t get his 1,000th catch until he was 34. So, theoretically, I don’t see how a healthy Fitzgerald—who is signed through next season, and he told me that’s all he is committing to now—wouldn’t have a chance at it, with how coach Bruce Arians values him, and how quarterback Carson Palmer relies on him, and how healthy he continues to be. I’m not saying he can get 545 catches, which will take him at least five seasons and maybe six after this one … but I am saying I understand why he thinks Rice’s number isn’t attainable.
Said Fitzgerald: “Jerry played with two of the best ever for most of his career, Joe Montana and Steve Young.”
Right. For the 14 seasons from 1985 to 1998, the San Francisco starting quarterback was either Montana or Young.
Fitzgerald: “Then, those guys are gone, and he goes from a Pro Bowl quarterback to another MVP.”
Right. For his last two seasons in San Francisco, 1999 and 2000, the quarterback was Jeff Garcia, a four-time Pro Bowl passer. In his three seasons in Oakland, Rice caught balls from MVP Rich Gannon; while a Raider, at 39, 40 and 41, Rice caught 243 passes. One final note: Most of Rice’s last season, at 42, was played with Matt Hasselbeck the quarterback, in Seattle. Hasselbeck is a three-time Pro Bowl player.
None of these points are made to diminish anything Rice ever did. He showed up and played hard—as Fitzgerald does—every week, and he was incredibly durable. He didn’t miss any of his 43 games after turning 40 due to injury. That is amazing. In 19 of 20 seasons, he played every game (including 17 in 2004, due to a midseason trade).
That’s borderline stunning. But it is notable, and a credit to Fitzgerald, that he is the youngest player to get to 1,000, and the starting quarterbacks for the majority of five of his 12 seasons have been Matt Leinart, Derek Anderson, John Skelton and Drew Stanton—and that doesn’t include big parts of two seasons when Kevin Kolb started.
Fitzgerald looks to me like the one player with the best chance to catch Rice, at least among veterans today with at least 800 catches. Who knows if he wants to? But if Bruce Arians stays the coach, and Carson Palmer can play two or three more solid seasons, maybe Fitzgerald will wake up at 35 with 1,290 catches and say, “Maybe I can leave the ultimate footprints in the sand. Maybe I can give the great Jerry Rice a run for his money.”
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http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/12/14/andy-dalton-thumb-injury-panthers-perfect-week-14-nfl
Just When We Had Everything Figured Out...
All the NFL truths went flying out the window in Week 14, from Cincy’s supremacy to Carolina’s vulnerability to New England’s uncertainty. A review of Sunday, plus the MVP race, playoff thoughts and much more
by Peter King
Photo: Getty Images (2) :: AP (2)
Just some of the many combinations of the Rams’ “uniforms” this season.
And another thing about uniforms …
Three weeks ago, I wrote this: The NFL does not have uniforms anymore. The NFL has costumes. It was prompted by many things, not the least of which was the “Color Rush” series, which had the Jaguars dressed in a sort of mustard/dung color for their Nov. 19 game against the Titans. I'm also tired of the fact that the NFL will stop at nothing to sell sell sell jerseys and odd-colored trinkets that really and truly no one would want to own. To those points, I present the uniforms of the 2015 St. Louis Rams.
Including the bright-urine full-body uniforms they will wear Thursday night when they play the all-red Bucs in St. Louis, the Rams will have worn eight different uniform combinations in the first 14 games of this season. That includes the three games in October, when customary uniforms were festooned with all things pink—pink cleats, pink socks, pink uniform towels, pink wristbands—in honor of the NFL’s nod to breast cancer awareness all month.
The Rams’ uniform combinations, and how often they have worn each this regular season:
Blue shirts, blue pants: 2.
White shirts, blue pants: 2.
Blue shirts, white pants: 1.
White shirts, blue pants, pink adornments: 2.
Blue shirts, white pants, pink adornments: 1.
Classic Rams blue shirts, gold pants: 2.
White shirts, white pants: 2.
Yellow shirts, yellow pants, yellow adornments (including gloves): 1.
Fourteen games, eight uniforms: 1.7 games per uniform combination. Even if you don’t consider the pink adornments a different uniform, the most common “uniform” would have been worn by the Rams four times in 14 games.
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I think this is what I liked about Week 14:
Trumaine Johnson, with a great baiting move, making Matthew Stafford believe he would not be in position on Calvin Johnson, then bolting to intercept the ball as soon as Stafford committed. Johnson ran it back for a touchdown, a perfect play.
OFFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Todd Gurley, running back, St. Louis. There is some connection to what I am about to write: Rams had a 3-1 stretch starting Oct. 4, during which Gurley gained more than 125 yards on the ground every time. Then they lost five straight entering Sunday’s game against Detroit; in all five, Gurley was held under 90 yards rushing. And Sunday against the Lions, Gurley went for 140 on 16 carries, an 8.8-yard average. How about this: Gurley had nine rushing yards in September, and this morning he’s fourth in the league with 975.
Doug Baldwin, wide receiver, Seattle. Not a fan of invented stats like this, but it’s an interesting one: Baldwin is the only receiver in the past 10 seasons to have eight touchdown catches over three weeks. Three TD balls came at Baltimore on Sunday, of 14, 22 and 16 yards in the second, third and fourth quarters of Seattle’s 35-6 win. Baldwin has Russell Wilson’s implicit trust, and the combo platter of Baldwin and rookie Tyler Lockett accounted for all five of Wilson’s TD passes Sunday.
Russell Wilson, quarterback, Seattle. Speaking of invented stats, this one’s a doozy: Wilson’s the first quarterback in NFL to have four straight games with a quarterback rating of 138 or more. Incredible: His ratings and touchdowns passes and interceptions in the past four weeks—138.5, 3 and 0 … 147.9, 5 and 0 … 146.0, 3 and 0 … 139.6, 5 and 0. You cannot play the position better than Wilson’s playing it right now. Well, actually...
Cam Newton, quarterback, Carolina. ...Unless it’s Cam Newton. He’s showing a mastery of the position now, with better touch than he’s ever used, and better knowledge of when he has to make a Matt Harvey throw too. On a four-yard touchdown throw to tight end Ed Dickson, Newton threw a ball as hard as he could throw it. It went whizzing past a Falcon defensive lineman’s helmet, through the first line of Atlanta’s defense, to the spot where only Dickson could have nabbed him. (How ironic Dickson had a reputation for dropping balls in Baltimore. This ball was away from his body, and as fast a ball as a quarterback could throw, a bullet, and Dickson reeled it in.) For the day, Newton had a season-high 153.3 rating. He’s going to be very hard to stop in January.
DEFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Khalil Mack, outside linebacker, Oakland. Mack is threatening to become the most feared edge player in the game. He’s right there with Justin Houston now. With a five-sack game in Denver on Sunday—as the Raiders stunned the Broncos in Denver—Mack took advantage of a weak right side of the Denver line and tormented Broncos quarterback Brock Osweiler with three additional pressures and two points. (One of his sacks was for a safety.) Then, for his fourth sack, he abused left tackle Ryan Harris. Mack now has nine sacks in the past three games.
Muhammad Wilkerson, defensive end, New York Jets. Unless your name is J.J. Watt, it’s hard to have a better defensive game than Wilkerson had in the Jets’ rout of Tennessee. Three sacks for 27 yards in loss—and the sacks came against one of the most mobile quarterbacks in football, Marcus Mariota. Two more tackles for loss. A pass batted down. A forced fumble. Wilkerson continues to put the Jets in a dilemma. They need to sign him; he’s their best defensive player. And he’s getting into the Watt/Suh stratosphere in terms of average pay.
Stephon Tuitt, defensive end, Pittsburgh. Tuitt, 22, a second-round pick from Notre Dame last year, picked a great time for the first interception of his career. It was also the last Andy Dalton pass of the day; Dalton left with an injured throwing thumb after this interception. Tuitt played it perfectly—lying in wait on a pass near the goal line for Gio Bernard. That was the single biggest play of a game the Steelers needed desperately to stay playoff-relevant.
SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Jeff Janis, wide receiver, Green Bay. In a special-teams performance reminiscent of Steve Tasker, Janis had three tackles for loss on Dallas punt returns. One was a combo tackle with teammate Demetri Goodson, but the other two were solos on Dallas punt-returner Lucky Whitehead. Slithering between blocks and running around them, both of Janis’ tackles were for two-yard losses. A superb performance.
Marquette King, punter, Oakland. In a classic field-position game—Oakland at Denver, with both defenses playing peak football—King was a dominant force: 10 punts, 46.0-yard average, five punts inside the 20, a huge net average of 44.3 yards per punt. What makes King such a weapon is the way he punts—high, sacrificing distance for his teammates’ ability to cover punts well, which led to a fumbled Denver punt and a Jon Condo fumble recovery. The Raiders played the kind of game they had to play to compete with Denver and Kansas City, the best in their division: a ball-control game, using field position football. King’s a huge weapon.
COACH OF THE WEEK
Mike McCarthy, head coach, Green Bay. For two reasons: 1) Taking the play-calling from associate head coach Tom Clements before Sunday’s game against Dallas. This had to be really hard for McCarthy, because it will likely doom Clements’ hopes for ever being an NFL head coach, getting play-calling taken away after 12 shaky games. But McCarthy knew he couldn’t sit by and watch the offense stink the way it stunk in recent weeks. And McCarthy got 28 points and 435 yards (against a good Dallas defense), in part because of his play-calling. 2) Unlocking the doghouse and letting Eddie Lacy out of it. The result was 24 carries for Lacy and 124 yards. “I’ve always believed in Eddie,” McCarthy said. “We all make a couple of bad decisions along the way. He needed to refocus, and he did.”
GOATS OF THE WEEK
The Buffalo Bills. Fifteen penalties, 101 yards. When will it end, Rex?
Matt Kalil, left tackle, and Teddy Bridgewater, quarterback, Minnesota.Thought long and hard about whether to make Dwight Freeney defensive player of the week for his spin move on Kalil and strip-sack of Bridgewater on the Vikings’ last play of the game Thursday night, or whether to make Kalil the goat, or Bridgewater the goat, or both of the latter two the co-goats. I settled on Kalil and Bridgewater. Kalil is supposed to be the franchise left tackle, the man Bridgewater trusts to keep 35-year-old pass-rushers away from him when he drops back to pass.
But Kalil let Freeney spin on him, watched Freeney lunge to the inside and strip Bridgewater of the ball. That’s on Kalil. The rest is on Bridgewater. No matter the play-call—and Norv Turner should have had a couple of quick outs called, just to get six or eight yards closer for a Blair Walsh field-goal try—Bridgewater had 3.13 seconds from the time the ball nestled in his hands until the time Freeney dislodged it. That’s enough time to find a target, or to get rid of the ball if he can’t find one. Bridgewater should have known to throw it away earlier, and not throwing it away cost the Vikings an attempt at the game-tying field goal.
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Remember those thrilling days of last week, when you knew everything about the NFL in 2015?
1. Finally, this is the Bengals’ year. And Andy Dalton’s.
2. The Patriots, all beat up, are in real trouble.
3. The Packers won’t figure it out this year, with the play-calling a mess, Eddie Lacy dog-housed and the receivers slumping.
4. Brock Osweiler must be declared Denver’s quarterback for the rest of the year.
5. The Colts had a blip against Pittsburgh, but they’re clearly the best team in a bad AFC South.
6. The Saints showed how vulnerable Carolina was in the secondary.
7. The Ravens can’t get any worse.
8. Here come the Bills.
9. Here come the Bucs.
10. Atlanta’s done.
Well, one out of 10’s not bad.
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Photo: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
The perfect Panthers have already clinched a bye in the NFC playoffs.
What will Riverboat Ron do?
Will Carolina coach Ron Rivera play for a perfect season, or to ensure the best health for his team entering the playoffs?
We are rapidly approaching the time when Rivera could have a big decision to make. It's the kind of decision that has tormented some coaches and caused others to second-guess their choice to rest players rather than expose them to injury as teams approach the playoffs. The Panthers (13-0) have clinched the NFC South and a first-round bye. Their magic number for clinching home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs, over the 11-2 Arizona Cardinals, is two. Any combination of two Carolina victories or Arizona losses will hand the Panthers the No. 1 seed in the conference.
Rivera told me after Sunday's 38-0 victory over Atlanta that he has not decided how he will play the final game or games of the regular season if he has the top seed clinched.
He sounded a bit vexed by the prospect.
“I really don’t know what we are going to do if we are faced with that,” Rivera said from Charlotte on Sunday. “All along I have told our guys we are taking each week one at a time. But if we get to that point, then I will have a decision to make. It obviously isn't an easy decision. I remember back in 2005 when I was on coach [Lovie] Smith’s staff in Chicago and we had a bye going into the playoffs. We rested guys at the end, and we lost our first game to Carolina. After that game I think some of the guys on our team felt that maybe they were a little rusty because they had sat out. I have always thought about that.”
In Week 15, Carolina plays at the 5-7 Giants (who are at Miami tonight). Arizona plays at Philadelphia on Sunday night. Should the top spot not be clinched after next weekend, Carolina would play another game to the fullest—at Atlanta on Dec. 27, because Arizona plays a late game that day against Green Bay. The most logical scenario, then, would be for Rivera to have one game to play his players—or to rest some. As some coaches have said, you wouldn’t play your quarterback without playing your starting offensive line as a unit, because you don’t want to risk your quarterback getting hurt behind two or three backup linemen.
Players, of course, will want to go for perfection. “It would be silly to say we don't want to do that,” said tight end Greg Olsen, “but we will see what the future holds when the time comes. All season we have thought about one week at a time. We are going to prepare like we’re going to play every week. Then the powers that be will tell us if were playing or not and how much were going to play.”
That’s the kind of chemistry Rivera has with his team now. You get the feeling if the Panthers decide to hold their guys out in Week 17 against Tampa Bay, the locker room will be OK with it. Interesting side note: The only perfect team in the modern era of pro football to go unbeaten through the regular season and playoffs is the 1972 Dolphins. Don Shula coached that team, of course. And his son, Mike Shula, is Carolina’s offensive coordinator. I asked Mike Shula to be honest: Does his father want Carolina to go unbeaten, or is he just saying he does because he’s a good dad?
“Deep down?” said Mike Shula. “I think he’s rooting harder than anyone for us to do it.”
The one thing I like about Rivera’s approach is that he appreciates where Carolina is, and he appreciates what the team is doing. That comes from this statistic, and the perspective of a coach who understands the building process:
• Rivera’s first 60 regular-season games: 28-31-1.
• Rivera’s last 17 regular-season games: 17-0.
Rivera said he took a moment during the win over Atlanta to think about how good his team actually is. As Olsen said: “This was pretty amazing today. Atlanta’s playing for their lives. This is their game of the year—they’ve got to have it to stay alive [in the playoff race]. They gave us everything they had.” And the Panthers just smoked them; 369 yards by halftime, and it could have been a bigger margin had Carolina not called off the dogs in the second half.
Photo: Grant Halverson/Getty Images
Ginn had just two catches against the Falcons, for a mere 120 yards and two TDs.
“This is such a talented football team,” said Rivera. “Last week [a 41-38 win over New Orleans] we didn’t play to our ability. But we were playing a Hall of Fame quarterback and a great coach [Drew Brees, Asshole Face]. This week I felt we played the way we’re capable of. We can attack in a lot of different ways. Today we had Cam Newton to Ted Ginn over the top, with two long touchdown passes. But we can win other ways too. We’ve shown that.”
If Rivera is faced with the decision of whether to go for perfection, maybe he’ll think of the 2005 rust with the Bears. Or maybe how close he came to losing Olsen, who tweaked a knee but is fine, or running back Jonathan Stewart, who left with a sore foot—but that’s apparently all it is. What if either of those went down for the season in Week 17, in a game the Panthers were playing for posterity and not for what’s best for this season alone?
My take is you play your guys and go for the brass ring. It’s a risk, yes, and you’d be haunted if you lost Cam Newton or Greg Olsen or Kawann Short or Luke Kuechly in the second half of a Week 17 game with everything clinched. But look at it this way: You’re 15-0, and you choose to sit eight key guys against Tampa Bay, and you lose, and you go on to win the Super Bowl.
You’re 18-1. You have a parade. You get your rings. You’re the coach. Won’t you always ask yourself:What if? What if we’d played to join the Dolphins as the only perfect team ever?That’s an intoxicating thought, and knowing Rivera, it’s something he’ll think about if he gets to cross that bridge.
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MVP Watch
My first one of the year. I will do one each of the next three Mondays, through the end of the regular season. It’s still a fairly open field, albeit a boring one. I can’t make a great case for a non-quarterback here.
1. Cam Newton, quarterback, Carolina. Not sure this needs to be stat-supported. Watch Carolina play. The Panthers are 13-0, and far and away the most important player on football’s only perfect team is a quarterback who is significantly better than he’s ever been, with players around him on offense who are pretty average. Newton’s the rising tide lifting all Panther boats.
2. Tom Brady, quarterback, New England. Righted the ship Sunday night with a dominating win over Houston after the return of Rob Gronkowski. This could be Carson Palmer’s spot too; all that will shake out over the next three weeks.
3. Carson Palmer, quarterback, Arizona. Want to put him first? I’d disagree. Want to put him second? I can live with that.
4. Andy Dalton, quarterback, Cincinnati. The sheer level of sobriety inside the Bengals organization Sunday evening showed exactly how much of a gut punch Dalton’s busted thumb was. Dalton has been a strong MVP candidate all season, because he’d improved steadily in almost every way, from leadership to deep passing. Now, as he helps A.J. McCarron prepare to step in as starter, we’ll see if Dalton can add “quarterback whisperer” to his strong team-first résumé.
5. Russell Wilson, quarterback, Seattle. And climbing, with a league-high 110.0 rating, and a 16-to-0 touchdown-to-interception differential in the past four weeks.
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This might be the most amazing thing about Jerry Rice’s career.
With two new additions to the 1,000-reception club (making it 12 in history who have caught 1,000 passes or more), this note struck me about the No. 1 receiver on that list:
Jerry Rice caught 571 NFL passes after his 34th birthday.
I mention that because of a fellow 544 catches behind Rice.
I was talking with Larry Fitzgerald the other day about the Rice record of 1,549 receptions, and a couple of things he said were interesting.
“I don’t think the record’s attainable,” Fitzgerald said.
No. 2 on the all-time list for receptions is Tony Gonzalez, who had 1,325 catches, putting him 224 behind Rice. Gonzalez played 17 years. Rice played 20. As far as wide receivers go, Rice has 447 catches more than the next man on the list. Marvin Harrison, with 1,102 catches, played 13 seasons; Cris Carter, with 1,101 receptions, played 16 seasons.
Fitzgerald is the youngest receiver ever to hit 1,000; he is 32 years, 3 months old. Rice didn’t get his 1,000th catch until he was 34. So, theoretically, I don’t see how a healthy Fitzgerald—who is signed through next season, and he told me that’s all he is committing to now—wouldn’t have a chance at it, with how coach Bruce Arians values him, and how quarterback Carson Palmer relies on him, and how healthy he continues to be. I’m not saying he can get 545 catches, which will take him at least five seasons and maybe six after this one … but I am saying I understand why he thinks Rice’s number isn’t attainable.
Said Fitzgerald: “Jerry played with two of the best ever for most of his career, Joe Montana and Steve Young.”
Right. For the 14 seasons from 1985 to 1998, the San Francisco starting quarterback was either Montana or Young.
Fitzgerald: “Then, those guys are gone, and he goes from a Pro Bowl quarterback to another MVP.”
Right. For his last two seasons in San Francisco, 1999 and 2000, the quarterback was Jeff Garcia, a four-time Pro Bowl passer. In his three seasons in Oakland, Rice caught balls from MVP Rich Gannon; while a Raider, at 39, 40 and 41, Rice caught 243 passes. One final note: Most of Rice’s last season, at 42, was played with Matt Hasselbeck the quarterback, in Seattle. Hasselbeck is a three-time Pro Bowl player.
None of these points are made to diminish anything Rice ever did. He showed up and played hard—as Fitzgerald does—every week, and he was incredibly durable. He didn’t miss any of his 43 games after turning 40 due to injury. That is amazing. In 19 of 20 seasons, he played every game (including 17 in 2004, due to a midseason trade).
That’s borderline stunning. But it is notable, and a credit to Fitzgerald, that he is the youngest player to get to 1,000, and the starting quarterbacks for the majority of five of his 12 seasons have been Matt Leinart, Derek Anderson, John Skelton and Drew Stanton—and that doesn’t include big parts of two seasons when Kevin Kolb started.
Fitzgerald looks to me like the one player with the best chance to catch Rice, at least among veterans today with at least 800 catches. Who knows if he wants to? But if Bruce Arians stays the coach, and Carson Palmer can play two or three more solid seasons, maybe Fitzgerald will wake up at 35 with 1,290 catches and say, “Maybe I can leave the ultimate footprints in the sand. Maybe I can give the great Jerry Rice a run for his money.”
