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Any mention of the Rams/Seahawks game is posted first. To read the entire article click the link below.
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/12/28/peyton-manning-hgh-allegations-nfl-week-16-upsets
Btw I watched ESPN's Sports Center and the Blitz with Chris Berman and Tom Jackson for two hours last night. There was not one mention of the Rams/Seahawks game, only the Panthers and Patriots over and over plus a smattering of a few other games. Hope their ratings go in the tank and they're all fired.
Here's a mention from another MMQB article this morning but it centers only around Seattle's suckiness.
*****************************************************************************
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/12/28/...osweiler-aj-mccarron-monday-night-nfl-week-16
Plan B was to write about how the Seahawks are looking like their usual dominant selves again defensively. And that they might be better than ever offensively thanks to a refined approach ripe with crafty route combinations and Russell Wilson’s newfound pocket proficiency, which has been nothing short of mind-boggling. However, the Seahawks stumbled at home to a Rams team that they’ve often had trouble matching up against.
The problem was their offensive line, which isn’t athletic enough to compete with St. Louis’s furious front four. Seattle is still in the playoffs and, in the bigger picture, trending up, but this hiccup is enough to pump the brakes on their coronation as the most dangerous team entering the NFC postseason.
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/12/28/peyton-manning-hgh-allegations-nfl-week-16-upsets
Upsetting Developments
From Peyton Manning’s mood in light of HGH allegations to the toppling of nearly all of the NFL’s top teams, it was upset Sunday in more ways than one. Here is the Broncos QB’s emotional response, plus analysis of the coin-flipping, perfection-puncturing, playoff-puzzling action of Week 16
by Peter King
Upset Sunday. That was defined later by Pittsburgh losing in Baltimore, Seattle losing to the Rams for the fourth time in four seasons, and, of course, previously 14-0 Carolina losing in Atlanta.
----------
DEFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
William Hayes, defensive end, St. Louis. Lost among all the big stars and high picks on the Rams defense, Hayes (2008 fourth-round pick out Tennessee, 103rd overall) has become a valuable piece to the pass-rushing puzzle. He was a part of four sacks at Seattle (two solos, two half-sacks, for a total loss of 26 yards), plus a four-yard stuff of Christine Michael.
Hayes is a great illustration of a team with depth at pass-rusher that will always be able to afford an injury at defensive end (Hayes has been great insurance for Chris Long going down this year) and be set to play strong defense late in the season.
COACH OF THE WEEK
Gregg Williams, defensive coordinator, St. Louis. Playing against the hottest quarterback in football, in front of the toughest home crowd in the league, Williams’ game plan penned in Russell Wilson and held the Seahawks to 10 points and 275 total yards in the first 58 minutes of a 23-16 victory at St. Louis.
----------
Photo: John Froschauer/AP
Case Keenum did just enough to keep the Seahawks defense at bay Sunday.
I think this is what I liked about Week 16:
Case Keenum: much better than I thought. He showed poise and presence.
Todd Gurley. Did you see his mega-leap over one of the great safeties in football, Earl Thomas? He is going to be a huge problem for the teams of the NFC West for years. (Hold on to the football, though.)
Rams: 4-1 in the NFC West, the best record of any team in the division. About to be 5-1, unless the Niners get 93 percent better in the next six days.
************************************************************************
On to other teams.......There's a long story on how pissed off Peyton Manning is. I don't blame him but I don't care either.
**************************************************************************
A strange weekend of football
The 10 stories that hit me over the head Sunday:
There’s one head-to-head division title game in Week 17, and it will be game 256. Minnesota (10-5) at Green Bay (10-5) was flexed to the Sunday night game next week, meaning the last game of the regular season will be a second straight frigid Sunday night game in the Great North. Forecast for Green Bay next Sunday: no snow, wind chill of about 10 degrees. But will the friendly confines help? Green Bay, trying for its fifth straight NFC North title, is 4-5 since Halloween (and would be 3-6 if not for Aaron Rodgers’ Hail Mary of all Hail Marys on Dec. 3 at Detroit).
Incredible to think the team that started 6-0 with visions of home-field through the playoffs is now one loss away from traveling to Washington to play a wild-card game in two weeks. “We will bounce back,” said Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy. “That’s the way we are wired.” Perhaps. But the Packers haven’t looked like the Packers since September, and it’s too late to think McCarthy can just flip a switch and life will return to normal.
Pittsburgh? Really? My Pittsburgh friends shrieked “Tomlin must go” after Sunday’s totally embarrassing 20-17 loss at Baltimore, which made Pittsburgh’s playoff chances sub-50 percent. For the Steelers to make the postseason, they’d need to beat the Browns Sunday while Rex Ryan beats the Jets … or while Denver loses Monday night to the Bengals and next week to the Chargers, both games at home. Who knows?
Rex would trade five years off his life to keep the Jets from the playoffs, so we shall see. But the Steelers were my fifth-ranked team last week, and to see them dominated by first-time Ravens starter Ryan Mallett was a stunner. The Steelers forgot this was a rivalry game, and Ben Roethlisberger was surprisingly mediocre, with his second touchdown-less game in the last three weeks.
Pop the corks, Dolphins. For the 43rd straight season, there won’t be a perfect NFL team. Formerly 14-0 Carolina is now 14-1 Carolina. This one felt different for the ’72 Dolphins, though, because coach Don Shula’s son Mike is the Carolina offensive coordinator, and Mike Shula said his dad wanted Carolina to be unbeaten more than he (Mike) did.
But Carolina was flawed for the second straight week. Last week they gave up a 28-point lead to the Giants before pulling out a late win; this week they were flat, and Cam Newton played his first average game in a while. Carolina could still lose home-field in the NFC with a loss to Tampa Bay and a Cardinals win over the Seahawks on Sunday.
Did Cam open the MVP door a bit for Carson Palmer? I discuss below, but it’s not impossible.
There’s a difference in the J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets. It’s called offense. Against the best team in the AFC on Sunday, New York rushed for 143 yards, threw three touchdown passes, protected the quarterback serviceably against a good Patriots pass rush, and drove 80 yards to start overtime after New England coach Bill Belichick chose to begin OT by giving the ball to the Jets. In all, the only thing that could have made the day better for the Jets would have been Rex Ryan losing.
LaAdrian Waddle—yes, that LaAdrian Waddle—could all of a sudden be a key player for the Patriots. Waddle, waived by the Lions and picked up by New England two weeks ago, became the fifth left tackle for the Patriots in 15 games Sunday when Sebastian Vollmer went out against the Jets with an ankle sprain.
New England is the black hole of injury reporting, so no one knows how bad Vollmer is … and then Waddle went out with what appeared to be shoulder or neck injury. Cameron Fleming finished the game on the left side. Waddle and Fleming combined to give up five pressures, according to Pro Football Focus, and Tom Brady was pressured, sacked or hit 17 times against the Jets. Seemed like more.
Adrian Peterson has a 64-yard lead on Doug Martin for the rushing title with a week to go. Peterson (308 carries, 1,418 yards) has an easier game in the finale, at Green Bay, than Martin (273 carries, 1,354 yards), who has to play at Carolina, which will be trying hard to win after a poor performance Sunday at Atlanta. The Pack is 21st against the run and Carolina fifth. Peterson is aiming for his third rushing title, and he got warmed up for it (poor choice of words with 3-degree wind chill in Minnesota) with a 104-yard game against the Giants on Sunday night.
It’s Brandon Weeden’s world, and we’re just living in it. Two appearances, two wins, verging on a home playoff game, better quarterback rating (107.7) in Houston than the season-long numbers for Cam Newton and Tom Brady and Carson Palmer. “He’s a professional football player,” said Texans coach Bill O’Brien, and I can tell you that’s actually a pretty good compliment from O’Brien.
He’s not too bubbly, but Anquan Boldin joined an exclusive club Sunday. On the first snap of yet another Niners loss (in Detroit), Boldin caught a five-yard toss to the left from Blaine Gabbert for his 1,000th career catch. He’s the 13th man in 96 NFL seasons to reach 1,000, and the third one this year. “To be honest with you, it means nothing,” Boldin said from Detroit. “For me, I don’t like to think about those things during the season.” It’ll mean something someday.
Arizona is a juggernaut. Imagine outgaining the Green Bay Packers by 203 yards—in eight fewer plays. The Cardinals have a chance to lead the league in scoring, and in scoring defense. They’re first with 483 points scored, 21 points more than second-place Carolina. They’re in a bunch with five teams on defense to be the stingiest. Flip a coin right now for the game’s best team, Arizona or Carolina. The Cards are certainly better lately, and in their first test without Tyrann Mathieu, I’d say they passed, holding Green Bay to eight points.
--------------
Photo: Matt Rourke/AP
Kirk Cousins started every game for Washington this season in leading the team to an NFC East title.
Decision of the Year
Washington’s Jay Gruden is not winning coach of the year. Coaches of 9-7 or 8-8 teams don’t win that award. But he made the call of the year, one that paid off Saturday night when Washington beat Philadelphia to clinch the NFC East title and lock in the fourth seed in the NFC—with one week to play.
Six days before the opening game of the season, Gruden stepped to the podium for his Labor Day press conference and announced that he had picked Kirk Cousins as his starting quarterback, over Robert Griffin III. Coming off a 4-12 rookie season last year, Gruden then moved all his chips to the middle of the table. He said he was giving Cousins the job for the season.
That call, which I’d consider the Decision of the Year, put Gruden on the tightrope of all tightropes. Which he chuckled about amidst the celebration early Sunday morning in the locker room in Philadelphia.
“Coaching football, you’re always walking a tightrope,” he said. “Tightropes exist for every coach, really. Except Belichick.”
I credit Gruden because sometimes a coach has to look at his team and decide what’s best for it, and sometimes he has to be willing to lose his job over it. And that’s what Gruden was willing to do. He knew that the owner, Daniel Snyder, was partial to Griffin and wanted him to have one more real chance to be the long-term quarterback in Washington. And Gruden planned to give him that chacne. But then training camp and the preseason games and the summer practices happened, and he thought Cousins was better.
Did any coach make a better lineup decision this year than Gruden handing the job to Cousins? It’s easy to say that now, of course, because Washington just clinched the NFC East title Saturday night at Philly. But look at the accuracy of Cousins (.695) in 15 starts, and look how he’s cut down on his mistakes (14 turnovers in 15 games). Cam Newton has 14 turnovers in 15 games. Philip Rivers has 14 turnovers in 15 games.
I like what Gruden’s predecessor, Mike Shanahan, said to SI.com’s Don Banks on Sunday about the decision: “There’s one thing that you know as a coach that you don’t know maybe as an analyst or being a coach of a different team. You don’t know what a guy is like until you spend time with him. You don’t know the intangibles. You don’t know his preparation. You don’t have a gut feel on how he handles himself 24 hours a day. And it didn’t take long to figure out Kirk was a guy who was a perfectionist, who loved the game and had passion for the game.”
Early Sunday morning, Gruden explained why he did it, and why it worked.
“Number one,” Gruden said, “I thought Kirk earned it. I announced Robert in the off-season, but on the tape and the reps and the practices and the classroom work, we thought it was clear. We decided to go all in with Kirk, to see if he could make the transition.
We thought if we gave him the reins and we told him he didn’t have to look over his shoulder, that would give him the best chance to succeed. We felt like he deserved it. And it couldn’t be a temporary thing—the fans here were divided, and probably deservedly so. Kirk had to handle it all, and if it got a little shaky, I didn’t want to just pull the plug.
“Look, you’ve been around. This is a unique deal here in Washington. You know how it is around here. Robert was an excellent player in his rookie year, and then with the injury and everything, he got a little off track. But Kirk rewarded us big time.
“Robert is a good person. He’s obviously not happy with the decision, but it’s pro football and he’s taken it like a man. I told him this year, ‘You’re 25 years old, and you’re going to play till you’re 38 and have a really good career.’ He’s been able to take a step back, and still compete and not bitch about it. I’m proud of him.”
On Saturday night, Cousins (31 of 46, 365 yards, four touchdowns, no picks) repaid Gruden’s faith from the start. He threw a perfect play-action touchdown strike to tight end Jordan Reed up the seam to open the scoring. His prettiest throw, I thought, was the dime he dropped into Pierre Garçon in the fourth quarter, 26 yards in the air, just beyond two defenders, in a perfect spot: Garçon’s waiting arms. The ball couldn’t have been thrown better. An assist here to offensive coordinator Sean McVay too, because McVay’s the day-to-day teacher, and Cousins loves him.
So Gruden and Cousins, for now, are living happily ever after, the bond between them strengthened by a September decision. Sometimes you’ve got to make the call and ignore the noise. That’s what Gruden did, and he’s happy he did.
“In today’s world,” Gruden said, “if you worry about what anybody thinks about your decisions, you’re going to drive yourself to a problem. A big problem. Alcohol, or something. You just gotta put your nose to the grindstone and believe in yourself, believe you’re making the right call and just go.”
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/12/28/peyton-manning-hgh-allegations-nfl-week-16-upsets
Btw I watched ESPN's Sports Center and the Blitz with Chris Berman and Tom Jackson for two hours last night. There was not one mention of the Rams/Seahawks game, only the Panthers and Patriots over and over plus a smattering of a few other games. Hope their ratings go in the tank and they're all fired.
Here's a mention from another MMQB article this morning but it centers only around Seattle's suckiness.
*****************************************************************************
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/12/28/...osweiler-aj-mccarron-monday-night-nfl-week-16
Plan B was to write about how the Seahawks are looking like their usual dominant selves again defensively. And that they might be better than ever offensively thanks to a refined approach ripe with crafty route combinations and Russell Wilson’s newfound pocket proficiency, which has been nothing short of mind-boggling. However, the Seahawks stumbled at home to a Rams team that they’ve often had trouble matching up against.
The problem was their offensive line, which isn’t athletic enough to compete with St. Louis’s furious front four. Seattle is still in the playoffs and, in the bigger picture, trending up, but this hiccup is enough to pump the brakes on their coronation as the most dangerous team entering the NFC postseason.
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/12/28/peyton-manning-hgh-allegations-nfl-week-16-upsets
Upsetting Developments
From Peyton Manning’s mood in light of HGH allegations to the toppling of nearly all of the NFL’s top teams, it was upset Sunday in more ways than one. Here is the Broncos QB’s emotional response, plus analysis of the coin-flipping, perfection-puncturing, playoff-puzzling action of Week 16
by Peter King
Upset Sunday. That was defined later by Pittsburgh losing in Baltimore, Seattle losing to the Rams for the fourth time in four seasons, and, of course, previously 14-0 Carolina losing in Atlanta.
----------
DEFENSIVE PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
William Hayes, defensive end, St. Louis. Lost among all the big stars and high picks on the Rams defense, Hayes (2008 fourth-round pick out Tennessee, 103rd overall) has become a valuable piece to the pass-rushing puzzle. He was a part of four sacks at Seattle (two solos, two half-sacks, for a total loss of 26 yards), plus a four-yard stuff of Christine Michael.
Hayes is a great illustration of a team with depth at pass-rusher that will always be able to afford an injury at defensive end (Hayes has been great insurance for Chris Long going down this year) and be set to play strong defense late in the season.
COACH OF THE WEEK
Gregg Williams, defensive coordinator, St. Louis. Playing against the hottest quarterback in football, in front of the toughest home crowd in the league, Williams’ game plan penned in Russell Wilson and held the Seahawks to 10 points and 275 total yards in the first 58 minutes of a 23-16 victory at St. Louis.
----------
Photo: John Froschauer/AP
Case Keenum did just enough to keep the Seahawks defense at bay Sunday.
I think this is what I liked about Week 16:
Case Keenum: much better than I thought. He showed poise and presence.
Todd Gurley. Did you see his mega-leap over one of the great safeties in football, Earl Thomas? He is going to be a huge problem for the teams of the NFC West for years. (Hold on to the football, though.)
Rams: 4-1 in the NFC West, the best record of any team in the division. About to be 5-1, unless the Niners get 93 percent better in the next six days.
************************************************************************
On to other teams.......There's a long story on how pissed off Peyton Manning is. I don't blame him but I don't care either.
**************************************************************************
A strange weekend of football
The 10 stories that hit me over the head Sunday:
There’s one head-to-head division title game in Week 17, and it will be game 256. Minnesota (10-5) at Green Bay (10-5) was flexed to the Sunday night game next week, meaning the last game of the regular season will be a second straight frigid Sunday night game in the Great North. Forecast for Green Bay next Sunday: no snow, wind chill of about 10 degrees. But will the friendly confines help? Green Bay, trying for its fifth straight NFC North title, is 4-5 since Halloween (and would be 3-6 if not for Aaron Rodgers’ Hail Mary of all Hail Marys on Dec. 3 at Detroit).
Incredible to think the team that started 6-0 with visions of home-field through the playoffs is now one loss away from traveling to Washington to play a wild-card game in two weeks. “We will bounce back,” said Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy. “That’s the way we are wired.” Perhaps. But the Packers haven’t looked like the Packers since September, and it’s too late to think McCarthy can just flip a switch and life will return to normal.
Pittsburgh? Really? My Pittsburgh friends shrieked “Tomlin must go” after Sunday’s totally embarrassing 20-17 loss at Baltimore, which made Pittsburgh’s playoff chances sub-50 percent. For the Steelers to make the postseason, they’d need to beat the Browns Sunday while Rex Ryan beats the Jets … or while Denver loses Monday night to the Bengals and next week to the Chargers, both games at home. Who knows?
Rex would trade five years off his life to keep the Jets from the playoffs, so we shall see. But the Steelers were my fifth-ranked team last week, and to see them dominated by first-time Ravens starter Ryan Mallett was a stunner. The Steelers forgot this was a rivalry game, and Ben Roethlisberger was surprisingly mediocre, with his second touchdown-less game in the last three weeks.
Pop the corks, Dolphins. For the 43rd straight season, there won’t be a perfect NFL team. Formerly 14-0 Carolina is now 14-1 Carolina. This one felt different for the ’72 Dolphins, though, because coach Don Shula’s son Mike is the Carolina offensive coordinator, and Mike Shula said his dad wanted Carolina to be unbeaten more than he (Mike) did.
But Carolina was flawed for the second straight week. Last week they gave up a 28-point lead to the Giants before pulling out a late win; this week they were flat, and Cam Newton played his first average game in a while. Carolina could still lose home-field in the NFC with a loss to Tampa Bay and a Cardinals win over the Seahawks on Sunday.
Did Cam open the MVP door a bit for Carson Palmer? I discuss below, but it’s not impossible.
There’s a difference in the J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets. It’s called offense. Against the best team in the AFC on Sunday, New York rushed for 143 yards, threw three touchdown passes, protected the quarterback serviceably against a good Patriots pass rush, and drove 80 yards to start overtime after New England coach Bill Belichick chose to begin OT by giving the ball to the Jets. In all, the only thing that could have made the day better for the Jets would have been Rex Ryan losing.
LaAdrian Waddle—yes, that LaAdrian Waddle—could all of a sudden be a key player for the Patriots. Waddle, waived by the Lions and picked up by New England two weeks ago, became the fifth left tackle for the Patriots in 15 games Sunday when Sebastian Vollmer went out against the Jets with an ankle sprain.
New England is the black hole of injury reporting, so no one knows how bad Vollmer is … and then Waddle went out with what appeared to be shoulder or neck injury. Cameron Fleming finished the game on the left side. Waddle and Fleming combined to give up five pressures, according to Pro Football Focus, and Tom Brady was pressured, sacked or hit 17 times against the Jets. Seemed like more.
Adrian Peterson has a 64-yard lead on Doug Martin for the rushing title with a week to go. Peterson (308 carries, 1,418 yards) has an easier game in the finale, at Green Bay, than Martin (273 carries, 1,354 yards), who has to play at Carolina, which will be trying hard to win after a poor performance Sunday at Atlanta. The Pack is 21st against the run and Carolina fifth. Peterson is aiming for his third rushing title, and he got warmed up for it (poor choice of words with 3-degree wind chill in Minnesota) with a 104-yard game against the Giants on Sunday night.
It’s Brandon Weeden’s world, and we’re just living in it. Two appearances, two wins, verging on a home playoff game, better quarterback rating (107.7) in Houston than the season-long numbers for Cam Newton and Tom Brady and Carson Palmer. “He’s a professional football player,” said Texans coach Bill O’Brien, and I can tell you that’s actually a pretty good compliment from O’Brien.
He’s not too bubbly, but Anquan Boldin joined an exclusive club Sunday. On the first snap of yet another Niners loss (in Detroit), Boldin caught a five-yard toss to the left from Blaine Gabbert for his 1,000th career catch. He’s the 13th man in 96 NFL seasons to reach 1,000, and the third one this year. “To be honest with you, it means nothing,” Boldin said from Detroit. “For me, I don’t like to think about those things during the season.” It’ll mean something someday.
Arizona is a juggernaut. Imagine outgaining the Green Bay Packers by 203 yards—in eight fewer plays. The Cardinals have a chance to lead the league in scoring, and in scoring defense. They’re first with 483 points scored, 21 points more than second-place Carolina. They’re in a bunch with five teams on defense to be the stingiest. Flip a coin right now for the game’s best team, Arizona or Carolina. The Cards are certainly better lately, and in their first test without Tyrann Mathieu, I’d say they passed, holding Green Bay to eight points.
--------------
Photo: Matt Rourke/AP
Kirk Cousins started every game for Washington this season in leading the team to an NFC East title.
Decision of the Year
Washington’s Jay Gruden is not winning coach of the year. Coaches of 9-7 or 8-8 teams don’t win that award. But he made the call of the year, one that paid off Saturday night when Washington beat Philadelphia to clinch the NFC East title and lock in the fourth seed in the NFC—with one week to play.
Six days before the opening game of the season, Gruden stepped to the podium for his Labor Day press conference and announced that he had picked Kirk Cousins as his starting quarterback, over Robert Griffin III. Coming off a 4-12 rookie season last year, Gruden then moved all his chips to the middle of the table. He said he was giving Cousins the job for the season.
That call, which I’d consider the Decision of the Year, put Gruden on the tightrope of all tightropes. Which he chuckled about amidst the celebration early Sunday morning in the locker room in Philadelphia.
“Coaching football, you’re always walking a tightrope,” he said. “Tightropes exist for every coach, really. Except Belichick.”
I credit Gruden because sometimes a coach has to look at his team and decide what’s best for it, and sometimes he has to be willing to lose his job over it. And that’s what Gruden was willing to do. He knew that the owner, Daniel Snyder, was partial to Griffin and wanted him to have one more real chance to be the long-term quarterback in Washington. And Gruden planned to give him that chacne. But then training camp and the preseason games and the summer practices happened, and he thought Cousins was better.
Did any coach make a better lineup decision this year than Gruden handing the job to Cousins? It’s easy to say that now, of course, because Washington just clinched the NFC East title Saturday night at Philly. But look at the accuracy of Cousins (.695) in 15 starts, and look how he’s cut down on his mistakes (14 turnovers in 15 games). Cam Newton has 14 turnovers in 15 games. Philip Rivers has 14 turnovers in 15 games.
I like what Gruden’s predecessor, Mike Shanahan, said to SI.com’s Don Banks on Sunday about the decision: “There’s one thing that you know as a coach that you don’t know maybe as an analyst or being a coach of a different team. You don’t know what a guy is like until you spend time with him. You don’t know the intangibles. You don’t know his preparation. You don’t have a gut feel on how he handles himself 24 hours a day. And it didn’t take long to figure out Kirk was a guy who was a perfectionist, who loved the game and had passion for the game.”
Early Sunday morning, Gruden explained why he did it, and why it worked.
“Number one,” Gruden said, “I thought Kirk earned it. I announced Robert in the off-season, but on the tape and the reps and the practices and the classroom work, we thought it was clear. We decided to go all in with Kirk, to see if he could make the transition.
We thought if we gave him the reins and we told him he didn’t have to look over his shoulder, that would give him the best chance to succeed. We felt like he deserved it. And it couldn’t be a temporary thing—the fans here were divided, and probably deservedly so. Kirk had to handle it all, and if it got a little shaky, I didn’t want to just pull the plug.
“Look, you’ve been around. This is a unique deal here in Washington. You know how it is around here. Robert was an excellent player in his rookie year, and then with the injury and everything, he got a little off track. But Kirk rewarded us big time.
“Robert is a good person. He’s obviously not happy with the decision, but it’s pro football and he’s taken it like a man. I told him this year, ‘You’re 25 years old, and you’re going to play till you’re 38 and have a really good career.’ He’s been able to take a step back, and still compete and not bitch about it. I’m proud of him.”
On Saturday night, Cousins (31 of 46, 365 yards, four touchdowns, no picks) repaid Gruden’s faith from the start. He threw a perfect play-action touchdown strike to tight end Jordan Reed up the seam to open the scoring. His prettiest throw, I thought, was the dime he dropped into Pierre Garçon in the fourth quarter, 26 yards in the air, just beyond two defenders, in a perfect spot: Garçon’s waiting arms. The ball couldn’t have been thrown better. An assist here to offensive coordinator Sean McVay too, because McVay’s the day-to-day teacher, and Cousins loves him.
So Gruden and Cousins, for now, are living happily ever after, the bond between them strengthened by a September decision. Sometimes you’ve got to make the call and ignore the noise. That’s what Gruden did, and he’s happy he did.
“In today’s world,” Gruden said, “if you worry about what anybody thinks about your decisions, you’re going to drive yourself to a problem. A big problem. Alcohol, or something. You just gotta put your nose to the grindstone and believe in yourself, believe you’re making the right call and just go.”