Sen'Derrick Marks celebrates after sacking Charlie Whitehurst on the game's final play Thursday night. (Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports)
Some NFL head coaches don’t’ want to players getting ahead of themselves, talking about playoffs and championships until the team is truly in position for it to happen. You know, “one game at a time” and “there’s no game more important than the next one” are the mantras often heard around NFL teams.
So it was somewhat unusual last week when Green Bay Packers Mike McCarthy went a little rogue on the day after the Packers lost to Buffalo and before they started preparing for Sunday’s game against Tampa Bay.
On that Monday, McCarthy had the players vote on playoff captains, even though, despite a then-10-4 record, the team wasn’t guaranteed a post-season spot.
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers wasn’t surprised by McCarthy’s idea.
“He trusts his gut instincts, and they haven’t let him down or let the team down,” Riodgers said. “I don’t think it’s anything other than a mindset for him. He likes to kind of ooze confidence out of himself. It’s a toughness from his Pittsburgh roots, but it’s a confidence that he trusts the guys that we’re going to get it done. It just ups the urgency.”
McCarthy said the approach was basic, noting, “We’re really looking at this game as really the start of our playoff approach, playoff mindset. This is a road game that we have to have. We clearly understand the importance of winning in December, but we feel like we need to take it up a notch as a football team to make sure that we improve not only as a team but most importantly in the win column. This is a playoff-type preparation.
“I felt the need to give these men a chance to stand up front and take the responsibility that their teammates have placed upon ’em. That’s the way we’re approaching it. It’s time to ramp it up and make sure we’re playing our best football this time of year.”
For the record, the elected captains were Rodgers and wide receiver Jordy Nelson on offense, linebacker Julius Peppers and safety Morgan Burnett on defense and punt returner Randall Cobb and coverage standout Jarrett Bush on special teams.
A Meaningful Sack
Jacksonville Jaguars defensive tackle Sen’Derrick Marks entered last Thursday night’s game needing one-half sack to earn a cool $600,000 bonus. Marks had 7.5 sacks and a clause in his contract provided the bonus if he reached 8.0 for the season.
Not only did Marks get his sack, but it happened at the best possible time, on the final play of the game as Tennessee quarterback Charlie Whitehurst was trying to get in position for one final pass into the end zone in the Jaguars’ 21-13 loss.
What made the sack even more meaningful was how Marks lost a sack he was originally credited with against Houston on Dec. 7. On the play in question, Texans quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick fell and Marks was the first to touch him. However, a statistical review changed the play from a pass to run, and the classy Marks didn’t disagree.
He said, “I didn’t think it was a sack when it happened. I thought it was a running play. It (losing the sack) won’t bother me.”
Especially now that he’s made the incentive. Marks insisted he doesn’t think about incentives like that during action.
“Once the game starts, I don’t think about it,” he said. ”If it happens, it happens. If it don’t it don’t. … I play within the scheme. Playing within the scheme has gotten me to this point so I won’t abandon the scheme just to be selfish.”
A War of Words
It’s been a long season in Washington, and many believe the relationship between Redskins coach Jay Gruden and quarterback Robert Griffin III is irreparable. Maybe it is. But, don’t count Gruden in that group. He believes a lot of what has been said has been blown way out of proportion and even mischaracterized.
That was clearly the result last week when truncated versions of what Gruden said created more controversy. One report had Gruden claiming how important it is for the team to get leads so Griffin “doesn’t have to do a lot of dropback passing and defense reading.”
However, here’s the complete transcript of Gruden’s answer to a question about Griffin’s development and whether the quarterback “gets it.” Gruden said, “We hope so. That just comes with repetition. You look around the league at some of the successful guys. I was looking at Eli Manning – I think he’s on his 195th career start and Peyton (Manning) is on 200. Drew Brees is on 200. He’s on what, 15 or 16? So, it’s going to come with time, man.
“This position is very difficult, especially when you’re learning new concepts with a new system. It takes time. So, it’s important for us to try and have some success on first and second down so we don’t have to drop back and throw it 30 times a game and have a lead so we don’t have to worry about it. But, eventually, like I said, when you get behind, you get in third down, you get behind the chains, those have to be accomplished — the dropback reads and progressions have to be accomplished and that’s something we’re fighting through right now.”
Not quite the same. A couple days later, Gruden was asked about previous comments about Griffin that were perceived as overly critical, and he said, “It was coaching out loud. The whole thing came up when it came out that he was ‘criticizing his teammates’ or what have you, and I just wanted to make sure that he was worried about his own game. There’s some things that he can clean up and I can clean up, and everybody just needs to clean up. That comes with coaching. I need to coach him to clean up his fundamentals. I need to coach our left tackle to clean up his fundamentals, our middle linebacker, our safety. … It’s just fundamental football that everybody needs to clean up on a weekly basis, and we’ll never stop coaching fundamentals.”
Gruden concluded, “I know that no matter what I say about Robert, it’s going to get twisted one way or the other. If I say he’s doing great, it’s going to be, ah, I’m too easy on him. If I say he needs to work harder, it means I said he’s lazy. If I said he needs to work on his fundamentals, it means I don’t like him.
“I have a ton of respect for Robert, man, and for what he goes through at the quarterback position, for what he’s already accomplished as a young quarterback, and what he’s going to accomplish in the future.”
So, there.
