DENVER — Antonio Smith says nobody can get into Tom Brady’s head. That didn’t stop Denver’s defensive lineman from trying by labelling New England’s quarterback a crybaby.
DENVER — Antonio Smith says nobody can get into Tom Brady’s head. That didn’t stop Denver’s defensive lineman from trying by labelling New England’s quarterback a crybaby.
“I’ve never seen any quarterback look to the referee right after he gets sacked more than Brady,” Smith said with a smile. “Every time he gets sacked he looks at the ref like, ‘You see him sack me? Was that supposed to happen? He did it a little hard. Please throw a 15-yard penalty on him. Get him fined.’”
Both teams know the AFC championship won’t be decided by potshots — and maybe not even by the golden arms of Brady and Peyton Manning when they square off for the 17th — and likely final — time Sunday in Denver.
Maybe it’ll come down to two of the greatest toes on turf instead.
Especially with Denver sporting the league’s stingiest defense and Manning reduced to managing the Broncos’ no-longer explosive offense.
New England’s Stephen Gostkowski was the NFL’s top kicker in 2015, winning his second All-Pro honor after leading the league with 151 points.
Denver’s Brandon McManus tied an NFL record by nailing all five of his kicks in tricky crosswinds in Denver’s 23-16 win over Pittsburgh in the divisional round.
Sunday’s forecast in Denver calls for a clouds and temperatures at kickoff in the lower 40s, dipping into the 30s, which is good news for both Manning and Brady.
Yet …
Last weekend’s game was also supposed to be mild.
“During warmups, we went out there and it was a pretty calm day, a nice, tempered day,” McManus said. “We come out seven minutes before kickoff and I see a 30 mph crosswind come in over the Rockies.”
With the goal posts swaying wildly from the gusts almost the entire game, McManus converted field goals of 28, 41, 51, 41 and 45 yards, joking it was such a tricky task that he just kept aiming “at the guy holding the beer in the top left corner.”
“I think all of them were big,” said Demaryius Thomas, who had one of seven dropped passes thanks to the blustery winds. “He kept us in the game with the field goals. Him being able to kick with this wind helped us.”
Gostkowski is accustomed to kicking in bad conditions, too. So, if it gets windy Sunday, neither he nor McManus will fret.
“You kind of have to hit a ball to a spot and hopefully the wind takes it,” McManus said. “I had that 51-yarder right before halftime. I thought it was going to be easy down the middle, and it barely sneaked in.”
Gostkowski’s field goals from 40 and 32 yards in the fourth quarter last weekend helped the Patriots stave off Kanas City 27-20. He also nailed a 47-yarder as time expired to send the game to overtime when New England visited Denver on Nov. 29, a game in which McManus missed from the same distance.
While Gostkowski, a 10-year veteran, breezed to his first All-Pro honor since 2008, McManus started out hot, then slumped down the stretch. He made his first 13 kicks, including 57- and 56-yarders in the opener against Baltimore, and was named the AFC’s special teams player of the month in October.
His late-season slump included missed kicks in five consecutive games, including one off the left upright in a three-point loss to Oakland. He also shanked one from 45 yards against Cincinnati with no time left but atoned for that miss with a 37-yarder in overtime.
His coach never lost faith in the second-year pro who’d been cut by the previous coaching staff last year and won his job back over the summer.
“I think Brandon’s confidence is up right now,” Gary Kubiak said. “I think he’s had a really good year. He’s worked through a little rough patch and he’s come back. Now he’s as good as he’s been all season long.”
Gostkowski has missed on just three of 39 tries, counting the playoffs, and McManus is 35 of 40.
Of course, both would rather be kicking PATs Sunday than field goals.
“Any time No. 18 gets the ball, I’m thinking we’re going to score a touchdown,” McManus said. “I try to prepare my mind for the extra point. … But I want to help my team any way I can. It’s my job to go out there and make them.”
Notes: The Broncos promoted CB Taurean Nixon from their practice squad after placing S/PR Omar Bolden (knee) on IR Tuesday. Bolden was Denver’s leading punt and kickoff returner but was injured much of the season.
NFC
Cardinals running game sputtering heading into showdown
TEMPE, Ariz. — The Arizona Cardinals’ once robust running game has all but vanished in recent weeks. Now the team has to try to rediscover it while facing the punishing defense of the Carolina Panthers.
In last Saturday’s 26-20 overtime victory over Green Bay, the Cardinals managed just 40 yards rushing in 19 attempts, an anemic average of 2.1 yards per carry.
David Johnson gained 35 yards in 15 tries, an average of 2.3 per attempt. Arizona’s longest running play of the game was eight yards.
“I think they had a good scheme against us from the two weeks before that when we played them, they were ready for us,” Johnson said Tuesday after the Cardinals’ walk-through practice.
Arizona coach Bruce Arians placed the blame squarely on the offensive line and not on his rookie running back.
“Getting their (behind) kicked up front,” Arians said. “It’s not anything David is doing. There’s just not a lot of holes there and we have to do a better job. It’s a tough challenge this week.”
When the Cardinals face Carolina in the NFC championship game on Sunday, they will go against a defense that ranked fourth against the run in the regular season, allowing 88.4 yards per game.
Arians said Star Lotulelei and Kawann Short are the best pair of defensive tackles Arizona has seen all season.
“The linebackers are great,” Arians said, “but they (the tackles) help make them great.”
Lotulelei and Short are great players, Cardinals left guard Mike Iupati said. “They’re big, fast, strong.”
And they help make linebacker Luke Kuechly the great player he is.
Kuechly, Arians said, has “got great instincts.”
“He’s really fast,” the coach said. “What he really is, he’s a great pass defender. People see all the tackles, but they do a great job of keeping him clean to make the tackles,”
The absence of defensive end Jared Allen, who is doubtful for the game due to a broken foot, won’t have that much impact, the Cardinals coach said.
“They’ve got good depth,” Arians said. “Mario Addison gave us problems last year and I’m not sure there’s a drop off there.”
Rest assured that the Arizona offensive linemen will hear a lot this week about their run blocking from Arians and offensive coordinator Harold Goodwin, who specializes in coaching those positions.
Iupati, named to the Pro Bowl for the fourth time in his six NFL seasons, is considered one of the best run blockers in the league.
“We’ve got to execute better,” he said. “We’ve got to block better, block longer, extend your guys. It’s no secret. … Us O-line guys, we know what we’ve got to do. We’ve just got to go out there and open holes for David or whoever’s in the backfield and protect the quarterback.”
Most of the season, the Cardinals’ ground game has been humming along nicely, with Chris Johnson the featured back until he went down with a season-ending injury in Arizona’s 19-13 win at San Francisco on Nov. 29. David Johnson stepped in and, if anything, the running game got better.
He gained 99 yards in his first start (at St. Louis), 92 in his second (against Minnesota) and a breakout 187 yards in 29 carries at Philadelphia.
But he had only 39 yards, 25 yards and 35 yards in the three games since.
Johnson, a third-round draft pick out of Northern Iowa, knows that the running game has been crucial to the success of the Cardinals, who had the No. 1 ranked offense in the NFL in the regular season.
“When we’re able to run the ball, it keeps our offense on the field and it just overall helps our whole team,” Johnson said.