Remember the football movie “Friday Night Lights”? The movie took place in Odessa, Texas, where high school isn’t a sport, but a religion. The flick starred Billy Bob Thornton as the head coach of the Permian High School Panthers.
In the Panthers’ very first game, their star running back Boobie Miles was having a magnificent game, and their opponent had no answer for him. Even though it was the first game of the season, numerous college scouts were in the stands.
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Into the fourth quarter, Permian had the game well in hand with a huge 42-7 lead, due to the play of Miles. When Coach Gaines called for his backup Comer, to enter the game at running back, he could not find his helmet. He tried to borrow Miles’ helmet, but was rebuffed. So, Coach Gaines sent Miles back in.
The next play was “28 sweep” to Miles. As he attempted to turn the corner, a linebacker hit him high and very hard, and he fell over a defender lying on the turf. The high-low tackle produced a loud snap, and Miles suffered a knee injury.
Coach Gaines’ offensive prize was now gone for the year.
This same scenario played out in the Arizona Cardinals’ 45-21 loss to the Detroit Lions on Sunday afternoon.
With 1:05 remaining in the third quarter, Detroit QB Jared Goff scored on a one-yard sneak. The score was now 38-14. On the Cardinals’ next possession to begin the fourth quarter, an eight-play drive ended on the Lions’ 19-yard line when QB Jacoby Brissett was sacked on a fourth-and-one.
12:55 was left in the ballgame. The game was well in hand, and Detroit was leading by four scores. The Lions then drove the field and scored another touchdown. The clock showed 5:03 remaining; Detroit was now up by five scores.
Out trotted the Arizona offense, including Brissett. Why wasn’t Brissett pulled?
There was no way the Cardinals were going to climb back into this game. What purpose is it to still play your starting quarterback? Why didn’t Arizona head coach Mike LaFleur pull Brissett and send out backup Gardner Minshew? Better yet, the team has got to find out what they have in rookie Carson Beck. Five minutes of live game time would be helpful data.
It would also be useful to see if Minshew can move this offense better than Brissett. So far in two seasons, Brissett is 2-15-0 in games that count. Maybe a change of scenery is the answer. Perhaps it’s not, but if LaFleur is hell-bent on Brissett leading this new offense, then why risk him in a lost cause? What if Brissett were to become injured in those last five minutes? Nothing much was going to change the outcome. As it turned out, TE Trey McBride turned a bad throw into a highlight reel with a spectacular catch. That meant the Cardinals lost by four scores instead of five. Yeah, for the home team!
Seeing Minshew or Beck would have been a pleasant sight. Arizona has played five games already, and neither man has taken a single snap all season. In soccer, you have to play your backup goalkeeper at some point just to keep him/her focused. The same goes for ice hockey. Play the backup keeper against weaker opponents so that he/she can get some ice time.
This was the perfect opportunity to get one or the other some live game action.
And if Brissett had gotten injured during that final drive, articles like this would be discussing whether Minshew or Beck should become the new starter going forward.
