Page 13 - Florida Sentinel 1-14-20

Sports
Patrick Mahomes-
Lamar Jackson Struggles As Top- Seeded Ravens Shocked By Titans
Carson Palmer Says Jameis
Inspired Chiefs
Winston Will Have 'Massive Year' If Bucs Bring Him Back
Shatter Records
The Tampa Bay Bucca- neers are noncommittal to- ward Jameis Winston's future. Former NFL quarter- back Carson Palmer be- lieves that would be a huge mistake by the franchise going forward.
Palmer, who was the quarterback for Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians from 2013 to 2017 with the Arizona Cardinals, believes another year in Arians's sys- tem is the best thing for Win- ston. He doesn't want the Buccaneers to cut bait just yet, due to the complexity of Arians's offense.
"You don't have that expe- rience in Year 1," Palmer said on "The Rich Eisen Show" Thursday. "You need Year 1 to go back and watch the film and see yourself doing it wrong and the re- ceivers seeing themselves doing it wrong and then Year 2, really things start to click.
There's optimism the Buc- caneers should have hope for Winston, despite his short- comings at quarterback. Winston had a career year in his first season under Ari- ans. He has completed 60.7% of his passes for a league- leading 5,109 yards with 33 touchdowns and a league- high 30 interceptions. Win-
When the Kansas City Chiefs fell behind by 24 points in the second quarter to the Houston Texans on Sunday, Patrick Mahomes gathered his offensive team- mates for a message.
He urged them to go and do something special.
"Obviously, I knew as a team everything kind of had to go the right way," Ma- homes said later. "Being down 24-0 in the NFL, you don't win a lot of those games."
Even as optimistic as he was about overcoming such a large deficit, Mahomes couldn't know how correct he would be about the Chiefs doing something special. Kansas City roared back to win 51-31 in the divisional round at Arrowhead Sta- dium. The Chiefs advance to next Sunday's AFC Champi- onship Game against the Tennessee Titans, also at Ar- rowhead. They opened as 7- point favorites at Caesars Sportsbook.
On Sunday, the Chiefs be- came the first team to win a playoff game by 20 points after trailing by 20. While the final score left little doubt, wide receiver Sammy Watkins acknowledged that at 24-0, he began to think the Chiefs' season soon would end.
"A couple of times, I was like, 'This is over,'" Watkins said. "I kind of got down, like, 'I don't know what's going to happen.'"
He said he then looked to tight end Travis Kelce for guidance along the sideline.
"He said, 'Hey, don't look like that, your body lan- guage,'" Watkins said. "I was like, 'OK, he knows something I don't know.'"
Like Mahomes, Kelce was optimistic but couldn't know how quickly things would change. Mahomes
PATRICK MAHOMES
threw four touchdown passes in the second quarter, tying an NFL playoff record for one period. Three went to Kelce, who set an NFL record for TD catches in a quarter.
The Chiefs needed just more than 10 minutes of game time to erase the 24- point deficit. They led 28-24 by halftime. Only three teams have overcome a bigger play- off deficit.
The Chiefs made plenty of mistakes early. They dropped four passes in the first quar- ter after dropping four in the previous six games com- bined. Their normally reli- able pass defense blew a coverage on the Texans' first touchdown. They allowed a touchdown on a blocked punt. Tyreek Hill lost a fumble deep in Kansas City territory on a punt return.
These were all things that were uncharacteristic for the Chiefs, or as coach Andy Reid said, "freak stuff."
"These are things that we haven't done," Reid said. "That's not us, right? It was just a matter of settling it down and calming the storm and making sure that our guys knocked whatever rust off and calmed down and made plays. We've been doing that all year and it was important we got back to doing that.
"We were able to rebound. A lot of teams can't do that."
LAMAR JACKSON Lamar Jackson and the
Baltimore Ravens' historic season abruptly ended with a shocking defeat Saturday night, opening questions about whether the NFL's top team struggled because of rust and postseason pressure.
In a 28-12 divisional- round loss to the Tennessee Titans, Jackson threw two interceptions and fumbled once in an uncharacteristic performance for the front- runner for NFL Most Valuable Player.
As a result, the Ravens suf- fered their first loss in 104 days (since Sept. 29) and be- came the first No. 1 seed to fall to a 6-seed since 2010.
Baltimore also became the sixth team since the NFL play- offs began in 1933 to win at least 14 games in a season but fail to win a postseason game.
CARSON PALMER AND JAMEIS WINSTON
ston became the first quar- terback to throw for 450-plus yards in consecutive games and was the first quarterback in league history to throw for 30 touchdowns and 30 inter- ceptions in a season. His seven interceptions returned for touchdowns is an NFL record. Palmer stated. "You can't blame Jameis for all the interceptions. Some of the passes hit the receivers in the hand and receivers, running backs running wrong routes.'
Turnovers have plagued Winston throughout his five-year career in the NFL, as Winston has thrown 88 in- terceptions and had 50 fum- bles in just 72 career games. Winston has completed 61.3 percent of his passes for 19,737 yards and 121 touch- downs in his five seasons, posting an 86.9 rating as the Buccaneers have gone 28-42 in his 70 starts.
In Rally
TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 2020 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 13