One of the friends and family of Frostee Rucker that will be at the game Sunday in Los Angeles will be his first football coach. Rucker was 6 at the time. He later ended up playing at USC, and so will be back at the Los Angeles Coliseum playing for the first time since college.
"It's almost like full circle in a sense," Rucker said.
The season will come to an end as well. Can't say it's full circle, since at the beginning expectations were so high and here we are, on the final day of practice and it's not even January. That certainly wasn't the plan back in August. The mood was good this week, I'm sure in part because of the win in Seattle. They'd like to finish off with the revenge win against the Rams. "You build your team to win in the division," coach Bruce Arians said, and, despite all the ups and downs, if the Cardinals win Sunday, they will have gone 4-1-1 in the NFC West.
That's a record that Arians admitted, had he known before the season, he'd have assumed they would have won the division.
-- Here's another stat (oh, those sometimes misleading stats) that also would've made you think they could've (would've?) won the division: There are only three teams in the NFL ranked in the top 10 in offense and defense. The Cardinals (eighth in offense, third in defense) are one of them. The others? Playoff-bound New England and Pittsburgh.
-- The Cardinals have not lost an NFC West road game since 2014. They've won five straight heading into this one.
-- It's amazing to think the Cardinals will be starting their fifth different right guard Sunday. It's gone Evan Mathis to Earl Watford to John Wetzel to Earl Watford to Taylor Boggs and now to Evan Boehm.
-- For those wondering, I had a chance to ask Carson Palmer about the late slant pass to J.J. Nelson. It indeed was an audible.
-- The crazy stat of the week: Running back David Johnson is averaging 10.7 yards per catch (77 receptions). Wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald is averaging 9.6 yards per catch (102 receptions). Yes, Fitz has more catches, but you'd never think a running back would be ahead of a receiver.
-- Speaking of Fitzgerald, Arians said he would not lobby the veteran wide receiver to return in 2017. "It's up to Larry," Arians said of Fitzgerald playing another year. "I've got my fingers crossed. Hopefully he will come back but that's strictly up to him."
-- Arians does have other business with Fitz, though. On Chandler Catanzaro's game-winning field goal last week, Fitz celebrated with the coach a bit too hard. The jumping bear hug hurt Arians' right shoulder, and he admitted Friday it still hurts. What did the MRI show? "Haven't taken one yet," Arians said with a chuckle. "I don't even want to know."
There could still be a price to pay, though.
"If I can't play golf this year (in the offseason), I'll be driving one of those real nice cars," Arians added with a grin.
-- The in-flux offensive line, whatever its shortcomings, has allowed only two sacks total the last two games.
"Proud of them," offensive coordinator Harold Goodwin said. "That's what I told them Wednesday. Just proud of them."
-- Palmer doesn't like sitting out Wednesday practice but he never really fought it either. The Cardinals put a lot of time and effort into the sports science of workload, hits and repetitions -- led by assistant strength coach Anthony Piroli -- to judge such things. Palmer's Wednesday work is part of that science.
"There's reason for it," Palmer said. "There's data behind it. It's amazing the stuff that they keep track of and the information that you get back from that. It makes sense. I see why they do it, and like I said, they're paid professionals. That's their job and that's their role, and you don't have a choice but to listen."
-- This Rod Tidwell "Football Life" trailer is pretty good, NFL Network. I'm going to stick with my Tidwell effort, however.
-- Congrats to Johnson for being named MVP by the Arizona chapter of the PWFA. Same for Kevin Minter for taking the "Good Guy" award for his dealing with the media. Truth be told, there are a bunch of guys that could win the Good Guy award -- Calais Campbell, Patrick Peterson, Tony Jefferson, D.J. Humphries, Tyrann Mathieu and A.Q. Shipley immediately come to mind, and that's not a total list -- but the truth is, we have a very good locker room when it comes to this part of the job.
-- Another season (almost) done. That's 17 in the books for me. Where does the time go?
