Dein erstes Forum » Perhaps he’ll have a little support now.

Mike Mularkey had heard the rumblings about his job status Will Harris Jersey , and seen all those reports that claimed he would be fired by the Titans if they lost their playoff opener to Kansas City.

Tennessee rallied from a 21-3 halftime hole on Saturday to beat the Chiefs 22-21 in their AFC wild-card matchup. It was the first postseason win for the franchise in 14 years, and it left Mularkey feeling a bit vindicated when he addressed a handful of reporters deep inside Arrowhead Stadium.

”I don’t think you guys believe me, when they come in the locker room, there is a look – they’re going to come back and win this game,” he said.

”It’s on the sideline. It always is. It always has been with this team. I wish you guys would give them a little credit for it. They stick together and they’ve got each other’s backs, and they always have. And they came through today when we really needed it.”

When their coach really needed it, too.

Mularkey was asked whether the speculation had an effect on him, and he replied: ”If it has an effect on my family, it has an effect on me. So, yeah. I’d say it had a big effect on me.”

Then, he was asked whether he felt sure no matter what happens in the playoffs.

”No,” he said. ”I haven’t had any support to say that I was (secure). No. I just assumed the worst.”

Good thing he got the best.

Marcus Mariota threw for 205 yards and two touchdowns, the first to himself – the ball was batted back to him and he dived into the end zone – and the second to Eric Decker, a 22-yard strike with about six minutes to go that gave Tennessee its first lead of the game.

Derrick Henry added a career-high 156 yards rushing and another score for the Titans.

”Throughout this entire season, through ups and downs, guys, the energy doesn’t change,” Mariota said. ”You’ve got to give a lot of credit to the guys in that locker room for continuing to believe.”

Meanwhile http://www.lionscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-austin-bryant-jersey , the Chiefs squandered another chance for their first home playoff win since January 1994, a stretch of postseason futility that includes heartbreaks of just about every stripe.

”The sick part about this is it’s final,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said, ”but the guys that are going back, you have to feel this. Coaches and players, we have to change it around.

”It’s not good enough,” he added, ”and that’s the bottom line.”

As the Titans wait to learn whether a trip to New England or Pittsburgh is on deck, and the Chiefs begin thinking about next season, here are a few more takeaways from the game:

OFFICIATING FUROR: The Chiefs complained vigorously about several calls by the officials, including two in which whistles for forward progress took away fumbles. One led to a Tennessee field goal and the other took away a 2-point conversion that would have given Kansas City a late lead. ”I can’t go there,” Reid said. ”Everything I say, those guys are protected. You can go talk to them. Question them.”

INJURY NOTES: The Titans emerged from the game healthy, while the Chiefs lost emotional leaders on both sides of the ball. All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce left with a concussion in the first half and big defensive tackle Chris Jones left with an ankle injury in the second half. ”Kelce, that hurts,” Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith said. ”A player of his caliber, not having him out there hurts.”

RUNNING ANGRY: Henry had bemoaned his performance as the featured back last week, when he ran 28 times for 51 yards against Jacksonville. He was back in the role Saturday with Demarco Murray still out with an injury Rock Ya-Sin Jersey , and this time his pounding attack paid dividends. ””I just wanted to have a better performance than I had last week,” he said. ”I just wanted to be able to come out here and execute the plays that were called and help this team and this offense.”

RECORD RALLY: Only two other road teams have rallied from at least 18 down to win a playoff game in NFL history. The Cowboys came back from 21-3 in the first half to beat the 49ers 30-28 in December 1972, and the Lions came back from 27-7 in the second half to beat the 49ers in December 1957.

CHIEFS FUTURE: Smith is still under contract next season, but the cash-strapped Chiefs are expected to trade or release him and turn the team over to first-round pick Patrick Mahomes II.

Meanwhile, veteran linebackers such as Derrick Johnson and Tamba Hali could be contemplating retirement. ”I know those guys are hurting,” Reid said. ”All those decisions are way down the line.”

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After winning 14 games, including his first postseason victory with Minnesota and a second NFC North title in four years on the job, Vikings coach Mike Zimmer has a team set up to sustain such success.

The items on his to-do list are major issues, though.

Finding an offensive coordinator has become the top priority, following the departure of Pat Shurmur to become the head coach of the New York Giants. Then there’s the matter of working with general manager Rick Spielman to identify a starting quarterback for 2018, with contracts scheduled to expire for Case Keenum, Sam Bradford and Teddy Bridgewater.

The offensive coordinator will be determined first and likely have some input into the quarterback quandary, too, but sorting out the age, ability, cost, durability and unrealized potential of Keenum, Bradford and Bridgewater will be the more complicated and critical task.

Having been awake with angst until 3 a.m. following Minnesota’s 38-7 loss at Philadelphia in the NFC championship game on Sunday http://www.coltscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-ben-banogu-jersey , Zimmer said at his season-ending news conference Tuesday that he hasn’t pointed his mind down that path yet.

”My whole focus was on the now and not so much the future,” Zimmer said. ”Rick and I talked about that earlier. We said, `Let’s just go through the season. Let’s figure it out after the season.’ We’ll go through that process and go from there and see how that goes. We’re just going to work through it.”

Though Zimmer was staying true to the status report, he also didn’t exactly offer a ringing endorsement of Keenum.

”I’m going to work through the process, just like I always do,” Zimmer said, when asked for a specific evaluation of the year Keenum had after going from unheralded backup to season-saver. ”We’re going to evaluate all the players. We’re going to evaluate everybody and go about our business like we always do.”

As for Bradford, whose knee injury yielded the position to Keenum, Zimmer said Bradford told him on Monday that he feels like he is past the trouble that limited him to two starts in 2017.

As for Bridgewater, who took Bradford’s spot on the active roster for the second half of the schedule only to be bumped back to third string and did-not-suit-up status for the playoffs, Zimmer said the Vikings naturally would have preferred to see a fuller picture of on-field action following his recovery from a major knee injury. Keenum’s success made that impossible for Bridgewater, who hasn’t appeared in a high-stakes situation in more than two years.

”For him to even get to that point to where he was and be able to come out and practice and compete, get in a game, was a true credit to him,” Zimmer said, adding: ”He’s at the point where he can play. You just have to figure out where’s he at, because obviously we didn’t get to see him through games.”

Not many teams in NFL history will have such a strong season to come within one win of the Super Bowl, only to have the sport’s most important position in such an uncertain state Parris Campbell Jersey , but that’s where the Vikings find themselves.

”I guess it’s unique, but it’s part of the process in the NFL,” Zimmer said. ”You work through it, and you go about your business.”

As for the offensive coordinator vacancy, Zimmer said he’ll take his time to try to get the right hire. He didn’t rule out internal candidates such as quarterbacks coach Kevin Stefanski, but he also acknowledged the benefit of new ideas from the outside.

The defense could not have been better in the regular season, ranking first in both fewest yards and points allowed, but it faltered over the final five quarters of the playoffs. Nick Foles and the Eagles torched this proud group for 456 total yards.

”I have to do a better job in some areas as far as maybe sticking to some things too much because we’re successful,” Zimmer said.

As for the Super Bowl that will be painfully played on the team’s home turf at U.S. Bank Stadium, Zimmer will not be in attendance, in case there was any question. He’ll be at his vacation ranch in northern Kentucky, inevitably cringing from time to time about coming so close to the franchise’s first championship.

”Our fans were unbelievable the way they helped this football team out. They talked about bringing the whole state together, the state of Minnesota and Vikings fans throughout the world,” Zimmer said. ”That made me feel good, that we were able to bring a bunch of people and try to work for something for a common goal. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to finish it for them, so that is one of the disappointments.”

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