While Green Bay Packers receiver Robert Ferguson remained hospitalized Monday for observation, Jacksonville Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio agreed with safety Donovin Darius that Darius never intended to hurt Ferguson with a clothesline tackle to his neck that knocked his helmet off and left him unconscious.
“It was a nasty shot, but I don’t believe his intent was to headhunt,” Del Rio said.
Darius was ejected from the game, but Del Rio said he doubted the league will suspend him because his track record is relatively clean.
“It was nothing intentional,” said Darius, whose only fine for a hit came in a 2001 exhibition against Kansas City running back Priest Holmes. “I love to play this game 100 m.p.h. and I would never do anything outside the rules.”
Ferguson was taken off the field on a stretcher and was paralyzed below the waist temporarily after the hit. He regained feeling and movement on his way to the hospital, where he spent Sunday night.
He will remain there at least one more night.
“They gave no indication it’s career-threatening,” Packers coach Mike Sherman said. “But I don’t know if you can make that evaluation less than 24 hours later. All signs indicate that he’s going to be fine.”
Sherman called the hit “a cheap shot,” and some players said there probably would have been retaliation if Darius had stayed in the game.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with [Ferguson],” Del Rio said. “It was a scary situation and a very serious situation.”
Del Rio defended Darius: “He attempted to club at the football and ended up clubbing the guy in the head. It should be flagged and it was. I’m sure it will be fined and it should be.”
Ferguson gave a thumbs-up as he left the field on the stretcher.
“He’s a great kid,” Sherman said. “For him to put a thumbs-up on his way off the field knowing that he couldn’t move his toes . . . special guy.”
More like it
When Peyton Manning throws only one or two touchdown passes in a game and the Indianapolis Colts score only 23 or 20 points, as they have in their last two victories, NFL fans might wonder what’s wrong. Colts coach Tony Dungy doesn’t.
“This is what most games are like,” Dungy said.
The Colts and Manning are done feasting on the impotent NFC North Division, which should get an engraved invitation to Manning’s celebration party when he breaks Dan Marino’s 1984 record of 48 touchdown passes.
Manning has thrown 19 of his 47 touchdown passes against the Packers (five), Vikings (four), Bears (four) and Lions (six). The Colts scored 45, 31, 41 and 41 points against those bend-and-break defenses.
Before their 23-14 victory over Houston last week and 20-10 victory over Baltimore on Sunday night, the Colts had been on a rampage, scoring 31, 49, 41, 41 and 51 points to start their current seven-game winning streak.
“We don’t like it when we’re under 28 points, but against good defenses, you’re not going to score 48-45 points every week,” Dungy said. “In the middle of the year, that streak we had, people were getting a little bit too caught up in the notion that that’s the way it was always going to be.”
The Colts will not face an NFC patsy in December after picking on the NFC North in November. They are host to San Diego on Sunday and travel to Denver on Jan. 2.
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“These are the way the games are going to be in the playoffs and that’s why it’s good to have them,” Dungy said.
Steelers brace themselves
The race for home-field advantage in the AFC is so tense that the frontrunning Pittsburgh Steelers already are rationalizing.
The Steelers had home field in 2001 and lost the AFC championship game to eventual Super Bowl champion New England. So they know playing at home offers no guarantees.
“It’s important because it’s always tough to win on the road, but it’s not [that] important,” receiver Hines Ward said before the Patriots lost Monday night, making the Steelers task that much easier.
The Steelers face Baltimore at home Sunday before finishing at Buffalo on Jan. 2. A single win or one Patriots loss secures home-field advantage.
“Teams have proven they can win on the road,” Ward said. “You look at the past couple of Super Bowls. New England beat us when they came here; Carolina, they went on the road and they ended up going. You ever see `Rocky IV’ when he goes to Russia?”
The 1994 Steelers also had home-field advantage and lost to San Diego.
Ward said many of the 2001 Steelers were distracted by outside and inside forces in the week leading up to their title loss to the Patriots, who were 10-point underdogs but came away 24-17 winners.
“There are a lot of distractions when it comes to championship games, especially at home,” Ward said. “Everybody’s reading the newspaper; you’re one game away from the Super Bowl. Having to get tickets for the family, and everybody wants to hop on and get tickets. There’s a distraction there, rather than a team going on the road, backs against the wall, everybody’s booing them and there’s just the 53 guys you have on your team who believe you can go on the road and get the job done.”
The Steelers face Baltimore at home Sunday before finishing at Buffalo on Jan. 2.