South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Chiefs vs. Patriots
AFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME Patriots, who haven’t won a playoff road game since ’07, face hotshot Patrick Mahomes. Stories,
Ndamukong Suh earned multiple All-Pro honors, Pro Bowl selections and tens of millions of dollars during his first eight NFL seasons.
The imposing defensive lineman had never won a playoff game, let alone a Super Bowl. When he was free to choose his next team after the Dolphins released him in March, Suh decided he would try to fill that gap in his resume.
After speaking at length with the Saints and other suitors, he decided to join the Rams. They hadn’t won a playoff game since the 2004 season, but they appeared to be on the verge of something big after going 11-5 last season.
“I felt this team had some of the right pieces and I would be a good addition to it,” Suh said. “A lot of conversations that we had with the coaching staff and the front office on my visit were (about) playing well in the season and being prepared for the postseason.”
Nearly 10 months later, the payoff has arrived for Suh’s leap of faith to Los Angeles.
After the Rams went 13-3 for the best regular-season record of Suh’s career, he had likely his best game for his new team last weekend when the Rams beat the Cowboys 30-22 in the divisional round. The Rams head into the NFC championship game Sunday at the Superdome with a shot at the 32-year-old Suh’s first trip to his sport’s biggest stage.
“It would mean a lot,” Suh said. “I’ve been in this league for nine years. (This is) my first NFC championship (game), and that would be my first Super Bowl. I get chills thinking about it, so I’m excited. I’m looking forward to it.”
Suh’s thoughts are echoed across the Rams locker room, which is filled with accomplished NFL players who have never accomplished much in the postseason.
Many key players remain from the team that went 4-12 in 2016, the franchise’s 13th straight non-winning season, from Jared Goff and Todd Gurley to Aaron Donald and Michael Brockers.
Several of the veterans the Rams have added in the last two years also lacked playoff credentials — including 37-yearold Andrew Whitworth, the dominant left tackle who finally got his first postseason win last weekend.
“We feel like we’ve been through it,” Whitworth said. “There’s really not much adversity we haven’t seen all year long. We feel like we were born for this moment.”
The Rams don’t have the collective playoff experience of their fellow conference finalists, but they have a firm bond forged during a season of upheaval.
They had to stick together in November when the suburban area around their training complex was rocked by the double impact of a mass shooting at a bar and two wildfires that forced several players and coaches to leave their homes as a precaution. The Rams also had to adjust to a schedule change when their game against the Chiefs in Mexico City was moved back to Los Angeles on six days’ notice.
None of it has shaken the team led by coach Sean McVay, who became the youngest coach in NFL history to win a playoff game last weekend.
McVay has no concern about his inexperience on the sport’s highest levels when compared with the likes of the Saints’ Sean Payton, who has a Super Bowl ring.
That’s because McVay has assistant coaches with experience in conference championships and Super Bowls — particularly defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, who has done and seen everything the NFL can offer.
While a conference title game in the deafening Superdome is a new experience for most Rams, Brandin Cooks is an exception on several fronts. The veteran receiver won’t even be surprised by the Superdome din.
Cooks played three years with the Saints — albeit without making the playoffs — before moving to the Patriots last season.
He played in the first quarter of the Super Bowl before incurring a concussion that kept him out of the rest of the Patriots’ loss to the Eagles.
Cooks was traded to the Rams and agreed to a five-year extension before he had even suited up in a horned helmet.
“When I got here,” he said, “I knew we had something special.”
He hasn’t regretted his decision, although he didn’t dare to imagine he would have a chance to play in two straight Super Bowls for different teams.