Perhaps he’ll have a little support now.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, 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 Seattle Seahawks Jerseys
Womens , 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, 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.”—The Los Angeles Angels lost four more players to the disabled list Friday, putting the club’s total at a franchise-record 15 players on the DL at one
time.Infielder Zack Cozart went on the DL with a partially dislocated left shoulder, while right-hander Jim Johnson has a lower back strain; right-hander
Garrett Richards is nursing a strained left hamstring; and right-hander Nick
Tropeano has inflammation in his pitching shoulder.Meanwhile Tennessee Titans Jerseys Womens , Japanese two-way star Shohei Ohtani is taking some
one-handed swings as the Angels wait out his sprained elbow to be re-evaluated
in a few weeks.The timeline for Richards, plagued by injuries the past two seasons that limited him to 12 total starts over 2016 and `17, to return is unclear, though
manager Mike Scioscia said the injury is considered mild. ”Hamstrings,” he said,
”they’re a different animal.”Richards left his Wednesday start at Seattle after two innings with tightness in the hamstring, then Cozart went down the next inning diving for a ball and
irritated the shoulder. He has played with the injury before, but his shoulder
needs to calm down.With Richards, the Angels won’t take any chances.”Unfortunately right now we’ve got to take a little half-step back and let it heal,” Scioscia said before his team opened a weekend series at Oakland. ”It was
definitely affecting how he was trying to execute pitches the other day. We’re
keeping our fingers crossed that it’s not going to be an extended injury.”Johnson’s back locked up a couple of days ago.Scioscia said he would do anything to take on all the injuries of his players because he doesn’t have to be feeling good, with the former catcher noting he
already has plenty of aches and pains. While the injuries are mounting and the
minor leaguers are arriving at a rapid rate to fill big holes, Scioscia said
there have been worse times like in recent years when the entire rotation was
hurt in a month’s time – that ”is devastating,” he said.”I don’t know about four guys in one day,” Scioscia said. ”You can absorb the regular players that are out here and there but when you lose the toughest
commodity to find is really good starting pitching, that takes a big dent out of
what you’re trying to do. That being said, nobody’s going to feel sorry for
yourself. We feel we have the guys that will go in there and contribute and keep
us going.”And if we can pitch and have our bullpen hold leads, then we’re going to be fine.”The Angels called up four right-handed pitchers from Triple-A Salt Lake: Eduardo Paredes, Akeel Morris, Felix Pena and Jake Jewell. Left-hander John Lamb
will be called up to start Saturday, meaning the Angels must make another move
by designating someone for assignment to clear space on the 40-man roster.The A’s were the last team with 15 players on the DL at once, in 2016. Los Angeles had just 12 players from the opening day roster on Friday’s active
roster.—
