For first-year players, a 17-game season means eventually hitting the so-called rookie wall. Cardinals running back Jeremiyah Love is preparing for that reality. <\/p>\n
His postgame comments from Sunday suggest it has possibly already happened.<\/p>\n
Love tiptoed around the question of whether the ankle he sprained in the preseason is still bothering him. On multiple occasions during his session with reporters after the 36-24 loss to the Giants, Love said it isn\u2019t. Still, his full remarks (which lasted less than five minutes) oozed with the idea that he\u2019s already worn down after only four regular-season games.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot really bothering me,\u201d he said when asked about the ankle, \u201ckind of just a managing because, you know, we got a long season. Coaches don\u2019t want to overload me, so not necessarily, like, bothering me to the point where I can\u2019t play, because I can go out there and play regardless of whether it\u2019s bothering me, like, I gotta go out there and put something on my opportunity to put us in the best position to have success, but it . . . it was all right. It was all right.\u201d<\/p>\n
While he understands the importance of pacing himself, he doesn\u2019t like having his workload managed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s frustrating because, you know, I\u2019m the type of guy that\u2019s going to, you know, do anything for my team to have success,\u201d Love said. \u201cLike, so I\u2019m gonna be out there despite, you know, how I\u2019m feeling, but my coaches care about me. They care about everybody on this team. So they\u2019re not gonna put you out there if you\u2019re not in the best position to go out there and, you know, do what you need to do and be yourself. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s frustrating for me personally. I\u2019m not frustrated with the coaches. I\u2019m really frustrated with myself because, you know, like, I just want to be good. I want to be 100 percent, you know, and I want to go out there and do what I need to do. I\u2019m not saying I\u2019m not 100 percent, but, like, I\u2019m not where I want to be. Like, I\u2019m not able to go out there and do spectacular plays every single time, or do stuff like that. So I\u2019m just frustrated with myself, not with the coaches, but they\u2019re doing a great job of managing me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is it because of the ankle?<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, it\u2019s not really just my ankle,\u201d Love said. \u201cIt\u2019s more of just the whole thing. It\u2019s been a long year for me. Like, [my] body sometimes is down. Somebody [is] sometimes tired. So, like, it\u2019s just managing those things. Like, coaches know that. Like, this is probably gonna be the longest year of my life. You know, and I just want to manage that workload. So today, you know, just obviously making sure to keep an eye on me, managing me. But I didn\u2019t go out there and hurt anything or anything like that. It\u2019s just, you know, they\u2019re doing what they need to do to keep me up so that I can finish the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
That included playing only 11 snaps in the second half and not being on the field in crunch time. Instead, Tyler Allgeier was in the backfield.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen again, like I say, like they even put people in the best position have success,\u201d Love said. \u201cYou know, me going out there, um, feeling like how I feel, like, you know, I would probably just hamper the team if I\u2019m going out there and I\u2019m not feeling like myself. So why not put somebody else out there? It\u2019s, you know, that\u2019s playing at a better, just physical, like, physically they\u2019re playing better. And I accept that, you know. Like, I\u2019m not gonna go out there and I\u2019m honest with my coaches. Like, they asked me, \u2018Can you go out there and do this, do this, and that?\u2019 And I\u2019d be like, \u2018I feel pretty good, but I think Tyler can, or Bam [Knight] can do \u2014 can exert themselves a little bit more. So that\u2019s kind of, you know, how it is. Like I said, my coaches care about me. I\u2019m not hurt or anything like that. It\u2019s really just managing me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Love had 30 snaps on Sunday. Allgeier had 36. Love finished with 14 carries for 62 yards; Allgeier had eight for 42.<\/p>\n
Whatever the reason, Love isn\u2019t consistently where he\u2019d like to be. It seems that the ankle is still something of an issue, even if he insists it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Officially, it\u2019s not the ankle. Although Love was limited throughout the practice week before the regular-season opener against the Chargers, Love has not appeared on the injury report since then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For first-year players, a 17-game season means eventually hitting the so-called rookie wall. Cardinals running back Jeremiyah Love…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":917756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-917755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=917755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/917756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=917755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=917755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=917755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}