| |  Season-long thumb injury frustrates Warner
By John Clayton
ESPN.com
The numbers were typical Kurt Warner. He was 28-for-44 for 365 yards
in an offense that produced 427 total yards.
|  | | Kurt Warner inspects the injured thumb on his throwing hand in the second half Sunday. |
Yet this didn't look like the regular-season MVP. Three times during
Super Bowl XXXVI, Warner hit that famous right thumb that has bothered him
all season. It took him until the mid-season game against the Patriots to
find the solution to the thumb injury, but the banging on his thumb took a
little off his game in a 20-17 last-second loss to the Patriots on Sunday.
The injury can be traced back to the preseason, when he hit the right thumb
on a helmet, a common injury for a quarterback. But the problem lingered 10
weeks into the season. He had trouble gripping the ball until he took a
cortisone shot that enabled him to throw pain-free for 401 yards in a 24-17
victory over the Patriots in Foxboro.
Against the Patriots in the Superdome, Warner was thumbs-down.
"I hit it about three times during the game," Warner said. "I
don't know when and where. It was something I had to fight through and I
did. I felt fine. It felt good enough to win this football game. I just
didn't do it."
The most noticeable time for the injury came in the third quarter.
Warner seemed to hit it on a play before a timeout. Warner came to the
sideline trying to stretch the thumb and keep it loose.
After that incident, he called three consecutive running plays. It
was noticeable that he was having trouble gripping the ball. On a third-down
play, he threw a wobbly pass that was intercepted by cornerback Otis Smith,
setting up a 37-yard Adam Vinatieri field goal.
Overall, the Patriots converted three Rams turnovers into 17 points.
"We made a few mistakes in all areas," Warner said. "I wasn't
frustrated by what they were doing. I was frustrated by what we weren't
doing, the way we weren't finishing things. That was frustrating. We just
couldn't get over the hump. That's hard when you're a competitor and you're
used to scoring points."
Despite the problems gripping the ball, Warner rallied. He completed
14 of 20 for 187 yards during the final 19 minutes of the game. No, he
wasn't sharp. He was limited in his ability to throw deep.
Rams coach Mike Martz said he didn't know that Warner's thumb was
bothering him, so he made no adjustments in the playcalling. But the usually
accurate Warner couldn't zip passes into tight areas as he is used to doing.
Martz made a couple of smart calls down the stretch. On a second
down and goal at the Patriots 2, Martz called Warner over and told him to
run a quarterback draw out of a spread four-receiver set. Martz successfully
noted that the Patriots didn't have the interior of the defensive line
covered with enough tacklers.
That cut the lead to 17-10. On the game-tying drive, Martz made a
late substitution by sending in Yo Murphy, a receiver, into the backfield, a
play usually designed for Az Hakim. Murphy streaked down the right side of
the field for an 11-yard gain. On the next play, Warner hit Ricky Proehl for
the game-tying 26-yard touchdown.
"I don't know if we thought we had them, but we had a lot of new
life," Warner said. "We felt if we hold them there, the last 1:20 or
whatever, then go into overtime, and you never know. All you need is a field
goal at that point. I think we were pretty optimistic at that point that our
defense was going to hold them."
Warner was wrong as Tom Brady came back and drove the Patriots to a
game-winning field goal.
Patriots cornerback Ty Law sat on the podium with his daughter on
his lap after the game discussing an interception he had returned from Warner
for a touchdown. Warner came over to him and congratulated him on winning
the Super Bowl.
"Here comes the MVP," Law said to his daughter.
"Congratuations, you deserve it," Warner said to Law.
Law was all thumbs-up to that thought.
John Clayton is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
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SB XXXVI Over/Under
