Did L.J. Collier make the right decision on 2-point fumble recovery vs. Rams?

TEMPE — To lateral or not to lateral?

That was the question L.J. Collier was met with in the Arizona Cardinals’ 18-16 win over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday.

Following Josh Sweat’s massive strip sack of Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, Collier suddenly found himself with the ball and nothing but green grass in front of him.

Just like that, it was off to the races with blockers around him.

The effort was there. The speed (understandably) was not, resulting in a chase down tackle at the Rams’ 35-yard line.

LJ Collier wanted to take the two-point conversion return all the way 😅

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Which begs the question, should he have lateraled the rock to one of his speedy teammates?

“Is that the right thing to do in that two-point conversion? Absolutely it is. I don’t know if he still believes that,” LaFleur said with a smile on Monday. “We’ll coach that on Friday in our situation meeting because that won’t happen in practice.

“If that was a non-two-point conversion, you see people do it, but I’ve also seen it go haywire when you’re a D-lineman trying to give a ball to a DB or what not. I’ve seen it work. I’ve seen it not work. In two-point conversion, it’s basically a no-risk. Give it to the fast guy. L.J. was rolling, though.”

The reasoning makes total sense.

Given the nature of the two-point conversion, there is no collateral damage for trying to make something happen. Lose possession of the rock? No problem.

Field position is going to reset anyway on the ensuing kickoff. The biggest miss of it all is losing out on the two points, which is a rare feat to begin with.

As for getting added reps in practice on the very out-of-nowhere play, don’t expect Collier’s moment to change up the order of operations.

“I’m not a believer in giving them the .0001%,” LaFleur said. “I want to get good at running duo. I want to get good at playing cover 4. I want to get good at our techniques. I want to be good at the 99% stuff, not the 1%. Some people would disagree with me on that. Honestly, it’s just kind of the way that I’ve been brought up in in the NFL.

“We want to get good at the basic stuff, not that kind of stuff. Organically, those things can happen to your team. That obviously happened yesterday. Then on Friday, we just kind of show around the league, kind of keep it a little bit light if you will and have some levity in those meetings.”

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