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Need I Sleigh More?

Christmas arrived in Week 15 for the Cardinals as they beat the Patriots in front of a holiday-themed home crowd.

I started off the day capturing the white uniforms in the locker room ready for their State Farm Stadium debut this season:

I wanted to make sure the all-whites popped in the photos during pregame, so I went below the ramp and captured walkouts against the red wall and dark tunnel:

Arizona Sundays in December mean an open roof, which always adds a different look to the typical helmet visor reflections:

In addition to what I usually capture during pregame warmups, I zoomed in on some details:

Roy Lopez crashed the linebackers huddle and was hyped by Zaven Collins' speech:

In the locker room, I try to be a fly on the wall as much as possible (not literally, as I'm always roaming the middle of the room).

I was trying to capture James Conner looking stoic ...

... and just when I thought I was being incognito, I hear "Look at the camera, 6" from Evan Brown behind me.

My cover was blown!

The home locker room gives a variety of angles with some players facing their lockers and some choosing to turn their chairs outward.

I focused in on some details from each direction:

To avoid repetitively photographing the same player introductions as every home game, I decided to let the rest of our photo team cover it and, instead, head to the end zone to capture whatever I could get from there:

My favorite photo from pregame this week is this portrait of DeeJay Dallas during the National Anthem.

The background lighting, the sweat and the reflection in his eyes just really draw me in:

One of the perks of being on the Cardinals sideline is being able to capture "off-field" action, like this shot of a celebratory special teams moment:

This game unfortunately began with back-to-back defensive injuries, and while I don't ever want to capture any player going through that, I was still able to tell the story with Zach Pascal's reaction:

I usually frame up the field goal photos just in case it is missed or blocked, and I got lucky this week with this photo capturing the missed field goal by the Patriots.

I can't see where the ball goes, so I rely on the crowd or player reactions to tell me the result:

I wasn't able to get a clean photo of Baron Browning's first sack as a Cardinal, but I made up for it in that fun celebration:

There were a couple of offensive plays that I was able to "shoot through" to nail focus on the receiver.

I like how the players in the foreground make you feel closer to the action:

The Jonah Williams fumble recovery-turned-big-man touchdown was so chaotic I didn't get many good photos of the action, but I followed the celebration all the way towards the sideline:

I know I've shared similar photos to this before, but I always think it's cool when the goal post aligns perfectly centered with the portrait:

I also really liked this photo of Greg Dortch running where it looks like his own offensive line is after him:

Now for the content you've all been waiting for: corgi halftime race pics!

Back to regularly scheduled football photos.

I stayed downfield for the defensive drives and was glad to capture the fourth-down stop:

I was also in a good position for Sean Murphy-Bunting's interception, and I even prepared myself for the end zone group photo ...

... until they turned and ran the complete opposite way all the way down the field.

Trey McBride had a record-breaking game this week, and it was fun tracking him all over the field making plays and celebrating:

I was in the back of the end zone for James Conner's first touchdown with my trusty 70-200mm lens:

Twenty-five minutes later, he did it again:

I'll admit I was kind of stressed during the onside kick, only because it's difficult to track the ball and I wasn't sure what to focus on.

Luckily, it landed pretty close to me so I caught the whole thing:

I went into the locker room quickly after the game in order to maximize the amount of celebration photos I was getting.

Mack Wilson Sr. was welcoming his teammates back in, which was a very wholesome sight after his injury early in the game:

The aforementioned celebration photos:

I only take a couple of frames during the team prayer, but this one of Budda Baker really stuck out to me.

You can see the wear and tear from the field on his uniform, even the number 3 on his thigh pad highlighted in red:

Kelvin Beachum led the huddle break-down, and the message was simple:

Let's keep working.