On Good and Bad Coaches

I kept wondering yesterday as I watched the Arizona-Green Bay match, “how many times could I hit Mike McCarthy in the head with a 2x4 before he covered up”? After Warner’s first TD pass, I would have been thinking, “maybe I should rush this guy”. After the second, it would have been, “ok, the very next TD he throws, I’m going to start putting the heat on this sonova gun”.

And then I would have really started bringing linebackers, safeties, corners at Warner…..and you know what? Maybe he beats the blitz a couple of times but maybe he doesn’t finish the game either. In no event does he continue carving up my defense with absolutely no ramifications.

If I knew McCarthy was going to sit back, rush three and play a friggin’ zone, there is absolutely no way I would have picked Green Bay to win that game. You couldn’t have given me enough points. The NFL makes teams divulge injuries but not gameplans. There is no reporting requirement for stupidity.

It was painful for me to watch the heroic effort of Aaron Rodgers in the face of a rush, scrambling around, making impossible throws to an almost equally adept group of receivers. That Jennings catch on the sidelines was one of the best I’ve ever seen. Green Bay did not deserve to lose. Only McCarthy did.

So Mike McCarthy joins my list of bad coaches, along with the memorable Herm Edwards, Rich Kotite and other numbskulls from the past. Thankfully for me, he was not on the Jets sideline. We had a guy who isn’t a real deep thinker. He’s just a guy who reacts to what’s right there in front of him.

And what was in front of Rex Ryan Saturday were the Cincinnati Bengals….those poor bastards. They didn’t stand a chance. Ryan’s pound-the-rock offense and his grinding defense made the Bengals paper tigers. And, while I had picked the Jets to cover, I thought that they’d lose in the end; I thought they’d lose to a veteran quarterback, Carson Palmer, while their rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez would finally succumb to the gravity of the moment and throw a pick or two.

But it wasn’t just pounding that ground down the Bengals. It was misdirection. The Jets watched the films, DVD’s probably….whatever. They saw a pursuing defense, some might have said an over-pursuing defense, and they took advantage. They took the lead and held it. But you can’t misdirect without the threat of pounding. And that threat was taken very seriously by the Cincinnati Bengals.

Of course, much of that strategy went unreported. That telecast was one of the worst ever on television. Joe Gibbs is a color guy? I still can’t remember anything the play-by-play fella said; in fact, I still can’t remember his name. (I looked it up..Tom Hammond?) The color guy was Joe Theisman. To most football fans, I’ll have to say no more. Somebody called him the human filibuster. He was being kind. Theisman didn’t even know the rules for a catch. It was either that or his mouth was moving waay faster than his brain could kick in.

Of course, none of that’s important. The Jets won. They romped. And they talked. Then they talked some more. But that’s okay. Rex is strong on visualization. What the hell, it seems to be working. I can see him at work behind the scenes, “Now, Mark, I want you to picture Dustin Keller all alone behind the defense, you’re running right with nobody in your face and all you have to do is throw the ball to him.” If anything like that did in fact happen, I wouldn’t be surprised.
The Pats lost, of course, to a Ravens team that used a lot of the same Jets tactics to overwhelm their opponent. This was another game that I picked for the Ravens to cover but not win. I gave too much credit to Brady and Belichick and the Pats being home and all that meant absolutely nothing, nada, zilch to the Ravens. They just kicked butt. And it surely was a sweet thing to see.
Those Ravens were ready and the readiest Raven was Ray Rice. (Say that 5 times fast). Ray just started off by scooting through an opening and then turning on the jets for an 83-yard touchdown. Then their defensive end on just a 3-man front gets around his blocker and swipes the ball out of Brady’s hand resulting in another touchdown. And that was pretty much all she wrote.

I must say though that I’m somewhat surprised that some people are thinking that that game might mark the end of the Patriots dominance. That’s pretty crazy. Belichick will analyze and measure to the nth degree, make the changes he must, and the Pats will be back. Then the Pats fans will say, “Geez, it’s so nice not to have Vrabel and Seau and……”.

I’m working backwards here somewhat as the game I cared about most, except for the Jets game, is the one I’m covering last. It wasn’t much of a game though. McNabb had no time to throw and his fleet of fleet receivers never got open. DeSean Jackson…erased, Jeremy Maclin…who?, Brent Celek….huh? The Cowboys made them disappear.

I have to admit that Wade Phillips used to be on my list of horrible coaches, stemming mostly from his alleged contention that he could devise a defense that could consist of nobodies….that his brilliant strategy of spacing and discipline could totally frustrate any opponent. No stars would be required. I guess years of failure at Denver may have changed his mind. His defense now seems to have been adapted so that his stars are used in his defense to fully showcase their abilities…..but within the scheme of his overall strategy. It was his defense that beat Philadelphia. And it was his defense that got the Cowboys into the game at all.

J-E-T-S….Jets…..Jets….JETS!! Next stop San Diego and more later on that.

On Playoffs and Proverbial Justice

Was there ever a more ridiculous start to the playoffs? Arizona? The team that gave up on national TV against the Pats just a couple of weeks ago? San Diego? The team that had to come back from 4 and 8 to finally finish off the hapless Denver Broncos in the pitiful AFC West?

I wouldn’t have ever picked Arizona to win anything… to beat anyone. My money was on the balanced team, the team with heart, the team with the Rookie of the Year. It was inconceivable that these Arizona quitters would beat a quality team.

That they did beat the Falcons quite handily makes me wonder what the heck they were doing and thinking for the last month or so. It shouldn’t be allowed. No team that lies down as they did against New England deserves any good fortune, especially if it’s true that good teams make their own luck.

Michael Turner would make mincemeat of those quitters, I thought. Then the big Falcons bruiser started skipping around like some demented ballerina. He gained less than 60 yards on the day and he looked bad doing it. He didn’t run hard once.

The Falcons passing game was equally inept. Their receivers can’t catch. Roddy White? A joke. Michael Jenkins? Horrible. No hands at all. Ryan would hit them in the hands and they’d just refuse to make the catch.

Meanwhile, the Falcons gave Kurt Warner all the time in the world. John Abraham? Nothing. Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin just ate them up. In the final analysis, when they finally did fight their way back into the game, their defense let the Cardinal tight end run free up the middle, picking up the first down the Cards so desperately needed.

So much for risk analysis. I have seldom felt more sure about any outcome. The Cards were unreal today. All of a sudden, they had a running game. Where the heck had THAT been all year? When did they learn how to stop the run? Apparently, it was yesterday.

The Falcons made Edgerrin James look like….well….. the old Edgerrin James. Come to think of it, you couldn’t find one player in red who had a bad game. But Edge was great, slashing left, slashing right, then BOOM! Warner to Fitzgerald TD for about 50 yards. Then it was Anquan Boldin racing down the sidelines for another score after catching a 7-yard pass in the flat.

Then it got surreal. Darnell Dockett? Antrel Rolle? Touchdown! Then there was some more Edgerrin. There was Matt Ryan holding the ball too long in the end zone for an easy safety. What a nightmare!

I know I should just be happy for the Cards but it’s tough. They played really terrific football. Offensively, defensively, on special teams, they were just great. So I lost a bet. I’ll get over it, maybe not this year but eventually.

In the Chargers-Colts matchup, the Chargers punter won the game for them. Yeah, there was little Darren Sproles hiding behind his blockers and making the Colts look silly. And yeah, there were the usual suspects, Rivers and a hurt Tomlinson and Gates. Oh yeah, and the Charger corners were pretty much in evidence too.

But the Chargers punter was in a zone, as they say. The Colts were starting all their drives inside their ten-yard line. It’s a long haul, trying to drive a team 90 yards time after time after time. Not even the 2008 MVP, the great Peyton Manning, could do that.

That punter’s name is Mike Scifres. I’ll remember that now, even the rather fluky spelling. Mr. Scifres punted six times for 52.7 yards per pop. The Colts started drives from their 10, 19, 3, 33, 7, 20, 26, 9, 20, 1, 1 again, and then the19-yard line.

When the Chargers finally did enough offensively to tie the game in regulation, you knew the game was over. The Colts had seen enough. It was just the Chargers day.

Oh well, the games continue tomorrow. I’ll be picking the Vikings against the Eagles and the Ravens to take out the Fish, Chad Pennington notwithstanding. How could the Dolphins run the ball against that Ray Lewis and Company? How can they stop those bruising Ravens runners?

How can the Eagles stop Adrian Peterson? And shouldn’t it be a snap for the tough Vikings to take Brian Westbrook out of the game? Who else is a threat on that puny Eagles team? Can a guy who doesn’t know that NFL games can end in a tie really lead his team to victory in the land of Paul Bunyan?

Hmm, this is all sounding strangely familiar. I’ve built up this scenario in my head for the Vikings and the Ravens, and it’s hard to imagine my being totally wrong two days in a row. So, count on it, Donovan McNabb will have the game of his life and Pennington will once again surprise the entire football world by continuing to prevail against the biggest, baddest opponents out there.

As far as I’m concerned, Chad has done quite enough already. His steady performance against the Jets to knock them AND the Patriots out of the playoffs puts him in my good graces until the end of time. Proverbial justice. What a concept.

And, speaking of proverbial justice, why do I get the feeling that, no matter who the Jets pick to succeed Eric Mangini as head coach, it’ll be an abomination. Any owner stupid enough to take his quarterback’s side against his head coach and the rest of the team pretty much deserves anything the fates can conjure up to torture him.

It’s sad, very sad, but in Jets-Land it’s all about the money. The owner not only doesn’t understand football; he doesn’t even understand human nature. He just wants a bunch of sycophants to kiss his pharmaceutically-rich butt. He likes Brett Favre and he’ll be damned if he’ll have anyone tell him differently.

My guess is that he will be damned.