Wow, it’s incredible was lengths Al Davis will go to in an attempt to scare Lane Kiffin out of town. This almost like Hillary Clinton; don’t care for her and I don’t care about the Raiders. However, I have to point as examples of not giving in until the end.

Michael, I think you teach me more about the NFL than any other writer, but you have to know that Tom Coughlin did not need John Fox to set a barometer for player discipline.Last season’s mantra was “all about the team” after the previous year’s bickerings about the head coach’s perceived bullying and the offensive coordinator’s lackluster play calling. T.C. is not sweating this one at all. Especially since Dominick Hixon has been lighting things up when he’s had a chance to show his skills.

Fred Robbins of the Giants is playing so well, that Justin TUck calls him the best player on that side of the ball for the Giants.

Very nice, Sonny. I don’t cheer for the Raiders either, but they do have the best uniforms in football.

The NFL is a better league when the Raiders are good.

Mike,
The word around Bear fans is Tommie Harris’s play this year is far below where he was last year when healthy or the first 10 games or so of 2006. Are they right? Any idea what’s going on?

Maybe a wealthy new contract is your answer, NewsToTom

The Jets need a safety, and Poteat may be the tweener for them, or allow someone from the corner spot to move that way.

Dont watch as much tape as you Mike, but dont forget to mention Jay Ratliff for the Cowboys, he has been dominate.

You may be right Mr. Murder, they gave CB David Barrett a fair amount of time during the pre-season playing safety. Barrett is a solid tackler, so maybe he could handle it- Eric Smith is not the answer for us.

It was the strong safety, Barret had on mix up on a big throw but it looked like he was expecting someone else to rotate deep middle so he could keep outside leverage.

The Jets had two different guys at the other safety entirely whiff on plays. One got shaken out of his shoes by the fullback on a flat route at the goal line. He was supposed to tackle the guy off the run fake so the gap and player covered, he did neither, fell out of his shoes and off his feet. It was one of the worst plays I’ve ever seen, not NFL material.

That guy’s backup was later burned. That’s two liabilities to address.

Barret performed admirably, if the other spot gets nailed down they can work with him. He’s competitive enough to take on the challenge.

Disclaimer- I’m a fan of Barret as a player, always have been a fan of him. Lost to his hometown team in a Jr.League game this past week. Our kids got a steady diet of wishbone runs.

Oh, Gholston and Harris cannot cover either, so your safety better have game. The only way to stay soild underneath is go zero cover and cheat a safety under.

Teams go six cover(quarter,quarter,half) sometimes, but the best NFL defensive teams have to go a zero look to one side.

They even bring both safeties down enough to hide which side gets the run support and which side goes safety help. it looks like zero cover presnap so the WCO reads get clouded for that reason.

Mangini is big with that, he copies it off his old coach from New England.

Maybe they call that look “hoodie” since it covers just enough on half the field. Sleeves or no sleeves, there’s so coverage, some challenge to it as well. You have bravado to go zero coverage, even to try bluffing it.

Mr. Lombardi, can you PLEASE include the positions of the players you write about? Every time you mention a player. You have improved in this area a great deal- but exactly what position does Jamal Williams play for the Chargers?
This may seem like nitpicking- but this would, to me, improve your columns a great deal.
Thank you in advance for your attention to this detail.

Michael-
great stuff as always.
any word from the bosses on getting your own RSS feed?

If the NFL has media policies which require Head Coaches to grant interview requests then Mr. Davis cannot rely on a Kiffin talk with Adam of NFL Network as one rising to any level of “insubordination”. Even more puzzling is why Lane would back out of the same.

Off point but America’s Game featured the Don Coryell San Diego Chargers. The Raiders are my squad, but I loved the Chargers. Don Coryell is my all-time coach.

If you want to watch a defensive tackle that is playing at a high level now…you need to take a peek at Jay Ratliff for the Cowboys…he and Zack Thomas have been the team’s defensive MVP’s.

MM:

FS spot is locked down with Rhodes, do you think Barrett could be a solid SS?

The guy trying to cover the strong side in goal line turned the wrong way and fell off his feet trying to cover a fullback. No excuse for it. No.33 trying to cover a the Charger fullback.

His other safety for the same position got torched in a series to the same side of the field.
They moved the players around some.
Barret’s pick came to the left side like an under FS(rotated up like a strong).

One of the Charger TD’s Barret rotated out expecting someone from the middle to get back, Chambers got a TD. They play a lot of outside leverage on Gates(you must, they get TD on the end zone fade a lot, it’s Rivers’ favorite route).
Lowery(rookie corner) got singed by Rivers on a Jackson hookup later. They were trying to man up and appeared to be thinking ’stop the run’ with the backup TE in. Gates may have been split out though their main concern was the run because Jets were looking backfield.
You need to blitz on their blocking TE because he is just taking up a number in the coverage otherwise.
They had Sproles burn Bryan in coverage also. The Jets have a lot of size hybrid LB/DE types out there for run leverage but the guys need a lot of help in space and the secondary needs help of its own.

Also, Mangini got outcoached the last two weeks.

They lost the prior game on special teams and some key penalties taking away their longest two third quarter gains. This week they practiced special teams up and did excel, but the management issues were wrong.

They had an early fourth down and early two point conversions. Took at least five points off the board that way(at that time it was making it a one score game).

Yes, the management stuff works out some, with Favre being Favre. He makes a mistake then gets them back in the game with perserverence. Other items still need to be tightened.

The Thomas Jones fumble was something Mike said to expect. Long whistle, should have been dead. It set up a TD. He had the ref crew scouted well.

The Jets usually use the FS as a strong off the back side(under coverage rotation). That was why Rhodes had such a stat spike(he was on my team in a defensive player league I was in last year).

What changed? Rhodes’ confidence is gone. He is slumping his head sideways and taking on defeated posture, sometimes before plays are even over. Frustration is what it is, but when you let the opponent see that, he can get into your head.

These are coaching items.

Mike,

It seems to me that you would be the perfect candidate to run the Detroit Lions. Any interest on your part, or any interest from the Lions?

thanks mr elway…but I doubt they even know what they want….

Mike, thanks for recognizing Tony Brown … He’s from Chattanooga, TN, as am I, and its nice to have a hometown kid playing for the home state pro team … and doing quite well too … he has been a very nice find for us … we got him off CAR’s practice squad back in ‘06 if I recall correctly … as always, love your columns … oh yeah, I was thinking the same as Elway about you & DET … you interviewed for the Titans GM position when Reece left, didn’t you?