Diner morning news: Lose twice, make adjustments

Mike,

As always, great insight. As a Packer fan, I feel TT needs to take a look at the ability of his staff to evaluate offensive line talent and coach the offensive line. TT has been in his position long enough for the results to be a reflection of his administration. Either the one or both parts is failing. If he has the final say, then I would suggest he defer making offensive line calls to another person on his staff.

Why has the FIRE JAMES CAMPEN train lost its steam? The guy was a mediocre player on some terrible teams, then he was coaching high school and somehow got the job in GB. He is one of the twoworst coaches I've seen in nearly two decades of watching Green Bay football, Bob Slowik being the other (I was in middle school during the Lindy Infante regime and knew even less about coaching than I do now :)

The Green Bay OL as presently constructed does not even compete at a moderately passable NFL level. If Campen and, yes, McCarthy can't figure out how to make it work after three seasons together, then get rid of your idiot coaches Ted! The national consensus seems to be that you have a talented roster, then step in and hold some of these morons accountable! Enough already!

That's a great quote. I have often found that people who are in a position where they don't have to admit their mistakes, never will. This is actually my biggest issue with the staff of my beloved Bears. For whatever reason, like fear of caving to fan or media pressure, they are reluctant to ever admit their mistakes. I can accept mistakes, what I hate is the failure to admit them.

I agree the Eagles pass protection has been key against the Giants but what about the other side of the ball? Eli Manning has been atrocious against the Eagles the last 3 games. They just key on the run, take that away, and force Eli to beat them. And he has not been able to. I'm fairly convinced that without a dominant run game Eli is a mediocre QB prone to mistakes. That seems to be the Eagles line of thinking, they are daring Eli to beat them and he's coming up very small.

Mike -

Great article. Good insight and might be my favorite one you've done so far.

I think the easy answer is to blame Campen. But Joe Philbin, the Offensive Coordinator has to shoulder some responsibility. He cut his teeth and rose to his current position as an offensive line coach. Maybe its nothing more than trying to build an offensive line on the cheap. I think the blame has to be spread throughout the organization.

Michael,
Not to come off like a bitter Jets fan (whcih means I'm about to) but I do not agree the Fins are better - yeah game 1 they kicked our ass, but it still came down to the final play of the game.

The game in NY was completely opposite - Jets outgained Fins almost 4:1, and it took 2 ST TDs and fumble recovery for the Fins to win.

And it wasn't even ST injuries that cost us (B Smith) - it was Ryan's decision to activate Gholston, when we had Murrell and Carroll inactive - both far superior players.

Time for the Jets to admit they made a huge mistake drafting Gholston annd move on.

The most frank admission of a mistake I've ever heard from a GM was when Ron Wolf fired Ray Rhodes after one season (8-8). He came right out and said the words "we made a mistake, and now we're correcting it." As a fan who'd watched Rhodes stare blankly at the field for 16 games, it was so refreshing to have Wolf admit it so candidly.

Man! I remember it well ...absolutely no movement except for the hypnotic back-and-forth motion of his jaw as he chewed that gum. It was like having a cow as the head coach.

Well, to tell the truth, Lombardi, often the Ravens are their own worst enemy with terrible penalties and mistakes late in the game. Of course, against my Broncos, they reversed that and saved their season. I think a resurgent Baltimore team will win at the Natti against the Bengals. Meanwhile, the Jets are a team with a fair amount of talent, but I think they got caught up in their own legend when they started 3-0. I think the Dolphins are on their way to 4-0 in the division by beating the Pats next week. Tony Sparano is an excellent coach who never makes excuses and is always seeking to be better, kind of like our Josh McDaniels for the Broncos. His honest self-evaluation will rescue Miami from a 1-3 start and that's a team that could be tough for anyone to face in the postseason. Thanks again, Lombardi for the column and keep up the good work.

As a Raider life long fan your point is very well understand by it's fans. It's the owner who is total denial. Or as I put it ...DENIAL IS NOT A RIVER IN EGYPT.

It's great that the Jets hired Rex Ryan. Now they have a coach to perfectly match their delusional, whiny, and classless fan-base. The Jets got beat twice by the Fins. Period. There is no rule that to win games the offense has to score more points than the other offense - defensive and s/t scores count equally. In the first game, the only thing that kept the score close for the Jets were two fake punts, s/t plays as it happens.

"Now, we know the Jets won’t give the Dolphins any credit for being the better team, but in reality, they are better this year. As Bill Parcells would often remind me when we chatted on the phone, “You are who you are” — and the Jets are 1-4 in the AFC East. Whether it was injuries to core Jets special teams players that created the problems for their coverage teams, it doesn’t matter. The game was played and they lost. The Jets need to sit down this week and figure out where the matchups are not in their favor. They can say they have the better team all they want, but on the field, they lost both games."

So the more talented team should never lose and if you do lose it is a talent issue. I think there is a little more to it than that. You give us a simplisitc rationale to explain things but no real insight. Case in point, the 2007 Giants. During the regular season the Giants lost twice to the Cowboys and to the Packers at home as well as New England. They managed to finish 10-6 and squeak into the playoffs as the number 5 seed. They beat Tampa Bay then the Cowboys and the Packers and finished their season off beating the Patriots for the Super Bowl. Based on your little formula, the Giants weren't as good as the Cowboys nor the Pack nor the Patriots. If they followed your line of thinking they would have cashed it in and NE just might have gone 19-0. Sometimes the most talented team doesn't win for whatever the reason.....the Giants were the most talented team but didn't get it done every week, but when they needed to they did.
If I went player by player Jets vs. Dolphins, the Dolphins would come out on the short end of the stick......