National Football Post Diner News

12 Nov 2008

QUOTE:   “In entering upon the great work before us, we anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule; but we shall use every instrumentality within our power to effect our object.”  ~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton

FROM MEGAN MANFULL OF THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE…  With Art Shell (Oakland) and Scott Linehan (St. Louis) already fired, eight continue working toward improving the franchises they each inherited — and retaining their jobs. Kubiak joined the Texans after they finished last in the league with a 2-14 record in 2005. He is still trying to lead the franchise to respectability. Since taking over, the Texans have gone 17-24 (.415 winning percentage). It’s the third-worst record among the remaining eight head coaches hired in 2006.  Only Detroit’s Rod Marinelli (10-31, .244) and Kansas City’s Herm Edwards (14-27, .341) have lower winning percentages during that time frame. The Texans are less than a season removed from the best record (8-8) in franchise history, but the heat is on Kubiak, whose team is last in the AFC South at 3-6. Kubiak said his job security is the least of his concerns, though, as the team prepares to visit the Indianapolis Colts this weekend. “No, that would be very selfish of me to worry about myself,” Kubiak said. “I have a lot of people to worry about. I have a lot of coaches, a lot of players and a lot of people in this organization busting their tail, and I would be very selfish to worry about myself.”

The Texans are very close and they don’t need to make changes like some other teams, but they do need to make modifications to what they are doing in terms of procuring talent and developing toughness for their team.  When you make a change, you have to way all the positives and negatives.  I once worked for an owner (not the owner of the famous Hotel, that title is dictator) who would fire someone who did 25 things very well, and 3 things bad, and then hire someone who did those three things very well but only 10 other things well.  So in essence he was down 15 and never improved his team.  I believe the way to help the Texans is not to fire Gary Kubiak, but to help Gary.  There needs to be a way to bring someone in with an objective opinion who is not promoting drastic change but finds solutions with in the current structure.  I am a huge proponent of change, but it has to be the right change. 

Which reminds me of a great lesson all NFL teams can  learn before making a radical change,  it’s called the “I Love Lucy Theory” (Yes, one day this week, The Tipper, Joe Fortenbaugh and I are going to come up with a glossary of all the theories, I promise).  In one episode, Lucy is in a panic as she has dropped her wedding ring on the floor in the bedroom and cannot find it.  When Ricky comes home, he finds Lucy on the floor in the living room looking around.  He asks Lucy what she is doing, and she tells him she is looking for her wedding ring that she dropped in the bedroom.  Ricky replies with confusion in his eyes, “Then why are you looking in the living room if you dropped it in the bedroom?”  Lucy replies, because the light is better in here!!!!  It might be easier to fire a coach, but that might not solve the problem.  Don’t act like Lucy Houston. 

FROM PAUL DOMOWITCH OF THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS…  Fullback. You know the comical background. They let fullback Thomas Tapeh go because he couldn't play special teams. Signed defensive tackle Dan Klecko in March and moved him to fullback. Decided a couple of months later that maybe that wasn't such a good idea, after all, and moved him back to defense. Couldn't find anybody they liked, so, 2 weeks before the start of the season, Reid and his staff came up with an even dumber idea than making Klecko a fullback. That was switching running back Tony Hunt to fullback. That worked out about as well as Jessica Simpson's attempt at an acting career. Three weeks into the season, Reid gave up hope that Hunt would ever learn how to block, released him, and went back to Dumb Idea I (Klecko). Klecko deserves some sort of award for the way he's been jerked around by Reid and the Eagles. At the very least, he probably will end up with an eating disorder out of it. He is trying like hell to master the fullback position. But it takes time. A lot of time. Believe it or not, there's more to it than just being willing to run into somebody.

When teams line up a guard in the backfield in regular down and distance situations in the middle of the field, it makes playing defense that much easier.  I agree with Paul, this Dan Klecko at fullback business is a joke.  He is never going to catch very well, nor is he going to run very well, and he is not versatile enough to handle the space plays in the offense.  If the Eagles want to improve their run game and want to move people around, then they should take an extra offensive lineman, make him a tight end, and get some power on the edge of the defense.  With no fullback and no tight end, how do the Eagles think they can run the ball?  The Eagles, and mainly Andy Reid, have to come to grips with one very clear fact:  the Giants are better in every area as a team than the Birds.  Until they make that confession, they won’t catch them.  Admitting the problem is the biggest step. 

FROM FILIP BONDY OF THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS… "We're still trying to find an identity," Favre said. "Until we beat these guys, knock 'em off the top, they'll always be the team to beat. I know exactly what this game means, the weight it carries." That doesn't mean the Jets should over-think this game, trick it up. Coaches often make this sport too complicated, Favre was saying Tuesday. Trim the playbooks; just let him go out there, throw the ball downfield and play football. Maybe it's a good thing the Jets have just three off days between games. All this talk about Belichick's schemes and about a shortened prep week and about Adalius Thomas' broken arm doesn't amount to a hill of baked beans in Boston, or its surrounding suburbs."(Belichick) beats you, in my opinion, with simplicity," Favre said. "In many ways, (the Pats) are simple in what they do. All these computers and schemes and playbooks thick with 200 passes . . . you run 30 or 40 plays, repeat 10 of them." Of course, Favre has his own survival skills, just like Mangini. He won't carry the load alone, if he can help it. Asked if this game tomorrow was exactly why the Jets acquired him late in the offseason, he smiled and hedged. "That may be true," Favre said. "It may be why we brought (DT) Kris Jenkins in. Let's put it on him."

Dan Henning, the offensive coordinator of the Dolphins, once told me, “If you don’t have tendencies on offense, you are not any good.”  And Dan is right.  That’s what drives me crazy when I see the huge color-coded play lists like the one Brad Childress carries around, and then watch his team not be able to execute ten pass plays.  When I was with Bill Belichick in Cleveland, he would sit down on Monday with both coordinators and go over the call sheet of the game, matching up how many times during the week we worked on the play called.  He wanted to use different formations and different looks, but run the same plays.  And that is the true essences of keeping it simple.  It comes down to execution and fundamentals, which is why the Patriots have improved so much since week one of the season. 

FROM RALPH VACCHIANO OF THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS…  Then, suddenly, it all disappeared. He went from a brilliant, 13-for-17, 143-yard performance in the first 23 minutes against the Eagles to 4-for-14 for 48 yards over the final 37 minutes. Sure, the Giants won, 36-31, but the drop-off in the passing game was pretty dramatic. Still, while Tom Coughlin admitted he'd prefer to see Manning "statistically being a little more proficient," he didn't sound concerned about what appears to be a quarterback slump. Manning may have failed to top 200 passing yards in any of the last five games, but the Giants (8-1) have won four of those.  "We still had a lot of production," Coughlin said. "And we would prefer to have pretty much a mix (of the run and the pass). You'd like to come off the field with an explosive team like Philadelphia and have the ball for 39-plus minutes. That's the way you would want the game to come out.  "If you could sit and design something where everything was perfect, that would be fine. But it's not going to be that way."

The mark of a great team is when your star player does not play his best and your team is still able to win.  And that is what makes me so frustrated with Philadelphia’s attitude after the game.  They were completely dominated in the game, and Eli did not even play well.  The Giants found ways to win when their star was not hitting open receivers and making routine throws.  Manning has not played well the last few weeks, but I’m not sure it is a slump; its more like a timing issue with the receivers.  He will need to play better once the playoffs come rolling around. 

FROM MIKE OHARA OF THE DETROIT NEWS…  Anyone involved in the Lions' management team -- coaches, front-office personnel -- should be worried more than ever. There can be no security for anyone after Sunday's display of hopelessness at Ford Field.  The wrath of owner William Clay Ford and his son, Bill Jr., surely must be at a high boil.  It's one thing to lose, and that's all the Lions have done this year -- nine losses in nine games. It's another matter to embarrass the franchise, and that's what happened Sunday. The Lions were not competitive in a 38-14 loss to the Jaguars, who lost to the previously winless Bengals the week before.  There's speculation on the national networks about the possibility of having two teams with perfect records meeting on Thanksgiving Day. That would be the Tennessee Titans, now 9-0 and going to 11-0, and the perfectly awful Lions losing two more to sink to 0-11.  Whatever shortcomings the Lions have had in Ford's tenure as owner, he always has paid the bills and supported his team. But he does not like to be embarrassed, and Sunday was an embarrassment -- the worst since the Lions moved to Ford Field in 2002. In fact, a couple of old Lions’ hands said it was worse than anything they saw in seasons when the Lions were 2-14.

Remember I said that their needs to be modifications in Houston?  Well I am strongly urging that there needs to be major changes in Detroit.  I think that they need to cleanse the place and start anew.  There is never going to be any confidence in the current regime, as they were apart of the past regime.  As much as acting GM Martin Mayhew (who many in the NFL league office are supporting) wants to divorce him self from former GM Matt Millen—much like John McCain tried to do from George Bush—Mayhew was still part of the decisions that came with the Lions 2008.  And there needs to be a change of culture—a new identity—and this team needs to find the right person to lead and rebuild them.  When you are one of the oldest teams in the NFL, and one of the worse, there has to be some accountability in the building for who was building the team and who was helping that person build.  Of all the teams in the NFL, the Lions are a class place and everyone who has worked there has always had positive comments about their work experience.  But the reality is, based on the losing, that the Lions have hired the wrong people and they need to change how they hire and who they hire.   

FROM LORI NICKEL OF THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINAL…  “You've got to pass-protect. It all starts there first," a visibly agitated coach Mike McCarthy said Monday, a day after his quarterback was sacked four times and knocked down eight other times in the Packers' 28-27 loss.  "Everything we do starts with pass protection. We don't walk into the pass game meetings and throw out great ideas because they look good and we think we can get this guy or get that guy. Everything we do starts with pass protection first. You ask every one of our players and they will tell you, 'Protection first.' We did not do a very good job of it and those are the facts." The facts this season say Rodgers can expect to be sacked once every 14 pass attempts. The four sacks Sunday, duplicating the total from the previous week in an overtime loss to Tennessee, came on a day he attempted just 26 passes. If Rodgers has any shot at picking apart the Chicago Bears in another big division rivalry game Sunday at Lambeau Field, his linemen will have to protect him the way they blocked for Brett Favre last season. A year ago, the Packers allowed 19 sacks in 16 regular-season games. Only two other NFL teams had fewer. Nine games into the 2008 season, the Packers already have allowed 21 sacks and according to everyone from McCarthy to the assistants to the linemen, the number is too high. "At midseason? Absolutely. That is way too many," offensive line coach James Campen said.

Even last year when I was with the Broncos, I felt that the way to beat the Packers was to win against their offensive line. The talent in Denver’s defensive line never was able to win the match up, but this season teams are having success.  And I agree with McCarthy here:  his protection schemes are very sound, he always make sure he has protection, and when he does throw the scat passes, he gets rid of the ball very quickly.  The problem is talent-based, not scheme-based.  They need an upgrade at guard to gain more power. 

FROM KENT BAAB OF THE KANSAS CITY STAR: HERMS TERMS…On the New Orleans Saints: “No. 1 offense in the league. They can throw it, they can run it. They do a great job of moving the football through the air. When you watch them play, they have a lot of rhythm. They dink and dunk you some, but they can throw it down the field. (Drew) Brees is a very, very good quarterback. We’ll have our work cut out for us this week.”  On Larry Johnson’s expected level of participation Sunday: “He’s in condition. He’s been working out. He’s been playing football. Now, he hasn’t played football in a month. He’ll have fresh legs. The thing he’s going to have to get used to is getting hit. That’s the first thing: The guy hasn’t been hit. Now, in practice he’ll be hit a little bit. That helps some. But you’re going to give him the ball. But he’ll blend into the offense. He’s going to have to blend into what we’re doing. Those carries will be those carries whenever he gets them.”  On simplifying the game plan for the new players: “You basically scale it down for that guy when he’s in the game. You do things in practice that you know that he’s capable of handling. And that’s what you try to do. Now, some of these kids, we don’t know. And that’s another difficult deal. Guy comes in, comes from a different system, all of a sudden, it’s different now than it would be the first or second game of the season ’cause most of these guys were in training camp. You’re hoping if you do bring guys in, however you bring them in, that they’ve been on a roster, that they just got released, so they have some kind of football condition.”

Did Herm “Let’s Build Something Together” Edwards watch the tape of the Saints?  Running game—Where?  When?  I mean, they throw it well and can make all the throws and are not dink and dunk down the field.  I know no one wants to give away secrets at a press conference, but how dumb does he think we all are?  I think the Chiefs need to keep finding ways to improve, but clearly they have to find a way to win the game, because at the end of the day, even Herm knows you “play to win the game.”  Or else Herm is going to be like the college coach who is hired to improve the graduation rate and then fired because he cannot win.  Bottom line, he has to win. 

FROM JOHN CRUMPACKER OF THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE…  Offensive coordinator Mike Martz accepted blame for trying to do two things at once: spike the ball and send in the short-yardage group to run the second-down play. "There was some chaos that I created on the sideline," Martz said. "I did a bad job there. ... I just went too fast with everything and it created too much confusion. That's my fault. ... That's just a bad job of coaching on my part." Said interim head coach Mike Singletary: "I know that Mike knew what he wanted and the people he wanted to get in. It should have maybe taken 10 seconds at the most, but obviously, it did not." From just outside the 1-yard line on second down, Frank Gore ran to his left for no gain. He then wriggled into the end zone after going down. The 49ers wanted to challenge the ruling, but with less than two minutes, it goes to a booth review.  The replay showed Gore actually had been contacted by Arizona's Chike Okeafor and then Gore's knee hit the ground with the ball outside the 2, bringing up third down with four seconds left. The 49ers had no timeouts left and the clock would start at the referee's motion instead of the snap of the ball.  "We did not know the ball was going to be on the 3 1/2, obviously, or we would have never called the play," said Martz, who apparently was still confused on the spot at the 2 1/2. "We thought the ball was going to be somewhere around the 1-yard line. If it's on the 3 1/2, obviously, we don't do that play."

Give Martz credit here for admitting his mistake and owning up to it verbally.  That will build better relationships with his head coach and players.  And you may ask-- how can this happen?  For me, it is because the offensive coordinator is on the field.  I know many teams have their play caller down on the field, but for me, I want the coach who is away from the emotion of the game and who can see the exact down and distance with each call.  Then you don’t have to rely on someone to tell him where the ball is.  Calm and quiet is key, and the more people on the sideline, the more confusion that seems to happen.  But if there is no one who can talk to the quarterback or calm him down on the field, then the OC has to be on the field.  However, when the play caller is away from the game and thinking of his next two moves in a calmer setting, I tend to think he works better. 

FROM JEAN JACQUES TAYLOR OF THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS… Tony Romo doesn't have time to find a groove. He must play well from the start of Sunday's game against Washington. This team has never needed him more than it does now.  These Cowboys are a rudderless ship. They play with little swagger and even less confidence.  Romo can give all of that back to them with a strong performance against the Redskins. If he can play his game complete with the Romo smile and carefree attitude, then he will breathe life back into this team.  He can make the offense with Terrell Owens, Roy Williams, Jason Witten, Marion Barber and, maybe, Felix Jones one of the most feared in the game again. Perhaps, then this team will find its lost identity.  We've seen during Romo's absence that the defense isn't nearly good enough to win without significant help from the offense.  Sad, but true.  Salvaging this season starts with Romo. He's the only player who can make much of the raggedy performances from the past month a bad memory.  The margin for error is gone. Too many poor performances have seen to that.  It's time to make it happen. It's up to Romo to do it.

I agree with the way the Cowboys season has gone; there is no margin for error in Romo’s game.  He cannot be timid and he cannot be off his game.  He has to put points on the board, because as we have all learned, the Cowboys are not good at covering the pass or stopping the run.  This is a must-win game for the Boys, and if they don’t find a way to pull it all together, then the dysfunction we have seen the past ten weeks will look pale in comparison as to what will happen. 

FROM CLARE FARNSWORTH OF THE SEATTLE POST…  “I'm just excited to practice tomorrow with the team, with the offense," Hasselbeck said Tuesday during his radio show on KIRO-AM. "And hopefully be back out on the field (this week)." If it happens, and even Hasselbeck was using terms like "hopefully" and "think" when discussing his status, he will not be throwing to Keary Colbert. The veteran wide receiver was released Tuesday, another sign that the club also expects flanker Deion Branch to play this week for the first time since he bruised his right heel against the Giants. Seven, it turns out, was not Colbert's lucky number. In seven games with the Seahawks, he caught seven passes for a 7.4-yard average. Not exactly the production the Seahawks had in mind when they traded a fifth-round draft choice to the Denver Broncos in September to acquire Colbert (the pick could have become a fourth-rounder if Colbert had played more). His two drops in Sunday's loss to the Dolphins in Miami only hastened the decision to go in another direction. The club is expected to sign either Courtney Taylor or Michael Bumpus from its practice squad to fill Colbert's spot on the 53-man roster. Each has played this season, and Taylor actually started the first two games at flanker before being replaced in Week 3 by Colbert.

I had a rule when I was in the league that if the Carolina Panthers got rid of a wide receiver, he probably was not going to be very good.  Richard Williamson, their receiver coach, is one of the best, and when he made Donald Hayes look good, I was very impressed.  And then when Hayes went to New England and could not play, it made me examine the Williamson factor.  So coaches in the NFL just have a better way of finding and developing talent, and Williamson is very good at his job.  Colbert played well for him, but now after two teams have failed to get much out of him, it once again proves my theory.  A team like Seattle that is desperate for a wide out and that cuts Colbert really makes you really.  I am sure there might be a few who have left, but for the most part, they play their best football when they are with him. 

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