National Football Post Diner News

12 Dec 2008

QUOTE:  “Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.” ~ Colin Powell

FROM DAVID HAUGH OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE... "It was the best game our defense played all year," Orton said. That's an exaggeration, but how about calling it the defense's most intense effort? That first showed when safety Mike Brown stepped in front of receiver Lance Moore to intercept a Drew Brees pass at the Bears' 23 on the Saints' first series.  On the Brees scale, this was more gentle than stiff. The NFL's leading passer sure didn't look the part in finishing with a 67.2 passer rating.  Besides Brown's interception on a pass that was forced, Brees also threw a ball into the hands of defensive end Adewale Ogunleye on play in which he should have taken a sack. If the Bears had bottled up the run as well as they harassed Brees, big easy would have been the best way to describe the victory. But Pierre Thomas' 42-yard touchdown run in the third quarter took advantage of some bad pursuit angles by linebackers Lance Briggs and Brian Urlacher.  Those are the kind of football sins that can't be forgiven, not in a must-win game. Those are the kind of defensive mistakes that have made the Bears mediocre instead of division leaders.

I thought this would be an entertaining game but maybe not a well-played game, and that proved to be correct.  The Bears did enough, although I thought they would move the ball much more effectively, and you have to wonder why the Saints did not double Hester on every snap.  The Bears’ offense is very basic, and when you can stop the big play, they are never going to be consistent enough to move the ball down the field.  The big plays in the game were the pass interference calls, and the Saints never had an answer for Hester’s speed.  The Saints are left with a lost season and a quarterback setting records for his production.  What’s left for them to do?  As I mentioned in their draft report yesterday at the Tavern, I feel they don’t do an effective job evaluating their own team.  They place faith in some players who are not able to deliver.  I thought what Gale Sayers, the former Bears great, said about Reggie Bush was dead on.  And as good as Bush is for the Saints, this off-season they have to re-shape their team.  Bush is not a running back, he is a playmaker, and as Sayers said, you cannot give him the ball 25 times a game as a runner.  The Saints have to rebuild their offensive line, looking for more power, and find a power back to take some of the burden off Drew Brees.   Having Bush makes the offensive coaches and head coach Sean Payton think of ways to get him the ball, and this limits their offense.  They have to redefine their identity on offense, which starts with shifting their thought process away from Bush.

FROM LES BOWEN OF THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS... Eagles coach Andy Reid lauded McNabb yesterday for not trying to do too much last Sunday at the Meadowlands, where gusty          winds made passing an adventure.

"The conditions were a little crazy," Reid said. "I joked with him during the week that he probably hadn't seen that since high school [in the Chicago area], a windy situation like that. I didn't see him forcing the football, which you can do in that kind of situation. He just took what was given to him and kept it in front of him. He didn't force anything down the field, if a gust came up, and all the things that a pro quarterback does."

Immediately after the Baltimore game and then again the next day, when he went back to McNabb as his starter, Reid talked about a player sometimes needing to step back to move forward -- implying that he made the switch to Kevin Kolb not in despair but in hopes of giving McNabb a chance to regroup. McNabb has never embraced that concept, which Reid referenced again yesterday.

"He's a great player," Reid said. "Like I said, sometimes you just need to take a step back and things kind of clear up for you. He's playing great football right now."

McNabb's weekly news conference follows Reid's. Since the coach brought it up, someone asked McNabb again yesterday if sitting out the second half in Baltimore had helped him, even the teensiest, tiniest bit.

"No," McNabb said, clearly and forcefully.           

            I agree with Donovan on his benching, and I think his two ensuing wins make the benching the worst move of the season.  A 10-7 score at the half in a tough game is not the time to make a statement and change quarterbacks.  It was more of an emotional decision than a thoughtful decision.  What happens if McNabb gets hot in the second half of that game?  Last week against the Giants, his second half was great, and that’s when the Eagles took control.  The Eagles are winning not because of McNabb’s benching; they won the last two weeks because of their opponents.  The Cardinals are a joke on the road, and they were the perfect team for the Eagles to play, and last week the wind was a great equalizer against the Giants.  The Eagles beat the Giants because of their dominance on third down, which helped them control the clock -- not because of the benching.  And the fact that Brian Westbrook is back and seems to be healthier does help the Eagles’ offense.   The winning and the benching are two separate items and have nothing to do with each other. 

FROM JAY GREENBERG OF THE NEW YORK POST... "It's (Romo's) job to go out there and assess what the defense is," Owens told the media, "and he made that decision." In the locker room, that went over not nearly as big as Owens's ego.  "He is unbelievable," said one Cowboy. "Tough loss and he does that?  If you only knew all that guy does. It's gonna go down with him before it's all over with." If the Cowboys, hanging on to the final wild-card spot with three weeks to go on the skills of a player who clearly has to go, don't beat the Giants, their playoff chances may soon prove over with. Romo, not a confrontational guy, has tried to ignore The Dark Prince's darts and returned as many footballs as possible. But when Owens sees Witten catching nine more passes than himself this season, T.O., being T.O., conjures more plots than Oliver Stone.  "It would help if Tony would stand up to him," said one Cowboy. "But he would never do it.  He does a great job of ignoring it and not letting it affect him and that's why it has worked as good as it has. It's just hard. I think everybody is to the point where, 'We're going to need him, let's not (tick) him off.' " But of course, Romo has anyway, for no better reason than it's impossible not to tick Owens off. A team source who reviewed the game tape said another interception on Sunday, by the Steelers' Troy Polamalu, came as a result of Owens mysteriously failing to complete his route. When Romo threw an interception to Ike Taylor, Owens gestured openly in the quarterback's direction that the ball should have been thrown further upfield.  This came after Owens had told the NFL Network that Dallas offensive coordinator Jason Garrett's system was responsible for the wideout's worst statistical season since his rookie year with the 49ers. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he had no problem with the interview and neither did Phillips, who agreed getting Owens the ball had to be Dallas' first priority.

            No matter how talented a player is, when he creates problems in the locker room, he is no longer useful to his team.  Every comment Owens makes takes away from the team and causes friction in the locker room.  And he makes people have to defend his words, or interpret his words, or say nothing.  Yet saying nothing creates a combustible situation.  Football is the ultimate team sport, and when you have an individual like Owens, who does not care about team and only cares about himself, you can never win tough games.  Dealing with adversity requires character and frowns on characters. Owens has worn out his welcome in Dallas, and no matter who the coach is next year -- Wade Phillips, Jerry Jones or anyone else -- they will not be able to handle the cancer called T.O. 

DAVID J NEAL OF THE MIAMI HERALD... As for lost fumbles, the Dolphins have four and have   fumbled it only 14 times. That's after 13 games. In 2007, they fumbled the ball eight times and lost it three times in the 13th game alone. 'I think the big thing is when you focus on [not fumbling] all week and it's there and you're conscious of it, then when you go into a game, you don't really think about it,' Brown said. ``Once you start thinking about it all the time, that's when it happens. You're trying to make sure you do it.'

That's as close as Brown came to an explanation for the fumble reduction. Well, that and not wanting to spend a week hearing the negative reaction of the coaching staff, especially Sparano, after the fumble. All teams talk about limiting turnovers, offensive coordinator Dan Henning said. The difference with the Dolphins staff is emphasis.

'Tony's on them all the time,' Henning said. ‘’I think we're lowest in the league, but you'd never know it when Tony's around. He sees that ball on the ground and he's all over it like white on rice. He demands that from the team and they've responded to it.' When describing his reaction to a practice fumble, Sparano lowered his voice and spoke calmly to emphasize the understatement.

'My immediate reaction is to find the reason why the ball came out and then the person, then confront the person and let them know my displeasure in the ball coming out,' he said. ``It's not OK for the ball to be out. It's really not. That's my reaction.' Then, he admitted, ``It's probably funny to watch.'

I feel that teams that don't turn the ball over very often are teams that know who they are. They never ask their players to do something they cannot handle.  There are times when a quarterback will make a mistake and throw the ball into tight spots, but for me that is what they do.  A quarterback not throwing an interception is like a center fielder not making any errors.  Not having errors means he is not getting to any balls and not trying to make plays.  What is a cause for concern are throwing errors, which a center field controls.  A quarterback who throws an interception trying to fit the ball into coverage is one thing, but what is a killer is what Jake Delhomme did on Monday night, just making a dumb throw that he had control over, whether he threw the ball or not. 

FROM ANWAR RICHARDSON OF THE TAMPA TRIBUNE... Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Jeff Garcia was a limited participant in Thursday's practice again and his playing status for Sunday's game against the Atlanta Falcons remains up in the air. Garcia injured his calf earlier this week and has been limited on Wednesday and Thursday. Buccaneers Coach Jon Gruden said Garcia injured the same calf that he hurt during training camp, but it was not the same part of that calf. "It's a concern," Gruden said. "It's a calf injury. It's not the same part of the calf, but it is a concern. It's a part of life. Hopefully he can get well in the next day or two. We need him."Gruden said backup QB Luke McCown has taken the majority of the snaps during practice this week and McCown likely will play if Garcia is unable to go. As of right now, it appears Garcia will be a game-time decision in Atlanta. "That's the first time in the last couple of months we've seen him throwing the ball as well as he is," Gruden said of McCown. "It's a good sign for us."

I would be very surprised if Garcia did not play, but if he cannot move around and make plays, he is not going to be effective.  The Falcons have been very vulnerable to the run and the Bucs are at their best on offense when they can get the run going.  The Bucs will struggle in this game as they did the other night running all their check-with-me plays at the line of scrimmage because of the crowd noise.  The Bucs rely on getting into the right play, and this will be hard in the Dome.  McCown is not an easy player to handle when he is in the game; he can move around and make all the throws. The Bucs are very conservative on offense, and in spite of their poor defensive play last week, they want to win playing good run defense and running the ball.   I am sure the Bucs will have two game plans for the game, one for Garcia and one for McCown.   

FROM JAMISON HENSLEY OF THE BALTIMORE SUN... Cameron has gotten so much out of so little this season. He doesn't have a clear-cut No. 1 running back. He doesn't have a big-play receiver. He doesn't have a healthy offensive line. Yet armed with a rookie quarterback, Cameron has turned around an offense that regularly slumped under Brian Billick. Dating back to the game at Miami -- where Cameron revisited his 1-15 nightmare season as a head coach -- the Ravens have averaged 29.8 points, which is the highest in the NFL over the past eight games. Of course, the defense has scored five touchdowns during that span. Take those away and the offense is averaging 25.3 points in that stretch. During Billick's nine seasons, the Ravens never averaged 25 points. His highest-scoring team was 2003, when the Ravens put up an average of 24.7points. Cameron has kept defenses off balance with an inventive playbook. Putting (Joe) Flacco and backup quarterback Troy Smith on the field at the same time, he has designed option plays for Smith and passes to Flacco. He has regularly used unbalanced lines, moving two tackles to one side. He has even used three offensive tackles in some formations.

There is not a doubt that Cameron has been a great hire for the Ravens.  He, along with Hue Jackson, the quarterback coach, deserves much of credit for making the offensive pieces fit. The Ravens are limited on offense in terms of talent; their offensive line is a work in progress and they do not have a big-time wideout who can take over a game.  They know who they are, and they know what they need to do to win a game. The Ravens have to play a certain style and have to be in control of the pace of the game.  In addition, unless teams can make big plays down the field, with their defense, they will always be in control.  I think the true mark of a great coach or teacher is putting his players in the best and most functional position to perform well. 

FROM JEFF SCHUDEL OF THE NEWS HERALD... Winslow and General Manager Phil Savage locked horns in October after Winslow said the Browns were not doing enough to protect their players from staph infection. Winslow said the Browns told him to keep his staph infection from earlier in the month a secret. Browns owner Randy Lerner, Savage and Coach Romeo Crennel decided to suspend Winslow for a week, which included the game in Jacksonville. The suspension was rescinded the day before the game (Winslow did not play) and his fine was reduced from a game check exceeding $235,000 to $25,000. If Savage is still in charge of the football team after Lerner evaluates Savage and Crennel following the season, Winslow might be traded for draft picks. For it wasn't just the staph infection comments that have caused team officials to wonder whether Winslow's talent is worth putting up with him. There are also the recurring offensive interference penalties, his demand for a new contract and his general health. His sprained ankle is severe enough there was thought to put him on injured reserve, but he is hopeful of playing in one of the last two games.

Randy Lerner, the owner of the Browns, is going to ask himself some serious questions once this painful season ends  (And by the way, how did a non-playoff team like the Browns get three Monday night games?) .  Does he trust Phil Savage to make the best decisions for the short- and long-term interests of the team, or will he personalize the decisions and not want Winslow on the team because he had a very public spat with him.   As a person in control of the roster, you must not allow personal feelings toward a player, positively or negatively, affect your decision-making ability.  The Browns have some very serious issues to discuss, and I am sure Lerner has someone right now who is not with the company helping him navigate these tough waters.  He cannot be expected to make these decisions and has to rely on someone in the league office to assist him and make sure he is doing the best for his beloved Browns. 

FROM MAX PREPS.COM... PLAYER OF THE YEAR...Spencer Keith, Pulaski Academy (Little Rock, Ark.). Keith and the Pulaski Academy Bruins avenged their only loss of the season by defeating Helena-West Helena Central 35-32 for the Arkansas 5A state title. Keith completed 20 of 41 passes on the night for 244 yards and two touchdowns. Keith breaks the Arkansas state record for passing yards in a season, topping former Pulaski Academy standout Thomas Thrash, with 5,318. Thrash’s old mark was 5,272, set in 2001. Keith completes his career with 795 completions on 1,299 attempts for 10,378 yards and 122 touchdowns. For the season, Keith completed 396 of 625 passes for 5,318 yards and 70 touchdowns.

You’ve got to love high school football. Congratulations to Spencer for a great season.  I will be watching you as you continue your promising football career. 

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