National Football Post Tavern Talk

Mike,
Too bad Josh McDaniels can't do anything with the defense....he understands he needs to outscore people because they still can't stop anyone with a decent passing attack.

Hi Michael,

What is your read on the Chiefs? Is it lack of talent on the defensive side of the football, or is it time for DC Gunther Cunningham to go?

Would coach Herman Edwards find any improvement in finding a new defensive staff in the offseason, or just focusing on getting more talent (ie. Linebacker).

Thanks!

Love you Mike, and you know football...but break out the weather map...now I know where some of these stats come in about our kids being behind other countries in things like math science, and geography...worried about Farve in cold weather???...LOL...it gets cold in Green Bay if you hadn't heard...you know, the whole Ice Bowl thing...the wind blows up there as well...dude...

Michael,

Why is it that often times when a player exceeds expectations to the degree that Cassel has, the coordinator gets the credit and gets elevated to the status of 'hot' head coach prospect? Why does one result in the other?

Did you ever consider that maybe Cassel himself is the reason for this and now that he's finally getting a chance, he's finally getting to showcase the talent he must have always had?

Why do people automatically assume that McDaniels would be a great head coach based on this? NFL teams have been making this mistake for decades and they wonder why so many coordinators fail as head coaches.

Find the guy who's organized, hires quality assistants, delegates effectively, can evaluate talent, motivate his troops and think on his feet and you have a winner. Hiring a guy based on one player's apparent over-achieving performance is a recipe for failure in my opinion -- Belichick pedegree aside of course, which to me would qualify him more than anything else.

LL, I think the point was that when the weather got cold last year (the nasty, windy game in Chicago and the Playoff game against the Giants) Favre looked (and at times even played) like he wanted to get back to the heaters quickly. He was not having fun and he looked his age.

Yes, New York gets cold (New Jersey, too). That's the point. How is Favre going to handle the game when the real cold weather begins.

Everyone's ready to run McNabb out, why not Reid as well?

Reid leaves Philly, a lot of teams will come calling his way. Ditto Donovan, though he has missed his share of games, if you watch any individual contest and see the number of times he gets hit, you'd come to the concluision that Donovan's physical toughness is perhaps his best trait for leading a team.

Yes we want the perfect Qb, and all that, but that doesn't exist. It's a team game, there more than one item to a team playing great.

If Tom Brady is so great, why is his team putting as good(or better) team and indivudal numbers without him? Remind me how many rings he's won without a certain kicker on his roster....

I'll remind you that Brady took over a team in his rookie season, and took them to the SB, and won it with a bunch of nobodies.

Until he does the same, Cassel is no better than any other QB that you would put in with Moss and Welker as your receivers. Those two alone will make any QB look great.

You've got to run enough that Kampman is limited in his rushing.

That's difficult because if he lines up inside, there goes the pass window to your tight end. Hawk is who you want to throw at, the outside throwing lanes have great corners jumping routes.
If your TE is a premiere player(a Gates, or Gonzales, or Olsen) and your team is not solid at its two or one WR spot, then Woodson will line at strong safety and blitz from there at times(like he did when he sacked Orton).

It seems like Woodson does his worst when he has to line up to the outside on one side of the field. It might have been that he was favoring his shoulder more at the time on old film. From your right side about all you get on him is a double move, trying anything else is likely to see him make a play on the ball.

It might be that he approaches contact differently there. He seems to run force better from one side of the field. You'd need film to determine that. Even though he's healthy, should you find a way to try and make him sense fatigue, you might sucker him into his own tendencies and see him break down form to one side of the field.

That means finding ways of making him line up where he likes it least, and finding ways of keeping him from looking at the passer's setup throwing quick when you do decide on that. Let him see your passer all day on double moves though.

Put a big guy out there on slot to make him fight through on screens. Try and take physical people to him.

He's really playing well right now, the hand checks, getting contact points so you can't come out of breaks fast, things they allow most every player, he excels at. It's not something he could do as a Raider without getting called for it.

The Packers corners should be the game's major item, Stecker is out now as well. Who do the Saints have that will run the ball and make them not jump the pass all game?

Michael, I wonder if part of the problem for the Eagles and Vikings is that this version of the West Coast Offense isn't very good. Maybe defenses have cought up to it. Or maybe it worked well when Mcnabb was younger. I'm a Vikings fan and when 10 guys in a bar predict the plays before they line up you will have trouble getting yards.

Hi Michael:

I love your blog. Just a couple of points though -- I'll have to go back and look if it is still archived on this site, but I recall you were killing the Jets for their off-season moves. Now I see you saying you loved the Favre trade -- am I misremembering? And also, outside of Favre, are you prepared to give the FO some credit for their moves and recant your criticism?

BTW, I do wonder how Favre will do in the cold, but assuming his arm doesn't get too fatigued, I think short passes, the occasional Favre-like play and a strong running game will work. I believe we'll be seeing the gameplan they ran against the Titans for much the rest of the year.

Final point, you write of Favre "the game against the Bears and the Giants in the cold stills worries me. And you?" -- Can you clarify that comment? The Jets play neither team this year unless they are going to the Superbowl (where they would play them in Arizona). The Jets have 3 cold weather games left and those are at their own stadium.

Re: Favre Playing in Cold:

In light of the embarrassing loss by the Packers this evening in New Orleans, it is Ted Thompson who is now going to be out in the cold.

The beginning of the end of the disgraceful Ted Thompson regime is here folks.

Murder,
The comment on Brady is naive and flat out stupid, "If Tom Brady is so great, why is his team putting as good(or better) team and indivudal numbers without him? Remind me how many rings he’s won without a certain kicker on his roster…." He only thre 50 TD's last year remember??

When Brady became the starter the Pats had Troy Brown and some no names playing on offense and they won the SB (Charles Johnson, Fred Coleman at WR, Jermaine Wiggins, Rod Rutledge at TE. He also took a team with Reche Caldwell as the #1 WR to the AFC championship and barely lost to Peyton and the Colts. He's also never had a star RB like some top QB's. Brady is a top 5 QB of all time, period end of story.

Umm, Does Corey Dillion ring a bell.

corey dillon does ring a bell...so does antwain smith...who won two rings with the team...bottom line is brady is one of the greatest qbs to play the game, thats a fact. the jury is still out on cassell. he has progressed very well, and time will tell if he too has that it factor. obviously the system in which new england brings these guys along has a lot to do with the numbers your seeing. just look at the game by game progression from when brady took over vs. when cassell took the helm, very eerily similar.
regards
mike destefano
ps boston globe.com
has the breakdown on there site

When Cassel gets it done in the playoffs then we can talk....Brady's a PROVEN commodity, Cassel's a work in progress, albeit a good one thus far....

Re: Josh McDaniels

No question that Josh has done a nice job with Cassel. But how about giving some credit to the New England scouting department. I mean, where did Scott Pioli & company dig this guy up from? You are quick to give kudos to Bill B & Josh, all deserved, but as a guy who understands personnel as well as you do, you have to admit is amazing to be able to replace a future HOF player with an unknown and continue to roll on.

Re: Favre Playing in Cold:

Why the sudden concern about Favre in cold weather? Seems like an overreaction to 1 bad game, last year's NFC Championship. But remember, the Packers had absolutely 0 running game that day, the Giants defense held the all-world Patriots offense to less points in ideal weather, and the previous week in the cold and snow at Lambeau Favre had a great day when they crushed the Seahawks. I know he's an old guy but Favre has proven he can play in cold weather. The guy still has a great arm so he's less likely to be affected by strong winds, etc. Bottom line, no, I am not concerned about Favre in the cold. Especially since they throw a lot of short passes and have an emerging running game.

Well, that was said in a chat rm this past week. Might have been someone name stealing, but he was ready to make Cassel the franchise and send Brady on his way.

Of the top five QB, a couple are under performing at the time and may well take a restructure to chop some of the top of their deals off.

That would mean NE saves twice, once when the market decelerates somewhat at the top, and again when Brady restructures so his team can afford to franchise his mobile backup to start early in the season and allow him to be worked back in gradually.

They won their first time running the ball and with defense, and Bledsoe playing in the Championship did the best job of clock management perhaps ever in road playoff game.

Anyways if it was purely about systems then you would point out that they run a different system now than they did then. Their old system isn't doing as well @ the Golden Dome. It's the jimmies and joes more than it is x's and o's, as the saying goes.

Looks like the Pats have a great system where even scrub back ups (at least in college) can come in and throw for 400 yards per game. Even Aaron Brooks could probably do it with Welker, Moss, and the o-coordinator.

Shows that Brady is way overrated (as does fact he did very little when Giants actually mounted a pass rush in Superbowl). And in contrast to Nikos, Brady didn't do a lot in '01 with out Walt Coleman, Drew Bledsoe and Ty Law saving him.

Perhaps Pats should trade Brady b/f rest of league figures out he's a system guy. They could probably get a couple number one picks out of niners for him. Then sign Cassel for long term and cheaper than Brady. Use picks to fill out the old/depleted defense.

dan your way off base. it was the pats D that lost the superbowl....yes the front 7 of the giants really got to brady, but he did take the lead with only minutes remaining in the game... if samuel snags that pass, or manning doesnt make the great escape & tyree make a phenomenal catch its a whole new story...the next time brady got the ball there were 36 seconds left in the game. bottomline the system is good but the qb play is great.