Bad Coaching Abounds
Have you ever seen so much bad coaching in the NFL? It's an epidemic this season, it seems. The Chargers got a big home win over the defending champs Sunday night, a game that put them in first place by a game over both Denver and Kansas City in the awful AFC West.
The good news ends there, though. The Chargers played a terrible game on offense, with some bizarre and inept play-calling by first-year coach Norv Turner. The offense gained just 177 yards with its longest drive of the night being 45 yards. They should have lost a game they led 23-0, forced 6 Peyton Manning interceptions and Darren Sproles had two kick returns for touchdowns. "The fact that you win, it helps you," Turner said.
Sorry, Norv, but you're not going maximize your team's chances of winning with play-calling and poor execution like the Chargers' offense has seen too often this season. Turner challenged a couple plays he had no chance of winning and the lost timeouts could have cost him. "We were lucky," Lorenzo Neal said after the game, almost disgusted with how bad his offense played.
Chargers QB Philip Rivers finished 13-for-24 for 104 yards with two interceptions and his league-leading 10th fumble. "I'm more concerned with the way we are playing," said LaDainian Tomlinson, speaking honestly of the team's inconsistency.
On the plus side, the Chargers did a good job on defense of disguising coverages and blitzing Manning. They haven't blitzed much this season, but are starting to more and more. They were a dominant defense last season (9th overall) blitzing all the time. On the other hand, they were facing a Colts offense that was devastated by injuries. The offense was missing three starters, Pro Bowl WR Marvin Harrison, tight end Dallas Clark and left tackle Tony Ugoh. Out on defense were defensive tackle Raheem Brock and linebackers Freddie Keiaho and Tyjuan Hagler.
The Colts had just 17 active players on offense, and during the game, tackles Charlie Johnson and Ryan Diem were injured. That left Manning with three wide receivers, two tight ends, five offensive linemen and three running backs. And remember, this was a San Diego defense that allowed an NFL record rushing yards the previous week to Minnesota RB Adrian Peterson.
But Turner was not brought to San Diego to run the defense. He has an offensive background and a reputation for running uptempo, attacking units. They have been more bumbling and inconsistent than potent, a unit that was fifth a year ago on offense.
And how about Miami? First-year coach Cam Cameron's Dolphins are 0-9 SU, 2-5-2 ATS. He was booed on draft day when announcing to Miami fans he took WR Ted Ginn in the first round and it's been downhill from there. Wide receiver Marty Booker said, "You can pretty much pinpoint that we're the worst team in the NFL at this point."
On thing interesting about Miami is that the defense has allowed 13 points in each of the last two games. In Sunday's loss to Buffalo, 13-10, the defensive plan was the most aggressive of the year, as the Dolphins blitzed on practically every significant passing down -- sometimes coming with linebackers, corners, sometimes using a linebacker and corner, once even bringing two corners. "What's the guy's name from Charlie Brown who has the gray cloud following him all the time?" DE Vinnie Holliday asked. "Pig-Pen? We're like Pig-Pen right now."
Speaking of inept offenses, how about the Ravens? A year ago Brian Billick fired offensive coordinator Jim Fassel and the offense got better with Billick calling the plays. Until the playoffs. This season Billick is still calling the plays and it's been a disaster, ranked 23rd in offense and 28th in scoring (15 ppg). They just played the Bengals, a team that can't stop anybody, and lost 21-7. The Ravens have gone five straight quarters without scoring, and managed just one late touchdown against a Bengals defense that had been giving up 30 points per game. "I really don't have an answer for you right now," Billick said. Why is that not surprising?
The Raiders fired Art Shell because the team couldn't score last season. So Lane Kiffin is the new coach, and the offense has scored 14, 10, 9, 17 and 6 points the last 5 games! They are on a 4-0-1 run under the total. RB Justin Fargas stayed in virtually the whole game, yielding only one carry to Dominic Rhodes, who rushed for 2 yards in Sunday's loss. Rhodes was their big free agent offensive signing. So Kiffin chose the RB making $500,000 ahead of two guys making a combined $10 million.
And QB Jamarcus Russell, the No. 1 overall pick, hasn't played yet. I guess Kiffin is saving him for the postseason. It's safe to say there are two people who are very happy with all the poor coaching decisions in the NFL: Bill Cowher and Marty Schottenheimer. Two guys who should have NFL jobs next season -- and a ton of money!
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