Monday, November 28, 2011

Week 12: The Class of the NFL is Confirmed

This week clearly showed us who the contenders in the NFL are, and conversely who the pretenders are.  So who is not an elite team in the league? Among others, the Chargers, 49ers, Giants, Bills, Lions and the team I described before the season as the most hyped up mediocre team since last year’s Jets, the Philadelphia Eagles. Who has a chance to win it all? The Packers, Saints, Patriots, Steelers, with the Ravens, Raiders and Cowboys looking in as dark horses.

The Lions and Niners will have their time but unfortunately for them their most memorable part of 2011 will be a hand shake gone wrong. The Chargers need a coaching change but don’t know it and The Eagles don’t need one but think they do. The Giants and Bills just can’t seem to play with the big boys on a consistent basis. Should be a great December.

AND THAT’S THE BRUTAL TRUTH!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

14 Million Americans Are Out Of Work Yet Norv Turner Still Has A Job!

It’s hard to criticize a coach with Norv Turner’s record in San Diego and even harder to diminish the coaching ability of a man to whom Troy Aikman attributes a large portion of his success. Most of all its hardest to validate anything that Rex Ryan has ever said that does not pertain to a pie eating contest. However, if you look beyond the 3 division titles and last year’s top offence and defense, Norv simply isn’t getting it done.


I don’t believe a coach should ever be fired or even criticized simply for not winning a Super Bowl and expecting a coach to win one is flat out preposterous. It took Bill Cowher 13 seasons to win one and Bill Parcells didn’t win any with the last 3 teams he coached. Both men are widely and rightfully considered to be great coaches and there is no way that Norv Turner should ever be held to a higher standard than those men with San Diego or any other team. That notwithstanding, what should be expected from all coaches who were handed a 14-2 team and a young franchise quarterback is to get them to a place where they can win a Super Bowl. While wildcard teams have won Super Bowls in the past, it is much easier with a first round bye and once the talent is aligned the head coach needs to take responsibility for the slow starts and the close losses to less talented teams.

Let’s all look back at the 2006 season in which Marty Schotenheimer, one of the great regular season coaches of a generation, led San Diego to a 14-2 season only to lose their first playoff game to the Pats (who’s leading receiver was Jabbar Gaffney) in typical “Marty-Ball” fashion. After that season which featured Philip Rivers in his first season as a starter, LT still very much in his prime and Shawne Merriman as one of the most intimidating QB hunters in the game, the Bolts were considered the team of the future. Schotenheirmer’s inability to win playoff games ultimately cost him his job, but his successor has since shown the inability to coach a contender from beginning to end. The Super Chargers had two options in looking for a replacement; they could have interviewed young ambitious coordinators who were in other systems or they could have gone for the brand name Head Coach despite a lifetime losing record as a head coach. Unlike the last 3 Super Bowl champions who all replaced their head coach in the past 5 years while employing the first hiring strategy, San Diego chose the latter and went with Norv. Hind sight is always 20/20, but the Norv decision is clearly not working out and if the window of opportunity was getting narrow in San Diego 5 years ago, where does it stand today? Worst of all, I correctly picked the last 3 Super Bowl champions before the seasons began and at 4-5, my streak is very much in danger of ending this year with my San Diego pick. (In case anyone cares I picked them to beat the Cowboys in Indy)

Regardless of how San Diego fares from this point on, anything short of winning a Super Bowl should merit a coaching change. That is not a contradiction to what I said earlier as I think Norv really needs to be replaced regardless, but if he somehow pulls off the improbably I think a stay of execution would be reasonable. Even if they get to the Super Bowl and lose, they would have most likely gotten there the hard way, winning 3 playoff games and 2 on the road in the cold weather that the flip flop wearing team does not like to play in, and in that scenario a Super Bowl loss might be the result of being run down, a state that could have been avoided with a better regular season.



AND THAT’S THE BRUTAL TRUTH!

Monday, November 21, 2011

They Were Who We Thought They Were

Bills, Bengals, Redskins. Before the season started we all expected them to finish in the bottom 2 spots of their respective divisions. Some early success this year against mostly below average teams made some avid fans second guess who these teams were, but this week's games made us all realize while possibly infringing on a Dennis Green copyright that they were who we thought they were. The only difference between week 11 and that infamous press conference is that no one let them off the hook. Those in Western New York, Southern Ohio and the Capital District might beg to differ, but these 3 teams are all bottom feeders and our preseason expectations of them will all come to fruition at season's end.

AND THAT'S THE BRUTAL TRUTH! 

Friday, November 18, 2011

I’m Back, and so are The Broncos

In the immortal words of Frank Costanza, I’m Back BA-BY! It’s been 2 years since I’ve been part of that irrelevant and ever growing world of bloggers, and as much as no one cares what me or any other blogger has to say, I still need this therapeutic outlet to say it.

It was only a decade ago that The New England Patriots started winning games with a relatively unknown QB; one who analysts all agreed was not the NFL QB that Drew Bledsoe was. He didn’t have the arm, he didn’t have the motion, he didn’t have the pocket presence. Despite giving NFL teams every reason to draft him based on his physique, football IQ and college record, he was written off as not being an “NFL QB” and dropped to the 6th round of the 2000 draft. However, the one thing this second year QB did have was the ability to win games, and win games he did. He won games in college in a big name program where expectations and competition were both high, and he won games in the NFL with a team that was written off before he took over as the starting QB.

Let me make this clear, I am not comparing Tim Tebow to Tom Brady and any such comparison at this point would be outright blasphemous. Nevertheless, like the future first ballot hall of famer, Tim Tebow wins games and at the end of the day that is more important than passer ratings, throwing motion or religious beliefs. We’ve been watching this kid since his freshman year at Florida when he was the backup and thrown in on short yardage situations. Even then it was discussed how his style of play was not conducive to being a starter in the SEC. 3 years, a Heisman Trophy and a National Championship later, he graduated as arguably the greatest College Football player of all time with the post script of “too bad he’ll never be able to play in the NFL”. That leads me to pose the question, which college stars can play in the NFL? Ryan Leaf? Tim Couch? Jamarcus Russell?

Tim Tebow is 4-1 as a starter on a 5-5 team. The fallacy that was highly discussed 3 weeks ago and regularly for the past year that the Broncos can’t win with Tim Tebow has quickly been replaced by the reality that they cannot win without him. Without him the AFC west is a 3 horse race featuring the Chargers, Raiders and Chiefs, with him they are half a game out of first place and climbing each week. Can he ever lead a team to a Super Bowl? Everything we pretend to know about football would indicate otherwise. 10 years ago that question was asked and answered the same way about Tom Brady.

AND THAT’S THE BRUTAL TRUTH!