Don't Shoot the Messengers

Chad Pennington under fire	Philip Rivers with Antonio Gates

(Photos courtesy of Yahoo Sports)

by Jimmy Russotto                                                                        

10/16/07

It has always amazed me how often the quarterbacks must bear the brunt of every loss, no matter what momentous changes are happening all around them.  In the structured world of the No Fun League, the quarterback is just the messenger bringing you the ill-contrived game plan of coaches who can't see the light.  Let's give the qb's and the other star players who take the blame a little bit of a break and think about the people really behind the failures.  That would very often be the coaching staff, or the changes in the coaching staff.  And not necessarily the head coaches, but those pesky offensive and defensive coordinators, and of course the GM.

Take the Jets,....please.  If I hear the Mangenius (head coach Eric Mangini) say "process" one more time, I'm going to go looking for him.  That's the word he uses to satisfy all the head-hunters from the media looking to replace his quarterback, Chad Pennington, with 2nd-year man Kellen Clemens, who did look good in the exhibition season while Chad has looked just awful.  But let's ask why he has looked awful.

The new offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer, runs the most boring and predictable offense ever known to man.  Another of the new-breed, rocket-scientist type coaches who out-thinks every situation by calling to his dim mind plays that have worked in practice and calling on his QB to execute them in the game flawlessly.  No matter that the defense sees these stupid plays coming from a mile away, or that they're impossible to execute in a game situation.  This genius had three shots to gain a yard for a crucial first down against the still fearsome Eagles defense on Sunday.  His running back Thomas Jones had been successful all day.  So what's he call?  Just one try for Jones !  And then a QB sneak followed by a ridiculous and dangerous fade pattern to Laveranues Coles in the end zone.

Mangini, to his credit, has spread the blame around; indeed he even came out and said better coaching is needed.  But he buried that statement among others bemoaning bad tackling, yada yada...He's expounded on Chad's stats over the years, and the fact that Pennington has the 2nd-highest completion percentage of all active NFL qb's, second only to Kurt Warner !  But he has said little to explain away Chad's maddening dink-and-dunk game.  Let's have more long boring drives that end up with no points on the board, or a field goal.  Yay!

Much like the genius soccer coach for the U.S. entry in the Women's World Cup who sat his best goalie for some stupid technical reason in the semi-final round against Brazil, and said he'd do it again after Brazil scored four goals on her replacement, the genius Schottenheimer calls only those plays that percentage-wise offer the best chance for success.  Sounds good but plays bad.  The defenses figure him out, and, even if they don't, the damage done is minimal, another four-yard pass play becomes the horrible result.  In lieu of "four yards and a clud of dust", we get four yards with no dust at all.  Much as Mangini's beloved 3-4 defense doesn't work with his personnel, this offense doesn't go with Scottenheimer at the controls. 

You'll also hear the new running back, Thomas Jones, berated for not doing better this year.  No matter that the other genius, GM Tanenbaum, made sure his best left guard left for Washington so that he could save a few bucks.  Or that the secondary's been awful because they couldn't get their #1 draft pick into the fold soon enough.  The GM genius gained virtually nothing contractually after weeks and weeks of missed practice for a player who is proving to be the star of the secondary.

Coaching changes have also been very much a part of the San Diego Chargers troubles getting started this year.  The Chargers dismissed another Schottenhimer, Marty, for failing to win a playoff game.  Norv Turner, the new head coach, has been under fire, and deservedly so, for his team's horrific start.  But not before Philip Rivers and LaDainian Tomlinson were excoriated for their failures on the field.  Never mind that the offensive line wasn't the same, or that they got rid of their best wide receiver.  Never mind that they had several other coaching changes, letting their defensive coordinator go to Dallas as the head man, and their offensive coordinator go to Miami as the head guy.

The Chargers have done much better the last two weeks, as they've given the ball to LaDainian more often.  A big "duh" on that one.  I was also quite entertained by the fact that they finally made a deal for a real live wide receiver today, Chris Chambers, from Miami.  I guess they've seen enough of dropped passes and nobody coming open.  That can only bode well for the Chargers as they near the mid-point of the season.

I must apologize to the NY Giants for an article written here after Week 2.  In that article, I totally annihilated the Giants secondary and their new defensive coordinator, Steve Spagnuolo.  Not that they didn't deserve it at the time.  But the coaches were astute enough to make the changes required to turn that defense around totally. They now can truly be called GEEEEE-men once again.  The biggest change was to start their four stud-ly defensive ends all along the line.  You'll now see big Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora at the tackle positions quite often.  Not only do they give opposing QB's very little time to throw, but they stop the run as well.  Of course, the secondary is still weak with the likes of Sam Madison and RW McQuarters but the Giants coaching staff also inserted the terrific rookie Aaron Ross into the mix, thus producing two interceptions and quite a few passes knocked down or not thrown at all.  The double whammie of defensive line changes and Aaron Ross has done the trick.  These new messengers won’t be shot in the foreseeable future.