TJ, look up the word "Synecdoche" and you'll see why this is a perfectly relevant avenue of analysis.
With Porter, you can ask any scout or Miami fan and they'll tell you that Porter was an afterthought in the Dolphins' defense and collected 8 garbage sacks where he was the third or fourth concern in blocking assignments. Part of the reason that Porter was so awful here was because of his declining skills, but also because he was supposed to be the primary pass rush threat, not a third or fourth guy trying to bring pressure. You have different expectations for Shaun Ellis than you do DeMarcus Ware.
You can't make chicken salad out of chicken isht. What are the two most important positions for a 3-4 defense? Outside pass rusher and nose tackle. We had Joey Porter's decomposing corpse and Bryan Robinson, who was never good. After that it's probably run-stopping ILB. We had Paris Lenon, who is a weakside linebacker in a 4-3 defense. What was he supposed to do with those tools?
There are some rah rah type Coordinators, but I guess that you didn't learn your lesson from the Dave McGinnis regime. Billy Davis put his players in a position to be successful; the issue was that the players weren't good enough to capitalize on those positions. You can see it in the opposing team's highlight videos that they show on SportsCenter or NFLN. There are guys in positions to make plays; they're just not able to do so.
Porter was benched for bad attitude in Miami and the emergence of Cameron Wake.
Is his performance regression a variable? Sure. But it doesnt explain how he goes from 9 sacks as a part-time player to 5 as a full time. Again, he didnt age by 10 years overnight. To clarify, I don't expect elite performance this season, but I do think he'll be more motivated in 2011.
As for me "learning my lesson," I think that's hogwash, bro. Coach Mac was a ra ra coach, but his fatal flaw was he was too nice to his players. Horton can be empathetic with his players, but hard when he needs to be. That is part of the recipe for a good coach. I've been around enough good and bad coaches as a professional consultant to know this.
For Davis? I really don't understand your constant support for him. It sounds to me that your analysis is akin to playing Madden and inserting talent into your roster. and evaluating the results thereafter. Even then, if a player is not good at picking plays, the results are unwanted. There is a psychological component to coaching. Listen to interviews with players on Sportscenter. Listen to guys like AW and DRC question the system. Wouldn't you agree with me that it at least had a small contributing factor to the demise of the defense?
There is a difference between that and real life football. Players begin resenting coaches if the scheme is not to their liking or the simply don't like their coaches. It's just the nature of the beast. I would think you'd understand this being a school teacher. You probably had students that loved you, but some that didn't like your style of education and simply regressed based on their opinion of you, whether or not it was your fault.
Davis did not put his players in a position to succeed. Had he done so with the talent available, he'd be in Flagstaff right now. It's not like he was the scapegoat for poor performance. He simply doesn't have the prowess to be a coordinator. The Cards need someone with a little more passion and fire. Nothing about him exuded this.
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