azdad1978
Championship!!!!
Odd decisions marked debut
Kent Somers
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 12, 2005 12:00 AM
As they filed into a team that late-November night at a Charlotte, N.C., hotel, the Cardinals felt good about themselves. They had won two straight and three of their past four.
A victory the next day over Carolina would even their record after 10 games and give wings to their flight of fancy: making the playoffs.
Then coach Dennis Green announced he was benching quarterback Josh McCown and starting Shaun King.
It's easy to look back at what transpired and say the whole season pivoted that Saturday night. The Cardinals lost their next four games and won just two more to finish 6-10.
But it's not as if Green's announcement left anyone in the meeting slack-jawed. They were used to it. Surprising and confounding decisions defined Green's first year with the Cardinals, and he has promised more changes this off-season in preparation for Year 2.
"I told you I was not very patient this year," Green said the day after the season ended. "I will be even less patient next year. That is just the way it is."
That's hard to imagine, given Green's decisions in 2004.
Starting center Pete Kendall was packing his car for training camp when Green cut him. Offensive line coach Bob Wylie was fired on a Friday morning, six games into the season and just a few hours before the team was to fly to Buffalo for a game.
Wylie cleaned out his office and watched from the parking lot as the team buses left for the airport.
So when Green changed quarterbacks the night before the Carolina game, the players responded with shrugs, not gasps. Most reacted as defensive end Peppi Zellner did.
"Coach Green is the head coach; ain't nothing you can do about it," Zellner said. "The boss man done spoke."
Surprises aplenty
Green has spoken a lot since taking the Cardinals job a year ago. His first surprising decision was to pass on a quarterback in the draft, even though the Cardinals had the third overall pick. Green reasoned that McCown was just as good as the players available, plus he had experience.
Then on the day players reported to camp in Flagstaff, he cut Kendall, only a few weeks after Green had made a big production of announcing his starting lineup at the end of summer practices.
Six games into the season, he caused more shock waves when he fired Wylie, in his 14th year as an NFL assistant.
The offensive linemen knew Wylie and Green didn't agree on much, but still, when Wylie came into the locker room, shook their hands and said goodbye, it surprised them.
"It does surprise people," tackle Leonard Davis said of Green's decisions, "but I guess that's part of the change around here. From one coach to the next there are different styles. The only thing I can really do is go out and play and do what I can do."
In football, it's often difficult to measure the impact of change. How do you quantify the effects of benching a center or an offensive tackle, or the firing of an offensive line coach? Measuring a quarterback is different. He, like the head coach, is evaluated by the record, which made Green's decision to bench McCown so surprising.
Rare is the coach who benches a quarterback when his team has won two straight. With McCown starting, the Cardinals were 6-7. With King and John Navarre, they were 0-3.
The evaluation, Green said, should not be that simple.
"I don't think you say that we are 6-7 because Josh played quarterback," he said. "That is a narrow way to look at it. I think we were 6-7 because in those particular games, we played outstanding defense. In some of the games we lost, we did not."
After the Cardinals lost in Carolina with King, they returned home to play the Jets. Fans booed King from the outset. As he continued to struggle, the booing grew louder and was directed at Green as much as King.
"When he made the move, I was one of the few people who was for it," said Mike Banks, a season ticket holder the past 11 years. "If anything, the offense was regressing and I figured, 'It's better to make the move now.' But, man, did it ever blow up in his face."
Fan reaction, Green hinted later, was a big reason he decided that Navarre would make his NFL debut in Detroit instead of the following week in Arizona.
Offended by offense
Green was grasping for anything that would spark the offense. He had never been happy with the unit - not in minicamp, training camp or at any time during the season - and he didn't think the team was going anywhere unless the offense improved.
That's why he benched the player he had been building up for seven months, the guy he once believed was the team's quarterback of the future and the reason he passed up a chance to draft Ben Roethlisberger or become involved in the sweepstakes for Philip Rivers and Eli Manning.
And, he said last week, he was afraid of losing the confidence of his defensive players, who were playing well.
"I think it was very important at that stage to show the defense that we were willing to do whatever we could do to try to improve the offense," Green said. "I think had I not done that, I don't think our defense would have been what it was at the end of the year.
"That is one man's opinion. You can agree or disagree."
Throughout his first year with the Cardinals, Green continually admitted he was impatient, both in words and action. For his players, it makes showing up for work every morning interesting, to say the least.
"He's the head coach and he does what he does," receiver Bryant Johnson said. "You have to live with it."
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/cardinals/articles/0112cards0112.html
Kent Somers
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 12, 2005 12:00 AM
As they filed into a team that late-November night at a Charlotte, N.C., hotel, the Cardinals felt good about themselves. They had won two straight and three of their past four.
A victory the next day over Carolina would even their record after 10 games and give wings to their flight of fancy: making the playoffs.
Then coach Dennis Green announced he was benching quarterback Josh McCown and starting Shaun King.
It's easy to look back at what transpired and say the whole season pivoted that Saturday night. The Cardinals lost their next four games and won just two more to finish 6-10.
But it's not as if Green's announcement left anyone in the meeting slack-jawed. They were used to it. Surprising and confounding decisions defined Green's first year with the Cardinals, and he has promised more changes this off-season in preparation for Year 2.
"I told you I was not very patient this year," Green said the day after the season ended. "I will be even less patient next year. That is just the way it is."
That's hard to imagine, given Green's decisions in 2004.
Starting center Pete Kendall was packing his car for training camp when Green cut him. Offensive line coach Bob Wylie was fired on a Friday morning, six games into the season and just a few hours before the team was to fly to Buffalo for a game.
Wylie cleaned out his office and watched from the parking lot as the team buses left for the airport.
So when Green changed quarterbacks the night before the Carolina game, the players responded with shrugs, not gasps. Most reacted as defensive end Peppi Zellner did.
"Coach Green is the head coach; ain't nothing you can do about it," Zellner said. "The boss man done spoke."
Surprises aplenty
Green has spoken a lot since taking the Cardinals job a year ago. His first surprising decision was to pass on a quarterback in the draft, even though the Cardinals had the third overall pick. Green reasoned that McCown was just as good as the players available, plus he had experience.
Then on the day players reported to camp in Flagstaff, he cut Kendall, only a few weeks after Green had made a big production of announcing his starting lineup at the end of summer practices.
Six games into the season, he caused more shock waves when he fired Wylie, in his 14th year as an NFL assistant.
The offensive linemen knew Wylie and Green didn't agree on much, but still, when Wylie came into the locker room, shook their hands and said goodbye, it surprised them.
"It does surprise people," tackle Leonard Davis said of Green's decisions, "but I guess that's part of the change around here. From one coach to the next there are different styles. The only thing I can really do is go out and play and do what I can do."
In football, it's often difficult to measure the impact of change. How do you quantify the effects of benching a center or an offensive tackle, or the firing of an offensive line coach? Measuring a quarterback is different. He, like the head coach, is evaluated by the record, which made Green's decision to bench McCown so surprising.
Rare is the coach who benches a quarterback when his team has won two straight. With McCown starting, the Cardinals were 6-7. With King and John Navarre, they were 0-3.
The evaluation, Green said, should not be that simple.
"I don't think you say that we are 6-7 because Josh played quarterback," he said. "That is a narrow way to look at it. I think we were 6-7 because in those particular games, we played outstanding defense. In some of the games we lost, we did not."
After the Cardinals lost in Carolina with King, they returned home to play the Jets. Fans booed King from the outset. As he continued to struggle, the booing grew louder and was directed at Green as much as King.
"When he made the move, I was one of the few people who was for it," said Mike Banks, a season ticket holder the past 11 years. "If anything, the offense was regressing and I figured, 'It's better to make the move now.' But, man, did it ever blow up in his face."
Fan reaction, Green hinted later, was a big reason he decided that Navarre would make his NFL debut in Detroit instead of the following week in Arizona.
Offended by offense
Green was grasping for anything that would spark the offense. He had never been happy with the unit - not in minicamp, training camp or at any time during the season - and he didn't think the team was going anywhere unless the offense improved.
That's why he benched the player he had been building up for seven months, the guy he once believed was the team's quarterback of the future and the reason he passed up a chance to draft Ben Roethlisberger or become involved in the sweepstakes for Philip Rivers and Eli Manning.
And, he said last week, he was afraid of losing the confidence of his defensive players, who were playing well.
"I think it was very important at that stage to show the defense that we were willing to do whatever we could do to try to improve the offense," Green said. "I think had I not done that, I don't think our defense would have been what it was at the end of the year.
"That is one man's opinion. You can agree or disagree."
Throughout his first year with the Cardinals, Green continually admitted he was impatient, both in words and action. For his players, it makes showing up for work every morning interesting, to say the least.
"He's the head coach and he does what he does," receiver Bryant Johnson said. "You have to live with it."
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/cardinals/articles/0112cards0112.html
