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#40 Never Forget
Green Proves He's an Elite Coach in Arizona
By IRA MILLER, AOL Sports Exclusive
Unless you clicked to this column about pro football by accident, you’re probably aware that Brett Favre has something of a superhuman reputation. Going more than a decade as an NFL quarterback without missing a start is a record for durability that makes Cal Ripken seem lazy.
Well, it’s beginning to look as if Favre is human, after all.
His streak of 193 consecutive starts is still intact, but for the second week in a row, he was unable to finish a game, this time knocked out with a concussion suffered against the New York Giants.
Favre’s health is not all that is troubling Green Bay.
The Packers’ defense, which looked so dominating in their smashing opening-game victory over Carolina, is springing leaks -- and, it turns out, the Panthers are not so special as they were a year ago, anyway. Green Bay is 1-3 for the first time since Favre’s second year as a starter, 1993.
Kind of reminds us that maybe we shouldn’t go so crazy over openers. After all, remember a year ago, Tampa Bay beat Philadelphia 17-0 on opening night with a defensive performance so strong that Simeon Rice crowed, "People don’t know how good we are."
How good are Bucs? They have lost 13 of 19 games since that night, including all four this season.
With that in mind, here are five things we learned this weekend:
1) Coaching matters, even in the NFL:
When Dennis Green coached the Minnesota Vikings, the rap was always that he couldn’t win the big one, as in get to the Super Bowl -- as if that made him a failure. All he did was lead the Vikings to the playoffs eight times in ten years, doing it with seven different starting quarterbacks, and only a missed field goal by Gary Andersen -- the only one Andersen missed in the entire season -- kept the Vikings from winning the 1998 NFC title.
Green can coach. He can adapt. And he’s proving it again this season with the Arizona Cardinals.
Arizona, like Tampa Bay and Cincinnati before it, is a long-running NFL wasteland, but Green took over the Cardinals this season and he’s not willing to use the past as an excuse. He has made the Cards competitive right from the start.
In four games, the Cardinals’ defense has permitted only three touchdowns -- and these were four games against teams with legitimate quarterbacks: Michael Vick, Aaron Brooks, Marc Bulger and Tom Brady.
Among teams that have played four games, only six in the league -- New England, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Baltimore, Jacksonville and Cleveland -- have permitted fewer points than the 56 scored against Arizona. The Cardinals are the only team in that group with a losing record, because the offense is very much a work in progress.
But once Anquan Boldin gets healthy and joins Larry Fitzgerald and Bryant Johnson, once quarterback Josh McCown gets a little more experience, look for Green to transform the Cardinals.
Hey, nothing is impossible.
2) Can’t anybody here kick a field goal?:
Special teams problems have bedeviled the Giants for some time and, until now, they were best epitomized by the botched snap and failed field-goal attempt that ended a crazy, wild-card playoff loss to the 49ers after the 2002 season.
But in seemingly straightening out under Tom Coughlin this season, the Giants’ woes in the kicking game are still not solved.
Although New York won, 14-7, at Green Bay, the victory was in jeopardy longer than it should have been because of the Giants’ failure to kick a clinching field goal in the fourth quarter.
Steve Christie had two opportunities, but missed them both, from 30 yards and from 33, neither of which should be particularly daunting for an NFL veteran.
The Giants, of course, held on to win, anyway, but you have to wonder whether Christie still will be the team’s kicker for next Sunday’s game at Dallas.
3) Ex-49ers coaches are way ahead of current 49ers coaches:
Let’s see here. The 49ers could have promoted Jim Mora, who by all accounts was the most impressive candidate they interviewed to replace Steve Mariucci. Mora’s Atlanta team is 4-0. They could have kept Mariucci. His Detroit team is 2-1. Former offensive coordinators Mike Holmgren and Mike Shanahan, long established with other teams, are 3-0 and 3-1, respectively.
And the 49ers, under Dennis Erickson, are 0-4.
You have to feel for Erickson, who surely was not aware that management planned to tear down the roster in an economy drive right after they hired him. The 49ers, who are 0-4 for the first time in a quarter-century, may be Erickson’s team, but the state of the team is not his fault.
With that roster, San Francisco could bring in Vince Lombardi as head coach and Bill Walsh and Knute Rockne as his coordinators, and the 49ers still wouldn’t be any good.
Hey, just think of all those draft picks they can get when they trade away the first overall selection next April.
4) Good news for the barbers in Houston:
David Carr, thankfully, finally gets a haircut. The Texans quarterback vowed a year ago he wouldn’t trim his locks until the expansion team, then starting its second year, won consecutive games. Carr didn’t know how long it would take.
Houston finally made it by beating the Raiders on Sunday, completing its first two-game winning streak in its 36 games.
Funny how things never work out quite the way expected. The Texans thought they could win the first two this year since they were opening the season against San Diego and Detroit. Instead, they lost those and then beat Kansas City and Oakland.
Wonder if the Texans will be petitioning for a move to the AFC West? Couldn’t blame them if they were.
5) What happens when crummy offense meets crummy defense -- and does it matter?
Before Monday night's game, Kansas City ranked 25th in the NFL on defense, and Baltimore ranked 25th on offense. The Chiefs won the game, 27-24, and their defense held the Ravens' offense to 207 yards.
Does this mean Kansas City's defensive woes are over? Hardly. All it means is that the AFC North is up for grabs, because if Baltimore can't move the ball against Kansas City, it is in for a long struggle.
The 207 yards gained by the Ravens was a lot more typical of their routine performances than it was of the Chiefs' defense. Kansas City still is 1-3 and has allowed the most points in the league. Let's wait for a lot more evidence before suggesting the Chiefs are over their defensive problems.
Ira Miller has covered the National Football League and the San Francisco 49ers for the San Francisco Chronicle since before the 49ers learned enough to play in their first Super Bowl.
Copyright (C) 2004 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.
10-05-04 2:47AM EDT
By IRA MILLER, AOL Sports Exclusive
Unless you clicked to this column about pro football by accident, you’re probably aware that Brett Favre has something of a superhuman reputation. Going more than a decade as an NFL quarterback without missing a start is a record for durability that makes Cal Ripken seem lazy.
Well, it’s beginning to look as if Favre is human, after all.
His streak of 193 consecutive starts is still intact, but for the second week in a row, he was unable to finish a game, this time knocked out with a concussion suffered against the New York Giants.
Favre’s health is not all that is troubling Green Bay.
The Packers’ defense, which looked so dominating in their smashing opening-game victory over Carolina, is springing leaks -- and, it turns out, the Panthers are not so special as they were a year ago, anyway. Green Bay is 1-3 for the first time since Favre’s second year as a starter, 1993.
Kind of reminds us that maybe we shouldn’t go so crazy over openers. After all, remember a year ago, Tampa Bay beat Philadelphia 17-0 on opening night with a defensive performance so strong that Simeon Rice crowed, "People don’t know how good we are."
How good are Bucs? They have lost 13 of 19 games since that night, including all four this season.
With that in mind, here are five things we learned this weekend:
1) Coaching matters, even in the NFL:
When Dennis Green coached the Minnesota Vikings, the rap was always that he couldn’t win the big one, as in get to the Super Bowl -- as if that made him a failure. All he did was lead the Vikings to the playoffs eight times in ten years, doing it with seven different starting quarterbacks, and only a missed field goal by Gary Andersen -- the only one Andersen missed in the entire season -- kept the Vikings from winning the 1998 NFC title.
Green can coach. He can adapt. And he’s proving it again this season with the Arizona Cardinals.
Arizona, like Tampa Bay and Cincinnati before it, is a long-running NFL wasteland, but Green took over the Cardinals this season and he’s not willing to use the past as an excuse. He has made the Cards competitive right from the start.
In four games, the Cardinals’ defense has permitted only three touchdowns -- and these were four games against teams with legitimate quarterbacks: Michael Vick, Aaron Brooks, Marc Bulger and Tom Brady.
Among teams that have played four games, only six in the league -- New England, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Baltimore, Jacksonville and Cleveland -- have permitted fewer points than the 56 scored against Arizona. The Cardinals are the only team in that group with a losing record, because the offense is very much a work in progress.
But once Anquan Boldin gets healthy and joins Larry Fitzgerald and Bryant Johnson, once quarterback Josh McCown gets a little more experience, look for Green to transform the Cardinals.
Hey, nothing is impossible.
2) Can’t anybody here kick a field goal?:
Special teams problems have bedeviled the Giants for some time and, until now, they were best epitomized by the botched snap and failed field-goal attempt that ended a crazy, wild-card playoff loss to the 49ers after the 2002 season.
But in seemingly straightening out under Tom Coughlin this season, the Giants’ woes in the kicking game are still not solved.
Although New York won, 14-7, at Green Bay, the victory was in jeopardy longer than it should have been because of the Giants’ failure to kick a clinching field goal in the fourth quarter.
Steve Christie had two opportunities, but missed them both, from 30 yards and from 33, neither of which should be particularly daunting for an NFL veteran.
The Giants, of course, held on to win, anyway, but you have to wonder whether Christie still will be the team’s kicker for next Sunday’s game at Dallas.
3) Ex-49ers coaches are way ahead of current 49ers coaches:
Let’s see here. The 49ers could have promoted Jim Mora, who by all accounts was the most impressive candidate they interviewed to replace Steve Mariucci. Mora’s Atlanta team is 4-0. They could have kept Mariucci. His Detroit team is 2-1. Former offensive coordinators Mike Holmgren and Mike Shanahan, long established with other teams, are 3-0 and 3-1, respectively.
And the 49ers, under Dennis Erickson, are 0-4.
You have to feel for Erickson, who surely was not aware that management planned to tear down the roster in an economy drive right after they hired him. The 49ers, who are 0-4 for the first time in a quarter-century, may be Erickson’s team, but the state of the team is not his fault.
With that roster, San Francisco could bring in Vince Lombardi as head coach and Bill Walsh and Knute Rockne as his coordinators, and the 49ers still wouldn’t be any good.
Hey, just think of all those draft picks they can get when they trade away the first overall selection next April.
4) Good news for the barbers in Houston:
David Carr, thankfully, finally gets a haircut. The Texans quarterback vowed a year ago he wouldn’t trim his locks until the expansion team, then starting its second year, won consecutive games. Carr didn’t know how long it would take.
Houston finally made it by beating the Raiders on Sunday, completing its first two-game winning streak in its 36 games.
Funny how things never work out quite the way expected. The Texans thought they could win the first two this year since they were opening the season against San Diego and Detroit. Instead, they lost those and then beat Kansas City and Oakland.
Wonder if the Texans will be petitioning for a move to the AFC West? Couldn’t blame them if they were.
5) What happens when crummy offense meets crummy defense -- and does it matter?
Before Monday night's game, Kansas City ranked 25th in the NFL on defense, and Baltimore ranked 25th on offense. The Chiefs won the game, 27-24, and their defense held the Ravens' offense to 207 yards.
Does this mean Kansas City's defensive woes are over? Hardly. All it means is that the AFC North is up for grabs, because if Baltimore can't move the ball against Kansas City, it is in for a long struggle.
The 207 yards gained by the Ravens was a lot more typical of their routine performances than it was of the Chiefs' defense. Kansas City still is 1-3 and has allowed the most points in the league. Let's wait for a lot more evidence before suggesting the Chiefs are over their defensive problems.
Ira Miller has covered the National Football League and the San Francisco 49ers for the San Francisco Chronicle since before the 49ers learned enough to play in their first Super Bowl.
Copyright (C) 2004 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.
10-05-04 2:47AM EDT
