ActingWild
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http://sportsline.com/columns/weblogs/entry/9733801
Check back regularly for senior writer Clark Judge's news and notes from around the NFL.
Updated: Oct/17/2006 01:17 AM
Arizona's losses are reflection of coach
I heard ABC guest Charles Barkley on Monday night saying that the Arizona Cardinals franchise started to get things turned around when Dennis Green took over. I must've missed something because I didn't realize this franchise had turned around. Then I heard a couple more people tell me what a wonderful job the Cardinals' head coach was doing before I watched his football team melt down.
For the second straight week.
Excuse me, but isn't that a reflection on the head coach? I mean, these guys blew a 20-point lead while Rex Grossman was busy playing like the Venus de Milo. It wasn't that he wasn't bad; it was that he gawd awful. Four interceptions. Two fumbles. And countless bad decisions, batted balls, overthrows and, in general, horrible play.
Once I thought Grossman was the guy who made the Bears impregnable. Then I watched him self-destruct Monday, nearly taking down his team with him. Man, oh man, if there's not a quarterback controversy in Chicago now there should be. I know games like this happen, but not against Arizona.
But let's get back to Green. If he's turned this franchise around, why does it keep opening its seasons by losing four of its first five games? And why is it 1-5 today? And why, oh why, did it blow a game it should've had put away? Every time Grossman tried to win it for the Cards, someone on the other side kept the Bears in it.
I'm sorry, but that has to come back to the head coach.
He's the guy everyone wanted to toast when Arizona was pulling the upset of the year. He's the guy you've got to roast now that the Cards snatched defeat from the jaws of victory for the second straight week. Chicago didn't win this game; Arizona lost it. Dennis Green, you're wanted in the principal's office. Now.
--
The more I see Matt Leinart the more I wonder why Oakland passed on him in this year's draft. Let's face it, the Raiders need nothing more than a quarterback that knows what he's doing. Do I think Andrew Walter is the future of the franchise? No. And I bet the Raiders don't, either. So take the best quarterback in the draft, and I know a lot of people who thought it was Leinart. OK, so you can make an argument for Vince Young or Jay Cutler. The Raiders could've had Cutler, too. But let's not single out Oakland. Detroit could've had Leinart at the ninth spot, and maybe it backed off because people there had long memories of the Joey Harrington experience. But hold it right there: This is the franchise that took wide receivers with first-round picks three consecutive years, and two of them are busts. So why the hesitation, guys? Detroit blew it. So did Oakland. Matt Leinart will make them and several others regret their decisions not to choose him.
--
I saw Sunday where Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino listed Rex Grossman as his fifth best quarterback in today's game -- ahead of, oh, guys like Matt Hasselbeck and Marc Bulger. The fifth best. Just wondering, but you think Dan would like to call a mulligan on that one? Grossman may not be the best quarterback on the Chicago Bears.
Check back regularly for senior writer Clark Judge's news and notes from around the NFL.
Updated: Oct/17/2006 01:17 AM
Arizona's losses are reflection of coach
I heard ABC guest Charles Barkley on Monday night saying that the Arizona Cardinals franchise started to get things turned around when Dennis Green took over. I must've missed something because I didn't realize this franchise had turned around. Then I heard a couple more people tell me what a wonderful job the Cardinals' head coach was doing before I watched his football team melt down.
For the second straight week.
Excuse me, but isn't that a reflection on the head coach? I mean, these guys blew a 20-point lead while Rex Grossman was busy playing like the Venus de Milo. It wasn't that he wasn't bad; it was that he gawd awful. Four interceptions. Two fumbles. And countless bad decisions, batted balls, overthrows and, in general, horrible play.
Once I thought Grossman was the guy who made the Bears impregnable. Then I watched him self-destruct Monday, nearly taking down his team with him. Man, oh man, if there's not a quarterback controversy in Chicago now there should be. I know games like this happen, but not against Arizona.
But let's get back to Green. If he's turned this franchise around, why does it keep opening its seasons by losing four of its first five games? And why is it 1-5 today? And why, oh why, did it blow a game it should've had put away? Every time Grossman tried to win it for the Cards, someone on the other side kept the Bears in it.
I'm sorry, but that has to come back to the head coach.
He's the guy everyone wanted to toast when Arizona was pulling the upset of the year. He's the guy you've got to roast now that the Cards snatched defeat from the jaws of victory for the second straight week. Chicago didn't win this game; Arizona lost it. Dennis Green, you're wanted in the principal's office. Now.
--
The more I see Matt Leinart the more I wonder why Oakland passed on him in this year's draft. Let's face it, the Raiders need nothing more than a quarterback that knows what he's doing. Do I think Andrew Walter is the future of the franchise? No. And I bet the Raiders don't, either. So take the best quarterback in the draft, and I know a lot of people who thought it was Leinart. OK, so you can make an argument for Vince Young or Jay Cutler. The Raiders could've had Cutler, too. But let's not single out Oakland. Detroit could've had Leinart at the ninth spot, and maybe it backed off because people there had long memories of the Joey Harrington experience. But hold it right there: This is the franchise that took wide receivers with first-round picks three consecutive years, and two of them are busts. So why the hesitation, guys? Detroit blew it. So did Oakland. Matt Leinart will make them and several others regret their decisions not to choose him.
--
I saw Sunday where Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino listed Rex Grossman as his fifth best quarterback in today's game -- ahead of, oh, guys like Matt Hasselbeck and Marc Bulger. The fifth best. Just wondering, but you think Dan would like to call a mulligan on that one? Grossman may not be the best quarterback on the Chicago Bears.
