Raiders QB Andrew Walter apologized for his criticism of the staff and Warren Sapp said that things are looking up in the locker room. The rumor is that the team is finally beginning to buy into Art Shell’s program. That’s great news for anyone but Raider fans who remember what Shell’s program did for the franchise last time. Sometimes, a Coach stays unemployed for a long time because he should be unemployed for a long time.

 

Unless you’re an NBA team, scoring 41 means you have a superb shot at winning a game. Leave it to the Bengals to cast some doubt on that idea. But it’s not just the fact that the Bengals scored 41 and lost, it was the way they lost that should have fans upset. The Bengals not only blew a 21 point lead, they let their opponent score 42 points in one half. I knew the Bengals were undeserving of the pre-season hype they were getting, but that 2nd half shocked me. It might be the worst defensive half in the history of the NFL.

 

I have to hand it to Steve McNair. The guy moves like he needs a wheelchair between plays, but somehow manages just enough of whatever he needs when the whistle blows. McNair’s September Song with the Ravens adds new depth to the adage “he’s not pretty”, yet they’re and un-pretty 7-2. Everyone’s just waiting for s second half collapse that isn’t coming. McNair has to be comeback player of the year.

 

Props to Jimmy Johnson for echoing what I’ve said about Mike Vick for two years now. Vick is simply never going to be a top-flight QB. He’s a phenomenal athlete but a mediocre QB at best. The Falcons share in the blame too, for overpaying an unproven QB and then remaking an NFL offense into a sandlot scheme to “take advantage of his special skills”. This is franchisicide. There are 32 teams and a 16 game schedule, with so many possibilities from that mix, designing any component of an NFL team to fit one player is downright stupid. Vick will continue to run hot and cold until Jim Mora gets fired. Then he’ll run hot and cold until he gets benched.

 

Philip Rivers can’t do what Mike Vick does, yet somehow the guy is playing like an MVP in an offense that was designed before he came to the team. What’s scary is that he still isn’t finding Antonio Gates with regularity. I was amazed by the workman like look in Rivers’ eyes when things looked terrible in Cincy. Watching him on first and goal before the Bolts first TD told me all I needed to know about the guy. I’m not Crowning him yet, because the postseason is a different environment altogether. But Rivers is everything you could dream of in a first year starter.

 

The Eagles are back or maybe they’re not. Putting a whipping on the Deadskins isn’t exactly the measuring stick for excellence these days.  I want to say that Donte Stallworth is the difference, but then again I thought Steve Smith was the difference in Carolina.  Maybe someday coaches will learn that putting a guy with a howitzer into the dink and dunk extravaganza that is the left coast offense isn’t exactly the wisest personnel move. I can’t help but think that the Eagles would have already won at least one SB with a healthy Chad Pennington at QB and that McNabb might have less lofty stats but would actually have a chance to win something with a running attack and a vertical passing game. At this point I’m beginning to feel sorry for McNabb instead of just despising his chokester ways. I’ve never seen a QB who has been asked to do more than McNabb, and who is less emotionally equipped to do it.

 

And while we’re at it, let’s talk about this West Coast offense a little bit. Haven’t we had enough of this BS? Sure, it looks great on paper, and the 49’ers ran it to perfection (because Bill Walsh was coaching them, and they ran the ball too, but who else does anything but put up stats with it? What amazes me is how awful the QB’s who run the WC must actually be nowadays. When you consider that DB’s only have to look at a receiver sideways to get an IC or  PI call, and the NFL sunk to a new low this weekend when Aaron Smith got a roughing call for touching a QB’s leg, 65% completion rates should be as common as chocolate chip cookies. Imagine what a truly accurate passer like Kenny Anderson would be doing in today’s NFL. If Anderson completed less than 85% of his passes in the WC, I’d eat a Bengal’s helmet, stripes and all. Sonny Jurgensen would be throwing passes underhand, behind his back and complete 75%. 

 

I guess the WC is a lot like a Bill Cowher Defense, a lot of show and some nice stats until crunch time. The good teams realize that all you have to do to beat Kowher’s Keystone Kops is spread it out and throw under the soft zones required to cover for the slow developing goofball blitzes. Before you know it, and it’s another Home Field Playoff massacre. Don’t tell me about the SB last year, we all know which side of the team carried the Steelers and it wasn’t Cowher’s D. But the Blitzburgh defense is laden with still more myth. One old husbands tale is that the once and current Steeler DC, #### LeBeau is the “father of the zone blitz”. Untrue, Dom Capers is the father of the “fire zone” defense, pioneering it in the eighties with the USFL’s Philadelphia Stars. The other myth is that the Steelers play a 3-4 defense. They don’t. They play the old 52-Okie (as in the Sooners) as their base, with a handful of nickel and dime alignments. A true 3-4 relies on the LB’s to play off the line of scrimmage in a containment scheme. Cowher’s Okie is a college defense, stacked at the line to collude the middle with the NT and DE’s holding two-gap responsibilities so that the LB’s can be the real DE’s and generate pressure. The whole idea is based on a bring more than they can block philosophy. It’s a real play from ahead defense. Of course Bill Belichick solved this defense by slanting his blockers into the gaps, throwing off the DL’s ability to tie-up two blockers, spreading out 5 wides, dragging Cowher’s helpless converted DE’s into coverage, and then throwing 25-30 consecutive 6 yard passes until Kowher’s Keystone Kops are tripping over their tongues down 28-3.  By then, 210lb. DB’s flailing at 330lb. OL’s isn’t very funny anymore. It makes me wonder why the Steelers beat anyone. But there are a lot of teams that refuse to adjust to their opponents. We call them losers.

 

Speaking of adjustments, I can’t adjust to Joe Gibbs 2.0. What the hell, Joe? We know you love veteran QB’s, but you trade Patrick Ramsey, keep Mark Brunell and then end up starting a guy who can’t remember the plays.

 

What does NE signing 163 year-old Vinny Interceptaverde tell 2002’s comeback player of the year, Tommy Maddox, about how far his stock has fallen? I mean really, Maddox goes from unseating Korky Stewart in Pittsburgh, to being paralyzed in TN, to a 2nd round playoff QB, to losing his job to Roethlisberger, to throwing a hissy fit because he single-handedly blew two games and then not showing up to meet the president after his team won the SB. Maddox went from a great human interest story to the equivalent of a student in summer, he has no class.

 

But that’s the great thing about the NFL; just when you think you know the answers, they change the rules to create more scoring. Maybe Maddox has another comeback in him. I bet the Redskins would sign him. They’d probably give him a $15 million signing bonus.