 |
| |
|
 |
 |
Two early to panic Red flags? Maybe. But it is no time for surrenderPosted: Monday September 16, 2002 10:10 AM
ATLANTA -- That old football philosopher Duane Charles Parcells upbraided a young writer (me) soon after the New York Giants fell out of the playoffs in 1985. The writer said, basically, that the Giants would be in position to contend the following season because of their good, young defense and their quarterback, and ... that's where Parcells jumped in and said: "That's a myth. You really never know. A football team never picks up where it left off the previous season. Every year's a new deal." Couple that sentiment with this factoid: The NFL tries to make the bad teams competent early, and it tries to make the good teams play very tough games early. So I take two-game totals with a mine of salt, not a grain. USA Today this morning heralds Carolina, New Orleans and San Diego for being 2-0. The Saints I understand; wins at Tampa and over Green Bay at home mean they're a legitimately good team. But Carolina has beaten a couple of teams -- Detroit and Baltimore -- that appear to be the two worst teams in the league right now. The Chargers have beaten teams ranked 29 and 30 on your NFL depth chart, Cincinnati and Houston. So what? Whereas the Steelers -- who I admit have major, major problems at quarterback and in the defensive secondary -- have lost to two of the top five teams in the game, New England and Oakland. And the Rams, whose offense looks downright mortal (a mortal sin in Mike Martz's world) have lost to a very good Denver team and the competent Giants. Alarms should be going off in both cities, yes. White flags should not be waved.
The way I see it, here are these team's problems ... RAMS Last week, on the phone, I said to Martz, "You guys are the only team in football that when you lose, the sky is falling." And two days later, when I called him to talk about Eric Crouch's retirement, Martz told me he'd thought a lot about what I said, and he talked to his players about not letting any of the outside pressure get to them. That's what I think a lot of this is. They're the greatest show on turf, and when they err, it's magnified. What really hurts, as Cris Collinsworth wisely points out, is that the third receiver role Az Hakim so capably filled (fumble-itis and all), is now being filled by possession-receiver Ricky Proehl. Hakim's speed and quickness were two things defenses just couldn't account for, and it always left him, Torry Holt or Isaac Bruce open in three-wideout sets. Now, with Proehl, the dynamics have changed. A football team is so fragile. As I watched parts of the Giants-Rams game on TV from the Atlanta press box on Sunday, I saw how the Giants were able to cover Warner's men. With Proehl third and Yo Murphy (who?) fourth, and the Rams unable to use the mentally blocked Terrence Wilkins because he just can't figure out the offense, this isn't the same team. And without opponents fearing the passing game, lanes don't open as easily for Marshall Faulk anymore. "What's going to help us," Martz says, "is getting Troy Edwards healthy and in the lineup. He could be perfect for this offense." Acquired from Pittsburgh, the banged-up Edwards should fill the third receiver role soon, perhaps as early as next week. The Rams might be staking their playoff lives on him. STEELERS Pittsburgh has the best opponent of all this weekend: Mr. Bye. Its situation is painfully simple. Bill Belichick laid out the way to beat Pittsburgh in Week 1 -- spread the field, play five receivers and no backs, and force the Steelers to cover quickly. You'd think it could work only in a limited way, but Pittsburgh needs to put more consistent pressure on the quick-thinking quarterbacks like Tom Brady and Rich Gannon. Joey Porter did some of it on Sunday -- three sacks, two picks -- but it's just not happening often enough. The only way to shut down the no-huddle or the every-down spread offense is to hit the quarterback often. Make him take the ball down. Make him go mobile. Don't let him sit there and take his time going from first option to second to third. That, too frequently, is what the Steelers ended up allowing against New England and Oakland. That has to stop. "We've got to get it fixed or it's gonna be a long year," Bill Cowher said last night. Exclamation point. My prediction: Warner and the Pittsburgh defense will come through in very big ways. Both teams will make the playoffs. They're too good not to.
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK New York Giants QB Kerry Collins, for his franchise regular-season record 22-of-26 performance (84.6 percent) in the Giants' 26-21 upset of the Rams. What Jim Fassel predicted to me in the summer is coming true: When Jeremy Shockey takes up so much defensive attention, there have to be holes elsewhere. Case in point: Amani Toomer, who has made 13 receptions in the first two weeks. "I was far from flawless, believe me," said Collins. The key is, with Shockey creating holes, he doesn't have to be. DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK Carolina DE Julius Peppers. Quick as a cat, Peppers had three first-half sacks -- including one on the final play before halftime, when he left Detroit quarterback Mike McMahon dazed and motionless on the ground after a hit -- and keyed the defensively intimidating 31-7 win over the toothless Lions. The kid understands this part of the game -- speed wins. And thanks to his speed around the corner, coupled with coach John Fox's love of getting his outside rushers multiple shots at the quarterback every week, Peppers could have a monster year. SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK Buffalo KR Charlie Rogers, who made the first positive special-teams play of the year (the millennium?) with his 90-yard kickoff return in the Metrodome, tying the score in the second quarter at 20. Kudos to Gregg Williams, the Buffalo coach, for standing behind his special teams in the wake of the Chad Morton fiasco last week instead of stupidly ripping them up and starting over after one week. If you believe in what you're doing, you don't make a sea change after four quarters. COACH OF THE WEEK Chicago defensive coordinator Greg Blache. At halftime of the Bears-Falcons game, Atlanta led 10-7. "We just said, 'Screw it. We're going after him,'" Brian Urlacher told me after the game, in reference to elusive Falcons quarterback Mike Vick. Blache made the right decision: The Falcons scored three points in the second half, Urlacher sacked Vick twice and, even though they couldn't faze the indomitable Vick, the harassment clearly was the key to Chicago's win. GOAT OF THE WEEK Cincinnati QB Gus Frerotte. Cleveland was up 10-0 late in the first half, but the Bengals were driving. Frerotte faded back to pass. Cleveland defenders wrapped him up and started taking him to the ground. That's when Frerotte did what a junior high school quarterback -- or a nervous rookie NFL one -- would do: He transferred the ball to his left hand and tried to make a silly, desperate throw ... to whom I'm not really sure. Cleveland's Kenard Lang picked it off, rumbled deep into Cincinnati territory, and set up what for all intents and purposes was the touchdown that put the game away, a pass from Kelly Holcomb to Kevin Johnson. QUOTE OF THE WEEK "I'm not Joey!!!" -- A perturbed-sounding Raiders wide receiver Jerry Porter, after being introduced early Monday morning on Sporting News Radio as "Pittsburgh outside linebacker Joey Porter." Jerry Porter promptly hung up the phone on national radio.
The first-team all-conference quarterback in the Pittsburgh-area Catholic league in 1949 was, to no one's surprise, John Unitas. The quarterback on the second team? Dan Rooney.
Making two roundtrips from Newark to Atlanta in three days. I must thank Delta for having ridiculously competitive (this means low) fares on this route. I must thank my travel agent, the always-alert Katherine McDonald, for helping find said fares. I was able to fit a 12:45 p.m. Friday video session with Michael Vick at the Falcons' training complex, an 8:40 p.m. Saturday session with Brian Urlacher at his Hilton Hotel in downtown Atlanta and a 1 p.m. Bears-Falcons game Sunday around the biggest sports event of the weekend: the 10 a.m. Saturday Montclair-at-Hackensack North Jersey Field Hockey League opener. The mechanics: Delta at 8 a.m. Friday to Atlanta, land 21 minutes early at 10 a.m., Hertz rental car to Flowery Branch, 55 miles northeast of the airport, spend time with Dan Reeves and Vick, head back to the airport (parking the rental car in the garage) before a 5 p.m. Delta return flight to Newark. Game Saturday. Heck of an opener, with junior link Mary Beth King, the best current field hockey daughter in sports mediaville (except, of course, for the three kids in the Ron Jaworski field hockey dynasty) helping the Mounties flick off the season in style. (Details below.) Back to Newark Airport for a 2:15 p.m. Delta flight to Atlanta, landing at 6:30 (weather-delayed because of Atlanta storms), check into the downtown Westin Peachtree Plaza, walk over to see Urlacher for 45 quality minutes, walk back to the Westin, sleep on the 57th floor. Up Sunday at 7 a.m., watch my favorite pregame Sunday morning pregame show, Edge NFL Matchup, on ESPN (how many Jaws plugs can I get in this paragraph?), drive over to the Georgia Dome, watch the game, do the interviews, write my story in the press box, file at 8:19 p.m., hustle to the airport, board Delta's 9:40 flight to Newark, land at 11:58, home in Montclair by 12:32. Total four-flight airfare: $722. I spent $300 more flying one-way to Dallas in the spring. By the miracle of air travel, I can have it all. I would now like to do a commercial for air travel. Do not be afraid, people. Get out of your cars. Stop driving 35 hours because you think one of these babies will get hijacked. Your chances of being carjacked are about the same (maybe higher) as being hijacked. Through the air is still the greatest way to travel, the greatest way to get from one distant place to another. It usually isn't as convenient, with the security issues, but here were my waits at four security checkpoints this weekend, in order: zero minutes, zero minutes (amazing for Atlanta), zero minutes and zero minutes. Airplanes rule. By the miracle of the battery-powered laptop, 80 percent of this column was written on those four flights. There is nothing about my life that stinks. Except for this cold I picked up somewhere in the last few days.
1. I think I cannot believe the NFL didn't let Peyton Manning wear hightops Sunday, to honor Unitas. How unfeeling. Unconscionable. Hey Park Avenue: Your uniform is not so sacred that a player should be kept from having three extra black inches on his ankles. There's a time to be rigid, and a time to honor one of the greatest players in NFL history. There are many good, fan-appealing things about the NFL. But this bit of coldness is not one of them. 2. I think these are my quick-hit football thoughts of the weekend: a. If you want to see a bunch of confused officials doing a game, pull out a tape of the Bears-Falcons. The Jeff Triplette crew reversed itself twice in the first quarter, and by the looks of the animated discussion the ref was having with his crew, what we have here is a failure to communicate. b. I can't believe John Madden and Steve Young want the officials to exercise their own judgment about when they should call the helmet rule and when they shouldn't. A rule's a rule, men. Once you get into when to call something and when an official should officiate using "the spirit of the rules," you get into trouble. c. Is it too late to jump on the Saints' bandwagon? d. And the Rodney Peete bandwagon? e. Wade Phillips, you are doing one heck of a job with that Falcons pass-rush. f. I look at the Ravens and I see 2-14 written all over them. g. After eight absurd quarters of football, the Marty Mornhinweg Watch is officially on. h. There is no more underrated player in this era of football than Rich Gannon. i. Mike Holmgren is 24-27 in Seattle, and he just lost his home opener to the Arizona Cardinals. There's not a lot to be positive about with the Seadogs this morning, and I fear there will be many a curdled latte in the northwest today. j. Vick has completed 62 percent of his passes through an eighth of the season. Too early to be a trend, but I have to admit he's looking accurate enough for my tastes. k. If Ricky Williams had much to do with the brilliant piece by he and Dan LeBatard in ESPN Magazine -- I assume he did, seeing his name was on it, though it read awfully LeBatard-ish to me -- I would like to congratulate him for being man enough to admit how wrong he was early in his pro career. That's a real man for you. A real good running back, too. l. I didn't think the Cowboys were dead. m. The Eagles are in sole possession of last place in the NFC East for at least 12 more hours. n. Speaking of bad predictions (I was?), how about my call on that great Green Bay defense? Two straight 34-point-plus performances. Just goes to show you either how ridiculously dumb I am about football or how ridiculously meaningless the preseason is. Or both. o. The AFC North is 1-7. p. Have the bags packed, Doug Brien. When in the world will the Vikings bring Gary Anderson back? He's waiting for the phone to ring. You can't be missing two extra points in regulation, either of which would have won the game. 3. I think I have to pay tribute to Dan Marino here for a minute. I am now working with Marino on HBO's Inside the NFL show. So I've spent a good chunk of three days with him in the last couple of weeks. Gotten to know him a little bit. When Marino was playing, and you wrote about football, you did not get to know Dan Marino. He didn't let many media people -- that I know of, anyway -- into his world. Nice enough guy, I thought. But how would I know? Now that we're working together, I see a real person. He pines about not playing football anymore, though he's smart enough to know that his arm is willing and able but his legs are not. He tells good stories. He argues, respectfully, back and forth about the issues of the day in football. Last Thursday, while we taped the show in New York, I got word that I may have to write something about Johnny Unitas. I said to him: "Hey, before we leave today, can we talk about Johnny U. for a few minutes?" He said sure. Well, the day got hectic and it never happened. I understood. I figured if I needed him, I had his number and I'd call him. Well, the next morning, about 11 o'clock, I'm driving from the Atlanta airport to the Falcons complex, and my cell rings. "Peter, it's Dan," Marino said. "Listen, I'm sorry. I know you wanted to talk to me yesterday about Unitas, and I was on the plane last night kicking myself for forgetting. Sorry. What do you need?" I believe you did a nice job with your boy, Mr. and Mrs. Marino. 4. I think if I were a season-ticket holder in Indianapolis, I would wonder why the owner of my team, Jim Irsay, has been seen so regularly in Beverly Hills the last three weeks. And I would wonder why the rumors of the fruitlessness of the stadium improvements in Indianapolis would keep cropping up. It's almost like someone, and I wonder who it is, is saying, "Why bother fixing up the RCA Dome? It's never going to generate enough revenue anyway." One thing I think Irsay will learn in the coming months is that the league will control who takes the Los Angeles market, not an individual owner. And I would be stunned if the NFL chose to have Irsay as the chosen one for L.A. 5. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week: a. Oscar de la Hoya-Fernando Vargas. Tampa Bay Devil Rays-Toronto Blue Jays. Really, does anyone care? b. Paging Ichiro! Is there a Mr. Suzuki in the house? Have you lost all your magic powers? c. Coffeenerdness: It's not that I'm anti-Seattle's Best Coffee. It is a good alternative to Starbucks. But their specialty drinks, from my limited experience, are grim. Tried the white chocolate mocha at the Atlanta airport last night. Tepid. Weak. Reminded me of Kramer bemoaning the concept of taking a bath thusly: "It's like swimming in your own filth." d. Hey, Trev: You're doing a great job, old pal. Wasn't it just about a year ago we spent that long day in your kitchen with Bob and Irving, taping the two CNN commercials and getting excited for the great show we were going to have? e. Montclair (N.J.) High Field Hockey Note of the Week: Saturday morning dawned sunny, warm and windless. Perfect morning for an opener, and it didn't take your Montclair Mounties long to man the torpedoes at rebuilding Hackensack. Five minutes into the game, we lined up for a corner outside the Comets' goal. (A corner, in field-hockey parlance, is when an offensive player hits the ball to a semi-circular ring of her teammates at the top of the goal area, and four players from the defensive team charge out from the end line to try to stop them. All the rest of the players from both sides line up at midfield and cannot move until the ball is first sent into play. The ball was struck to junior link Mary Beth King at the top of the circle. She passed to senior inner Margot Vreeland, who passed to soph wing Adair Landy, who put the hard rubber ball in the back of the cage. Two minutes later, Mary Beth slapped in a rebound, and the rout was on. Montclair 11, Hackensack 0. f. Montclair (N.J.) Field Hockey Player of the Week: (A new department. A trusted NFL scout suggested to me the other day that I start the Haggar Slacks Montclair High Field Hockey Player of the Week, or the Starbucks Montclair High Field Hockey Player of the Week. I wondered why. "Because I'd rather read about the exploits of those girls than what Mike Martz has to say. I've heard all that before.") Senior wing Alexis Barbalinardo. With 33 goals entering the season and already the Mounties' leading scorer in the nine-year Mary Pat Mercuro era, Barbalinardo scored a hat trick in the opener, and she did it on a very bad ankle. She rolled the ankle in the Mounties' last scrimmage of the summer last Thursday, and she fretted she would not be very effective if she played at all Saturday. But she was her dominating self on left wing. What a great kid, too. Considerate, smart as a whip, great co-captain, tough as nails ... sort of the John Lynch of North Jersey field hockey. 6. I think Bill Cowher and Pittsburgh defensive coordinator Tim Lewis had better be standing at the ol' drawing board right now. 7. I think I'm wondering when Tom Jackson is going to just explode on that ESPN Sunday Countdown set and haul off and slug Sterling Sharpe and yell: "Let me get a word in edgewise!" 8. I think these are my college football thoughts of the weekend: a. Shame on you, Bob Stoops. Give me one plausible reason for throwing into the end zone with a 62-point lead and 30 seconds left. Pathetic. You'll have to live with that the rest of your coaching career. b. Has Missouri given up football, or gone to the six-man game? Losing by 23 at Bowling Green? I mean, that's Rutgers material. c. Wait! The Scarlet Knights won! (For the last time until next September, the schedule says.) Explain this to me, men of Schiano: You lose to Villanova and Buffalo by a combined 41 and beat Army by 44? d. There will no living with fellow Sports Illustrated scribe Mike Silver now. Cal's 3-0. That was a first-class hiney-whipping they laid on Michigan State, too. e. I'll tell you what's sad: watching Nebraska try to come back from a 26-point deficit in the second half by running the option. New century, 'Huskers. Passing is legal. f. Someone told me the other day that Steve Spurrier loves Joe Paterno because he's real and hates Bobby Bowden because he's a fake. You think that's true? 9. I think Drew Bledsoe's rebirth is a great thing to see. The confidence, the swagger, everything that was missing in New England under Bill Belichick -- it's all there now. 10. I think the Lions picked a heck of a time to open Ford Field next Sunday. Hope their helmets are tomato-proof.
I really want to say Washington. But I just don't feel it. Most often in football, the desperate team wins, and the Eagles have to be more desperate now. It's pretty desperate when the head coach is in the office leaving no stone unturned Tuesday at 3:15 a.m. Because everyone in Philly was doing some form of the Super Bowl Shuffle in August, Andy Reid felt the need to tell his team last week, "Take all this hype around this team and just get rid of it. It means nothing. Just go out and play." Which they'll try to do tonight. With some difficulty. "Washington's fast," Reid told me. "Good scheme. They pressure you offensively on every play. I really like the things Steve Spurrier's doing. He knows how to win -- play good, solid football and have fun doing it." I would worry about the linebackers if I were Reid. But I would also give the ball to Donovan McNabb early and often, and tell him to use Brian Westbrook until he wears out. I really like this game. Too bad I'll be asleep for most of it. Eagles, 23-20. Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the
magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Peter can also be seen each week on HBO's Inside the NFL. Monday Morning
Quarterback appears in this space -- no kidding -- on Monday mornings.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
