Mitch
Crawled Through 5 FB Fields
When Dennis Green was hired three years ago, I was very ambivalent about the move. At the time I was desperately hoping the Cardinals would tab Charlie Weis, whom I considered to be the most creative and innovative offensive mind in the NFL. In my way of thinking, Weis had a good deal to do with the 4 Super Bowl rings in his safety deposit box...and he was from great stock: the Parcells/Belichick fold. Alas, Weis didn't even get a cup of coffee in Arizona.
When Green hit the podium and offered the Arizona fans one of the most self-aggrandizing, self-promoting speeches in Cardinal history, second perhaps only to Buddy Ryan's "there's a winner in town" inauguration speech...to the extent of unveiling a stand-up pie charts of his winning percentages in Minnesota and elsewhere, I was not enamored one bit by this egregious display of coaching hubris. Sure, I wanted Weis...but, honestly, Dennis Green could have (to quote Jerry Maguire) "had me at hello"...I, like many of us long suffering Cardinal fans, have been so desperate to find a ray of hope in the desert...or even a calming oasis...
The one ray of hope I did glean from Green's initial press conference was the persuasive aspects of his rhetoric regarding his "Top 5 Offense" and how his system has thrived in the NFL...and furthermore...how he expected his Cardinals to have a Top 5 offense immediately and be a playoff contender immediately as a result.
Green has coached the Cardinals for nearly two and a half seasons now...and I still have no idea what his so-called system is...and none of what he said he was going to do has even remotely come true. Now, maybe I am naive to take people at their word...but, I am not an average NFL fan...I am a desperate Cardinal fan...I am desperate for the words ("we will be a playoff contender") and the music (12-27) to match...I am like the baby who has been promised candy and when day after day, week after week, and now year after year, I don't get that candy, I can't help but cry.
I don't buy into the excuse that the Bidwills have limited Green's capacity to hire competent coordinators...not for one second. Green hired the inexperienced coordinators because (a) they were past disciples and devotees of Green's in Minnesota; and (b) because none of them would pose as a threat to his job or take the focus off of him as head coach. That's the reality people. If you choose not to believe that...then that's your choice. You don't arrive in town with a billboard of your coaching percentages and then hire assistants who could steal the limelight...you just don't.
Green got lucky with Clancy Pendergast...Pendergast, to date, is the only coach on the staff who (a) knows how to TRY to compensate for weaknesses in personnel; and (b) comes up with innovative wrinkles to keep the opponents guessing.
Yet, Green's relationship with Pendergast hasn't been shall we say amicable, has it? On several occasions, Green has expressed his dissatisfaction with the defense publicly to the media...and at times has done so even when the defense clearly outplayed the offense.
Perhaps their "differences in philosophy" have reared their ugly heads when Pendergast pleaded to get rid of Green's anachronistic use of the "slant" nose tackle...that was putting the interior of the defense at a disadvantage game after game. Notice how there has been a correlation between the scrapping of the slant NT with the improved run defense?
Then apparently this past week, Pendergast called his players out during a defensive meeting which resulted in two players (Berry and Hayes) walking out of the meeting and one player (Griffith) getting in a shouting match with the coach. When this was reported, the curious thing that was also reported with it was that Green had no knowledge of the incident. Interpret that as you will...my interpretation of it is this...Pendergast has the cajones to hold his players accountable for giving up a 75 yard screen pass in a tied game late in the fourth quarter...the all too pampered Cardinal players didn't want to hear it...and an altercation ensued...which should NEVER happen, not if the head coach has the same cajones. Yet, the head coach apparently didn't even know about it. (Note: perhaps it was a blessing that Green didn't know about it...because maybe he would have fired Pendergast...and the way Pendergast's defense came out and played lights-out against a prolific offense as a result of the incident is further proof that at least Pendergast is getting his message across).
Dennis Green is of the old-school Bear Bryant style of head coaching. Be the figurehead of the program and let all the assistants do the dirty work...and heaven forbid if any of the assistants take away from the credit Green deserves as the head coach...and heaven forbid if any of the assistants screw up (It's no wonder why assistant coaches around the league DO NOT want to work for Dennis Green...he's now fired six of them in three years).
The way Green just hung Keith Rowen out to dry is flat-out unconscionable. (Note; this isn't to question whether Mike Kruczek isn't perhaps a better choice...it's the manner and timing in which it was done that is particularly disturbing) To make Rowen the scapegoat after Green had gone on record himself and agreed with Edgerrin James the week before that they should have run more in the 4th quarter was cowardly...there's no other way to put it. Which part of "I would like to see James run the ball more" did Rowen not understand? Here Rowen is following suit and he gets hung out to dry for it. If Green didn't like the play-calling, it is his preprogative and it is his JOB to veto it, or call for the coordinator to take a different approach.
I am saying all this despite the fact that I am a big Mike Kruczek fan...he was the QB at Boston College when I was a student there, and let me tell you, he was as hard-nosed and gritty a QB as there was...and it did not surprise me that he went on to have a solid career as an NFL backup, at one point leading the Steelers to six straight wins while Terry Bradshaw was hurt.
Kruczek has brass cajones and he and Matt Leinart may actually save Dennis Green's job. You watch, now that Green is desperate, Kruczek may finally be the one to insist, "you know what, we really need Leonard Davis at guard."
Kruczek has already asked Edgerrin James to alter his running style to fit the Cardinals' schemes. That should tell you something. Kruczek is a no b.s. guy.
Regardless of who the coaches are: IF the players feed off of Leinart's smarts, poise and mystique, this team will indeed start winning...
Protecting the lead in any sport is a very difficult thing...in football particularly, those trying to protect a lead can be second guessed ad nauseum...if you pass--why didn't you try to eat out the clock?...if you run---why didn't you stick with what got you the TDs? The bottom line is, the whole coaching staff should have been on the same page, especially after the Kansas City meltdown...there should have been the right plan then...the problem is, even though Green said the Bears were "what we thought they were", no coach on that staff probably thought they would be in the Kansas City situation all over again...with an even wider lead late in the third quarter (20 points, no less).
Does Dennis Green deserve credit for the Cardinals' first three quarters of great football Monday night? Yes. He does. Green assmebled a good portion of the talent we saw on display...and he and the staff had an excellent game plan. And the players were playing to their potential. (Note: this week we will see whether the players were playing to the lights and were just motivated by the venue...because if they come out flat versus the Raiders...we know that the players are the ones to cedit for Monday night's effort...for doing what they do seemingly every year, tease us with one stellar performance every now and then and then bellyflop after).
Does Green deserve the blame for the meltdown? Inevitably he does. He and his staff had a good plan for three quarters (although...even Charles Barkley pointed out from the booth during the first half that the Cardinals were squandering ideal opportunites to score TDs, by being so stubbornly conservative on offense...we all could see that, why couldn't the coaches?)...but Green and his staff did not have the plan in place to finish it off. Yes, we can blame special teams, blame the RB for not hearing the audible where he was supposed to block the DE, blame Edgerrin James for doing the unthinkable by fumbling in that situation, or blame Neil Rackers for missing the kick...the common denominator is, however, this was a team that went into a collective shell (all but the defense who rarely saw the field and, amazingly the rookie QB who despite the shock of being behind, rallied the offense to get within very makable field goal range)...
The key moment...not that I am a fan of Tony Korneiser in the least, but Korneiser had his finger on the pulse of this game...it was Korneiser who kept saying that the Cardinals could actually cough the game up (and that if they were to...they should "close up the roof and sell the stadium back to the Pendergasts"...he said it moments prior to James' fumble when we were all thinking that with 5:03 left (in possession of the ball--up 13) and the Bears offense going nowhere all night that the win was in the bag...
And it was Korneiser who was the first to say "Oh no, don't go back to running the ball" when Leinart was picking apart the Bears' secondary (minus Mike Brown at this point)...on a second and two at the Bears' 32 yard line and over a minute left (and two timeouts). Did Korneiser speak for you at that moment? He certainly did for me. Why not have the cajones (or is it smarts to stick with what's working?) to actually march down and score a TD...or at least get within chipshot range? It was all working...
About Neil Rackers...one could make the argument that he has not been the same since the emabarrassing rushed 53 yard field goal attempt earlier in the year...especially if one knows Rackers' m.o. Rackers is a perfectionist...you don't set an NFL record for field goals without being one. Perfectionists don't deal with embarrassment well...and that rush-the-squad-onto-the-field for a beat the clock field goal was a profound embarrassment to Rackers...not only did he miss it, it was by far the worst kick he's kicked as a Cardinal...it has no chance...and he had to face his teasmmates in the locker room immediately following it. Well, once embarrassed, the worry starts to creep in about future embarrassments. Rackers must have been having nightmares about the KC field goal and even worse ones all week follwing KC thinking about missing one on MNF in front of a national audience. Regardless, this kid's normal exhuberance and swagger have been conspicuously missing for a few weeks now...ever since that ridiculous field goal attempt. Notice he doesn't seem to be able to even kick the ball out the end zone on kickoffs every other one like he usually does.
All this said, Dennis Green may still be the head coach a year from now...imagine what a few wins under Matt Leinart will do for the morale of the team and the prospects of the program. We saw first-hand Monday night, the team can compete and even win (if properly prepared) against the NFL's best...Green has added an infusion of strong talent, no question. Let's just hope "three's a charm" with Coach Krucz...and that the players take the real onus of the leadership on their shoulders for once...and that this team finally starts turning the corner....
Hey...if the Cards turn the corner...you can show me pie charts every week...
When Green hit the podium and offered the Arizona fans one of the most self-aggrandizing, self-promoting speeches in Cardinal history, second perhaps only to Buddy Ryan's "there's a winner in town" inauguration speech...to the extent of unveiling a stand-up pie charts of his winning percentages in Minnesota and elsewhere, I was not enamored one bit by this egregious display of coaching hubris. Sure, I wanted Weis...but, honestly, Dennis Green could have (to quote Jerry Maguire) "had me at hello"...I, like many of us long suffering Cardinal fans, have been so desperate to find a ray of hope in the desert...or even a calming oasis...
The one ray of hope I did glean from Green's initial press conference was the persuasive aspects of his rhetoric regarding his "Top 5 Offense" and how his system has thrived in the NFL...and furthermore...how he expected his Cardinals to have a Top 5 offense immediately and be a playoff contender immediately as a result.
Green has coached the Cardinals for nearly two and a half seasons now...and I still have no idea what his so-called system is...and none of what he said he was going to do has even remotely come true. Now, maybe I am naive to take people at their word...but, I am not an average NFL fan...I am a desperate Cardinal fan...I am desperate for the words ("we will be a playoff contender") and the music (12-27) to match...I am like the baby who has been promised candy and when day after day, week after week, and now year after year, I don't get that candy, I can't help but cry.
I don't buy into the excuse that the Bidwills have limited Green's capacity to hire competent coordinators...not for one second. Green hired the inexperienced coordinators because (a) they were past disciples and devotees of Green's in Minnesota; and (b) because none of them would pose as a threat to his job or take the focus off of him as head coach. That's the reality people. If you choose not to believe that...then that's your choice. You don't arrive in town with a billboard of your coaching percentages and then hire assistants who could steal the limelight...you just don't.
Green got lucky with Clancy Pendergast...Pendergast, to date, is the only coach on the staff who (a) knows how to TRY to compensate for weaknesses in personnel; and (b) comes up with innovative wrinkles to keep the opponents guessing.
Yet, Green's relationship with Pendergast hasn't been shall we say amicable, has it? On several occasions, Green has expressed his dissatisfaction with the defense publicly to the media...and at times has done so even when the defense clearly outplayed the offense.
Perhaps their "differences in philosophy" have reared their ugly heads when Pendergast pleaded to get rid of Green's anachronistic use of the "slant" nose tackle...that was putting the interior of the defense at a disadvantage game after game. Notice how there has been a correlation between the scrapping of the slant NT with the improved run defense?
Then apparently this past week, Pendergast called his players out during a defensive meeting which resulted in two players (Berry and Hayes) walking out of the meeting and one player (Griffith) getting in a shouting match with the coach. When this was reported, the curious thing that was also reported with it was that Green had no knowledge of the incident. Interpret that as you will...my interpretation of it is this...Pendergast has the cajones to hold his players accountable for giving up a 75 yard screen pass in a tied game late in the fourth quarter...the all too pampered Cardinal players didn't want to hear it...and an altercation ensued...which should NEVER happen, not if the head coach has the same cajones. Yet, the head coach apparently didn't even know about it. (Note: perhaps it was a blessing that Green didn't know about it...because maybe he would have fired Pendergast...and the way Pendergast's defense came out and played lights-out against a prolific offense as a result of the incident is further proof that at least Pendergast is getting his message across).
Dennis Green is of the old-school Bear Bryant style of head coaching. Be the figurehead of the program and let all the assistants do the dirty work...and heaven forbid if any of the assistants take away from the credit Green deserves as the head coach...and heaven forbid if any of the assistants screw up (It's no wonder why assistant coaches around the league DO NOT want to work for Dennis Green...he's now fired six of them in three years).
The way Green just hung Keith Rowen out to dry is flat-out unconscionable. (Note; this isn't to question whether Mike Kruczek isn't perhaps a better choice...it's the manner and timing in which it was done that is particularly disturbing) To make Rowen the scapegoat after Green had gone on record himself and agreed with Edgerrin James the week before that they should have run more in the 4th quarter was cowardly...there's no other way to put it. Which part of "I would like to see James run the ball more" did Rowen not understand? Here Rowen is following suit and he gets hung out to dry for it. If Green didn't like the play-calling, it is his preprogative and it is his JOB to veto it, or call for the coordinator to take a different approach.
I am saying all this despite the fact that I am a big Mike Kruczek fan...he was the QB at Boston College when I was a student there, and let me tell you, he was as hard-nosed and gritty a QB as there was...and it did not surprise me that he went on to have a solid career as an NFL backup, at one point leading the Steelers to six straight wins while Terry Bradshaw was hurt.
Kruczek has brass cajones and he and Matt Leinart may actually save Dennis Green's job. You watch, now that Green is desperate, Kruczek may finally be the one to insist, "you know what, we really need Leonard Davis at guard."
Kruczek has already asked Edgerrin James to alter his running style to fit the Cardinals' schemes. That should tell you something. Kruczek is a no b.s. guy.
Regardless of who the coaches are: IF the players feed off of Leinart's smarts, poise and mystique, this team will indeed start winning...
Protecting the lead in any sport is a very difficult thing...in football particularly, those trying to protect a lead can be second guessed ad nauseum...if you pass--why didn't you try to eat out the clock?...if you run---why didn't you stick with what got you the TDs? The bottom line is, the whole coaching staff should have been on the same page, especially after the Kansas City meltdown...there should have been the right plan then...the problem is, even though Green said the Bears were "what we thought they were", no coach on that staff probably thought they would be in the Kansas City situation all over again...with an even wider lead late in the third quarter (20 points, no less).
Does Dennis Green deserve credit for the Cardinals' first three quarters of great football Monday night? Yes. He does. Green assmebled a good portion of the talent we saw on display...and he and the staff had an excellent game plan. And the players were playing to their potential. (Note: this week we will see whether the players were playing to the lights and were just motivated by the venue...because if they come out flat versus the Raiders...we know that the players are the ones to cedit for Monday night's effort...for doing what they do seemingly every year, tease us with one stellar performance every now and then and then bellyflop after).
Does Green deserve the blame for the meltdown? Inevitably he does. He and his staff had a good plan for three quarters (although...even Charles Barkley pointed out from the booth during the first half that the Cardinals were squandering ideal opportunites to score TDs, by being so stubbornly conservative on offense...we all could see that, why couldn't the coaches?)...but Green and his staff did not have the plan in place to finish it off. Yes, we can blame special teams, blame the RB for not hearing the audible where he was supposed to block the DE, blame Edgerrin James for doing the unthinkable by fumbling in that situation, or blame Neil Rackers for missing the kick...the common denominator is, however, this was a team that went into a collective shell (all but the defense who rarely saw the field and, amazingly the rookie QB who despite the shock of being behind, rallied the offense to get within very makable field goal range)...
The key moment...not that I am a fan of Tony Korneiser in the least, but Korneiser had his finger on the pulse of this game...it was Korneiser who kept saying that the Cardinals could actually cough the game up (and that if they were to...they should "close up the roof and sell the stadium back to the Pendergasts"...he said it moments prior to James' fumble when we were all thinking that with 5:03 left (in possession of the ball--up 13) and the Bears offense going nowhere all night that the win was in the bag...
And it was Korneiser who was the first to say "Oh no, don't go back to running the ball" when Leinart was picking apart the Bears' secondary (minus Mike Brown at this point)...on a second and two at the Bears' 32 yard line and over a minute left (and two timeouts). Did Korneiser speak for you at that moment? He certainly did for me. Why not have the cajones (or is it smarts to stick with what's working?) to actually march down and score a TD...or at least get within chipshot range? It was all working...
About Neil Rackers...one could make the argument that he has not been the same since the emabarrassing rushed 53 yard field goal attempt earlier in the year...especially if one knows Rackers' m.o. Rackers is a perfectionist...you don't set an NFL record for field goals without being one. Perfectionists don't deal with embarrassment well...and that rush-the-squad-onto-the-field for a beat the clock field goal was a profound embarrassment to Rackers...not only did he miss it, it was by far the worst kick he's kicked as a Cardinal...it has no chance...and he had to face his teasmmates in the locker room immediately following it. Well, once embarrassed, the worry starts to creep in about future embarrassments. Rackers must have been having nightmares about the KC field goal and even worse ones all week follwing KC thinking about missing one on MNF in front of a national audience. Regardless, this kid's normal exhuberance and swagger have been conspicuously missing for a few weeks now...ever since that ridiculous field goal attempt. Notice he doesn't seem to be able to even kick the ball out the end zone on kickoffs every other one like he usually does.
All this said, Dennis Green may still be the head coach a year from now...imagine what a few wins under Matt Leinart will do for the morale of the team and the prospects of the program. We saw first-hand Monday night, the team can compete and even win (if properly prepared) against the NFL's best...Green has added an infusion of strong talent, no question. Let's just hope "three's a charm" with Coach Krucz...and that the players take the real onus of the leadership on their shoulders for once...and that this team finally starts turning the corner....
Hey...if the Cards turn the corner...you can show me pie charts every week...
