Other coaches who play the game with a conservative approach, coaches who play the game to get the almighty FG, you know who you are.... Well take a look at HC Pete Carroll yesterday who's 7-9 team was a 10 point dog @ home against the defending champs. Carroll didnt drum up a gameplan to play smart football control the clock and see what happens, Pete was gambling.....gambling by taking the game out of "chance's" hands and into his own, he threw deep early and often knowing it would take big plays not efficient drives that led to FG's to win this game. His let it all out approach and the play of his young S punched this teams ticket to Chicago. Now lets be honest if Tony Sparano were coaching that team I can assure you they wouldnt have even been close to winning that game. Before you go nuts and blame Henne please remember that Chad didnt have the aggresive issue until he was coached by this regime, he was a gunslinger @ Michigan not a play it safe checkdown coward. Nope. Henne is a product of his envirement and his NFL career died the minute these caoches got their hands on him. Now Sparano has told everyone what they wanted to hear and he is going to open this thing up next year...well heres to ya Tony because in battle people tend to stay within their comfort zone and your comfort zone is play smart mistake free football. Tony is good enough to get us to 9-7 10-6 but he wont be winning any playoff games with his Leave it to beaver approach. People have asked all week why so much credit is given to a college coach yada yada, well look no further than Carroll and you can look next week in the NFC Playoffs.
When you dive off a cliff you're either "Grand Champion Of Everything* or... *Stuff on a rock* All depends on weather you dive into a washing tide, or low. It's easy to say "Go for it" when it's not YOUR life, or your professional career on the line, hm?
Sparano coached scared and almost lost his job anyway. He will after next season if he doesn't change his ways. No guts no glory. You can still be smart but coach with some aggression. You don't have to be completely reckless.
If Pete Caroll thought that way he wouldn't be playing in Chicago or Atlanta next week.... "If your too carefull, your whole life will become a bleeping grind"
Did you even watch the Jets/Colts game last night? As soon as the Jets stopped trying to hit the home run and started running the football their success improved. They ate clock and did a great job keeping Peyton Manning off the field. Woodson and Sanders even said after the game you still have to be able to run the football and play defense to win in this league. Your theory is not totally false but I think it is extremely flawed. BTW the Jets won the game with a field goal.
On the last drive the Jets saw single coverage and threw it up to Braylon Edwards who made the play...do we take advantage of that situation??? Very doubtfull.
I think if anything this says you should be willing to adjust your strategy based on the situation and what your team is good at. If Sanchez had been throwing accurate passes they may have been able to continue being aggressive. And they did take a chance at the end that took them from outer field goal range to easy field goal range. Sparano never does anything like that.
seattle's o-line played a heck of a game yesterday against the saints. it has alot more to do with execution than play calls.now im not defending henning's play calls but we rarely executed on offense this year wether it be due to injurys on the o-line,ronnie running straight into his own linemen,henne staring guys down,screen plays that had no out front blockers..carey constantly letting people past him and on and on. hasselhoff and mike williams were definately not on the same page yesterday and they went 3 and out with 3 passes to williams who screwed up his routes but they won because everyone else was.nobody on our offense was on the same page the entire season thus instead of executing a play we tripped over our own feet consistantly.
I'll take the words of Deion Sanders and Rod Woodson any day over the knee jerk opinions in this thread. Sure it is about adjustments but the fundamentals of football are key. Track meets rarely equal success.
Knee jerk opinions??? Where have you been the past 3 seasons are more specificaly the last 2? The purpose was not to suggest we become the NFL version of Boise St., its to prove that SOME COACHES when their back is against the wall and the deck stacked against them come out swinging and playing to win instead of sitting back trying to field position your way into a win. Running the ball is a HUGE part of the game, but you have to have some aggressive balance not some cowardly gameplan taylor made to "just keep us in it". Its a ridiculous philosophy and if thats the way he wants to play next year then be ready for another sub par season.
only one team left in the AFC plays a spread pass first offense. If anything the lesson of the AFC is be a run first play action team
No, thats actually my point. Pete knew his team couldnt win by playing passively, he knew they would need to take shots, and they did and were succesfull. Our regime wouldve tried to throw screens, 5 yard outs to the fullback, and pounded Lynch up the middle all game long. Seattle played a great game and I loved their approach.
its all about offense not defense should the Raiders cough up McFadden now that's something of interest
Post season starts and everyone's record is 0-0, that team just knocked off the defending Champs. That says something! Serious question for everyone. Is 11-5 and Division Champ, while being embarrassed at home in the playoffs better then 7-9 Division Champ and winning a playoff game at home?
It's not always philosophy but execution. WC, spread, run first and 2-TE has all won SB's in recent memory. Heck even the Ravens won with FG strategy but their defense was lights out. As "m ino" mentioned, we sucked as a team. Henne regressed big time and made bad decisions, ronnie dropping 2/3 on 3rd and 10 early in the year, BM drops, Bess slips, oline was a sive, ronnie stutters too much to make his own hole, ricky looks tired and fumbles at terrible times, and Fasano looks like a good #2. Heck I can't identify a single leader on the offensive side of the ball. And I can't expect Henne to be the undisputed leader in his 2nd starting year when no other veteran demand respect. Maybe Marino or Manning but not many others. I'm not sure Henning's philosophy was the issue as much as IMO he didn't even seem to try hard. Heck even Manning looks human when the team around him stinks or come playoff time.
Yes, we do. We never see that kind of coverage because our running game SUCKS. You'd have to be insane to leave Marshall covered 1 - 1 in any situation unless it was a clear running down. Thats what the jets got, and they went right after a couple of no-name cbs for indy.
thing is, they didn't deserve to HAVE the home game. I think the NFL should instntly change the rules that if the wildcard team has a better record, the game is played in their stadium. The seahawks had a clear home field advantage yesterday and they didn't earn it. Its the first time in my life where i said "Wow, the BCS actually makes more sense than the nfl right now"
The Jets were taking shots downfield all game long, with open WRs and overthrown balls. That's not a bad thing though, you keep taking shots, you keep the defense off of you, and eventually you hit one. You can do that when you have speed outside. Us? We lack speed and we take 1 or 2 shots per game, if that.
Wow,anyway. This year Sparano delegated to his coaches what he wanted to see from the Offense(during the week) and had Henning call the plays during the game. This is what HC's do.Tony watched from behind his playcall sheet in disbelief(I'm sure),as did we a lot of the time in what was Hennings decision based on what he saw. Give Tony a break now and let him do his job.He got the extension,it's his team, let us find the proper OC and get the damn ball rolling towards the draft. It's that easy.
We also couldn't effectively run the ball on 2nd and 10 after a long shot and still gain 5 yards or more to put it in 3rd and managable. The Jets and LT can and did.
i don't buy that strength of schedule.we have to win no matter who it is.our schedule was fairly easy this year playing detroit,clevelend,the bills twice,oakland but we only won 2 of those games.and we did play tuff teams aswell in minny(alot of peoples pick for suberbowl),green-bay,n.e2,a tuff jet team2,tennesee who was also a contender for play-offs which we won a few of with minny nor tennesee even smelling the play-offs.
I just want some offensive creativity, and that doesnt mean played out WC plays. Seattle used formations, motion, fake bubble screens, etc to get matchups and create confusion. Miamis offense is so stagnant and predictable its laughable.
i get what you're saying, but dont totally agree. If the Saints wanted a home playoff game, win your division. The Seahawks shouldnt be punished because they have rabid fans. Mediocre record fine. Its not like this is a regular occurence. To me it would cheapen even having divisions then. Why bother playing each team in your divsion twice if ultimately it comes down to conference records?
The PLAY is called to take advantage of that situation, but Henne either checks it down to a RB or throws it over Marshall's head and out of bounds.