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Second Guesses: Did Bears move too soon?
John Czarnecki
FOXSports.com, Updated 10 hours ago STORY TOOLS:
It was the easiest line on Sunday television: Rex Grossman could have thrown three interceptions like Brian Griese did against the Detroit Lions. But where Bears coach Lovie Smith messed up is that Grossman actually beat the Lions twice last season while throwing for five touchdowns and a bunch of yards with no interceptions.
There was a lot of pressure on Smith and the Bears to bench Grossman, but they had several chances last season to do it and passed on Griese. So why the rush to do it now? Smith and offensive coordinator Ron Turner must have known something back then when they fought against making the quarterback switch.
OK, Grossman doesn't look like he has Tony Romo's future right now. In fact, he's probably history in Chicago with his contract expiring at the end of the season. But there's a lot wrong with the Bears right now, and it isn't all the quarterback. The receivers aren't so hot and maybe they shouldn't have traded Thomas Jones away to the New York Jets. The offensive line is pretty average, too. But it's easy for all of us to blame the quarterback.
Maybe Lovie should have waited one more game based on Grossman's track record against the Lions. Now the rush to judgment on Grossman simply opened up other fears about this franchise.
Chicago, the NFC's best team on paper in August, is 1-3 and stumbling headed to Green Bay next Sunday. I don't believe anyone will be picking the Bears against Brett Favre and Co. in Lambeau.
Love for Marty
A friend of Marty Schottenheimer's told me over the weekend that the Chargers wouldn't be in this mess if he was still the head coach.
"This team is still consumed with last season and how their season ended," Marty's friend said. "Marty would have knocked that out of them in training camp. He was great at focusing on the game at hand and moving on. This team is still living in the past."
That's what San Diego fans are saying right now with a 1-3 team that resides in last place in the AFC West. In Schottenheimer's final season, it took the Chargers 17 games to lose three games. Can Norv Turner snap them out of their funk? Many don't believe that he can because the biggest problem with the Chargers is the defense, one that was torched by Damon Huard and a rookie receiver named Dwayne Bowe, who had eight catches for 164 yards and a touchdown.
In pre-game warm-ups, Huard was told by K.C. coach Herman Edwards that he better play well or Brodie Croyle was replacing him. Huard responded a heckuva lot better than Turner, Philip Rivers and Shawne Merriman did.
The pressure is enormous right now on Turner and GM A.J. Smith, who hired Turner, and owner Dean Spanos, who allowed Smith to fire Schottenheimer when the top San Diego assistant coaches fled elsewhere.
There were few candidates to hire other than Turner, who took the job knowing he was stuck with Ted Cottrell as his defensive coordinator. It's obvious that Cottrell and Ron Rivera, his linebackers coach, can't really devise the game plans necessary to protect a secondary which is highly suspect. Wade Phillips did it last year, but he's unbeaten in Dallas right now.
It looks like Smith and Spanos messed up. Turner has time to fix it because the gap between the Chargers and the Chiefs, Broncos and Raiders is no gap at all.
Like someone told me: "Marty probably would have lost the first two games this year, but he would have beaten the two teams he should have beaten, Green Bay and Kansas City."
Right now, the only identity San Diego has is that of three-game losers.
Mangenius?
I am sure Bill Belichick is delighting in the fast fall of the Jets and his tormentor, Eric Mangini, the man who ratted him out to the NFL. But based on the Jets' performance in Buffalo on Sunday, this team was vastly overrated and definitely a fraud.
Mangini benefited from an easier schedule last season and the ability to catch a few teams by surprise. But the Jets can't match up with the quality teams and beat them with better talent. The Jets lost to the Buffalo Bills, a team playing a rookie quarterback in Trent Edwards. Well, Buffalo's two rookies — Edwards and running back Marshawn Lynch — simply overwhelmed the Jets and dominated the play clock.
It was a tremendous effort given all of Buffalo's injuries and the fact the defense was minus more starters than the Bears. The other obvious fact is that New England has the AFC East won unless Tom Brady decides to retire tomorrow. The Jets are no good and the Bills and Dolphins aren't much better.
Cleveland's diamond in the rough
The strangest quarterback story in the NFL this season resides in Cleveland, where Derek Anderson, a guy who was 0-3 as a starter a year ago, suddenly looks like someone who should keep Brady Quinn on the bench for another month or more.
Someone please explain to me why Anderson wasn't Cleveland's opening-day starter over Charlie Frye? What I heard was that the coaching staff preferred Anderson but that GM Phil Savage wanted Frye to start because he was a higher draft pick and the Ohio guy. It's definitely plausible when you consider that Savage traded Frye a day after he was benched in the season opener to Seattle for a sixth-round pick. I have never heard of a starter being benched and then traded within a 48-hour period.
Anderson reportedly isn't the greatest practice player, but the coaches really like how he competes on game days. Well, he definitely has Cleveland fans excited with two divisions wins over Cincinnati and Baltimore. Who knows how long Anderson's run will last with the Quinn presence. But the kid from Oregon State definitely deserves a few more games to prove that he isn't some fluke.
Hope in Arizona
Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt tried to light a fire under quarterback Matt Leinart last week by playing and preparing Kurt Warner to play. Leinart appeared satisfied with the development at first and then got mad — the passion that any new coach like Whisenhunt wants to see — and suddenly the Cardinals have something going.
They are 2-2 after a very solid win at home against the previously unbeaten Pittsburgh Steelers. I was wrong about the Cardinals. I wasn't sure Whisenhunt and Russ Grimm, the offensive line coach, could instill toughness and grit into a team that seemed to lack direction. Well, the Cardinals can run the ball while also playing very tough defense. Suddenly, they're a physical team that also has some pretty talented receivers.
The Leinart and Warner rotation seemed to work well against the Steelers, but my sense is that Leinart has the job the way he bounced back up after taking a big hit in the fourth quarter. Even with a rotation, the offense played hard for both quarterbacks. That's a testament to Whisenhunt and Grimm.
The Cardinals, if they can maintain this grit, have a chance to make a run. They have the winless Rams next and then Carolina followed by the Commanders. A sweep is entirely possible.
LINK
John Czarnecki
FOXSports.com, Updated 10 hours ago STORY TOOLS:
It was the easiest line on Sunday television: Rex Grossman could have thrown three interceptions like Brian Griese did against the Detroit Lions. But where Bears coach Lovie Smith messed up is that Grossman actually beat the Lions twice last season while throwing for five touchdowns and a bunch of yards with no interceptions.
There was a lot of pressure on Smith and the Bears to bench Grossman, but they had several chances last season to do it and passed on Griese. So why the rush to do it now? Smith and offensive coordinator Ron Turner must have known something back then when they fought against making the quarterback switch.
OK, Grossman doesn't look like he has Tony Romo's future right now. In fact, he's probably history in Chicago with his contract expiring at the end of the season. But there's a lot wrong with the Bears right now, and it isn't all the quarterback. The receivers aren't so hot and maybe they shouldn't have traded Thomas Jones away to the New York Jets. The offensive line is pretty average, too. But it's easy for all of us to blame the quarterback.
Maybe Lovie should have waited one more game based on Grossman's track record against the Lions. Now the rush to judgment on Grossman simply opened up other fears about this franchise.
Chicago, the NFC's best team on paper in August, is 1-3 and stumbling headed to Green Bay next Sunday. I don't believe anyone will be picking the Bears against Brett Favre and Co. in Lambeau.
Love for Marty
A friend of Marty Schottenheimer's told me over the weekend that the Chargers wouldn't be in this mess if he was still the head coach.
"This team is still consumed with last season and how their season ended," Marty's friend said. "Marty would have knocked that out of them in training camp. He was great at focusing on the game at hand and moving on. This team is still living in the past."
That's what San Diego fans are saying right now with a 1-3 team that resides in last place in the AFC West. In Schottenheimer's final season, it took the Chargers 17 games to lose three games. Can Norv Turner snap them out of their funk? Many don't believe that he can because the biggest problem with the Chargers is the defense, one that was torched by Damon Huard and a rookie receiver named Dwayne Bowe, who had eight catches for 164 yards and a touchdown.
In pre-game warm-ups, Huard was told by K.C. coach Herman Edwards that he better play well or Brodie Croyle was replacing him. Huard responded a heckuva lot better than Turner, Philip Rivers and Shawne Merriman did.
The pressure is enormous right now on Turner and GM A.J. Smith, who hired Turner, and owner Dean Spanos, who allowed Smith to fire Schottenheimer when the top San Diego assistant coaches fled elsewhere.
There were few candidates to hire other than Turner, who took the job knowing he was stuck with Ted Cottrell as his defensive coordinator. It's obvious that Cottrell and Ron Rivera, his linebackers coach, can't really devise the game plans necessary to protect a secondary which is highly suspect. Wade Phillips did it last year, but he's unbeaten in Dallas right now.
It looks like Smith and Spanos messed up. Turner has time to fix it because the gap between the Chargers and the Chiefs, Broncos and Raiders is no gap at all.
Like someone told me: "Marty probably would have lost the first two games this year, but he would have beaten the two teams he should have beaten, Green Bay and Kansas City."
Right now, the only identity San Diego has is that of three-game losers.
Mangenius?
I am sure Bill Belichick is delighting in the fast fall of the Jets and his tormentor, Eric Mangini, the man who ratted him out to the NFL. But based on the Jets' performance in Buffalo on Sunday, this team was vastly overrated and definitely a fraud.
Mangini benefited from an easier schedule last season and the ability to catch a few teams by surprise. But the Jets can't match up with the quality teams and beat them with better talent. The Jets lost to the Buffalo Bills, a team playing a rookie quarterback in Trent Edwards. Well, Buffalo's two rookies — Edwards and running back Marshawn Lynch — simply overwhelmed the Jets and dominated the play clock.
It was a tremendous effort given all of Buffalo's injuries and the fact the defense was minus more starters than the Bears. The other obvious fact is that New England has the AFC East won unless Tom Brady decides to retire tomorrow. The Jets are no good and the Bills and Dolphins aren't much better.
Cleveland's diamond in the rough
The strangest quarterback story in the NFL this season resides in Cleveland, where Derek Anderson, a guy who was 0-3 as a starter a year ago, suddenly looks like someone who should keep Brady Quinn on the bench for another month or more.
Someone please explain to me why Anderson wasn't Cleveland's opening-day starter over Charlie Frye? What I heard was that the coaching staff preferred Anderson but that GM Phil Savage wanted Frye to start because he was a higher draft pick and the Ohio guy. It's definitely plausible when you consider that Savage traded Frye a day after he was benched in the season opener to Seattle for a sixth-round pick. I have never heard of a starter being benched and then traded within a 48-hour period.
Anderson reportedly isn't the greatest practice player, but the coaches really like how he competes on game days. Well, he definitely has Cleveland fans excited with two divisions wins over Cincinnati and Baltimore. Who knows how long Anderson's run will last with the Quinn presence. But the kid from Oregon State definitely deserves a few more games to prove that he isn't some fluke.
Hope in Arizona
Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt tried to light a fire under quarterback Matt Leinart last week by playing and preparing Kurt Warner to play. Leinart appeared satisfied with the development at first and then got mad — the passion that any new coach like Whisenhunt wants to see — and suddenly the Cardinals have something going.
They are 2-2 after a very solid win at home against the previously unbeaten Pittsburgh Steelers. I was wrong about the Cardinals. I wasn't sure Whisenhunt and Russ Grimm, the offensive line coach, could instill toughness and grit into a team that seemed to lack direction. Well, the Cardinals can run the ball while also playing very tough defense. Suddenly, they're a physical team that also has some pretty talented receivers.
The Leinart and Warner rotation seemed to work well against the Steelers, but my sense is that Leinart has the job the way he bounced back up after taking a big hit in the fourth quarter. Even with a rotation, the offense played hard for both quarterbacks. That's a testament to Whisenhunt and Grimm.
The Cardinals, if they can maintain this grit, have a chance to make a run. They have the winless Rams next and then Carolina followed by the Commanders. A sweep is entirely possible.
LINK