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By Hub Arkush (hub@pfwmedia.com)
Jan. 4, 2008
We should have seen that it was inevit­able, and yet the doubters were there. Almost no one wanted to believe that, in today’s NFL, a team could actually run the table. But it’s in the record books, and for at least the 2007 regular season, the New England Patriots are as close to perfect as a team can get, because they made sure the final outcome was left to no one but themselves.
Where did I find the inevitability? We’re talking about a ballclub that was 14-5 in 2006, with only two of its losses by more than one score, a team that came within one possession and about three minutes of going to the Super Bowl. It then added Adalius Thomas, Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Donté Stallworth and Kyle Brady during the offseason, while losing no one it wanted. Scott Pioli runs the best personnel department in the NFL, and love him, hate him or envy him, Bill Belichick is to NFL coaching and empire-building what Secretariat was to the field in the Belmont. The question was never, “Could the Patriots do it?” Instead, it’s, “Who’s going to stop them from doing it again next year?”
The most interesting question going into the Pats’ 38-35 victory over the Giants was, “What would Tom Coughlin and his troops do to deny the Pats a place in history, and what should they do?” Playing for absolutely nothing but pride, the Giants, in fact, gave New England its sternest test of the year. If not for Eli Manning’s lone mistake of the evening, a badly overthrown pass to the far sideline, on which the Pats’ Ellis Hobbs made a remarkable grab tiptoeing the sideline for the interception with about 9:00 left in the game, New York might just have pulled off the upset of the century.
But at what price? It seems likely that three Giants starters — C Shaun O’Hara, WLB Kawika Mitchell and CB Sam Madison — were all banged up badly enough in the game to be doubtful, if not out, for their playoff opener in Seattle. Injuries are, of course, impossible to predict, and even when coaches are trying to protect and rest players, the 45-man active squad just doesn’t provide enough bodies to sit everybody. So what was going through Tom Coughlin’s mind? Did he believe the absolute best way to prepare for Tampa Bay was to have all his top guys going all out, as he did, to gain momentum and be sharp for the Buccaneers? Or was he risking all of his most valuable assets in an ego-driven drive to out-Belichick Belichick? That last question is one that only Coughlin himself can answer, but the easier call is that his obligation in that game was to his players and his fans only.
Heading into the Sunday after that game, I know that Browns, Saints and Vikings fans wanted to believe with all their hearts that Tony Dungy and Wade Phillips owed it to them and “the integrity of the NFL playoff process” to sell out in any way they had to for their Colts and Cowboys to knock off the Titans and Commanders, thus leaving the playoff door ajar. Easy for them to say, knowing not only that they needed help but that their teams were all facing opponents whose seasons were over and almost certainly wouldn’t­ be at their very best.
There is no “championship” process I find more farcical, disturbing and unfulfilling than college football’s BCS fiasco, which leaves so many of us screaming for playoffs. But what does it say about the NFL’s true playoff system, and college football’s refusal to mirror it, that now we want to challenge the process by which teams gain entrance?
To me the answer is simple. It would, in fact, have been the Browns and Vikings in control of their own destinies rather than the Titans and ‘Skins, had Cleveland and Minnesota not each messed the bed a week earlier. And New Orleans probably shouldn’t have started the season 0-4 if it wanted to be in the playoffs. Tony Dungy and Wade Phillips owed those clubs and the NFL absolutely nothing.
So, assuming Coughlin, Dungy and Phillips agree with me, what is a head coach to do? In the end it has to come down to his knowledge of his own players. Certainly there was nothing to gain by having Peyton Manning or Tony Romo go in harm’s way in Week 17, other than the hope that Romo might gain a little bit of timing with key target Terry Glenn, who was returning to the field for the first time in months. Any more than a quarter or so of action would have seemed excessive. But in the case of Eli Manning, heading into the playoffs off a season that was marginal at best and quite disappointing to many, the boon to his confidence from a big performance against one of the greatest teams of all time would seem a worthwhile risk.
Beyond protecting your quarterback and perhaps a few All-Pro-type performers at various positions, the best a head coach can really do in the situations that Coughlin, Dungy and Phillips found themselves in is to decide which players on their teams might benefit more from an extra week of rest than an extra week of practice, because in the end, that’s all their final regular-season games were.
The ultimate dilemma isn’t what a coach might owe his opponents or the rest of the league, it’s how to best keep his commitment to his own team.
LINK
Jan. 4, 2008
We should have seen that it was inevit­able, and yet the doubters were there. Almost no one wanted to believe that, in today’s NFL, a team could actually run the table. But it’s in the record books, and for at least the 2007 regular season, the New England Patriots are as close to perfect as a team can get, because they made sure the final outcome was left to no one but themselves.
Where did I find the inevitability? We’re talking about a ballclub that was 14-5 in 2006, with only two of its losses by more than one score, a team that came within one possession and about three minutes of going to the Super Bowl. It then added Adalius Thomas, Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Donté Stallworth and Kyle Brady during the offseason, while losing no one it wanted. Scott Pioli runs the best personnel department in the NFL, and love him, hate him or envy him, Bill Belichick is to NFL coaching and empire-building what Secretariat was to the field in the Belmont. The question was never, “Could the Patriots do it?” Instead, it’s, “Who’s going to stop them from doing it again next year?”
The most interesting question going into the Pats’ 38-35 victory over the Giants was, “What would Tom Coughlin and his troops do to deny the Pats a place in history, and what should they do?” Playing for absolutely nothing but pride, the Giants, in fact, gave New England its sternest test of the year. If not for Eli Manning’s lone mistake of the evening, a badly overthrown pass to the far sideline, on which the Pats’ Ellis Hobbs made a remarkable grab tiptoeing the sideline for the interception with about 9:00 left in the game, New York might just have pulled off the upset of the century.
But at what price? It seems likely that three Giants starters — C Shaun O’Hara, WLB Kawika Mitchell and CB Sam Madison — were all banged up badly enough in the game to be doubtful, if not out, for their playoff opener in Seattle. Injuries are, of course, impossible to predict, and even when coaches are trying to protect and rest players, the 45-man active squad just doesn’t provide enough bodies to sit everybody. So what was going through Tom Coughlin’s mind? Did he believe the absolute best way to prepare for Tampa Bay was to have all his top guys going all out, as he did, to gain momentum and be sharp for the Buccaneers? Or was he risking all of his most valuable assets in an ego-driven drive to out-Belichick Belichick? That last question is one that only Coughlin himself can answer, but the easier call is that his obligation in that game was to his players and his fans only.
Heading into the Sunday after that game, I know that Browns, Saints and Vikings fans wanted to believe with all their hearts that Tony Dungy and Wade Phillips owed it to them and “the integrity of the NFL playoff process” to sell out in any way they had to for their Colts and Cowboys to knock off the Titans and Commanders, thus leaving the playoff door ajar. Easy for them to say, knowing not only that they needed help but that their teams were all facing opponents whose seasons were over and almost certainly wouldn’t­ be at their very best.
There is no “championship” process I find more farcical, disturbing and unfulfilling than college football’s BCS fiasco, which leaves so many of us screaming for playoffs. But what does it say about the NFL’s true playoff system, and college football’s refusal to mirror it, that now we want to challenge the process by which teams gain entrance?
To me the answer is simple. It would, in fact, have been the Browns and Vikings in control of their own destinies rather than the Titans and ‘Skins, had Cleveland and Minnesota not each messed the bed a week earlier. And New Orleans probably shouldn’t have started the season 0-4 if it wanted to be in the playoffs. Tony Dungy and Wade Phillips owed those clubs and the NFL absolutely nothing.
So, assuming Coughlin, Dungy and Phillips agree with me, what is a head coach to do? In the end it has to come down to his knowledge of his own players. Certainly there was nothing to gain by having Peyton Manning or Tony Romo go in harm’s way in Week 17, other than the hope that Romo might gain a little bit of timing with key target Terry Glenn, who was returning to the field for the first time in months. Any more than a quarter or so of action would have seemed excessive. But in the case of Eli Manning, heading into the playoffs off a season that was marginal at best and quite disappointing to many, the boon to his confidence from a big performance against one of the greatest teams of all time would seem a worthwhile risk.
Beyond protecting your quarterback and perhaps a few All-Pro-type performers at various positions, the best a head coach can really do in the situations that Coughlin, Dungy and Phillips found themselves in is to decide which players on their teams might benefit more from an extra week of rest than an extra week of practice, because in the end, that’s all their final regular-season games were.
The ultimate dilemma isn’t what a coach might owe his opponents or the rest of the league, it’s how to best keep his commitment to his own team.
LINK
