The Bills did the inevitable thing today when they fired head coach Dick Jauron. He was just 3-6 this year and 24-33, in his career with the team after three straight 7-9 seasons. Jauron had no long term future with the team, and he had played his last ace when he fired offensive coordinator Turk Schonert right before the season started, so it was just a matter of time. There are reports that Jauron and the team were both caught off-guard by the move, but I don’t see how they could be. The fourth quarter against Tennessee last weekend was quite possibly the worst quarter of football a team has played all year. After they had played a solid game to tie it at 17 through three quarters they allowed 24 unanswered points. 14 of those points came from two interceptions returned for TDs, and in both cases the receivers did a pathetic job of earning their money on the plays. It was a clear sign that the coach had lost the team, and the only thing that made sense at this point was to make a change and get a head start on next year.
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Author: T.O. Whentam
Wow, Cleveland is bad. So, so, so bad. Brady Quinn isn’t the answer. Is there an answer?
It was interesting watching the debut of John Wall in Kentucky tonight. It was pretty obvious why people are so excited about him – there is a lot of talent there. He turned it over too much, and he and fellow super-frosh Eric Bledsoe are going to have to learn to share the back court better, but he played well, and he scored the winning basket at the end of the game. He’s going to be a good one. That being said, that was one scary game from Kentucky. Miami of Ohio is a decent team with a very nice incoming freshman class, but they clearly aren’t of the caliber of Kentucky, and they were 17.5 point underdogs. Despite that, they were the better team for much of the game, and could very easily have pulled it out. Miami led for more of the game, and for much of the game they seemed to want it more. Kentucky simply needs to be much, much better to play with the big boys. They have a few easy game to work out the kinks, but a deadly four day stretch at the beginning of December in which they play UNC and UConn looms. They need to be much better than they were tonight if they want to survive that duo of potential disaster.
1. How in the world does anyone lose to Washington right now? Denver should be ashamed. It’s a sign of just how good Kyle Orton has been this year – the team self-destructed when he was hurt and the terrible Chris Simms had to take over.
It’s another big weekend of college football action. Here are the storylines that are the most intriguing:
Tennessee (+6) at Mississippi – The large majority of the bets have been on the Vols, but the line is on an elevator up – from 3.5 where it opened to six now. That isn’t what you would expect, and that means that some smart money is hitting Mississippi fairly hard. It will be interesting to see if Mississippi can back up the faith.
I’m not sure that anyone out there is still cutting Jay Cutler any slack, but anyone who still is needs to stop it immediately after last night. There are a lot of excuses for why he is struggling – the team has no running game of note, their offensive line is deeply troubled, and they can’t seem to consistently snap the ball. None of those can account for why Cutler is leading the league in interceptions, though, or why the Chicago offense no longer seems to exist. A couple of Cutler’s interceptions yesterday weren’t entirely his fault, but at least two – including the last one – definitely were. Cutler insists on trying to force his passes into places where he should know better than to try anymore, and he is getting locked n on a receiver and not looking past him – even when clearly better options exist elsewhere. We knew that there was going to be an adjustment period for Cutler in Chicago, but this is way beyond acceptable. This year is lost, and next year he very likely will have to get comfortable with a new coach and a new system. The guy already clearly doesn’t seem to adjust well to change, so it’s hard to be optimistic about next year, either. It’s obviously way too early to say that the Cutler trade was a mistake, or that it won’t work out, but you definitely could look at this as a warning against elevating a player to a level that he isn’t deserving of. The interceptions have reached a new level of ridiculousness this year, but Cutler has always forced his passes and turned it over way too much, so why did people assume that he would suddenly be a superstar when you put him on a team with a weaker offense line and significantly worse receivers?
Continue reading “Football – Looking Back, Then Looking Forward”
The Hornets have become the first team to fire a coach this year by booting Byron Scott just a year and a half after he was named NBA Coach of the Year. The team had limped out to a 3-6 start, and two of those win hardly count because they were against the Clippers and Kings. I’d sum up the way the franchise handled this with two words – inevitable and stupid. It was inevitable because Scott had to go because of the start and because of the way the season last year went – a disappointing regular season and humiliating playoffs. Chris Paul was frustrated and the team has no more important task than keeping Paul happy. They are already over the luxury tax threshold so they can’t overhaul the roster in a meaningful way, so Scott was the only real option. The move was stupid, though, because of their choice of a replacement. The new head coach is general manager Jeff Bower. He has been with the team since 1995 and he built the current team so he knows them well, but he has never been a head coach and a couple of assistant stints atMarist and Penn State a hundred years ago are his only real bits of (barely) relevant experience. They have also hired Tim Floyd as Bower’s top assistant. Not only if Floyd coming off a disgraceful exit from USC, but his last coaching experience in the NBA was with the Hornets – and they fired him in 2004 after one season because he didn’t do a good job. I have no problem with getting rid of Scott, but only if they replace with a coach with a good chance of being better than Scott was. I just don’t really see that here.
The Bulls lost a crushing game last night when their last second winning jumper was overturned after ten minutes of replay review. That has to hurt, but there were a couple of good Chicago notes to come out off the game. The first was that Derrick Rose continues to show how versatile and effective he can be. Just check out the line – 22 points, 5 assists, 2 blocks, a steal, a rebound, and no turnovers. The guy does a little bit of everything. He’s one heck of a player. Joakim Noah also had his second straight incredibly good game. He followed up a 16 rebound performance with 21 boards last night. This isn’t the first time Noah has strung together good games – he was brilliant in the playoffs last year. What he needs to do now is to find a way to keep his confidence high and his play strong like this over a more extended period. He has the capability to be an elite player if his normal output more closely approximated his best output.
We don’t talk about swimming here much for obvious reasons, but a story today caught my attention. Michael Phelps is currently swimming at a World Cup meet in Stockholm. He’s not at his peak fitness by his own admission, and he’s sporting a beard, so he clearly isn’t looking to set world records. He’s still Michael Phelps, though, so it is very significant that he failed to qualify for two of his first three finals at the meet. The most glaring explanation for this is the swim suit. Swimming is doing the right thing next year by banning the ridiculous high tech swimsuits that have so changed the sport over the last couple of years. In anticipation of that, Phelps is using a regular suit at this meet while his competition uses high tech ones. This is a clear example of just how much of an impact the suits have. It seems ridiculous that a sport would allow something that would change the sport so fundamentally. It would be like MLB suddenly deciding to allow aluminum bats, or using softballs instead of baseballs. Those changes would make a mockery of hitting records just like the new suits have destroyed the meaning of world records.
1. There isn’t a game on the schedule in which the two teams both need to win more than the Washington – Atlanta game. The Redskins need to stop the bleeding and get the focus off of what a circus their team has become. The Falcons need to stop the bleeding after their tremendous early promise was derailed bytwo losses in a row. 5-3 isn’t a bad place to be, but 4-4 would be a disaster.
I won’t be watching too much college football today because of the Breeders’ Cup, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t be keeping an eye on the scores and the summaries, and probably clicking over to some games for a bit between races. Here are the stories I’ll be most interested in following:
Purdue (+6) at Michigan – I will be watching this one with fear in my heart. I have so little faith in my Wolverines right now that I am terrified of what could happen here. This is probably their last chance to become bowl eligible, so it’s an important one. There are about a million ways we are capable of losing this one right now.
Central Florida (+34.5) at Texas – Texas is looking great right now, and are back in the good graces of the media and the public. It will be interesting to see if they can maintain the momentum now that they have probably read the headlines about how great they are again. The Knights are dangerous enough that they could make this interesting if the Longhorns aren’t into it.
Northwestern (+15.5) at Iowa – The Hawkeyes need to keep winning, and Northwestern really needs a career-defining win as they attempt to rebuild their program.
LSU (+7.5) at Alabama – The Tide need a big win to gain back the public opinion that they have been losing gradually. LSU needs a big win to get back into the BCS Championship picture. Both teams will be fired up for this one.
Ohio State (+5) at Penn State – If and when the Hawkeyes falter the winner of this game is going to be there to try and pick up the pieces. This is the battle for second best in the Big Ten.
Wake Forest (+14) at Georgia Tech – The Wreck is quietly playing some fantastic football and are increasingly relevant nationally. This would move them to 9-1 if they win. If they play as well as they can then 11-1 is perfectly possible, and that’s when things get interesting.
Oregon (-7) at Stanford – This one is interesting for a couple of reasons. We get to see how the Ducks will react to a big win – if they can stay focused and on task. The Cardinal isn’t a team to be taken lightly, though, and they have a track record for killing giants.
TCU (-24.5) at San Diego State – Boise State had a bit of a scare on Friday night, and it could hurt their reputation. A big win here by TCU would further increase the gap between them and Boise State, and would make the road to the BCS all the more clear.
Vanderbilt (+35) at Florida – Florida needs to win this one in a big, big way or, if Texas or Alabama wins big, it is going to get harder and harder for Florida to justify their position atop the polls. Tebow and the team need to play like 35 point favorites here.
Houston (-1) at Tulsa – This one is going to be a good old fashioned shootout. I love that.
UConn (+17) at Cincinnati – The Bearcats need to keep winning to prove themselves, and they could stand to win by a really big margin to improve their public perception and try to move higher up the rankings.
USC (-10) at Arizona State – How do the Trojans bounce back from being blown out? We have no idea because it has never happened before under Pete Carroll. This will be educational.
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