Coach bags

The end of the NFL regular season brings with it two things ... the start of the playoffs with Wild Card weekend and the end of some careers with the coaching firing squad. The Monday after Week 17 is often littered with coaches canned for either one disastrous season or a string of bad ones. It's a reminder for Pats' fans just how lucky we are to have Bill Belichick.

There's usually two or three coaches fired on Monday morning, but yesterday there were seven coaches sent packing. A surprising number and a few surprising names on the list:

• Andy Reid, Eagles, after 14 seasons.
• Ken Whisenhunt, Cardinals, after 6 seasons.
• Chan Gailey, Bills, after 3 seasons.
• Lovie Smith, Bears, after 9 seasons.
• Pat Shurmur, Browns, after 2 seasons.
• Romeo Crennel, Chiefs, after just 1 season.
• Norv Turner, Chargers, after 6 seasons.

That's a lot of coaches. There were also a few GMs canned (like Tannenbaum of the Jets) but who really cares about GMs getting fired unless it's your team?

Looking at the list of coaches fired, it breaks down into two categories. The first category is guys who have been with their team for a long time and who have had some success but their teams were clearly heading in the wrong direction. The other category are guys who have only been in the job for a short time and were obviously bad choices when they were hired.

Let's take the second category first. Pat Shurmur was hired by the Browns two years ago billed as one of the games best young offensive minds. He played offensive line at Michigan State and he learned NFL coaching under Andy Reid for 10 years. Not a bad teacher. He moved to St. Louis to be offensive coordinator in 2009 and did that for two years before getting the Cleveland job. Two years as a coordinator is not nearly enough experience to become an NFL head coach unless you had done some head coaching in college. Shurmur had not. But the Browns gave him the job anyway. Which is fine. Why not take a chance on a young guy? Tennessee did that with Jeff Fisher in 1994 and he turned out to be a great coach. But if you are going to hire a guy like Shurmur, you have make a commitment to him for more than two years. Otherwise, why bother?  And that's why the Browns have been bad for years. Eric Mangini ... two years. Romeo Crennel ... three years. If you are only going to give a guy two or three years to get the team headed in the right direction then don't bother hiring him. It's just stupid.

Speaking of stupid... the Chiefs hiring of Crennel and the Bills hiring of Chan Gailey fit that description because they both had head coaching jobs before and had proven they were not head coaching material. Not even close. They are both good guys and great coordinators. But there should be restraining orders preventing them from getting any where near a head coaching job. And yet the Chiefs and the Bills gave them another shot. And not surprisingly, their teams underachieved. Especially the Bills. If Buffalo hires a real coach for next season, with the talent they have, they could win ten games. But since it's Ralph Wilson and the Bills there's a good chance they will mess it up.

My guess is the Bills will probably hire one of the other guys fired yesterday. I'm really hoping it's Norv Turner. It would be great to have Norv in the division. Don't get me wrong. I think Norv is actually a pretty good coach. But he's one of those good coaches whose teams always make crucial mistakes. Which I guess means he's not really a good coach. It's tricky. Same thing with Andy Reid. He's a very good coach. But you just know his team is going to blow it. Reid took Philly to four straight NFC title games, the first three times his team fell flat on its face. The fourth time the Eagles finally won only to lose the Super Bowl to the Patriots. Reid will get another job very quickly. He learned from Mike Holmgren. He's a winner. But it was time for a change after 14 years in Philly. I don't want to see him in Buffalo.

The two other guys fired, Lovie Smith and Ken Whisenhunt, were a bit of a surprise. Smith's Bears went 10-6. It's very rare when a coach gets fired after a winning season. But they were 7-1 halfway through the season and went 3-5 the rest of the way. The Bears were not as good as 7-1 and not as bad as 3-5. They were 10-6 and considering Jay "Goober" Cutler is their QB that's pretty good. Lovie took his team to two NFC title games and the Super Bowl in 2007. But the Bears have only made the playoffs once in the last six years. That will eventually get you fired no matter how nice a guy you are and how much your players love you.  It's the same with Whisenhunt. The Bill Cowher-trained coach got off to a great start with Arizona, taking the team to the Super Bowl in his third season (2009), But since then the Cards have gone 5-11, 8-8, and 5-11. They started off 4-0 this year, including a win at Gillette in Week 2, but they lost nine in a row after that. I think the Cards should have stuck with him another year because it looked like he was building something there with a tough young defense. But that's why teams like the Cards are usually not very good. They are not patient. So now they will be looking to start over.

There was one name not on the list of coaches canned yesterday. Rex Ryan. I'm pretty happy about that. For the second year in a row Ryan's team not only missed the playoffs, but the season ended with the locker room is complete disarray. A team always reflects its coach. And the mess that are the Jets is a mirror image of Skinny Rex. I can't wait to hear what he has to say about what happened this year. But I'll have to wait a while because he decided not to hold the NFL mandated end-of-the-season press conference and head to the Bahamas. That's right. Rex Ryan passed up an opportunity to talk to the media. I know. I can't believe it either. But don't worry. Talk he will. And at some point in his press conference he will be asked about next season and he will make some statement about catching the Patriots and winning the AFC East. That's what I love about Rex. He never learns. And I'm glad his name wasn't on the list.

Week 16 rewind

I said I wasn't going to look back at last Sunday's Pats uninspiring win at Jacksonville to find the good and the bad. And I'm not. But I just can't help looking back at another game from Week 16 involving my other favorite team ... the Jets.

Rex Ryan and "the best team he's ever had" took one step closer to total laughingstock with a 27-17 loss at home to the soon-to-be-fired Norv Turner's Chargers. But -- as usual with Skinny Rex's team -- it wasn't what happened on the field that was the most laughable. It was what happened off the field.

Ryan decided -- again -- that he had seen enough of starting quarterback Mark Sanchez. That's the Mark Sanchez that the team handed a large three-year contract extension before the start of the season. Right before they traded to get blessed backup Tim Tebow. Ryan had pulled Sanchez during a game two weeks ago but Tebow was injured so he inserted third-stringer Greg McElroy. The kid looked like a third-stringer but the Jets got a rare victory so Rex had to make a decision. Go with the kid or go back to Sanchez? Ryan, wisely, went back to the guy he's paying millions. But that ended for good when Sanchez played one of the worst games I've ever seen a quarterback play. He threw four picks against the lowly Titans to make official what everyone else has known for weeks. The Jets won't be going to the playoffs again.

So Rex decided it was time for a change at quarterback. And this time Tebow was healthy. Since they made a big deal out of signing him it seemed like an easy choice. Sure, everyone knows Tebow isn't going to throw for 300 yards and three touchdowns. But he knows how to make plays and he knows how to win. He did it in college and he did it last year with Denver. And he's fun to watch. So give him a shot. Obvious. Right?

Well, not to Rex. He decided to go back to McElroy. And you know who wasn't happy about that? Tim Tebow. Mr. Turn the Other Cheek decided he'd had enough of the Jets and their three-ring nonsense. So he decided that if he wasn't considered good enough to start over some guy named McElroy then he wasn't interested in running the lame wildcat plays that offensive coordinator Tony Sparano likes to use him in. And he told his coaches just that.

So the Jets went up against San Diego with some guy named McElroy as their starter and some guy named Jeremy Kerley as their backup/wildcat quarterback. No wonder Fireman Ed quit. And to no one's surprise the Jets offense was inept again.

If you are a Pats fan then its required reading to go to the websites of the Daily News and the Post on Mondays. It's high entertainment. ESPNNewYork had a good piece on the quarterback mess. A mess that should get someone fired. First should be Sparano. He is officially the most overrated coach in the league. It also might be time to take a look at the GM.

But I sure hope it's not Skinny Rex. He's just too much fun. And I'm hoping after his team loses the season finale to Buffalo -- and it will because they can't beat anyone that can score more than 20 points -- that he will be so depressed at his team's 6-10 record that he goes on a goddamn snack binge and returns to being Rex with a big gut and a bigger mouth. I miss that Rex.

Greased lightning

WEEK 7
The first half of the Pats-Chargers game set football back about 50 years.

WEEK 7: Pick up game.

Has a wide receiver (SD's Richard Not-So-Goodman) ever caught a pass, fallen down, and then just left the ball on the field for the defense to pick up? I've never seen it. It's also not too often you see offsides on the opening kickoff (Pats), or a team (SD) kill a big drive by throwing a lazy lateral then watching the ball roll around on the ground till a defender (Ninkovich) picks it up and takes it to the 8-yard line. Only to then sack the opposing QB (Brady) twice to force a field goal? It was sloppy, crazy football.

And it made for a beautiful road win for the now 5-1 Patriots. That's two road wins in a row for a team that just a few weeks ago couldn't win outside the Foxborough town line. At two tough places to play. The 2010 season is definitely starting to feel a lot different from 2009. Good teams find ways to win games when not playing at their best. Or take games when the other teams give them away. The Lightning Bolts were in a very giving mood yesterday. Thank you, Norv Turner. Again.

The first half ended with the Pats ahead 13-3 thanks mostly to four Charger turnovers. And thanks to an opportunistic, aggressive defense. San Diego, the best passing attack statistically in the league so far this year, had eight first half possession but only put up one field goal. Tight end Antonio Gates, almost unstoppable in the first six weeks, was blanked in the first half. It was another solid game by Jerod Mayo, Jermaine Cunningham, Rob Ninkovich, Pat Chung, Vince Wilfork, and company.

The third quarter opened with a dominating 17-play drive by the Pats that showed how good the offense can be when it is clicking. Brady spread the ball around nicely and Woodhead and Green-Ellis continued their straight ahead -- if unspectacular -- running game. The Pats controlled most of the second half and with just more than seven minutes left in the game were up 23-6. Then the Chargers -- desperate to avoid falling to 2-5 -- finally got their passing game cranking.

Gates finally hauled in a touchdown pass and the Chargers cut the score to 23-13. Then something very surprising happened. Norv outcoached Bill Belichick. No, really. The Chargers executed a perfect onside kick and recovered the ball. The Pats did not look ready for that. Might have been because the sun seemed to be in Belichick's eyes the entire fourth quarter. Whatever it was, the Chargers drove in for another score to cut the lead to 23-20.

Brady and the offense got the ball with four minutes left. Two first downs and the game would be over. It's a drive this offense has to have. Instead the offense went four and out. Green-Ellis was stuffed on a fourth down run and the Chargers took the ball and moved into position for a 45-yard field goal to tie the game. Fittingly, San Diego committed one last mistake. A five-yard illegal formation flag pushed the kick back to a 50-yarder and Kris Brown's kick -- and the Chargers' season -- clanked off the goal post.

The Pats -- as the Steelers and the Ravens also did yesterday -- escaped with a big win.

There were plenty of negatives for the Pats. Too many penalties. The defense gave up nearly 400 yards of offense -- again. The offense is still having too many wasted possessions. The passing game is mostly limited to Aaron Hernandez. New hero Deion Branch finished with just four catches and was hardly part of the offense for three quarters. Watching the tape of the game showed several times where he came off the line of scrimmage and just stood around. Like Randy Moss. I can't wait to hear Felger rip Branch for that. Right. He loves Branch. The old double-standard. The Pats are 2-0 since trading away Moss, but in both wins the offense had no deep threat and struggled for much of the game. That may prove to be a weakness going forward. It may not. Clearly an element of their attack is gone.

But the defense is fast becoming a positive. Mayo is starting to return to the level that he played at during his award-winning rookie season. Rookie Devin McCourty, who has been quietly playing solid cornerback since training camp, made his first pick of the year. Brandon Meriweather made some big -- and legal -- hits. There will be some tough days ahead for the young defense, but the signs are mostly pointing in the right direction.

Speaking of pointing in the right direction... there's Tom Brady. He threw for just 159 yards yesterday and one touchdown. But the biggest stat was his interceptions: zero. On a day when seven picks were returned for touchdowns in the NFL, the Pats quarterback did a great job of directing his team and keeping them in a position to win. Just like he did last week against Baltimore. He will still have his three and four touchdown games. But yesterday's one touchdown game was just as crucial. He's playing like the veteran champion that he is. That's the most positive sign.

Next up on the schedule is a game I've been looking forward to since the schedule came out (I'll be saying that a lot the rest of the season). Brett Favre and Randy Moss come to Gillette for a 4 p.m. game on Halloween. The forecast is partly cloudy with temps in the 50s. Perfect costume weather. I will be wearing my Randy Moss T-shirt as a final salute to one of the game's greatest receivers.

It should be a house of horrors for old man Favre.