Southtown Posted January 5, 2004 Share Posted January 5, 2004 Here is King's MMQB. Talks about Spurrier for a bit. He also mentions Jon Kitna winning the Comeback Player award and has the exact argument one of our members had in a post a few days ago. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/writers/peter_king/01/05/mmqb/index.html GREEN BAY -- Ah, the playoffs in Tundraville. There's nothing better on the NFL planet. One quick observation from here: Matt Hasselbeck had his coming-out party for America to see. To go 25 of 45 with, by my count, six drops (FOX had the 'Hawks with eight) in 7-degree wind chill, with no real mistakes for the first 64 minutes, was a command performance that put Hasselbeck solidly among the NFL's top 10 quarterbacks. Afterward, someone asked him: "What hurts?'' "Just my feelings,'' he said. On with the headlines of the weekend: So Peyton Manning can win The Big One. After a Simmsesque 22-of-26, 277-yard, five-TD rout of the Broncos, what's the next Peyton-Can't-Doism? He can't win a big playoff game on the road? That'll be this week's saw. I hope at some point people will sit back and stop picking at this player who, before it's over, will challenge the Dan Marino/Brett Favre numbers. For the record, Manning went to a 3-13 team in 1998 and this has been his average season: nine wins, 4,147 passing yards, 28 touchdowns, 18 interceptions, .629 completion percentage. Green Magic Strikes Again. I'm not saying I believe in it, because I don't. But there is something about Green Bay's run to the Final Eight -- starting with Brett Favre's triumph over grief in Oakland, running through the Pack's 4-0 finish of the regular season, aided by the Nate Poole miracle catch knocking the Pack into the playoffs, and continuing yesterday when Al Harris made the play of the weekend to beat Seattle -- that would make me not want to be Philadelphia this weekend. No weather will confound this frigid-accustomed team, and no crowd will confound 13-year veteran Favre. If I'm the Eagles, I fear this team coming in Sunday afternoon. Manning, Steve McNair Tie for MVP. One word comes to mind: befuddling. I'm missing something. McNair had a top-notch year. He's a great, great player. He would have been my MVP choice after 11 games. But in the Titans' last five games, he was 1-2 and sat two with injuries. Backups Billy Volek and Neil O'Donnell won those two games down the stretch, crucial games, when McNair was hurt. You say Manning had so many more weapons, with Marvin Harrison and Edgerrin James? I'll give you Harrison, obviously, and I'll give a slight edge to Edge, but let's not confuse the Edge of 2003 with the Edge of 2000. James was 13th in the league in rushing this year, Eddie George 15th. Manning led the NFL in touchdown-to-interception ratio (plus-19), in passing yards (by 228, throwing for 4,000 for the fifth straight year), and completion percentage (67.0, by 1.6 percentage points over Brett Favre). No quarterback other than Tom Brady won as many big ones on the road as Manning in this regular season: the 21-point storm in the last five minutes to tie, and eventually win, at Tampa Bay in overtime; the division-title showdown -- in effect -- at Tennessee; and winning at Miami. He laid 48 points on New Orleans in 45 Superdome minutes. Manning also was 2-0 versus arch-rival Tennessee. I think the MVP has to a be a 16-game award. In order, my final five would have been: Manning, Brady, Jamal Lewis, Priest Holmes, McNair. The Redskins Adjust After the Spurrier Swindle. In the end, Steve Spurrier was a fraud. He signed a five-year contract and vowed to give the job three years. In my business, that would be called entering into an agreement while knowingly planning to cheat your employer. Then he quit after two years. This is charlatanesque. An offensive player on the Redskins told me: "The job was killing him, and killing his wife.'' Here's the thing, Steve. In football -- real football, not the kind when your players are better every week than 80 percent of the opposition, as was the case at Florida -- I've got an apt cliche for you: When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Spurrier thought the Washington personnel department was awful. Maybe it is; the bottom of that roster is from hunger, which usually happens when the personnel staff is more focused on making LaVar Arrington a jillionaire than getting a deep roster in place. So if the personnel staff is awful, Steve, roll up your sleeves and go out scouting, for crying out loud. Dan Snyder would have loved that. One more thing: Spurrier simply didn't adjust to the pro game. I'll never forget the game at the Meadowlands last year, a rainy, sleety day fit for a plow horse, when Spurrier let terminally mediocre Shane Matthews throw the ball 36 times while handing the ball to one of the best 10 backs in football, Stephen Davis, only 19 times. Washington lost in overtime. After the game, I asked him why the disparity, particularly on such a bad day to throw. "I don't know,'' Spurrier said. Good answer. The Carolina Panthers know how to use the running game. John Fox is Bill Parcells Jr. Davis struggled some early against the best defense in footballl Saturday night. He ran for 4, 3, 0, 0, 6, minus-2, and 1, then broke one for 23, then went for 4, 3, 2, 0 and then busted the game open before halftime with as 23-yard touchdown run. That's how the running game works in football. Good one, anyway. The kind Joe Gibbs used to have in Washington. I don't quite buy what Bobby Bowden said on Sporting News Radio the other day "Steve we nt up there for the money'' but Spurrier did make $10 million for 24 months of work and a 12-20 record. From what I hear, Dan Snyder is looking for an organized coach, which Spurrier wasn't, who can work with Vinny Cerrato and the front office bettrer than Spurrier did. This job has Jim Fassel written all over it. Coaching Searches Round Up the Usual Suspects. I don't draw the logical conclusion from the fact that the same names -- Fassel, Green, Crennel, Lovie Smith -- have been interviewed or will interview for at least four of the seven opening NFL coaching jobs. The logical thing would be that those guys are premier guys and everyone wants them. No. General managers are fawning over them because the overall crop is so weak and they're worried about missing out on one of the only gems of a paltry group. Jon Kitna wins Comeback Player of the Year. One word comes to mind: ridiculous. In 2002, Kitna started 14 games, completed 62.2 percent of his passes, threw for 3,178 yards and had a rating of 79.1. In 2003, Kitna started 16 games, completed 62.3 percent of his passes, threw for 3,591 yards and had a rating of 87.4. What exactly was Kitna coming back from? An off-season cold? His team won six more games, and he threw a few more touchdown passes. He was better, overall, this year, and I'd have had him in my top 10 in the MVP vote. But to be a comeback player means you're coming back from a serious injury or some horrendously ineffective season, neither of which was the case, remotely, with Kitna. My pick was Jevon Kearse, but a number of guys -- Ray Lewis, Courtney Brown -- would have been fine selections. Weekly Awards Offensive Player of the Week Indianapolis QB Peyton Manning. Completing 85 percent of his passes with five TDs and no picks in his first playoff win makes Manning the most feared player of this postseason, even with a date at Kansas City looming this weekend. Defensive Player of the Week Baltimore FS Will Demps, whose 56-yard interception and return for touchdown helped the Ravens avert what might have been a disaster against Tennessee. The Titans led 7-0 on a surprisingly easy drive, and they were beginning their second possession when Steve McNair, one of the most accurate postseason quarterbacks ever, threw a pass that was tipped near midfield by linebacker Ed Hartwell. Demps, center-fielding, picked it off and made a marvelous run through the entire Titans offense. For the game, Demps totaled Special Teams Player of the Week Tennessee K Gary Anderson. At 44, his outer limit is about 45 yards now, but Jeff Fisher went to him with 29 seconds left in the wild card game against the Ravens in a tie game. Anderson's kick was perfect. Morten Andersen wants to kick till he's 50, but there's another Anderson who might beat him to it. Coach of the Week Carolina coach John Fox. Not only did his Panthers rout the Bill Parcells-coached Cowboys, but Carolina had no turnovers and no penalties. I mean, does anyone remember that this team was 1-15 in 2001? What an incredible job Fox is doing. Goat of the Week (tie) Collectively, the 11 Texas Tech offensive players, for their actions after scoring against Navy last week in the Houston Bowl. After a Tech touchdown, the players gathered in the end zone in a circle. The ball was thrown in the air and when it hit the ground, all the players fell to the ground, as if the ball was a bomb. Pretty stupid and unfeeling celebration anyway, but against Navy? When the seniors on that team, some of them anyway, are about to be sent into the conflict in Iraq? Bush-league all the way. Baltimore RT Orlando Brown, for his two unsportsmanlike-conduct penalties that handed the Titans 30 invaluable yards in Saturday's Titans' win. How fitting. Brown blew a gasket in a game worked by referee Jeff Triplette, the ref who threw the flag that hit Brown in the eye and caused him to melt down so radically four years ago. Stat of the Week Baltimore had no first downs in the first 25:15 of its game against Tennessee and three in the next minute. Factoid That May Interest Only Me In the fall of 1974, I was a senior at Enfield (Conn.) High School, and one Saturday afternoon a friend of a mine took me to see his brother play a football game for Central Connecticut State, in New Britain. That day, unbenknownst to me, I watched a freshman defensive end get spot duty for the Blue Devils: Mike Sherman. Quote of the Week "If you want to see why he's the co-MVP, wait until you see what he did in this playoff game!'' --ESPN's Stuart Scott, teasing the highlights of Tennessee's 20-17 win over Baltimore. McNair threw for 159 yards, with one touchdown and three interceptions. Scott later said McNair had "an efficient day.'' Lord help us. Aggravating/Enjoyable Travel Note of the Week "Yip yip yip yip yip!'' Yippy dog in the hold below me. For 25 minutes until taxiing out, it yipped. Piercingly. Unendingly. Without pause. "Yip yip yip yip yip!'' With paws, I guess, but without pause. No doggie drugs, I guess. Surely it will go to sleep, or the drugs will take affect. Right? Lucky for me, I slept probably 90 percent of the flight home. I woke up over Bemidji, maybe. Muffled now, but distinct. "Yip yip yip yip yip!'' Unbelievable. Fell asleep again. Woke up over South Bend, maybe. "Yip yip yip yip yip!'' Incredible, the staying power and lungs of this dog! Slept some more, almost to Newark. "Yip yip yip yip yip!'' Still yipping when we deplaned. The guy across the aisle said to his travel-mate: "It sounds like a tape somebody keeps playing over and over.'' Brian Lockhart said he had a dream of a barking dog while sleeping on the flight, woke up, and realized it was no dream. "Yip yip yip yip yip!'' Doggie madness. I am a big dog fan. On New Year's Day morning, we took Bailey the 4-year-old Golden Retriever to the Atlantic Ocean in Spring Lake, N.J., for 40 minutes of intense tennis-ball throwing. So I have less hatred for Yippy than I have sadness for the poor thing. What kind of uh, person would put a dog in a hold for six hours without sedating it, or sedating it far too lightly? The Fine Fifteen 1. New England (14-2). On their bye week, a Patriot finally lost. Tom Brady broke his 12-game winning streak by standing on the sidelines during Michigan's Rose Bowl defeat. 2. Philadelphia (12-4). Talked to Andy Reid a few days ago. Pushed Brad Childress, his offensive coordinator, hard for a head-coaching job. I mean, a couple of verbal paragraphs on the virtues of Brad Childress. Maybe that's why the Brad Childresses of that staff are so loyal to Reid. 3. Indianapolis (13-4). I only saw the highlights, but it seems to me the defense choreograhped by Ron Meeks and Tony Dungy didn't let Jake Plummer breathe. 4. Tennessee (13-4). What a gallant effort in Baltimore. Eddie George gets my vote for man of the weekend. 5. St. Louis (12-4). On his bye week, Kurt Warner got a confidence transplant from Tony Robbins. 6. Kansas City (13-3). No one really thought this was Dick Vermeil's last season. I say he and Carl Peterson and Bill Kuharich, the braintrust, find two pluggers for the front seven just a guess, but Ted Johnson and Dan Wilkinson and make one more run with this nucleus in 2004. For now, I move them up from 9 to 6 because of one big thing: the Arrowhead factor. 7. Carolina (12-5). I give the Panthers a real shot at St. Louis. I think they can do just enough on offense to keep the ball away from the Rams enough to make it a really good game. 8. Green Bay (11-6). One hour after the game, Al Harris was cradling the game ball, the ball he'd picked from Matt Hasselbeck and run into the end zone to win the Wild Card game over Seattle, and coach Mike Sherman came up to Harris and hugged him. "Uh,'' Sherman said after telling Harris what a great play he'd made, "the next time you do that, and you hold the ball up in the air running down the sideline, could you please not do that?'' Cute scene. 9. Seattle (10-7). Yeah, maybe it did take Mike Holmgren five years to do it. But he's got a heck of a team up there now, and America saw it yesterday. 10. Baltimore (10-7). Eight seasons in Baltimore, and still the quarterback position is an unsolved mystery. Brian Billick had better be right about Kyle Boller. 11. Denver (10-7). Seasons since John Elway left: five. Playoff wins since then: zero. 12. Dallas (10-7). Of all the things that struck me about what Dallas needs in the wake of that fairly pathetic display in Charlotte, the one that really stuck out, I thought, is running back. Troy Hambrick's a JAG. Just another guy. 13. Miami (10-6). Uh, Wayne? What's the hurry? Free-agency's six weeks away, the draft three and a half months. Aren't you even going to meet Scott Pioli? 14. New Orleans (8-8). Axing Ax Alexander, the receivers coach, hasn't exactly inspired the French Quarter into a season-ticket-buying binge. 15. San Francisco (7-9). Speaking of binges, my anti-Terrell binge continues unabated. Today, right now, Brandon Lloyd is a better football player than Terrell Owens. Just wait. You'll see. Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com. Monday Morning Quarterback appears in this space every week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posse81 Posted January 5, 2004 Share Posted January 5, 2004 This is the first time I have read that Snyder is actually "looking for an organized coach." Maybe he will resist Rhodes after all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Posted January 5, 2004 Share Posted January 5, 2004 I don't know that it's right to say Rhodes isn't organized. We've no real idea. Certainly Snyder is organized. We know he loves Cerrato for that organization and detail he provides him with regard to players. It does seem that he'd want a coach who is fundamentally the same. Remember last year Spurrier had his coaching sheet out there and it was like a child had done it. Hand written, impossible to read -- unless it was by your hand -- and just not professionally done. Later in his tenure he did have a professional looking coaching sheet though. Spurrier grew afterall . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TD_washingtonredskins Posted January 5, 2004 Share Posted January 5, 2004 We also "heard" that from a guy who thinks we care who he saw play football when he was a senior in high school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canadian Hog Posted January 5, 2004 Share Posted January 5, 2004 "I'll never forget the game at the Meadowlands last year, a rainy, sleety day fit for a plow horse, when Spurrier let terminally mediocre Shane Matthews throw the ball 36 times while handing the ball to one of the best 10 backs in football, Stephen Davis, only 19 times. Washington lost in overtime." - PETER KING I'm beginning to think that PK is more and more of a fraud. We didn't lose in overtime, we lost 19-17 in regulation time. Get the facts straight PK, after all, you are supposed to be a sports writer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KDawg Posted January 5, 2004 Share Posted January 5, 2004 Not only that, but he said Manning through for 277, didn't he throw for 377? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhd24 Posted January 5, 2004 Share Posted January 5, 2004 The guy thinks Brandon Lloyd is better then Terrell Owens. I despise him for his annual personal campaigns against Monk for the Hall of fame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gridironmike Posted January 5, 2004 Share Posted January 5, 2004 And Peter King can sit back, laugh, and say I told you so. I think I wanted Spurrier to succeed not only for the Redskins, but to shut up these (very loosely used here) e x p e r t s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phat Hog Posted January 5, 2004 Share Posted January 5, 2004 He’s right on about SS… and hopefully way off base about Fassel ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief skin Posted January 5, 2004 Share Posted January 5, 2004 Yeah that Giant game was another Spurrier SCREW UP but, the game I can't forgive was last year also and against the Jaguars. One of the worst run defenses in the league at the time, Ego Steve and his triumphant return to the sunshine state decides he is going to put on a air show and he LOSES. That was when I thought really thought for the first time we were in trouble with this clown. PHUCKING LOSER Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posse81 Posted January 5, 2004 Share Posted January 5, 2004 Originally posted by Art I don't know that it's right to say Rhodes isn't organized. We've no real idea. Certainly Snyder is organized. We know he loves Cerrato for that organization and detail he provides him with regard to players. It does seem that he'd want a coach who is fundamentally the same. Remember last year Spurrier had his coaching sheet out there and it was like a child had done it. Hand written, impossible to read -- unless it was by your hand -- and just not professionally done. Later in his tenure he did have a professional looking coaching sheet though. Spurrier grew afterall . Of course we don't know. I am going off of several articles that have been posted here from various madia outlets that claim Rhodes was not particularly oraganized when he was a head coach. That is a reason why I am VERY puzzled, as we all are, about Snyder's consideration of RR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbooma Posted January 5, 2004 Share Posted January 5, 2004 Originally posted by Chief skin Yeah that Giant game was another Spurrier SCREW UP but, the game I can't forgive Wasn't that the game of phantom calls?? The officials killed us with the non fumble from Tiki :doh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fansince62 Posted January 5, 2004 Share Posted January 5, 2004 considerd in NFL circles to be a poor crop of coaching candidates....caught my attention Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagles_Legendz Posted January 5, 2004 Share Posted January 5, 2004 Brandon Lloyd (right now as he puts it) is a better WR than Terrell Owens. That's one of the funniest things I've ever read. One catch makes you better than T.O. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redman Posted January 5, 2004 Share Posted January 5, 2004 I hate Peter King, and therefore I hate to say this, but he's dead on. We tried to chalk his noncommital answers up to his charm, but the fact was that Spurrier was clueless. It's frankly alarming that this debacle could occur. I was happy when Norv was canned, but not at the timing of it. I was concerned about dumping Marty, but willing to give Spurrier a chance. I have absolutely zero doubt that we'll do better without Spurrier than with him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba9497 Posted January 5, 2004 Share Posted January 5, 2004 Originally posted by jbooma Wasn't that the game of phantom calls?? The officials killed us with the non fumble from Tiki :doh: yep Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broohaha Posted January 5, 2004 Share Posted January 5, 2004 peter king is absolutely SPOT ON with this analysis and it's something i've been convinced of all along: spurrier was a complete JOKE. and also, whoever mentioned the jaguars game, amen. that is the one game that absolutely drove me nuts. we were like 5-4 at that point last year and were handily winning that game. then spurrier decides he wants to throw the ball all over the field WHEN HE HAS NO PERSONNEL WITH WHICH TO DO IT! :doh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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