Coaching curiosities

By Piet Van Leer Sports Central Columnist

NFL Training Camps are only a few days from opening. Granted, you might have failed to take notice of that with the excitement of the Women's World Cup sweeping the nation and all. For those of you who are keyed-up about the start of the NFL, you may have realized that many teams have sent their head coaches to the chopping block. But I think it's some of the coaches that escaped the guillotine that deserve a probing look.

One could certainly make the argument that Bill Parcells, Dennis Erickson, and Marvin Lewis are the largest coaching stories. Parcells is the best coach of the biggest franchise, brought in to restore the glow to the Cowboys' fading star.

Erickson takes over the 49ers, the same 49er franchise that fired Steve Mariucci, whose NFL career coaching record was 59-37, and reached the playoffs in four of the six years of his tenure. What is Erickson's NFL career coaching record, you ask? 31-33. How many times has he reached the playoffs? Never. So what exactly was the 49ers' thought process?

And Marvin Lewis finally breaks through ... with the Bengals. The Bengals. If he wins five games this year, they should rename Cincinnati "Marvin Lewis."

But the Bengals, if nothing else, had role in playing spoiler to one of the surviving coaches in question. With two games remaining, Jim Haslett's Saints went into Cincinnati needing a win to clinch a playoff spot. The 'Aints as their adoring fans refer to them were in that predicament because at home, the prior week, the Saint D allowed a TD and a two-point conversion with five seconds remaining and subsequently lost to the Vikings by one ill-fated point.

But these are the Bengals. The hapless Bengals, who had only one win all year, against an expansion team nonetheless. The Bengals weren't even the second best team in their state! The pecking order went Browns, Buckeyes, then Bengals, and rumor has it Masillon High School beat up on the Bengals in a scrimmage.

Down 13-7 in the fourth, the Bengals scored a TD, but being the Bengals, their field-goal kicker had his extra point blocked, and the game remained deadlocked until late in the fourth, when the Bengals scored another TD, and went on to their second and last victory of the season. Two wins for the Bengals, over the expansion Texans and the 'Aints.

The 'Aints still had one more chance. If they could beat Carolina, who had lost nine of their last 12, at home, they could still make the playoffs. But they didn't. The Saints went marching home, with a 9-7 record. They were the only team to beat the eventual champion Buccaneers twice, but could not beat any one of three sub-.500 teams when it mattered most.

Ordinarily, the coach would come under major scrutiny in a one-time collapse like the Saints of '02. The difficult part to believe is this scenario was almost identical to the one the year before.

The Saints of '01 were 7-5, and looking dangerous as always. But they dropped their last four games, with the defense giving up an average of 40 points a game! Forty points! With their season on the line! Haslett had taken them to the playoffs in 2000 after so many years of failure, so he definitely deserved a pass. But to be retained after two-consecutive disastrous collapses? To follow up the previous campaign by losing to the Bengals with your season on the line? The only logical explanation of how Haslett has kept his job is that he must have compromising pictures of Saints' owner Tom Benson with goats.

And what about Dave Wannstedt? The Dolphins have complained for what seems like 2,000 years that the one element missing from their attack is the running game. When Dan Marino was there, they need a running back. When he left and Miami had a good D, they needed a running back. Well, they got Ricky Williams, and he had more than 1,800 rushing yards in his first season with the Fish.

The Dolphins were 9-5 after beating the eventual AFC champion Raiders. A win in either of their final two games, at Minnesota and New England, would clinch a playoff berth for the Fish.

Tied at 17 with 17 seconds remaining, Gary Anderson hit a game-winning 53-yard field goal proving he only makes them when other team's seasons are on the line (think Falcons). We can forgive Wannstedt for that.

So it was off to New England for last week of the season. The Dolphins led 24-13 in the fourth quarter, and everything seemed rosy, until the Pats got a gift pass interference call. But leading by 11, with less than three minutes to go, with a playoff spot on the line, winning is the only acceptable outcome.

After giving up a TD and a two-point conversion, the Dolphins were up three with awful field position. Instead of handing the ball to Ricky Williams, who had 185 yards and 6.0 ypg in the game, they opted to ride the strong arm of ... Jay Fiedler, calling for three-consecutive passes. None were completed. Miami was forced to punt, and an Adam Vinatieri field-goal at the end of regulation and OT put the Dolphins' playoff hopes down for the count.

When asked afterwards, Wannstedt stated he didn't believe they could run for a first-down. Well, did anyone in their right mind think they could pass for one? Even if he goes Ricky right, right, right for 0 yards, the Pats still have to burn their timeouts. It's one thing if you have a competent quarterback to bail you out. But when the option rests between Fiedler and Williams, if you have to think about it, maybe coaching isn't the right profession. Wannstedt has proven Indianapolis is the only team he can beat. So if the Fish ain't playin' the Colts, they ain't winnin'. It's as simple as that.

Of course, after ripping Haslett and Wannstedt for two pages, the Dolphins and Saints will probably meet in the Super Bowl. It's just hard to ignore their teams' collapses and their respective coaches continued employment while coaches like Mariucci are run out of town.

Other coaches who got some explaining to do are the three Mike's. Martz's Rams must make the playoffs, even if he is the only healthy QB after Week 6. Shanahan and fellow SX Holmgren must prove they can win a playoff game without the two QBs who made them look so good, John Elway and Brett Favre, respectively.

Although he's enormously successful, Andy Reid is on a bit of the hot seat, as well. The Eagles know they should have been in the Super Bowl last year. Reid coached scared in the championship game, and the Bucs didn't let their awful start get them down. Reid seems more apt to let his team play loose when they are decided underdogs, but when they are the favorites, his puts them in a choke collar.

I was glad to see the Bucs win, for it promotes aggressive coaching like John Gruden's, something Reid has forgotten about and should get back to. No way the Eagles shouldn't have been in San Diego.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.