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Tuesday Morning Overreactions

You would think that being paid millions and millions (or at the very minimum hundreds of thousands) of dollars to play a simple game would be motivation enough. Unfortunately, though, this does not seem to be the case, as many head coaches seem to have to get tough and call their teams out to make them perform at an acceptable standard. Let us not forget that before the season even started, tough guy coach Tom Coughlin had his team upset and complaining for extremely hard practice and mean tactics regarding attendance. The New York Giants weren't used to Coughlin's tough guy approach, because previous coach Jim Fassell was considered a nice guy. So Giants players cried and whined about how unfair Coughlin was. What did all this tough love coaching of Coughlin get the Giants? They roared out to a 5-1 start, and the whining immediately stopped.

However Jim Fassell himself had onced called his team out before. In 2000 with his team struggling, Fassell called his team out in the media. They responded by rebounding and making it to the Superbowl. In 2001 again with the Giants struggling, Fassell once again went to the media and called his team out. This time the Giants folded. So calling your team out as head coach doesn't always work.

The past couple weeks have seen a few coaches challenge and call out their players. In New Orleans Jim Haslett called his players out. Though not a direct quote, the following is basically what he said to his team. “If you're trying to get your head coach fired, you are doing a great job, however just know that after I'm gone, you'll be next.” How would the Saints respond to this charge by their head coach? They let Kansas City jump out to a 10-0 lead, before coming back and winning the game 27-20.

For the past couple weeks Dallas coach Bill “The Tuna” Parcells, former mastermind coach, called his team out by repeatedly calling them stupid and dumb. These harsh words have been answered with consecutive blowout losses to Cincinnati (26-3) and on Monday Night to Philadelphia (49-21). One must find it ironic, that while Bill Belichek was on his staff Bill Parcells won 2 Super Bowl victories, went to another, and led 3 teams as far as the conference championships. Now that they have split up, Belichek has led the Patriots to two Super Bowl victories, and an NFL record 21 game winning streak, while Parcells struggles in Dallas with “dumb” players. Methinks it's time to re-evaluate who the genius of the duo was.

However the callouts did not stop there. After getting shellacked by the aforementioned Belichek's Patriots 40-22, St. Louis Rams head coach Mike Martz became angered with his team. "We don't hold hands and get in a séance and sing Kumbaya." said Martz during a weekly press conference. "You're on the train or you're not. Get out, period. I know where I'm going, you're either with me or you're not." In addition to this verbal attitude adjustment, Martz made the Rams practice and do full contact scrimmage in full pads. Something unheard of in November.

"We had a nine-on-seven drill that was live and I had a whistle," Martz said. "If the offense started to run against our defense, I would yell, 'First do-o-o-o-w-n, Seattle,'" Martz said, trying to sound like retired ref Red Cashion. "We had fun." To make matters worse, Martz stormed around the practice field with his whistle and nasty attitude. He chided the defense if they gave up 2 yards by saying "2 yards is too much." He called out players who didn't hustle.

So how would the Rams respond to the new aggressive, mean “Mad Mike”? They jumped out to a 17-0 lead, against the Seahawks, as they went on to win 23-12. The victory is the second over Seattle this season and leaves the Rams in the driver's seat for the NFC West divisional crown.

So a note to NFL coaches, if you are going to call your team out, don't berate them, and don't do it too often, or the effects are lost.

QB Connects with WR on pass.

Drew Bledsoe has thrown 12 TD passes to WR Troy Brown in their careers, so a simple completion to Troy Brown this week shouldn't be all that newsworthy, right? Except for the fact that Drew Bledsoe is QB of the Buffalo Bills, and last week they played the New England Patriots, whom Troy Brown plays for. So how did Bledsoe complete a pass to Brown if they are on separate teams? Well due to injuries in the secondary, Troy Brown has been forced to play defensive back for the Patriots the last two weeks. So in his second game at DB Troy Brown intercepted a pass from Drew Bledsoe. Maybe they both missed the days when they played together, and just wanted to bring back memories.

Troy Brown at DB is just one more example of N.E. coach Bill Belichek getting the most out of players. In his tenure in N.E., Belichek has won 2 Super Bowls. Last year he won the big game despite being one of the most oft injured teams in the league. In 2001 the Patriots starting and franchise QB was injured with a collapsed lung. However Belichek routinely is able to replace injured players, and continue his team's success.

You Do Love Me.

All is well in Philadelphia as WR Terrell Owens, and QB Donovan McNabb have apparently moved past last week's sideline argument. On Monday Night McNabb hooked up with Owens for 3 TD's, as the Eagles rebounded from their defeat to Pittsburgh and rolled the Cowboys 49-21.

Meet Me at the Flagpole at Lunch.

Rivals always seem to bring out the hatred in each other. During the week Gerard Warren of the Cleveland Browns made comments about how they were going to take Pittsburgh Rookie QB Ben Roethlisberger out of the game. When asked how he planned on doing it, Warren simply flexed his arm and pointed to his forearm and responded “With a few of these across the head.” So naturally tensions were high as long time Rivals Cleveland Browns, and Pittsburgh Steelers got ready to play this past Sunday.

However no one could have expected what would happen before the game. During pre-game warmups Cleveland RB William Green and Pittsburgh LB Joey Porter were involved in a fight. Haymakers were thrown at one another and both players were ejected from the game, all before it even started.

The good news is that Warren, and Roethlisberger talked and made up during pre-game, and after the game was over Joey Porter called William Green on his cell phone and became friends again.

Bye, Bye, Bye.....

Week 10 also saw the last of the NFL Bye week's. Now all teams will have played the same amount of games, and the only time off will either be at the End of season for most, or first round playoff byes for the few.

Sideshow's Top 14

Rank (LW)	Team	Record	Last Week's Results	Comment
1 (1)	Pittsburgh	8-1	Won 24-10 vs. Cle	NFL's Best teams keeps on rolling with #1 Defense, and #2 rushing attack.
2 (2)	New England	8-1	Won 29-6 vs. Buf	For first time in 4 games winner between Buffalo/N.E. Scored something other than 31 points.
3 (4)	Indianapolis	6-3	Won 49-14 vs. Hou	The scariest thing isn't that Manning went off again. It's that Indy's defense has looked good for two weeks.
4 (5)	Philadelphia	8-1	Won 49-21 vs. Dal	T.O. and McNabb get back on track for Philadelphia.
5 (3)	San Diego	6-3	Bye	Bye week drops Chargers two spots, but Brees still 3^rd rated QB in NFL.
6 (6)	Atlanta	7-2	Won 24-14 vs. T.B.	Though not always pretty Atlanta is getting job done. However Mike Vick is very often very pretty to wach run.
7 (7)	Jacksonville	6-3	Won 23-17 vs. Det	Apparently making fans wait till last minute to win a game isn't enough as Jags win in OT.
8 (10)	Denver	6-3	Bye	Denver fans hope this wasn't the week that the Solid QB version of Jake Plummer was scheduled.
9 (13)	Baltimore	6-3	Won 17-14 vs. N.Y. Jets	Eventually Baltimore will need more offense, but for now Defense has got them winning.
10 (NR)	Green Bay	5-4	Won 34-31 vs. Min	Packers turnaround now sees them sitting atop their division.
11 (8)	Minnesota	5-4	Lost 34-31 vs. G.B.	3 straight losses have Vikings fans remembering last season's collapse.
12 (9)	N. Y. Jets	6-3	Lost 17-14 vs. Bal	Idiotic Halfback pass call at end of first half seems to be sign of things to come this season.
13 (11)	N.Y. Giants	5-4	Lost 17-14 vs. Az	3^rd loss in 4 games starts the Eli Manning era in New York
14 (NR)	St. Louis	5-4	Won 23-12	Bulger began game on fire as team throws passes on first 13 plays.

The Cellar Watch

Rank (LW	Team	Record	Last Week's Results	Comment
30 (30)	Carolina	2-7	Won 37-27 vs. S.F.	Needed comeback to win last week's Toilet Bowl matchup.
31 (31)	Miami	1-8	Bye	The only good thing about playing for the Dolphins this year? A Bye week in Sunny Florida
32 (32)	San Francisco	1-8	Lost 37-27 vs. Car	Once again jumped out to early lead, before folding up.