classic herm edwards

I think the AFC is more balanced, but not as strong at the top this year. The Colts, Broncos, Steelers and Bengals all dropped off from last year. The Ravens got better and San Diego stopped pissing away games in the fourth quarter. The Patriots are pretty much the same as last year. Maroney is an upgrade, but the receivers aren't as good.

The Chiefs are every bit as erratic as they were last year.

 

Last year's field had stronger teams, with the 11-5 Steelers being the last team in and then winning the Super Bowl. This year's crop featured more balance, as outofplace mentioned, but not necessarily better teams.

So many AFC teams (Broncos, Titans, Bengals) had a chance to make the playoffs and failed because they couldn't win at home this past week.

I'm not saying it's luck that the Chiefs are in, because they did what they needed to do, same as the Steelers last season. But it was bad luck that the Chiefs missed out last season, because 10-6 is usually good enough to get you in, this year's 9-7 Chiefs being a good example.

 

This whole playoff berth itself is classic Herm--screw up some games you never should have lost, but everything falls your way [including, granted, a win by your own team] on the final Sunday and you sneak into the playoffs. [See John Hall's 53-yard FG at Oakland in 2001, Miami choke job against NE in 2002 coupled with Jets' win over GB and Pittsburgh's second- and third-stringers beating Buffalo in 2004 while the Jets lost to the Rams in OT.]

For the 982nd time, Herm is an excellent motivator who tends to get the best out of his personnel from an effort standpoint. He is a well-below average game-day coach and clueless when it comes to clock management.

He is not that good a talent evaluator [funny how the new Jets' regime made productive players out of guys like Bryan Thomas and Jerricho Cotchery who were wasting away in Herm's tenure] and also is not good at having his coordinators come up with schemes to maximize his players' talents [like putting Vinny Testaverde in a dink-and-dunk West Coast offense that neutralized the fact that he still could throw downfield].

Plus he's a lying sack of shit. Funny thing is he could win this week because his buddy Dungy is equally fraudulent as a coach. [But Tony is probably a much better human being.]

 

Some of the examples of Herm's luck that have been mentioned aren't luck at all, like having Hall make that long FG. Also, it's not like Herm has had nothing but good fortune. He lost his top two quarterbacks within minutes of each other last year and had to play out the year with Brooks Bollinger, not to mention the indestructible Curtis Martin finally going down witih a bad knee. If they'd stayed healthy, the Jets would have been a playoff contender last year. If that's not bad luck, I don't know what is. Those of you who want to paint him as Mr. Lucky might want to consider all the evidence.

 

herm's flustrated by all this talk of backing in. he hears all this, you know? after all, he "wasn't born at night." whatever the heck that means.

oh, yeah. he meant that he WAS born at night, just that it wasn't LAST night.

hey, johnnie cochran must've slipped during some of his diatribes, too.

 

Or maybe he wasn't born at night. Maybe he was a 2 p.m. baby. He just doesn't want people to think that the Chiefs will be another walk in the cake [/dikembe]

 

If Herm had done anything to build up Bollinger's confidence, or didn't have his nose planted firmly up Testaverde's sphincter, perhaps they would have fared better last year.

The indescructible Curtis Martin went down because Herm rode him like a two-dollar whore for five years...even though LaMont Jordan was there to share carries. If I'm Larry Johnson, I'd start looking into knee replacement surgery, or call Earl Campbell to get an idea of what life will be like at 40.

And again: the snap to Tom Tupa in 2001 was ON THE GROUND. That he righted the ball in time for Hall to boot it half a mile is perhaps the biggest miracle in Jets history.

And suburbanite makes some great points: If not for some incredibly fortituious look, Herm might be 0-for-6 as a coach when it comes to making the playoffs. Maybe Herm is talking about being born last night because he's still smarting over the backing in talk from 2004. Because they did back in that year...and if the Dolphins weren't choking dogs, they would have missed the playoffs in 2002 as well.

Alas, as suburbanite says, there's almost no way the Chiefs lose this weekend, becuase Dungy is a worse coach with no run defense. So A_F and Pimp Daddy can come on here in six days and tell us how right they are because their man has won playoff games with two teams.

Still. A. Fraud.

 

From my experience, the hatred Illini fans have for Bill Self is an even better example.

 

You mean the Bill Self who has lost in the first round two straight years? That Bill Self?

 

Huard had more than one bad game. Save the aberration of the San Diego game, where KC's defense forced 3 early turnovers and they built up a big lead, Huard did poorly in every game KC had against a good defense while he was the starter. Denver, Pittsburgh, Miami. And he nearly blew the San Diego game with a late turnover around the Bolts' 20 yard line that let them tie it up.

But it's probably not an issue of the QB as much as KC's offensive line just isn't as good as it used to be, what with Roaf gone, Will Shields likely on his way, and Kyle Turley never working out. So against the stout defenses, they can't protect the QB. No matter who they had back there, the guy didn't have enough time, started forcing things, etc.

Green happened to come back against a stretch of good-to-great defenses: Oakland twice, Denver, Baltimore, San Diego, Jacksonville. So his numbers aren't going to look as good as Huard's, who got to play the NFC West in 4 of his 5 starts. But based on Huard's own performances, there's absolutely no reason to think he would have done any better than Green did against those teams. The only bad defense Green has gotten to play was Cleveland's, and he threw 4 TDs on the road in that game. That's better than any performance Huard had all season.

 

Vinny was their best chance, at least he was once good. Bollinger needed alot more than confidence. How much did he play this year?

 

That would be the guy. I'm not sure if you're questioning what I said, or if you're an Illini fan confirming it. But the hatred they (still) seem to have of Self for daring to leave for a better job borders on the irrational.