In Defense of Jeff Fisher

Yeah, I've bashed Jeff Fisher. I'm not afraid to admit it. You get to the end of a long relationship that's clearly dying and you can't think of anything but the negative. Once you're out and get some space, which in today's world is about 72 hours, you realize that it wasn't all bad. Today's post is about the "wasn't all bad."

Look at what Jeff Fisher accomplished that no coach in the NFL will ever have to deal with for the rest of the history of the league. He coached a team that had four different home stadiums in four years. They played the lame-duck year in Houston followed by a traffic nightmare in Memphis and one year in Vanderbilt Stadium, which is bad karma if nothing else, followed by what was then Adelphia Stadium.

He's been called the master of the 8-8 season. Yeah, five 8-8 seasons in 16 years, plus two 7-9 efforts, is a lot. The 8-8 seasons are a product of the multiple moves and a team that he rebuilt twice. Plus his 2006 and 2010 seasons are two of the craziest 8-8 seasons ever. These seasons started 0-5 and 0-6 and the second half was an insane in-season turnaround. One of these seasons gave the franchise momentum and the other led to his demise.

When he took over for Jack Pardee, the team had just completed a remarkable seven consecutive playoff berths with a 3-7 record that makes Fisher look like Bill Belichick. The team scrapped the run-and-shoot offense and went with Fisher's three yards and a cloud of dust.

The key to that turnaround was hitting those early draft picks when they got them. The drafting of Eddie George and Steve McNair gave the team young offensive talent. In 1999, when the team finally got a home of its own, the franchise's first Super Bowl bid was the result.

This was the golden age of Fisher. The team made the playoffs four out of five years and never could recapture the magic (some call it luck) of their 1999 run. It ended suddenly as the team had to pay the piper for some bad salaries and it was time for Fisher's second rebuilding campaign.

Transitioning from a borderline Hall of Fame running back to the next guy isn't as tough as finding that new quarterback after your previous guy was run out of town. The Titans couldn't afford McNair in 1996 so they traded him to the stinking Ravens. Enter Vince Young. And the much less heralded late addition of Kerry Collins. These were the quarterbacks that would lead to Fisher's much more brief second golden era.
It started with the crazy comebacks of 2006. The defense took over in 2007 and the team made the playoffs for the first time in four years. The team was one Chris Brown fumble from winning that wild card game in San Diego. I'm convinced of that.

The following year was one for the ages. After losing Vince Young with an injury and a tantrum, Kerry freaking Collins and a young man named Chris Johnson helped lead the team to a 13-3 record and home field advantage in the playoffs. Yeah, the loss was tough. I, as many NFL fans, wish that the Titans had the right to choose their playoff opponent. The Steelers got the 8-8 division winning Chargers while the Titans had to face the Ravens and the officials couldn't see an expiring play clock.
2008 should have been the stepping stone to another continued run of greatness. The run ended quickly. The defense couldn't recover from the loss of Albert Haynesworth and Kerry Collins was as inconsistent as he was steady in 2008. Fisher couldn't right the ship until it was too late. An 8-2 run somewhat salvaged the season but fans had seen this trick before. Restlessness began.

2010 was a nightmare. The defense improved enough and made key turnovers early. The offense was led by a rejuvenated Vince Young. Despite the 5-2 start, we could see cracks in the armor. The defense stayed on the field too long. Kenny Britt looked like a monster one game and got injured the next. Chris Johnson wasn't getting those highlight-reel runs and more often than not got hit before he could start running. Young was pulled from a horrorshow performance against the Steelers. In the end the Steelers were the only team the Titans played all year who won a playoff game, so a schedule that looked tough really wasn't.

The team finished 1-8. It was another long losing streak for a coach who had a lot of them. It was time to go. Remember, as much as fans like to bash him, as for as much ammo as they have, Fisher made it for more than 16 years and no coach in franchise history has made it longer than five. It's doubtful that the next guy will come close to Fisher's accomplishments. I mentioned earlier how hard it is to replace a beloved franchise QB. It's about ten times harder to replace a franchise coach.

Post Championship Game Thoughts

One thing I know for sure in the wake of the Cutlerkneegate, or the frowniefacegate, is that Jay Cutler will not replace Drew Brees in all of the post Super Bowl MVP commercials next year. Brees is rooting for the Steelers because Ben Roethlisberger is not taking over those snoring NyQuil commercials, even though having Roethlisberger in an empty bed might be more appropriate than the married Brees.

I found a comment by Mike Lombardi in the shockingly short Sports Guy podcast to be telling. He mentioned that quarterbacks now have to be somewhat mobile. This is, of course, because the mobility of Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers made the difference in key plays of the game. Of course last year's Super Bowl featured two of the least mobile QBs in history in Drew Brees and Peyton Manning. They can be mobile inside the pocket, and having historically good accuracy doesn't hurt.

I sympathize with the Twitterverse. We are all emotional creatures and got sucked in to the whole "why is Cutler not playing" debacle. Today was mostly full of apologies, which means that Tweeps are nicer people then the gen pop. I don't know what it is about the 140-character format that makes people more prone to look at old posts and say "my bad". Maybe it's because posting a Tweet is as easy as sending a text or a chat message to a friend before realizing that you sent it to the wrong friend.

Subjects pass through Twitter like waves in the ocean. The day before the playoff games, multiple people reported that Dick LeBeau was in the last year of his contract. Titan tweeters said "why not us?" That's exactly what a 70-year-old assistant wants to do, take on a rebuilding project. Yeah, he'll stick with his all-world linebacker corps.

I thought it would be funny for Eric Mangini to sign as the Titans' defensive coordinator and a week later decide to take a better contract with the Eagles.

The Super Bowl is going to be a two-week referendum about whether Ben Roethlisberger has been reformed. I'm still glad that I dumped his jerseys in the trash after his Milledgeville incident. It's not whether he was guilty or innocent. It's the situation he put himself in. It's sweet that he points to the sky after touchdowns and is apparently engaged. While I think you can fundamentally change as a person, it's a painful, long process and something that a quarterback in the National Football League generally pushes to his underlings. He's a really good quarterback who was as fortunate that he was drafted by a team that already had a good foundation as Mike Tomlin was. Yeah, Tomlin's bad ass, but he took over a team that won a Super Bowl less than two years prior. Let's have a little balance.

And what is it with the Packers looking like the '99 Rams for a quarter and a half and falling apart for the rest of the game? They're a big tease to their fan base. I wouldn't be surprised if the Steelers led 24-0 at the half again and the Packers rallied to tie. It's the kind of game that would surprise no one. And it would suck to have the first Super Bowl overtime since I have it in my manuscript that takes place in the 2011 season. This season already murdered the plausibility of Vince Young as Super Bowl MVP. Yes, that's why they call it fiction.

Final doubleheader de futbol

Here are my quick thoughts on today's games. We have three of the most successful franchises in NFL history and the Jets. To be fair, the Jets didn't exist until 1963, and they are the only team of the four not to lose a Super Bowl.

If my memory of yesterday's brief foray into pre-game madness on the NFL Network is correct, the Packers have 12 "World Championships", the Bears have 9, and the Steelers have 6. The Steelers have to lead the NFL with today being their 15th AFC title game. That's 15 times they've been one of the top two teams in the AFC in the 41 years that there has been an AFC. The Steelers by far were the top beneficiaries of switching leagues when the NFL and AFL merged. Could you imagine the Steelers and the Cowboys battling it out for the NFC crown for the entire decade?

When I saw that it was their 15th AFC title game I thought "man, they really blew it a lot". That's one way to look at it. They are 7-7 in league championship games, including a rough stretch during the Cowher years in which they seemed to host the game almost ever y year and found a way to lose. Of course, when the Steelers get to the big game, they almost always win it. It's best to lose before the big game, as fans of the Vikings and Bills might suggest.

The Packers have three road wins during the regular season and are looking for their third straight road playoff win. They struggled a bit on offense in Philly compared to the onslaught in Atlanta. The difference, besides Atlanta pass-rushers being unable to tackle, was the elements. A cold Chicago should even things up a bit, and the Bears have the "little things" edge. The Packers are more talented, but a boatload of injuries has left them without the depth necessary to compete on special teams. So, the Packers' punter should kick the ball out of bounds or as high as the speakers in the new Dallas stadium every time to force a fair catch.

The Jets played a special game last week. When it comes to underdogs on a roll in the playoffs, we've seen both sides. We've seen teams get breaks and play over their heads, only to falter at the end of the race like the 1999 Titans, and we have a team that keeps the momentum going all the way through like the 2007 Giants. And we have the 2006 Steelers, who didn't exactly bring their A game but faced a team that played even worse in the Seahawks. The Jets aren't going to implode. After beating the Peyton Mannings and the Tom Bradys, they aren't going to suffer from stage fright.

I made a major step in my progression from manuscript to novel yesterday. I have written the first draft of a manuscript with the main theme being a year in the life of a fantasy football league. I recently put together a 2011 draft that will be the basis of that season. I shared my draft with the excellent Bryan Fontaine of Pro Football Focus, rookieblitz.com and dynastyblitz.com. I didn't want to miss on any rookies or veterans. My two "whiffs" were having Ryan Broyles coming out when he decided to go back to Oklahoma and I had Tony Gonzalez retiring. I guess Tony G doesn't want to retire without a playoff win.

Rooting for failure

As I continue to rocket my way to my late 30s, I learn new things about myself every day. And what happens is that I start actually paying attention. Naturally, I tend to "learn" from mistakes.
Yesterday was the last of two days of the best football we're going to see for a long time. The two-day doubleheaders of Divisional round playoffs in the National Football league are hard to beat. There are enough games to dilute the attention on any one. It practically fills two days, and with one game at a time the fan gets to concentrate, which is hard to do on an average NFL Sunday with up to eight games going on at once.
Did I mention the drinking? On Saturday I shared a mini keg of Newcastle with my friend Don. I thought we'd empty the keg by the beginning of the second game at the rate we started while watching Steelers/Ravens. It lasted exactly as long as it needed to. On Saturday I felt under control. I was at home. I grilled for the first time in almost a week. We had some spinach dip. I was certainly rooting against the hated Ravens but I was rooting for the Steelers and the Falcons. When the Steelers pulled it out I was happy, and when the Falcons fell apart, I felt bad for my many Falcon friends but I witnessed an incredible performance by Aaron Rodgers, so I had nothing to complain about.

On Sunday I went to my friend's house. The opener was Bears/Seahawks, and who besides my wife wants to see that Certs blue jersey-wearing team from Seattle in the Super Bowl again? It was a blowout from the start, and adding some interest was Greg Olsen's first TD since Don picked him up in our playoff fantasy draft. The game was such a laugher that we spent half of it playing the Super Mario game on Wii. I'd say that we combined for about 30 continues and finished one level. That game is tough.

The last game was the highlight of the entire weekend. Here's the tale. I have a friend that we'll call Paul. What I say about Paul only has to do with his deep love for the Patriots. When the Patriots won their first Super Bowl, he reacted the way that a long-suffering fan should. He was happy beyond words and we were happy for him. In the next few years, the Patriots won every close playoff game and suddenly became the top franchise in the league. Paul's continuing rants about the Patriots and his anti Peyton Manning stance gradually shifted into a shrill sound like a car alarm that wouldn't go off. The peak of this was the "perfect season" in 2007. Tom Brady finally got his due with his first MVP and the team was called the best ever. Paul did not have to speak for us to feel the vibes of superiority. What we forget as fans is that we have about .001% to do with our chosen team's success. Yet when they do have on-field success, we act like we were the ones making the key block or catching the game-winning touchdown pass. I don't know how I'd react if the Titans went from being, well, the Titans to a multiple Super Bowl winner.

Super Bowl 42 was the peak of everything. There was no doubt that the Patriots would roll. T-shirts had already been printed and books were ready to ship calling this the team of the ages. This was the first time that Don and I ganged up to openly cheer against a team. We had no doubt that the Giants would lose, especially when the Patriots scored on the opening drive. We were incorrect and the improbable comeback led to a level of joy almost as spontaneous and innocent as when Paul watched that Vinatieri field goal go through the uprights. We were happy for another team's, and friend's failure and I think it damaged us a little.

Paul's had another good season. He just won our fantasy football league title for the first time. The key move that propelled him was a questionable trade that gained him one Tom Brady. I suggested a Week 17 Bowl for every team with the top scorer getting a free draft weekend in 2011, and he won. The Patriots were gods on earth again, winning despite trading Randy Moss and having two undrafted free agents as their key running backs. Not only that, the team has six draft picks in the first three rounds of next year's draft. They were really skilled and really smart. It's like that quote from Spaceballs. "That's why evil always triumphs. Because good is dumb."

Another factor in our mood was my choice of drink. I went all beer on Saturday. On Sunday I exhausted my beer stash by the second quarter of the game. The Jets had the first interception of Brady since I was a zygote, only they didn't get any points off the turnover. It seemed like the offensive hounds would be unleashed at any moment. Don offered wine. I accepted.

The wives arrived around halftime for the traditional meal. Sometimes we eat after the game but on this evening we ate during the game. The wine flowed. As Brady stood in the pocket for what seemed like ten seconds and still couldn't find anyone, we knew something weird was going on. We became brash with our alcohol and started talking smack about our poor friend Paul and the Patriots. Neither of us have any interest in the Jets winning. I grew up a Dolphins fan and the Jets always felt like their key rival. But on this day, we wore green in our hearts. We cheered the great plays by the Jets and cheered the failures of the Patriots.

I found that while it's enjoyable in the short term to cheer against a team (and at the same time, drink way more than a normal human being should), there's no lasting good feeling that results. I have, as they say, a sharp tongue, and I can say some nasty things in the right mood, or yesterday, the wrong one.

Maybe it's my entire attitude toward football that's changed this year. I started taking Titan losses in a healthier way. Instead of gnashing my teeth and losing sleep, I learn to let it go. Today, when I had the opportunity to post dozens of tweets with the tone of "Suck it, Patriots!", I calmed down. Sure, it was incredible that the Jets kind of dominated a team that beat them by 42 about a month ago. It's wild that the Packers won three road games during the regular season and now they are favored to equal that number this week. Jay Cutler, hosting an NFC Championship game? Unpossible. The Steelers are in their fifth AFC title game in a decade, and the key is they aren't playing the Patriots. The Jets are in conference title games for consecutive years for the first time ever. And the Pats have lost three playoff games in a row.

Wait a second, that was negative. I never thought about my friend Judd who's been a life-long Jets fan. He has to be pretty happy. The team might be not so rootable with their never-ending trash talk and unusual off-the-field hobbies. They were coached up this weekend. And I'm glad I was present to witness all the glory. Maybe next time I'll be less of an ass.

And I'm hung over like you can't believe, so karma came back to bite me in the end.

Wii Resort: Shoot the ball

I'm a simple man. I like simple video games. Don't give me the X Box controller with its 48 buttons. That's why I'm a Wii kind of guy.

My new obsession during our Coldlanta spell has been Wii Resort. My parents bought the game a while back and let me borrow it because they never play it. I'm a huge fan of the 100-pin bowling. What could be more simple than that? You hold the controller and move it forward like you would an actual bowling ball. It's not as heavy, obviously. I couldn't even imagine the automatic pin setter for a 100-pin alley. Plus it would be an entire bowling facility wide.

That's not my obsession. I've been playing the basketball game. It's the three-on-three pickup game. My favorite old-school Nintendo games were Ice Hockey, in which you picked the skinny fast guy, the medium guy, or the slow fat guy. The slow fat guy beat up the small skinny guy if the slow fat guy could catch him. I also have the original Tecmo Bowl, in which you select one of four plays and have two buttons to press. One switches your player and the other throws the ball. Easy.

In this basketball game, it's your Mii character plus two of your "friends" against a team of three. You hit the A button or the directional button to pass to one of the other three players. You hit B to shoot and you move the controller in a shooting motion. Ideally you want your player to have some space between the defender, because the defender can jump really high to block your shot. It's simple.

You pass, and pass some more until your player has space and takes the open jumper. If your player doesn't have space, you have a few seconds from when you press B until you shoot. You can try to fake your defender into jumping early so you can wait for the player to fall and you can take your shot.

It's like the old Madden or college football games in which I found my favorite five or six plays and ran them over and over again. I'd wait for my player on the wing to separate from the defender, pass and shoot. When on D you can thrust your controller (how naughty) forward to try to steal. If you don't steal, you either lose your balance or fall down. If you fall down, the opponent gets an open look.

In all Wii games like Wii Sports, the goal is to win enough to earn points and get to the Pro level. Sadly the rewards at Pro level aren't great. In the old Wii Sports bowling game you got a sparkly bowling ball after you won. I played this game probably 30 times and just reached the Pro level. I'm afraid of playing again because if I lose my score could go below 1000 and I lose the pro ranking. I think this kind of obsession is the only reason why I haven't won the Pulitzer for my great American novel.

Peyton is the Nail

Peyton Manning makes a heckuva nail.

I expected the Titans to lose today. They had nothing to play for and the Colts had everything at stake. A win meant a division title, seven in eight seasons, and a three seed for next week’s wild card playoff game.

The teams were evenly matched. In two games, the Colts outscored the Titans by five. I know the Titans scored on the last play of the first game to cut a nine-point lead to two. The Titans were one fourth-and-one attempt from having a shot to win that game.

In the opener the Colts scored three pretty quick touchdowns and after that, the defense tightened. The reason why that was possible is that Peyton’s missing his main targets. Dallas Clark’s making more plays than Jacob Tamme. Blair White doesn’t always know where to go when Austin Collie does. It’s harder to sustain drives because Peyton has to know where his guys are going all the time. So every time the Colts had a chance to put the game away, the Titans shut them down.

In a throwback to the team’s 5-2 start, Michael Griffin recovered a fumble in the final two minutes and ran the ball back into field goal range. The 5-2 Titans would have put the game away. They’d get the TD or run the clock down and Bironas would kick the field goal. Nope. Not the 1-8 Titans that finished the year. Kevin Matthews, the center who was a practice squad guy two weeks ago, flubbed the snap to Kerry Collins. The Colts got the ball back and by Manning or by ref, they were getting in field goal range to end it.

I don’t think the Colts have what it takes, just like every team that dispatched the Titans starting in San Diego. Look at the teams that beat the Titans. You have the Dolphins, the Redskins, the Jags, the Texans, the Chiefs, and the Colts twice. Only two of those teams are in the playoffs, and the Chiefs/Colts might be underdogs at home next week.

Chris Johnson was the kind of dynamic running back who was the 2009 Offensive Player of the Year. He only did it for one drive, but it was the game-tying drive. Too many times was he hit in the backfield, only to see more blue-clad defenders if he got past the first guy.

I wonder if the plethora of teams searching for a new coach might make the Titans think twice about jettisoning Fisher. I would think this is a plum job to pick up for the right coach, as this team easily could have gone 10-6. If the Titans can find their Mike Tomlin, and Tomlin wasn’t the obvious choice at the time, there isn’t going to be a long rebuilding period. My first recommendation would be to sign Kerry Collins to an incentive-based contract. Then they’d draft a QB of the future in the first or second round. Let someone else get Vince Young. No, the Titans will not get a draft pick for him. I’d offer Randy Moss a contract, but only if the new offensive coordinator (assuming new coach means new coaching staff) agrees to put him on the other side of Kenny Britt. We might need to rename him Kenny Brittle. Pay Chris Johnson. I’ll get to the rest but I’m watching two teams play for the NFC West title who could beat the Titans by a field goal.