Tuesday, December 13, 2005

I'm Better, But Still Far From Okay...

Now that everyone else should clearly be focusing on the daunting task that is facing us, I wanted to take one more opportunity to visit the bad weekend that we just had. Effectively taking a self inflicted blow from a sledgehammer to the groin. I was starting to realize that since everyone who was wearing lightning over the weekend was responsible for that lack of effort, I read from the UT this morning, Coach spouting off these gems,

"We didn't play to the level we're capable of playing," coach Marty Schottenheimer said during his weekly news conference. "Flat? No. And certainly not the product of overlooking the Miami Dolphins.”

We didn’t play to the level we’re capable of playing? No kidding. I wasn’t quite sure that sucking for 3 quarters was the level of play we were trying to achieve. In fact, in all of the losses we have had some bad aspects to the game, early secondary problems, sometimes a lack of a pass rush, sometimes bad coaching, a few mistakes and marginal performances by the quarterback, but never all materializing in the same game. That’s what we saw on Sunday. Everybody was bad. Everyone. And maybe you’re right, we didn’t look flat, we looked like “Tookie” Williams, at around midnight this morning only not as big. We looked so much worse than flat.

"I think it is widely acknowledged in the National Football League that there are no gimme games," Schottenheimer said. "I told you last week Miami has a good defense; it's hard to score points on the Miami Dolphins."

This is our leader, the guy that has never won anything meaningful. I can picture little Marty in his footie pajamas, removing his thumb from his mouth, turning to the microphones and squeaking out, “I told you last week, it’s hard to score points, it’s hard, it’s really tough!” Hey Marty, grow up. Take some responsibility in the fact that we sucked this weekend, and yes you are partially accountable. Don’t cry to me like my niece staring over a plate of peas. Quit acting like a five year old, and behave like the professional football coach that you have been imitating for years now. If it’s so tough to score points against Miami, how are you planning on doing it against the Colts, or Denver, or anyone else that might actually be a playoff caliber team? Oh, and that whole business of yelling at the refs when they didn’t give us the ball after the onsides kick with half a second left in the game, maybe if you had translated that intensity to the players in the third quarter when Miami was lubing us up, we might not be walking with a collective limp today.

This is our football coach. This is the guy. Everyone makes fun and jokes about how he has never won a big game. It’s not a joke. It’s real. It was real last January, and if we’re lucky, depending on your view, we’ll see it again. But probably not this year, and the outcome will be the same. Disappointing.

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