Buffalo
Dec. 8, 2008   By Matt Sohn

Schonert wearing out welcome as Bills offensive coordinator

It has gotten ugly for the Bills. At least this time, the Buffalo faithful weren’t on hand to witness it. Playing the first-ever regular-season NFL game in Canada, the Bills stumbled to a 16-3 defeat at the hands of the “visiting” Dolphins. The loss was Buffalo’s sixth in its last seven games, dropping the Bills to 6-7. Even if they’re not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, there’s no realistic chance of them ending their eight-year playoff drought given how poorly they’ve been playing. Although there’s enough blame to spread around, the lion’s share of the problems lie with an offense that has been downright disastrous.

In consecutive games, the Bills have managed just three points. Boring, unimaginative and unproductive, the offensive ineptitude has rightly put first-year coordinator Turk Schonert under the microscope.

The PFW spin

This isn’t what Dick Jauron had in mind when he chose to promote Schonert from QB coach following Steve Fairchild’s departure to Colorado State after last season. A presumed passing-game guru, Schonert has fallen from grace about as severely as one could following the praise he reaped in the Bills’ 4-0 start.

Looking back on it, perhaps even the early praise was unwarranted. After all, QB Trent Edwards didn’t pass for multiple touchdowns even once in that stretch, and two of the victories were the result of brilliant fourth-quarter execution that had been preceded by three quarters of mediocrity. Also, those first four opponents — Seahawks, Jaguars, Raiders and Rams — have a combined record of 11-41.

Currently, the Bills’ offense is operating even less efficiently than it had under Fairchild, whose departure was celebrated throughout Bills country.

Since taking the baton, Schonert hasn’t done anything to improve the offense. And it’s not even as if the players are just not responding to his system. It’s almost as if he’s not trying. All the talk in the offseason about an up-tempo offense that would rely on rhythm and incorporate the use of the no-huddle seems, in retrospect, to be meaningless banter. The offense simply seems to be plodding along, more willing to shorten the game and keep it close rather than put the heat on.

It hasn’t much mattered whether Edwards or Losman has been at the controls. Losman was charged with leading the offense on Sunday as Edwards rehabs an injured groin, and those intrepid fans who masochistically ventured up to Toronto saw that not only has Losman not improved, he actually has regressed from 2007. Edwards also has taken steps back recently, holding on to the ball for far too long after his decisiveness had been what won him the starting job in the first place.

If Jauron is still around in 2009 — it remains a source of intrigue in Buffalo as to whether or not he signed a three-contract extension that had been reported months ago but has not been confirmed — it would be unwise to ax Schonert after just one year. He deserves time to fully implement his system, even if no progress has been made in Year One. But Schonert needs to show more ingenuity in his play-calling, because the current system is failing miserably.

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Miami
Dec. 15, 2008   By Matt Sohn

Limiting turnovers key to Dolphins' success

Let’s face it. For a team that was 1-15 one season to reverse field and head into the driver's seat for the division crown with two weeks remaining the season afterward, an almost perfect storm of events must transpire. Obviously, a coaching staff overhaul can go a long way, and a retooled roster featuring a host of better, more energized players is at the root of such a turnaround, but even in the parity-filled NFL, more is needed. In 2008, the Dolphins have made the stunning transformation from 1-15 train wreck to a club on the brink of the playoffs with a new coaching staff and roster of new faces, in addition to a fervent adherence to a basic football tenant: It’s all about holding on to the ball.

The PFW spin

Despite what fan voting in the Pro Bowl may indicate, the Dolphins don’t have much elite talent, especially offensively. What they do have, however, is a coach in Tony Sparano and an offense that recognizes their limitations and adapts accordingly. For them, that means not just playing incredibly smart football, but executing everything with pinpoint precision.

The Dolphins don’t have a receiver like Randy Moss who can adjust to poorly thrown balls to make the spectacular grab and they lack an overwhelmingly massive offensive line like the Cowboys that can simply bulldoze running lanes for the running backs. For Miami, it’s all about attention to detail, the result of which is one of the main reasons they’re in the position they are right now: They lead the league in turnover margin at plus-12, having committed just 10 turnovers, a league-best mark.

Ten! The entire season! In the modern NFL, where offenses are almost always built as much or more through the passing game than the ground attack, the Dolphins’ number is staggering.

The man most responsible for the turnover characteristic is QB Chad Pennington. In the months following his release from the Jets, the presumed over-the-hill quarterback resurrected his career and re-energized a city in Miami. To say he has reinvented himself, however, would be to indulge in hyperbole. Pennington’s the same player that he was with the Jets. Only now, he’s in a ball-control style offense that plays to his strengths — decision making and accuracy — rather than one in New York that highlighted his deficiency — arm strength.

Pennington has tossed just six interceptions this season, and hasn’t thrown one in the past three games. A Rhodes Scholarship finalist at Marshall University, Pennington’s calculating, sophisticated mind is masked behind a face that looks like it could still fit in at a university setting. When WR Greg Camarillo went down with a season-ending injury, he didn’t resort to chucking the ball long to Ted Ginn Jr., thinking that was the only hope for passing-game success. Rather, he started working more with Davone Bess in a similar role to Camarillo, and began developing a better relationship with his tight ends. In Sunday’s 14-9 victory of the 49ers, he twice found tight ends for touchdowns, one to David Martin and the other to Joey Haynos, whose 19-yard TD reception represented both his first career catch and touchdown.

The Dolphins have turned over a new leaf by simply refusing to turnover.

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New England
Dec. 15, 2008   By Matt Sohn

Victory in Oakland seminal moment for Cassel, Patriots

In hindsight, was there really ever any doubt as to whether Matt Cassel was going to play on Sunday? Actually, yes. Shortly after the death of his father last Monday, Cassel flew down from the Patriots’ temporary practice facility in San Jose to be with his grieving family in Los Angeles, as would be expected. But just how would he respond to the tragedy that seemingly came so instantaneously? For as much as the football world, and even his coaches in New England, think that they know Cassel, the reality is that we are all just starting to get to know him. Here is a guy who never started a game in the NFL prior to Week Two this season, and never started a game in college as a backup to Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart at USC.

In arguably his most telling performance to date, Cassel torched the Raiders for 218 yards on 18-of-30 passing with a career-high four touchdowns. Message delivered.

The PFW spin

In the machismo world of pro football, players and coaches are taught to adhere to the mantra that no injury or personal tragedy is painful enough to not gut through on the gridiron. That’s the mantra, anyway. But beneath masculine bravado lies a humanistic quality no player is immune to — pain hurts. And as anyone who has suffered the loss of a family member can attest to, emotional pain can be more crippling than broken bones.

Because Cassel chose not to hold a standard press conference following his effort in Oakland, we can only guess as to what prompted his decision to play less than 48 hours prior to burying his father. Maybe the thrill of football overrode his mourning. Maybe he felt a sense of obligation and duty to his team. Maybe he felt missing the game would affect his value on the free-agent market this offseason. Maybe all three. Who knows? Regardless of the reason, the fact that he played, and thrived, is a testament to his character and value as a player.

In all his years playing second-string to Heisman winners and Tom Brady, we never have gotten the chance to see how Cassel responded to adversity — unless you count his decision to not transfer from USC upon getting beaten out by Leinart, that is.

Certainly, facing off against an uninspired Raiders team helped his cause. The Patriots scored touchdowns on their first four possessions in a 49-26 romp in the rain that was never competitive.

But this game showed more than the Patriots’ ability to stomp on an overmatched adversary. It showed that the player on whom the Patriots’ postseason fortunes rest with the most can perform in the moment, isolating the outside distractions for a 60-minute window when his team needs him most.

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NY Jets
Dec. 29, 2008   By Matt Sohn

Two winning seasons in three not enough to save Mangini

Eric Mangini

Eric Mangini’s three-year tenure as Jets head coach has come to an end. On Monday, owner Woody Johnson announced at a press conference that Mangini has been fired, a day after losing a 24-17 battle against the Dolphins that eliminated the Jets from postseason contention.

Johnson said that the decision was made by him and GM Mike Tannenbaum and that they had been considering the move for some time. He declined to talk about any particular individuals as replacement candidates but said all available talent will be considered.

Furthermore, he mentioned that he would like to retain Brett Favre, although he hasn’t spoken to the 39-year-old quarterback about his future plans.

Mangini’s fall from grace was as sudden as it was severe. In his first year piloting the club, he was dubbed “Mangenius” for his ability to take what had been a downtrodden club in 2005 into a surprising playoff participant in 2006. Things only went downhill from there. Last season, an undermanned club stumbled to a 4-12 campaign, and an offseason spending splurge that resulted in the high-priced acquisitions of Favre, OLG Alan Faneca, NT Kris Jenkins and OLB Calvin Pace, among others, netted just a 9-7 season.

The team was at its worst when it mattered most. Following a stirring victory over the previously undefeated Titans in Week 12, the Jets lost four of their next five games to close out the season.

The PFW spin

Canning Mangini was the necessary call for a club that had more misses than hits over the past three seasons. That may seem odd given the fact that two-thirds of his campaigns were finished with more wins than losses, but the reality is that 2006 was the only successful season, and the last two weren’t just disappointing, they were utter failures. Factor that into the “what have you done for me lately” NFL, and the writing was on the wall.

In 2007, Mangini’s rigidity in X's and O's led to much of his team’s undoing. A staunch proponent of the 3-4 system he honed while working as an assistant under Bill Belichick in New England, Mangini lacked Belichick’s resourcefulness to change up the scheme when it wasn’t working.

In 2008, the problem was finding an appropriate offensive balance. At times, it seemed as though the Jets had too much confidence in their personnel, and other times it seemed they felt they needed to trick the opposition in order to move the ball. Certainly, offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer deserves much of the blame as well, but if there was one thing Mangini preached as head coach, it was that the buck stopped with him.

Throughout his entire tenure, his stoic — almost passive-aggressive — persona made for an often contentious relationship with his players, which was only exacerbated by the Jets’ hard-line stance when it came to negotiating player contracts. Even in instances when a lukewarm resolution was made, such as was the case with TE Chris Baker and WR Laveranues Coles, the player-coach bond had already been fractured.

This, of course, leads to another issue: Why was Mangini axed and not Tannenbaum? After all, Mangini and Tannenbaum worked closely with one another in making personnel decisions and dealing with contract negotiations, yet they were treated as separate entities on Judgment Day.

Tannenbaum lucked out, pure and simple. His alibi in all this could’ve been something to the effect of “I provided the players, and Mangini didn’t deliver with them,” but that would only work if the players he brought in had proved worthy of the enormous deals they were signed to. Specifically, in the blockbuster offseason of 2008, that certainly didn’t happen. Only Jenkins reached expectations, while the Favre acquisition will go down as a tremendous bust. It also bears mentioning that Tannenbaum’s stubborn refusal to grant OG Pete Kendall a modest $1 million raise in 2007 training camp contributed significantly to the offensive stagnation once Kendall was subsequently ushered out of town.

Nevertheless, the search now commences for a head coach, and a laundry list of names are likely to be batted around — Johnson has pockets deep enough to reach for the high-priced ones.

One name to watch could be Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, among the hottest young coaches in the game. If the Jets do choose him, they could also be tempted or coaxed into signing Matt Cassel, a free agent this offseason, if Favre doesn’t come back.

McDaniels is widely regarded as a terrific schemer, and bringing him aboard would give them one of the top up-and-coming tactical minds in the game, while at the same time weakening their most bitter rival.

Of course, they said the same thing three years ago about Mangini.

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