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The Tennessee Titan’s Titanic Collapse Continues
Published: October 20, 2009
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From 0-1 to 0-and-deep-sixed, the default sound byte in the Tennessee Titans’ locker room this year has been some mild variation of “We move on,” an empty mantra that fills the otherwise stunned silence of their precipitous fall from grace.
“Honestly,” linebacker Keith Bulluck said, “I just kinda run out of things to talk about. It’s kinda hard when you know your team isn’t playing up to its ability and hasn’t played up to its capabilities yet. It’s tough to answer these questions.”
Going into Tennessee’s bye week, a franchise that has prided itself on fundamentals and preparation since relocating over a decade ago has the same record as they would have without a preseason. Without training camp. Without a draft or free agency. Sunday’s record-setting 59-0 loss to the Patriots serving as the latest black mark on a season in which the Titans were initially projected as Super Bowl contenders.
But from a 13-10 season-opening, overtime loss at Pittsburgh in which the Titans seemed to have the Steelers dead-to-rights, the Titans have continuously regressed in focus and morale, each loss worse than before.
At Foxboro, the Titans were literally snowed over, culminating in a New England scoring avalanche where the Titans’ injury problems and lack of chemistry and motivation were exposed with PlayStation numbers.
“I don’t think anybody in this league is 59 points better than us,” tight end Bo Scaife said. “This is the worst it gets.”
It was the worst loss in Oilers/Titans franchise history and the greatest win in Patriots history as far as margin of victory. The worst rout since the NFL merger and sixth-largest all time.
Tom Brady—who was virtually flawless against the Titans—added several new records to his Hall-of-Fame resume, including most touchdowns in a single quarter (five) and establishing the largest halftime lead (45-0) in NFL history. It’s entirely clear that had he been allowed to lead the Pats for both halves, Brady would have put several NFL single-game benchmarks for touchdowns and yardage well beyond reach.
Oh, and one more: with “The Boston Massacre” complete, the Titans have become the first team in NFL history to start 0-6 after winning at least 13 games the previous season.
“Fortunately for me, career-wise, I have never been through anything like this before and, unfortunately, it happened tonight,” Tennessee head coach Jeff Fisher said, according to the Associated Press .
“I can assure you one thing, it’s not going to happen again.”
Before Sunday’s loss in Boston, the Titans hadn’t given up 38 points since the finale of the 2006 season, when the Patriots scored 40 in Nashville to eliminate the Titans from the playoffs in Vince Young’s rookie campaign.
It seems almost surreal that a team that has consistently ranked toward the top of the NFL in defense could fall so far so quickly. While those around the Titans’ facility claim it’s a combination of bad luck and poor execution, others have suggested it’s simply the chickens coming home to roost for a franchise spoiled by success.
Steelers fans regularly claim, with a dash of Schadenfraude, that the Titans are cursed for stomping on their “Terrible Towel.” Several Titans, most notably running back LenDale White, earned public scrutiny for disrespecting the Steelers’ beloved relic in the aftermath of Tennessee’s 31-14 win at home last December over the eventual Super Bowl champions.
And while it is impossible and unfair to gauge if Titans legend Steve McNair’s homicide plays a part in any bad karma the Titans are facing, the tragedy certainly deserves a prominent place in the star-crossed timeline of the Titans’ “lost year” of 2009. (The story continues to produce headlines, with Nashville police releasing transcripts Monday of the sordid text message exchanges between McNair and his killer, girlfriend Sahel Kazemi, from their final hours together.)
For the first time in recent memory, there are serious questions regarding Fisher’s ability to control his team. With Tennessee getting outscored 127-26 in the past three games, it appears he couldn’t even keep the Titans focused and motivated through a quarter of this season.
“Right now, it’s as bad as I’ve seen it, and that’s a long time,” owner Bud Adams said in an interview with The Tennessean Sunday night. “We had the best record in the NFL last year. I can’t understand it.
“If we end up losing every game or don’t look better, I’d have to look at (Fisher’s status as head coach) pretty hard, you know what I mean?”
After 15 seasons at the helm, does the NFL’s longest-tenured coach still have the tactical rapport with his team to effect a turnaround?
These and several other hard questions will be asked in the two long weeks before a return date at home with divisional rival Jacksonville. In a brutal AFC where an 11-5 Patriots team last year missed the playoffs, Tennessee needs to look to the future and re-group. The legacy of the Fisher era may depend on it.
Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com
NFL Coaching Carousel: Kansas City Chiefs
Published: July 19, 2009
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The Skinny
Coming off an AFC and franchise-worst 2-14 season, the Chiefs finally decided it couldn’t get any worse, mercifully ending the Herm Edwards experiment that cost them a fourth-round pick in 2006 and even jettisoning their grand poobah of two-plus decades: CEO/president/general manager Carl Peterson.
In his first major move since becoming chairman upon his father Lamar’s death in ’06, Clark Hunt decided to clean the slate and start over with the most coveted front-office free-agent of the past few years as his new general manager: Patriots personnel chief Scott Pioli.
Besides being Bill Parcells’ son-in-law, Pioli was the most lauded individual not named Belichick in the Patriots organization this decade. The yin to Belichick’s yang leading to the success of the NFL’s most recent dynasty: three Super Bowl championships and an undefeated regular season in ’07.
However, while Pioli was entrenched slightly lower than Belichick on the totem pole in New England, he has been given autonomous control of football operations in Kansas City. Pioli’s first act as GM was to hire Cardinals offensive coordinator Todd Haley, who was fresh off Arizona’s first-ever Super Bowl appearance, as head coach. If it truly starts at the top, then so far, so good.
The Good
Haley is the latest in a series of Cowboy hands from the Parcells regime to land their own gig. Sean Payton (Saints) and Tony Sparano (Dolphins) each have experienced seasons of unexpected success recently as rookie head coaches. Pioli is almost certainly banking on that trend continuing with Haley.
Haley’s offense in Arizona ranked fourth in the NFL in scoring and second in passing last season, categories in which KC finished 20th or lower. But as Brian Billick proved in Baltimore, a reputation as a brilliant offensive mind doesn’t always translate when taking over as head coach. Then again, the Chiefs’ current offense is built for the pass, and Haley likes to air it out.
Like Pioli, Haley is accustomed to success in the win-loss column. His teams have gone .500 or better four of the last five seasons. He is used to being around staffs with pedigree to spare and his shoulders to lean on in KC should be far sturdier than the ones Edwards kept around.
The Bad
Tony Gonzalez. Damon Huard. Donnie Edwards. Patrick Surtain.
A talent base hinging on fading stalwarts that has gone a combined 6-26 the last two years. Larry Johnson and Priest Holmes ain’t walking through that door either.
The inaugural year for the Chiefs organization’s new brass should be the most trying, and what Haley is able to make of such a paltry roster should serve as a good barometer of his coaching ability.
At first glance, this would seem like the type of team, if any, likely to challenge the Lions’ winless wonder for the AFC-NFC Toilet Bowl. Other than a heavily overrated quarterback acquired from the Patriots (Matt Cassel) and a thoroughly underrated featured receiver (Dwayne Bowe), the offense is strapped with a joke of a ground game and an unproven offensive line.
Finally, Haley is coming off one great postseason as an assistant coach. The Cardinals (9-7) won four straight games before losing to the Steelers in Tampa Bay. The only other playoff team Haley has coached on since 2001 (the ’06 Cowboys) suffered an embarrassing first-round stunner to the Seahawks.
The Ugly
At this point in KC, it can’t get much worse. Edwards has now succeeded in care taking back-to-back franchises down to the nadir of confidence and talent depth.
Is it debatable that Edwards did not have enough help in the personnel department at both stops? Sure, but it sure didn’t seem to take Eric Mangini long to get the Jets headed back in the right direction.
As for Haley, the Chiefs’ hire looks pretty feeble relative to who they could have ideally gotten former Steelers savior Bill Cowher, who previously had the longest-tenured head coach in the league, was hired from the Steelers in 1992 after a stint as defensive coordinator under Marty Schottenheimer with, you guessed it, the Chiefs.
Oh and that Schottenheimer guy, though a bit long in the tooth now at 65, is somehow still available after his ’06 firing from the Chargers following a dominant 14-2 regular season.
The Verdict
The best thing Haley seems to have going for him is he’s Pioli’s hand-picked man. Haley has the honeymoon comfort and security of being part of a dwindling number of NFL franchises where the GM hogs the spotlight and the lion’s share of responsibility for the franchise.
Pioli should eventually replenish the talent coffers of a team whose base has been slowly-but-surely aging and relocating elsewhere. Pioli also has the good fortune of finding a team that should be easier for him to fix than others.
The Chiefs are a franchise that has relied heavily on blue-collar talent and journeymen since the Schottenheimer days, and veteran castoffs and overachievers played a large part in the initially unexpected success the Patriots organization enjoyed in the middle of salary-cap depression earlier this decade. A turnaround from a personnel point-of-view should come even more swiftly than if a renowned program-builder like Cowher was handed the reins.
In this light, however, Haley’s honeymoon won’t last long if he can’t prove himself. He is one of the few coordinators who landed a head-coaching job so shortly after his first notable viability as a “hot” candidate. Though he is lauded by past players for his unique approach to the game, we should find out pretty quickly whether or not the Parcells and Whisenhunt protégé is ready to jump in and swim with the sharks of the AFC.
NFL Coaching Carousel: Oakland Raiders
Published: July 18, 2009
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The Skinny: “The Great-ness of the Raid-uhs…” used to be the eccentric beacon call of one of the great innovators from the old AFL treading the frontier of gridiron success. Now it’s simply the caricatured bleating of an old man whose front office, far more than any other in the NFL, seems to operate somewhere in outer space.
Emperor Palpatine, er, Al Davis has accomplished quite a rare feat in recent years: gradually transforming a hard-edged franchise that used to perennially compete for Super Bowls into a revolving door operation of coaches no other club would even interview for a head job (Art Shell, Lane Kiffin) trying to manage an impossibly incohesive culture of over-the-hill, overpaid prima donnas (Javon Walker, DeAngelo Hall) who probably never should have been acquired in the first place.
Indeed, Davis has increased Oakland’s reputation as the “Black Hole” of the League so much that every coach who walks away from the rubble invariably arrives at a shinier pasture: Norv Turner resurrects his career (in his third chance) with the San Diego Chargers, Kiffin moves up from the NFL to the SEC, and Shell is probably running a bed-and-breakfast somewhere with his old offensive coordinator. Promotions all around!
The Good: …This department is getting noticeably scant, so let’s throw out the obvious and practical and see what we have left. By removing Tom Cable’s interim tag, Davis has at least given his team some locker room stability. (Now let’s see Cable last an entire season to match his predecessor’s job longevity!)
While it may seem curious to most observers that Davis hires the team’s position coaches seemingly independent of the head coach’s stamp of approval, this ironically serves as a reason why Cable could be perfect for the Raiders’ peculiar situation: He’s the only guy grateful enough of any sort of chance to be an NFL skipper that he’s willing to put up with Davis’ crap.
Think about it: even Mike Martz, who has been fired from two coordinator gigs in as many seasons and was unceremoniously canned (WHILE IN THE HOSPITAL!) during the last contentious days of his Rams regime, turned down the job in 2006 to remain offensive coordinator of the Lions.
So in other words, Martz essentially declared that he’d rather assist the coach destined to pilot the NFL’s first 0-16 wreckage than get a second chance at running a team…if that team is owned by Davis.
The Bad: In trying to salve the wounds of the messy divorce with Kiffin (for something “The General Partner” likened to insubordination), Davis went with the cheap, in-house promotion in Cable, a younger, more portly version of Cam Cameron.
Whereas Cameron had successful NFL coordinating experience with the Chargers prior to his hiring as head man in Miami in ’07, Cable only had two brief stints as offensive line coach for the Falcons and Raiders.
Conversely, Cable fared noticeably better (but still bad) during his ’08 NFL audition than Cameron did in his one-shot season, tallying a .333 winning percentage (4-8) to Cameron’s .0625 (1-15).
What both men have in common, however, are atrocious records as head coaches at the collegiate level. Cameron went 18-37 at alma mater Indiana (1997-2001) despite having Antwaan Randle El in his arsenal. Meanwhile, in even less attractive circumstances, Cable went 11-35 at Idaho (2000-03) before being similarly jettisoned.
Davis earned a modicum of respect back for finally cutting ties with perennial head-coaching candidate James Lofton, firing him as receivers coach only one year after he forced the Hall of Famer onto Kiffin’s staff. But it still begs the question of why he thought so highly of Lofton in the first place.
The Ugly: I’ll say this for Cable: like his name might suggest, he’s at least holding the Raiders together for now. (Then again, judging by his appearance, his pant buttons must be holding on for dear life!)
He wants the job, and you might be able to count the coaches in their right minds who want this job on no hands.
The Raiders may technically comprise an “NFL franchise”, but any coach who dreams of putting his own stamp on the team will be expeditiously knocked into reality (or is that a nightmare?) by a power-drunk octogenarian whose irrational lust for one last Super Bowl title before he dies seems to exacerbate his poor judgment with each passing season.
It must be of some consolation to Raiders fans that by the time Davis cuts the Cable (hyuk), his increasingly craggy visage and deteriorating despotism will have precipitated a move from Oakland to the Death Star, where the Raiders can rack up titles under new coach Darth Vader in the outer space AFL until he is finally re-absorbed into the Force.
The Verdict: Oakland would be an impossible situation for even the best of coaches, and even the best NFL roster would probably be pretty bad with Cable as the head coach.
But let’s call a spade a spade: Davis never turned in his coaching headset. (Former Raider DT Warren Sapp said in October that Davis would sometimes veto entire game plans that the coaching staff and players had been working on all week.)
To him, it’s still the ‘70s, phoning in passing plays to inept staff members who have no choice but to heed the angry dinosaur. Davis has regressively downgraded from a proven head coach and Super Bowl contender (Chucky) to a mediocre caretaker (Bill Callahan) to a so-so retread (Turner) to the worst retread (Shell) to a bright-but-inexperienced college coordinator (Kiffin) to a college coaching failure (Cable).
There’s a reason Davis ignored interest from decent retreads Jim Fassel (whose son John is the Raiders’ special teams coordinator) and Dennis Green this offseason; after the Kiffin fiasco, Davis will take no opposition. And in Cable, a grateful lackey who will likely never sniff anything close to a head-coaching job again, he has his ideal conduit.
