California Conservative

It’s just that simple. After watching the game this afternoon, that’s the only conclusion I can come to. No, it wasn’t Schottenheimer’s fault that Troy Brown made a great strip of the ball on Marlin McCree’s interception. It is Schottenheimer’s fault that he didn’t pummel the Patriots’ defense with Ladanian Tomlinson play after play in the second half. Instead, the Chargers chose to call pass plays to Vincent Jackson with the Patriots trailing 14-10, then 14-13.

LT is the best running back I’ve ever watched play. He’s better than the late great Walter Payton. He’s infinitely better than Barry Sanders, who never played well in the big games. He’s better than Emmitt Smith and it ain’t even close. With the game hanging in the balance, Marty Schottenheimer chose to call LT’s number sparingly while calling pass plays. With no disrespect to the Chargers receiving corps, that’s like running plays for Horace Grant while using Michael Jordan as a decoy. That’s like asking Nolan Ryan to face the heart of the lineup with primarily curves instead of blowing people away with one 100 mph fastball after another.

If you’re gonna lose, lose with your best. Lose while throwing haymakers, not while throwing cute little jabs.

I’ll also say that Schottenheimer is a decent coach but he isn’t a great coach, either. The truth is that great football coaches like Bill Walsh and great baseball managers like former Twins manager Tom Kelly don’t give games away. You might beat them but they don’t give games away.

A hallmark of the Twins’ world championship teams was that they didn’t commit errors, they didn’t give up many walks and they seemingly took advantage of every leadoff walk they ever got. Yes, they had Kirby Puckett and Kent Hrbek hitting and Jack Morris and Frank Viola pitching but they had lots of no-name players who simply made the routine plays time after time. Bill Walsh’s teams had superstars like Jerry Rice, Joe Montana and Roger Craig but their offensive line was a bunch of journeymen for the most part. That said, those journeymen didn’t make mistakes.

Schottenheimer’s teams have superstars like LT, tight end Antonio Gates and rookie tackle Marcus MacNeill but they’ve got some journeymen talent, too. Unfortunately, they have a few boneheads who get personal foul penalties at all the wrong times for all the wrong reasons, too.

In the end, that’s why Marty Schottenheimer isn’t an elite coach. He simply doesn’t get his players to concentrate all game long. They simply don’t make the simple play consistently enough.

Technorati Tags: NFL, Ladanian Tomlinson, San Diego Chargers, New England Patriots, Michael Jordan, Nolan Ryan, Marty Schottenheimer

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Monday, January 15th, 2007 at 6:39 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.