Offense is the specialty of the four remaining head coaches in the NFL playoffs, although only Minnesota’s Dennis Green may want to admit it this week.
Baltimore’s Brian Billick, Oakland’s Jon Gruden, the New York Giants’ Jim Fassel, and Green all came from the West Coast school of offensive philosophy directed or influenced by Bill Walsh.
While Green’s Vikings scored four offensive touchdowns in their divisional playoff win, the Ravens, Raiders and Giants managed just three total, as defense and special teams carried their teams to victory.
The Vikings were the only winners among the final four that didn’t score a touchdown on defense and/or special teams. The Vikings also are the only team among the final four that did not score a touchdown on a kick return, fumble or interception all season.
Each of the coaches developed his own style of offense, none of which look like cookie-cutter copies of Walsh’s scheme, but all of them branched out from the same tree.
Green coached under Walsh with the San Francisco 49ers. In 1977-78, Green served on Walsh’s Stanford staff and later with Fassel on the staff of Walsh’s Stanford successor, Paul Wiggin. Billick, Green’s former offensive coordinator in Minnesota, worked in Walsh’s first public relations office with the 49ers and has written a book on offense with Walsh.
Gruden, at 37 the youngest head coach in the league, worked for the 49ers under Walsh successor George Seifert as an aide to offensive coordinator Mike Holmgren, also a Walsh disciple. When Holmgren went to Green Bay, Gruden went with him, and later to Philadelphia as offensive coordinator to Ray Rhodes.
When Fassel was fired by the University of Utah in 1990, Seifert invited him to a 49ers training camp. The next season, Fassel joined the Giants under Ray Handley–another former Stanford assistant–as quarterbacks coach.
The last time: The Vikings beat the Giants in the Meadowlands on Dec. 26, 1999, to clinch a playoff spot and virtually eliminate the Giants.
Randy Moss threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Cris Carter while Robert Smith ran for 146 yards in only 16 carries, including a clinching 70-yard touchdown.
The Ravens beat the Raiders 13-10 in 1998 under former coach Ted Marchibroda in typical fashion-an 18-yard interception return for a touchdown by safety Rod Woodson and two field goals by Matt Stover.
The quarterbacks: The Bears can always find a silver lining. They passed up Minnesota quarterback Daunte Culpepper and traded down to select their preferred choice, Cade McNown, but the other three quarterbacks left in the playoffs have overcome checkered pasts.
Oakland’s Rich Gannon was rejected by Minnesota, Washington and Kansas City before finding a home.
Tampa Bay gave up on Baltimore’s Trent Dilfer after five seasons as a starter.
The New York Giants’ Kerry Collins had to tackle a problem with alcohol after quitting in Carolina and failing for Mike Ditka in New Orleans.
The Vikings and Raiders both advanced after getting rid of Jeff George as their quarterback.
In the Vikings’ last game against the Giants, George completed only 10-of-21 passes. In the Raiders’ last game against the Ravens, George started but got hurt in the first quarter and was replaced by Donald Hollas.
Bills come due: A year ago, Bills’ coach Wade Phillips fired special teams coach Bruce DeHaven after Tennessee surprised them with the “Home Run Throwback” trick play on a kickoff return in the playoffs.
Now, Phillips has been fired because he wouldn’t fire new special teams coach Ronnie Jones.
The Bills were awful on special teams in 2000. They were worst in the NFL in both punt and kickoff returns and in both punt and kickoff coverage.
The Bills finished 31st in kickoff return average and 31st in punt return average. Their net punting average was 31st. So was the average drive start of opponents after kickoffs.
Bills’ owner Ralph Wilson, who fired general manager John Butler after the season, said: “Buffalo special teams’ record was among the worst in the National Football League last season. I felt we needed a change and that my request was reasonable. … I did not want to release Wade but his refusal left me with no option.”
What they need: For the four losers in the Divisional playoff round:
Tennessee Titans: After falling one yard short of winning the last Super Bowl, the Titans fell several feet short this time–mainly Al Del Greco’s foot.
Coach Jeff Fisher likes his veteran kicker, but the 38-year-old Del Greco might want to pursue his amateur golfing career fulltime. He’s the best golfer in the NFL, which doesn’t help the Titans a bit on the football field. He missed an extra point and a game-winning field goal Nov. 12 in a loss to the Ravens. Sunday he missed a 31-yarder and had two other field goal attempts blocked.
On a team that relies so much on running and defense, a reliable kicker is a must.
Also, if quarterback Steve McNair can’t throw downfield, defenses are going to start playing him like defenses used to play Steve Walsh. In his sixth season, fourth as a fulltime starter, McNair may have peaked as a quarterback. He’s as tough as they come, a charismatic leader, but if he can’t complete a few deep out routes and post routes, he’ll continue to fall short.
New Orleans Saints: Health is the No. 1 priority. Outsiders thought the Saints were gambling when they hired Jeff Blake, Joe Horn, Charlie Clemons, and others to salvage a 3-13 team. They were second-stringers on their old teams. Then they got hurt and the Saints wound up playing second-stringers of their own on the way to a remarkable 10-6 rebound.
Coach-of-the-year Jim Haslett must guard against a retreat like the Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, and New York Jets of recent years after breakthrough seasons.
Miami Dolphins: Jay Fiedler avoided interceptions most of the season, giving coach Dave Wannstedt and his team the illusion they had successfully made the transition from Dan Marino.
By unless Fiedler’s performance down the stretch can be blamed solely on his left shoulder injury, the Dolphins have some serious thinking to do about their future at the most important position.
Wannstedt’s defense and running and special teams are good, but if quarterback remains a question, not all the pieces are yet in place.
Wannstedt fired special teams coach Mike Westhoff and offensive line coach Paul Boudreau Monday and signed offensive coordinator Chan Gailey for two more years.
With Gailey staying, fired Washington coach and Wannstedt buddy Norv Turner remains on the market. Former Bears’ offensive line coach Tony Wise is expected to replace Boudreau.
Philadelphia Eagles: They need running back Duce Staley to return from a knee injury that wiped out his season after a 200-yard start against Dallas. If coach Andy Reid can find one more receiver for Donovan McNabb to complement Charles Johnson and tight end Chad Morris, this team might enter the 2001 season as the favorite to win it all.
McNabb was a runner-up as the league’s most valuable player. If he makes half the improvement in year three as he did in year two, he will be competing with Peyton Manning and Culpepper as the league’s replacements for retired John Elway, Steve Young, and Marino.
Stat match: Some statistical matchups for championship games:
– Raiders have No. 1 rushing offense vs. Ravens No. 1 rushing defense.
– Ravens have No. 1 defense against scoring vs. Raiders No. 3 scoring offense.
– Ravens have No. 16 offense vs. Raiders’ No. 17 defense.
– Ravens have best turnover ratio with plus 23 vs. Raiders tied for No. 3 with plus 17.
– Vikings have No. 5 offense vs. Giants’ No. 5 defense.
– Vikings have the No. 1 field goal percentage; the Giants have the No. 1 defense against field goals.
There are also some statistical mismatches:
– The Giants have 13th-ranked offense against the Vikings’ 28th-ranked defense.
– The Giants also are plus-7 in turnovers to the Vikings’ minus-10.
