My gold standard for best coach without an appearance in the Superb Owl would have to be Marty Schottenheimer. It's hard not to have Marty on your mind when you realize the Bolts ditched him -- not because he was a bad coach, but because he wasn't adequately deferential to their petulant GM -- for Norv. Which is like hopping out of your Saturn V en route to the moon and saying, "Screw it, I'll walk."
Last night John Clayton said he sees no way Norv lasts past this year, which is reassuring, but as long as AJ Smith remains (and there's no indication beyond justice that says he's leaving), they're going to be subpar at best. Of course, subpar is still pretty good in the AFC West.
Rivers has had a worse season than I'd have thought possible. I'm blaming Smith -- again -- for dealing Darren Sproles, because as a checkdown option, he was perfectly reliable and changed the complexion of the games he was in. Tolbert and Mathews are battering rams and don't show that same spark yet. Phil's not completely blameless in this; he's thrown a few god-awful passes this season, but more than a few of those INTs have come in desperation heaves with nanoseconds left on the clock or when he's been backed into a third-and-infinity by the up-the-middle running you just know is coming on first and second down.
I'm an unabashed Rivers fan (playing on a torn ACL puts him in the broken-QB pantheon with a perpetually-concussed Stan Humphries for me), but he's played himself out of being regarded as elite this season. He can climb back into it, but not with this club as it is.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-11-30 02:28 pm (UTC)Last night John Clayton said he sees no way Norv lasts past this year, which is reassuring, but as long as AJ Smith remains (and there's no indication beyond justice that says he's leaving), they're going to be subpar at best. Of course, subpar is still pretty good in the AFC West.
Rivers has had a worse season than I'd have thought possible. I'm blaming Smith -- again -- for dealing Darren Sproles, because as a checkdown option, he was perfectly reliable and changed the complexion of the games he was in. Tolbert and Mathews are battering rams and don't show that same spark yet. Phil's not completely blameless in this; he's thrown a few god-awful passes this season, but more than a few of those INTs have come in desperation heaves with nanoseconds left on the clock or when he's been backed into a third-and-infinity by the up-the-middle running you just know is coming on first and second down.
I'm an unabashed Rivers fan (playing on a torn ACL puts him in the broken-QB pantheon with a perpetually-concussed Stan Humphries for me), but he's played himself out of being regarded as elite this season. He can climb back into it, but not with this club as it is.