And while he might not be the NFL's greatest playoff coach ever, the fact is that since his first two playoff appearances, in the eight times the Steelers made the playoffs, they never lost their first game of the postseason, and the average number of wins of the teams they ultimately lost to was 11.6 (with none winning fewer than 11). Since 1996 the coaches of the teams that beat the Steelers in the playoffs were Parcells, Shanahan, Belichick, Fisher, and Belichick, a pretty impressive bunch with 7 Super Bowl wins between them. You could argue that a great coach of a great team has the advantage over him, but I think you'd be hard-pressed to find too many coaches with a better performance over such a long time period.
See my previous post for why I feel that the comparison with Marty is VERY unfair to Cowher. His playoff record is vastly better than Marty's by any measure, and in the last 10 years matches up with anyone's other than BB. I wouldn't put him up with BB, Parcells, and Gibbs, but saying that Cowher isn't them (or Lombardi, Stram, or Walsh) is hardly an insult. And unlike Parcells and Gibbs, he is, if anything, doing better in recent years, not worse.
Obviously he's earned a little leeway but I thought Cowher did a terrible job this season. He finally had a QB that was capable of carrying the team in a playoff environment, and he rushes him back from a couple of injuries, ruining their season in the process. His handling of the QB position in the past is also what I think has led to alot of his uglier playoff defeats. I'm not a big fan of his style but it is hard to argue with the results.
I agree that this was not a good year for him, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was because he knew this was going to be his last year in Pittsburgh, and he wanted to go out on top. It's not hindsight to say that he handled the Roethlisberger situation very poorly, since EVERYONE was saying that Batch should have kept the job at the time.
Now may not be the best time to call Brady the best QB in football. Yes, he's had new receivers, but he really has an awful year. Ask Patriots' fans. He's been missing receivers badly.
620 viewing the Miami Dolphins forum on Fin Heaven right now. :lol: about 300 threads on this. some want them to promote Capers. http://www.finheaven.com/boardvb2/showthread.php?t=175926 Saban Speculation Thread Part 1 (merged 9,999x) http://www.finheaven.com/boardvb2/showthread.php?t=176474 Everything about Saban Leaving or Staying Post Here (Part 2) Merged 100 x
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/football/16374957.htm The punctuation on the Nick Saban Error is greasy and greedy. You know what he was as Dolphins coach? A failure. A loser. A gasbag. And one of the worst investments Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga has ever made. He was less of a success than Dave Wannstedt and more of a traitor than Ricky Williams. There has been very little in franchise history that came with more expectations and fewer results than this hypocrite who at the end avoided the hard questions one last time. Talk like a warrior. Behave like a weasel. Maybe Saban would be better off in college. Because, in the pros the last few days, he has looked like a complete and utter amateur. He will be remembered in these parts as a quitter and a liar. He leaves the franchise in last place, with what used to be his good name somehow far lower than that. And for this he'll get a $25 million raise and more job security in Alabama. Makes you wonder what USC's Pete Carroll or Ohio State's Jim Tressel are worth, doesn't it? Larry Coker, a decent man, gets fired for his one championship. Saban, a duplicitous one, gets the most lucrative job in college football.
I haven't seen him much so I can't say, but his numbers are very much in line with what is typical for him, and this year with no decent receivers. I am very comfortable saying that there is no QB I would rather have behind center than Brady. Having said that, I hope he proves me wrong on Sunday.
If you look at the last 10 years, I think Tony Dungy has a far superior record to Cowher. Dungy has a 5 and 8 playoff record and Cowher has a 12 & 9 playoff record. Prior to his run last year the only difference between Dungy and Cowher was Dungy got fired for not winning a SB.
Hard to argue with a single word here, isn't it? Think any reporter in Tuscaloosa will ask him about this? How it might reflect on the "integrity" of the Crimson Tide program? How it might make it difficult for him to tell all those 18-to-20 year olds to "do the right thing" when he's teaching them those tough life lessons? Answer: no.
Even looking at the stats, his numbers are way down, and it has more to do with him than his receivers. In fact, the Patriots fans I've talked to think he may have some kind of injury he's hiding. completion % down, yards down (by 600), YPA (the best measure of a QB's effectiveness along with TD/INT ratio) is down almost a full yard from his last two seasons. He didn't even deserve to go to the Pro Bowl this season. One thing the voters got right.
How exactly does a 5-8 playoff record make Dungy far superior to Cowher with a 12-9 record (12-7 since 1996, which is what I was talking about)? Dungy has won 65% of his regular season games and 38% of his playoff games, Schottenheimer has won 61% of his regular season games and 29% of his playoff games, and Cowher has won 62% of his regular season games and 57% of his playoff games. Among coaches who have coached more than 100 regular season games and more than 10 playoff games, five have playoff winning percentages less than 40%: Paul Brown (and this is of course totally misleading, since it doesn't count the pre-NFL Browns and downweights the 1954 and 1955 NFL champs who only played one postseason game), Dennis Green (who would be on anyone's short list of awful head coaches), Chuck Knox (fired four times), Dungy, and Schottenheimer. Dungy and Schottenheimer are rightly cast as two of the worst playoff coaches in history. Cowher is not even remotely in that class, and I can't see any argument that he is.
Sure, he was smart. Except contacting Alabama prior to Shula's firing puts the timeline, when - November? October? Early to the midway point of the NFL season? The timeline indicates this is a Herm Edwards-style shuffle, except unlike Vermeil, Mike Shula wasn't planning on moseying on. I'll never understand these Finheaven folks, though. They're all tremendously excited about Ricky Williams returning to the Dolphins. Ignoring the likelihood that he'll get caught drugging again, these people enjoy the services of the #2 overall selection in the 2005 draft; if you can't win with him, you'll never win, and your problem isn't at halfback.
Last year was by far his best year numberswise. Here are his career numbers as a starter: Year Team G GS Att Comp Pct Yds YPA Lg TD Int Tkld 20+ 40+ Rate 2001 New England Patriots 15 14 413 264 63.9 2843 6.88 91 18 12 41/216 32 6 86.5 2002 New England Patriots 16 16 601 373 62.1 3764 6.26 49 28 14 31/190 37 3 85.7 2003 New England Patriots 16 16 527 317 60.2 3620 6.87 82 23 12 32/219 44 8 85.9 2004 New England Patriots 16 16 474 288 60.8 3692 7.79 50 28 14 26/162 52 10 92.6 2005 New England Patriots 16 16 530 334 63.0 4110 7.75 71 26 14 26/188 59 9 92.3 2006 New England Patriots 16 16 516 319 61.8 3529 6.84 62 24 12 26/175 46 8 87.9 It is clear that his numbers are right in line with what they were from 2001-2003, and only a bit worse than they were in 2004. During those years he only managed to lead the team to three Super Bowl wins, and had much better receivers than he does now. I think the "Brady is hurt" rumors are overblown; if he really is seriously hurt, then this would one of the most impressive years for an injured QB in recent memory.
Wow. Alabama gives Miami a double whack. First on Don Shula's family, then the Dolphins. Amazing how a college program can do that to a pro team and those who are related to that pro team.
