Should Scott Linehan Stay In St. Louis? November 17, 2007
Posted by brennerdlinger in Arizona Cardinals, Football, Marc Bulger, NFC West, NFL, National Football League, San Francisco 49ers, Scott Linehan, Seattle Seahawks, Sports, St. Louis, St. Louis Rams, St. Louis football, Steven Jackson, Torry Holt.Tags: Bill Cowher, Georgia Frontiere, Greg Olson, Head Coach, Jim Haslett, Marty Schotenheimer, NFC, NFC West, NFL, Scott Linehan, Sports, St. Louis Rams
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St. Louis Rams’ fans have been calling out for the sacking of current head coach, Scott Linehan. And I don’t blame them. The St. Louis Rams, picked by most to win the NFC West over the Seahawks, Cardinals and the 49ers, are currently……. last in the NFC West. They have won only once out of 9 games, and lost 8 games in a row. So who’s to blame for this performance? People on St. Louis Rams’ forums/bulletin boards have been calling for the head coach to head out of town, and promote current defensive coordinator Jim Haslett to the head coach spot. Wait a minute; are they talking about Jim Haslett who took New Orleans to one of their worst seasons ever, and the Jim Haslett whose defense has put up an average of 27.5 points per game?
Yes, anyone who knows football can tell you that the Rams’ only strong point of the current season is their defense. But Haslett is not an improvement over Scott Linehan. His defense let in 22 points against his old team, the team that he used to be head coach of, in the 4th quarter after the Rams had already secured victory. He didn’t focus his defenders; he turned a blowout into a tight game won on the final onside kick. So is he really the replacement head coach the Rams’ to save their season? I don’t think so. If anything, he’s going to bring the Rams’ into more trouble if promoted to head coach.
So let’s think on the other side of the picture… offense. No way is current Rams’ offensive coordinator Greg Olson going to become the replacement head coach. He’s got one of best offensives in the league, and he turned it into disaster. He turned the “Greatest Show on Turf” into the team that currently turns the ball over every 4 drives. He had Marc Bulger, Steven Jackson (most yards from scrimmage last year), Torry Holt, and Isaac Bruce but still didn’t do anything with them. He also had new additions Randy McMichael and Drew Bennett. But both McMichael and Bennett had not produced like they did at their previous teams of the Miami Dolphins and Tennessee Titans respectively. His play calling was so bad that Scott Linehan decided to take over the play calling duties. And even idiots can figure out Linehan is not the guy you want to be calling the plays.
So it looks like Scott Linehan gets his job until the end of the year. But he’s not going to stay any longer. Marty Schotenheimer and Bill Cowher are both without jobs, and undoubtedly they’re better than Scott Linehan, who has a great head coach record of… 8-15. Schotenheimer has coached many teams that produced year after year; and posted loads of wins year after year. Bill Cowher took the Pittsburgh Steelers to the Super bowl in 2006. I know I was surprised to see the Cowher coached Steelers beat team after team and represent the AFC in the Super bowl. The same AFC that had teams such as the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts battling it out for the spot that Pittsburgh took.
There aren’t many Rams’ supporters that want Linehan to stick in St. Louis. But the people that matter, the Rams organization, particularly owner Georgia Frontiere, want Linehan back for one more year. Dream on… you want the coach that was supposed to win the NFC West and battle it out for the NFC Championship game but instead has won 1 out of 9 games, and coming last in the weak NFC West? You want the coach that has brought the Rams’ their first every TV blackout since their days at Los Angeles? You want him back for one more year, when you could choose proven, veteran coaches such as Schotenheimer and Cowher?
And please don’t play the injury card. I know only 1 starting o-lineman is started the game against the Saints (Alex Barron). I know that Bulger played with injured ribs and Steven Jackson was out for a couple of weeks. I know that Dante Hall, our prized new recruit and kick returner was injured. But it was Linehan’s job to try to prevent those injuries. It wasn’t because Linehan was unlucky. It was because Linehan didn’t prepare the team well.
Ok, let’s give Linehan the benefit of the doubt. But the Linehan led play calling is the main reason Rams’ fans want him out of St. Louis. People don’t win football games with HB screens for the majority of the game. People don’t win football games with bad clock management (in which Linehan frustrated most Rams’ fans). You win with a Mike Martz style of play. You air it out to your receivers 20 yards away, not to your HB 2 yards away. You make the defense scared of your offense, not make the defense feel like they could shut down your offense 24/7. Look at what Mike Martz is doing right now; over at Detroit coaching one of the most feared offenses in the league. He’s over at Detroit, turning a loser to a winner. Those are the types of coaches that you want to lead your team. Not Scott Linehan who has never coached a team with a winning record, and turned a winner to a loser.
Should Scott Linehan stay in St. Louis for one more year? No he shouldn’t. I don’t care about how many injuries the team has gotten. It’s his job to utilize the talent he has around him and make the team a winner. Many coaches have done this. It’s Linehan’s job to train his players, and teach them methods to avoid injuries. But at the end of the season, Georgia should look at Linehan’s report card. The coach of the team that lost 8 games in a row, and puts the Rams at prime position to draft a rookie that gets paid a huge contract (have I mentioned the Rams are in huge salary cap trouble for 2008?) and could possibly be the next Ryan Leaf. The Rams now have to rebuild the team, thanks to Linehan. And veterans such as Bruce, Holt and Pace could never play a playoff game ever again, thanks to Linehan.
It’s time to go, Scott. It’s time for you to head off to another place to start your coaching career all over again.
Written by Brendan X aka brennerdlinger of http://www.inthagame.net
Comments would be appreciated. This is the first time I’ve ever written an article.
There’s absolutely no way you can NOT play the injured card. How many games have you watched this season? Of the all nine I’ve watched they have played inept, confused, and distorted trying to figure out who is where. When Bulger’s ribs were still in a mess (especially the Tampa Bay game) he was so hasty to get rid of the ball, worried that he was going to take a big hit to convolute his ribs up forever, forcing him to release to quickly for overthrown and under thrown passes. It was ugly.
It wasn’t only HB screens. The first few games Jackson was hardly receiving the ball and Bulger was forcing passes over the middle of the field. Furthermore, a lot of passes went via screens to Isaac Bruce which caused a lot of mayhem because even I knew what the hell they were going to run, which just shouldn’t be.
To avoid injuries? To condition better, work harder, avoid accidents, stay in shape. It’s all in the natural sequences of that. But it’s not as easy as it seems. How do the Patriots continue to keep their ship comprised? It’s because they work at it, work at it, and work at it for that winning formula. The Rams need to tear some pages out of their book.
How are you able to call Linehan a bad clock manager and not call Martz one, too? What the fuck, man? Do you not even remember the last few years of the Martz era? It was like he had lost his fucking mind. Let’s go back to the 2005 pre-season. It doesn’t matter, but this is a little humorous. Down against the Raiders by 2, Chris Chandler is leading the Rams up the field and, they are in field goal range. Time is running out when all of a sudden Jeff Smoker, on the sidelines, turns to Coach Martz and says “Coach Martz, are we going to kick the field goal? Time is running out.” Martz replied saying “oh, shit!” as the time expired. Funny.
Now let me say something not so funny. Remember the Rams’ last legitimate shot to make the Super Bowl, to exert their revenge on the Patriots? That was the 2003-2004 season. The Rams were 12-4 and stormed into the playoffs. They matched up against the eventual NFC champions, the Carolina Panthers. The whole game was a cris-cross. Carolina went up late but the Rams stormed back off some whacky plays. An emotionally-charged Marshall Faulk led the team onto the field. Jeff Wilkins recovered one of his own onside kicks. Marc Bulger was absolutely terrible, and why? Because of Mike Martz. I’ll post another comment on what I wrote back in March on my former Rams blog.
1. Todd Steussie – Out for the Season
2. Orlando Pace – Out for the Season
3. Mark Setterstrom – Out for the Season
4. Adam Goldberg – Out for the Season
5. Jerome Carter – Out for the Season
6. Raonall Smith – Out for the season
7. Tye Hill – 4 Weeks
8. Fakhir Brown – 4 Week Suspension
9. Claude Wroten – 4 Week Suspension
10. Steven Jackson – 5 Weeks
11. Dane Looker – 3 Weeks +
12. Corey Chavous – 2 Weeks
13. Isaac Bruce – 2 Weeks
14. Richie Incognito- Out for the season
15. Pisa Tinoisamoa – 2 Weeks
16. Marc Bulger – 3 Weeks
17. Dante Hall – 4 Week +
18. Drew Bennett – 3 Week
19. Brett Romberg – 2 Week +
20. Claude Terrell- cut
21. Leonard Little- Out for the season
22. Todd Johnson- 2 weeks
I don’t like Linehan, and he should be gone, but any other coach with that many crucial injuries would be struggling as well. Not with a 1-8 record, but it’s not like the Rams would be the NFC’s New England Patriots, fighting for the number one seed; they’re practically fighting for the number one pick with Miami, New York [Jets], San Francisco, and Cincinnati
As for Cowher and Schottenheimer, again they will be asking for too much money. It’s not like they’re internally yelling “bring me, free me, loosen me St. Louis!” The Rams would have to negotiate with them and throw so much money at them that it’d be ridiculous. Would it be worth it? Break out the seesaw and balance things out. Healthy, this team is good. Injured, this team is plum awful. They’ve been hard to judge, but to look at them from different perspectives has given us all an idea of what they’re about — an injured football team with an awful head coach, a confused offensive coordinator, and a defensive coordinator that knows he’s trying his best with the players he’s got on the field (Fahkir Brown and Ron Bartell can’t cover to save their lives).
The game. The play. The coverage. It all happened on January 10, 2004. The Rams were playing the Panthers who surprisingly shocked the NFL in winning the NFC South. The Rams were the 2nd best NFC team that year, and I feel would have made it to the Super Bowl if it hadn’t of been for this game. The Rams built a 6-0 lead early on in the game, but the Panthers battled all the way to really force themselves upon our Lovie Smith oriented defense, and really controlled the tempo the whole game. The Panthers held a 23-12 lead in the 4th Quarter against us until we scored a touchdown on a pass to Dane Looker. After the score, we tried the 2-point conversion, which was also converted on a 1-yard run by an emotional Marshall Faulk that night. It couldn’t have been any better it seemed. I sat in my chair, practically having wet dreams over possibly having another date with the New England Patriots for Super Bowl XXXVIII.
However, with 2:43 left in the game, inside Carolina territory, our former bastardizing Head Coach, Mike Martz, elected to play it safe inside Carolina’s 20, and kick the field goal. However, it might have been due to Marc Bulger’s play that game (3 INT’s), but nobody will never know. Jeff Wilkins on his 5th attempt of the game, knocked through yet another field goal, going 5/5 up until that point, forcing overtime. I sat there, still happy, even though I would have liked for us to have been more aggressive inside Carolina’s 20 and went for the lead. The Panthers drove all the way to the Rams’ 22 yard line, and John Kasay hit a 40 yard field goal to apparently win the game (I was nearly on my deathbed at the point in time.) However, a delay of game penalty set the Panthers back a little farther, and Kasay missed a 45 yard field goal that went wide right to give the ball back to the Rams. I was ooing and eeing after that, very excited, hoping for a Rams’ trip to Houston assuming that they would have beaten the Philadelphia Eagles (also known as the league’s official chokers.)
The Rams marched down the field on the ensuing drive, yet Wilkins, who had been arguably the best kicker of the season, missed a 53 yard field goal that fell just short of the crossbars. Yet, I still wasn’t worried. After a 3-and-out by Carolina, we held the ball late in the first overtime. We were driving, and no matter how fatigued these guys wearing the blue and gold were, I knew they had enough power to convert. Then again, I always “know” things that aren’t going to happen. Bulger snapped back out of the pocket on a long second down, while being able to hit a Marshall Faulk for a good 8 yard gain, he elected to throw a pass intended for Isaac Bruce. The pass was extremely off the mark, and was picked off by Cornerback, Ricky Manning Jr.
The second overtime started, 15:00 left. A new fresh set of downs for the Carolina Panthers, and it just looked oh-so like they were years from the endzone, and I was sitting there thinking that the Rams would have had the chance to take the ball back the other way on possibly a Jake Delhomme interception. However, everything went wrong. It was most certainly, “the play.” I sat looking on, my leg propped up on my bed, my Rams pillow supporting the paper plate that I was eating some cheesesticks on. I remember the Rams lined up in the nickel defense. We had Aneas Williams playing tight coverage at the line, faking the blitz nearing to cover former Ram, Ricky Proehl. Delhomme snapped back in the pocket, made some adjustments scanning the defense as he pumped the ball at an angle that knocked us off guard to the mid-left of the field. Jason Sehorn, who was covering a zone over the middle of the field bit at the pumpfake. As soon as I seen that, I felt tears begin to wind up behind my eye. Delhomme fired a pass across the middle to a slanting wide receiver, it was Steven Smith. To the 40, to the 30, to the 20, to the 10, nobody in front of him, the 5, touchdown..and Carolina was on their way to the NFC Championship (and soon, the Super Bowl.)
The loss made me weary. I was whining and bitching the whole off-season about how we could have made it to the Super Bowl for the third time in the last 4 years (at the time.) I was hazing at the Panthers the whole off-season as well. Really grunting on how we signed Jason Sehorn that off-season, since he didn’t make too many plays all year. And after the 2003-2004 season, and the bad bite of the pump-fake from Jake Delhomme, that turned out to be the last snap that he would ever see as a football player, as he retired that off-season. I’ve played the game in my mind thousands of times, not being able to get it through. The question remains, who had to take the blame for the game? It’s a team sport, and the game could have very well been lost earlier in the game (thanks to some fumbles.) However, was there a key guy?
Lovie played a part, his (run) defense was downright awful, whether his scheme was flawed or he drafted/signed the wrong guys (how did Jamie Duncan pan out replacing Fletcher? What about our 1st round DT’s?) or perhaps he was too caught up in the Chicago HC position, or maybe all of the above. But I for one don’t think back on Lovie Smith’s defense half as fondly as most fans seem to do (in retrospect because of the success the Bears have had recently perhaps?) Lovie made a lot of God-awful mistakes here, and we’re still paying for them on defense (Marmie didn’t help either. That’s for sure! Now he’s in Seattle. Thanks Seahawks!)
Martz played a part as well, I still cannot figure out how or why he settled for the field goal instead of going for the win. On that play, Martz abandoned everything he was known for and it cost us dearly, did he let the critics get to him and chickened out? If Martz had been a ball-control, defense kind of coach I wouldn’t blame him as much, if that was his style, but he completely abandoned his own style and tried to be something he was not. The whole team saw it, they were all looking out at the sideline waiting to hear a play called, waiting for Martz to make his move and give our offense the best possible shot at winning. But Martz remained passive and just let the time run out, he couldn’t have said it more clearly – “I don’t believe in you”, and the team got the message. Can’t remember a worse decision in terms of leadership in all the time I’ve watched the Rams. We had the momentum driving down the field and then we gave it up due to miscommunication between Marc Bulger and Isaac Bruce. Yet, I’m still here, and I still love these pathetic guys that wear the blue and gold horn helmets. Feel free to send email to sound off about this article, or leave a comment on here (which will send me an email.)
what are you kidding ? scott is coming back next year ! He is the most predictable coach in the leage. when you are so protective of your players ,guess what the other team will gun for them. No conservative coach has ever one a superbowl. hell they don’t win many games at all ,but they all hide behind the phrase “play smart football” I really feel for the players that are getting older as the rams waste time with scott.