Last season he had no expectations, nothing to lose. And so he played like it, we were aggressive and he made it known that regardless of reputation every starting position on the team was open. He played to win, and exploited holes. It worked, and the team finished 10-6 with a playoff berth. In his second season, Mangini has become a scaredy-cat. He is playing not to lose. He is playing like he is afraid that his reputation will be tarnished. He is not playing his best players and he is not running the sets that put the team in the best position to win. The players lack the passion they had last season. The team has gone from one that played with no inhibitions, to one that is afraid of making mistakes. 4th and 1? Punt. 3rd and 7? Draw. It's starting to smell a lot like Herm & Co. here. Mangini was supposed to be the anti-Herm... but things are quickly reverting to "more of the same." For a guy that was supposed to be a Belicheck protege, it sure is beginning to look like Mangini lacks the... brass balls, fearless approach... the gameplans that are designed to "make us play our game and make you stop us." Instead we are not only becoming complacent and playing not to lose against our opponents, but we are playing against ourselves everyweek. That is a problem. I am not offering any solutions, just making an observation. I am not saying Mangini should be replaced. Merely, we should all withhold our judgment as labeling this guy a "genius" after one year was unfair to all parties involved. I sure hope things get turned around.
There is only one position he is not playing his best player. 1 and that is it. Unfortunatelly that happens to be the most difficult position to change. he is the Capt, team leader and well respected in the clubhouse. You do not arbitararily fire the guy with at least giving him ample opportunity to fire himself (ie the eagles and perhaps one more game). Well that is if you do not want to irreparably lose the team. Also the "genius" label was by the press not us! He still going to be a damn good coach mark my words.
We don't have the players to be aggressive. If we did we probably would play that way. To play aggressive you have to have the confidence that if a mistake is made you can make up for it on the next play. If we make a mistake with this team we will get burned every time. Everybody wants to forget how bad the teams were we played last year.
I have been saying this for weeks. Mangini is showing how good a coach he is this season, and I fear it is going to cost us more in the long term, not just by losing valuable experience at the QB position but destroying all goodwill he accumulated last season with players and not only driving them away but keeping valuable free agents from signing. who is really going to want to endure his grueling training camps just to participate in losing seasons that are directly attributed to his poor decision making?
I agree 100% with this post. Mangini is coaching like he's got everything to lose, and as a result, he does. Last year, he coached like he had nothing to lose, and he won. Man-up, Mangini.
Last year mangini used a lot of gadget plays to accomplish converting third downs , the play calling was not entirely in chads hands. Do you think for a second that chad would audible out of a passing situation to a direct snap to brad smith or allow for smith to come under center to throw off the opposing defense. this year the word vanilla is properly placed , its a system of conventional plays if we have noticed its been regular plays being run ; just recently they tried the direct snap and the Leon gadget flip! the big difference is the check down (No huddle offense) is now entirely in Chads hands. If there flooding the deep passing lanes maybe that's why its 5-7 yard passes unless they need a 10-16 yard-er to convert that third down. who the hell knows. I don't think mangini is getting complacent I think its the coordinator ; either trying to grasp what he has "Chad" And calling plays to suit his skill set! We are all screaming bench em for Kellen . well its a guarantee we will struggle at times with him too so either way we loose. Beat the god damn Eagles and lets move on !
There was an interesting article on PFW.com about how Mangini might be afraid to change QBs because of how the team would react to it. I think Mangini right now is really having trouble keeping this team together because he is doing things that the players really seem to hate i.e using the 3-4 and having grueling training camps
It was an editorial, total rumor mongering and speculation. It was anything other than reported news from people with knowledge on the inside.
I agree completely. I can't stand us punting all the time on 4th and 1, we have to start taking more chances.
Maybe he was just a shitty ball boy last year and didnt play any good teams? Don’t even mention the Pats in the mud game…mud and rain throws a play book right out the window. They made fools out of us the other two times they played us.
i don't know which team you've been watching lately, but it could not have been the jets!!!! teams are" NOT FLOODING THE DEEP PASSING LANES", noodle arm can't use the deep passing lanes. if anything, teams are stacking the box and daring noodle arm to go deep because they don't fear his arm!!!!
No - I'm saying that rain and mud neutralize a good quarterback and game plan which makes the game a toss up. A toss up last year ? this year if the pats played us in the middle of the ocean they would win 47 ? 0.
we played them ok in the playoffs, i think the final score was a lil decieving, and u dont accidently win 10 games in this league, "shitty" teams beat good teams every week, to consistently win MOST of the games u should is still a good accomplishment, this isnt college football where we are texas and we are beating up on rice and tulsa every week, this is the nfl, and last yr some of our wins were pretty impressive, see minnesota and green bay-2 away games, vs 8-8 packers in which we blew them out, and in minn. vs a good defense we took care of business, u dont luckily win 10 games and i happened to be very proud of this team last yr........realisticly we could be 4-1 right now, last yr we did the lil things that made the diff, this yr we are not, in this league that is the difference
Those were statements from the recivers and Quarter back after the buffalo game. What team are you watching. I know we havent see anything down feild that doesnt look like a meatball thrown But I state by my statement. Its been highly discussed about the failed attemts at mixing in the run then we are playing catch up the rest of the way. Oh by the way I hold Chad diirectly responcible for two losses.Chad this season has free rain when they are running thier version of the No-huddle. He takes a look down feild and theres nothing ; so he checks it down or finds the saftey valve 5-7 yards the recievers coming back to the ball. Maybe the problem is Chad can check out of the play and his reads havent been right , anythings possible . Last week we made tough first downs. Hey it boil down to play calling in my book and the limits that your current QB puts on you. Whether these play are BShotty's or Chad reading and calling the play at the line I dont know.
mangini's in danmed if you do, danmed if you don't mode. There are a few vets supporting CP and if he's benched would be pissed. There are the young guys who may be forced to tow the company line because they need their first jobs in the NFL. I beleive this is the group that mangini has lost. His talk about the best players playing has lost credibility. I beleive that soon the defensive players are going to turn on him also. Not so much for the defensive alignment switch but for keeping them on the field after they fight so hard to give the ball back to the offense. saying this is not taking away from the fact that the defense is sucking. The vets are old and don't really care about being quiet. They've been in games with chad and know that as chad goes so will they (coles, and I don't mean playing time I mean tenure).
that is 100% correct. He is not just gonna bench Chad. Not without giving him every chance in the world. What happens if Clemens bombs? Then what? It's coming close to a time for change if Chad keeps playing the way he has,but just because a bunch of impatient fans(whom a bunch probably jumped on the bandwagon in 98 thinking the started rooting for a sure fire winner and are disappointed)want to play GM. He has led this team to the playoffs everytime he has been healthy,so he's gonna get every benefit of the doubt.
Well said Winston. Papers look for controversy, if it is not there, they try to create it by making up stories based on theories. Of course players don't like grueling camps, who would? As far as the 3-4, the player I could see complaining is Vilma, as he as obviously struggled. So if they quote Coles on offense, and Vilma on defense, there is two players out of 50 or so players complaining. Don't believe everything you read unless you hear if for yourself straight from the team.
I have faith in the system Mangini is trying to implement. Its going to take time and I accept that. BTW - going for it on 4th and 1 with a weak running game is usually a pretty bad idea. I am glad some of you are not the coach.
How about a quote from a player or any source from the team? Reporters who print things without sourcing them are for the most part frauds. It's not just sports reporters, It's all reporters. I have no problem with speculative editorials but when a reporter says something based on a source quote the source and if it's a source that can't be named say so. You're making a reach that just isn't there. This is just sloppy journalism that happens to fit your opinion. The reporter might as well be posting his opinion on this board.
