N.Y. Times Article

Mangini Is Scouring the Jets? Mistakes for Clues


By KAREN CROUSE
Published: August 14, 2006
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y., Aug. 13 ? In Coach Eric Mangini?s mind, the unexamined game isn?t worth playing. That is why, on the morning after the Jets? 16-3 loss at Tampa Bay, Mangini?s exhaustive analysis left no decision, however minor, unscrutinized.
He spent part of Saturday reviewing the team flight to Florida, and the bus rides to the hotel, the stadium and the airport. He critiqued the choice of team accommodations.

?We went element by element to see what can be improved there,? Mangini said Sunday before leading his players through a 2-hour-28-minute practice. ?We tried to do an overall self-scout to see what we can do better.?

The false start by center Nick Mangold on the seventh play from scrimmage was not the only rookie mistake that jumped out at the 35-year-old Mangini, the youngest head coach in the N.F.L. After critiquing everything from the running game to team transportation, Mangini was highly critical of one rookie above all others:

Himself.
Mangini stresses to his players the importance of communication, but it was his own botched exchange of information that created a tempest in the tabloids concerning the state of quarterback Chad Pennington?s twice-repaired throwing shoulder.

Pennington, who was starting his first game in 11 months, had the football knocked out of his hand when his arm was cocked to throw on what proved to be the final play of his last scheduled drive. It was a play eerily similar to the one last September against the Jacksonville Jaguars that resulted in Pennington?s second torn rotator cuff in less than a year.

He popped up looking no worse for the worrisome hit, and he was all smiles in the locker room afterward as he headed for the showers. But then Pennington disappeared, and in the 45 minutes it took for him to re-emerge for his postgame news conference, speculation about the state of his shoulder filled the sound-bite vacuum.

Mangini pinned the delay on himself, explaining that he invited Pennington into his office to go over his performance while it was still fresh in each man?s mind.

?We were spending a lot of time talking there,? Mangini said, adding: ?I wanted to see what his thoughts were and give him my thoughts and talk through that stuff. It was important that we do it at that point.?

It did not occur to him, Mangini said, that others might want to hear Pennington?s thoughts, a failure for which he apologized.

?This was my first go-around too,? Mangini said. He added, ?I am learning.?
Pennington ran the first-team offense during practice and looked relaxed and robust. Afterward, when asked if he might restrict his throwing activities as the week went on, he shook his head no and practically shouted, ?It?s full-go, baby!?

Pennington came across almost as giddy Sunday, as if by withstanding the hit by Buccaneers safety Kalvin Pearson, he had hurdled the last major obstacle to his return.

With every passing day, Pennington?s comeback from his second surgery, which was perceived by many as a long shot, is looking more and more like a sure thing. Perhaps that is why Pennington, 30, punctuated a few of his comments with laughter when he met with reporters.

Pennington, whose status as a starter had gone unchallenged the three previous seasons, is being made by Mangini to prove himself worthy of retaining his old job. Instead of resenting Mangini, Pennington has responded as if he relishes the challenge.

It probably helps that Pennington, a coach?s son, shares Mangini?s preoccupation with perfection and his passion for football. Last season, Herman Edwards, the coach whom Mangini succeeded, saidd that Pennington has a single-mindedness about football borne of not having any outside interests.

?He?s very detailed,? Pennington said of Mangini. ?He?ll bring stuff up from five days ago that you?d forgotten about. Sometimes it?s good to remember those things as a player, and sometimes it?s not.

?He just does a great job of teaching off of mistakes,? he said. ?I believe it?s one of his strong points. I?ve learned a lot off of the mistakes I?ve made during camp, and being able to address those things and not repeat those things.?

In Mangini?s mind, mistakes are the building blocks of success. He does not look at a mistake as a failing until it is repeated. To drive home that point, Mangini canceled the morning practice Sunday, the last scheduled day of double practices, and met with the players instead.

Mangini is exacting, but he reserves the right to be flexible. He was not afraid to call the audible on Sunday?s schedule after deciding it was more prudent to correct the players? mistakes in the classroom before heaping more information on them at practice.

?We had that time in the morning to clean up some of those things and learn from them before we go out and execute them,? Mangini said.

In Mangini?s mind, if you are not self-scouting, you are not serious about getting better.

EXTRA POINTS

The Jets waived receiver Jovan Witherspoon, who spent last year on the Jets? practice squad, and claimed fullback Jamar Martin off waivers from the New Orleans Saints.