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49ers head coach
Steve Mariucci
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There will be no further mention of Kurt Warner in this column. Or the defenses of the
Dolphins and Ravens. Or Randy Moss. Or Warren Sapp.
In many instances, excellence is shockingly obvious.
You don’t get credit for being a deep thinker by noting that Albert Einstein was a
bright fellow. You are hardly out on a limb by noting that the beauties on
"Baywatch" look good in a swimsuit.
I’m in no mood to state the obvious today, so let’s go beneath the surface.
Let’s dig a little. In particular, I’m in the mood to discuss head coaches who
are doing terrific jobs. No, not Mike Martz. As I said, let’s not ponder the obvious.
Of course Martz is doing a great job. Enough said.
So let’s get out our shovels and dig. Dig beneath the surface. Dig beneath the
first-place teams. Dig beneath the clubs that have had everything go their way this
season.
I want to discuss the Mike Riley phenomenon. No, not the Riley of this year. To try to
find anything positive about the mess in San Diego this season would stretch the bounds of
credibility. I’m talking about the performance Riley turned in a year ago. Despite
the fact that the ’99 Chargers lacked anything resembling a quality No. 1
quarterback, running back or wide receiver, the Chargers somehow scratched out an 8-8
season. If you put on a pair of sunglasses to avoid being blinded by the bright lights of
the playoffs, Riley’s performance was as good as it gets in the head-coaching
business.
So far this season, I have seen several head coaches spinning straw into gold on
struggling teams. Their teams may be sitting at home come playoff time, but that in no way
demeans the jobs being turned in by these head coaches.
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick comes immediately to mind. Have you taken a good
look at the Patriots’ schedule so far this season? They’ve faced so much
firepower that they should change their team logo to a shooting-gallery duck. Every team
they’ve faced so far this season could very well make the playoffs. Their 0-4 start
may sound terrible until you consider the fact they gave very credible performances
against the highly touted Buccaneers and the surprising Jets, Vikings and Dolphins during
that stretch. Rather than roll over and play dead, the Patriots then upset a very solid
Broncos team and the Super Bowl-threat Colts. It wasn’t until last week that the
Patriots were finally beaten handily — a 34-17 loss to the 5-1 Jets.
Belichick has coaxed exceptionally competitive efforts out of a team many NFL personnel
experts think might have the worst talent in the league. In particular, the offensive line
and running backs are huge trouble spots. This is a major problem for a team with a
franchise quarterback in Drew Bledsoe, who needs to be well-protected to be effective.
Belichick has been getting it done with a combination of great X’s and O’s
(did you see the way he confounded Colts superstar Peyton Manning?) and terrific
motivation. The Patriots may be below .500, but this is a team that has gotten absolutely
everything out of itself that it possibly can. There is no greater compliment you can give
a head coach.
San Francisco’s Steve Mariucci is another head coach who I think is doing a
wonderful job of maximizing the potential of a limited team. This was an absolutely
terrible club for much of last year. It would have been easy for Mariucci to feel sorry
for himself when Steve Young had to retire. It would have been easy for Mariucci to feel
life was unfair because of what the salary cap has done to this once-proud franchise.
Instead, Mariucci has rolled up his sleeves and gone to work. The 49ers won’t win
any titles this season, but they are making the best of a very bad situation. They have
been very smart in making the decision to finally tear apart the team and start over.
Whereas the Cowboys appear to have made a mistake when they decided to stay old in a
misguided attempt at big-time glory in the present by trading a chunk of their future to
add Joey Galloway, the 49ers have started building for the future. Sure, that means
growing pains, but they were inevitable woes that San Francisco is enduring in order to
move forward.
What is amazing is how well the offense is playing under the circumstances. I
can’t believe the 49ers may have done it again at quarterback. Amazingly, they may
have been hit by lightning not twice, but three times in the same place. I’m not
saying Jeff Garcia is going to be the next Joe Montana or Steve Young, but Garcia is
performing at a level no one could have predicted. Mariucci and his staff deserve kudos
for the development of the former CFL quarterback.
Mariucci is doing a great job of utilizing Garcia’s talents, maximizing the types
of plays he runs well and avoiding the types on which he is lacking.
Mariucci made the right call in making WR Terrell Owens sit out a game for his
ridiculous behavior against the Cowboys, yet the 49ers quickly moved on and got their
talented wide receiver the ball over and over and over the following two weeks, as he
tortured the Raiders and Packers.
The running game has prospered with Charlie Garner, once a journeyman, because of a
very effective run-blocking scheme.
The man at the top deserves a lot of credit for creating optimism on a 49ers team I
once thought might be woeful this year.
Lastly, there is Bill Cowher of the Steelers. Earlier this season I was ready to stick
a fork in this club, but Cowher got it back to playing the kind of smashmouth football
that embodies Steelers success. Of late, Pittsburgh gave the Titans a scare, upset the
Jaguars and Jets on the road and beat up on the Bengals as expected. This is a team that
has been ravaged by free agency and the fact that the Kordell Stewart experiment has
failed to date, yet Cowher has kept the team from drowning.
Belichick, Mariucci and Cowher deserve credit for keeping their teams’ heads above
water, even if those same heads are not above .500. |
