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Four Downs with Dang & Doc
by Brian Davis and Paul Hopkins
3/10/2009
This week it’s all about the losing in Four Downs as Dang and Doc dissect the latest NCAA and NFL goings on. With injury ruling out Chad Pennington for the rest of the season as the Dolphins crashed to 0-3 have we seen the last of him? Elsewhere its worse for Eric Mangini, who is having a disaster in Cleveland. Has he already bombed himself out of work? The Raiders continue to lose and questions persist over JaMarcus Russell. Did they make a mistake in letting Jeff Garcia walk? Finally, another week brings more teams dropping from the ranks of the undefeated in CFB; are we looking at no-one making it through 2009 unbeaten?
 Chad Pennington has had his last injury and will now be no better than a backup at best.
 DANG: FICTION ! – Initially I was going to go the other way, but having seen some really crappy and disjointed franchises, attempting to get by and get back to winning ways, with really crappy Quarterbacks right now, I’m looking at you Oakland, Washington, St Louis, Cleveland who could all do with a sensible game manager and an upgrade on what they have, whilst addressing other issues within their teams on both sides of the ball through the draft then Chad has a chance to play and start elsewhere for another year. Pennington remains as one of the most accurate passers to have ever played the game, (Hey JaMarcus, accurate, look it up, you might learn something!) as well as being part of one of the most exciting offences currently in the NFL, if the Phin’s cut him loose after this year, then there will be somebody that should take him up as a starting QB. I think the Dolphins were always planning for Henne to be in this role anyway, so it’s come sooner rather than later. With Thigpen also now on the roster, they have good depth straight away and a great QB in Chad to mentor them over the remainder of this year. This year was always going to be a tough year, so the Dolphins have nothing to lose with Henne now to see how good he can really be.
DOC FICTION ! He still has that very good brain of his and knows how to manage games. Someone somewhere in the NFL will value that and with the influx of young QB’s who have struggled over the past few years, Chad will find a spot where he can do it again. There’s no guarantee it won’t be in Miami. They may be high on Chad Henne but he doesn’t appear to me at least to be showing the confidence and ability to take on the Dolphins. Pat White intrigues me immensely but he’ll never be a fully fledged starter at QB when push comes to shove. So there’s arguably a place for Chad there, and there will be others. The injury is a concern but he isn’t going to be losing some incredible arm strength coming back from this injury is he? He’s never had it, it’s not his game and he’s smart enough to work around it. He might only be a transitional starter, but I believe he will start in the NFL again, if not in Miami.
 Eric Mangini’s reign in Cleveland is already doomed.
 DANG – FACT ! – Hello to this year’s version, of last year’s Detroit Lions, but could it be worse? It’s not looking good! It’s like London Bus syndrome this last 12 months or so, no 0-16 seasons ever before and then all of a sudden, we could have two coming along in quick succession! A Quarterback controversy in the summer and now we have another one already after week 3. Derek Anderson, who came in at half time replacing the starter Brady Quinn, throws 3 picks and earns the starting job for week 4?? How does that work? If Anderson stinks in the first half this week, and let’s face it, there’s a good chance he will, what happens then? Fining a player $1700 for taking a bottle of water without permission, 9 hour bus journey’s in the summer for the rookies whilst The Mangenius hops on a short plane flight, he has lost his dressing room already, this is a team spiralling out of control and there’s no sign of things turning out for the better in this coming season. He conspired to blow the Jets season for them last year and his slide is continuing here. I really feel for Joe Thomas, as one of the premier Left Tackles in this league, he deserves, much, much better The only thing Mangini has done right so far, was rightly identify Michael Crabtree’s personality disorder.
DOC FACT ! Wow over the last few months we thought Josh McDaniels was giving a masterclass in how to isolate yourself in a new town with fans and players alike. And we glossed over how this clown hoodwinked himself into Randy Lerner’s good books a cup of coffee after firing Romeo Crennel, who suddenly doesn’t look that bad now does he? It must be bad when after week 3, this team has flat out quit on Mangini and could we plummet to an 0-16 record with ease that makes the Detroit Lions of 2008 look like they were just unlucky 16 times. More grievances flying in than they’ll get wins all season two last week, supposedly three more this saying Adam Schefter, Mangini fining someone $1700 for taking a $3 bottle of water from a minibar, Stuffing his rookies on a ten hour bus trip for a training session in the middle of June, while he relaxes on a 90 minute flight. I mean this is the stuff of farce. And then there’s on the field. He doesn’t know who he wants to lead the team, he seems incapable of getting players to play for him. It’s a complete and utter disaster. He clearly sees himself as the second coming of Belichick and whilst he might be following his mentor to Cleveland and bombing himself out of town, Mangini probably won’t get another shot at taking a team over… unless someone is desperate. Although I’m not even sure Al Davis would appoint this jackass.
 The Raiders would have been better off benching JaMarcus Russell and keeping Jeff Garcia.
 DANG – FACT ! – Russell will be a bust, may not be right now, but he will be. The sooner the Raider Nation realise this the better, or for the rest of us, the longer they persist with him, the longer we can laugh at them! We’re touching on game managers again; the Raiders are a bad team, they need a Garcia to manage them downfield using the weapons at his disposable like Heyward-Bey and Murphy, not a Quarterback whose rating is 39.8 and wildly inaccurate outside the hash marks.
It’s not like his O line aren’t performing either, they’ve done reasonably well so far, the offensive performances lie with the coaches, Russell and Darren McFadden’s ball handling problems. Somebody light a fire under Russell’s ass and we may see him perform, sadly, as we’ve pointed out time after time, until Al Davis goes, the Raiders will suck. If The Raiders want Russell to succeed, they have to game-plan better for him and that comes down to the coaching he’s currently getting. Garcia would have been the perfect guy for them to run a WCO this year and let Russell watch and learn. Russell will never come close to what Garcia has in this league.
DOC FACT ! – I’d just like to start out by saying that at LSU I became a huge fan of Russell and felt that with a little bit of fine tuning he could be something special in the National Football League. Now, it patently hasn’t happened for him and I am beginning to think that whilst, its not bust level yet, he’s never going to fulfil that potential. The most worrying thing has to be the regression, not so much the slow progress and improvement. He genuinely appears to be going backwards, which is just not good enough in your third season. Ever since Lane Kiffin has left, it feels to me like Russell has been meandering along somewhat, and this season he has started pretty awfully everyone has to admit. I can understand the argument that he needs to sink or swim but was Jeff Garcia that much worse than him in pre-season and camp? If so, then I’m amazed Jeff has been picked up. It’s not necessarily that Jeff Garcia would have worked in the Raiders offence, and I have my doubts over everyone’s favourite QB fling, but at this point in time, I think anyone would have to be better than Russell. They’ve put their eggs in one basket with him, and those other eggs – Bruce Gradkowski and Charlie Frye. Hardly the most impressive of casts is it? I’m very concerned about the level JaMarcus is playing at and what might be next for him.
 There will be no undefeated big school in the 2009 NCAA season.
 DANG– FICTION ! – Through 4 weeks, we have 3 teams sitting #1, 2 and 3 all at 4-0. Alabama have sat there quietly going about their business and now people are talking, Florida and Texas as per usual, have had the media hyperbole surrounding their every move, particularly this last week with Superman, sorry, Tim Tebow’s injury and concussion. People ask; should he have still been in the game? Of course he should, it was still 3rd quarter and it was what 31-7 at the time? I’d have been more concerned if it was 52-7 and there were 5 minutes left of the fourth Quarter and he was still in there and took that hit. Reports are that he’s looking terrific in training this week. The Gators also have a week off this week, so nothing to see here, move along people. Despite having tough schedules in front of them all of these teams have a great chance of going undefeated, somebody could well slip up along the way, but at least one will remain undefeated and into the NCS game they go.. If all 3 go unbeaten all the way, then good luck in sorting that out, computers and voters. And what about those Boise State Broncos? Does their weak schedule, other than the Ducks stop them climbing right up in to the top 2 and playing in the NCS game if they win out? I happen to think it will, even if the current top 3 all lose a game and those below only lose one game, they’ll be squeezed back down the top 10 if those immediately below them remain on 1 defeat.
DOC FACT ! Another set of top ten teams fell by the way side this week, most notably Cal being pounded by a resurgent Oregon team and #4 Mississippi losing at South Carolina and Penn State being embarrassed by Iowa. And such is the anomalous position of the rankings that LSU, who have been relatively uninspiring up to now find themselves quietly at #4. So as far as I can see there are only two teams left who are worth discussing when it comes to going undefeated; the Gators and the Longhorns, and I think as both of these run the gauntlet they will have one slip up. Florida is being pounded from all sides at the moment and whilst these are the kind of challenges that Tim Tebow tends to lead from the front on, he is showing some frailty now. And whilst the defence remains strong, the offence is not putting teams away like before. So I have them ‘at risk’ of a loss with that tough SEC schedule they face annually. And then there’s Texas. Texas has to go to Oklahoma State which they always make ridiculously close. National Championship year they were 28 points down at HT there and The King led the fight back. Season before last they were well down there by around 20 heading into the 4th and pulled out the win. Last year at home they only won 28-21 by batting down a last minute heave and hope in the EZ. That’s the biggest toughie, Red Rivers aside. Particularly as it comes a week after a trip to Missouri, which is tough considering how they’re playing right now.
Other than that they have Kansas at home the week before Thanksgiving ahead of travelling to Lubbock for the A+M game on thanksgiving after a short week. Doable, but I’ll be very impressed if they overcome it without a loss. And the big question that this opens out to me is this. We are approaching week 5 and Boise State already finds themselves ranked in the top 5. Looking at their remaining schedule I can’t see any major challenges for them to overcome. Add in Oregon’s charge back up the rankings, and this can only help Boise following their opening day victory. Assuming Boise go undefeated are the pollsters going to push a one-loss team above a no-loss Boise State when they already have them this high? Probably, but again its all part of the interest drummed up in the NCAA. I stick with my pre-season prediction though, that Texas will beat Florida in January but they’ll both have one loss by then.
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