I think Schottenheimer is one of the more underrated and best coaches in the league.
I agree 100%, and I'm a Denver fan. Without question. You always see those trendy "top 10 coaches" lists, and they always include relative newcomers like John Fox, Marvin Lewis, Romeo Crennel, and Lovie Smith, while leaving off guys with a PROVEN history of success like Shanahan, Cowher, Schottenheimer, and Vermeil. I guarantee you I would take ANY SINGLE ONE of the latter 4 over any single one of the former 4. All of the latter coaches have proven over and over again that they just know how to win. All of the former coaches have proven that they can have at least 1 good season, and that's it. In the NFL, 10 years of success trumps 2 years of success every single time.Any top 10 coaches list that doesn't include Parcells, Shanahan, Vermeil, Schottenheimer, and Cowher is simply invalid. Fans might like the flash-in-the-pan guys, but owners want to hire guys who will bring a tradition of excellence. You know your coach is a coaching giant when success becomes so blase that you can go 10 seasons with only a single losing season and 2 SB wins and be ranked outside of the top 10 coaches in the NFL.
I remember 2 seasons ago, Pitt was coming off of a bad (6-10) season, and Cowher got a contract extension, and the fans went berserk, saying it was time to get rid of him. The fans, it turns out, were right- I mean, Pittsburgh went 15-1 and all, and set a wins record for the AFC, but they didn't win the SB. Cowher's a bum! Send him packing!
The way to success is to continually field a very very good team and hope to one season catch lightning in a bottle. And Schotty is one of the best in the business at contiually fielding very very good teams. Heck, it was just two seasons ago that a San Diego columnist said he looked at SD's schedule, and the worst team on it was them. They went 12-4 that season.
Chargers playcalling this season has made me sick, its pathetic how predictable it has been.
Yeah, dude, totally. I mean, like, I totally called all 4 of those LaDainian Tomlinson TD passes. And at the end of the Dallas game, I turned to my friend and said "They need a TD and have 4 downs inside the 10 yard line to get it. No way do they give the ball to Tomlinson here."Predictable. Yeah. That's what the Chargers were. And here I thought the word I was looking for was "incredible". Turns out it was "predictable".
The 2005 Chargers are 3-5 in games decided by 8 points or less (one possession).
The 2004 Chargers were 6-4 (counting the playoff loss) in games decided by 8 points or less.
It seems to me that the team that was better in close games was better, especially when they also had a better record (and yes, an easier schedule). Let's face it, if the Chargers were really as good as so many thought they were, they would have won more of those close games and games against good teams.
The 2005 Chargers are 4-6 against above .500 teams. If they were such a great team, they would have won more of those games, right?
This is a great big NFL myth. Studies have shown that the best measure of a good team is how frequently they blow out bad teams, not how frequently they win against good teams. In addition, it has shown that winning percentage in close games has pretty much no predictive power in playoff performance- in fact, teams involved in a lot of close games, whether they win or lose, are more likely to LOSE in the playoffs.Read this article for more:
http://foxsports.foxnews.com/nfl/story/5131178