Fisher getting cooked by ESPN writer Sal Paolantonio

Coach Fisher Deserves Better!

ESPN's Sal Palantonia

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=paolantonio_sal&id=3417631

 

I think their is already a thread on this.

 

Sal Pal whatever his name is, is an idiot! what he fails to mention in that 13 years is that we didn't have a home stadium for 3 years of coach fishers tenure also another 2 years in houston they were booed and nobody attended. so out of those years plus cap hell, injuries and building thru the draft i think he is a fine coach! and Denny green although i think is a good coach in his own right had one of the greatest teams of all time and couldn't even win in the playoffs!! We got beat by arguablly the best defense of alltime (2000 Ravens) and the year before the greatest offense of all-time(1999 Rams) so go figure!

 

Sorry i just wanted to be heard, This erks me in the worst way!

 

^that's what's keeping his job. Excuses. Ignore all the games lost due to stubbornness and playing favorites: Schwartz, Steve, Eddie, Lamont Thompson, Reynaldo Hill, Ryan Fowler, Peter Sirmon, etc etc etc.

He's an alright coach. Nothing more. Mediocre. So what we can say is that at least he isn't bad.

 

Well...

The problem is two fold. First, how do you rate the coach. If you rate on win percentage, Mart Schottenheimer is one of the top coaches in history...and yet he got pushed out of San Diego...a team appearing to be on the brink of a long and successful run. Why? Post season record and perception! So did his high win percentage mean anything? Not really.

Second, depending on the timing, a lot of coaches can look good, bad or mediocre depending on when you choose to rate them. If Sal had rated Fisher coaching off our Super Bowl appearance or the year after, he'd be writing how Fisher was one of the top Head Coaches in the NFL. Didn't he Titans have the most consecutive playoff appearances (year to year), played a very fine SB considering our FS was hurt the whole game (never mind that Dorsett was terrible) and Blaine went down for a large chunk, and were the dominant team in the AFC for a few seasons til the Ravens, age and the cap knocked us out?

Write an article on Fisher after his first 3-4 seasons and he's one of the worst coaches in the league.

Write an article now...as Sal did...and you have selective vision. Sure his winning percentage is way down after 3-4 years of rebuilding. You compare his 'numbers' to Denny Green but did Green turn his team (Cards) into a playoff team again? Um...no...forgot that part. And Green's postseason record is dreadful! Case in point...the Vikes with Moss seemed unstoppable (the 2 Carters and Moss)...the Giants not only beat them...they anihilated them (with Kerry Collins at the helm no less)!!!

Or you could write the opposite...about how he built the Titans from the ground under the first time into a powerhouse (Eddie, McNair, Kearse, ect)and this is round 2 (Young, White/Johnson, defense).

I bet 3-5 years from now (assuming Fisher is still here), Sal will be writing how Fisher is one of the top coaches (again) since I expect us to be in the playoffs most of the time and his winning percentage will again go back up. And if we are fortunate enough to win a Super Bowl during that time...all of a sudden it will be future hall of fame coach Fisher...lol

Tom Moore? It has been revealed during games that Peyton started changing plays more and more every year until Moore just sent in 'suggestions' (and that was years ago, BTW). So is he to be congratulated and revered for letting Peyton do what he wants???

Monte Kiffin is an excellent Coordinator, but it's a young man's game. By the time he's risen to prominence, he's too old to 'break' in as a head coach with no head coaching experience.

I find it interesting that someone would list Dungy and Coughlin as top 5 coaches in the league. Sure you can make the argument because they just won Super Bowls...but Dungy was like Green in Tampa....had a great team (defense really...TERRIBLE offense) but couldn't do anything in the playoffs with it. Gruden, with arguably a worse team, won a Super Bowl? Where's he on this list? And Dungy for years...even with awesome regular season stats/records in Indy, was bad in the postseason...especially against the Pats. But win a Super Bowl and you're vaulted into the ranks of dominance...

Coughlin is an even better example. He built an awesome team in Jax, but the titans were better and that team could never get over us. The Giants were not too thrilled with him taking the reigns though they respected him, but his first hires were not good. And Coughlin has been under so much fire the last few years (including being forced to hire new assistants) it was always a Coughlin watch to see if he got fired and how much he'd need to do this year to save his job one more year. Hardly talk of a top 5 coach in the NFL. Just ask a Giants fan what they thought of Coughlin heading into last season and they'd pretty much all agree nothing short of a NFC Championship game appearance and he'd be fired.

Timing!

A few more things Sal...

We didn't almost beat the Rams (though that sounds better), we almost TIED them. And don't mention that the winning TD pass should have been INTERCEPTED except for Kearse crushing Warner forcing the ball to be way underthrown and our secondary (including neither starting safety against the most prolific passing attack in history to that point) was deeper than their WR's and Bruce made a better adjustment back to the ball. And don't bother that the defensive leader of the D had to be carted off the field and Fisher got the whole team together and made a speech which sparked an amazing Titans comeback. Who cares...the Titans lost, right?

Fisher is not a perfect coach by any stretch. He kept Schwartz and Lowry when they proved to be bad coaches...nevermind our OC during the Super Bowl who was so bad even Tampa got rid of him when he took their job (and their offense was even worse than ours). And even keeping Schwartz, he allowed things like Lamont Thompson, gave Eddie at the end too much confidence (and didn't make him earn his spot) , ect.

However, Fisher knows what he's doing. Sure his brand of ball is not the most enjoyable (run left, run right, pass to the TE), but he's made it work and shown he can build a team from nothing...which he's done twice now into a powerhouse. How many other coaches have shown they can build a team from the ground up? Less than 10? How many have done it twice? A handful or less? How many current NFL coaches have taken a team to the SB (subtracting the ones that got blown out of their shorts)? How many have turned a 1st rnd RB into a star and turned a 1st rnd QB into an MVP? How many have ALSO created a #2 defense? How many have done all of that regardless of winning percentage?

I think Fisher is a very good HC and better than most, but he's got his flaws too and there are certainly things I blame him for (like not grabbing Gregg Williams and dumping Schwartz recently). But I'm happy to have him. There aren't too many better.

I fully expect Fisher to go out on top after this 'run' with these guys for a few more years...

Gut

 

Every point made in that piece has already been made on this message board by a poster named rolltide both regarding fisher and marvin lewis.

I agree with his assessment of kiffin but moore has had it easy with manning there.

On a side note many are posting like dinger is a miracle man lately but he had mcnair at the top of his game.

 

Gut what in the hell are you talking about?

Like many. Turning a 1st rd back into a star? You are giving fisher the credit for eddie's hard work and durability?

Mcnair was a success because he was talented. If anything fisher's handling of mcnair early on was detrimental.

The guy coaches for 13 years i would hope he would have a few stars and a few good defenses. That was the whole point of the piece that an average coach could do that. an average coach and an average GM should combine to put a team into the post season at least 5 times in 13 years.

 

i think fisher is one of the best coaches in the league

very underrated. you know that the titans are going to play tough. no matter how crappy the talent on the roster

not many coaches can do that

 

how long does Fisher get to slide by on that fact?

It was definately a hard thing for any coach to go through, but is it to the point where we have to make excuses for Fisher and why he should remain the Titans head coach?

I think the article has plenty of merit to it.