Thursday and Long: Crisis Management Coaching

On the night of Feb. 3, 2008, Tom Coughlin and Bill Belichick stood at the pinnacle, facing off in Super Bowl XLII. For Coughlin, it would be a crowning game -- the culmination and reward of his professional coaching life. For Belichick it would be another panel (albeit it a bitter one) in the quilt of his Hall of Fame coaching legacy. Thereafter, each man would be regarded as among the very best in his profession, able to both demand and command respect and success by virtue of his reputation.

But because the nature of such things is fleeting, we sit here just 22 months later, and each of these coaches has a big old mess on his hands. Coughlin's Giants are a third-place team with a porous defense floundering in the middle of a conference they expected to own. Belichick's Patriots are in first place, but they're limping. The Dolphins and Jets are right on their tails, star QB Tom Brady is being held together with duct tape and star receiver Randy Moss appears to be reverting to pre-Patriot form (i.e., playing like a pouting puppy). Preseason favorites both, the Giants and the Patriots enter Week 15 with much work still to do just to make the playoffs. And the way their respective coaches handle the current crises will say as much about their legacies as does anything that happened on the night of Feb. 3, 2008.

"Everybody is disappointed. Everybody wants to win," Coughlin said Wednesday. "It doesn't mean you always play as well as you're capable of playing. We try to get their dobbers back up and get them refocused and knowing full well that the season gets shorter and shorter and more meaningful and more meaningful."

This is coaching 101 -- basic motivation. Of course, the trick is to sell it, and the question for both Coughlin and Belichick right now is how to sell confidence when so much of the evidence points to doubt. What do you do when you look up in Week 15 and you don't have the team you thought you had?

If you're Coughlin, you lean on the guys you think can fix it for you. Coughlin has a group of Giants players he sometimes calls his "leadership council" -- guys like Eli Manning, Justin Tuck, Antonio Pierce when he's healthy and around -- veterans, Super Bowl champions, the kinds of players he believes hold sway in the locker room where a player can and a coach sometimes can't. Coughlin goes back to that night of Feb. 3, 2008 and believes its positive consequences reach at least 22 months into the future and that the men who became champions that night will play like it again when they must.

Will that fix a defense that's currently fifth in the league in points allowed? Will it allow Coughlin to continue to defend (or, for that matter, employ) first-year defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan in the face of massive external backlash? Does the capital Coughlin amassed that night 22 months ago run out if this year's Giants don't make it? Right now he hopes he doesn't have to find any of that out, and he's counting on his supposedly reliable veterans to make sure he doesn't.

If you're Belichick, your problem is a little bit more localized. Sure, the Patriots had issues before Moss got upset. They were thin on defense, thin at receiver and still somewhat unreliable (though improving) at running back. But unless he's blind, Belichick knew all of that in August. He knew, when he traded Richard Seymour for a draft pick, that his defense likely wouldn't have the depth of personnel it needed to make it one of the best in the league. He knew that Sam Aiken and Julian Edelman were no Donte Stallworth and Jabbar Gaffney, and if he hoped Joey Galloway could be one of those guys he had to at least suspect that he might not. Belichick knew all of this but still figured he'd be okay because Brady was back after missing last year with a knee injury, and he figured Brady, Moss and Wes Welker were good enough that they could just outscore everybody all year.

Of course, for that to have been the case he needed Moss to stay on the reservation. And after everything that happened last week with Moss sulking right through Sunday's Welker-driven victory over Carolina, there's a lot of evidence to indicate that the mercurial Moss is wandering away. So Belichick and Brady took to the airwaves to make sure and massage Moss back into everybody's good graces the best they could.

"I have a lot of respect for Randy," Belichick said earlier this week. "I think he's one of our best players. I think if you watch other teams defend him, I think they feel the same way."

Tempting as it must be for a coach as accomplished and respected as Belichick to rip Moss a new one, sit him down or even kick him off his team, Belichick knows he can't, because he'd lose this season. And the Patriots are one of those teams (like the Yankees in baseball, the Lakers in basketball, the Red Wings in hockey...) that just can't punt away a season.

So what do you do when you don't have the team you thought you had? You adapt. You make changes. You coach in a different direction, and from a different place, than you originally planned. That's where Tom Coughlin and Bill Belichick are right now, and they're both hoping they make the right adjustments -- and that there's still time for those adjustments to work.

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

When the Chris Henry news broke Wednesday night, the feelings among people connected with the Bengals were of shock, sadness and faint hope of a miracle. But there was also some head-shaking over the ideas of fate and rotten luck. The Bengals brought Henry back last year, four months after cutting him, and giving him yet another chance to get his professional life right after a series of drug and alcohol-related arrests and suspensions had sent it well out of control. And by November, they were really convinced he was on the right track. He wasn't playing all that well, but they didn't care as much about that as they did about the fact that he seemed, finally, to have the important parts of his life together.

Then he broke his arm in early November and got put on injured reserve, which is why he was in Charlotte this week instead of in Cincinnati practicing with his team. Of course, the sense around the team is that, had he not broken his arm, this wouldn't have happened. It's all just way too sad. No matter what you thought of Henry or anything he ever did, it's always sad to see a grown man who's not in control of his own life. And it's horrible to see anyone, at 26 years old, lose it. I hope his family can find some peace, somehow.

Boss Brown

As the Akron Beacon Journal's Pat McManamon reported earlier this week, the Cleveland Browns have been interviewing former Packers and Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren about a job as the kind of "football czar" Bill Parcells is in Miami. Holmgren (or whoever ends up with the job, since they're also talking to other people and Holmgren is also talking to other teams, including the Seahawks) would not be the coach, but it remains to be seen whether Eric Mangini would keep his job. People close to the situation say Browns owner Randy Lerner would allow his new head of football operations, whoever it may be, to decide Mangini's fate and select his own coach if he wanted to. Which means the person who decides whether Mangini gets a second year in Cleveland is not Lerner but likely rather somebody who doesn't yet work for th the organization. How's that for job security?

Hat Tip of the Week -- Brandon Marshall, Broncos WR

Not just for his record-setting 21 catches, but for his entire 2009 story. This guy was being labeled a selfish bum (and deservedly so) for the way he acted in training camp, loafing on the practice field, punting balls away from teammates and coaches and pouting because his trade and contract demands weren't being met. But new coach Josh McDaniels (perhaps having learned something from the Jay Cutler situation, or perhaps justifiably viewing Marshall's as different) stood up to Marshall. He showed tough love, suspending him and making it clear he wouldn't be traded and that the best way to get a better contract would be to play as well as he could. Well, when Marshall plays as well as he can, there are few better, and he showed that Sunday with the game of his life. Kudos to him for figuring it out and being a good citizen since the training camp mess. We get on these guys for doing the wrong things, but we're too stingy with praise for those who learn their lessons. Marshall's good behavior has been crucial to the Broncos' surprisingly successful season, and the numbers he's put up are likely to land him the deal he wants after all -- whether it's in Denver or elsewhere.

Three for the Road -- Hit on all three road team picks last week, as the Dolphins won in Jacksonville, the Chargers won in Dallas and the Eagles beat the Giants at the Meadowlands. So I'm back over .500, sitting at 11-10 in the seven weeks since I started doing this. Not bad, when you consider that road teams in the NFL were 8-8 last week but are just 86-122 (.413 winning percentage) for the year. The three road teams I like this week are:

1. Cowboys over Saints. Yeah, I'm going all in against the grain on this one. I know all about the Cowboys in December, but they're actually not playing that poorly this month. And I know the Saints are undefeated, but they almost lose every week. This would be a major upset, but I'm picking it anyway.

2. 49ers over Eagles. Once or twice a year, the Eagles dump a game they shouldn't. This just feels like it could be one of those games. The Niners are desperate, and their defense is playing great.

3. Bengals over Chargers. Cincinnati began the week fired up about the chance to grab the No. 2 seed in the AFC. The Chargers may well feel like they have it locked up already. Bounce-back for the Bengals, letdown for the Chargers and the 2-seed remains in doubt until the season's final week.

It's Just a Fantasy -- Three guys I wish I had on my fantasy team this week:

1. Kurt Warner vs. Detroit. Rotten, embarrassing loss Monday leaves the Cardinals needing a win and facing an epically bad pass defense. Really, just glad my opponent doesn't have him.

2. Anquan Boldin vs. Detroit. Sticking with the theme. And if Larry Fitzgerald is nicked up, Boldin could challenge a record. Speaking of which...

3. Brandon Marshall vs. Raiders. It's a PPR league. Guy caught 21 balls last week. I'd take my chances.

Traveling Man

No planes this week, just me and my Honda Accord, heading to Philadelphia for 49ers-Eagles on Sunday and then continuing down I-95 to Washington for the Giants-Redskins Monday night game. Neither is an epic matchup, I understand, but it feels like a good week to check in on the wild and wacky NFC East, which still could theoretically send anywhere between one and three teams to the playoffs.