Although this might be funnier. :D

About ten teams still alive in the NFC. There's a slim chance a 7-9 team will get the second wild card. :eek:

Just seen that Darrent Williams was shot and killed last night after the Broncos' play-off defeat. (Though there's nothing to suggest it was related to that result.)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/othe...ll/6222695.stm
http://www.nfl.com/teams/story/DEN/9901619

Terrible. :(

Weirdly (and somewhat trivially), he'd been the starting CB on my Tennessee side on Madden and I released him yesterday while preparing for the 2009 season as he wanted too high a salary to renew. Completely unconnected to reality, but a strange coincidence given the timing.

Thats terrible.

24 years old and a Dad of two. Horrible New Year for those kids.

Ahh well, a good progressive year for the 49ers following a very poor start.

Alex Smith played every snap and although his performance could not be descibed as spectacular, has certainly made positive strides.

Frank Gore........... enough said.

Finally saw some production out of Vernon Davies after a shakey and injury hit start.

The OL was pretty impressive, especially with the injury problems they had. The WR were overall pretty average, but had their moments.

The D finally showed soem respectability in the 2nd half of the season. Manny Lawson did well converting from DE to OLB in his rookie season. Walt Harris ended with 8 picks, with the secondary demonstrating a growing aggression, in direct contrast to their soft early play.

Now here's to a good draft addressing the D primarily with depth to the offense. There's also the small matter of having the $40 odd million dollars under the salary cap. One or two well picked FA acquisitions will make a hell of a difference.

Looks like the Finns are looking for a new coach then, so who will it be? I reckon they could make a run for Cowher.

Not sure what to make of Saban going. Year one seemed good in all respects, but this year has been a disappointment right from the draft IMO. To take a DB with your round 1 pick and have him playing a part-time role on third downs isn't a great initial return, especially if you look at what some of the players taken lower have achieved (i.e. Maroney for one).

Actually I've thought about it and the parallels between him and Dowie are frightening, but he's probably worse because he actually said he wasn't going to Alabama. Goodbye and good riddance Nick. :hi:

A name being repeated a lot at Finheaven is Cam Cameron, who I think is San Diego's offensive co-ordinator.

But didn't Saban do it to LSU too?

As long as "Trick play Mularky" goes, I'll be happy. Ruined an offense with some horrible decisions.

I love the finheaven recommentations on who will be next. A lot suggest Marino (:rolleyes: ), some suggest Don Strock (who I understand is an OC somewhere). Some suggest Bob Griese! Talk about desperate.

I don't know who'll be coming in though, but they need to sort out the QB situation, and some horrible frailties in the side.

Was head coach at Florida International.

I hope that Jets will make a nice run i the play offs ;)

Who lost every game they played this season.

Quite like the suggestion of Cam Cameron. What I fear is a promotion for Mularkey or Capers (who's been a great DC, but has failed previously as a HC). There's a lot of other potential duffers out there too like Dennis Green and Jim Mora, Jr.

If only this had happened a year ago. I'd have loved Scott Linehan to be HC in Miami instead of St. Louis.

I can't be bothered to look through all 15 pages, but are there any fellow Titans fans present?

I haven't ever met another one before... that is until last weekend. Went to the pub to watch the game (sooo close to that wild card spot) and bumped into a guy over here on holiday for new year. He saw me in my shirt and we got chatting.

Was gutted with the result, but from an 0-5 start it would have been a miracle to have made it!

Two of my best friends are Tites fans.

We give each other abuse quite a lot.

Was bloody typical I got my McNair shirt about a month before he went

:bash:

I think that may be a little harsh on Mora. Al Michaels had an excellent discussion of the Atlanta Falcons' recent plight with John Madden on a recent ESPN game, and suggested that Mora's reign had actually been hindered by Mike Vick. Every time Matt Schaub has come in he's looked the part, but the owners basically wouldn't let Vick sit on the bench given the money invested in him. And with a player as inconsistent as Vick, that can't help any head coach.

Now I know a natural comeback to that is to say that if Mora was a good head coach, Vick wouldn't be so inconsistent. That's a fair point. But Vick is such a unique player that meshing his talents into a team who want to be a Super Bowl contender would be a challenge for anyone.

I don't think Mora would necessarily be the best person for the Fins job, but there are very few outstanding candidates - so I wouldn't say no to him either.

(I wouldn't be averse to us drafting a QB in the first round either. Someome will have taken Quinn by that point, and Smith is a Vick-style gamble, so how about Brian Brohm?)

Mora never adapted the offence towards its strengths. Poor WRs against solid RBs. If I were them I'd have created some kind of 2 RB/2 TE offence and play to those strengths. Don't try and make Vick a conventional quarterback, the last thing is he is conventional! He's a world class athlete, get him out and moving. I guarantee you Urban Meyer (coach at the University of Florida) would do something creative and successful with him.

Throw in the Washington (college) farce that he brought on himself and I wouldn't touch him with a barge poll

(And stop being biased because you're running the Falcons on Madden. ;))

Brian Brohm is supposed to be pretty good, as is his coach, Bobby Petrino. Of course whether or not the Fins want to go after another college coach might be a different question right now.

Some interesting thoughts I got the PTI podcast from the other day (which I listened to on the train this morning). I'm not sure what to make of Huizenga (Fins owner). While appreciating Dan LeBatard's point that he's previously gone out, negotiated and paid for the best coaches available at the time (Jimmy Johnson and Saban) I thought Tony Kornheiser's points were more valid, namely:
1) Asking for suggestions from the media and fans at a press conference sounds laughable and desperate.
2) This team hasn't been to the play-offs in five seasons. That puts us in a class with the likes of Arizona and Detroit. Say what you like about Wannstedt and Saban, but it was the same guy overseeing it all.
3) There's a whole lot of problems. The offence stinks and the defence is getting really old (especially Taylor and Thomas, the two who deserve success most).
4) We're a laughing stock. :sob:

I swear the Fins become more like Palace with every passing year. :bash:

(Only with a fan base with no apparent sense of humour)