Fast turnarounds are not only possible, they are expected in the NFL. A look at Monday’s NFC standings leaves the Bears both frustrated and hopeful.
The 5-0 Vikings, 4-1 Cowboys, 5-0 Panthers and 4-1 Seahawks are the four division leaders. All had losing records last season.
None of the starting quarterbacks on the four leaders has as much NFL experience as the Bears’ Kordell Stewart. None of the head coaches has been with his team longer than the Bears’ Dick Jauron.
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Here’s the scorecard:
New Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme, like Stewart an off-season free-agent pickup, is in his fifth NFL season but has started only six games.
Cowboys quarterback Quincy Carter is in his third season, 19 starts.
Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck is in his fifth season, 26 starts.
Vikings quarterback Daunte Culpepper is in his fifth season, 46 starts.
Stewart is in his ninth season, 85 starts.
Panthers coach John Fox is in his second season in Carolina, 21 games.
Cowboys coach Bill Parcells is in his first season, five games.
Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren is in his fifth season, 70 games.
Vikings coach Mike Tice took over the last game of 2001, 22 games.
Like Holmgren, his opponent this week, Jauron is in his fifth season, 70 games.
The fallout: Saints linebacker Orlando Ruff gave this postgame analysis of Stewart to the New Orleans Times-Picayune: “Here’s the thing about Kordell: He’s a heck of an athlete but never really (has) been a good quarterback. So we knew that if we took the running game away from him, he’s forced to be in a situation that he doesn’t want to be in and is uncomfortable with. So when he has the ball in his hands, you never know what you’re going to get. It’s 50-50.
“If he gets his confidence going, you’re going to get a good Kordell. If you get his confidence down, I think you’re going to get an iffy Kordell. Once Charles [Grant] had that sack on him and Fred [Thomas] came around the corner (for another sack and fumble), Kordell never could get in a rhythm.”
Saban sayings: One of the coaches thought to be on Bears general manager Jerry Angelo’s short list if he ever gets a chance to hire a coach is LSU’s Nick Saban.
Angelo appeared on the New Orleans radio show of Saints general manager Mickey Loomis last week and said he had high regard for Saban. Then on Saturday, Saban’s Tigers lost their first game after a 5-0 start, falling to Florida in front of 92,000 in Baton Rouge.
Saban had two weeks to prepare and took the loss hard. His team came out flat, committed 13 penalties including 12 men on the field. Once, they had 10 men.
“Obviously, I’m very disappointed in the way we played in the game. I’m responsible for that,” Saban said. “We didn’t do a very good job of playing with the intensity we need. We didn’t have any sense of urgency about what we were doing. We didn’t play very smart in the game. We had 13 penalties and I swear we probably had more than that.”
The adage: The Bears believe they lost to the Saints because of turnovers. The Saints scored 10 points after fumbles by Stewart and won 20-13. Do the math.
Sometimes, it seems every team in the NFL believes the same thing every week. Sometimes, turnovers seem to be the only thing that decides NFL games.
On Sunday, only two of 13 winners overcame a minus turnover ratio. One was the Broncos, who edged the Steelers 17-14 after the Steelers dropped an interception just before the winning field goal. The Broncos had three turnovers to one for the Steelers.
The other was the Browns, who beat the Raiders 13-7 despite one turnover to none for the Raiders. But the Raiders made up for the lack of turnovers by committing 19 penalties for 128 yards.
Donovan not done: Donovan McNabb will remain the Eagles’ starting quarterback despite an injured thumb and an NFC-low passer efficiency rating of 54.2. That’s one below Stewart’s 56.0. The only starting quarterback in the league with a lower rating is Baltimore Ravens rookie Kyle Boller at 48.9.
“There is nobody who wants to win more than Donovan McNabb. I don’t worry about that at all,” coach Andy Reid said Monday. “He’s going to keep firing and he’s going to be fine.”
McNabb’s production hasn’t been helped by the right thumb he sprained in the Sept. 29 victory over Buffalo. McNabb played against the Cowboys on Sunday with a wrapping around his thumb that extended to his wrist.
McNabb finished 11-of-26 for 126 yards, his lowest total in a season where he hasn’t thrown for more than 186.
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“It’s not an injury he can’t play with,” Reid said.
McNabb has completed only 49.1 percent of his passes. McNabb wasn’t available Monday but said after the Cowboys game the injury affected his grip and his follow-through.
Not that speedy: Cowboys receiver Randal Williams was credited with a three-second touchdown when he recovered the Eagles’ opening onside kickoff and raced 37 yards to the end zone. It was the fastest score recorded since the NFL started using a scoreboard clock.
Reviews of the play show it really should have taken five or six seconds.
“I watched it a couple of times. I probably took three or four steps before that first tick came off the clock,” Williams said Monday. “Hey, that’s not my fault. It goes down in the record book.”
The timekeeper isn’t supposed to start the clock until the ball is touched on the return.
“Maybe we’ve got a slow hand up there [in the booth],” Cowboys coach Bill Parcells said. “I could see how that could happen though because you’re used to thinking the ball is going in the air and seeing the ball.”
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said Monday that the play will not be reviewed. So Williams will keep the three-second record.
Even if Williams had matched the pace of former Cowboys player Bob Hayes when he ran 100 meters in a then-world record time of 10.05 seconds, it would have taken about 3.4 seconds to go 37 yards.