Felser: On any given Sunday, NFL QB'ing stinks
The New Millennium, which no longer is very new, has not been kind to today's visitors, the Houston Texans, or to their hosts, the Buffalo Bills. The Texans, who first hit the field in 2002, received the usual NFL thumb in their eye via the expansion draft and haven't fully recovered from it. The Bills' wounds of this receding decade have been almost exclusively self-inflicted.
November has not been the harbinger of playoffs for either team and this season may be no different. The Texans are complete strangers to the playoffs. Meanwhile the Bills have established a commitment to mediocrity.
In fact, mediocrity or worse is consuming the NFL. There is no such thing as "on any given Sunday," once a league slogan. It has been reinterpreted as meaning you may witness as many scores as occur in an English soccer league game.
The ongoing argument among restless fans is, "How many bad teams are there in the NFL and which one is the worst?" Despite their two road victories in succession, which came under bizarre circumstances, the Bills remain a candidate.
Count them: St. Louis, Kansas City, Oakland, Washington, Tennessee, Detroit, Tampa Bay, Carolina, Cleveland, Jacksonville, Buffalo and maybe more. That's more than a third of the league.
Why? Pick a reason. One of the most popular answers is the lack of top-of-the-line quarterbacks. That can be traced to the changes in the game both on the pro and collegiate levels. For at least the last 10 years it has been less football than coach ball. Check out a game involving the University of Oklahoma: Regardless of whether the quarterback is Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford or his backup, Landry Jones, its entire offensive unit turns to the Sooner sideline to discover from their position coaches what they are to do on the next play. No wonder most quarterbacks enter the pros as eunuchs.
Ask the Texans, whose pioneer first-round selection and first pick in the league was David Carr, now the clipboard carrier for Eli Manning with the Giants. Eight seasons later, the Texans hope they finally have it right with Matt Schaub, who was acquired in a trade in 2007. Cleveland, which made its return to the league in 1999, has blown its big-time quarterback decision twice, the latest with Notre Dame's Brady Quinn.
Now luck plays a much larger role in the appearance of a top quarterback. Tom Brady of New England was a sixth-round draft choice. Tony Romo was a small-college free agent. Kurt Warner of Arizona was not only a college free agent but a survivor of football roadhouses.
There is another reason for the manner in which exciting offense is vanishing in the NFL. Once the teams made the decision to put the majority of their top athletes on the defensive side of the ball, the result was destined to be the suffocating of once-exciting attacks. Put those elite athletes in the hands of a defensive coach such as Dick LeBeau and few opposing offensive units, no matter their skill, will have a smooth time. The Vikings' Brett Favre will attest to that. LeBeau and his peers attack quarterbacks with blitzers coming from every place short of the men's room.
This dilemma confronted the NFL once before, in the early '70s. Al Davis' Raiders made bump-and-run pass coverage more like full-time mugging. George Allen's tactic of having his Washington defensive backs cut the legs from under wide receivers as they left the line of scrimmage took the long ball out of the game. The most boring Super Bowl on record, Miami's 14-7 victory over Washington, climaxed the 1972 season. The Redskins scored only when Dolphins kicker Garo Yepremian tried to salvage a fouled-up field goal by throwing a pass. It was intercepted and returned for a touchdown.
Pete Rozelle was commissioner then and he issued a white paper, asking the fans as well as the league's owners and general managers to show how they felt about a change in rules. The result was limiting bump-and-run to just 5 yards downfield and virtually outlawing the cutting of receivers.
We're reaching the point where the limiting of blitzing to linebackers and maybe just one defensive back would be an idea worth considering. The defenders would whine, but so what? The intellects of the quarterbacks would not be scrambled so often and the games would be more fun than the American version of Manchester United versus Arsenal.
Larry Felser, former News columnist, appears in Sunday's editions.
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Reader comments
Learn more about our moderation system.