About a month ago, a friend suggested that Matt Eberflus would be the first NFL head coach to be fired and he predicted it would come at the end of October. I thought Brandon Staley might be first to go and agreed that the end of October might be the timing of the event. We had the time right; the first NFL head coach to be fired this year happened yesterday – – which was unambiguously the “end of October”. However, we both got it wrong as to the name; it was Josh McDaniels (Raiders) who got the axe yesterday.
There had been reports that there was “disharmony” in the Raiders’ locker room and that communications between coaches and players were not always constructive. Such is often the case with losing teams – – especially teams that underachieve expectations. In such cases, it is far easier to “fire the coach” than to “fire the players”.
McDaniels’ record (9-16) as the head coach of the Raiders is hardly exemplary but allow a glimmer of reality into the picture here:
- Josh McDaniels was not the reason that the Raiders generated a total of 157 yards on offense against the Lions last weekend.
- Josh McDaniels was not out there trying to block the Lions’ defenders as they inflicted 6 sacks on Jimmy G.
- Josh McDaniels was not out there flutily trying to tackle the Lions with the ball to the tune of allowing 486 yards on offense to the Lions.
I must give Mark Davis a bit of credit here. In addition to firing McDaniels, he also fired the GM who – in concert with McDaniels presumably – constructed the roster that produced that bed-wetting performance last weekend.
Having given him credit for that decision, now let me offer a cautionary note for all Raider fans:
- Mark Davis is the guy who hired GM Dave Ziegler and coach Josh McDaniels – – and Mark Davis will hire the next person/people to fill those roles.
- Before the newly fired management regime, Davis installed the regime of Mike Mayock and Jon Gruden to lead the team to glory. How did that work out?
- So, Raiders’ fans had best begin to root for “the blind squirrel finding an acorn” because the track record in the owner’s suite is not a good one.
The Raiders’ interim head coach is Antonio Pierce who had been the Raiders’ linebackers’ coach. He is a former linebacker with the Skins and the Giants; his playing career spanned nine seasons where he made the Pro Bowl once. Mazel tov, Antonio Pierce.
Moving on … In the latest AP poll for college football, Oklahoma dropped to #10 in the rankings after losing to unranked Kansas last week. Meanwhile, Texas is ranked #7. Except … Oklahoma beat Texas only 3 weeks before that in a head-to-head matchup. [Aside: And just to add to the jumble here, Texas beat Kansas 4 weeks ago by 4 TDs.]
In case you think I am cherry-picking here, consider that Louisville is ranked #15 this week while Notre Dame is ranked #12. Except … Louisville beat Notre Dame by 13 points 3 weeks ago AND Louisville has one fewer loss for the season than Notre Dame.
So, just in case any college football fans think that the expansion of the CFP from 4 teams to 12 teams will “avoid” any controversies about rankings, take a moment and think about this week’s presentation of the Top 25…
Switching gears … Let me do a reset here. Recall in the Spring of 2023, two men were jailed after cheating in a fishing tournament in Lake Erie. To increase the weight of their catch, they stuffed lead fishing weights into the stomachs of some of the fish and would have won the prize money for the tournament had the cheating not been exposed.
Well, one of the two men who served 10 days in jail for all that now stands accused of poaching deer in Pennsylvania. His charges include:
“Two counts of unlawful killing or taking of big game.
“Three counts of unlawful taking or possession of game or wildlife.
“Two counts of unlawful acts concerning licenses – – and – –
“One count of violation in tagging and reporting big game kills.”
Reports say that the “unlawful killing” charge involves hunting without a license, hunting after hours and hunting out of season. This guy is clearly an outdoorsman; however, if convicted of all this he will be spending a bit of time “indoors”, don’t you know…
Finally, apropos of nothing, I will close today with this comment from comedian Fred Allen:
“You can take all the sincerity in Hollywood, place it in the navel of a fruit fly and still have room enough for three caraway seeds and a producer’s heart.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………