REAR ENTRIES: Injured Opponents

November 18, 2009 at 10:39am by Scott   •  6 Comments »

SAINTS SIGN MCALISTER: With both Jabari Greer (burned by gumbo) and Tracy Porter (bitten on the balls by nutria) out for the Saints, they had to scan free agency and find a cornerback to pair up with Randall Gay. And look was still hanging around: Chris McAlister and his last remaining knee ligament.

A week ago Sunday, McAlister was cleared by doctors to play despite knee problems that have been nagging him for years. There were teams that were interested in signing him at the beginning of the season, but McAlister wanted to wait until his knee was completely healthy.

So… does he still have nagging knee problems or is it completely healthy? Not that it matters. When your offense can hang 48 points on whoever they want, cornerbacks are pretty much a luxury.

JORDAN GROSS ON INJURED RESERVE: Carolina’s franchise left tackle, Jordan Gross, broke his ankle in Sunday’s game against the Falcons and was put on injured reserve yesterday. Instead of replacing him with a pure backup tackle, the Panthers will kick left guard Travelle Wharton over to tackle and replace Wharton with Mackenzy Bernardeau, a second-year player. All this shifting around means that when the Bucs play the Panthers again in three weeks, the Panthers may only rush for 250 yards on the Bucs instead of the 267 they got the first time.

GOOD GRUDEN ARTICLE: Richard Sandomir of the New York Times wrote an interesting piece on Jon Gruden and his flaws at his ESPN gig, offering several examples including this one:

But later that day, with the Baltimore Ravens leading the Cleveland Browns, 16-0, late in the third quarter, Gruden said, “Eric Mangini is a heck of a coach.” (Oh no!) At least he added, “He’s got his work cut out for him.”

Gruden offered no proof of his view — one that would be considered radical, even heresy, in the Dawg Pound. Before the season, Gruden said Mangini was a “good coach.” Now he’s risen to “heck of a” status?

I wondered about the Mangini quote when I heard it, too. If you’re ever feeling bad about yourself because you’re a Buccaneers fan, just look toward Cleveland and your day will perk right up. That team is twenty different kinds of suck with absolutely no redeeming qualities. The Dawg Pound wishes Michael Vick owned them just so they could be tortured less.

The opinion of a Super Bowl-winning coach like Gruden matters, but if Mangini is one heck of a Brownies coach, Gruden should tell us why. Empty plaudits smack of a coach protecting one of his own.

He’s not really protecting his own. Gruden has stated openly that he dislikes negativity, so you’re never going to hear him truly throw a player or a coach under the bus. He may call out a bad play once in a while (I heard one the other week when Knowshon Moreno missed a blitz pickup), but you will never hear him say someone is a “bad player” or a “bad coach”. It just isn’t happening. And that’s fine, but he doesn’t need to go in the other direction and heap unwarranted praise on everyone, either. Anyway, it’s a good read.