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Jeff Fisher Wants To Be Paul Brown

Posted by TaylorTRoom on December 24th, 2007 under Football

Of Course Jeff Fisher wants to be Paul Brown. All NFL coaches do. They all, in their mind’s eye, see themselves as the ultra-intense, smarter-than-the-competition, harder working, driven-winner coach whose force of will and personal vision of football strategy drives a team to championships. Paul Brown had the most professional staff, micro-managed every detail, and was the first to call all the plays for his QB (in the past, coaches only called plays after timeouts; all others were called by the QB in the huddle. That’s why, despite any all-time QB lists you may see, contemporaries Luckman, Baugh, Layne, and Van Brocklin all thought Browns QB Otto Graham was a pussy). His approach led the Browns (named after the coach, of course) to four AAFC championships, and post NFL merger, three NFL championships.

Here’s the catch. Not everybody gets to be Paul Brown. Landry, Shula, and Walsh did, but legions more of NFL coaches didn’t come close. Belicheck is the Paul Brown of this generation, and after 12+ years of coaching, Fisher needs to realize he isn’t a Paul Brown. His over-riding control is leading the franchise to a 55% overall record, with the occasional playoff appearance. His vision of football, Fisherball, is sound, but not championship material.

You see two games this season where Fisherball took over with a lead- SD and the NY Jets. After committing turnovers in the 1st half, in both of those games Vince Young was allowed to attempt less than 10 passes in the 2nd half to protect a lead. The approach worked against the Jets, and failed against SD. Here’s a tip, Fish- the playoffs have more teams like SD than like the Jets.

Here’s the thing with Vince. The turnovers have always been there. When he was a junior at Texas in 2005, he would still fumble the ball away, or throw a pick unexpectedly. He would compensate by making even more big plays. Fisherball doesn’t see it that way. Unless VY plays error-free ball, he will be handcuffed in games.

Fisher needs a new coaching model- Buddy Parker. Never heard of him? Parker was the NFL coach from Sweetwater who beat Paul Brown in 2 out of 3 NFL championship matchups, coaching the Detroit Lions. Nobody thought Parker was a genius (actually, they thought he was an alcoholic loner). He wasn’t an innovator, being the last guy to use a flanker back as a receiver, and to switch from the 5-2 defense to the 4-3. He was just the coach of the group that was known as the tightest and closest team in the league, a bunch of guys who partied together and fought together. Parker was proud that his QB was smart enough to call his own plays (he knew that he was going to live or die with him anyway), and proud that his defense was the toughest in the league. Although Parker will never be in the NFL HOF (maybe the only multiple champion coach not to make it), he had the self-security from knowing that he owned the best coach in the league.


“Well, Bobby, want to let me know what we’re going to do next?”

There have been other Buddy Parker-type coaches, who didn’t have to control everything, who didn’t have to have everything be about them- John Madden, Chuck Noll, Mike Ditka. Nobody ever thinks these guys are geniuses. Give one of these guys some elite playmakers, and they’ll get out of their way and let them make some plays. By the way, Buddy Parker-type coaches tend to do well in matchups against the Paul brown geniuses of their day.

Come on, Fisher. Don’t try to be a Paul Brown. He was a jerk, anyway. Try to be more of a Buddy Parker.

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13 Responses

  1. Navy Horn 16 said:

    December 24th, 2007 at 3:56 pm

    I watched just about every snap of the game and it is not just Fisher that does not understand how to play with #10 running the offense (but it is a big part of it). Justin Gage quits on about half the plays he runs and would have about 20% more catches if he would just stay with the play and look for the ball. Bo and Ahmard get a lot of their catches because they know how to play with Vince.

    The biggest problem with the Titans’ offense is that their wide outs are slow, lack quickness, and can’t get open. They also don’t catch that well. Vince is standing in the pocket giving pump fakes trying to give his WR’s some space and half the time the pass rush gets to him before he can deliver the ball. Vince is a good passer, but he has never had Manning like accuracy. His WR’s inability to get open have forced him to make really tight throws, and that has never been a strength to his game.

    If they moved Vince around a little more, it would help to create space for the running game and give the safeties something extra to think about. Right now, the Titans look like Texas did before the 2004 OU game.

  2. flamingmonkeyass said:

    December 24th, 2007 at 6:32 pm

    “The biggest problem with the Titans’ offense is that their wide outs are slow, lack quickness, and can’t get open. They also don’t catch that well.”

    Other than that they’re great!

  3. Bartoncreek said:

    December 24th, 2007 at 7:43 pm

    The fact that they can’t catch worth a damn kind of negates their inability to get open. No point in getting open when your going to drop it anyways. Might as well stay covered.

    As a group, the worst I have seen in the last twenty years. How can NFL receivers not catch the ball or not get seperation more than a couple of times a game?

  4. one look? said:

    December 24th, 2007 at 10:58 pm

    despite his tendency to quit, i like justin gage because he is enourmous. he has caught some balls that most receivers wouldnt catch, just because of his nba center type height
    roydell=least consistent reciever ever
    but i would rather get them open, because even if they wont catch it most of the time, occasionally theyl make a nice grab that most preschoolers could make, or when they drop the ball at least its farther away from the defender who, in all likelihood, will make an interception

  5. Dull One said:

    December 25th, 2007 at 6:22 am

    The Titans focking suck.

  6. flamingmonkeyass said:

    December 25th, 2007 at 5:21 pm

    The Titans are the 6th best team in the toughest confrence in the National Football League. There are realistically two NFC teams that a reasonable person would place above the Titans. That means that out of 32 teams, there are 7, maybe 8 teams better than the Titans. Of those 7 or 8 teams, The Titans have beaten one of them in their house, and had another on the ropes in the 4th quarter only to let them pick themselves up and steal a victory. The 2nd best team in football, the Colts, are a dropped Brandon Jones pass on 3rd down and subsequent Bironas field goal away from facing a possible sweep by the Titans this weekend.

    All of this has been done with one of the youngest teams in the league and with a quarterback who has less than 30 starts under his belts.

    Given all of that I guess really the only intelligent critique of this team can be “The Titans focking suck”.

    Just imagine how bad it would be if the we’re the Texans. Ugh.

  7. CrazyJoeDavola said:

    December 26th, 2007 at 11:30 pm

    Seriously. No Holiday Bowl writeup?

  8. HenryJames said:

    December 27th, 2007 at 4:57 am

    We don’t work during Kwanzaa.

  9. AustinYankee said:

    December 27th, 2007 at 5:57 am

    Where’s the snarky insights and random pop culture references to prepare us for tonight? I am both hopeful and scared, needing a little of the old HJ light reading with equal parts rabid fan, football knowledge, bitterness, smartass and unabashed GD/DA criticality

  10. CrazyJoeDavola said:

    December 27th, 2007 at 7:42 am

    “We don’t work during Kwanzaa.”

    I had a feeling you guys were a bunch of religious wackos. Commies too, I bet.

  11. echeese said:

    December 27th, 2007 at 11:28 am

    The Horns will dominate the Sun Devils. You can go and write that down in three inch headlines.

    If they don’t win I will ban myself from ever posting on the internet.

    Out

  12. echeese said:

    December 27th, 2007 at 1:24 pm

    By the way, I consider a 20-10 point loss in which the defense gives up a long drive and the offense manages 10 points a dominate performance by the Horns.

    A game the defense loses because it can’t stop ASU’s running game on one of their drives is still dominate because 10 points is a dominate offensive output.

  13. echeese said:

    December 27th, 2007 at 2:08 pm

    I dominate barking carnival - when can I write an article?

    By dominate I mean getting made fun of

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