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| Josh Voorhees. 11th January, 2006 - 7:37 pm
 I could not believe my eyes during Sunday's NFC wild-card game. John Fox was flying around the field making more plays than the King in those BK commercials. Fox bursting into the backfield to stop Tiki Barber in his tracks, intercepting a poorly thrown ball by Eli Manning, and running right through the Giants depleted linebacking corps.
Ok, I didn't actually see any of that, but plenty of other people apparently did. After reading the pun-filled headlines on Monday morning and listening to the talking heads praise the genius of Fox, I just assumed that those HD commercials are right, and I really am missing out.
I am not saying Coach Fox did a poor job on Sunday. He did a fine one. But before we start carving his face alongside Lombardi, Landry and Belichick on the Mount Rushmore of coaches, maybe we want to take a closer look at things.
Fox had more talent on both sides of the ball than his counterpart. His offense was playing a team that was missing so many linebackers that they would have been lucky to slow down Maurice Clarett, ankle chains and all. The Panther defense faced a quarterback who was playing in his first playoff game, and had closed out the season with 7 interceptions to only 4 touchdowns over the final 5 games. The only reason that the Giants were able to go 4-1 during that stretch was because Tiki was averaging almost 150 yards a game.
Carolina cornerback Ken Lucas praised his coaches for keeping the game plan "simple" and allowing the players to make plays. Basically Fox's brilliant scheme broke down something link this: take Tiki out of the game, and force Eli to beat them. Great strategy. Simple strategy.
Obvious strategy.
Its not exactly a coaching secret that to win games you have to take away a team's strengths and force them to beat you with their weaknesses. Would any other coach, at any level of the game, have come up with a different strategy against the Giants?
The Panthers success on Sunday was not a result of the game plan. Their success was due to the fact that on the field the Panthers executed and made plays, and the Giants did not. The Giants knew what the Panthers were going to do, they just could not stop them from doing it. Everything the Panthers tried, whether it was shutting down Tiki, finding Steve Smith in the end zone, or running in between the tackles, it was a success. Throw in a lucky break on a muffed punt, and Fox and his Panthers were running down hill.
John Fox deserves credit for having his team ready to play in the playoffs. He is a career 4-1 in the post-season, where he seems to coach games with a deep sense of urgency that he is normally lacking in the regular season. He deserves credit for the Panthers unlikely run to Super Bowl XXXVIII when he was forced to make changes on the fly, making uncharacteristically bold substitutions and scheme changes. And he'll deserve plenty more if he takes his team on a February trip to Detroit. But until then, lets heap our praise on the deserving: the Panther players who dominated on the field on Sunday. |
