NFL
Scores/Schedules
Standings
Statistics
Transactions
Injuries
Players
Weekly lineup

 Tuesday, September 28
Why the final four has flopped
 
By Dave Goldberg
Associated Press

 We heard it all last week: John Elway's retired, Chris Chandler, Jamal Anderson and Vinny Testaverde are hurt and every defensive coordinator in the NFL watched Randy Moss films during the offseason and figured out how to stop him.

Chris Chandler
Chris Chandler and the Falcons are bummed by their 0-3 start.
Sorry, last year's final four -- Denver, Atlanta, Minnesota and the New York Jets -- still should be better than a combined 1-11 after going 55-9 during the 1998 season, meaning they've already lost two more games than in all of 1998.

Here's the problem, as stated by Brett Favre after his second Elwayesque comeback in three weeks -- a fourth-down 23-yard touchdown pass that gave the Green Bay Packers a 23-20 victory over Minnesota with 12 seconds left.

"There are no great teams any more." he said. "We're not beating anyone 38-7. We'll have a lot of games like this."

That's good news for Green Bay, which has Favre. It's not such good news for everyone else.

But back to 1-11.

That can be attributed to retirements, injuries, etc., in the demise (for now) of last year's powers. But it also can be attributed to the four certified geniuses who coached their teams to the top last year and are feeling the pressure this season.

  • Exhibit A: Mike Shanahan. In training camp, he had a nice rhythm going. His players were confident, even cocky, and everyone seemed convinced Bubby Brister could step in where Elway left off. After all, weren't the Broncos 4-0 in games Brister started last season and 6-0 in games in which he played.

    But Brister had a poor exhibition season, Shanahan panicked and benched Brister for Brian Griese.

    Griese probably will be a good quarterback in time, but he's pressing now, was pressured all game Sunday against Tampa Bay and scares no one. That allows nine-man fronts to shut down running back Terrell Davis. Davis had 53 yards on 19 carries and now has 193 yards in 59 attempts, an average of 3.3 for a man who ran for 2,008 yards and averaged 5.1 last season. (Tyrone Wheatley is having a better year.)

  • Exhibit B: Bill Parcells. The Jets coach dropped Neil O'Donnell last year and Glenn Foley during the offseason for both salary-cap and personality reasons. O'Donnell is 2-0 in relief for Tennessee (3-0), and Foley is 1-0 as a starter for Seattle. Rick Mirer, obtained during training camp as a backup for Testaverde (now injured) is 0-2½ for the Jets and everyone else is playing worse -- cornerback Ray Mickens had two critical pass-interference penalties to set up a Washington touchdown in the Jets' 27-20 loss Sunday.

    Parcells has been known to bag seasons, such as 1987, when his New York Giants started 0-2 after winning the Super Bowl. The strike team went 0-3, and a talent-laden team finished 6-9.

    Exhibit C: Dan Reeves. Reeves is stubborn. Even knowing Chandler is injury prone, he went with Steve DeBerg last year as a backup and survived because Chandler stayed relatively healthy. He went to Danny Kanell this year (loyalty to a player he drafted in New York). Kanell couldn't do it, and now Tony Graziani is the starter when Chandler's hurt.

    "Graziani's a good player, but he's not going to get it done," Rams safety Keith Lyle said after St. Louis' 35-7 victory over the Falcons in which Chandler reinjured a hamstring.

     
    Randy Moss
    Wide Receiver
    Minnesota Vikings
    Profile
     
     
    1999 SEASON STATISTICS
    REC YDS YDS/R TD LNG FUM
    9 123 13.7 1 29 0

    Anyone for DeBerg, now Reeves' QB coach? Anyone for Tommy Maddox?

    Exhibit D: Dennis Green. Green's doing OK. The big loss is Brian Billick, last year's offensive coordinator and now the head coach in Baltimore.

    Another problem is Moss, who in three games has nine catches for 123 yards and one touchdown, which came Sunday at Green Bay. Against the Packers, he had two catches for 13 yards. Last year at Green Bay, he had five receptions for 190 yards. Everyone's double-teaming him now and making Cris Carter and Jake Reed beat them.

    Whatever, in three games the Vikings have scored 17, 17 and 20 points. They never scored fewer than 24 in any game last season en route to an NFL-record 556 points.

    "We're still a very good team," Green said. "We've just played some very good teams.

    The best ... and the not so good
    Only two teams are 3-0, New England and Tennessee.

    The Patriots have won their three games by a total of seven points and could easily have lost any or all of the three. They trailed the Colts 28-7 at the half and almost handed the Giants a victory Sunday night with a prevent defense.

    The Titans have two one-point wins plus a 17-point victory over expansion Cleveland. On Sunday, they got lucky when Jacksonville's Mark Brunell threw an end-zone interception while going for the winning touchdown when the Jaguars were within range of a chip-shot tying field goal.

    But Tennessee has one thing last year's big four don't -- a decent backup quarterback in O'Donnell. He's been fine while Steve McNair recovers from back surgery.

    As for the other end of the spectrum?

    Philadelphia scored three touchdowns in the first quarter of its first game, a 25-24 loss to Arizona. All the Eagles have since are a field goal and a safety. They lost 26-0 at Buffalo Sunday. Afterward, Doug Flutie said: "You don't get many NFL games where you can take it easy in the second half."

    Hail to the victors
    For whatever reason, Michigan guys can be disappointments in the pros: Desmond Howard (minus one great season as a return man), Tyrone Wheatley and Tshimanga Biakabutuka.

    But give them time.

    Wheatley, a bust with the Giants, was traded to Miami and cut by Jimmy Johnson even before the exhibition season. The past two weeks, he's looked like the first-round draft choice he once was. He now has 176 yards in 41 carries, a 4.3 average, splitting time with Napoleon Kaufman.

    "There are 31 teams, and I'll bounce to every one until I can show what I can do," he said.

    Biakabutuka, slowed by knee injuries during his three previous seasons, had touchdown runs of 67 and 62 yards in Carolina's 27-3 victory over Cincinnati on Sunday.



  •  


    ALSO SEE
    Tuesday Morning Quarterback

    ESPN.com's NFL Power Rankings

    NFL Week 3 wrap-ups

    Week 3 infirmary report

    TJ's Take: Titanic development

    Week 3 PrimeTime Players