Footballblogging
The corrupt and decadent Redskins organization may interview Steve Mariucci. Local radio blowhards were snarking about this a couple days ago: “Get used to losing!” one said. This is stupid. (Ref: Pro Football Reference.) Mariucci won 59% of his regular-season games during six seasons in San Francisco. He made the playoffs four times and advanced in three of those years. He was fired after a playoff season in which his team lost its last game to that year’s Super Bowl champion. The 49ers have not done shit since. He then spent two and a half losing seasons in Detroit, which may be what prompted our radio blather. Perspective, people: Everyone fails in Detroit. (The evidence.) I don’t know if Mariucci is “the right coach” for Washington, and I’m sure the team’s so-called brain trust doesn’t know either. They’re a lot more like Detroit than like New England. But I know that Mariucci should get decent consideration based on what he did in the last effective days of a real football organization. I can’t see any reason why one would prefer Jim Fassel to Mariucci on the basis of their records.
Comment by Hesiod —
January 31, 2008 @ 11:56 am
Let me dissent from your argument. As a Lions fan who witnessed the Mariucci regime, I think you are mistaken about him.
The Lions teams under Mariucci, to the extent they won anything, did so because of defense.
Mariucci was criticized for runing a stale, outdated version of the West Coast Offense. Now, to be sure, he was saddled with the horrible Joey Harrington for uch of that period. And his only sht at a decent QB was dashed when jeff Garcia broke his leg in the final preseason game of Mariucci’s final season in Detroit.
To the extent Detroit was competitive, though, was because of the Defense — which was coahced by current Bills HC Dick Jauron, and because they had a half-way decent running game the second half of Kevin Jones rookie season.
Comment by CalDem —
January 31, 2008 @ 5:22 pm
Things is, the fact that Mariucci would agree to work under Cerrato is a very bad sign about Mariucci. So while the public information about him is good, the signal about the private info is bad.
Comment by Jim Henley —
January 31, 2008 @ 5:52 pm
CalDem: But that’s true of any coach who would take the job!
I mean, seriously. It’s an effed-up organization. But SOMEONE has to coach there, and SOMEONE always figures that he’s the guy who can make it work. That’s why there’s always someone in front of the benches in Arizona and Oakland.
Comment by Joshua Holmes —
January 31, 2008 @ 7:36 pm
I figured the Redskins fans got used to losing a decade ago.
Comment by Matt Schiavenza —
January 31, 2008 @ 8:26 pm
In San Francisco, Mariucci was a victim of both the incompetence of the York ownership family as well as the historically inflated expectations of 49er fans. For all the accolades the Patriot organization has received, what the 49ers accomplished from 1981 to 1998 was nothing short of amazing- it got to the point where a significant portion of the 49ers fan base simply could not imagine that the team would ever be lousy. 10-6 was a disappointment, and playoff losses resulted in great alarm. Two decades of Hall of Fame caliber quarterbacking spoiled us to an extent that a perfectly decent quarterback like Jeff Garcia was perceived as “not Joe or Steve”.
The 01/02 Niners were pretty good, but not elite- and after their drubbing by the Bucs in the playoffs the Yorks overreacted and shitcanned Mariucci, hired the doddering Dennis Erickson, and eventually discarded Garcia and Terrell Owens for peanuts.
Now, in our dark era of York/Nolan/Alex Smith, all Niner fans are rehabilitating Mariucci’s image sort of like how a guy would say his ex-girlfriend really wasn’t so bad after her successor screwed his best friend. He’s a good but not a great coach…so I would take what Niner fans say with a grain of salt. He alone can’t really save the ‘Skins
Comment by Hesiod —
February 1, 2008 @ 10:29 am
Things is, the fact that Mariucci would agree to work under Cerrato is a very bad sign about Mariucci. So while the public information about him is good, the signal about the private info is bad.
Not really. After working for Matt Millen, Cerrato probably looks like Bill Polian to Coach Mariucci.
Comment by mpowell —
February 1, 2008 @ 1:16 pm
Mariucci is a decent football coach. Which is a hell of a lot more than I can say for Fassell. Mooch is probably the best the Redskins can hope for at this point. Welcome him with open arms!