Coach Killers: Week 11 Edition

SRW · Nov 18, 2007

Coach Killers, Week 11: Philip Rivers Does a Great Craig Whelihan Impression

Every week, NFL FanHouse hits the lowlights from Sunday's action, looking at those players who did the most to move their head coaches that much closer to returning to the Bed and Breakfast business.

Philip Rivers, Chargers
All together now: PHILIP RIVERS ... OVER-RATED! Since Marty Schottenheimer has been elevated to sainthood status (thanks, Norvell!), looking back at his time in San Diego, there's not much he did wrong. Sure, maybe he ran the ball too much, but, hey, the guy won, a concept foreign to Norv Turner.

Anyway, Schottenheimer seemed content to let Drew Brees run things in San Diego, but general manager A.J. Smith had other ideas. He traded 2004 first-overall pick Eli Manning to the Giants for Rivers, and after two years sittin' and learnin' behind Brees, Rivers was named the starter.

Rivers was pretty good last season; Brees was an MVP candidate. This year, Rivers is doing a fine Ryan Leaf* impression, and the 2007 Chargers look a lot like the 2000 team.

Against the Jaguars on Sunday, Rivers completed 55 percent of his throws, including two to Reggie Nelson and Sammy Knight, Jaguars defensive backs. Both picks came in the fourth quarter, with the Chargers trailing.

Coming out of college, Rivers was known for his accuracy and poise. Somebody should let him know that the AFC West ain't the ACC. He's looked out of sorts for most of the season, and often off target. He's not completely responsible for the team's slow start, but he has a lot to do with it. Or, as Cris Collinsworth so succinctly put it on Football Night in America: "For Philip Rivers, it's pretty simple: somebody needs to start coaching this kid, get his fundamentals back together, because we saw it last year, he can make those throws, he's just not right now."

Got that, Norv?

Brian Billick, Ravens
Pegging Kyle Boller as a Coach Killer and getting on with it would be the easy way out. But Ravens head coach Brian Billick is much more deserving. At this rate, we'll rename this the Brian Billick Memorial Coach Killer Awards, but as long as he's gainfully employed to work his offensive wizardry on an NFL sideline, we'll go without a title sponsor.

Go back, if you will, to Week 7, when the Ravens lost a home contest against the Bills. Linebacker Ray Lewis spent much of the next week questioning Billick for refusing to run Willis McGahee on three straight plays late in the game, when the team needed a single yard to gain a first down. Instead Billick instructed Boller to wing the ball all over the yard (no word on if he also instructed his star pupil to throw incomplete each time), and bada bing, bada boom, Buffalo wins.

Fast-forward four weeks, to the Ravens last drive of the fourth quarter. On 2nd and 1 from the Browns 29, and trailing by three points, Boller throws incomplete. On the next play ... Boller throws incomplete. Matt Stover converts, the Browns manage to get into field-goal range with just 26 ticks on the clock, and Cleveland kicker Phil Dawson does this. In overtime, Baltimore promptly loses the coin toss, and the game. Hello, fourth straight loss!

I'm not saying the Ravens win if they convert the first down, but a) they still had a timeout to burn, and b) didn't Billick learn anything from the Bills game? That's a rhetorical question; we got our answer on the field.

Carson Palmer, Bengals

For somebody that puts up some great numbers, Palmer ain't exactly having a great year. Prior to Week 10, his sometimes inconsistent play could be blamed on Chris Henry, felon in training.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Henry for the first eight games for being a jackass, which meant that opposing defenses could double-team both Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh. That didn't leave Palmer with many pass-catching threats, and predictably, he struggled at times.

Now, though, Henry's back, and made an immediate impact last week. On Sunday against the Cardinals, it didn't matter; Arizona cornerback Antrel Rolle intercepted Palmer not once ... not twice ... but three times on the day. Good news: Rolle only took two to the house. Oh, the Bengals lost by eight points. So two incompletions, two sacks, two ... anythings but pick-sixes, and Cincy comes out on top.

Byron Leftwich, Falcons
I'd love to hear the conversation Atlanta head coach Bobby Petrino was having with himself while watching quarterback Byron Leftwich stink up the joint. After all, it was Petrino's heady idea to bench Joey Harrington -- the guy coming off two wins in a row; no easy feat in Atlanta, by the way -- for Leftwich, who'd been hobbled recently by an ankle injury.

All Leftwich did was put up this line: 15/28, 106 yards, two picks, and two fumbles. One of the fumbles went for six, and Leftwich was actually intercepted by defensive lineman Chris Hovan.

As long as we're assigning blame, the Falcons offensive line was whatever comes after atrocious. After trailing 24-0 and with five minutes to go in the third, Petrino benched Leftwich for Harrington. Brilliant. Shockingly, Harrington didn't lead the comeback, but he did finish the day 16 of 20 for 139 yards, one touchdown and no turnovers. Relatively speaking, that's a Canton-worthy performance.

Finally: how smart does Jack Del Rio look right now?

Raiders Defense
It's easy to make Daunte Culpepper the scapegoat these days -- that now seems to be part of his job description -- but unless he slapped on a fat suit, put on Warren Sapp's uni, and let the Vikings offense run roughshod over him and his 10 teammates, then I'm pretty sure he gets a pass on Sunday's loss.

It should be really no surprise that Minnesota had a field day -- even for Minny -- running the ball; the Raiders are last in the league stopping the rush (and 10th against the pass). But did Rob Ryan forget to mention this in the meetings last week: ADRIAN PETERSON WOULD BE OUT WITH A KNEE INJURY.

Didn't matter; Chester Taylor, who's no slouch, torched Oakland for 164 yards on 22 carries (that works out to a nifty 7.5 average), and three touchdowns. The Raiders are now 2-8, have dropped six in a row since leading the division, and the only question going forward for this team: When are we gonna see some JaMarcus?

ESPN's Chris Mortensen says December 2. I say: why wait?
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Coach Killers: Week 11 Edition

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