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A perplexing matter . . .
It’s well-documented that Todd Bowles ripped his players for dumb mistakes after the Tennessee game.
“Dumb mistakes at dumb times cost us ballgames,” Bowles said. “That’s why we’re in the position we’re in.”
Bowles, who said he was “fuming” after the loss, and was most upset about the penalties.
“I don’t know how many penalties we had, but it felt like we had one every play,” Bowles said. “It cost us and it’s disgusting.”
His anger was understandable, but he probably should have gone on one of these post-game rants before Week 13 of Year Four with perhaps his job in jeopardy.
You could have inserted this rant after a few different games last year, the year before, or perhaps earlier this season.
He might have waited too long for this rant.
He was furious after the game.
“Pissed off,” Bowles aid of his postgame speech to the team. “Frustrated. Look in the mirror. Just look in the mirror. We won’t be a good football team until we’re a smart football team.”
Look, I understand his frustration, but if you have players making stupid mistakes repeatedly, and this obviously wasn’t the first week this stuff happened, why won’t he bench players?
What do they say about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result?
Bowles flat-out refuses to bench players. The team has lost six games in a row, and no benchings.
The Arizona Cardinals cut two players last week after getting blown out by the Los Angeles Chargers. You think this got the attention of the rest of the roster? They went out and beat Green Bay in Green Bay and got Mike McCarthy fired.
Jacksonville benched their quarterback and fired their offensive coordinator and went out and shut out Indianapolis.
If you don’t think this stuff get players attention, you are kidding yourself. Job security is a great motivator in sports!
For some reason, Bowles just won’t go there. He’s not wired that way. Maybe he’s such a nice guy he doesn’t like publicly humiliating people.
If Bowles gets fired by the Jets, I think he would make a good defensive coordinator somewhere for two reasons.
First off, he’s a pretty good defensive strategist. I know some might disagree with this, but I think the Jets’ biggest defensive problem this year is players blowing assignments more than the actual playbook. The Second reason is, as a defensive coordinator, he’s not making starting lineup decisions, and benching decisions. He has some blind spots as a personnel decision-maker, so it’s best that he just coach the players, and let somebody else decide whose starting. In Arizona, as a DC, he did a terrific job – Bruce Arians (who wouldn’t hesitate to bench people) decided who would play, and Todd would coach those players.
A New York Post columnist wrote today, “The Jets lack many things. Accountability is not one of them.”
I don’t agree. When you refuse to bench players, there is a little bit of a accountability problem.
Why he won’t do it is something I truly don’t get.
December 3, 2018
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