Coaching/talent

[sportscurmudgeon]

I happen to believe that players win and lose games far more frequently than coaches win and lose games. I realize that others here disagree but try to explain these things to me.

We had a defensive coordinator here named Mike Nolan. The Skins' defense was decidedly mediocre and he was ushered out of town with a big sigh of relief because people thought he was less than fully competent. MIke Nolan is now the defensive coordinator in Baltimore. He has better players there than he had here and maybe he has some more players there who do what he asks them to do instead of "freelancing". And now he is a "hot commodity" as a coordinator and is considered a candidate for a head coaching job. (Frankly, I would not hire him as a head coach, but his name is out there.)


Meanwhile, in Baltimore in 2000, Marvin Lewis coached that Ravens' defense and it was so good that it won the Ravens a Super Bowl with Trent "Bleeping" Dilfer playing QB. Marvin came here and took over a less talented - and a certainly less cooperative - defensive unit and it didn't work nearly as well.

I don't believe Nolan got a whole lot smarter and more competent by moving 50 miles north while Lewis got a whole lot dumber and less competent by moving 50 miles south. I don't think that coaching ability is dependent on the latitude of the home stadium.

So, I think this situation revolves around the fact that the Skins defensive players have been less talented and less "coachable" than the Ravens players much more than it revolves around the capabilities of the two defensive coordinators. I think both men are/were competent and above the threshold of competence needed to succeed. But they both seem to be doing/have done better in Baltimore...