Sunday, September 25, 2011

Ken Whisenhunt Report Card

This pains me to admit, because I have defended him since day 1, but up to this point Ken Whisenhunt has been a bad head football coach.  He has no idea how to run an offense without Bill Cowher or Kurt Warner.  He makes no commitment to running the football, and when he finally does, its at the wrong time.  He's never been better than 28th in rushing in the league.  He forced D.A., Hall, Skelton, and Bartell on us last year and had them throw the ball more than 2/3 of the time.  Matt Leinert got worse here.  Outside of Kurt Warner, no QBs have ever gotten better.  His offensive line never gets better.  Last year experts were raving that this line was deep and going to be good.  Instead they turned out to be horrible.  He never used his TEs, and then when he finally does he goes and gets three of them.  Sure the WR have done O.K.  But Fitz is going to be great no matter what.  And Q was going to be tough no matter what.  And Breaston ran from here to the guy that he thought was the real reason he was successful:  Todd Haley.    

Apart from the magical run to the Superbowl, he can't get a team to stop the run either.  He's hired lame Defensive Coordinators in Pendergast and Davis.  And while I like Horton, it appears that he is also falling victim to the curse here.  A.W. gets worse by the week and never sees the bench and I'm starting to see signs that Paris Lenon and Rhodes, the two guys that came outside of the organization last year, are starting to come apart.  So if DRC plays undisciplined last year and you trade him, then what do you do when your entire team does? 

Coach Whiz has shown nothing apart from Warner.  His players play undisciplined and their seems to be little or no consequence when they do.  His teams are plagued with penalties and turnovers.  He loses games that very few could.  It was Seattle today, it was Seattle, S.F. and Carolina last year.  It will continue.  This team won't turn the corner.  They will just keep us on edge thinking that they have only to prove the next week they really haven't. 

 I used to think it was both Whiz and Kurt who turned the franchise around.  Instead, it appears the it was only Kurt, and he's gone now.  That leaves us seeing Whiz for what he really is.  A calm coach who thinks that you have to throw to win no matter who's at QB.  Defense isn't all that important.  And it's the players fault for not executing.  Well, who put those players in that position?  And the big question: why aren't your players getting better?

This franchise has had a long run at being inept.  You can never tell if the coach or player is really bad untill they leave.  It turns out that every head coach here died on the vine.  Tobin, Buddy, and Denny never coached again.  Bugel and Coach Mac coached limited roles.  Head coaching here is a career killer.  I truly wished that Ken Whisenhunt would escape the trap, but it doesn't look like its going to turn out that way.  I've seen nothing in the last 19 games to indicate that he's going to figure it out.  Going on that, he'll finish 5-11 again and get fired at the end of the year.  Only to be replaced by the next guy this franchise will destroy.  From 1976 to 2007 they only went to the playoffs once. (minus that strike year)  Sadly we might be looking at another 30 year run.  

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