American Football Spectacular: After Beating The 49ers, One NYG Fan's Diagnosis
Well, that sucked.
Now we've got all these rumors swirling that Head Coach Nolan II will be fired after this latest underwhelming showing.
American Football Spectacular's New York American Football Giants correspondent Joon Lee has some verrry specific opinions about Nolan and the state of the Niners:
Don't have much to say, so I will make a connection between the 49ers and NYG through one common thread: Mike Nolan."The "rivalry" that once was in the 1980s and early '90s is all but dead. The 49ers have been in a long state of decline and mediocrity ever since the cheating Eddie D and Carmen "I am a salary cap genius" Policy left and the Yorks took over.
I guess John York was taken in by Mike Nolan's interviewing skills -- impressed by his articulate, confident tone of voice and commanding demeanor. But let's examine Nolan's performance as a Defensive Coordinator. Nolan was brought into the NY Giants' organization as D Coordinator by Dan Reeves, who took over from the bumbling Ray "I take umbrage" Handley, a f__king disaster, and worst personnel move made by the late great Giant GM George Young.
Nolan's first year with the Giants was a near-mutiny by the Giants defensive players, who were used to an attacking, "I'm going to kick your f__king ass, and let you know I'm going to kick your pussy ass" style of physical, intimidating brand of defense. Nolan instead, played a more passive, bend-but-don't-break, read-and-react defensive style. Nolan, as today, was an obstinate know-it-all who wanted players to adapt to his style, rather than utilizing the talents he had and fitting a system to fit those talents.
Pepper Johnson, a solid physical LB, led the revolt, saying no one on the Defense liked this style and questioned the legitimacy of Nolan's schemes. The Giants lost several early games due to the defensive lapses. But after realizing that Reeves would stick by Nolan, the players "drank the Kool-Aid" and started buying into the scheme. What resulted was moderate success, at least enough to get them into the playoffs. But nothing beyond one or two rounds.
Reeves eventually got canned and Nolan was canned with him. Eventually, Nolan somehow became D Coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens, where he took over from the departed Marvin Lewis. Now, anyone who follows football knows the Ravens had loads of talent on D so anyone could have had success and Nolan was the beneficiary of this mega-talented group. Ergo, he lands the interview with John York -- and bingo! -- snows him with his oratorical splendor (sounds like the Presidential election, boys & girls... but I digress).
Nolan is a strange and cautious man. Glenn Dickey of the SF Examiner summed it up best when he said "Nolan is more preoccupied about sounding and looking like a Head Coach than being a Head Coach."
Nolan likes to wear suits, fine, then you better also produce like men who those suits -- Tom Landry, Vince Lombardi and his own father, Dick Nolan. Nolan plays not-to-lose and we all know what happens to coaches with that mind set -- Marty Schottenheimer always made it to the playoffs only to lose because he shut down the offense with conservative play-calling and a reliance on his vaunted defenses.
Nolan has Mike Martz as his Offensive Coordinator, yet he just can't let go of this trait and reels him by not going for a very-makable 4th down plays in enemy territory, going for field goals instead. Field goals are for f__king losers and Nolan loves them!
The 49ers need to wake up and understand, Nolan is a loser far too-cautious and conservative to ever win in the NFL. You need a strong leader who also puts trust in his players to produce and lets them fail on the field. That's how Bill Parcells, a hard-driving control-freak tyrant wins over his players -- he plays to win -- he goes for it on 4th down! Nolan has already lost the locker room by his "It's never my fault" "My schemes are innovative" "I am a football genius in my own mind" persona. Dr. York, if you want to restore the 49ers to competitive NFL play and restore a once solid NFL rivalry with my Big Blue, you gotta fire Nolan's ass right now! Make Martz your Head Coach, he'll at least win back the players and they'll play for him, and the offense will thrive once you get a real QB in there.
Thank you and "Go Big Blue!"
Joon is the most entertaining NYG fan this side of Carl Brutananadilewski. You got somethin' to say about this? Have at it in the comments!