Principles of football escape coaches, players, fans

	Despite staring a chance to win in the face last week, Iowa's Kirk Ferentz turned his back on the Hawkeyes' pursuit of victory. Matt Stroshane/Getty Images
	MAILBAG Dr. Z will answer select user questions each week in his NFL mailbag. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

Andrew sent me a huge list of questions and then beat it before I could holler, "Hey, wait a minute!" So I'm going to have to get in and get out quickly, no dawdling, no long stories about when we all rode pigs and worked as scissors grinders. I said I needed to be fed a question that would prompt an answer that I didn't have room for in the rankings column, and Jennifer from Phoenix, and currently New York City, politely said: "Here is my question. What were you going to tell us about?"

Michigan vs. Iowa last Saturday. The Hawkeyes, trailing by three, are down deep in Wolverines territory with a minute and change left. Does Iowa's Kirk Ferentz do some real coaching and get them into the end zone and win the game outright? He does not. He lets the clock run and then settles for the field goal, which sends the game into overtime. Iowa loses. I have three questions. Why, why and why? Don't these guys want to win?

I have a fourth question, for the ESPN announcers, Mike Tirico and Tim Brandt: Did you manage to keep awake during this sequence? If so, why no comment -- none at all -- on this awful strategy? I'm played out. I just can't handle it anymore. I mean, tell me folks, am I nuts or something?

No, Jen, you're not my E-mailer of the Week, although you came close. That honor goes to one of the strongest entrants in years, Jeff Werr of Shelbina, Mo. This is what he did, and if this were England, he'd be knighted: He was at the Missouri-Nebraska game with his 11-year-old son, and he was lamenting the decline of the Cornhuskers offense, and his 11-year-old said, "Well, dad, now they run the West Coast Offense."

"Some minutes later," Jeff writes, "my son was wearing a horrified look on his face and I realized that I was yelling at him about the 'real' West Coast Offense and Sid Gillman and Don Coryell."

Praise God, a convert. Only about 180 million to go.

The next subject is Michael Vick. Pro, con and middle, regarding my stance that he needs to learn the quarterback position. Dan of Carrboro, N.C. Pro. Cunningham and McNabb both became better when they scrambled less and worked the game more, although in McNabb's case some of this might have come from physical limitation via injury.

Kwame from Kweens, I mean Queens, N.Y. A middle. Shouldn't we evaluate Vick differently, especially since you wrote about Benny Friedman and the great run and pass single wing tailbacks? I wrote this a few years ago, but I feel a repeat is apropos. I had this honest to goodness dream one night, honest. I dreamed that Atlanta came out in a single wing with Vick at tailback, Duckett at the spinning fullback, Dunn at wingback and Brian Kozlowski at blocking back. And they just tore up some team. It was just so real I couldn't shake it. Finally I called Dan Reeves, who was coaching the Falcons then. I laid it out for him and asked if it would make any sense. There was a pause, then he said, "What's a spinning fullback?" Well, maybe he was putting me on, maybe he wasn't, but some day before I move on to that distant shore I'd dearly love to see this happen.