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NFL '99

Farve: 'There are no great teams any more'

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Posted: Tuesday September 28, 1999 12:25 PM

Griese situation: The Broncos are hardly recognizable as the defending Super Bowl champs with second-year quarterback Brian Griese at the helm. AP

NEW YORK (AP) -- We heard it all last week: John Elway's retired, Chris Chandler, Jamal Anderson and Vinny Testaverde are hurt and every defensive coordinator in the NFL watched Randy Moss films during the offseason and figured out how to stop him.

Sorry, last year's final four -- Denver, Atlanta, Minnesota and the New York Jets -- still should be better than a combined 1-11 after going 55-9 during the 1998 season, meaning they've already lost two more games than in all of 1998.

Here's the problem, as stated by Brett Favre after his second Elwayesque comeback in three weeks -- a fourth-down 23-yard touchdown pass that gave the Green Bay Packers a 23-20 win over Minnesota with 12 seconds left.

"There are no great teams any more." he said. "We're not beating anyone 38-7. We'll have a lot of games like this."

Good news for Green Bay, which has Favre. Not such good news for everyone else.

But back to 1-11.

That can be attributed to retirements, injuries, etc., in the demise [for now] of last year's powers. But it also can be attributed to the four certified geniuses who coached their teams to the top last year and are feeling the pressure this season.

Exhibit A: Mike Shanahan. In training camp, he had a nice rhythm going. His players were confident, even cocky, and everyone seemed convinced that Bubby Brister could step in where Elway left off. After all, weren't the Broncos 4-0 in games Brister started last season and 6-0 in games in which he played?

But Brister had a poor exhibition season, and Shanahan panicked and benched Brister for Brian Griese.

Griese probably will be a good quarterback in time, but he's pressing now, was pressured all game Sunday against Tampa Bay and scares no one. That allows nine-man fronts to shut down running back Terrell Davis. Davis had 53 yards in 19 carries and now has 193 yards in 59 attempts, an average of 3.3 for a man who ran for 2,008 yards and averaged 5.1 last season. (Tyrone Wheatley is having a better year.)

Exhibit B: Bill Parcells of the Jets dropped Neil O'Donnell last year and Glenn Foley during the offseason for both cap and personality reasons. O'Donnell is 2-0 in relief for Tennessee (3-0) and Foley 1-0 for Seattle. Rick Mirer, obtained during training camp as a backup for Testaverde (now injured) is 0-21/2 for the Jets and everyone else is playing worse -- Ray Mickens had two critical pass interference penalties to set up a Washington touchdown in the Jets' 27-20 loss Sunday.

Parcells has been known to bag seasons, such as 1987, when his New York Giants started 0-2 after winning the Super Bowl. The strike team went 0-3, and a talent-laden team finished 6-9.

Exhibit C: Dan Reeves. Reeves is stubborn. Even knowing Chandler is injury prone, he went with Steve DeBerg last year as a backup and survived because Chandler stayed relatively healthy. He went to Danny Kanell this year (loyalty to a player he drafted in New York). Kanell couldn't do it and now Tony Graziani is the starter.

"Graziani's a good player, but he's not going to get it done," Rams safety Keith Lyle said after St. Louis' 35-7 win over the Falcons in which Chandler reinjured a hamstring.

Anyone for DeBerg, now Reeves' QB coach? Anyone for Tommy Maddox?

Exhibit D: Dennis Green. Green's doing OK. The big loss is Brian Billick, last year's offensive coordinator and now the head coach in Baltimore.

Another problem is Moss, who in three games has nine catches for 123 yards and one touchdown, which came Sunday at Green Bay. Against the Packers, he had two catches for 13 yards. Last year at Green Bay, he had five receptions for 190 yards. Everyone's double-teaming him now and making Cris Carter and Jake Reed beat them.

Whatever, in three games the Vikings have scored 17, 17 and 20 points. They never scored fewer than 24 in any game last season en route to an NFL record 556.

"We're still a very good team," Green said. "We've just played some very good teams."

 

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