Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

I wonder if Sheppherd will now step up as OC or will they hire an outsider?

I\'m not saying McCarthy shouldn\'t have been replaced, because he called lousy games, but the wrong Coordinator got the axe.

Hopefully they\'re saving the best for last.

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

Nice find gator. Apparently the bias from this board has reached the national media.

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

Hear me now and believe me later AB is the problem with the offense not the coach. His does well when it means nothing and screws up when everything is on the line.

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

Preach on, brother!!!

Of course, still no substantial rumors of HIS departure...

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

I don\'t know about some of you. You\'ve missed what is so wrong with this artlicle just so you can AB bash.

Now, don\'t accuse me of saying AB isn\'t a problem, but McCarthy\'s problems have much more to do with McCarthy than they have to do with AB and this article missed that completely.

McCarthy can\'t call plays worth a crap, can\'t game plan, and can\'t avoid being read like a book by EVERY opposing DC. Those are all better reasons why he should be let go than just saying he relied on error prone AB too much.

It just goes to show how little the national media really knows about what\'s going on in N.O....and some you agreed with them.

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

Let me ask you a question - if Pease put Sullivan on the line, would it be better or worse? McCarthy has an inconsistent, thick, ego-maniac at QB, and no matter how you slice it that makes it harder for him to call plays and execute and offense. Brooks hurts McCarthy and the team. Period. He isn\'t the biggest problem, necessarily, but he is a problem nonetheless.

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

I think McCarthy\'s time is up. Time to move on and find someone that will utilize Horn, Stallworth, and our tightends better. We need more of a spread offense. Look how horrible we start off in games, we need someone more aggressive. It\'s not good being a second half team when you are down by 2 touchdowns at halftime. Our playcalling can get horrible at times especially when it\'s 3rd and short. POUND THE FREAKING FOOTBALL, I hate that cute stuff. We have Deuce back there to pick up our short yardage goodness. I\'ve seen numerous times throughout the years 3rd and 1 and we throw the ball deep down field. His time is up and let the door hit him on his way out.

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

All we really know is how AB will play under McCarthy since we\'ve never seen him under another OC. So, logic dictates that it is just as likely that McCarthy has hindered AB as AB has hindered McCarthy. Wouldn\'t it be interesting if someone else comes in and AB lights up the world?

Spock out.

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

[/quote:6ac3197f3c]Wouldn\'t it be interesting if someone else comes in and AB lights up the world?[/quote:6ac3197f3c]

Yes, and wouldn\'t it be interesting if we went outside and looked up and saw pigs flying all around us?

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

What you do with your time is your business. ;)

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

... it is true that McCarthy didn\'t throw that backward pass...
... however...
... there is a reason why the offense is centered around the QB and not Dulymus, and it is not that Brooks is a bigger threat than Deuce...
... and that reason (I believe) is McCarthy trying to follow in the \"Walsh tree\"...
Walsh had Montana
Sheiffert had Young
Holmgren Favre
Reid has McNabb
... McCarthy wants to create \"his\" QB...
...don\'t forget, it was McCarthy that took a special interest in Brooks at the combine, convinced Holmgren to draft him, then convinced both Mueller and Haslett to bring him to the Saints, so McCarthy obviously will feature his QB more than the RB,no matter what... simple as that...

..so, while Brooks may be a self-centered ego-maniac who thinks he\'s a great QB, you have to credit McCarthy for creating that beast...

The thing is, Brooks has the physical ability to play the position, but he\'s mentally not there. I\'m not saying Brooks is an idiot, not even saying that Brooks is not smart... but it is going to take an OC that is going to tell Brooks he\'s not a great QB and teach him to play the position... I don\'t know that could happen at this stage in New Orleans, though...

[Edited on 22/1/2005 by Tobias-Reiper]

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

LOL. And how much do you want to bet that when Sheppard or whomever takes the reigns next year comes in, and the offense is STILL INCONSISTENT, every blames the new guy? Sure, he is ultimately to blame. I won\'t argue that - but his fault isn\'t necessarily in designing a bad offense or call the wrong plays - it\'s in keeping a momentum killing nitwit at QB... amongst other things.

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

Excellent post

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

Everything turns into a AB argument on this board! I can see why...football isnt a team game or anything.Ab make mistakes...yes. Mcnabb has also made just as stupid mistakes(lining up under guard-twice), but his TEAM wins so he gets a pass. I am not sayin AB is better than Mcnabb;because he is not, but AB gets a lot of unfair blame. Just like Salisbury and Schlereth said..If Saints fans don\'t want him...they have bout 20 other teams that would!!!!!!

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

T-R nice post. I was impressed.

Gator, nice find.

FV, did you just compare Brooks to McNabb?! OMG, how is that even possible?! You do know that McNabb has won more than one playoff game... Just kidding buddy. Nice post.

McCarthy built his offense around Brooks. Now whether Brooks is himself a bad QB (or even a subpar starter in the freakin\' NFL people) or not that was McCarthy\'s choice. Even if McCarthy wasn\'t allowed to bench Brooks, he could have done A LOT to protect the offense from the kind of problems Brooks has (and McCarthy should know them, since so many here are convinced they know exactly why Brooks sucks). Thus, I think it is only reasonable to believe that DESPITE BROOKS, McCarthy had a huge hand in how poor our offense was. As people are pointing out, McCarthy could have simply featured the running game more often.

The only obvious reply to this argument is that the OLine made it hard to feature our running game. However, as we all know, a sucky OLine is also going to make it hard to feature a passing game (and even harder for a QB to get things done). Thus, either all three of McCarthy, Brooks, and Duece suffered this season at the hands of our terrible line, OR McCarthy is responsible for the so called disaster that Brooks has been in our offense this season.

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

While y\'all sit here and debate McCarthy... You might want to bring up the offensive line.

Doesn\'t make a damn who\'s calling the plays or who the QB is . Cause if that offensive line plays like they did this year, we\'ve got big problems.

Personally, I don\'t believe McCarthy or Brooks was the major problems. Oh, they could both have done better.

You think McCarthy is being sought out by other teams because he sucks? Hmmm. Maybe you guys are smarter then the Jaguars and Lions. Because they obviously see something they like.

Believe it or not foks, but just because an offense doesn\'t do well, its not always the coordinator\'s fault. And believe this too. There are 11 guys out there on the field who have an awful lot to do with the results we\'ve been getting.

Oh, and that offensive line we\'ve got. They had an awful lot to do with these problems ya\'ll are trying to figure out.

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

Gumbo,

I did just bring up the line. Please see the post right above yours.

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

Also, it is the OC\'s job to do the best he can with the 11 best guys he has. The argument here isn\'t that McCarthy sucks (oddly), merely that he didn\'t do the best he could with the 11 guys he had, and if he is moving on, perhaps someone else can do better. Judging by his game planning, I\'m willing to bet someone could do better with those 11 guys - maybe not much better, but better.

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

I know you did, JKool. It was nice to see someone talking about it. Then again, you are one of the few who actually explore something other than the QB or the coach.

Not that there\'s anything wrong with discussing the QB or coach. But some folks thing getting a new coach and QB will solve world hunger.. ;)

Anyway, I just felt compelled to say a little something about our offensive line. In fact, I \'ve been complaining about the poor PASS blocking for the past 2-years.

Last year Deuce rushed for 1,600 yards and most folks thought we had a pretty good offensive line. Well, they did good at run blocking, but they didn\'t do worth a flip at pass blocking. I would bring it up after almost every game that year. But most foks just want to blame it on Brooks. Imagine that!!

Well, this year our line was even worse than the year before. I suppose losing Fontenot hurt. But it goes way beyond that. Victor Riley and Wayne Gandy are major problem. You want to talk about inconsistent play?!?! Riley and Gandy are about as inconsistent as it gets and both need to go, IMO.

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

Here\'s a news flash for you, Gator.

McCarthy does not feature Brooks over Deuce. And never has. In fact, if McCarthy had it his way he would run 50% of the time and pass 50% of the time. It\'s called BALANCE!!


Hey, but check this out Gator. You know why it seems McCarthy features Brooks over Deuce?

Come on now. This ain\'t hard. And I shouldn\'t have to explain it to you. But I will....

Have you ever watched a Saints\' game?

If so, have you noticed our defense?

You know, the one that gives up about 90-points per game.

Why do I bring up that fact you ask?

Well, when you\'re behind in almost every game there becomes a need to pass the ball more frequently!!

Ohhhhhhhhh, I suppose he could keep running the ball when we are 20-points behind. Sounds logical to me... NOT!!

Look past the trees Gator. There\'s a big forest right over yonder!!

And wouldn\'t it be logical that when your behind by a large margin in most games that no matter what call you make it doesn\'t work most of the time.

Just look at some games other than the Saints every Sunday.

If you do, I\'ll bet you notice that when a team gets behind and HAS to pass that defenses realize this and they tee off and bring a big ol\' can of WHOOP-AZZ to the table.

Playcalling Playcalling. Riiiiiiiiiiiiight!!

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

Is it possible that all the three-and-out\'s in the first and second quarter may have something to do with the bad play of the defense....getting tired in the first half and running out of gas. Just thinking out loud.

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

The three-and-outs do hurt the defense. No question about it.

But here\'s a another newsflash!!

We\'re talking about McCarthy and playcalling.

Do you think the playcalling is what\'s largely responsible for all the three-and-outs?

Or could it be that penalties, dropped passes, and poor blocking have a little something to do with it?

I suppose you could blame the majority of the three-and-outs on poor playcalling. If you\'re from Mars. Just kidding.. ;)

Look, some of you can try and find one area and use that as a scape-goat!!

But why not take everything into consideration?

You might could even try to come up with something that spreads the blame out a little.

Problems on offense percentage wise:

10% playcalling.
20% penalties
10% dropped passes.
15% quarterbacking
Etc, etc...

That\'s just an example. Hopefully you see what I\'m talking about.

Sure, the offense affects the defense and the defense affects the offense.

But, hey, our defense stunk for most of the season and no offense would have changed that fact.

However, I believe if our defense would have played better that there\'s a good chance our offense would have been much more productive once we got away from those dictated passing situations.

[Edited on 22/1/2005 by GumboBC]

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

I had to know, so I looked it up.

It turns out our run pass distribution was 43 runs and 57 passes for every 100 plays. That turns out to be pretty even.

However, one\'s run/pass distribution doesn\'t really say much about whether the run or pass was featured - whether or not plays were designed, packages selected, personel decided up, etc.

Here is an interesting claim: does our move to a 2TE set demonstrate that we wanted to feature the run or pass? I think it is actually neutral - the reason for selecting a 2TE set as a base set is to have a roughly even run/pass distribution. The 2TE set allows for an extra blocker (the second TE) but also some flexibility in the mid to short range passing game (TEs don\'t have to leave the backfield to make a catch). This seems to me to be evidence that McCarthy favored a balanced attack (otherwise he would have selected an I or pro for the basic set to favor the run OR a three or four wide basic set to favor the pass).

This, however, is evidence to me that some of our floundering on O WAS McCarthy\'s fault. He failed to listen to Duece who said he wanted a FB in there. He failed to notice that Duece was better in an I set (until it was getting to be too late), and so on. Yes, it is true that our OLine was so very sad, but McCarthy\'s inability to correct this with a game plan with shorter passes, a lead blocker in the backfield, rolling the pocket to get Brooks a bit more time, and so on, is exactly what makes me think that he is at least marginally to blame for our early season disaster.

Of course, I am VERY sympathetic to the idea that our Offense would have been considerably better if our D hadn\'t sucked it up all year.

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

That\'s closer than I thought it\'d be considering how quickly we tended to get behind in \'04.

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

Yeah, I was kind of shocked too. When you factor in the number of games we were behind and had to throw in the fourth quarter, it leads me to believe the game plan was pretty close to 50/50.

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

See this is where I\'m confused when we do the post-mortems.

I can\'t single out a reason why we performed so poorly throughout the season. During parts of the season it seemed to be an inability to stop the run. Other times, we couldn\'t run. All the time, we tended to start slow.

I think that Haz and Venturi were probably right that the problem wasn\'t X\'s and O\'s. I wonder if the \"fake love\" that Mr. Unmentionable talked about had something to do with it?

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

I am gonna post this again(from BMG) so those of us who insist on saying dropped passes are a big problem for Brooks can get the correct facts.

http://snap.stats.com/stats/nflinfo/...4781&Submit=Go

Look at the bottom and there is a breakdown of Leon\'s incompletions and how many just plain bad passes he throws. Now we can get this mis-information out of the poo rLeon arguments. The it\'s not his fault ever arguments.

[Edited on 22/1/2005 by saintswhodi]

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

The education continues... ;)

Dropped passes did indeed hurt the offense.

You see.... it\'s not necessarily the number of dropped passes that really hurt.

Stick with me here.... ;)

Sometimes it\'s WHEN the drop occurs!!

I think its safe to assume that a drop on 3rd down is more critical than a drop on 1st down.

Its also safe to assume that a dropped pass in the last 2-minutes of the game is more critical than in the first 2-minutes of the game.

Also, dropped passes aren\'t a big problem for Brooks. They\'re a big problem for the TEAM. It hurts the offense, defense, and the special teams.

Are you really trying to convince me that dropped passes did hurt?

I saw the dropped passes with my own two eyes. Critical drops at critical times.

What\'s next? Are you going to tell me penalties didn\'t do any harm either?

Some folks !!! :P

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

Did you notice the OVERWHELMING amount of plain bad passes? Outweighs dropped passes 4 to 1. So pardon me if I see a bigger problem. I am sure all those red zone turnovers Leon has hurts the team more than a third down drop. I am willing to wager half of those drops didn\'t even come on third down. Find another argument. That one is played. Unless you are willing to gander at the huge number of simply bad passes. Is there ever a good time for those? You are right, some people.

[Edited on 22/1/2005 by saintswhodi]

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

Oh, you want to talk about \"bad\" passes.

Then why not say so in the first place?

Why waste your time saying \"dropped\" passes didn\'t hurt?

You confuse me!!

But, you are right. Brooks threw some bad passes this year. We agree.

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

Some? Some? They are the VAST MAJORITY of his incompletions. Some? And go back the two previous years that it lets you and the problem is the same. I don\'t call the MAJORITY of anything, some. I am just ending that dropped passes hurting AB silliness. Seems like his own ineffectiveness hurts him more than anything. And if it hurts him, guess who else it hurts? That\'s right, everyone else in black and gold. Some. hahaha Yeah. And the powerball lotto is worth a FEW dollars too right? ;)

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

Again, my problem with the article is that when the author analyses the information, i.e., McCarthy may be leaving, his first remark is to point out how bad AB can be. Only then does he concede that McCarthy may have made a mistake in featuring AB which may be the reason he is being let go.

Some respondents to this thread claimed that based on this article some of the national media sees things just as clearly as local fans. I disagree. The author missed the entire point about why McCarthy needs to be let go. McCarthy\'s reliance on and featuring of AB isn\'t even half of the reason. It might not even be 10% of the reason for me. He needs to go elsewhere because he sux, plain and simple. You can find several posts of mine wherein I state in what ways he sux so I wont state them again. Bottomline is adios McCarthy. Thanks for nothin\'.

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

Gator --

Look, you read that article which said McCarthy features Brooks and doesn\'t use Deuce enough.

Dude, do you really believe that?

The author of the article is just silly. Actually, he\'s foolish!!

McCarthy\'s offense isn\'t designed to feature any ONE player.

It\'s amazing what some folks will buy into.

Usually teams who give up a lot of points are forced to pass more than they would like. That\'s really out of McCarthy\'s control.

It\'s not like McCarthy is Mike Martz!!

But if that justifies getting rid of McCarthy for you, knock yourself out.

You could have given me a whole laundry list of reasons for getting rid of McCarthy and I could understand to some degree.

But I can\'t buy that he needs to go because he features Brooks over Deuce.

Ever been up in a hot air baloon? You can see the whole forest from up there. Quit looking at that ONE tree... ;)

Yahoo Sports on McCarthy's Departure
 

Well Billy, we could use your analysis for WHEN the dropped passes occur during a game to also WHEN leon decides to do something stupid like throwing INT\'s in the red zone, or fumbles during crucial drives. Or makes the ESPN highlight reel for that matter. I don\'t recall seeing him too much on the greatest plays of the year....it was something else he made...oh what was it....mmmm....dang...can someone else help me out here? What was the few occasions leon made the ESPN highlights? Bueller, Bueller??