by Sonny Palermo

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."

 - Winston Churchill 

Dave Wannstedt has been given a contract extension by Pittsburgh. And I am confused.

In his first two seasons, Dave went 5-6 and 6-6. But that was with ‘the other guy's players" - this was to be the season Dave would finally return the Panthers to a winning tradition, as he was playing with some of his own recruits. But after regressing to 5-7, including a dismal 3-4 in conference play, Dave was given an extension!!??

First off, let's dispense with the notion that you have to be smart to get a head coaching job. Nepotism and cronyism exist in this field, just like in all others. And some of the team owners (in the Pro's) and Athletic Directors (in NCAA) have huge ego's, and don't want a "smart" coach, they want a ‘controllable coach, so that they can pull strings from behind the scenes. So it is not impossible to get a head coaching job and not be the smartest guy on the field. Or even close to it.

Case in point - the Civil War. Tied up, final minute of Q4, Oregon gets a completion that gets them a first down and puts them in field goal range. With 18 seconds on the clock, they send the kicking team in, hurrying to get the FG off before the clock expires. What should they have done? Kept the offense on the field, spiked it, and TAKEN THEIR DAMNED SWEET TIME LINING UP THE FG!!! Instead, they rushed it, and . . .he missed. Of course.

Things like this are not mistakes. A dropped pass is a mistake. Off-sides, defense, is a mistake. Mistakes of this nature are acceptable. Rushing your FG unit on when you could have spiked it is not a mistake - it is an idiot move, totally unacceptable from someone who is paid hundreds of thousand dollars to manage things from the field, yet doesn't know as much as the average sports fan sitting on his couch at home knows.

There will be a little reprieve from the press for Wannstedt, after his big win over West Virginia last Saturday, but even in that there was, as usual, some questionable decisions, and his clock management in the final minutes was shaky at best. In a division with Rutgers and West Virginia, and now S Florida, Cincy and U Conn stepping up, I see much trouble for Pittsburgh in the 2-3 years ahead (2-3 being the amount of time it will take these guys to realize Dave has to go.)

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Some of the best comments from last weekend came from the team of Moose and Goose, as they covered Pop ‘N Fresh vs. The Walrus in Philly on Sunday. Seemed like Moose was shaking his head in wonder all day long at some of the decisions made by Pop ‘N Fresh, along with most of the Eagles faithful. But his best one liner came during a discussion of the new, modern facilities in Lincoln Financial Field at Philadelphia, after Goose asked him "Was it hard, playing on the field here at Veterans Stadium, in the old days?" to which Moose replied, "It was hard working the booth in the old stadium."

That's probably funnier if you ever had to sit through a game at The Vet.

Not that I pay too close attention to these things, but it seems to me that bowl games ended on New Year's Day. Then, they started slipping in the big one for the day after New Year's. Then, they started slipping one or two games passed the old New Years deadline. Now, this season, the bowl games will end only a few weeks before the next season begins! (OK, an exaggeration that last bit, but believe me, I know the NCAA, they're like Hitler marching on Poland and if left unchecked they'll string this stuff out until March Madness if we don't stop them now.)

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Anyone catch the winning trend I pointed out in last week's column, the one based on Big Ed's sticky post? I didn't see any mention of it in the forum, if you got it post it up for others to share, too!

Review/Selection

10-7 in this column now after we split out last week, as Denver at Oakland went over the total but the Bronco's couldn't get Over 22 for their team total. They also couldn't get a win, and after two road losses, to the Bears and now the Raiders, the Bronco's have no shot at the playoffs (don't give me the math of it; yes, technically they are still alive, but realistically they are glue factory material.) This week I'm going AGAINST a favorite who lost last week straight up as a fav, and to the Seahawks no less!

NYG at Philly E

That's right, it is a rare-for-me play ON the G-men. I hate to do it, but have to give them credit after they came from behind in Chicago last week (this of course, having as much to do with Mrs. Howell sitting on a small lead for most of the game (though in his defense you really can't get too aggressive with Rexy at QB.) Still, after the beating they took at the hands of the Vikings, it was a decent comeback for New York, who had to win despite little Manning's penchant for tossing the ball to guys wearing opposing colors. With the Seahawk loss, Philly is also out of the playoffs, and we should see the beginning of the collapse this week. New York opened at +3, and I'll play them at that number (buy up if it's at 2' by the time you get this, and it most likely will be as they have the wrong Fav here.)

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