Faking injuries? Nothing new around these parts

Giants coach Tom Coughlin brushed off suggestions that his players faked injuries Monday night to slow down the Rams’ no-huddle attack. Regardless if the Giants are guilty or innocent, it wouldn’t be a revolution. This has been happening (at least it has been accused of happening) for years.

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A few of the more memorable examples:

1988 AFC Divisional Playoff: Seahawks at Bengals

This one caused a firestorm. Seahawks coach Chuck Knox admitted that his nose tackle, Joe Nash, had faked injuries four times (hugely subtle) in order to stop the clock against the Bengals’ no-huddle offense. Cincinnati won 21-13 on its way to losing Super Bowl XXIII to the San Francisco 49ers.

1995: Bills at Browns

After the Bills beat the Browns 22-19 in a Monday night game in Week 5, coach Marv Levy accused Cleveland of faking injuries to slow down Buffalo’s no-huddle offense. Browns coach Bill Belichick wasn’t shy in taking exception to that hypothesis.

“I think that’s a bunch of garbage,” Belichick said. “It’s hard for me to have respect for Levy for saying that. It’s demeaning. We had guys out there playing as hard as they could play, with as much courage as they could show. For this guy to come back and make a ridiculous comment like that, I see where he had some players hurt in the game. If Levy thinks he’s the only coach that’s ever had a guy hurt, then I think he ought to take a look around the league.”

Belichick — just a sliver crankier back then — went on: “Here’s a guy offensively who came in and tried to run the wing-T offense in Kansas City. That was brilliant. And the best thing he did was turn the offense over to Jim Kelly in the second half of the Carolina game and against us. There’s a guy, Jim Kelly, who can run an offense and move an offense. Unfortunately, he (Levy) didn’t call more plays against us, like he did against Carolina. I would much rather go against him than Jim Kelly. I think it’s a disgrace for him to make comments like that.”

Fourteen seasons later, the Browns found themselves in another mess:

2009: Browns at Lions

Belichick disciple/nemesis Eric Mangini, at the helm of the Browns, accused the Lions of faking injuries to slow down Cleveland’s no-huddle offense during a 38-37 loss at Ford Field. Like you, we’re trying to imagine a scenario in which the 2009 Browns — ranking 32nd in total yards — could have moved slower. We’ll keep working on that.

– Marc Sessler

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Moss: ‘Nothing has happened’ since arrival

Published: December 8th, 2010 | Tags: Randy Moss, Jeff Fisher, Kenny Britt, Tennessee Titans

An early morning (OK, early-ish) newsroom conversation Wednesday about the infamous Randy Ratio reminded me just how little we’ve heard from Randy Moss since his trade to the Titans.

Of course, Moss has five receptions for 62 yards in four games, which doesn’t give us much to talk about.

With the pending return of Kenny Britt for Thursday night’s game against the Colts, we could be hearing even less from Moss. It’s possible Britt replaces Moss in the starting lineup, and although coach Jeff Fisher isn’t sure who will start, Moss told John Glennon of The Tennessean he’s open to whatever helps the team win.

“But alternating (with Britt) or whatever is going to help the team win a game, man, that’s what it’s going to be,” Moss said. “Hopefully. he can come out there and give us a spark and make some plays for us, and we’ll see what happens Thursday.”

Here’s how Moss summed up — and did so quite accurately, I might add – his tenure in Tennessee so far.

“I didn’t really know what my involvement or role was going to be when I got here,” he said. “I really just wanted to come out and make some plays, and last couple weeks — well, since I’ve been here — nothing has happened.”

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Simply Miserable; Dolphins do nothing right in 16-0 loss to Da-Bears

Wow. Just wow. The Dolphins did just about everything wrong Thursday night vs the Bears. I guess you could chalk this loss up to three things; too many injuries, too little rest, and just poor play.

The game started off with the Dolphins just not getting the breaks that they needed to get some points on the board, or gain any momentum at all during the first half. Then, slowly but surely the wheels started falling off the bus.

Tyler Thigpen couldn’t get a drive going. Cory Procter got hurt, and Miami was forced to move their starting left guard, Richie Incognito, to center. Pat McQuistan came in in the place of Incognito at left guard.

The defense couldn’t get off the field. Benny Sapp and Al Harris were getting burnt in coverage all night long. Yes, Sapp had an interception, but he also got torched mutliple times.

Just when the situation seemed that it could not get any worse, Brandon Marshall self-distructs. First he drops a pass, then commits a taunting penalty for tossing a ball to Jay Cutler, then drops another ball. Marshall’s night culminates in him leaving the game late in the first half, and not returning due to a hamstring injury.

It was just one of those nights for the Dolphins. The lone bright spot was the performance of Cameron Wake, who finished with a sack, a forced fumble and five tackles. His trip to the Pro-Bowl should be sealed after he dominated the Bears offensive line. Wake single-handidly forced the Bears offensive line into a couple holding penalties, and what should have been many more also.

What seemed to be the theme of the night for me was really the lack of play makers that we had tonight. Our hired guns, Brandon Marshall and Karlos Dansby, had little to not impact tonight. The usual suspects, Davone Bess, Jake Long, Vontae Davis, and Sean Smith all had little to no impact on the game. While Jake Long was injured, he allowed three sacks by Bears defensive end Julius Peppers.

Thigpen was just completely ineffective as well. Whether it was errant passes, miscommunications, or just plain bad decisions, “Thiggy” showed that he clearly is not ready to be this teams quarterback. He has a couple more games to prove himself to this regime, but right now, based on what he has shown me tonight, he is not anywhere close to getting a new contract with this team after this year. If anything his performance is pushing Jeff Ireland to examine the first round quarterbacks a little more closely now.

While on the topic of offense, well, they did very little to help out their defense, who put in a rather proud effort for what their offense gave them. The offense failed to put any points on the board at home for only the second time in 40 seasons. When your running backs only combine for 7 carries for 12 yards, it is hard to place the outcome on the game on your 3rd-string quarterback.

The offense did not look prepared to go out for this game. They looked more worried dealing with their injuries than they did with their gameplan, which sums up the story of our season. The Dolphins time and time again cannot get their running attack going, and have to rely on their quarterback, and in this situation, putting the game in Thigpen’s hands was simply setting themselves up for failure.

I have to admit that I was excited about this game, and the opportunity it presented. Thigpen was getting a shot, and we all were getting a glimpse at what he brought to this team. The Bears have been somewhat inconsistent all season long, and I for one thought the Dolphins would be able to come in and at least contend with the Bears.

This was not the case though. While the defense gave it there all, the offense let their other unit down. The defense was on the field for 37:51, while the Miami offense only held the ball for 22:09. Ball control will now be the main problem for the Dolphins for the rest of the year, and simply, it has been for us all season. Last year we could turn to our running game to eat away at the clock, and this year our rushing attack never got going, and we do not have that go to ground game to keep the opposing team off of the field.

Going into the season I thought the Dolphins only had a few spots that needed filling after this year, but this season has only raised more questions than answering questions.

Miami now has a 10 day layoff before they travel to Oakland to face off against the Raiders. At this point the Dolphins would need to win out, and get some help to make the playoffs. Hey, I’ve seen crazier things happen, but after the 16-0 shutout the Bears handed us tonight, it’s hard to believe in the guys that we have playing right now.

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