Outcoached and Oversaturation

There has been a heavy anti-ESPN backlash recently, and for the most part, I have been supportive of the Network/Website. I think they still do a lot of stuff right, and I can't say that it would be easy to do what they do. But their worst offense maybe their over saturation of Monday Night Football, which is in its first year on ESPN. The entire day of Monday is devoted to that night's game, including updates on the teams every 20 minutes! And just moments after NBC's Sunday night showdown between the Saints and Cowboys, I turned to ESPNews for highlights. Instead, they are already previewing the Monday night game. Enough is enough.

Furthermore, if it's not MNF, they reiterate the same stories over and over when there isn't anything new to report. How many days can they lead with "no word yet on where Iverson will go"? And yet, despite how much sports coverage I get, I haven't heard anything talking about one of the gutsiest calls, in the middle of a complete example of outcoaching.

The call -- an onside kick with the Saints leading 35-17. They've got all the momentum in the world in the 3rd quarter. Kick away and there should be no problem to hold on to win. But an onside kick? Recovering it would really seal the deal, but lose it, and give them great field position? The cowboys could cut it to a 11-point game in the 3rd quarter and regain some momentum. The risk doesn't seem to be worth the reward.

But Payton was confident that he could catch the Cowboys sleeping, and recover the kick easily. They did. And would score on the drive. How come no one in media is praising his coaching call? They would be ready to rant and rave, if they lost that kick and it backfired. So how come the media prefers to attack instead of praise?

And you know what, that wasn't the coaching call that made me say "I really like this coach."

Earlier in the game, down 0-7, Saints had a 4th and 1 from the DAL39. They called a reverse using Bush as a decoy. Risky play, but it worked.


Payton outcoached Parcells, yet Parcells couldn't admit it. Here are his quotes after the game:

"We took a bad beating tonight," Cowboys head coach Bill Parcells said. "We got beat in about every way possible. They really outplayed us and kept us off balance. They did a good job and we didn't play well. That was a pretty good licking and I can't think of anything that we really did well."

Why is outcoached a dirty word? Players get outplayed and coaches get outcoached. It happens. Just about every game. It doesn't mean you're a bad player or a bad coach. It just happens. So admit it.