The premature Fire Macdonald thread

[toffee]

I'm reminded of what the great Chuck Knox once said about head coaches in the NFL. To paraphrase, it went something like this:

I've seen teams with an offensive coordinator in charge of the offense, a defensive coordinator in charge of the defense, a special teams coach in charge of special teams, and a head coach who wasn't in charge of anything."

One of a head coaches' primary jobs on game day is managing the game. He makes the critical go-for-it, punt, call timeout, and challenge a call decisions. To be fair, he has a lot of people in his ear giving him advice, but when the day is done, the buck stops with him.

When Holmgren was our head coach, I sincerely felt that he should have given up his play calling duties because IMO it caused him to lose track of the overall game situation. It also gave his defense the impression that he was aloof and detached. He didn't spend any time with talking with his defense because when they were on the bench, he had his nose buried deep into that Denny's menu. I took a lot of heat for my take. There's a ton of very successful coaches, including HOF caliber guys like Andy Reid, that call their own plays. Perhaps it's from my own experience as a manager, ie the dangers of micromanaging, but that's how I feel.

I've stated in other threads my extreme displeasure with Mac's decision down by 2 with 3.5 minutes left in the game and the ball at the opponent's 19, 4th and 1, to take the FG and not even attempting to pull the defense offside. Those types of coaching mistakes are unforgivable.

That lack of confidence in his offense not to be able to gain one yard has to have an effect on those players. Mac can stand up in his presser and claim that his coaches and players all have each other's back all he wants. It's nothing but lip service from a coach defending himself after a tough loss. I seriously think that he stands a chance of losing the locker room over decisions like that one.

There's also stuff like continuing to trot Woolen out there when everybody and their dog can see that he's a huge liability.

I'm not ready to advocate firing Mac, not even close. But nor am I giving him a blank check for 3 years as some of my friends in here are. We'll see how the rest of this season plays out. But I am not at all impressed with what I've seen to this point. I expect more. A lot more.

Just because Usain Bolt can run 100m in 9.58 sec, doesn't mean other top sprinters could. Just because Andy Reid could call his own play and be a great HC, doesn't mean others could.

Bolt and Reid are the exception; the others are the norm.

 

[Jerhawk]

I didn't take your OP as tongue in cheek. You titled it the "Premature" fire Macdonald thread, which indicated to me that you were just semi serious.

The discussion should be taking place. I'm not endorsing Macdonald as HC for any longer than this season, less than that if he loses the team as Jim Mora did in 2009 or pulls a stunt ala Urban Meyer and Jon Gruden. Macdonald, like all players and coaches of my favorite team, has to earn my respect and support. I was cautiously optimistic after last season and the moves we made in the offseason, but this first game has knocked me back a step or two.

I'm all about the team and much less about individual players and coaches except as it relates to the team. I've been a Seahawk fan from the get-go. I'll root for Macdonald as fiercely as I did Pete, Holmgren, Knox, et al. Now, let's kick some ass this Sunday and I'll be all smiles again.

Exactly, the title was meant to be insincere. Not that serious, although I did sprinkle in some points of where I haven’t been completely impressed by Macdonald so far, but I just chalk that up to him being young and inexperienced in the leadership department. That’ll come with time.

I didn’t question his football IQ coming into this season, although he does make some head scratching in-game decisions, for example the issue of not going for it on 4th and 1. When stuff like that doesn’t work out, he gets second guessed.

Overall in my OP though I was attempting to be silly and ease some frustration among others, and myself.

Winning solves everything.

 

[RiverDog]

Exactly, the title was meant to be insincere. Not that serious, although I did sprinkle in some points of where I haven’t been completely impressed by Macdonald so far, but I just chalk that up to him being young and inexperienced in the leadership department. That’ll come with time.

I didn’t question his football IQ coming into this season, although he does make some head scratching in-game decisions, for example the issue of not going for it on 4th and 1. When stuff like that doesn’t work out, he gets second guessed.

Overall in my OP though I was attempting to be silly and ease some frustration among others, and myself.

Winning solves everything.

You're not the only one that scratched their head last Sunday. I still can't get over that decision not to go for it on 4th/1 AND not even try to pull the D offside. I feel pretty confident in saying that given the same situation, 31 NFL coaches would have done things differently.

I don't know enough about Mac's football IQ, nor do I have a good enough football IQ myself, to tell whether or not it's good or bad. But football smarts aren't what I look at anyway. I look at the wins and losses. He could be football's Jethro Clampit so long as he wins games.

 

[SocialParasite]

What movie is this from? I so recognize it, but I'm not remembering...lol.

 

[RiverDog]

Just because Usain Bolt can run 100m in 9.58 sec, doesn't mean other top sprinters could. Just because Andy Reid could call his own play and be a great HC, doesn't mean others could.

Bolt and Reid are the exception; the others are the norm.

Sean Payton calls his own plays, and he won a Super Bowl doing it. Sean McVay also won a SB while calling all his own plays. Kyle Shannan, Zac Taylor, Mike McDaniel, Kevin Stefanski, Mike McCarthy, Matt LeFleur, and Kevin O'Connell all call their own plays with varying degrees of success, so I wouldn't say that it's exceptional.

I personally don't think it's a good idea for the HC to call his own plays, but I suppose it depends on a lot of things. I can see where it could be a huge problem, one of those too close to the trees to see the forest type of situation.

 

[glenwo2]

Sean Payton calls his own plays, and he won a Super Bowl doing it. Sean McVay also won a SB while calling all his own plays. Kyle Shannan, Zac Taylor, Mike McDaniel, Kevin Stefanski, Mike McCarthy, Matt LeFleur, and Kevin O'Connell all call their own plays with varying degrees of success, so I wouldn't say that it's exceptional.

I personally don't think it's a good idea for the HC to call his own plays, but I suppose it depends on a lot of things. I can see where it could be a huge problem, one of those too close to the trees to see the forest type of situation.

So are you saying that MacDonald should be like "If you don't get this offense off the ground, Kubiak, I'm taking over this sh*t and you can go fetch me some coffee" or something?

 

[RiverDog]

So are you saying that MacDonald should be like "If you don't get this offense off the ground, Kubiak, I'm taking over this sh*t and you can go fetch me some coffee" or something?

No, I'm not saying that at all. As a matter of fact, since Macdonald is a defensive guy, he'd be like a babe in the woods if he were to take over the play calling duties on offense. It would never happen.

My point is that in my perfect world, the head coach would delegate play calling duties, both offensively and defensively, and oversee the entire operation. I learned to do that in my 40+ years in supervision/management, not to micromanage the endeavor, so it's in my blood so to speak. Obviously, not everyone sees it that way and there are a number of HC's that call their own plays, both defensive minded coaches as well as offense. How successful they've been vs. those who delegate that task is debatable.

 

[RolandDeschain]

HA yes, that's it - very funny film. Thanks.

 

[Jerhawk]

Well, we lost. Fire Macdonald.

No more silliness. This isn’t working

 

[FreshBoxLive]

I actually like threads like this because it makes me feel less unhinged about my knee jerk reactions.

 

[Chukarhawk]

Well? most wins in franchise history, number 1 seed, beat the rams and whiners and on a 7 game win streak. Not sure how much better the season could have gone.

 

[HawkRiderFan]

OP should have deleted or asked the mods to delete this thread.

 

[MontanaHawk05]

I just knew someone was gonna necro this.

 

[warden]

Show the football IQ of many poster here doesn’t it

 

[SeahawkSteve80]

The OP seemed to post this with a tongue in cheek sort of style to it. Unnecessarily, moderately comical. Now they deserve to be crucified four months after this crazy thread.

 

[Atradees]

Tar and Feathered.

 

[Chukarhawk]

I'd have left it alone, but he doubled down with, "
Well, we lost. Fire Macdonald.

No more silliness. This isn’t working"

it puts on the lotion, or it gets the hose.

 

[samwize77]

Well, we lost. Fire Macdonald.

No more silliness. This isn’t working

..................................I was going to cut some lack in the wake of all the "this is semi-satire" postings. Until the above statement. And I'm not usually one to kick someone when they are down. However, having said that....

 

[MyrtleHawk]

Well? most wins in franchise history, number 1 seed, beat the rams and whiners and on a 7 game win streak. Not sure how much better the season could have gone.

It could've gone better being undefeated...

I say that in jest, btw. I'm satisfied with where we are now, undefeated wouldn't change that.

 

[LeveeBreak]

Many posts don't age well. We've seen it over a season and a single game. I've made prognostications that don't come to bear...but also willing to publicly (normally glad to) eat crow. When a psyche isn't fragile, admitting mistakes makes you stronger.

OP, care to eat some and make it all go away (god please make it go away).