Coaching Has Kept QB Testaverde From Reaching Greatness

The role that coaching plays in winning and losing NFL games continues to be both underestimated and misunderstood.

If, for example, quarterback Vinny Testaverde is as good as he looked Monday night, only his overseers could have been holding him back and keeping him down for the last 12 years.

Although Testaverde has personally taken the rap all that time, look at the coaches he’s had:

Tampa Bay (1987-1992): Ray Perkins and then Richard Williamson. Two losers.

Cleveland (1993-95): Bill Belichick, a winner as a defensive coordinator, a loser as a head coach.

Baltimore (1996-97): Ted Marchibroda, who once won as an NFL conservative but hasn’t adjusted to the new wide-open game that Testaverde personified Monday night when he led the New York Jets to a 24-14 upset over New England.

New York (1998): Bill Parcells, who learned this summer that Testaverde has one of the NFL’s great arms, has benched him nonetheless this fall whenever journeyman teammate Glenn Foley has been injury-free.

The truth about quarterbacks is that the good ones are those who have had good coaches.

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Division of labor: The two hardest positions to fill adequately on any NFL team are quarterback and head coach--but not in that order. With passing now the weapon of decision, it is much harder to be a good coach than a good quarterback.

Since the days of Johnny Unitas and Joe Namath, the division of labor has evolved. Coaches do the thinking now. Quarterbacks are called on simply to execute.

Aware only of what they see, football fans are still blaming quarterbacks for turnovers that are often the fault of coaches whose planning has been inadequate or incompetent.

Testaverde, in other words, has been the fall guy for many coaches.

Not that he has yet reached greatness. But had he been coached all these years by a Mike Shanahan-type, he would have enjoyed much more success.

Bill Walsh, the 1980s San Francisco coach, is the strategist who brought in modern pass offense. Before his time, NFL coaches could do it all with the required knowledge of football, knowledge of people, experience, character, and the other virtues.

But today there is one further requirement. Because the strategy of pass offense is so challenging, coaches also have to be brilliant. And the problem is that there isn’t a large talent pool of high-IQ NFL people. The game is running away from the ability of most coaches to oversee modern offense.

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Test of styles: The Jacksonville team that plays at Denver today in the game of the week remains the season’s best example of a pro club that has everything but a deep interest in modern offense.

In particular, Jacksonville’s quarterback, Mark Brunell, is a spectacular athlete who can beat almost any defensive alignment passing or running.

In addition, Jaguar leadership, as provided by Coach Tom Coughlin, has consistently proved both sound and steady.

Coughlin, however, prefers to set up Brunell’s passes the old way, by running the ball with one or another of his good ballcarriers. And in Buffalo last week, that strategy failed, 17-16, when good old Doug Flutie got hot.

The Broncos, as led by Shanahan’s quarterback, John Elway, and running back, Terrell Davis, are the exemplar of modern football. They set up Davis’ runs with either Elway’s passes or his threats to pass.

On first down, so long as the game is within reach of both sides, the Broncos (6-0) will throw it repeatedly, unless the Jaguars line up specifically to prevent Elway’s pass.

On first down, the Jaguars (5-1) prefer to run against any defense.

So this will be a contrast of styles unless Jacksonville, whose best two runners are hurt, comes out throwing. That’s what Denver has to fear the most. Compared to Brunell, Testaverde is a pale shadow of a quarterback.