It’s Already Looking Bad for Some Coaches’ Futures

With the completion of Week 2, hot seats are getting warmer, questions are getting louder and surprises are getting bigger.

HOT SEATS

The calendar has not yet turned to fall, but the season is already turning into a fight for survival for several coaches.

* In Arizona, Vince Tobin, if the rumors are to be believed, needed Sunday’s 32-31 comeback victory over the Dallas Cowboys to keep his job at least a little longer.

Cardinal owner Bill Bidwill, whose grasp of his team’s fortunes in the best of times is questionable, is under extreme pressure to keep his club on the plus side of the won-lost column as voters decide whether to approve a referendum for a new stadium.

But Tobin shouldn’t get too cocky about his club scoring 32 points against the Cowboys. Dallas has given up 73 points in two games.

Still, Tobin can get cocky enough to predict his team won’t lose next week. The Cardinals have an open date.

And beyond that, things continue to look good, with games against the Green Bay Packers, led by sore-armed Brett Favre; the San Francisco 49ers, who make Dallas’ defense look absolutely airtight; and the Cleveland Browns, who may be better than the Cincinnati Bengals, but nobody else.

Maybe Bidwill can at least keep this thing going until election day in November.

Let’s hope so, because if the voters turn him down, Bidwill will start looking toward L.A.

Go Cardinals.

* In Cincinnati, Bruce Coslet continues to show that winning games is not necessarily a requirement for keeping one’s job.

Coming off a 4-12 season, the Bengals figured they could at least open $453-million Paul Brown Stadium with a victory, considering they were playing the Browns, the expansion version of the team beginning its second season.

Instead, Cleveland won easily, 24-7, giving it half as many victories as it had last season.

Coslet, in his ninth year as a head coach, has finished only one of the previous eight above .500.

Don’t look for this to be the second.

And also don’t look for Bengal management to allow Coslet to finish this season.

* In Washington, there shouldn’t be any reason to panic. The Redskins are off to a 1-1 start and are loaded with talent.

That talent, however, is loaded with money thanks to Washington’s super ambitious owner, Daniel Snyder, who paid $800 million for the team and then wrote checks for $40 million in signing bonuses.

Snyder’s intent is to buy a Super Bowl trophy. And if he thinks he sees it slipping away, the next thing he’ll sign is a pink slip for Coach Norv Turner.

Snyder won’t necessarily wait until season’s end. All it will take is a string of losses like the one Washington suffered Sunday in Detroit.

QUESTIONS

How long will it take for Turner to bench starting quarterback Brad Johnson and give Jeff George a chance?

How long will it take before Dallas owner Jerry Jones goes ballistic over his team’s miserable start, doing his best imitation of Bob Knight?

How long will it take for the San Diego Chargers to accept the fact that Ryan Leaf must go?

What made Minnesota Viking Coach Dennis Green think that Randall Cunningham was washed up?

Has anybody with the 49ers contacted Steve Young yet about reconsidering his retirement decision?

SURPRISES

Among the unbeaten after two weeks are:

* Buffalo Bills. The youth movement has taken over.

With new stars such as tight end Jay Riemersma and defensive end Marcellus Wiley, and a few old reliables such as kicker Steve Christie, the Bills are again rearing their heads in the AFC East.

But they will soon get those heads knocked off if they don’t develop a consistent running game.

* Oakland Raiders. It was easy to dismiss their Week 1 victory over the Chargers by pointing out that all they had to do was let Leaf be Leaf.

But Sunday, the Raiders beat Peyton Manning and an Indianapolis Colt team considered a Super Bowl contender.

After a decade, the silver and black may finally be back.

* New York Giants. Maybe running back Tiki Barber is for real. He has fooled the experts, fooled opposing defenses and even fooled Giant management, who, truth be told, could not have imagined him rushing for 240 yards in the first two games after having gained 935 yards in his previous three seasons combined.

Barber’s two-game figure leaves him only 108 yards behind last year’s team-leading total for the entire season, 348 yards by Joe Montgomery.

Add a solid defense and the improvement of quarterback Kerry Collins and the quick start is understandable.

* Detroit Lions. It’s a little harder to figure out how the Lions are 2-0 considering that they have yet to score an offensive touchdown.

Detroit has beaten Washington and the New Orleans Saints on a kickoff return for a touchdown, an interception return for a touchdown and five field goals.

“We know that once we get to the [opposing] 35, we’ve probably got three points,” Detroit quarterback Charlie Batch said.

Be assured of this: Next week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Lions will have to do more than bring Jason Hanson onto the field if they hope to keep their record unblemished.