Rams Dismiss Almost All of Their Defensive Coaches
Defensive coordinator Peter Giunta and two of his assistants were fired Tuesday by the St. Louis Rams, who also dismissed special teams coach Larry Pasquale. Also fired were line coach Carl Hairston and secondary coach Steve Brown.
The moves come three days after the defending Super Bowl champions were eliminated from the postseason in a 31-28 wild-card playoff loss to the New Orleans Saints.
“Decisions like this are not easy,” Coach Mike Martz said. “They are good coaches and good men, but I feel we need a new direction on defense and on special teams.”
The Rams gave up 30 points a game, the highest ever by a playoff team, and their defense ranked 23rd in the NFL.
Giunta, Hairston and Brown were holdovers from the staff of Dick Vermeil, who retired after winning the Super Bowl last January. Pasquale was added to the staff after Frank Gansz unexpectedly resigned.
Giunta was co-defensive coordinator with John Bunting in 1999. Bunting left to become linebackers coach for the Saints, and Giunta took over as defensive coordinator.
But Giunta’s duties were reduced after a 54-34 loss at Kansas City in Game 7 when Martz lured Bud Carson out of retirement to act as a consultant. Carson called defensive signals much of the remainder of the year, but is not expected to return next season.
Surviving the purge on defense were linebackers coach Mike Haluchak and defensive assistant Howard Tippett, both of whom were hired by Martz.
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Greg Robinson, who helped the Broncos win Super Bowls in the 1997 and ’98 seasons, was fired as Denver’s defensive coordinator amid criticism of the team’s shoddy tackling and apparent lack of passion.
Bronco Coach Mike Shanahan did not announce a successor. The team said Shanahan would discuss his decision Thursday.
A telephone message left at Robinson’s home was not returned.
Robinson, fired two days after Denver’s 21-3 playoff loss to Baltimore, came to Denver with Shanahan in 1995 and helped the Broncos build a defense that relied on blitzes and a gambling secondary.
After finishing last in the NFL in total defense in 1994, Denver improved to 15th in Robinson’s first year and climbed to fourth in 1996. The rise to success culminated with back-to-back NFL titles and led to speculation that Robinson would become a head coach.
But since the second Super Bowl win, the defense seemed to lose some of its intimidating character, and the problems were magnified by season-ending injuries to linebacker John Mobley, defensive end Alfred Williams and safety Eric Brown in 1999.
Robinson was the offensive coordinator at UCLA in 1989 and was a defensive assistant for the Bruins from 1982-88.
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New Orleans wide receiver Joe Horn and running back Ricky Williams are listed as doubtful for Saturday’s playoff game against Minnesota because of injuries.
Horn, 28, sprained his right ankle in the first quarter of Saturday’s win over St. Louis. Williams, 23, hasn’t played since breaking his left ankle in a Nov. 12 win over Carolina.
Horn didn’t practice, while Williams participated on a limited basis, the team said.
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Arizona offensive coordinator Marc Trestman and three other assistants were fired as Coach Dave McGinnis started his promised shakeup.
Trestman had been offensive coordinator since 1998. Quarterbacks coach John Garrett, tight ends coach Don Lawrence and wide receivers coach Vic Rapp also were dismissed.
Trestman, offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers under George Seifert in 1995-96, was highly criticized for an offense that ranked 24th in the NFL.
Arizona was 3-13 this season, the franchise’s worst record since 1959.
McGinnis, promoted from defensive coordinator to interim coach when Vince Tobin was fired seven games into the season, has been given significant authority along with a four-year contract by owner Bill Bidwill.
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Three of the NFL’s four wild-card games drew lower preliminary TV ratings than they did a year ago.
Overall, the first weekend of playoff games dropped 7% in the big-market ratings, despite an increase in total viewers because of the snowstorm in the Northeast.
The Saints’ 31-28 victory over the Rams, Saturday afternoon on ABC, drew a 17.6 preliminary rating. That is up 12% from last year’s second Saturday game, in which Washington led Detroit, 27-0, at halftime.
ABC’s early game Saturday--Miami beat Indianapolis, 23-17, in overtime--was down 2% from Tennessee’s “Music City Miracle” victory over Buffalo last season.
Sunday’s playoff games dropped significantly.
Baltimore’s victory over Denver (on CBS), and Philadelphia’s victory over Tampa Bay (on Fox) averaged a 17.1 rating, down 16% from last year’s Sunday wild-card average, when Minnesota beat Dallas and Miami edged Seattle.
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Almost 16.4 million fans bought tickets to regular-season games, setting a new attendance mark for the third consecutive season.
The per-game average of 66,078 was also a new mark.
Attendance has increased steadily over the past few years as new stadiums were opened and new teams were added.