Falcons Take the Quest Work Out of It for Embattled Reeves

Nobody ever told Dan Reeves winning 200 games in the NFL was going to be easy. But in the name of common decency, shouldn’t someone have warned him beforehand about the road from 199 to 200?

After his Atlanta Falcons scored a landmark 27-7 victory the New York Giants on Sunday, Reeves could finally afford to sit back and assess an NFL coaching career that can now be divided into separate chapters.

Career victories 1 to 199: Quest began in 1981, dragged on for more than two decades, left bridges burning in Denver and New York, saw starting quarterback options go from John Elway to Phil Simms to Dave Brown to Chris Chandler to Michael Vick to Doug Johnson, logged a stopover in ICU for open-heart surgery in 1998.

Career victories 199 to 200: Much more grueling.

Reeves recorded win No. 199 in Week 1 this season, a road victory at Dallas, a very promising result. Vick was out with a broken leg, but Reeves plugged in Johnson and was cagey enough to out-duel Bill Parcells in his home stadium. No Vick and 27-13 over Parcells? Maybe the Falcons might be able to weather this stretch after all.

Or maybe not. The Falcons lost their next seven games, yielding 30 or more points in five of them and causing everyone around Reeves to flip out, including Reeves.

Arthur Blank, the Falcons’ owner, took out a full-page ad in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to issue a public apology for the team’s performance.

Deion Sanders threw his hat into the ring, claiming he’d be the right man to replace Reeves whenever Blank decided to pull the plug, which had to be any minute, right?

Reeves, starting to sweat, suggested Vick accelerate his rehab schedule and get back on the practice field because “he’s not getting better sitting on the sidelines,” and because by the end of October, Kurt Kittner was Reeves’ starting quarterback.

Terry Bradshaw, feeling sorry for the old coach, blasted Blank in a Fox Sports Net interview, saying the Falcon owner “has no clue” and is “destroying a good man like Dan Reeves” and ought to “go back to [Home] Depot, man.”

Clearly, the Falcons’ losing streak had taken a toll. Around Atlanta, the big question became: What will happen first -- Vick’s next game, Reeves’ 200th victory or Reeves’ pink slip?

Heading to the Meadowlands, Reeves and 200 were the longest shots on the board.

Reeves didn’t have many great moments inside Giants Stadium -- the Giants fired him in 1996 after consecutive losing seasons -- but Sunday surely qualified as one. He trotted out the kind of conservative game plan that drove Elway crazy, seeing that Warrick Dunn got the ball 25 times, thus keeping it away from the Giants, Kerry Collins and, most significantly, Kittner.

Dunn ran for 178 yards, the Falcons won by 20 despite Kittner going nine for 25 for 65 yards, and by game’s end the hot seat had been officially passed to Giant Coach Jim Fassel, who was serenaded by chants of “Fire Fassel!” as the home team’s record slipped to 4-5.

Reeves is 2-7 this season but 200-171-2 overall, making him the sixth coach to win 200 games in the NFL. The other five -- Don Shula, George Halas, Tom Landry, Chuck Noll and Curly Lambeau -- are all in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Reeves, on his way out the door ... on the way to Canton?

He took the Falcons to the Super Bowl. That has to count for something.

Sunday was a good day for Embattled Coaches, Inc., whose membership also includes Marty Schottenheimer, Steve Spurrier, Bill Cowher and Bill Callahan, who had been a combined 0-15 since their teams last won.

Schottenheimer changed quarterbacks, sitting Drew Brees and starting 41-year-old Doug Flutie, and wrung four touchdowns -- two by land, two by air -- out of the Wee Codger as the San Diego Chargers upset the Minnesota Vikings, 42-28.

Spurrier changed his play-calling routine, grudgingly handing the duties to offensive coordinator Hue Jackson, except for one here and there. Here: Spurrier goes for it on fourth-and-inches on his 25 with six minutes left and the score tied -- and gets the first down. There: Spurrier calls for a flea-flicker pass, wide receiver Rod Gardner lobbing 10 yards to running back Trung Canidate, and the late touchdown play lifts the Washington Redskins to a 27-20 triumph over the Seattle Seahawks.

Cowher had been running out of ideas during the Pittsburgh Steelers’ worst start to a season since 1998. They had lost five in a row, were 2-6 overall, and Cowher no longer had Kordell Stewart to blame for it. But just when things reached their bleakest, the Steelers welcomed the Arizona Cardinals to town.

Steelers 28, Cardinals 15 ... and Pittsburgh, at 3-6, still finds itself in playoff contention in the AFC North, two games behind first-place Baltimore, a 33-22 loser in St. Louis.

Callahan? Well, he took the New York Jets into overtime. With an offense quarterbacked by Rick Mirer, that was about the most he could have asked. Field goal by Doug Brien, Jets win, 27-24, and Callahan’s Oakland Raiders now own the league’s longest active losing streak at five games.

(A statistic that has to haunt Al Davis in his sleep: His team has played nine games and already trails Kansas City by seven games in the AFC West. The Chiefs moved to 9-0 with a 41-20 victory over Cleveland.)

Star players making bold predictions batted .500 in Week 10. Last week, Jaguar running back Fred Taylor promised to “punish” Colt safety Mike Doss and Tampa Bay defensive end Simeon Rice guaranteed victory over the Carolina Panthers. Both players were popping off about past grievances -- Taylor seeking to pay back Doss for a rough hit delivered in the Jaguars’ first meeting with the Colts this season, Rice hoping to avenge an overtime loss in Week 2 to the Panthers.

Taylor made the most of his second chance, bowling over Doss en route to a game-winning, 32-yard touchdown run with 1:08 remaining, carrying the Jaguars to a 28-23 triumph over the Colts, now 7-2

Rice seemed to be set up nicely as well, with the Buccaneers holding a late four-point lead and needing only to keep Jake Delhomme out of the end zone.

So what was Steve Smith doing, catching that last pass from Delhomme for the touchdown that gave Carolina a last-ditch, 27-24 victory?

Rice had predicted he would “single-handedly beat [Carolina] by myself if we shut down the run” and didn’t care if the Panthers put that quote on their bulletin board. “They can put it up in their attics,” he said.

The Buccaneers shut down the run but Rice didn’t single-handedly beat the Panthers by himself. That’s Carolina up in the attic, leading the NFC South at 7-2. Tampa Bay, 4-5, is closer to the basement, just two games ahead of Atlanta, 2-7 now that Reeves has finally broken through to the other side.

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Most Career Coaching Victories

Includes playoff games:

*--* Coach Teams W L T Pct. DON SHULA Baltimore, Miami 347 173 6 665 GEORGE HALAS Chicago 324 151 31 671 TOM LANDRY Dallas 270 178 6 601 CURLY LAMBEAU Green Bay, Washington, Chicago 229 134 22 623 CHUCK NOLL Pittsburgh 209 156 1 572 DAN REEVES Denver, N.Y. Giants, Atlanta 200 171 2 539

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