|
| |
Tuesday, January 16
Magee: Study hours
By Jerry Magee
Pro Football Weekly
John Fox told Al Davis what he could do with his "Pride and Poise." Begin
there.
Next, consider that of those involved in the NFC championship game in
Giants Stadium, arguably no one had a more meaningful assignment than Fox.
As the defensive coordinator of the Giants, he had to come up with schemes
that would impede the Minnesota Vikings and their striking offensive
assembly.
By now, you know how well Fox succeeded. The Vikings experienced their
first shutout in Dennis Green's nine seasons in Minnesota, as the Giants
proceeded into Super Bowl XXXV with a 41-0 flourish of superiority.
Fox, 45, is a coach whose development can be traced to when he objected to
a Davis harangue in 1996 and walked away from the Oakland Raiders, whom he
had been serving as defensive coordinator.
|  | | John Fox helped the Giants pitch a shutout against the Vikings. |
The Raiders had played a preseason game and were in an airport waiting for
a flight that had been delayed when Davis issued a critique of how the
team was playing defensively. Fox found it objectionable, and off he went.
What Fox did then wasn't as dramatic, but it was the making of his career,
as Jack Reilly details it. At this time, Reilly, currently the offensive
coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys, was on the staff of the St. Louis Rams.
"John's wife is from St. Louis, so he was there," Reilly said. "All day,
every day of the year, he was in the Rams' office, studying defenses,
every defense there is and every phase of it. It was one of the greatest
growth spurts by a coach I have seen."
Fox said his extensive study did two things for him: It kept him apprised
of what was going on in the NFL and earned him some money from the Rams,
who listed him as a consultant.
As it turned out with Baltimore's conquest of the Raiders, Fox won't have
an opportunity to match his defense against Davis' team. Not that he holds
any grudges.
"If you hold grudges in this league, you're not going to have any
friends," Fox said. "You can't hold grudges."
After his split with the Raiders, Fox said he had opportunities to go into
scouting.
"But I didn't want to leave my family," he said, "and I had gotten tired
of playing golf."
So he secluded himself in a darkened room, hour after hour, pursuing a
film study that was rewarded with how his defense performed against the
Vikings. It performed brilliantly, not permitting Cris Carter to make a
catch until the final period and limiting Randy Moss to 18 yards on two
receptions.
For a change, the Vikings could not take advantage of their wide
receivers' size.
After all, Fox's secondary defenders are big too, and his linebackers are
swift. One,
Micheal Barrow, is listed as a middle linebacker, but Fox had him
coming at Vikings quarterback Daunte Culpepper from the outside.
"Michael has a very explosive first step," Fox said. "He's probably
quicker than anybody he's going to be playing against. I thought our
players followed our game plan to a T. We matched up against those people
better than you guys (reporters) thought. We have big corners."
And a defensive coordinator who knows how to utilize them.
In '97, Giants head coach Jim Fassel, who had been associated with Fox on
the Raiders, named him his defensive coordinator. Fox has proceeded to
establish himself as one of football's keenest defensive minds. Those in
the coaching community say he is particularly adept at making adjustments
during a game, and he made some in this game.
After the Giants rushed across 14 points before the Vikings could run a
play, the New Yorkers, by Fox's account, adopted a more conservative
approach than they otherwise would have pursued.
So the Giants are in the Super Bowl. Worst is best in the NFC.
The team that supposedly had been the worst ever to gain a No. 1 seed now
can become the worst to win a Super Bowl.
The Giants have much in their favor in Tampa. Mostly, they have momentum.
They have won seven straight. After they began so splendidly, Dennis Green
sensed this could be a trying afternoon for the Vikings.
"A 14-0 lead is a cushion, and it was something we couldn't break down,"
Green said. "We just couldn't get any rhythm, offensively or defensively.
Today was a day that was not our day."
One must wonder if the Vikings will ever be able to break though to the
Super Bowl. They have had so many opportunities, having been playoff
participants in eight of Green's nine seasons in the Northlands, and their
record is one of constant, everlasting failure.
They were, in a word, awful against the Giants. The abominable snowmen had
been identified. They are the Vikings.
In the Giants' locker room was New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani,
wearing a Giants cap. A guy who tends to be impertinent, me, asked him if
the Giants suddenly becoming exciting should not be interpreted as the
greatest transformation around here since Hillary Clinton decided she was
a New Yorker.
Answered the mayor: "The Giants have been a hero a lot longer than she
has."
And the way they're playing, they're not done yet.
Jerry Magee has covered pro football for the San Diego Union-Tribune since
1961 and for PFW since its inception in
1967.
Material from Pro Football Weekly.
Visit PFW's web site at http://www.profootballweekly.com
| |
