by John McG, December 1, 2007
Living in St. Louis and watching the Rams this season, I've been exposed to many different team flaws. With that in mind, I thought I would explore various team flaws, and which are the most painful for a fan.
Bad Offensive Line
The problem here is that your team's offense cannot do a damn thing. This is especially annoying when a team has good skill position players, like these Rams do. It's like driving a Lamborghini with four spare tires. They can't run the ball. Anytime the quarterback goes back to pass, you cringe that he will get killed. To compensate, the team runs a lot of dink and dunk screens and quick passes that the other team starts jumping on.
The good thing about this is that a team usually can't get too far with a lousy offensive line, so it's more of a year-long depression than a sudden heartbreak.
(Picture: Claude Terrell or any 2007 Rams offensive lineman).
Bad Chemistry / Front Office Turmoil
Usually a red herring. Nobody gives a damn about whether everyone gets along if the team is winning.
The same goes for front office turmoil. Successful organizations should have people with strong opinions about how to win, and those opinions won't always be consistent with those of the other people. Conflict is natural. Give me a coach and GM who care enough to argue with each other rather than someone who is happy to go along with whatever the other says.
This is almost always a post hoc symptom of losing rather than a root cause.
(Picture: Reggie Jackson/Billy Martin)
The Cancer
Sometimes, a single player can take a team down with him. He's more concerned with salvaging his own reputation than in getting the team to win. Maybe the team's coming off a successful year and he doesn't feel like he got his share of the credit and spoils. Or maybe he's being asked to take on a diminished role. But he's got too big a contract to trade or release, so he hangs around and sucks all the energy out of the team. And before long, the season is lost.
(Picture: Terrell Owens)
Shaky goalie
Here, you've got a good team, but a bad goalie. You never feel safe with a lead.
But even worse than that is when the shaky goalie gives up a bad goal early in playoff game. You can see the wind come out of the rest of the teams' sails, and the game is pretty much over.
It seems like this happened to the Flyers every year in the playoffs. They'd be going in with Ron Hextall or Garth Snow or Sean Burke or whomever they had picked up that year, and go up against Dominik Hasek or Martin Brodeur, who never let a bad goal in. In like Game 2, the Flyers opponenent would get a fluky goal in the middle of the second period, and the Flyers would lose the game 1-0 while outshooting their opposition something like 32-12. And the fans would start booing and the series would be over.
(Picture: Ron Hextall)
Dumb coach/manager
This one is actually kind of fun, since a.) for the most part "strategic" decisions don't make nearly as much of a difference as we think they do, and b.) it lets fans indulge the fantasy that they're smarter than the folks running the teams, and, given the opportunity, they'd do just as good a job. It's especially fun when the coach/manager builds up an aura of genius around him, like Tony La Russa.
What did Red Sox fans get more mileage from -- this year's World Series win or Grady Little not pulling Pedro in Game 7 in 2003?
(Picture: Grady Little, Norv Turner)
Bad kicker/closer
Here, the team has a specialist who can't do the one job he's supposed to do. You never feel safe with a lead, and it's even hard to get excited when your team makes a comeback, because you know the game may come down to the closer or kicker.
This is not necessarily a fatal flaw. The 2003 Marlins won the World Series with Ugbeth Urbina as the closer, and the 2005 White Sox and 2006 Cardinals both won the World Series with rookie closers who had just taken over the role. But when it costs you, like the 2005 Colts, or the 1993 Phillies, it's hard to take.
It may be true that there's no such thing as a clutch kicker (even Adam Vinatieri just missed four straight, including a potential game-winner) but you still feel better with some guys than others.
(Picture: Mike Vanderjagt)
Crappy QB
Like the lousy offensive line, this one will usually stop a team before it gets far enough to break your heart. But then, Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson have won Super Bowls, so it's not always fatal.
Some teams are constructed such that they only need certain things from their quarterback, and if he does them, the team can be successful. These are the "game manager" types. Even then, there's a limit to how dreadful the quarterback can be before he sinks you (as the Chicago Bears found out last year).
Worse is when a QB who is supposed to be good turns into a crappy QB, as Eli Manning seems to do in the second half of every year. This is altogether maddening, since with the NFL salary cap being what it is, the team probably scrimped in other areas to make room for the "franchise" QB. When he doesn't fill that role, it's no fun for anybody.
(Picture: Rex Grossman)
Bad Free Throw Shooting
Guys like Shaquille O'Neal and Tim Duncan who can barely manage to hit over half their free throws are extremely frustrating.
For one, it gives an opening to every hack sports columnist to launch into thinly veiled racist rants about how "today's players" don't practice the "fundamentals." As if O'Neal practices dunks instead of free throw shooting.
For another, it is puzzling. Most of us at least believe that if it were our job to do so, we could find a way to shoot 75% from the free throw line. Yet here's a world class professional athlete for whom 60% is a challenge.
Third, it makes that player a liability on the floor at the end of the game, and gives rise to annoying tactics like hack-a-Shaq, which bears little resemblance to basketball.
Bad times all around.
(Picture: Shaquille O'Neal)
All Around Suckitude
When your team just sucks all around, there's little to do except bear the taunts from fans of rival teams. And hope like hell things get better next year.
Of course, if you've been on top for a long time, that can be a lot of taunting.
(Picture: Notre Dame)
John McG. is a father and software engineer living in St. Louis, MO. He blogs at Man Bites Blog.