Don't discount the coach. Parcells blew it Sunday.
Ahead 6-5 in the second quarter, Parcells ordered a 2-point conversion. The Cowboys failed and chased that point the rest of the game.
What was Parcells thinking?
"The chart says to do that, so that's what we did," Parcells said after the game. "I go by the chart."
Not to sound like your mother, Bill, but if the chart says to jump off a bridge, would you do that, too?
The chart is a list of when to go for two.
Several versions float around. Here's one I found.
Go for two when you're ahead by 1, 4, 5, 11, 12 and 19. Go for two when you're behind by 2, 5, 10, 16, 17 and 18. Otherwise, kick the extra point.
My question is, why is Parcells following a chart off the cliff? Whatever happened to a coach thinking on his feet?
I'm the last guy on Earth who wants to criticize a coach for going for two. Football needs a lot more 2-point conversions. But they need more 2-point plays called by coaches confident of making two yards, not coaches reading off a chart.
A visionary coach who makes 2-point conversions a priority and uses them as an offensive weapon, not as scoreboard strategy, will be a coach ahead of the curve.
That's not what Parcells was doing Sunday.
In the NFL, 2-point conversions work about 47 percent of the time. If you know what you're doing (make your own assessment of Parcells), that can rise above 50 percent.
So if you're going for two because you've got a whizbang play you believe will work, fine. But otherwise, don't go for two early in the game, trying to make the math work out.
Parcells did just that Sunday. He looked at the chart and jumped off the bridge.
Cheers & Jeers: A former OSU assistant and the Ford Center sound machineCheers
To Louisville defensive coordinator Mike Cassity. Bob Simmons' last defensive coordinator at OSU in 2000, Cassity went on to help Illinois to a Big Ten title in 2001 and now leads the defense for the third-ranked Cardinals.
To the improved profile of the Hornets. The 4-0 start has not been lost on ESPN, which is reporting Hornet results early in SportsCenter and has the Hornets ranked No. 2 in its NBA power rankings.
Jeers
To the Ford Center sound system, which was spotty during the Hornets' opener Tuesday night. A Hornets spokesman said the Ford Center has new speakers, and the bugs should be worked out by Game 2, next Tuesday against Charlotte.
To the new College Basketball Hall of Fame, which in Kansas City, Mo., inducted its first class last weekend: Dean Smith, John Wooden, Bill Russell, Oscar Robertson and James Naismith. James Naismith? How about Pete Maravich, the greatest college player of all time? Naismith invented the game and has his name on the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., but that's not terribly relevant to the college game.
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