FanHouse MartyMornhinweg

Cheer up, Lions fans, your long national nightmare is about to end. That's right, in just three days the curse of Bobby Layne is set to run out, and your beloved football team will once again return to prominence in the NFL. What's that you ask? The Lions were cursed? Yeah, I had no idea. But apparently this explains everything from Matt Millen, to Joey Harrington, to Barry Sanders suddenly walking away from the game. The Curse Of Bobby Layne website has the full story.

In 1958, after leading the Lions to 3 NFL Championships and providing Detroit nearly decade of Hall of Fame play, the Lions traded Bobby Layne. Bobby was injured during the last championship season and the Lions thought he was through and wanted to get what they could for him. According to Legend, as he was leaving for Pittsburgh Bobby said that Detroit "would not win for 50 years"

With this news, and the fact Millen was finally relieved of his duties two weeks ago, things are really starting to look up for the Lions. But back to this curse business ...

As we get ready for this week's huge matchup between the Eagles and Redskins, I exchanged e-mails with Derek from the Iggles Blog. Derek was nice enough to offer some insights on the Eagles for this week's Behind Enemy Lines feature.

Sportz Assassin: Another week, another big NFC East battle. Your Eagles are 2-2, which means they've shown you some really good things and some stuff that wasn't so good. Assess where you think Philly is at right now.

Derek: Exactly where we thought they'd be before the season, except switch the results against Pittsburgh and Chicago. Philly is a maturing team with a lot of developing talent. The two problems last week were that too many players were hurt and sometimes "maturing" can also mean "young and untested."

Assuming a few important players can get and stay healthy, this still looks like a team that's going to be in the mix come playoff time. It's just that expectations for immediate awesomeness – rather than season-long improvement – got a little high after the first three games.

Sportz: I noticed on your blog that some questionable coaching decisions may have contributed to the loss to the Bears. How are Andy Reid and his staff regarded among Eagle fans?

Somewhere last night, Marty Mornhinweg might have been watching Monday Night Football. And might have had a 'Nam-esque flashback.

Faced with the same decision coaches have been faced with thousands of times throughout NFL history, Mornhinwheg infamously opted to kick after winning a coin toss to start overtime as coach of the Lions, the disastrous cherry on top of an otherwise maligned tenure, and one that probably directly led to his dismissal. Oh, the Lions eventually lost that game in overtime, by the way. Yet there was Ron Jaworski during last night's game between the Steelers and Ravens, advocating Ravens coach John Harbaugh doing the same. He didn't. Oh, the Ravens lost the game in overtime as well, by the way.

Criticism for Mornhinwheg's decision was warranted; it was nearly unprecedented and wholly ridiculous. But those blaming Harbaugh's "conservative" choice to receive instead of kicking and playing the field position game for the Ravens loss (and there are more than a few out there) are further proof that people absolutely love to complain. I don't care that the Ravens' offense is lacking and the game was high on defense. If you can't trust your offense to get into field goal range to win the game (regardless of whether the cynicism is founded), something is clearly wrong.

Harbaugh didn't lose last night's game, he made an automatic choice. Those looking to blame have many more legitimate targets. Try Joe Flacco and his poor ball control, or the Republicans in Washington (that always seems to work).

Thanks to DeSean Jackson and his inability to properly celebrate in the end zone last night, it got us here at FanHouse thinking, where does this play rank in dumbest NFL moves of all time?

The selection process is tough, because there are a ton of factors. You have referees botching the coin flip, NFL players celebrating straight to the ambulance, and others that just aren't sure which direction they're going. All of these are problematic, and all will find themselves in the list. So, without further ado, let's get to the best of the brainless!

Leon Lett -- Super Bowl XXVII and 1993 Thanksgiving Game -- It really takes a special person to make this list twice, but I guess Lett is that special. In one of the biggest botches ever in a Super Bowl, Lett recovered a fumble against the Bills in the fourth quarter, and as he waddled to the end zone, he decided the 10-yard line was the perfect spot to start the celebration. Little Don Beebe knocked the ball out of his outstretched hand, forcing a touch-back and a place in the Moron Hall of Fame. Previously that year, Lett actually lost a game for the Cowboys because of his clumsy maneuvers. Up 14-13 over the Dolphins with just seconds left in a snowy game in Dallas, the Cowboys blocked Miami's field-goal attempt and as everyone with four ounces of common sense stayed away from the ball, Lett slid in, hitting the football, thus making it live. The Dolphins recovered on the one-yard line, kicked a game-winning field goal, and forever made Lett a true Thanksgiving Day turkey.

Here's another portion of Brett Favre's farewell press conference:

Favre thanked a litany of his former Packers coaches and team executives: "I'd like to thank Mike McCarthy and Ted Thompson, Bob Harlan, Tom Clements, my recent quarterback coach, Darrell Bevell. Mike was my quarterback coach in '99. Andy Reid," Favre said.

And then Favre said, "Marty," and he started to say a last name that starts with an "sh" sound, as if he were going to say the name of Marty Schottenheimer, which would have been a little strange, seeing as he never played for Marty Schottenheimer.

In reality, it's clear, based on the names Favre was going through at the time, that he was trying to think of Marty Mornhinweg, who was a Packers assistant in 1995 and 1996 and is now the Eagles' offensive coordinator. But Favre couldn't think of Mornhinweg's last name, so he paused for a moment before continuing, "Steve Mariucci, Mike Sherman, Ray Rhodes, Tom Rossley, and I could go through so many different names and players and seasons."

Mornhinweg went 5-27 in two years as head coach of the Detroit Lions and is best remembered for taking the wind after winning an overtime coin flip and promptly watching his team give up the game-winning field goal on the first possession. Favre forgot Mornhinweg today. Many Lions fans envy him for that.

Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora sacked Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb six times Sunday night, and folks in Philly are still trying to decide who's at fault.

Although the main culprit in the eyes of most fans was left tackle Winston Justice, who was supposed to be protecting McNabb's blind side, Paul Domowitch of the Philadelphia Daily News argues that the blame resides with coach Andy Reid and offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg.

47 of the Eagles' 66 offensive plays were pass plays.

So much for the lessons learned from last season, when the Eagles went to a more balanced offensive attack after McNabb got hurt and reeled off six consecutive wins.

Through the first four games, 171 of the Eagles' 261 offensive plays (65.5 percent) have been pass plays. In their three losses, it's up to 68.7 percent.

Against the Giants, the Eagles used two-tight-end formations on just five of 66 plays. Went with three or four wide receivers a whopping 27 times.

I think Domowitch makes some good points about the Eagles' play calling, and obviously, any time a quarterback gets sacked 12 times in one game, it's probably safe to say there were some flaws with the offensive game plan.

The Chargers' new head coach, Norvell Turner, has taken a lot of grief for the team's 1-2 start. Part of that has to do with the fact that San Diego won 14 games last year (they wisely fired Marty Schottenheimer as a result ... good thinking there). And then there's Turner's irritatingly consistent knack of sucking the life out of an organization once he arrives.

Confounding things is Turner's success as an offensive coordinator. But he's not the only guy to excel as an assistant only to stink up the joint as the chief. The Steelers' defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau was dreadful during a stint with the Bengals, and Philly's offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg blew chunks in Detroit. And now, it's probably safe to add former Pats' DC Romeo Crennel to the list.

He's got three Super Bowl rings with New England, but since taking over for Butch Davis in Cleveland, the team has an 11-24 record. Or three fewer wins than the Pats had in Crennel's last year as the coordinator.

There haven't been too many stories this week about Eagles offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg preparing to coach against his old team, the Lions. Maybe that's because enough time has passed -- four full seasons -- since Mornhinweg was fired as the Lions' head coach.

But there have been quite a few stories about what Mornhinweg would do to turn the Eagles' offense around. And what Mornhinweg said will be a familiar refrain to Lions fans:

"We don't whine or cry or make excuses or anything like that. We get back to work, with a high level of intensity, we prepare hard, we work hard on the field, and we get better. That's our foundation." Earlier, Mornhinweg said: "There are three things, really, that we need to get better at fast. We've lacked some explosive plays; that's the biggest difference, lack of explosive plays. Third downs, we've typically been better at that. Then, in the red zone, particularly in the last game,"

That's the kind of thing Mornhinweg always used to say when he was the head coach of the Lions, and it used to drive Lions fans crazy. Well, of course you want to get more big plays, convert more third downs and score more touchdowns in the red zone. But how are you going to do it? Mornhinweg never showed in Detroit that he had an answer to that second question.

Fortunately for the Eagles, their head coach knows a little something about offense. He may need to take more of the game planning out of Mornhinweg's hands.

Note: Although they're still not 100%, both safety Brian Dawkins and running back Brian Westbrook are expected to play for the Eagles Sunday.

I like ragging on the Lions as much as the next guy, although i sometimes wonder why they in particular became a national joke. There are plenty of franchises that have been as historically pitiful as the Lions, ones that make stupider decisions than the Lions' oft-maligned choice of drafting three consecutive first-round receivers. Why do the Lions have to deal with the ridicule while the Arizona Cardinals, Chicago Blackhawks, and Los Angeles Cippers, amongst others, fly under the radar?

Even Marty Mornhinweg is slipping shots in.

"I've been in four (NFL) organizations. Three have been great, top to bottom."

Something tells me he's not talking about the Eagles, 49ers, or Packers. As for Mornhinweg, you know what they say about people in glass houses. I know Matt Millen has made a bunch of really terrible decisions in his day, but I don't think anyone but Mornhinweg made the decision to opt for the wind instead of the ball in overtime.