FanHouse RonJaworski

I'm not a Redskins or Eagles fan, but I watched the Monday Night Football telecast because, like most people, I wanted to see how a guy who was calling bingo games a month ago might do as a play-caller. Turns out, better than you might think. But as ESPN's Ron Jaworski reminded us every 15 seconds: IT'S MORE ABOUT THE EXECUTION THAN THE PLAY CALL.

Duly noted, sir.

Anyway, as Jaws, Jon Gruden and Mike Tirico came on the air to preview the game, I noticed what looked like a fly on Tirico's head. And thanks to Hot Clicks, that was apparently the case.

Video after the jump.

Good news, Jim Zorn supporters: the head coach isn't the problem in Washington. It's the shoddily assembled roster, most of which is littered with players who either a) don't understand their roles, or b) can't physically execute the offense.

That's the word according to ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski, who said as much during Friday's appearance on Tony Kornheiser's DC-area radio show.

Via the Sports Bog:

The Miami Dolphins had a big game on Monday night, running wild against a very good New York Jets defense and doing it in large part with the wildcat formation. But Ron Jaworski, who called the game for ESPN, doesn't think the Dolphins' game plan is a game plan that can lead a team to a Super Bowl.

BRISTOL, Conn. -- Everyone here at ESPN headquarters is taking pains to say that replacing Tony Kornheiser with Jon Gruden in the Monday Night Football booth is not an indictment of Kornheiser's work as an announcer. But in the next breath, everyone then talks about how great they expect Monday Night Football to be now that Gruden is a part of it.

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Tony Kornheiser gets very mad when I sit in his chair, pick up his personalized bobblehead from the studio set and shake the doll. In fact, even when I don't have the privilege of sometimes subbing for him on ESPN's Pardon The Interruption, he seems to dislike me -- maybe because I have a full head of hair or, more likely, because I'm intellectually beneath him.

That's OK. I am grateful anyway.

I thank him because he did the sportswriting profession proud in his three years on Monday Night Football. Kornheiser technically isn't a sportswriter anymore, having escaped the dying newspaper business like many of us, but when he was hired for one of the most high-profile assignments in sports television, he was dismissed by many viewers and critics as a columnist painfully out of his league.

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On Wednesday, word leaked that the Redskins were actively pursuing Jay Cutler. The Bears (the Bears!?) would eventually land him, which meant that a) Washington, perhaps for the first time in the Dan Snyder era, didn't outbid another team for a player's services, and b) the organization had some fence-mending to do with the guy caught in the middle of all this: incumbent quarterback Jason Campbell.

Yesterday I called Campbell the new Cutler because in publicly lusting after the Cutler, the Redskins would have to move Campbell to avoid the situation the Broncos found themselves after word leaked that they were interested in Matt Cassel.

The offseason got underway Thursday, and the Patriots wasted little time in franchising Matt Cassel. What they plan to do with him remains a mystery, but there are plenty of teams in need of quarterback help.

In fact, if you believe National Football Post's Michael Lombardi, nearly a third of NFL franchises could stand an upgrade at the position. The Lions and Vikings top the list, obviously, but Lombardi also thinks the Redskins could be in the market for a new quarterback, if not this offseason, then in a year's time.

Former Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski is the best in the business at breaking down the technical aspect of playing the quarterback position, and in an appearance on ESPN Radio, Jaworski raved about the Super Bowl performance of Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

I feel confident in writing that if the Cardinals are going to win Super Bowl XLIII it'll be because of Larry Fitzgerald. Nobody is expecting much from Arizona's running game, including, I'd imagine, Edgerrin James.

Arizona's best chance comes in the form of No. 11 who, in three postseason games, has racked up 23 receptions for 419 yards and five touchdowns. But during the Super Bowl edition of ESPN's NFL Matchup show, Sal Paolantonio brought up a point that -- at least to hear Sal explain it -- nobody all week has talked about:

Ron Jaworski was an NFL quarterback for 15 seasons, and even made a Super Bowl appearance. He took his last snap in 1989, and is now better known for his ability to break down game film on ESPN's NFL Matchup show.

Greg Cosell of NFL Films, who works closely with Jaws, also has an amazing knack for Xs and Os (watching 80 hours of coaches tape six months a year probably helps). And in his Super Bowl column for Sporting News, he writes that while the Cardinals have had an amazing run, their high-powered offense will have trouble with the Steelers' top-ranked defense.