FanHouse Ron Rivera

While Tony Dungy was popularizing the Tampa 2 defense, Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson was proving that there was another way to succeed.

Dungy's Tampa 2 was all about preventing the big play. Put two safeties deep, run a middle linebacker in between them and have the cornerbacks play zone. Dungy figured that if he made teams move slowly down the field, eventually they would make a mistake. Johnson's style was much more aggressive. He figured that he could force those mistakes on any play by confusing teams with pressure from every angle and every level of the defense.

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The biggest scandal of the 2007 NFL season was the discovery by the New York Jets that the New England Patriots were videotaping their defensive signals. In the end, the Patriots were docked a first-round draft pick, and coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000.

But while every NFL player and coach now knows the league will deal harshly with the taping of signals, that doesn't mean signal stealing has stopped. In fact, during last night's Colts-Chargers playoff game, NBC announcer John Madden said the Chargers were convinced that Colts quarterback Peyton Manning had stolen their signals when the two teams played in November.

"Last time they used a lot of hand signals, and Ron Rivera, the defensive coordinator for the Chargers, thought that Peyton Manning had their signals," Madden said. "So this time they're trying to go without signals, or if they do, they've changed their signals. Now he's talking directly to middle linebacker Stephen Cooper."

As Mike Florio writes at Pro Football Talk, even if the Chargers were correct, Manning wouldn't necessarily be breaking any NFL rules by reading their signals. The Patriots broke the rules by taping signals, but if Manning figured out the Chargers' signals without the benefit of videotape, the NFL doesn't consider that cheating.

And Madden doesn't seem to think Manning is cheating either. Madden's on-air partner, Al Michaels, referred to it as "paranoia-gate," and Madden replied, "I think you're partly right. You say, how much of that is true? Peyton Manning knows a lot of things, but knowing all your defenses and signals? I think part of it is Peyton Manning being smart, the other part is paranoia."

Bob Babich inherited a vaunted defense when he took over as Bears defensive coordinator in 2007, replacing the wildly popular -- at least to everyone but Lovie Smith -- Ron Rivera. Rivera had the Bears playing elite defense in 2005 and 2006, which they rode to two division titles and a Super Bowl appearance. He was shown the door, and since then the defense has been mediocre at best (most of this season), and among the worst in football at times (most of last season and yesterday in Green Bay).

While it's hardly comforting, after the debacle in Lambeau Field yesterday, Babich has finally shown some emotion and accountability.

"There are a lot of things that went wrong, OK?" Babich said. "It starts with me, all right? We just didn't stop the run. We didn't do anything well as a defensive unit.

"We have to play better. We will play better. Our players have a lot of character, a lot of pride, and we have to get it taken care of."

I tend to agree. Everything was awful yesterday. In true Jim Mora form, I'd like say the offense sucked, the defense sucked, the coaching sucked. The whole team sucked!

The Chargers, a disappointment at 3-5, have decided to make a change to their coaching staff. Ted Cottrell is out as defensive coordinator and he'll be replaced by linebackers coach Ron Rivera. Cottrell got dealt a bad hand with the injury to Shawne Merriman but, regardless of injuries, 28th in the league in yards allowed is reason enough to make a change.

Rivera had success running Chicago's defense and interviewed for head coaching jobs after the team's trip to the Super Bowl in 2007. He didn't get those jobs and found himself out of his old one when Lovie Smith moved in a different direction.

More important than either Cottrell's failings or Rivera's resume, however, is what this move signals for Norv Turner's future with the Bolts. The team isn't out of the running in the mediocre AFC West but they are underachieving and missing the playoffs could have dire consequences for the head coach. Getting rid of the coordinator will take the focus off Turner for a moment or two but if there is no turnaround after this week's bye, it's hard to see how Turner will survive for a third season on the San Diego sideline.

Hey, I'll be the first to admit that statistics can't begin to tell you everything about how a team or player is performing in the NFL. Take quarterback ratings, for example. Trent Green ranks 10th on the all-time list and Johnny Unitas is 49th, but which one would you rather have under center for your team?

Sometimes, though, they are a pretty good judge of how well you're doing. The Bears defense, for example, ranked fifth in 2006 and 28th in 2007. Even if they weren't quite that bad, Lovie Smith should be concerned about the way they played this year, right?

"I've heard the numbers about last year, how we were ranked fifth. At the end of the year last year, we weren't playing great defense. At the end of the year this year, I feel like we are playing good defense."

Just to refresh your memory, at the end of last season the Bears were in the Super Bowl so the defense must have been doing something right. This year's version did pick up its play down the stretch but Smith's comment has more to do with defending his decision to fire Ron Rivera and promote Bob Babich than any actual production.

When the Chicago Bears went to the Super Bowl after the 2006 season, their offense wasn't credited for getting them there. It was a suffocating defense that won the accolades, even though the offense posted the second most points in the league. Now, at 5-9 with problems on both sides of the ball, the two coordinators are feeling a lot of pressure. Bob Babich, handpicked by Lovie Smith after he fired Ron Rivera, will get another year with the defense. Smith isn't going to admit he made a mistake but Ron Turner, architect of their limping offense, might not be so lucky.

David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune argues that he should get another run, though. Even as his offense has become increasingly reliant on a pop-gun passing game and stuck to rigid plans despite evidence that a more improvisational style might be more effective. He places the blame for the team's offensive struggles on Cedric Benson.

But give any NFL offense a bona fide running back capable of a 1,400-yard season and the missed blocks don't result in as many 2-yard gains, the quarterbacks aren't forced into as many pass-only downs and Turner's imagination doesn't seem so infertile.

True enough, Benson was terrible this season. I'm just not sure Turner can be absolved of blame for that.

This is sufficiently awesome: Bears linebacker, Brian Urlacher, in the wake of a 14-3 loss to the Chargers, keeps it simple. Earlier this week, some of San Diego's players called Cedric Benson soft. Benson was quick to respond, and Urlacher had his back:

"It's guys I've never heard of (doing the) talking," Urlacher said. "I don't even know who these guys are (who are) saying this stuff. Maybe they just want to get their names in the paper. I'm just getting tired of hearing it, and I'm sure Rex (Grossman) and Cedric (Benson) are also."

Talking trash is one thing -- it happens every week, no doubt -- but is there anything worse than having a six-time Pro Bowler say "I don't even know who these guys are saying this stuff"? Yep, nothing quite like being referred to as a no-name scrub. At least the Chargers' smack-talkers got Benson's name right, I guess.

Urlacher also had some thoughts on former defensive coordinator Ron Rivera calling Rex Grossman a mental midget (by the way, well crafted, sir):

"I know Ron pretty well," Urlacher said. "I don't see those words coming out of his mouth, but who knows? I wasn't in their meetings."

Rivera denied making the comments (didn't see that coming), but you couldn't blame the guy for hating Grossman's guts. He single-handedly kept the Bears' defense on the field for an extra 5-10 minutes a game last season thanks to his predilection for turnovers.

Good news, though: at least Rivera knew Grossman's name.

Remember last season during the playoffs, when then-Chicago Bears defensive coordinator Ron Rivera was supposedly on the short list for head coaching gigs around the league? Yeah, that didn't quite work out. Rivera didn't get any job offers -- he had nine interviews the last two years -- and the Bears chose not to extend his contract.

Now he's the linebackers coach in San Diego. Not exactly the career path he had planned out, I'm guessing. But this isn't necessarily a bad thing, at least to hear Rivera tell it.

Known as a "Cover-2 guy," one knock on Rivera was that he might have trouble with the 3-4 defense. The Steelers, Chargers and Cowboys -- all teams that interviewed Rivera -- feature the 3-4 and weren't looking to change schemes. Frankly, I always thought the "he can't coach X defense because he only knows Y" argument was kinda naïve. Well, I was wrong, apparently. Rivera, who, throughout his playing and coaching careers, worked exclusively in 4-3 defense, has a lot to learn:

The hook with the Chargers is to learn the 3-4 defense inside-out. San Diego kept the scheme as its base defense when Ted Cottrell replaced Wade Phillips as coordinator after the latter became the Dallas Cowboys coach. Rivera, a rising star in the coaching ranks for several years, was an unexpected bonus for new coach Norv Turner's staff.

Here's the lede in Roy Cummings' TBO.com piece on the 2007 Tampa Bay Buccaneers:

Jon Gruden's future with the Bucs cannot be tied solely to a number. Though nine or 10 wins may get the Bucs to the playoffs, they won't necessarily guarantee Gruden keeps his job as Bucs coach.

I have no reason to dispute this, but it does raise a question: if getting to the postseason isn't enough for Gruden to keep his job, why didn't the club fire him this off-season?

The obvious answer is that Gruden, for all his perceived faults, was better than whoever else was available. Also, next off-season, there could be run on high-profie coaches looking for work. At the top of that list is Bill Cowher, who is seemingly at the top of every team's wish list. There's also Marty Schottenheimer and Bill Parcells -- both available this off-season, by the way -- and second-tier candidates like Ron Rivera and Russ Grimm.

Whatever happens, Cummings hits on the crux of the matter for the Bucs' owners:

[They] want more than just a return to the playoffs. At the end of the season, they want to feel as if their franchise is heading in the right direction again. They want to feel good about the future.

I'm sure everybody felt the organization was headed in the right direction following the 2002 Super Bowl stompin' of the Oakland Raiders. But in the four years since, Tampa Bay has only one playoff appearance while averaging fewer than seven wins a season. In looking back, I'd say Tony Dungy had the Bucs on the right track. And look where that got him.

Ron Rivera needs a new agent. He went from Super Bowl defensive coordinator and one of the hottest head-coaching candidates in the league to Chargers linebacker coach. Isn't he supposed to be moving upwards?

This is like you walking into your office tomorrow and having the boss tell you, "Hey, great work on that Stewart account, you saved the company millions. So we'll be firing you now, and you can go work in the mailroom somewhere else. Sound good?"

Anyway, it's a nice little silver lining for the Chargers. On the same day that they hired Norv Turner (which is certainly a black day in franchise history), they add Ron Rivera as linebacker coach. The Chargers hired three coaches today, Ron Rivera, Ted Cottrell, and Norv Turner ... and the best of them is probably the one with the worst rank.

Things have to be a little awkward for Ted Cottrell now, don't they? Imagine what that first meeting with Rivera will be like at the company water cooler.

Rivera: Hey, Ted, it's nice to be working under you. What have you been up to?
Cottrell: Actually, I was out of football last year.
Rivera: You don't say? I was defensive coordinator of a Super Bowl team.
Cottrell: (looks down) Uh huh.
Rivera: So, you say you're my boss?
Cottrell: (still looking at the floor) Yeah.
Rivera: That's just terrific (Rivera crumples his paper water cup and throws it at Cottrell's feet). Just terrific.