The Sports Truth

It took 18 years for the Arizona Cardinals to host a Monday Night Football game, and the futile franchise showed why last night.

They can’t block.

Nor can they hold onto the ball.

As a result of blowing a 20-point lead and losing 24-23 to the Bears, frustrated coach Dennis Green fired offensive coordinator Keith Rowen today and replaced him with quarterbacks coach Mike Kruczek.

“I’ve known Keith for a long time. I have the utmost respect for him. We are not scoring enough points,” Green said.

Kruczek becomes Green’s third offensive coordinator in the coach’s 2 1/2 seasons in Arizona. We give him about six weeks.

“I don’t hesitate to make changes. That’s just who I am. I like things to go a certain way, and if they don’t, I normally do something about it,” Green said.

Green said Kruczek’s close working relationship with rookie Matt Leinart will give the Cards a better chance. That may be, but one can only wonder if firing the coordinator is really the right course of action for a team that…

• … permitted a blindside sack of Leinart that led to Mike Brown’s 3-yard fumble return for a touchdown.
• … watched Charles Tillman return an Edgerrin James fumble 40-yards for another score.
• … surrendered Devin Hester’s 83-yard punt return for the go-ahead touchdown.
• … missed a makable 41-yard field goal with under a minute to go.

Our take? This is bigger than one man. The entire staff should be shipped out, or the franchise should consider moving. To Europe.

Meanwhile, Baltimore Ravens coach Brian Billick (left) has canned offensive coordinator Jim Fassel and will take over the play-calling for the offense.

Billick said it was difficult to let Fassel go, saying he has been a valuable, loyal coach. But he wasn’t apprehensive, either.

“Clearly, in order for us to expand on our 4-2 start we have to have more offensive productivity,” he said. “There was no single incident, no single episode, nothing specific that brought about this change. But something needed to be done.”

The two squared off in Super Bowl XXXV when Fassel was head coach of the New York Giants. Three lackluster seasons following New York’s 34-7 loss, Fassel was fired by the team and signed with the Ravens as a consultant. He was later given a promotion to offensive coordinator, but failed to galvanize the team.

Billick is probably worried about his own job security, which has deteriorated considerably after failing to produce much since Baltimore’s title five seasons ago. Even the luster of winning Super Bowls wears off in time (as Mike Shanahan and Jon Gruden can attest).

Who knows if this will pay off, but perhaps Billick is taking a cue from the man he sent packing in his desire to shake things up. Fans may recall that back in 2000, Fassel’s finest hour came after he stripped offensive coordinator Sean Payton (now coach of the New Orleans Saints) of play calling duties, took over the offense himself, guaranteed a playoff berth and sparked the Giants’ run to the Super Bowl.

If Billick works similar magic with the Ravens upon firing Fassel, that would certainly qualify as ironic. If he then met up with Payton and Team Katrina in the Super Bowl, that would be just plain weird.