NFL Team Capsules: Colts' new coordinator making smooth transition
INDIANAPOLIS — Clyde Christensen spent eight seasons learning everything about the Colts offense.
He got insight into the brilliant football mind of Peyton Manning and saw how Manning and Marvin Harrison became a record-breaking tandem. He took notes on the nuances of the system and figured out how best to use all those talented receivers and backs to complement Manning’s masterful skills.
The most important lesson he got from former offensive coordinator Tom Moore may also be the simplest: It’s all about the players.
“It’s not about me or the staff, it’s about the team,” said Christensen, who succeeds Moore this season. “There’s a lot of different ways to do things, and we do things a little different here.”
Do they ever.
Manning’s ability to run the no-huddle offense has kept defenses guessing and the Colts winning.
Indy just wrapped up a decade in which it broke NFL records for longest regular-season winning streak (23), most wins in a decade (115) and most consecutive 12-win seasons (seven). The Colts made the playoffs nine times, won six division titles, two AFC crowns and one Super Bowl thanks, of course, to Manning, the only four-time MVP in league history.
The consistency, Manning often acknowledges, is largely a byproduct of the Colts’ incredible continuity. Instead of adjusting to new coaching styles every few years, as most NFL players do, Manning had the advantage of working with the same coaches — offensive coordinator, line coach and running backs coach — for 12 seasons.
This year, that trio has finally been broken up.
Line coach Howard Mudd retired, turning the reins over to Pete Metzelaars. And Moore has scaled back his duties, accepting the title of senior offensive assistant, while Christensen, Indy’s former receivers coach, fulfills the succession plan by taking over the play-calling — a job he hasn’t held in nearly a decade.
“I don’t look at being a coordinator as any different than being the receivers coach,” Christensen said. “I did the best I could coaching the receivers, and I’ll do the best I can being the coordinator. But, you know, I don’t want to measure myself by Tom Moore’s success, that’s for sure.”
Everybody else will.
Christensen spent his first six NFL seasons in Tampa — three coaching tight ends, two in charge of the quarterbacks and the last one running an offense that was criticized for not being creative enough to win the Super Bowl. The image was reinforced when the Bucs won it all one year later, after Tony Dungy took Christensen, Jim Caldwell and others to Indy.
But this is a long way from the days of Brad Johnson, Shaun King and Keyshawn Johnson.
Like Dungy, Christensen encourages his players to have fun first, and like Caldwell, Christensen doesn’t worry about that old reputation.
In Indy, Christensen has directed co-stars Reggie Wayne and Harrison, the top two receivers in Colts history, and supporting actors such as Austin College, Pierre Garcon, Anthony Gonzalez and Brandon Stokley.
Their success helped Christensen develop a close relationship with Moore and a better rapport with Manning.
And few realize Christensen has actually been calling most of Indy’s third-down plays the last two seasons. The Colts were No. 1 both years, giving Manning more reason to support Christensen’s promotion.
“Clyde really, for the past couple of years, has been an integral part of our offense,” Manning said after the transition took place in the spring. “Tom has allowed Clyde to have a lot of input, and Clyde really had a lot of responsibilities when it came to the passing game. I’ve worked really closely with Clyde the past few years, and I’m excited to see that relationship grow.”
The real question is whether a smooth transition will keep the Colts’ offensive machine humming?
Consider this:
—Indy’s offense finished among the NFL’s top three in scoring and the top five in total yards every year from 2003-07.
—Five starters — Manning, Wayne, center Jeff Saturday, tight end Dallas Clark and running back Joseph Addai — have been Pro Bowlers.
—Ten starters return from last season’s AFC championship team, and Manning comes into this season with arguably the deepest talent pool of his career. He has four proven wide receivers and two former first-round draft picks in the backfield to go with tight ends Clark, Jacob Tamme and Brody Eldridge, who have played well in the preseason.
Manning has produced 24 points in 37 plays, which isn’t a bad start for the new coordinator.
“He’s a wonderful coach, a lot of our receivers have a very positive relationship with him,” Austin Collie said. “I think he’ll take a lot of things from Coach Moore and use a lot of what Coach Moore did.”
The good news is that Moore, the architect of the Colts offense, won’t be far away.
He attended training camp at Anderson University, intends to be on the sideline with Christensen on Sunday afternoons and will be available throughout the week for whatever advice Christensen needs.
Even if it’s a gentle reminder about that most important lesson.
“Every single year we tweak some things, but it’s not like we’re putting in a whole new offense,” Christensen said. “I enjoy what I do. I love coaching, I love teaching, I love being around these guys.”
Titans’ youth movement most noticeable on offensive line
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Usually when a running back makes NFL history the way Chris Johnson did for the Tennessee Titans last season, his blockers get some attention.
Not here.
Sure, left tackle Michael Roos and center Kevin Mawae were first alternates in Pro Bowl voting, and Mawae did get to the game after someone withdrew. But that was it.
Now Johnson is back looking to become the first player in the NFL to string together 2,000-yard seasons, and the line in front of him is a little bit different. The Titans chose to go a bit younger and more athletic by not bringing back the veteran Mawae for another season.
Instead, Eugene Amano has moved over from left guard to center with Leroy Harris finally moving into the starting lineup.
“We know for the most part as the offensive line goes, the offense goes,” Roos said. “It’s up to us to set the tempo and making sure we’re working hard and everyone else can feed off that. If we’re doing well in the game, that generally means the offense is doing well.”
The Titans prefer continuity and stability on the offensive line. Position coach Mike Munchak, a Hall of Famer himself as a player, has coached the unit since 1997. The Titans have blocked for a 1,000-yard rusher each season since, and they produced the NFL’s second-best rushing offense while ranking second in sacks allowed with 15.
They allowed the fewest sacks allowed among teams averaging 5 yards per rush since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. Johnson also set an NFL record as the first player to reach 2,500 yards from scrimmage.
Mawae had been the Titans’ starting center the past four seasons. His contract ended after the 2009 season, and the Titans felt Harris, bigger at 6-foot-3 and 303 pounds, needed to start going into his fourth season. They had drafted him in the fourth round coming out of N.C. State.
So Amano slid back to center where he played in college at Southeast Missouri State, and Harris stepped in at right guard.
Mawae, also president of the NFL Players Association, remains in Tennessee waiting for a phone call. He told The Tennessean earlier this month coach Jeff Fisher had promised him a roster spot, but Fisher has said they want to give Munchak time to develop their younger linemen this preseason.
“Kevin is as athletic as there is at center,” Fisher said. “He’s always been that way, and he still is. Leroy’s heavier, he’s got exceptional lower body strength and quickness so that makes us pretty stout inside.”
The Titans still have plenty of experience. Only Detroit’s Jeff Backus (144) and David Diel (112) of the Giants have started more consecutive games at tackle in the NFL than Roos with his 80, and right guard Jake Scott ranks fifth among all guards with his streak of 88 straight starts.
Scott thinks the revised line is settling in well with three preseason games left, including Monday night’s preseason home opener against Arizona (1-0). As for not having Mawae around?
“It’s a management decision. We’ll live with it and play with the guys here. We all believe in each other and know we have five guys capable of being great players in the NFL,” Scott said.
This is a much younger line with Mawae, who turned 39 in January.
Scott and Amano are going into their seventh seasons as the new veterans of this group. Harris is the youngest, while Roos and right tackle David Stewart both are going into their sixth NFL seasons after being drafted together in 2005.
Amano thinks he’s at the position that fits him best in the NFL and now he gets his chance to prove that. Harris, who’s smiling and happy away from the field, is intense and physical in practices and games with a streak of nasty that at times resembles that of Stewart — the soft-spoken man nicknamed Big Country for his size at 6-7, 315 pounds.
“I think we’re a lot younger and a lot stronger, and I think we’ll do a great job,” Amano said.
“I think we’ll just push people around inside. Our run game is good as it is. I think we can only get better and better.”
-- Teresa M. Walker
NFC
Smith ready for a better outing against Vikings
SAN FRANCISCO — All the spotlight Sunday at Candlestick Park will be on Brett Favre. And that’s perfectly fine with San Francisco quarterback Alex Smith.
Smith is content to quietly go about his business this preseason to make sure he’s prepared come Sept. 12, the day of the 49ers’ season opener at Seattle.
Smith had a forgettable start in last Sunday’s 37-17 victory at Indianapolis in which David Carr, his backup and fellow former No. 1 draft pick, and No. 3 QB Nate Davis rallied the Niners to 34 straight points.
Smith, who was promoted to starter last Oct. 25 and handed the reins this season, was 3 of 9 for 37 yards and managed only two first downs for a 7.4 quarterback rating. He knows that won’t cut it for a team that is desperate to get back to the postseason following a seven-year drought.
Smith and tight end Vernon Davis miscommunicated on a play that could have been a 47-yard touchdown pass. That was just one example of how things didn’t click.
“I felt really good. It’s funny, for as good as I felt, it’s probably as good as you could ever feel with a QB rating of seven or something,” Smith said. “It didn’t necessarily equate to anything. I saw things really well. I think the one pass is obviously the one we’re all talking about, the Vernon one. But everything else I saw clearly. So I felt like I was relaxed out there, knew what I was getting and reacted to it throwing the ball.
“I’ve got to finish, we’ve all got to finish in order to really take that to the next level of consistency. Otherwise, you’re going to have these ups and downs like we had last year.”
Favre is set to play one or two series — about 10 snaps in all — for the Vikings after the 40-year-old quarterback just rejoined the team Wednesday.
Smith hasn’t had his full arsenal available because Davis and second-year receiver Michael Crabtree have been nursing nagging injuries, and David Baas is still figuring things out as fill-in center while starter Eric Heitmann recovers from a broken left leg.
“I think with Alex, it’s just a matter of him continuing to get in a groove with the guys that we have,” coach Mike Singletary said. “Obviously, he would want Crabtree on the field, you’d want Vernon Davis on the field, but they’re not there so you’re not going to sit over there and whine about it. You’re going to go out there and practice and try to get better. There are a lot of things that he can do as a quarterback to get better that have nothing to do with Vernon and Crabtree.”
Offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye doesn’t put too much stock in Smith’s preseason numbers. He’s more concerned with making sure the offense gets on the same page before the games really count.
Raye can see the strides Smith has made, many of which are intangibles.
“I think the game, the pace visually and mentally, has slowed down for him now,” Raye said. “I think he’s comfortable with what he’s seeing and what the calls are. I would expect as he builds toward the start of the championship season that he’ll hit the ground running. I think it would be asinine to judge a quarterback in an exhibition season, based on the idea of people and plays and changes that are in and out and not a gam-plan situation.”
Still, Raye would like better playmaking than last week, when Michael Robinson fumbled on the first play from scrimmage, the 49ers had to punt twice in their initial four possessions and committed two turnovers.
“We’ve all got to go out there and do it and continue to build on that,” Smith said. “I guess I look back on all our plays with the first group, 14, 15 plays. Didn’t finish, didn’t finish anything is kind of what I looked at. ... We missed opportunities because of that and I think in the NFL you don’t get a lot of second chances in games like that.”
Smith knows plenty well from frustrating situations and tough losses last season. The Niners, who finished 8-8, followed a 3-1 start by losing four straight and five of six. They also dropped six straight road games, five in a row by a combined 19 points, before winning their season finale at St. Louis.
Raye is eager to see progress from the first-team offense in the next two exhibition games — and that, of course, begins with Smith’s play under center.
“You don’t want to go into the start of the league season not having made first downs, not having converted on third downs, wondering are we going to, if this going to turn around when the season starts — because now you’re in a hope situation rather than an expectation situation,” Raye said. “What you’d like to get done, as they play 15 plays, or a quarter, or 30 plays, or two halves, you’d like for them to have some success so they can realize what they’re doing in training camp, all the time and energy they put in and headed toward their league season that they’re in a position to go play, rather than wondering if it’s going to come together.”
-- Janie McCauley
