It has been widely popularized by Boston fans that without Belichick, Parcells would not be known as a head coach football icon… hopefully, that is from more of a knock against the NY media than the accomplishments by the man.  But I am just as certain that NY fans say the converse against the Boston media, too.

Personally, I think Crennel (and Weis) were the real enablers of that media-hyped dynamic duo, because where would both of them be without Crennel?  I throw (and Weis) in there, because it’s not his fault he was missing prior to the 1990 campaign, but he certainly has a strong NFL resume when Weis is joined with Crennel.

Here are my points to support this claim:

1)  Playoff record of Parcells and Belichick, with Crennel (and Weis):

… as World Champions:

1986: Parcells, Belichick, Crennel (NYG, 17-2)
1990: Parcells, Belichick, Crennel, Weis (NYG, 16-3)
2001: Belichick, Crennel, Weis (NE, 14-5)
2003: Belichick, Crennel, Weis (NE, 17-2)
2004: Belichick, Crennel, Weis (NE, 17-2)

… reached the Super Bowl:

1996: Parcells, Belichick, Crennel, Weis (NE, 13-6)

… reached the Playoffs:

1984: Parcells, Belichick, Crennel (NYG, 10-8)
1985: Parcells, Belichick, Crennel (NYG, 11-7)
1998: Parcells, Belichick, Crennel, Weis (NYJ, 13-5)

The duo is 20-4 in the playoffs and 5 rings, because they had Crennel (and Weis); with Weis, 15-2 and 4 rings.

Now, the above alone does not make my point complete, unless you combine it with Belichick and Parcells resumes, which are replete with mediocrity:

2)  Parcells and Belichick as head coaches, but without Crennel (and Weis):

1983: Parcells (NYG, 3-12-1), inherited 17-24 (4-5, 9-7, 4-12) team, 1-1 playoffs

1991: Belichick (CLE, 3-13), inherited 22-25 (3-13, 9-6, 10-6) team, 1-2 playoffs

1992: Belichick (CLE, 7-9)

1993: Belichick (CLE, 7-9); and Parcells (NE, 5-11), inherited 9-39 (2-14, 6-10, 1-15) team, no playoffs

1994: Belichick (CLE, 11-5), 1-1 playoffs; and Parcells (NE, 10-6), 0-1 playoffs

1995: Belichick (CLE, 5-11); and Parcells (NE, 6-10)

1999: Belichick (NE, 8-8), inherited 30-18 (9-7, 10-6, 11-5) team, 3-3 playoffs

2000: Belichick (NE, 5-11); hires Weis

2003: Parcells (DAL, 10-6), 0-1 playoffs, inherited 15-33 (5-11, 5-11, 5-11) team, no playoffs

2004: Parcells (DAL, 6-10)

2005: Belichick (NE, 10-6), 1-1 playoffs; and Parcells (DAL, 9-7)

2006: Belichick (NE, 12-4), 2-1 playoffs; and Parcells (DAL, 9-7), 0-1 playoffs

2007: Belichick (NE, 16-*), 2-1 playoffs

2008: Belichick (NE, 10-6)

2009: Belichick (NE, 10-6), 0-1 playoffs

2010: Belichick (NE, 14-2), 0-1 playoffs

2011: Belichick (NE, 5-3), playoffs?

… Playoff record without each other, AND WITHOUT CRENNEL (and WEIS):

Belichick (5-5), 0 rings
Parcells (0-3), 0 rings

It can be noted here that Belichick alone has had a lot more opportunity, but he also inherited successful teams, whereas Parcells inherited dismal teams.  But those teams did not become legendary until Crennel (and Weis) joined them.

The result is this Tcl/Expect script (listed below).  First, you will need to make certain you have these dependent packages installed:

yum install expect fluid-soundfont-lite-patches timidity++

Next, you will need to fetch the multimedia files into your home directory:

svn co https://robert.hurst-ri.us/svn/rpgd/trunk/snd Music/hack

Then, setup your telnet session attributes in .telnetrc to automatically load when you connect:

robert.hurst-ri.us
    mode character
    set crlf off
    unset escape

And last, simply copy/paste the script below into an executable text file of your choice and run it.

#!/usr/bin/expect -f

# play a MIDI file
proc midi s {
  set mid [string range $s 3 end-3]
  set bool [string range $s end-1 end-1]
  set cmd "killall playmus 2> /dev/null; playmus -v 25 Music/hack/$mid.mid &> /dev/null &"
  system $cmd
}

# play a WAVE file
proc wave s {
  set wav [string range $s 3 end-3]
  set bool [string range $s end-1 end-1]
  set cmd "play Music/hack/$wav.wav &> /dev/null"
  if {$bool == 0} { set cmd "$cmd &" }
  system $cmd
}

# connect to the game server ...
log_user 0
spawn telnet robert.hurst-ri.us 7000
wave "...dungeon;0."

expect_background {
  -re "\033\\\[\\\{.*\\\}" { midi $expect_out(0,string); return }
  -re "\033\\\[\\\[.*\\\]" { wave $expect_out(0,string); return }
  -re "(.*)" { send_user -- $expect_out(0,string); }
}

interact

It is curious to me to hear from the average fans that Brady had this perception of being “dissed” throughout the Patriots’ winning ways; especially back when he led them (completely) to back-to-back championships (2003, 2004) and took credit for the first one (2001) provided by Drew Bledsoe’s off-the-bench winning performance in his second AFC Championship game while “The Team of Destiny” brought home the improbable win against the heavily-favored, 2000 champion St. Louis Rams. But what did the average fan expect, all the while Genius and Terrific were (selflessly?) promoting “The Team” above “individual stars”? Did you want it _both_ ways? Do you believe that without QB Tom Brady performing at the helm, “The Team” had no chance? If that is so, then what exactly was the Coach-QB tandem selling to the team, the media, and its fans?

But after pedestrian 2005 and 2006 playoff appearances (Terrific was not so with the two losses coming from 3 interceptions thrown, and despite “The Team” and referees bailing his ass out with another improbable win when he delivered 3-interceptions to San Diego’s defense), the 2007 perfect* regular season finally brought Terrific some personal recognition: both the NFL MVP and Offensive Player awards. Sure, he got two Super Bowl MVP awards (with the highly debatable first one), but not too many non-QB players get those game honors to begin with, so not of his cause. No, despite the addition of an elite game-breaker in Randy Moss, who was apparently the lucky recipient of a record-breaking 23 TD tosses from Terrific, the personal glory was squarely Brady’s own. I wonder just how many of the other 52 “professional athletes” were genuinely agreeable and supportive?

I am guessing it fell short of consensus. The wave of media love that has followed Terrific since has swelled proportionately with the NFL Golden Boy’s head since 2007. I think Genius and Terrific are believing the hype, which usually spells doom for those who follow them. Is that justified? After all, Tom Brady’s career regular season wins he is credited for (.776) is untouchable by his peers: #1 “statistical QB” Peyton Manning (.678) and #1 “clutch QB” Ben Roethlisberger (.704).

And yet, this current losing streak of historical importance started after that national personal validation that Terrific _is_ an elite QB. But what followed was a marked dropoff in personal performance, which really began with another improbable win against San Diego in the AFC Championship game. MVP Tom Terrific came up small with a 66.4 rating from another 3-interception game. But that got him another handed opportunity to the 2007 Superbowl against the New York Football Giants, whereas Tom Terrific blew a perfect* season and a chance to sit alongside QB titans #1 Joe Montana and #2 Terry Bradshaw — not only did both lead their teams to all four world championship opportunities, but they also individually performed at a high level recording 101+ passer ratings in each game. Terrific did record an efficient 86.2 rating in his first appearance/win, just perhaps not worthy of the MVP honor endowed; as well as an acceptable 82.5 rating in his loss against the New York Giants championship defense:

Follow up that haunting nightmare of one epic loss with missing the 2008 season with an injury. Wow, Terrific must have worked his butt off in rehab, because he came back in 2009 listed as an inch shorter down to 6’4″ and 13 pounds lighter down to 225. Terrific has to give some credit to the world-class trainers and rehab facilities, because he was listed as a 6’5″ 205-lb rookie and got 33 pounds “bigger” at the 2001 training camp. That is pretty amazing stuff — Tom is a terrific human being.

But “The Team” somehow went on without Terrific and played to a very respectable 11-5 season, and only to miss the playoffs because they were bested by a pivotal NFL Thursday night pay-per-view overtime loss to the legendary QB Brett Favre and his NY Jets. We can only wonder what Terrific might have done in 2008. In the offseason, I suggested “The Team” keep the younger and now game experienced Matt Cassel and trade away Brady to Buffalo. Think of the TV ratings we could have gotten with the “Brady Bowls”? Instead, we kept an older and now gimpy Tom Brady and lost our star GM Scott Pioli, who obviously took notice of Kraft’s reluctance to let go of the past who allowed both Cassel and Vrabel to follow Pioli to the Kansas City Chiefs.

2009 was yet another lackluster regular season, just a one-win dropoff to 10-6, probably because of Terrific’s accelerated comeback from West Coast medicine with under-the-radar rehab. Of course, that got Terrific another gaudy accolade for being a Comback Player of the Year award — it validates his New England branding of being a tough guy (really?). But it was enough to once again go to the postseason AND with home-field advantage where Terrific can convince the referees to throw a flag after an unsuccessful 3rd down. I can almost here Terrific cry, “Do over! Do over!”. D-O-O-M was never spelled more prominently than when the Ravens ripped off an opening 83yd TD run. Oh, wait, that one is on the Genius’ complex defense schemes, not Terrific — instead, the Golden boy proved himself just as good as his predecessor by standing tall in the pocket like a statue, getting stripped of the football inside their own 17 to lead to another Raven’s TD:

But the 2010 Patriot postseason personal stat line looked acceptable enough to win, except that most of Terrific’s passing contributions came late in a game when it clearly did not have any relevance to its outcome. The critical error on their opening drive — overthrowing a screen pass — for a huge interception return was enough to put Terrific and Genius into a spotlight they are not accustomed to and cannot hide from — scrutiny:

Scrutiny for benching Welker on violating Genius’ edicts; scrutiny on Terrific’s personal shrinking act on the big stage: an average 10-point drop in postseason passer rating over the regular season and now three playoff loses in a row, one on a neutral field and the other two on their own turf. WTF??!? Will it really be over 1450-days when the Patriots MIGHT get a chance to win another playoff game?

2011 may yet bring an NFL season to our homes, as they continue to bicker over the unaccounted for billions at their disposal. I don’t see the Brady lawsuit really accomplishing much, since Brees is covering up for Terrific’s absence and doing all of the talking. But if it’s a complete season, then I must chant “go STEELERS!!” If it is shortened, I must rant “comeback Favre!!” and “go BILLS!!” That rant alone should get the talks moving, eh?

JETS defeat PATS, 28-21

And the last two playoff games were at home where the NFL’s Golden Boy was hyped as being untouchable and unbeatable. Statistically, Tommy had a good year at his skilled position. But he looked none of that in tonight’s game. His poise evaporated from the early interception, the 5 sacks, a fumble (team recovered it for him), and a LOT of throw aways even when standing like a statue in the pocket.

So what have WE learned? It’s a TEAM sport, not the Nerds Fantasy League. It’s not about a 16-* regular season. It’s not about running up 50 TDs. They discarded their scapegoat in Randy Moss and picked up a reject from an NFC 7-9 team as a pathetic attempt to re-capture the Glory Days.

Gone is the TEAM that had TEAM players like Troy Brown, Ty Law, Adam Vinatieri, Tedi Bruschi, Lawyer Milloy, Corey Dillon, Richard Seymour, Mike Vrabel and, yes, even Drew Bledsoe.

Tommy alone can NOT win a big game. Tom Brady is a systems QB that relies upon orchestrated, cerebral play, not unlike Troy Aikman. Last year’s loss to Baltimore, Tommy was quoted, “Coach says this team does not have enough mental toughness.” So did you get any this year, or is Tommy part of the problem? Where does this team go from here? It will be a very interesting Free Agent signing and 2011 Draft, because that is the only place they are headed, now that the New York Football JETS have taken the AFC Championship game away from Kraft’s Palace.

For the “stat” idiots out there, the game was in serious jeopardy from the first half:

1st Half AFC Division Playoffs
==============================
Brady: 10/17, 99, 0td, int
Sanchez: 10/16, 101, 2td

Branch: 0, 0yd, 0td
Edwards: 2, 52yd, 1td

Woodhead: 6 rushes for 19yd
Tomlinson: 7 rushes for 48yd

… and it got no better at the end, even with the JETS allowing Brady his garbage-time TD:

FINAL GAME STATS
================
Brady: 29/45, 299, 2td, int, 5 sacks for 40yd
Sanchez: 16/25, 194, 3td, 0 sacks

Brady Average Gain per Passing Play (includes Sacks): 5.2yd
Sanchez Average Gain per Passing Play (includes Sacks): 7.8yd

Belichick’s Team: 2tds, 26 first downs, 5/14 3rd downs
Ryan’s Team: 4tds, 14 first downs, 6/13 3rd downs

After reading that opinion, I am amazed how the old guys still insist on putting Joe Namath’s Jets upset of the Colts at #1.  Certainly it belongs in the top five, if there is such a thing, but the payback for the 2001 Patriots’ colossal upset over the Rams that was dished out by the 2007 lowest-seeded Giants upset over the (then) undefeated(*) Patriots is clearly (or as the media put it, “no doubter”) the biggest upset in NFL playoff history.  Factor in the AFC dominance over the NFC this past decade, it makes that Giant win even more statistically improbable.  Or does it just prove Wilbon’s point?

But where is New England’s magical run through the playoffs from 1985-1986?  Certainly Seattle’s home playoff win against last year’s Super Bowl champs (and an NFC matchup nonetheless where anything is possible) cannot be construed as an upset, especially when that 1985 Patsy team was the NFL’s first to go on the road for each of their games and make a Superbowl appearance.  Given the criteria, it makes no sense to me, but then again, I guess the NFL media needed something new to “feed the frenzy”.

A 19-yard screenplay (which counts as an individual passing statistic in the NFL) was the longest play in the second half by The Golden Boy. The longer passes he completed that does not count toward his passing yards were the two picks he was forcing to Moss. What did he get paid by the Kraft’s the other week? Over 50-million dollars? I hope most of that wasn’t guaranteed, Bobby …

New England had a couple of drives “continued” with some great theatrics. Welker with the shoulder pad to shoulder pad hit with his hands on the ball. He would ham it up with a bogus concussion test on the sideline, then score a touchdown and head-butt all the 300+ pound linemen. And a bogus pass interference called in the last 5-minutes to add “drama” to a rather one-sided contest, er, game.

Too bad Jim Nance is still in the booth with his same pathetic self throughout the game. At least he has Phil Simms to cover his bias suck-ups for Tommy “Gun”.  Phil is the real deal.

I loved Rex Ryan’s call to go for it on 4th down to keep the ball — and running the ball to get it. Billy Belichick should take note that you can use your running backs to make 1st downs for you, instead of relying on an aging QB with declining skills.  And Billy needs to retire, too, or become a team consultant, perhaps to Buffalo — his 2nd half adjustments resulting in being outscored 18-0.

I really feel for Randy Moss, the team’s best talent since his acquisition. Overlooked by everyone because his QB got too much credit and media hype over “the team”‘s success in the early half of last decade. Moss should have realized he was not going to get any love after Tommy’s early departure in 2008 and he rallied behind a nobody’s QB, Matt Cassel, for an 11-5 season. He should have demanded a trade and followed Pioli to Kansas City.

It’s only week Two, but Tommy is not getting any younger either.

Here’s my favorite of all of his performances from the semi-finals:

It is September and I only broke 40 once this past season.  And that was a 39 (+7) on a par 32, as difficult as that back-9 was, it still does not count in my book.  And, oh, I shot more than two handfuls at 40 (some were +3 on a par-37), and coupled a few of those near misses with 41′s to make for really nice rounds of 81.  But, with no legitimate rounds under 40 translates to probably another year gone by without breaking 80.

Today, I had a sound round of 86 on a par 71 at Norton Country Club.  46 on the front with another near-miss of 40 on the back.  I had 9 pars, 5 bogeys, 2 double, and 2 triple.  I made only 1 par save and 1 three-putt bogey (which occurred on the 10th hole, so if I had made good on the 2nd putt, it would have at least been that allusive 39); but it also means that I hit 9 greens in regulation.  While a 50% GIR is an acceptable ratio, it places a premium on the chipping game for the other 9 holes, heh, which clearly needs a lot of work.  And hitting 9 greens and making 0 birdies and chipping / short approaches for another 6 greens with only 1 par save means my putting did not help improve upon my score either.  And then there are the “unforced” errors (two three-putts and two lost balls), which also translated to 4-strokes I could have done without, but that typically comes to any course you play only once a year.

I am a realist.  Breaking 80 might never happen, but it is still good to have goals.  And while a goal with a plan is not a dream, it does not necessarily mean it will translate to success either.  I will continue my pursuit and I am certain I will have to continue to tweak the plan.  Golf can be self-defeating, as it is a game that you can never win at.  But you cannot achieve those personal bests without putting in the time to practice and play, so you must take each defeat as another step in the process.

Cool.

Despite having some fantastic clones of classic coin-operated games, the VIC 20 has a remarkably small list of straight arcade conversions to its name, so a version of something loud and shooty like Berzerk was almost guaranteed to be popular here at Retro Gamer.  And since the developer is Robert Hurst, the man behind the excellent unexpanded Pac-Man clone Quikman 2008, we were pretty eager to get our hands on Berzerk MMX.

The VIC graphics are, unsurprisingly, chunkier than the original version’s but serve their purpose well, in-game sound effects are simple but again appropriate, and the action rapidly becomes frantic as the poor player-controlled humanoid fights for his life.  And while Berzerk MMX runs on an 8K expanded VIC 20, for the users blessed with 16K expansion there’s a second version, which ships with most of the speech from the original in place and goes even further towards replicating the arcade experience.

87%

I could not be more pleased with that — cool!