The Falcons were left without a head coach after a classless disappearing act by former Head Coach Bobby Petrino. Now, Petrino is singing ’sooey’ at the University of Arkansas. Meanwhile, Atlanta Falcons GM Rich McKay is compiling a list to replace him. While there is no official word, there are a few names that are probably shoe-ins for the short list.the short list.

Bill Cowher: No Team

Ever since Bill Cowher resigned as the Pittsburgh Steelers head coach following the 2006 season, he’s been in the back of everyones mind as a comeback story. One of the League’s most respected and successful coaches, Cowher will definitely come up as a potential candidate.

While any GM in the NFL would love to fill a head coaching vacancy with Bill Cowher, the fit may not be true for Cowher. Certainly a franchise with ownership and front-office acumen like Atlanta would be an enticing option for most coaches. However, Cowher recently settled his family in North Carolina and seemed quite happy to settle in. Now just about everyone has a price. But the number required to unroost the League’s most powerful chin and his family may be higher than McKay and owner Arthur Blank are willing to part with.

Jason Garrett: Dallas Cowboys Offensive Coordinator

In a surprising and unorthodox move, Cowboys owner and General Manager Jerry Jones hired the young Garrett during Dallas’ head coaching search at the beginning of this season without specifying Garrett’s position. While most head coaches prefer to bring in their own staff, Wade Phillips was hired as the Cowboys head coach and told Garrett would serve as his offensive coordinator.

The move paid off and Phillips couldn’t be happier. Garrett inherited an already good offense. But heavier speculation centered on whether the young coach would be able to improve the unit or if he would simply coast on the system and players installed by previous Head Coach Bill Parcells and former offensive coordinator Sean Payton.

Garrett blew away all expectations by improving the Cowboys offense to second in the league and first in the NFC. Many, including former Cowboys quarterback and current NFL Analyst Troy Aikman feel that Garrett is being fast tracked into a head coaching position and Atlanta may be the first team to come calling. Aikman, who played for several years with Garrett backing him up, feels that Garrett is well ahead of his years in ability and is ready to be a head coach.

Monte Kiffin: Tampa Bay Buccaneers Defensive Coordinator

Atlanta Falcons GM Rich McKay has a long history with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that includes building a tremendous defense with former Bucs Head Coach Tony Dungy and Bucs Defensive Coordinator Monte Kiffin.

Kiffin is a coach that carrys tremendous respect from a long list of premier NFL players and coaches alike. Over the years, Kiffin’s defensive staff has been pillaged by several other NFL teams while Kiffin has remained loyal to Tampa Bay. However, since Tony Dungy was replaced by offensive-minded Jon Gruden and McKay was replaced by Bruce Allen, Kiffin has had to try and maintain his elite defense while getting much less of the new personnel acquisitions dedicated to defensive players. Kiffin has ties to McKay and to Falcons veteran running back Warrick Dunn.

Emmitt Thomas: Atlanta Falcons Defensive Backs/Interim Head Coach

The Falcons may or may not be giving the 64 year-old Thomas a fair shot at winning the position long-term. However, the locker room cred Thomas carries cannot be ignored.

“I respect Emmitt the utmost,” said center Todd McClure. “He’s been a player. He has a ton of experience. I know he’s going to lead us in the right direction. I think everybody in this locker room is looking forward to playing for him.”

Interim head coaches are almost never given serious consideration no matter how well they play out the season. Many times, the reasons are mystifying. However, if Thomas can squeeze out a few wins, he deserves some consideration as well.

Romo is for real. The Dallas defense is for real. Everyone already knew Terrell Owens was for real. But the NFL’s top scoring team may as well forget any Super Bowl aspirations right now. As well as their defense is playing despite missing key players, and as hot as their offense looks, Dallas simply cannot be a contender unless one thing changes.

The Cowboys need to play the first half of the game like they play the second half. Week after week, the headlines read how Dallas stomped some opponent with gaudy scores like 35-7 or 34-10. Their closest game came in a 45-35 week 1 win against the New York Giants. Those Cowboys sure can score. But not until after half time.

In their 4-0 schedule, the Cowboys have played teams with a combined record of 3-13. The Giants are an anomaly. If the Cowboys faced the Giants in week 4 instead of week 1, the dynamic, if not the outcome would be completely different. Both defenses have gotten much better since week 1 and the Giants offense has found more of a stride.

However, the Cowboys allowed the hapless Dolphins to play them to 10-6 going into half time. The Chicago match-up was 3-3 at halftime. Over four games, Dallas has scored 44 points in the first half, and 107 points in the second half. The difference is significant. Even the Rams, who entered the game 0-3, kept the Cowboys within one touchdown. The Rams trailed 14-7 at the half.

Okay, I hear Dallas fans all over the country shouting at me.

“The Dallas Cowboys are 4-0! They are the top scoring offense in the NFL!”

Yes, I do not disagree. The Cowboys also seem to know how to put teams away. But they haven’t faced a real challenge. Next week, the Cowboys will take on the 1-3 Buffalo Bills at Ralph Wilson stadium. And the boys wearing the star better learn to come out the gate with guns blazing by then. The Bills are a better team than their record indicates. But the Bills are not the test of the Cowboys in my mind.

The week after the Cowboys play Buffalo, they will face the New England Patriots. Fortunately for the Cowboys, the match up will take place within the friendly confines of Texas Stadium. But if the Cowboys haven’t learned to explode into form in the first quarter, the Patriots will shell them in the first half. Then the Cowboys will find that their second half heroics will fall short unless they double their average second half score. They’ll have to make up for their lost first half unless they learn to come out of the gate with guns blazing.

Anyone who has seen the Patriots play knows that you can’t come from behind against the Pats like that. Looking past the Patriots, the Cowboys face a completely different Giants team in November than the one they faced in September. No one is yet sure what the Eagles are this year but the Cowboys still face two games against McNabb and company. Green Bay looms at the end of November as well.

So Dallas looks great after dismantling the winless Rams at Texas Stadium. They went on a two game road trip and came back with two wins, including one over the reigning NFC Champion Bears. The have the top scoring offense in the NFL. However, they seem to start games with a hangover.

The Cowboys could be a serious contender for the NFC title. But even if they get that far and face what will likely be the Colts or Patriots in the Super Bowl, the Cowboys need to prove that they can play all four quarters the way they’ve been playing in the second half. Otherwise, they don’t have a chance.

A look back at week 3 and a look ahead to week 4. Fantasy impacts of players on the move. What teams are as good or not as bad as they look?

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Finally. Watching Grossman play was like watching Miss. South Carolina try to explain why Americans can’t find the United States on a map. It was painful, embarrassing, and you often wondered how the Chicago Bears could just let it go on.

For those of you who hold up Rex Grossman’s first full year as a starter against Peyton Manning’s rookie season and point at how many 100+ quarterback rankings each received: Shut up and sit down.

You can’t compare a player who has had three years to gel with a team and compare him to a rookie. Even if that rookie is Peyton Manning. Plus the quarterback rating is a squirrelly stat at best. Where do the numbers come from? I don’t find that argument worth investing the time to research exact numbers but there are plenty of great quarterbacks with low quarterback ratings.

But if you must hold those numbers up, please remember that Rex Grossman did have quarterback ratings like 1.3 and 10.7 that season as well.

Grossman is not good enough. He’s either wildly good or dismally bad. That kind of constant swing with no consistent time in the middle stinks of luck and relying on the rest of the team a bit too much. So the Bears, after doggedly standing by Grossman have swung the other way. Grossman gets benched for Brian Griese.

Griese is obviously not a long term answer. But he’s a player with gas in the tank and a track record for success in the NFL. He was a Pro-Bowl quarterback in Denver. He led the Buccaneers into the playoffs. Griese has done something Grossman has not. Griese has led teams to success.

Before I hear a bunch of crap about the NFC championship game and a Super Bowl appearance, allow me to ask this question first.

“Did Rex Grossman lead the Bears into the playoffs?”

Mull that over. The last time Brian Griese was given any real playing time, he took a Buccaneers team with a suspect offensive line and a good but aging defense to a 10-6 season and a playoff spot. The Bucs decided that their future was with their young quarterback Chris Simms and decided to let Griese walk.

The Bucs haven’t returned to the playoffs since.

Chicago has an excellent offensive line. Chicago has arguably the best defense in the NFL. Now that they have the blinders off and can finally see that Rex Grossman belongs on the sideline, Chicago has a proven quarterback.

Griese may not be the long term answer. But Grossman isn’t either. Until the Bears find that answer, Griese can give them the consistent balance and leadership that they need on offense.

What happened the first two weeks? The Texans 2-0 and the Saints 0-2? What about the 0-2 Eagles or the 2-0 Redskins? Steven Jackson, Larry Johnson, Drew Brees all fantasy busts through the first two weeks? What was O.J. thinking? Did Dallas make the right move signing Tank Johnson? These stories and more!

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After returning home from the Giants vs. Packers excuse for an NFL game, I got to relax with Football Night in America. There, I had the pleasure of watching Bob Costas interview NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Goodell spoke eloquently for most of a quarter of an hour about crime and punishment. Not about Mike Vick or Tank Johnson or even David Boston, but about a Coach who had been caught stealing signals from the sidelines of opposing teams via video camera, and an assistant coach who was found guilty of using a banned substance. Both men were fined, but was the punishment just in both cases?

I’m not saying if both men deserved to be punished, I’m asking if both punishments were leveled fairly. Coach Belichek earned a $500,000 personal fine. Thats like hitting me with a 25 cent fine for spitting. His salary is around 8 million dollars a year. So 500K comes out to about 6.25% of his yearly salary. This is just punishment?? He should be suspended for the remainder of the season and the Patriots should lose both first-round draft picks! Why? Because he cheated, and cheating should not be tolerated.

On to Coach Wade Wilson, the Dallas Cowboys quaterbacks coach. He claimed he took a banned substance (unsubstantiated media reports have named both anabolic steroids and human growth hormone) for his diabetic condition. Wilson stated that the intent was “to improve the quality of his life.” While I can relate to that, being a diabetic myself, if you are in a job that has certain rules about what you can and can not take medically, wheather you are a coach or player, you have to follow those rules.

OK, so Coach Wilson took a banned substance. If it was HGH, I move that it was probably to improve the quality of his “adult” functions. He was caught. He agreed to cooperate with the legal investigation. Sure, he should be punished. But should that punishment be almost one third of his 325K a year salary?

Because his actions were against league rules, but did not hurt another person (meaning not punitive in nature) just maybe $100.000 is a bit excessive here. I barely Make 1/6th of Coach Wilson’s Salary, and if you took away one third of that I’d throw a royal fit. Wade Wilson has a right to question the punishment leveled at him, but not weather he should be punished.

If the Head Coach of a professional football team needs to “collect” data on other coaches’ signals, it’s time for him to get out of the game. If I were Patriots owner Bob Kraft, I would simply terminate the Coach and hire someone else 10 minutes ago!

Kevin Everette’s prognosis gets much brighter. Bill Belichek apologizes for … well … nothing. JaMarcus Russell signs with the Raiders and Mr. Frye goes to Washington … Seattle, Washington, that is. These stories, some interesting points about last weekends games, and Field Position Listeners Leagues updates.

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