RIP Joe Walton

Always remember a banner that hung in Three Rivers Stadium when he was an offensive coach:

J_E
Where’s the O?

 

IIRC, the word on Joe was his offense was too complicated.

Student body left, student body tight would have given Brister problems.

 

The 1990 season. Steelers had no offensive touchdowns in the first four games. Then Eric Green caught 5 tds in the next two games, and that created a LOT of expectations for his career.

 

Brister was the starter in Walton's first season, 1990, then split time with Neil O'Donnell in 1991. I had forgotten about all that, but yes, Brister was very critical of Walton's offense. Part of that was the complexity of the offense. Part was that it relied so heavily on a short passing game, which really didn't fit Brister's game at all.

Steelers Overcome Language Barrier : NFL: Quarterback Bubby Brister now can understand and call plays, and that's a boon to Pittsburgh's offense.

 

NYT lacks decorum
and a proper sense of history:

Joe Walton, Giants Star
Who Found Futility as
Jets Coach, Dies at 85
He took them to the playoffs several times
in the 1980s but was dismissed after a 53-57 record.
He went on to achieve success as a college coach.

I mean, come on. Show some respect with an obit. 53-57 is mediocrity, not futility.

Want futility? Rich Kotite was 4-28 as coach of the Jets. THAT, my friends, is FUTILITY.

 

Maureen Dowd wrote that headline.

 

They really didn't focus on drafting defensive players high until the late 80s. Walton liked shootouts, especially against the Dolphins. At times the Jets offenses were extremely productive. They could run and pass effectively. But when Kerry Glenn, a 10th round pick, is your No. 1 CB for a 3-year stretch, Dan Marino is going to torch his ass. By 1988 they drafted Erik McMillian and James Hasty to boost up the secondary and then in 1989 drafted Jeff Lageman and Dennis Byrd, so the pieces were definitely getting there on defense by 1990, but that's about the time at O'Brien and the offense started to dry up.

 

Well, his last year they finished 4-12, so I guess you could say he found futility eventually, but that's kind of rotten cherry-picking. However, I do agree with your larger point, and I would expect a little better from the Times.
Kotite -- SMH. The thing I laugh about is that, IIRC, they fired Pete Carroll after one 6-10 season specifically because they wanted to hire Kotite.

 

Did they hire the WaPo intern who wrote the Schottenheimer hed? Yeesh.

 

IIRC, the Jets under Walton once started the season 9-0 or 10-0 -- and missed the playoffs.

They were big-time underachievers with Walton at the helm. They had a lot of talent on both sides of the ball.