Socci’s Notebook: Passing thoughts during the bye week about football…and football
Filling time during a bye-week, while looking forward to an upcoming trip to Arizona following Thursday morning’s snow flurries, I offer a short stream of consciousness:
Entering this weekend the betting favorite for NFL Coach of the Year is Detroit’s Dan Campbell, whose Lions are 12-1 this season and 32-8 in their last 40 regular-season games after a 9-26 start to his Motor City tenure.
In 2 1/2 years, Campbell has gone from a muscle-bulging, vein-popping, kneecap-biting-promising target of widespread ridicule to the widely-respected model of how an ex-player turned coach builds a tough-bodied, tough-minded Super Bowl contender in his image. It’s amazing how quickly and how starkly impressions of Campbell and his staff have changed.
Just two seasons ago, as Campbell prepared the Lions for a visit to Foxborough in October 2022, they were 1-3 on the way to 1-6, had just allowed 520 yards and 48 points to the Seahawks and their defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn was thought to be unfit for his role. Not unlike Campbell, in the minds of many — just search the archives of this site for Oct. 10, 2022 — after Detroit lost 29-0 to the Pats while failing to convert six straight fourth-down tries.
Campbell stuck by Glenn, who will be an attractive head coaching candidate this offseason, and stuck with his no-regrets, ultra-aggressive nature. Now the Lions, long an NFL laughingstock, are sticking it to the rest of the NFC. I, for one — and not the only one, as you know if you start your days with “Toucher & Hardy” — hope it continues into February.
If Campbell hadn’t done it already (he had), he won me over in mid-sentence of his first answer to CBS reporter Tracy Wolfson in their post-halftime interview on Thanksgiving Day. The Lions’ 16-0 lead over the Bears was the sum of one touchdown and three field goals. Wolfson asked Campbell to address Detroit’s red-zone inefficiency, citing a 1-for-4 showing inside Chicago’s 20-yard line.
“You just said it…” Campbell started, before catching himself, “Happy Thanksgiving, by the way.”
Then he picked up where he left off.
On Thursday, his Lions picked up where they left off with last week’s narrow win over their NFC North rival Bears with the same against another divisional foe, the Packers. Tied at 31-31 and well inside Jake Bates’s range, Campbell kept his offense on the field for 4th-and-1 with 43 seconds left.
Why not kick then and there for the lead? What if Detroit got stuffed, giving Green Bay the ball still tied? Hell, why not convert the first down, take the clock down to :02 and let Bates down the Packers with no time left?
That’s exactly what the Lions, left short-handed by injuries for their third game in 11 days, did. Bates drilled the game winner, as called by Al (‘Do you believe in miracles?’) Michaels – “Ballgame!” – before Campbell invoked a little of the late Herb Brooks in his locker room speech.
“We were all supposed to be here together, men,” Campbell proclaimed in his post-game talk. “We were destined for this.”
As obvious as the veins bulging from Campbell’s neck and forehead, he was born to be a football player. And one heck of a football coach.
Since I mentioned the Packers and Coach of the Year award, Green Bay’s Matt LaFleur should be right up there with Campbell, Minnesota’s Kevin O’Connell, Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin, Denver’s Sean Payton and the Los Angeles Chargers’ Jim Harbaugh. LaFleur, whose record is 65-31 (.677) overall, has led this year’s Packers to a 9-4 mark, including two wins behind backup quarterback Malik Willis, after starter Jordon Love was injured in the opener amid a 2-2 September.
One more thought about Coach of the Year, as awarded by the Associated Press. It is neither a necessary validation of good work by good coaches nor is it predictive of continued success for its recipient. In 2018, Matt Nagy received the honor after a 12-4 finish to his inaugural campaign in Chicago. Three non-winning seasons later, he was fired. Two years ago, a 9-7, playoff-reaching turnaround by the Giants in Brian Daboll’s first season earned him the award. But New York has since lost 21 of 29 games and despite recent remarks by owner John Mara, who said he doesn’t expect major changes in 2025, Daboll’s job status is being questioned in New York.
A thought about a coach in his first year. Before sitting down to the keyboard today, I caught the conversation with Jerod Mayo on NBC Sports Boston’s “Tom Curran’s Patriots Talk Podcast.”
Eight minutes into a worthwhile listen, Curran wondered if media scrutiny of Mayo’s year-one performance as Patriots head coach is “hurtful.” They then spent the next six minutes on the subject.
Mayo acknowledged outside criticism, expressed an understanding of fans’ frustration and in the middle of their discussion, echoed something he’s repeated this season.
“I still have a lot to learn as the head coach of this football team, and I’ve understood that,” Mayo said. “It’s a very different role, and I tell players this same thing, ‘The biggest jump that you’ll ever have in your career is from Year 1 to Year 2,’ as far as becoming a better player, a better professional.
“I’m sure, 100 percent, that I’ll be a better coach in Year 2 than I am in Year 1. I would also say, when you’re out there on the field, for me, at least, I’ll always try to do what is best for the football team. We’re always trying to win every game.”
A bit later, Curran brought up Joe Mazzulla, who as head coach of the Celtics performed a 180-degree, half-pirouette in the midst of a giant leap forward after his first season filling in for a then suspended Ime Udoka.
Thrust into unforeseen and, in many ways, unenviable circumstances, seemingly ahead of his time at age 34 in Sept. 2022, Mazzulla was often questioned and heavily criticized. As a tactician, his offense was thought to be overreliant on three-point shots. As a game manager, he was thought to exercise poor timeout usage — or lack thereof. As a spokesman, he was seen and heard in sideline interviews as unpolished.
Mazzulla evolved. The Celtics won — a lot. He became the youngest coach since Bill Russell to capture an NBA title. And his personality now projects strength of mind and purpose.
Mayo and Mazzulla are close friends. Curran wanted to know if the former relies on Mazzulla as “a resource.”
“He’s been great,” Mayo replied and repeated. “He’s been great.”
True, they are different people coaching vastly different sports in obviously different circumstances. Still, Mazzulla is more than a resource for Mayo; he’s an example. And a reminder of how learning, adjusting and winning quickly changed a narrative.
With the Pats idle this week, I’m looking forward to extra time in front of the television watching football. Four games I’m most intrigued by are:
Atlanta at Minnesota. Kirk Cousins returns to Minneapolis to face Brian Florres’s defense.
Seattle at Arizona. An opportunity for some advance scouting for Week 15, when the Pats go to Glendale.
Buffalo at Los Angeles (Rams). How well prepared will the Rams’ youthful defense be after practicing against Jimmy Garoppolo doing a scout-team impersonation of Josh Allen?
Los Angeles (Chargers) at Kansas City. Since 2014, the Chargers are 3-18 vs. the Chiefs, including a 2-7 record with Justin Herbert at quarterback and losses in their last six encounters.
Nobody’s had it better than Kansas City in the NFL of late. Can the Bolts finally get the best of the Chiefs again to improve on their 8-4 mark under Jim Harbaugh?
Football is life. So says AFC Richmond great Dani Rojas in “Ted Lasso,” which besides occasional New England Revolution games and look-ins at World Cup matches every four years, used to be the extent of my soccer viewing.
But after the Patriots’ visit to London in October allowed time for a Saturday afternoon baptism in the English Premier League, I’ve fallen for the ‘Beautiful Game’ as well as America’s Game. My initiation occurred at Craven Cottage, the 128-year-old home of Fulham FC, a.k.a. ‘The Cottagers.’
Built on the banks the River Thames, Craven Cottage is a true neighborhood ‘ballpark’ — a la Wrigley Field — that projects Lasso-like vibes. Many fans meet at The Crabtree, Fulham’s real-life answer to the fictional Greyhounds’ hometown pub, ‘The Crown & Anchor,’ to wash down fish and chips with lager and march about 10 minutes past Fulham’s Victorian and Edwardian homes to the stadium.
The day I was there, the home fans walked away from a 3-1 loss to Aston Villa, whose faithful sang and chanted from their end zone section, among a crowd of 26,743. Watching soccer in that intimate space, on top of the pitch, absorbing the vibrant atmosphere, was an awesome experience.
While much about my immersion into Premier League culture was unexpected, the greatest revelation for me had to do with the game itself. The size, speed, skill, grace and even physicality of the players were never so apparent to me.
So, this weekend, in addition to the aforementioned NFL games and college football’s conference championships, I’m primed for the action from Old Trafford, Goodison Park and, most of all, Craven Cottage.
Bob Socci is in his 12th season calling play-by-play for the Patriots Radio Network on 98.5 The Sports Hub and first season as a fan of “The Cottagers.” Follow him on Bluesky and Instagram.