BASF":2b3a64gc said:
hawknation2014":2b3a64gc said:
They started 6-5 in Carroll's first season, but then things quickly fell apart and they went on a 5-game losing streak. Carroll was called into the owner's office. Right as he sat down, Hess said to him, "In the business world, a man in your situation would resign. But I know you're not going to do that, so I'm going to have to let you go." Carroll was in his first year of a four-year contract. Without Carroll, the Jets went 3-15 the next year and 1-15 the year after that.
I honestly think that had they won the last game against the one win at the time Houston Oilers he would have been given at least another year, but his defense did not look good at all against a crappy QB. The other four losses in that streak were to playoff teams and could have been excused, but making Bucky Richardson look like a real NFL QB was the last straw for management. It was assumed that his team had quit on him, and who knows if it was true, since I don't think anyone in that locker room has ever said anything different.
The defensive players on that team loved Carroll. Lott, Glenn, Lageman, etc. all would have run through a brick wall for him. Offensively, they were disjointed and couldn't get things going after that brutal loss to Miami in the "Fake Spike" game.
The Jets were playing at home for first place in the division, and they were up 24-21 with 20 seconds on the clock. Dan Marino runs to the line of scrimmage yelling "clock it, clock it" and signaling for the spike to stop the clock. But instead, Marino fakes the spike, drops back, and throws the game-winning TD to Mark Ingram, Sr. (the father of the Saints' talented RB). Ingram killed them that day, catching four TD passes from Marino with that last putting a dagger into the heart of that Jets' team, which went on to lose the rest of their games in gut wrenching fashion.
The rumors about Rich Kotite returning to the Jets were also not helpful. Hess reportedly made the decision to fire Carroll after the Eagles fired Kotite, who had been the Jets' OC before taking the Eagles' job. The Eagles had lost seven-straight games under Kotite. Apparently, Hess thought the team's fortunes would improve with better offensive play than he witnessed in those final dejecting games. Unfortunately for him, Kotite's 1-15 Jets proved to be even worse than the 2-14 Oilers they lost to in that final game of the '94 season.
Carroll would later borrow Dan Marino/Don Shula's fake spike trick in the legendary "Bush Push" game in 2005 while he was coaching at USC. With seven seconds left and Notre Dame ahead 31-28, Carroll can be seen signaling a spike from the sideline. Then Matt Leinart went to the line signaling the same, before faking it, and subsequently falling into the end zone with some assistance from Reggie Bush. Moral of the story is the best coaches become better from their mistakes.
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