Steve Brownlee

By STEVE BROWNLEE

Journal Sports Editor

Watching all these coaches at major college football programs getting fired made me think about how wonderful all this churning — this mixing up — of coaches makes me feel good.

No, not good about the coaches, nor about their teams.

I think the coaches are just being put under undue pressure and the schools (or in other cases, pro teams), are lurching from coach to coach without any continuity, let alone all the buyout money they have to pay these guys.

So why do I think it’s wonderful? Completely selfish reasons.

The Detroit Pistons probably wouldn’t have been able to get J.B. Bickerstaff as head coach if the Cleveland Cavaliers hadn’t gotten tired of him despite the success he had on the shores of Lake Erie.

And I’m not so sure the Detroit Red Wings would’ve gotten Todd McLellan as coach if the Los Angeles Kings hadn’t grown tired of him.

That doesn’t even get into the chance it’s given ex-Northern Michigan University national champion Jim Hiller to become an NHL head coach, since he took over for McLellan with the Los Angeles Kings.

Shifting gears back to college football, now maybe some up-and-coming programs most of us have hardly ever heard of can get ex-LSU coach Brian Kelly, or ex-Penn State mentor James Franklin. Or ex-Florida head coach Billy Napier. Or ex-Auburn coach Hugh Freeze.

You get the picture, as I can add UCLA, Arkansas, Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech, Stanford, Oregon State and even Colorado State and Alabama-Birmingham to the list.

Feel free to cast off your coach on a whim. There’s plenty of us out there who would like to have him.

Onto another week of NFL football. Let’s see if I can have a week where I actually get more right than wrong:

Today, 8:15 p.m.

New York Jets at New England — This one might really be tough if the Jets, winners of two in a row (after starting 0-7) were playing Buffalo, or some other quality team going on the fast express down. Fortunately for me, New England is in just as much of a meteoric rise, and to somewhere meaningful.

All the Jets are doing is screwing up their high draft choice for next spring. Patriots, 29-23.

Sunday, 9:30 a.m.

Washington vs. Miami — With this game in Madrid, this should be the final international game of the season, well, unless California slides into the ocean a little sooner than expected and the Los Angeles teams have to finish their seasons in Tijuana or Puerto Vallarta, while the 49ers head on up to Juneau or Anchorage.

The Lions showed everyone how bad the Commanders defense is, and without Jayden Daniels, they will (or already have) become the new New Orleans Saints, now that the really bad Saints are nowhere to be found. Dolphins, 33-28.

Sunday, 1 p.m.

Carolina at Atlanta — Two teams no one can figure out, even from one week to the next. See if you can guess which team this is: beat Minnesota by 16 points and Buffalo by 10, then lost to the Dolphins by 24.

The other: lost to the Browns by 20, Houston by 17 and New Orleans by 10, then defeated both Dallas and the Packers by 3.

Oops, that last one probably gave it away — that’s Carolina. And it’s probably a terrible thing that the Panthers won these two teams’ first meeting 30-0. So somehow, I guess that makes me take the Falcons, 34-20.

Chicago at Minnesota — This one looks crazy, too, with the Vikings outlasting Detroit at Ford Field one week, then can’t beat Baltimore at home the next.

But there’s a little something about the Ravens you have to remember, which I never forget as a Lions’ fan — Baltimore QB Lamar Jackson is 24-3 as a starter against all NFC teams. Yes, an 89% win rate vs. the entire conference.

I think Lamar might’ve been hurting when Detroit won their matchup 38-30 in September, so he wasn’t the REAL Lamar Jackson. The game I remember was in 2023 when the Lions were something like 5-1 and the Ravens blew out the Lions’ doors 38-6.

Anyway, it’s a long way of saying I excuse what happened to Minnesota last week. Give me the Vikings, 27-24.

Cincinnati at Pittsburgh — Despite Joe Burrow sightings this week, I feel pretty secure he won’t be playing in this one. Give Aaron Rodgers a little room to breath (the Bengals’ D is like an iron lung) and I’ll take the Steelers, 37-31.

Green Bay at New York Giants — Packers fans, though I can’t make you feel any better about Monday night, any team that loses to the Eagles by three points should knock off the Giants by about 20, even with the bounce a coaching change is supposed to produce. I’ll make the bounce worth a field goal. Packers, 34-17.

Houston at Tennessee — It’s sad when a team can’t even time its bye week correctly. Last week was an excellent occasion to be a rotten team and rise up out of the ashes. However, the Titans were lounging all around those TVA-produced reservoirs in the Shenandoah Valley, or something like that. Texans, 29-21.

Los Angeles Chargers at Jacksonville — The Chargers are working on three wins in a row over two fairly competent clubs, plus Tennessee — Minnesota was a 37-10 wipeout win and Pittsburgh a 25-10 drubbing. Good enough for me. Chargers, 26-19.

Tampa Bay at Buffalo — What’s that shrill sound? Oh, it’s just the backup beeping of the Buccaneers and Bills’ buses. I see Buffalo as the angrier team, losing to Miami the way that club is right now. Plus being at home, give me the Bills, 26-22.

Sunday, 4 p.m.

San Francisco at Arizona — Both teams gave up more than 40 points last week to NFC West rivals. But its the 49ers who have something at stake, so I’ll put my faith in NMU grad Robert Saleh doing some tinkering with San Fran’s defense. 49ers, 32-22.

Seattle at Los Angeles Rams — Aah, here’s the perpetrators who ran all those points up on their NFC West rivals last week. I just like Seattle’s defense, even though I foolishly picked against them last week — heck, join the seven other losers I picked then! Seahawks, 20-16.

Baltimore at Cleveland — Give me Lamar Jackson more or less healthy now doing a number even on a team most familiar with him — an AFC North foe. Ravens, 33-24.

Kansas City at Denver — The Broncos have a great defense, then again so did Green Bay on Monday night. Chiefs, 19-13.

Sunday, 8:20 p.m.

Detroit at Philadelphia — With Dan Campbell as the “new” Lions offensive coordinator, he might make this an uncomfortable shootout for the Eagles. Lions, 35-31.

Monday, 8:20 p.m.

Dallas at Las Vegas — Man, the networks picking this matchup for prime time is like trying to roll boxcars (two sixes on the dice) on a craps table — it’ll look spectacular when it happens, but you’ll hemorrhage a lot of money trying to get there.

Hopefully, the Pistons or Red Wings are on the West Coast when this game is going on. Cowboys, 37-33.

Last season — 6-8, 43%. Season — 83-65, 56%.

Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.