Someone call the whambulance, because Browns coach Eric Mangini has been busy whining ever since Sunday about various things stemming from his team's loss to the Lions, and it's getting to the point where all you can do is laugh at just how stupid he sounds. I can understand being upset about how the end of the game played out just because it was such a tough way to lose, but it's so apparent that he is trying to deflect blame off himself that he is just making himself sound dumber and dumber every time he opens his mouth.
Before taking a look at what he said about the final sequence of events during Sunday's game, let's first take a look at comments he made that accused Lions players of faking injuries. Seriously.
"I'm just saying there were a lot of them [injuries]," he said.
"There were multiple, multiple, multiple injuries throughout our no-huddle process," Mangini said Sunday.
Apparently Mangini didn't watch much film of the Lions in preparation for Sunday's game, because if he had he would've seen that the Lions are a very injury prone team. Every week, regardless of what style of offense the opposing team runs, the Lions suffer a ton of injuries. Some turn out to be very serious, whereas others just keep players out of the game for a limited amount of time. The fact of the matter is that this team has been banged up a lot, and if Mangini would have watched even five minutes of the Vikings game he would have seen that.
In response to Mangini's comments, Jim Schwartz came out firing and put the most idiotic coach in the league in his place.
"He’s way out of bounds on that," Schwartz said. "That couldn’t be further than the truth. There was no need to do that to slow the pace down, because the officials were doing a really good job of standing over the ball for us and them.
"We used a lot of no-huddle also, and I thought that the crew did a really good job of making sure that substitutes were allowed to come from either side if the offense substituted. So that game was under control that way.
"There was no need to do any of that stuff. That couldn’t be further from the truth."
As if Mangini's first set of complaints weren't bad enough, he continued to embarrass himself by showing a complete lack of knowledge of the rules when talking about the pass interference call at the end of the game.
"I can't control that call," Mangini said. "I haven't been a part of any calls like that, I haven't seen it called, where it affected the outcome of a game like it did. It's really not illegal contact when the guy's out of the pocket or scrambling. But they called it."
You are correct, Eric, it wasn't illegal contact. That's because one of your corners was busy pushing Bryant Johnson out of the end zone and another was busy tackling Calvin Johnson while the ball was in the air. That is something I like to call pass interference.
Jim Schwartz, please put this idiot in his place again.
"They don’t know what they’re talking about," Schwartz said. "You can quote me on that, because when the quarterback’s out of the pocket, there can still be pass interference. There can’t be illegal contact, but there can be pass interference. And when the ball’s in the air, you can’t make contact with the receivers. It’s clear.
"There’s more flags thrown than there were officials. So when you’re making contact and you’re not playing the ball and the ball’s in the air, it’s pass interference. That’s as clear a case of pass interference … I mean, not only did they interfere with Bryant, but they interfered with Calvin as Calvin’s trying to make the play. One guy’s intercepting the ball, but the other guy’s not playing the ball. The other guy’s undercutting Calvin’s legs."
Mangini's final complaint was about how an excessive celebration penalty should have been called after the Lions scored the game-tying touchdown.
"There was a lot of celebrating going on after the play, coaches out on the field ... excessive celebration," Mangini said. "I thought that was a penalty, too, but that that didn't called. That's a 15-yard penalty, there's a big difference in the extra point."
Jim Schwartz actually acknowledged that Mangini may have a point, but he also said that he doubted Jason Hanson would come up short on a 35-yard extra point. Regardless, maybe Mangini should worry more about his team letting the Lions drive down the field so quickly or the fact that throwing an incompletion on third down and stopping the clock gave Detroit a significant amount of time rather than complaining about everything he can think of. As much as I'd like to see Cleveland continue to stink it up, I will be very happy when Eric Mangini is fired. And yes, it's only a matter of time with the number of stupid things this guy does and says. It makes me glad that the Lions have someone like Jim Schwartz, because Mangini seems like he is the Matt Millen of coaching.