Originally Posted by
smootness
I shouldn't have said 'make no excuses,' that was definitely an overexaggeration to make a point. But I do think there's a difference in trying to lower expectations or speaking in a moment of frustration and retroactively trying to play down the talent level you had because of your results.
Moorhead himself was playing up expectations, or at the very least doing nothing to play them down, prior to the season. He said typical new-coach things like, 'We want to win championships' and that kind of thing, but he also specifically said he wanted to be ranked high preseason and that no one would have higher expectations than the coaching staff. He said nothing about the talent level not being what people thought it was, he just said he welcomed the expectations. Now he tries to come after those who had high expectations saying, 'And I know there was a lot of outside expectation and perception that we were an amalgamation of the ’85 Bears and ’72 Dolphins!' - that was literally his quote to Murray 2 months ago. That is just a tool thing to say to try to downplay, in hindsight, the expectations and talent level of the team. Just crap. Great coaches simply don't say things like that.
