Once Josh McDaniels went to New England, it was a fait accompli that free agent wide receiver Brandon Lloyd would soon become a Patriot, too. After gaining only 2,370 yards in the first seven seasons of his career, Lloyd had a breakout season with the Broncos and McDaniels in 2010, catching 77 passes for a league-leading 1,448 yards and 11 touchdowns. McDaniels was fired following the 2010 season and landed as the offensive coordinator in St. Louis, which appeared to end their relationship.

But once the Broncos struggled to start the season, Denver shipped Lloyd off to St. Louis and reunited him with his former coach. In 11 games, Lloyd had modest production — 51 catches, 683 yards and 5 TDs — but much of that can be attributed to playing in arguably the league’s worst offense. He joins a very crowded New England passing attack, but should have a strong season with the Patriots.

I have a large but incomplete database on coaching staffs in the NFL, stretching back to 1990, and a complete list of head coaches for all of pro football history. I wondered, how many times has an offensive player played for the same offensive coordinator or head coach on three different teams? By my count, I see six examples since 1990:

• Gus Frerotte and Scott Linehan: Frerotte was the backup quarterback to Daunte Culpepper and Linehan was the offensive coordinator on the 2004 Vikings. The next year, Linehan went to Miami to serve as the OC under Nick Saban, and brought in Frerotte to be his starting quarterback. When Linehan was hired as the Rams head coach in 2006, he brought Frerotte to St. Louis to sit behind Marc Bulger.

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Fifteen days into its infancy, Football Perspective has published fifteen posts. If you are enjoying the site, be sure to check back every day for a new post. You can also become one of the 850+ people to “like” Football Perspective on Facebook. You can also follow me on twitter. Enough of a site update: on to today’s post.

Unlike most sports writers, I don’t know a lot about what will happen this season. But there’s one thing I do know: the Denver Broncos aren’t going to rank 32nd again in pass attempts again. The Tebow Broncos, an offense with an inexperienced quarterback and a confused offensive coordinator, completed just 217 passes last season. That was the lowest in the league, and the lowest since the ’09 Jets, a team that boasted the number one rushing attack and defense in the league — and Mark Sanchez.

Setting aside those years where the league scheduled more games in the following season, the table below shows the teams with the largest increase in completions from one year (that’s the year listed in the table) to the next:

Year	Tm	Cmp N	Cmp N+1	Difference	QB Year N	QB Year N+1	HC Year N	HC Year N+1
1978	SFO	190	361	171	Steve DeBerg	Steve DeBerg	Pete McCulley [1]In 1978, the 49ers fired McCulley after 9 games and Fred O'Connor coached the rest of the season.	Bill Walsh
2000	TAM	237	362	125	Shaun King	Brad Johnson	Tony Dungy	Tony Dungy
2004	ARI	299	419	120	Josh McCown	Kurt Warner	Dennis Green	Dennis Green
1998	CHI	284	404	120	Erik Kramer	Shane Matthews	Dave Wannstedt	Dick Jauron
1993	NWE	289	405	116	Drew Bledsoe	Drew Bledsoe	Bill Parcells	Bill Parcells
2000	CIN	207	322	115	Akili Smith	Jon Kitna	Dick LeBeau [2]In 2000, Bruce Coslet was the Bengals coach to start the season, but he resigned after three straight blowouts to begin the year.	Dick LeBeau
1957	PHI	99	214	115	Bobby Thomason	Norm Van Brocklin	Hugh Devore	Buck Shaw
2006	ATL	222	336	114	Michael Vick	Joey Harrington	Jim Mora	Bobby Petrino
1983	MIA	254	367	113	Dan Marino	Dan Marino	Don Shula	Don Shula
1994	DET	250	362	112	Dave Krieg	Scott Mitchell	Wayne Fontes	Wayne Fontes
1978	BAL	202	313	111	Bill Troup	Greg Landry	Ted Marchibroda	Ted Marchibroda
2008	MIN	267	377	110	Gus Frerotte	Brett Favre	Brad Childress	Brad Childress
2008	SEA	262	372	110	Seneca Wallace	Matt Hasselbeck	Mike Holmgren	Jim Mora
1989	HOU	295	399	104	Warren Moon	Warren Moon	Jerry Glanville	Jack Pardee
2001	SEA	258	361	103	Matt Hasselbeck	Matt Hasselbeck	Mike Holmgren	Mike Holmgren
1988	NWE	199	302	103	Doug Flutie	Steve Grogan	Raymond Berry	Raymond Berry
1979	HOU	195	296	101	Dan Pastorini	Ken Stabler	Bum Phillips	Bum Phillips
1996	SEA	261	359	98	Rick Mirer	Warren Moon	Dennis Erickson	Dennis Erickson
1999	PHI	235	331	96	Doug Pederson	Donovan McNabb	Andy Reid	Andy Reid
1993	MIN	315	409	94	Jim McMahon	Warren Moon	Dennis Green	Dennis Green
1985	CLE	222	315	93	Bernie Kosar	Bernie Kosar	Marty Schottenheimer	Marty Schottenheimer
1993	NOR	274	366	92	Wade Wilson	Jim Everett	Jim Mora	Jim Mora
1992	DEN	258	350	92	John Elway	John Elway	Dan Reeves	Wade Phillips
1972	PHI	184	275	91	John Reaves	Roman Gabriel	Ed Khayat	Mike McCormack
1950	GNB	140	231	91	Tobin Rote	Bobby Thomason	Gene Ronzani	Gene Ronzani
2011	DEN	217	–	–	Tim Tebow	Peyton Manning	John Fox	John Fox

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Gene Stallings coached in the NFL in the late ’80s, in between the Jim Hanifan and Joe Bugel eras of Cardinals football. He was the man who led the team as the franchise relocated from St. Louis to Phoenix. He coached under Tom Landry for over a decade in Dallas. But Gene Stallings will always be remembered for working under Bear Bryant and for embodying what it meant to coach Alabama football.

Stallings played on Bryant’s famous Junction Boys team at Texas A&M, and coached under Bryant when the Crimson Tide won national championships in ’61 and ’64. After his failed stint in the NFL, Stallings returned to Alabama, this time as the head coach. His crowning achievement was winning the 1992 national championship, capping a 13-0 season.

So why the background on Stallings today? One of the fun things about owning a website is seeing where your traffic comes from. I noticed a bunch of hits were coming from RollBamaRoll.com. So I went to the site to see what was driving the traffic (as it turns out, a random link to this passer rating article) and I found this great quote by Stallings on another page:

Everyone keeps talking about our game with Miami [in the 1993 Sugar Bowl]. The reason we won against Miami is this: We had the ball 15 minutes more than they did. We ran the ball for 275 yards against Miami. They ran the ball for less than 50 yards. When the game was over, we won. After a game, it may not look good. The alumni may be asking why we are not entertaining them. Let me assure you that our job is to win football games. You win football games by running the ball, stopping the run and being on the plus side of giveaway-takeaways.

I think every coach ^[1]Mike Martz excluded, of course. at every level has, at some point, uttered a phrase to essentially the same effect. It is quintessential Alabama football, but it could have just as easily come out of the mouth of Greasy Neale or Bill Cowher or Vince Lombardi. Of course, whenever I read a quote like that, two immediate questions come to mind. Is it true? And how can I determine if it’s true?
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Which coaches have the best records in close games? That’s a complicated question that either means everything or nothing, depending on whom you ask. But putting aside what it means, what are the actual results?

I defined a close game as one where a team was trailing or leading by three points entering the 4th quarter since 1940. ^[1]Originally, I looked at all games that were within one score, but that proven to be even more unfair to the trailing teams. Teams trailing by one score entering the 4th quarter have won only 30% of … Continue reading

The table below shows the coaching records in close games for all coaches who were head coaches in at least 20 close games. You can use the search box below to search for any individual coach. Note that coaches who coached prior to 1940 are included, but only their performances in games beginning in 1940 are listed below.

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