Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Assessing problems, considering solutions, and implementing them

To my surprise, there were "below-the-surface murmurings before the season about whether Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy still had his team's attention," according to this story.

I also didn't realize that Coach Dungy had "contemplated retiring a year ago."

But one thing wasn't surprising. After starting the season at 3-4, Coach Dungy turned things around. With Sunday's win over DET, IND has won seven straight.

As this article contends, after the slow start, there were "no fiery coaching clichés about backs against the wall, or us vs. them, or being disrespected, or finding out what this team is made of, men. Dungy assessed the problems. He mulled over solutions. He implemented them."

“At 3-4, we knew what the problems were,” Dungy said. “A lot of it was ourselves and our execution and that's what we focused on more so than pointing the finger at someone or figuring out who's to blame. I think a lot of that goes back to the players really listening to the coaches.”

The ability to stay the course, and get his players to buy in and listen is a credit to Coach Dungy, who is close to leading an NFL team to the playoffs for the 10th consecutive season, which would set a new NFL record.