Yesterday I mentioned that Clinton Portis had no idea why he was benched midway through Sunday night's Ravens game, and today we have Portis, making his weekly John Thompson Show radio appearance, unloading on first-year head coach Jim Zorn.
Sports Bog's Dan Steinberg kindly transcribed the best parts, with perhaps none better than this:
[When asked what adjustments should be made, Portis responded:] "We got a genius for a head coach, I don't know, I'm sure he on top of things. He's got everything figured out. Hey, that's up to him. All I can do is when he calls a play is go out and try to execute to the best of my ability."
Yeah, I'm pretty sure Portis was being facetious with the "genius" comment, there. Later in the day, Zorn responded to Portis' claim that he was benched (but, oddly, didn't comment on the enormity of his brain):
"Well, any time you don't go in, that's the way you feel ... And he is a big part of our offense and he's sitting on the bench, he's got to feel like he's benched, I don't blame him for that."
That explanation's sure to placate Portis. That's not to say a coach's job is to keep his player's happy -- that's probably the quickest way to lose your job (but you'll have so many more friends!) -- just to point out that maybe benching your best player for mealy-mouthed reasons isn't such a swell idea.
Part of the problem, it seems, is that Zorn hasn't quite figured out what he wants from this offense. That would go a long way in explaining Washington's inability to consistently matriculate the ball down the field. Not surprisingly, Portis had some thoughts on this as well.
Specifically, his role as a pass blocker:
"You know, one day it's chip on your way out, then if you don't chip and you get out and the quarterback gets sacked it's like, 'Oh, you need to help this man out.' So they don't know what they want. They want you to chip, they want you to block, Jason's on his ass all game long, you're trying to stay in and help, and then it's, 'Oh, you should have gone out, they was coming to you.'
So, right, this team's a long way from 6-2.
Silver lining, via Portis: "I'm fine. I'm totally healthy after not playing against Baltimore. So the good thing about it is I'll be at practice tomorrow."
Genius, indeed.
Clinton Portis Calls Jim Zorn 'Genius,' Couldn't Be More Sarcastic While Doing So originally appeared on NFL FanHouse on Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:20:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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