Wanted: a few more gifted offensive minds.(NFL)

I hear it all the time: Where are all the great NFL quarterbacks?

A better question, in my mind: Where are all the great offensive coaches? The league has enough talented passers. What's hard to find is a coach who knows what to do with one.

Want to know how to spot a coach who doesn't understand offensive football? Ask him how be plans to win a championship. If he says, "We'll run the ball and play great defense," and says nothing about throwing the ball, steer clear. He'll be watching the Super Bowl from his living room.

An offensive coordinator's job is to score points, and to do that you have to produce big plays, particularly on third down. Convert on third down and you get three more downs to move into scoring position. That's when you need big plays, which typically come in the passing game because 15- and 20-yard runs are hard to come by.

Don't get me wrong; I believe in a strong running game, too. It wears down a defense and provides balance. But a team that can pass effectively can create big plays that lead to points, and if it falls behind, it can recover in a hurry. Witness the Colts against Tampa Bay in Week 5. That phenomenal ...