whoa, what’s up with the font???

I agree. I’ve said it so many times that I have carpal tunnel from typing the same stuff, but Jauron has to go. He’s such a terrible HC.

Maybe the worst part about the final possession is that Royal was tackled with roughly 90 seconds left on the clock. NINETY SECONDS. A MINUTE AND A HALF. All we do is settle for 3 lame dive plays up the middle? This is exactly why this team has struggled so mightily to beat good teams. I’m so sick and tired of this clown’s loser mentality. This team and this city needs a firey leader, who isn’t afraid to push the envelope and do something out of the ordinary to win games. Until we get a new head coach in here, this team will remain stuck in mediocrity.

Miami and Atlanta’s success this year really gives me hope that a coaching change could make a different and still allow us to contend sooner rather than later. It also makes me extremely sad that these two teams can rebuild in one offseason for the most part, while it is taking us 10+ years to be a consistent 7-9 team.

I just don’t know what Jauron has to do to get fired. He does not deserve to be the head coach next year and definitely did not deserve an extension. If he’s our coach going into next season, at least I won’t have to get my hopes up.

Snap judgment!

OK, seriously, Jauron isn’t going anywhere. I know that 90% of you here hate that, but it’s the fact.

I’ve got some serious heartburn and heartbreak right now and I can’t sleep so this is going to be a long post to distract me until morning. Sorry if I bring up things that aren’t in the thread, it’s just that I didn’t want to write a rambling unfocused fanpost and this seemed like a good place to rant for a bit.

I don’t get the anti-Jauron stuff after this game, although I am not at all surprised that everyone is trying to make him a scapgoat. So was the biggest problem with Jauron’s coaching the three runs?

Going into that last drive, Marshawn had 20 runs for 114 yards (5.7 ypc) and Trent had thrown for 126 yards on 25 pass attempts (5.0 ypa). Trent was simply terrible. His INTs were ugly and all he did was check down all night. Marshawn had 10 catches and the rest of the team only had 5 before the big play to Royal. Under the specific circumstances of the game, I think most (all?) NFL coaches would have run the ball on first and second down. I think more than half would have run the ball on third down too. The problem wasn’t the playcalls, but rather the team was only able to pick up 5 yards on those 3 runs.

I think there are some things that we can and should rip Jauron for. I don’t have a problem with how Jauron is mostly hands off with the offense, there are a lot of good NFL head coaches who work almost exclusively with one unit. But this offensive predictability has got to stop. It is embarrasing. Other things include his recent use of timeouts. He has made some really stupid decisionsr recently. He should have pulled McGee from the Dolphins game (I still think that decision cost us the game). He is definitely too conservative with a lot of his decisions. I don’t have a problem with scheme, just going for it on fourth down type decisions (which I actually think has been overblown by the anti-Jauron crowd). There are things not to like about Dick Jauron, but three straight runs when you are already in position to win and your running back has been so much better than your QB isn’t a problem.

I’m also sick and tired of hearing about how Miami turned it around so fast. They had the worst QB play in the entire league last season and lost Ronnie Brown (thier best player at the time?) to a really serious knee injury. Miami lost 7 games by 3 points last season. They didn’t magically get better, they added a solid QB in Chad Pennington and those 3 point losses turned into wins. I honestly think it is that simple.

I know this is going to be a tangent, but if I hear about how Buffalo’s “bend, but don’t break” defense is holding them back this week, I might flip out. The Bills blitzed a decent amount and it worked pretty well. Despite another bad performance from the DEs, the Bills completely shut down Brady Quinn. The Bills pass defense was one of the few reasons they were still in the game in the fourth quarter. That pass defense has actually been fantastic all year despite terrible DEs, LBs who are mediocre in coverage and injuries in the secondary. Here is every team the Bills have played with thier starting QBs yards per attempt against teams that aren’t Buffalo first and what they averaged per attempt against the Bills second:

SEA – 6.0 – 4.3
I used Matt Hasselbeck’s numbers since his return. If you include Seneca Wallace and Charlie Frye’s numbers than the yards per attempt figure drops to 5.6. Hasselbeck has only played in 5 games, but that 4.3 yards per attempt number was his lowest of the season.

JAX – 6.8 – 5.9
Only Tennessee has held Garrard to a lower total than Buffalo did.

OAK – 5.9 – 8.2
The 84 yard play to JL Higgins killed Buffalo’s average. Without that play JaMarcus only averaged 4 yards per pass attempt.

STL – 6.5 – 7.4
Since we played against Trent Green, I used the Rams’ team numbers for thier yards per attempt. In my opinion, this was the worst performance we have seen from our secondary this year relative to how good our opponent is.

ARI – 8.6 – 6.0
That’s right, Kurt Warner totally chewed us up that game, but hasn’t anyone noticed how he has beat up on everybody else too? This game shouldn’t be used as the rallying cry for everyone who thinks there is something philosophically wrong with our defense. The Bills actually held Warner to 5.95 yards per pass attempt which is the only time an opponent has held him under 6 yards per attempt all season; in fact, in 96 career games (I only used games where he threw 10 or more passes) it is his 10th lowest total in his entire career and three of those starts came during his first season as a starter.

SD – 8.7 – 7.2
Another great performance by the Bills pass defense. Rivers currently leads the league in yards per pass attempt despite the Bills holding him to 7.2 yards per. The Bills held him to his 3rd lowest average of the season.

MIA – 7.6 – 10.5
Stupid coaches should have pulled Terrence McGee. Ginn’s big day is the only reason why this number is so high. Pennington only averaged 6.2 yards per attempt to throws where Ginn wasn’t targeted.

NYJ – 7.1 – 7.2
Nothing special to report here.

NE – 6.9 – 7.3
Matt Cassel has been a different QB since the bye. He struggled early running an offense built for Tom Brady while also dealing with the pressure of getting his first couple of starts. Since the bye, the Pats passing attack has averaged 250 yards per game while Cassel has averaged 7.2 yards per attempt.

CLE – 6.1 – 5.1
I combined Quinn’s start against Denver with Derek Anderson’s numbers for the Brown’s yards per attempt. If anyone other than Marshawn and McKelvin gets a game ball, it’s the Bills pass defense.

Sorry for how long this post got. It took me like an hour and a half, but my stomach is starting to feel better and I already took the day off so I won’t have to run on fumes all day. Back to the point, am I really one of the few people who have noticed how good the Bills pass defense has been with all things considered?

I just watched the Jauron post game presser and he did it again:

“It’s not where we want to be obviously, 5-5, we’d like to be 10-0. We’d like to have no losses. But we’ve gotta take 5-5. We’ll take it at this point, and we’ll move forward”

Does he have to say the same exact thing every week?!!?!? haha, this is getting to be humorous.

should definitely go. He won’t, but he should. He is never going to be a great coach, but will always be a mediocre one. When the history of the NFL is written, DJ will be a very small footnote on being mediocre.

The worst problem DJ has, by far, is his (more than a) tendency to choke (get real conservative) at crunch time in the fourth Q in a close game. I disagree with those who say three dives into the middle was good coaching. Are you kidding? Lindell is pretty darn good from about the 42 on in, but the farther you go beyond the 45, the worse (much worse) his numbers get. If I’m coaching, I know that our odds go way up IF we get Lindell close to the 40. We needed another 10 and called 3 dives up the middle. Not even ONE run to the outside. Not even a short dump pass. Jim Kelly should have given DJ the Heimlich maneuver. Spit it out DJ. Also, most of the game he had our CB’s close to the line playing disruptive football. Crunch time comes and, guess what, the CB’s are now playing 7-8yds off the receivers. That, folks, is a classic prevent D and a first magnitude choke. Result, Cleveland marches to a FG. He has done this over and over again. Timid. Goes into a shell. Hate it.

Another example would be calling Hardy to right angle over the middle in traffic. WTF? To me, that is NUTS! Trent is playing spooked, does not have good timing down with Hardy yet, and a play is called over the middle. KISS pleasse. Give him a fly, slant (or post) or fade at first until the timing is there. Trent has completely missed a wide open Hardy several times in the past 4 games. The play called sent Hardy into the heaviest traffic on the field.

Another saying is that there are two kinds of coaches. One imposes his scheme on the players and the other schemes based on the players abilities and best tendencies. DJ seems to want to impose his plan, come hell or high water. A good coach, especially after this game, would sit down with his defensive secondary and talk to them about which scheme they felt most comfortable with and could play to their best in, not which scheme to impose next week. We played some damn good man D last night. Going forward, I would hope the coaches see that and play primarily man, with a cover 2 when appropriate (seldom). We have the talent.

An aside – we got Stroud because he could be had relatively cheap compared th the other 2 DT’s available. Stud free agent players like Suggs or Peppers we will not go after because of cap issues. I’m very happy with Stroud. Hellacious player.

DJ is a good man, a decent man. He does many good things as a coach. But he does not have a killer instinct, goes into a shell at crunch time, and will always be just mediocre. Right, he is not going anywhere. So I’ll buy more Tums for my tummy.