JDG

Cute... but the point is trying to evaluate Dick Jauron's preparation for the game and overall coaching, not whether Trent Edwards and Fitzpatrick/Owens can toss two INT's returned for TDs at the end of the game. Again, as others noted - Jauron was toast at the end of the season anyways. If the point of not firing him after, say, the Cleveland game (yes we lost two middle linebackers in that game to go down to our fourth string - but that was Cleveland at home, not the Titans on the road) was to see if the Bills would show any signs of life after the bye week, then I would argue that yes, we did show some signs of life and hope after the bye week - but a combination of way above-average injuries and some bad breaks caused the game to end up in the loss column, so seems odd to fire the Coach two days later after *that* game. JDG

The ironic thing is that Jauron has just been fired after probably his 2nd best coaching performance of the season. (Behind the Patriots game.) Consider that the Bills' achilles heel all season has been rushing defense. This week, they were playing on the road, against a hot Titans team featuring both the best RB in the League, Chris Johnson, and the best running QB in the League, Vince Young. Oh yes, and they were doing this without arguably their best defensive tackle in Kyle Williams (and so left with only a three-man rotation at the position), a starting outside linebacker who had been out of football for the first five weeks of the season, and starting a *safety* at the other outside linebacker slot. Oh yes, and their two best players in the secondary, McGee and Whitner, were also out for the game (hey, Byrd is great - but he doesn't support the run defense like Whitner does.) On the offensive side of the ball, the Bills were starting their fourth-string right tackle (and that's not even counting Langston Walker - who arguably makes Chambers 5th string), and in the first half they lost their starting left tackle, and had to shift a rookie guard to left tackle, who hadn't practiced at that position since college, and bring in a backup guard who had hardly played all year. All that, and the Bills were tied after three quarters - and apparently that will cost you your job in Buffalo these days. I still can't figure out how this team benefits in any way, shape, or form, to pay Dick Jauron to not coach the final string of 7 games in his tenure in Buffalo. We all like to laugh at the Redskins for being run by a fan from the owner's box - Dan Snyder, but it looks to me like the Bills are being run by a "fan" too. It makes you wonder if maybe there wasn't a "fan" longing for a return to the glory days of the "No Huddle Offense" this past off-season.... and if maybe there wasn't a "fan" that was pushing Jauron for a QB change on Monday as well.... JDG

How many NFL Head Coaches have won Super Bowls with multiple teams??? Interesting, eh? If the goal is to someday win the Super Bowl here, its kind of amazing that most fans' and pundits' plan of attack is for the Bills to do something that no NFL Team has done before.... But its quite a list: The closest is Bill Parcells who lost a Super Bowl with Drew Bledsoe (!) and took the Jets to the AFC Championship Game, I believe, but struck out with Dallas. Dick Vermeil has also come close after losing with the Eagles and then winning with the Rams. Mike Holmgren spent 10 years with Seattle, but lost in his return appearnace to the big game. Meanwhile, the rest of the list of retread Super Bowl-winning coaches is much more ignomious... George Seifert, he of two titles in five years with the 49ers, was a complete diaster in Carolina. We all remember Jimmy Johnson's tenure in Miami more for stomping on breakfast cereals than for winning Super Bowls (he he he....) Joe Gibbs managed just two non-descript playoff berths in four years in his second stint with the Redskins. Mike Ditka was more interested in getting to the golf course on draft day than winning Super Bowls in New Orleans. The Saints, of course, were a graveyard for Hank Stram's coaching career too... And anyone remember Vince Lombardi coaching the Redskins? The real bottom line here is that this teams' problems run much deeper than the Head Coach. Similar to a Quarterback, a Head Coach gets too much credit for victories and too much blame for losses. JDG

This friend of mine is actually flying in for the game only (he flies a lot for work, and always has more miles than he can use). So definitely no luggage to worry about, and definitely going straight to the Stadium... We are debating whether to try picking him at the airport and driving from there - or just telling him to take a taxi for expediency.... I've heard some bad stories about the BUF taxi cab operator - has anyone had any problems? Any concern that the taxi would balk at going to the Stadium?

Hi Everyone, I have a friend who is landing at Buffalo Airport at 10:30am on Sunday to go to the Bills-Browns game. Has anyone tried getting from the airport to the Stadium on gameday? Estimates about how long it would take? Anyone ever try using a taxi and have any problems with it? Thanks in advance!

Well, Terrell Owens for one... And in fairness, as obvious as it is that Langston Walker would be an upgrade over Kris Chambers at Right Tackle tomorrow - Langston Walker is also currently out-of-the-NFL....

It seems really hard to argue that Langston Walker would not have outperformed Kris Chambers out there today...

But that would give an even further advantage to teams with fewer injuries.... Right now the inactive list functions as a short-term injured reserve, while ensuring that teams are essentially playing 45-on-45 football... JDG

At this point, I'd argue that Wendling is a more valuable player to the Bills than McKelvin was. Wendling has been a terror all year on special teams, and he is making several plays a game that are giving us important field position. On the other hand, I have not seen a big drop off from McKelving to Florence, Corner, and Yobouty. In fact, McKelvin still has not seemed to play fundamentally sound to me - its actually possible that our secondary might be in better shape without him... JDG

In fairness, check out what happened to Seattle last season.... And I remember the Bills have some big injury years in the mid-90's after the Super Bowl run.... Sadly, sometimes the breaks just go against you... JDG

Of course, if they didn't do that, this Board would be rampant with comments about how you need to stick with the run, even when it isn't working....

It will be interesting to see if that is the case going forward.... I also wonder if Miami will also send a lot of corner blitzes at us - and continue to dare Trent to make a "hot read" to the outside WR... at least until such time as he demonstrates that he can do so.... JDG

Well, I did. In fact, the Bills 4-0 start included two wins over NFC teams. With that being said, I also hoped at that time that the road win over Jacksonville was a harbinger of a young team that would get better as the season progressed, and begin racking up the division and AFC wins actually needed for a playoff berth. Obviously, that didn't happen.... Coming into this year, I was hopeful about the fact that two of the three games Marshawn Lynch was suspended for were NFC games. That also meant two games for the Bills to iron out the kinks of the new offense, and get valuable experience for the young O-Line. Unfortunately, rather than developing young players, the Bills seem to getting vast numbers of their players hurt.... Now that the Saints game is behind us, there is simply no diminishing the importance of getting a win next week in Miami. But yes, I'll freely admit that the diminished importance of inter-Conference play relative to all other games is not yet widely recognized in the football media mainstream. JDG

I've received a little bit of flack for my statement that a loss in an NFC game is not as important as a loss in an AFC game, and so we shouldn't stress out too much where this loss leaves us in the standings. The reason for this is a quirk of the NFL's playoff tiebreaking system. [insert Jim Mora "Playoffs?" joke here.] Yes, its never too early to begin thinking about the playoffs. The whole point of the entire season is to make the playoffs? And noone actually believes that these Bills are likely to make a run to 12-4 or better record that would likely leave the playoffs a moot point, right? If the Bills are to sneak into the playoffs (and that's exactly what it would be), it would involve tiebreakers. In terms of a Wildcard berth, the second tiebreaker after head-to-head goes to the team that loses the most NFC games. This is a little less important in Division Tiebreakers (you need to win games in your Division), but it can sometimes play a role there as well too. To explain, let me lay out just one scenario where this comes into play. Imagine a Week 17 scenario where Team A is 10-5 and has a 2-1 NFC record and lets say Team B is 9-6 with a 3-1 NFC Record. Team A and Team B did not meet head-to-head, and are the only two teams competing for the last Wildcard Berth. Now, let's say that Team A has an NFC game in Week 17. If Tean A wins, they go to 11-5 and clinch the playoff berth. If Team A loses, they go to 10-6 with a 2-2 NFC record - and still clinch a playoff berth by having more NFC losses than Team B In other words, that Week 17 game was meaningless for Team A in this scenario. And this is just one such scenario. Now obviously, if the game was meaningless in Week 17, then the same game was just as meaningless in Week 3 - we just didn't know it yet. Don't get me wrong, its always better to win than to lose. Winning always benefits you in the standings. I am just pointing out, however, that in the quirky world of NFL tiebreakers sometimes an NFC loss ends up not hurting you in the standings. Of course, there's no way to tell just yet..... but the point is that unlike a Division Loss (i.e. next week against Miami), which *always* hurts you in the standings, sometimes these NFC games essentially end up having been meaningless games for your team by the end of the season. JDG

And when you see single coverage, you can throw it to them on something other than a fly pattern!

The second tiebreaker for the Wild Card (after head-to-head) goes to the team with the most non-Conference losses.

October 19, 2008 vs. San Diego... that was a big one. Unfortunately, we never built on it...

Feel free to come back and post once you understand how the NFL tiebreaker rules work.... Yes, a win moves you up in the standing, but a loss gives you an important advantage in many of the tiebreaker scenarios. JDG

Well, the Pats had just lost Richard Seymour, and had Jerod Mayo get hurt. And let's not forget that after getting the ball with 50 seconds left and needing just a field goal to win, the oline couldn't even slow down the Patriots, and instead of pulling a classic drive to a FG to exorcise our Patriots demons, we just went down for the count in a flurry of sacks. Edwards had decent time to throw today when we are able to run our standard offense - similar to the Pats game - but it certainly looked like history repeating itself once we switched into desperation mode....

Yeah, Ralph has never done that before.....

An Edwards supporter? As opposed to what? A Ryan Fitzpatrick supporter? I mean, hasn't the Edwards/Losman debate been pretty much settled at this point? I think another outstanding case-study is that last touchdown of the 49ers - Vikings game today that is on every single highlight clip. Honestly, can any of us ever imagine Edwards making that throw? O.k. a comparison to a sure-fire Hall-of-Famer is a bit unfair.... Edwards can be a solid QB for a decade for us without being a Hall of Famer. With that being said, the Vikings were in pure desperation mode - one last chance to score a TD... or lose. And Favre just rifled the ball into a well-covered WR. One of the things I just have not seen from Edwards is an ability to start gunning the ball into a WR in desperation time - when sure, it might be picked off, but hey if the catch isn't made you are going to lose anyways. JDG

No, JaMarcus Russell sucks. Trent Edwards just had a bad game today.... ;-)

I don't have the luxury of going back and looking at tape of the game - but it certainly looked to me like T.O. was running a slant pattern when I noticed that he had a linebacker covering him. I'd have a hard time believing that either factor - the slant route or the LB mismatch - was a one-off occurrence in this game. JDG

First, lets all remember that this was an NFC game and doesn't damage us that much in terms of our overall season. So let's not press the panic button, at least until we see what happens in Miami next week. 0-2 in the division will be a deep hole for this team, 2-2 overall with a road division win will be right in the thick of it. Also, huge kudos to Dick Jauron, Perry Fewell, and the defense for holding the Saints to only 10 points in 3+ quarters. This could have been a much different game if that defelection off T.O. hadn't been intercepted in the 3rd quarter, or if Trent had been on-target with either of those deep balls to T.O., particularly thaat second one on 3rd and 3 - just before everything went south in that game. Finally, another major take-away from this game, is something we also saw back in the New England game - this offensive line is simply unable to maintain protection in pure-passing situations. Its hard to describe just how huge a problem this is. Good teams get the ball down by one score and two minutes left and put together drives to win games. As this offensive line is playing right now, we simply have no chance in those situations. With all that being said, I was definitely very disappointed in Edwards' decision making today. When Trent gets blitzed he goes straight to the dump-off to the TE or RB. Well, the brilliant part of Gregg Williams' gameplan today was to send Corner Blitzes at Edwards. Not only could our young tackles not make the correct reads and adjustments, but when Trent then immediately goes for the dump-off to the TE or RB, there is still a LB there waiting to make the play. Trent does occasionally read man-coverage before the snap and go to the WR - but I couldn't recall a single instance today where he read man-coverage on the corner blitz and got the ball to the WR. One of the major problems is that when Trent Edwards does read man-coverage, it seems like his only throw is the rainbow deep-ball down the field. There's very little mid-range game. And Trent doesn't always make the read. On one play in the second half, T.O. got matched up on a linebacker. Trent Edwards never saw it - and we never exploited the mismatch. The best-case scenario for the Bills has always been making it as a marginal playoff team. Other than that, this season is also primarily about developing our young players, particularly on the o-line and the defense. One thing I'll be watching as the season goes on is whether Trent Edwards can improve his ability to make reads, and in particular, make reads that involve getting the ball to the WR. If not, we'll sadly be back at square one this offseason... JDG

Hi Ken, Great to see a Hall of Fame discussion. I am much more optimistic regarding Steve Tasker than you are. For one thing, even the Buffalo Bills did not put him on the Wall of Fame until 2007. If I'm a Hall of Fame voter, I would find it very difficult to vote for an unconventional pick like Tasker at least until his own team put him on its own Wall of Fame. My sense of the Committee is that Tasker will get in eventually - its just a matter of it being a year in which there is a slot available that the voters aren't pushing their own pet projects for. I also think that Ray Guy will continue to struggle to make it. Despite all the press he gets, a scrutiny of his record indicates that he is most-notable for that one punt that hit the roof of the Super Dome, and being campaigned-for every year on prime time football by John Madden. Before his stroke, Sports Illustrated's Dr. Z was very eloquent in pointing out that it is by no means clear that Ray Guy was the best punter of his era, let alone of all time. It will be interesting to see if the current era, which is practically a "Golden Age of Punting" in the NFL, eventually produces a Hall of Famer at the position. Shane Lechler out in Oakland is slowly building a very interesting case for it - despite having been a boomer who outkicked his coverage early in his career. As for Kent Hull - you made a slip-up here... Kent was enshrined on the Wall of Fame back in 2002. I was at that game. But yes, its hard to see Hull getting in before Dermontti Dawson. Kent will also suffer from "numbers fatigue" as the voters start to wonder just how many players from a team that never won a Super Bowl can legitimately be enshrined. Also, in your article, you seem to imply that Talley and Bennett (and maybe even Smerlas) are all legitimate Hall of Famers who are at risk of being passed over. Yet, in your other piece, you suggest that only those players for whom the history of the game could not be written without should be inducted. Do you really believe that the history of the game could not be written without Talley, Bennett, and/or Smerlas? All of them were very good players for the Bills, but I'm not sure any of them rise to the level of being Hall of Famers. And as for Tom Sestak - does the Hall still include nominees who are eligible for the Seniors Committee on the Preliminary Ballot? I thought I head somewhere that they do not... But if they do - the Hall allows any fan to nominate a player, so perhaps you could address this injustic yourself? ;-) Thanks for sparking the discussion! JDG P.S. My Dad says "hi!"