I've never been "Fire the Coach" guy.
Anyone who's ever had the misfortune of driving shotgun with their best buddy - the guy with the radio melded to the local sports-talk station - knows who that guy is.
If the home team goes down - be it by last-minute miracle or total debacle - it's the coach who should be shown the door and given directions to the nearest unemployment office - if not an outright tar-and-feathering.
But in team sports, when something goes wrong it's usually an organizational breakdown. Coaches put players in positions to succeed or fail. Players succeed or fail in the arena. GMs put the pieces in place and ownership writes the check at the end of the month.
Sunday at The Meadowlands the Buffalo Bills, for the ump-teenth time under the watch of head coach Dick Jauron, snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. It was much more painful to watch than last year's Monday night loss to the Cowboys, much more excruciating than when Rian Lindell pushed a last-second 47-yarder wide right (there's those words again) against the Cleveland Browns.
Jauron put backup quarterback J.P. Losman in a position to fail - in the final minutes and in turn cost his Bills a well-deserved win over the Jets. The Bills played inspired. Marshawn Lynch lived up to his "Beast-Mode" nickname and then some. They may - MAY - have found another receiving option in Steve Johnson, once injured second-round stiff James Hardy was carted off the Meadowlands carpet.
They overcame a holding penalty which nullified a 100-yard kickoff return by Leodis McKelvin and a first quarter 14-3 Jets lead, which last week against the Dolphins at the Rogers Centre would have qualified the Bills for "Do Not Resuscitate" status.
But with a shade more than two-minutes left and the Jets unable to handle Lynch, Jauron called for Losman for a roll-out pass to the right.
I forget who said that, "Only three things can happen when you throw the ball, and two of them are bad," well, two of them happened. New York's Abram Elam sacked Losman, stripping the ball. Shaun Ellis scooped it up at the Bills 11, rumbling all of his 285 lbs. into the end zone for the winning points.
We all know J.P. isn't worth the first-round pick the Bills spent on him five years ago, the way he lost his job to Trent Edwards only underscores that. We know he has trouble protecting the ball, you'd think Jauron would know that.
But Jauron committed the No. 1 sin any coach can commit, he put his player - and by admission his team - in a position to fail. He did so by taking the blame for calling the ill-fated Losman roll out pass in the postgamer.
Russ Brandon was visibly seething in a post-game television interview. Ralph Wilson was overheard saying, when asked about Jaurion's contract that he, "should have stayed in the insurance business."
The Bills have not made the playoffs since 1999. They were officially eliminated after Sunday's loss, after starting the season 5-1. This clearly is an organizational failure, but the organization has only one choice to clear up its mistake.
It must fire Dick Jauron.
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