Buffalo Bills Fail in Upset Bid

After the Buffalo Bills most recent attempt at an upset, fans have to be left much less confident than they were following the last minute loss to the New England Patriots. There were some positive signs from Sunday's loss to the Saints, chief among them being an extremely strong showing by the defense in holding the high powered Saints to just ten points through most of the game. However, there were three obvious issues that the Bills will need to deal with (and probably should have already dealt with). With each failure to adjust, refusal to "gamble" and unbelievably dumb post game comments, Dick Jauron proves to everyone that he is less than capable and less than qualified to coach a professional football team.

1. Throughout much of the game the Bills used Donte Whitner in a number of different positions that aided them in slowing down the Saints prodigious passing game. After halftime the Saints adjusted to this scheme and ran the ball down the throats of the pass oriented defense. Instead of making an adjustment of his own, Jauron kept the defensive scheme the same and allowed his understandably tired defense to get steamrolled to the tune of 126 second half yards from Pierre Thomas.

2. Is it a gamble to go for a fourth and one in your own territory when you are down ten with seven minutes to play? In my admittedly less than professional opinion this is not a gamble, it's what you need to do to win the game. At this point in the game the Bills defense is tired and facing the prospect of being run over again after a punt. Eventually something had to give and after the punt that ensued on this drive it gave. Jauron needs to show some desire to lead a winning team, put some faith in his young offensive line, and go for 1 yard with his running back that averaged almost four yards a carry.

3. Following the game Dick Jauron stated that he didn't go for it on that fourth down because they had worked hard to get where they were and they wanted to hold it there. Excuse me? I won't argue that the Bills defense worked hard to keep the game at 17-7 but does he really want to hold the score there? Did Jauron look at the scoreboard and mistake it for 17-17? That's not likely considering the offense didn't score at all, he couldn't have possibly imagined the extra ten points. I think that Jauron may need to take some pointers from Herman Edwards and realize that you play to win the game, not to lost by ten and count it a moral victory.

I was very impressed with the Bills holding the Saints down as long as they did. Unfortunately without the head coach being able to change plans mid stream and being unwilling to take a chance they will never win a game like this. On top of all the coaching problems, Trent Edwards looked like he was back to his old ways. But, that's a story for another day.