Want a scapegoat, Buffalo fans? Jauron is it

By Connor Byrne  |   Monday, October 08, 2007  |  Comments( 90 )

Buffalo Bills
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For the first time in 13 years, the Buffalo Bills hosted a "Monday Night Football" game yesterday. The evening, for the first 59 minutes, 58 seconds of the game, was like something out of a Hollywood feel-good story for rowdy fans of the Bills and the team itself, a one-win group that entered the contest as 10-point underdogs versus the undefeated Dallas Cowboys.

Incredibly, the Bills' 32nd-ranked defense frustrated the Cowboys' top-ranked offense all night, forcing six turnovers from Dallas quarterback Tony Romo, including five interceptions. Two of those picks were returned for touchdowns, and the Bills added a kick return TD by Terrence McGee in the third quarter for good measure. Still, it somehow wasn't enough. Ultimately, a Nick Folk field goal sailed through the uprights with no time on the clock, giving the Cowboys a 25-24 win that surely stunned and saddened all Bills fans in attendance at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y.

Without question, there are a lot of factors worthy of blame if you're analyzing the Bills today. The offense, led by rookie signal-caller Trent Edwards, was basically a nonentity. The unit added a meager three points and had a costly interception in the second half. Even so, the 'O' shouldn't have stopped the Bills from pulling off the NFL season's biggest upset to this point.

In the end, fingers ought to be pointed directly at inept head coach Dick Jauron, whose decision-making during crucial points of the game was nothing shy of atrocious.

At the end of the first half, for instance, with the Bills leading 17-7, Jauron elected to trot out the field goal unit for a 54-yard attempt from the Dallas 36. Not surprisingly, mediocre kicker Rian Lindell missed the try, and the Cowboys suddenly had great field position (at their own 44) with 36 seconds left in the half. Romo completed a long pass to receiver Sam Hurd, then spiked the ball, setting up a successful 37-yard effort by Folk.

Rather than bringing on All-Pro punter Brian Moorman to pin the Cowboys deep in their own territory and walk into the locker room leading by 10, the Jauron-coached Bills entered halftime with a meager seven-point advantage, despite the defense's nearly flawless execution in the opening two stanzas.

Although the Bills were only up 17-10 after 30 minutes, their magical night continued for most of the second half. They added another interception, a fumble recovery and McGee's kick return, which ultimately led to 14 more points. Dallas, on the other hand, battled back and scored a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, making it a 24-22 game. Bills cornerback Jabari Greer, who was superb all night against Cowboys WR Terrell Owens, stripped the ball from Owens' hands on Dallas' two-point conversion attempt. With 20 seconds remaining, that seemed like the icing on the cake.

Finally, after fending off arguably the NFC's best team all night, the Bills were destined for victory, right? Wrong. Dead wrong.

Dallas, after its failed two-point try, somehow managed to recover its own onside kick, and it got the ball at Buffalo's 45. That's where Jauron comes back into play.

There were seven seconds on the clock after an incomplete pass from Romo and a 4-yard toss to running back Marion Barber III. The Cowboys' only hope was to complete a short route along one of the sidelines and get out of bounds quickly, thus setting up a reasonable attempt for Folk.

Jauron, who was a successful NFL defensive back during the 1970s and has a Yale degree, decided to sign off on having four down linemen in the game and his DBs lined up somewhat far off the Cowboys' receivers, almost in a prevent. Well, guess what happened? Romo completed an 8-yard sideline route to Patrick Crayton, who was able to get out of bounds with two seconds remaining. The rest, as they say, was history.

Folk, previously iced by a Jauron timeout after he had already made the 53-yarder, came on again and broke the Bills' hearts, 25-24, sending Buffalo to 1-4 and Dallas to 5-0.

The question is: Why were so many D-linemen in the game? Frankly, with so few seconds left, the pass rush should have been nearly irrelevant for the Bills. It's not as if Dallas, which was out of timeouts, could have used the middle of the field. The Cowboys' only shot was either to the sidelines or a Hail Mary to the end zone. Had the Bills gone with a strange personnel package and simply brought extra defensive backs (heck, even wide receivers) off the bench to defend the long throw, they could have used their main corners (Greer and McGee) to stop Cowboy wideouts from utilizing the sideline. Instead, Jauron -- as he's done so often during his less-than-decorated head coaching career -- applied zero football sense and basically handed his players their improbable, demoralizing defeat.

You can blame the Bills' unproductive offense or its below-average coordinator all you want, but the bottom line is that Jauron cost Buffalo an upset of Appalachian State-Michigan proportions. Now, instead of being 2-3 and thinking about a possible wild-card berth down the line, the team has four losses in five weeks and is staring directly in the eyes of a high pick in next April's draft.

When that selection is made, it should be someone else, not Jauron, who sits in the Bills' draft room with general manager Marv Levy and the remainder of the front office.

Simply put, the glaring mistakes Jauron made were inexcusable. He cost his upstart players a victory that would have boosted morale in unimaginable ways and flung them into the midseason playoff hunt.

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