Who was to blame for the anemic offense?

[Ebenezer]

Everybody is pounding, rightfully so, on Fairchild for the less than vanilla playcalling...but who really is to blame? Fairchild may have been making the calls but at whose direction? Was he free to call whatever he wanted? Don't forget, as head coach DJ has the right and responsibility to override any call he doesn't like.

Personally....the blame stops at the HC. Either he told Fairchild that this was the philosophy for the offense or he did little to nothing to stop it.

[Michael82]

I blame both, just because of Jauron's offensive history. His offenses have usually been boring and pathetic, like this one here. :ill:

[Meathead]

i blame clinton

[Ebenezer]

i blame clinton
good place to start...

[njsue]

i blame clinton

Nah its DWBYA'S fault. :D

[Ebenezer]

Nah its DWBYA'S fault. :D
another good place to start...

[njsue]

Everybody is pounding, rightfully so, on Fairchild for the less than vanilla playcalling...but who really is to blame? Fairchild may have been making the calls but at whose direction? Was he free to call whatever he wanted? Don't forget, as head coach DJ has the right and responsibility to override any call he doesn't like.

Personally....the blame stops at the HC. Either he told Fairchild that this was the philosophy for the offense or he did little to nothing to stop it.

Here is a bright light to look forward to, its 2008 and fairchild is a goner.

Dick Jauron has 1 year left on his contract. So 2008 is a make or break year for him. The Bills have to come up huge in free agency and the draft. I see playoffs next year IF all efforts in free agency and the draft are great.

[historypete]

Both should be held responsible. Fairchild because it his job to produce a competent game plan, while trying to place his players in positions to make plays.

Jauron is responsible becuase it his job to fix things that are broke, and he allowed Fairchild to run the same crap for 16 weeks.

[Novacane]

Both. Fairchild play calling sucked but Dick should have ordered a change early in the season. Instead he let this boring crap continue all year. He's just as guilty if not more than Fairchild.

[YardRat]

Fairchild mostly, if the only two choices are going to involve coaches.

Jauron ultimately, however.

I'm glad Fairchild got the job at CS and is leaving, but it would have been interesting to see if he was retained by DJ or replaced anyway.

[Philagape]

1. Bad receivers
2. Bad quarterbacking
3. Bad coaching
4. Bad run blocking

[Nighthawk]

Honestly, many of you need to do your homework. Although I agree that Fairchild was awful, it goes deeper than him. Go research Dickey while he was HC at Chicago and you will see that all of his offenses have been horrible. Bears fans always complained about the offenses that Dickey had and were always calling for the OC's head. I'm sorry, but this is not just an offensive coordinator problem, it's a head coaching problem.

[jamze132]

I said Fairchild. BUT Jauron is overall responsible for the offense and defense. There is no disputing the fact that Fairchild was a complete idiot though so he gets my vote. I think Dick would have fired Steve even if the Co gig didn't come his way.

[Luisito23]

They're both idiots, I'm just glad one is gone...Now it's time for Jauron to follow him, although I think we're stuck with him for 1 more season...Well atleast we'll have another high draft pick in '09 though....




GO BILLS!!!!!!!!!

[colin]

we had a horrible O, and have had a very bad to horrible O since after 02.

the one common thread for all of our Os over those years is a lack of weapons.

we had drew in 03 and 04, he was good in 02. obviously jp, holcomb, and edwards haven't gotten it done, but drew sucked in 03 and 04 as well.

once moulds got his groin hurt in 03 our entire O went to crap. we also lost price, centers, and reimersma. gilbride has done a good job in ny, but we blamed him.

if you don't have playmakers on O, you can't get it done. now i don't think fairchild is any good, and an all rook backfield doesn't help any either. our blocking is pretty good, although not what we'd like in the run game (although our running attack is much much better than our passing attack, so figure that out).

i think we are going after guys in trade, in FA, and in the draft. we need guys who can make plays.

we were super conservative because if our team was more open we'd turn the ball over much more, but it's not clear that we had what it took to score much.

[Historian]

Both.

Shame on Jauron for not telling Fairchild to open it up in Philly.

To me, that's inexcusable.

[DraftBoy]

How are the players not a choice? Yes bad play calling does have a great measure into the effectiveness of an offense, but when you cant execute basic plays that should also be accounted for.

[Historian]

How are the players not a choice? Yes bad play calling does have a great measure into the effectiveness of an offense, but when you cant execute basic plays that should also be accounted for.

Well...when the announcers know what you're going to run, you can pretty much bet on the fact that the opposing defensive coordinator does too.

I'm not saying you're wrong in suggesting that, DB, but it certainly makes the player's jobs that much more difficult.

[DraftBoy]

Well...when the announcers know what you're going to run, you can pretty much bet on the fact that the opposing defensive coordinator does too.

I'm not saying you're wrong in suggesting that, DB, but it certainly makes the player's jobs that much more difficult.


And how did the announcers know we were, bc our QB could not hide his hand signals and our personell was always the same. Im not saying the coaches arent to blame, because they are, but lets do some internally searching here, our players failed to execute in many games and that cost us more than the play calling did.

[Dont drink the water]

About the defense which did not give them a lot of practice in forcing 1st downs? Much better at preventing TDs in redzone but the offense needed to learn to get a first down in games.

[justasportsfan]

It's all JP's fault. From Cleveland to Philly, it's his fault.

[raphael120]

Blame Canada!

[madness]

Mike Martz!

[bigbub2352]

U can blame it on any one and any thing, but the truth is DJ is a Defensive coach and he puts the offense in the OC's hands, he called out the OC a few times, in sayin we gotta open it up a little or should have, anyway Fairchild was a loser of a RB coach when we fired him before, but i guess u gotta also say DJ had poor assistant coach decisions in Fewell and Fairchild

[Dont drink the water]

It's all JP's fault. From Cleveland to Philly, it's his fault.

Really? As QB on sideline with microphone he was passing in bad plays? Would not have not known that except for your post.

[justasportsfan]

Really? As QB on sideline with microphone he was passing in bad plays? Would not have not known that except for your post.
Where have you been?It's all his fault. The bad weather was his fault too.

[Novacane]

Noone blames JP entirely. Not even Tacklingdummy. Stop making stupid posts.

[ParanoidAndroid]

Weeks 4 - 14, Buffalo went 7-3, losing to Dallas, NE, and Jacksonville. All three are superbowl contenders.
I think that Fairchild could have done better, yes, but Jauron? When you're a head coach and you're winning games, you don't mess with what wins. Was Jauron supposed to step in and change the offense during the last 3 weeks of the season?

Here come the "settling for mediocrity" drum-bangers. The Bills have mediocre talent even without 12 or 15 players on injured reserve. Talent-wise we were near the bottom of the league. I think Jauron expected more than mediocrity from a weak talent pool and came out with an overacheiving team. Not only did Jauron not settle for mediocrity, but he inspired better in a group of virtual nobody's. Even the idiots at ESPN can see that.

[justasportsfan]

Noone blames JP entirely. .
where have you been?

[Mr. Pink]

Where was the neither option?

The lack of talent and playmakers is why our O sucked so bad.

[jamze132]

Everybody is pounding, rightfully so, on Fairchild for the less than vanilla playcalling...but who really is to blame? Fairchild may have been making the calls but at whose direction? Was he free to call whatever he wanted? Don't forget, as head coach DJ has the right and responsibility to override any call he doesn't like.

Personally....the blame stops at the HC. Either he told Fairchild that this was the philosophy for the offense or he did little to nothing to stop it.
Fairchild was the biggest problem.