Taboo Time: Let’s Give Jauron Some Credit

[patmoran2006]

Know I won't win any popularity contest with this, but right now I feel some things have to be said.

LINK (http://www.buffalosportsdaily.com/2009/10/taboo-time-lets-give-jauron-some-credit/)

[DraftBoy]

Well written Pat. DJ deserves credit for his past two weeks game plan and dealing with so many injuries. I still don't want to keep him around but he gets credit.

[Philagape]

The Bills are 3-4 because of charity. They haven't earned a damn thing.

[psubills62]

Yeah, I hate to admit it, but Jauron does deserve some credit for getting two wins in the past two weeks.

However, that doesn't mean he should stay. Unfortunately, this is the downfall of not firing him right away...he gets a chance to "prove" himself by winning a few games and giving Wilson a reason to keep him on another year. Exactly what I did not want to happen.

[psubills62]

And this is exactly how it feels:


I’ve been around the Bills’ block too many times to fall into any traps. It‘s probable Jauron is just making his annual magical run to a fourth consecutive 7-9 season. As a rite of passage under him, just when you think his team has turned the corner–the club goes out and lays giant stink bombs when the season is on the line.

[justasportsfan]

Dick won a few battles but he's lost the war for 4 years and most likely will when all is said and done at the end of the year.

[madness]

Coach of the Week
Dick Jauron, head coach, Buffalo
Meaningless games beckoned earlier this month, with sprouting billboards calling for Jauron's job as the Bills stared at a two-game trip to the Jets and Panthers. During the visit to the Jets, a quarterback from Harvard, Ryan Fitzpatrick, was asked to save a season, and the Bills won in overtime. On Sunday they got past a bad Carolina team in Charlotte. This won't get the billboards overtaken, but the past eight days showed this team still plays for Jauron.


Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/peter_king/10/25/mmqb/3.html#ixzz0V3dvflGb



Second week in a row for COTW from a media outlet. He definitely deserves credit since it's no easy task to win two in a row on the road in the NFL. If only he had an offense.

[TheBrownBear]

Road wins in the NFL do not come easy. Jauron deserves credit for the wins. And we'll be sure to give him a hefty helping of blame for the remaining 5 to 7 losses that lay ahead.

[patmoran2006]

i want to make it clear by no means do I think he's a good coach or deserves to keep his job beyond this year.

What I said is that I think he deserves credit for having a roster of players that refuse to quit on him, when it would've been easy to

[casdhf]

I think he's a good coach. I just don't think he's a good fit in Buffalo.

[B-DON]

nice read pat.

[ddaryl]

I'll start giving credit to Dick when we start winning some "pretty" games more often

these 7-9 seasons and the plethera of ugly games they net us has gotten old...

yes he has injuries to deal with, but we won against to pretty horrible QB's 2 weeks in a row... I think out of the 9 int's we had the last 2 weeks 1 or 2 of them came on a decent pass / break on the ball the rest were tips and errant passes...

However it is nice seeing DB's actually making these plays

Let's see how Dick has this team playing when the opposing QB is having a good game... and not making mistakes ....

[B-DON]

I'll start giving credit to Dick when we start winning some "pretty" games more often

these 7-9 seasons and the plethera of ugly games they net us has gotten old...

yes he has injuries to deal with, but we won against to pretty horrible QB's 2 weeks in a row... I think out of the 9 int's we had the last 2 weeks 1 or 2 of them came on a decent pass / break on the ball the rest were tips and errant passes...

However it is nice seeing DB's actually making these plays

Let's see how Dick has this team playing when the opposing QB is having a good game... and not making mistakes ....

you mean like brady in week 1. cmon on man. get over it. if dumb asses werent fumbling two special teams plays, Dick would be 5-2 or 4-3 at worst this year. cant always blame the coach even though its the easy thing to do.

[yordad]

No playoffs = no credit

[Nighthawk]

I'll give him credit for the fact that his team really does seem to love the guy, but he hasn't done s**t to earn praise for his gameplans the past two weeks. The offense continues to be pathetic, the defense is getting run all over and this team continues to look inept. Jauron needs to send thank you cards to Sanchez, Delhomme, Ryan (for giving up on the run) and Fox (also, for giving up on the run). Like most of Dickey's coaching decisions, none of his decisions forced the other teams hand...the Bills were handed both wins.

[Philagape]

you mean like brady in week 1. cmon on man. get over it. if dumb asses werent fumbling two special teams plays, Dick would be 5-2 or 4-3 at worst this year. cant always blame the coach even though its the easy thing to do.

It's not so easy (for some, anyway) to see the things that Dick does wrong, which have been well-documented here. That's why he deserves blame.

[bigbub2352]

I give him credit for dealing with injuries thats about it
he beats useless teams and his offense is a joke, and his defense is riddled with injuries for the 4th straight yr
either we draft injury prone players, soft camp, curse, or whatever but change is defintly neeeded and add a new QB to that as well
UGH rebuilding here we come

[trapezeus]

my article this week focuses on all the stuff he did wrong at the end of the game and how they ended up lucky to escape with the win.

good read pat.

[ddaryl]

you mean like brady in week 1. cmon on man. get over it. if dumb asses werent fumbling two special teams plays, Dick would be 5-2 or 4-3 at worst this year. cant always blame the coach even though its the easy thing to do.


A good coach has a talk with McKelvin beofre that kick off reminding him how lucky he got on the fumble he had on the previous kickoff where we were lucky to recover....

A great coach sends a message to his player and possibly even sits him for that last kick off return as a strong reminder that your #1 job is to protect that ball !!!!

yeah that Pats game

[The King]

Jauron is a good defensive coordinator the last 3 weeks he's shown he can gameplan, he also did it against NE. The problem is there is more to being a head coach than defense. Jauron will land another DC job after this season and deservingly, he's just not the whole package.

[Ingtar33]

giving Jauron credit for his team falling ass backward into two of the worst played wins i've seen in a long time is a stretch

The bills have played 3 straight horrible football teams (yes jets fans... your team is horrible). Aided by those horrible football teams glorious gifts (8 ints in 2 games anyone, 4 by one player) we staggered to two straight wins.

I'm not giving him credit for drafting Byrd when the dumbass wouldn't even start the kid until TWO safeties went down with injury. Without Byrd on the field we probably are 0-2 these last two weeks.

[HHURRICANE]

He was able to win two games barely by having his opponants give the ball away 10 times.

This is the most putrid offense I have ever seen. I actually give the D some credit.

[B-DON]

A good coach has a talk with McKelvin beofre that kick off reminding him how lucky he got on the fumble he had on the previous kickoff where we were lucky to recover....

A great coach sends a message to his player and possibly even sits him for that last kick off return as a strong reminder that your #1 job is to protect that ball !!!!

yeah that Pats game

c'mon man. do you honestly know if he did or did not talk to mckelvin? cant blame that on dickie. look i don't like dick anymore than the next guy, but some of the hate is definitely misdirected. first off, i believe he really has no say in the offense with him being a defensive coach. blame that on van pelt or Ralph for being cheap on coaches salary. like i said, if it weren't for two very unlikely special teams plays, we would be winning the division Right now. no way you can blame those two plays on dick.

[DynaPaul]

He deserves no credit until he can string some wins together against quality teams. Let's not start getting excited because the Bills beat the lowly Carolina Panthers.

[patmoran2006]

He deserves no credit until he can string some wins together against quality teams. Let's not start getting excited because the Bills beat the lowly Carolina Panthers.

Even if they played a horrible game, the Jets aren't lowly.

[B-DON]

Even if they played a horrible game, the Jets aren't lowly.

whats crazy is i think we play better in losses than wins. sans the dolphin game

[tampabay25690]

I give DJ a ton of credit.
If some of his players dont make a few mistakes this post wont even exist and we would be over .500

[YardRat]

This team is such a ****ing enigma it's maddening.

[patmoran2006]

I give DJ a ton of credit.
If some of his players dont make a few mistakes this post wont even exist and we would be over .500

Jauron's coaching scared philosophy has attributed to that plenty.

Having said that, you're right. McKelvin and Parrish dont fumble kicks and its very very possible we're setting at 5-2 right now.

[Mr. Pink]

Jauron does deserve credit for taking a bunch of bums to being competitive year after year against teams that are clearly more talented than we are.

Unfortunately because the talent is so poor, the gameplans look terrible and boring, because that's the only way we can stay in games.

The O-line is woeful, the QB play is outright terrible. You expect to score points with that? How would you gameplan our offense?

The defense the last two weeks is exactly what this defense is set up to do. Not give up big plays, force the opposition to play mistake free. Why? Because our talent on D isn't very good. The scheme hides the weaknesses that would be exploited if we played a more attacking, aggressive style.

Unfortunately people on this board can't see any of this, for whatever reason. They see we have shiny toys in Evans, Owens, Lynch, Jackson. It's hard to get the "shiny toys" involved when you have a line that can't block worth a damn and have one QB that's afraid to throw the ball downfield and another who has a completion percentage that rivals Jamarcus Russell.

At this point, does Jauron need to go? Yes. He's worn out his welcome here. But nobody can say we don't stay competitive in 75% of games while he's been here, even with having a weak talent pool and outright putrid QB play during his tenure.

The problem is much bigger than Jauron and just replacing him is like putting a bandaid on a stab wound. This team is literally 1 play away from being 4-3 and tied for first place in the division. I won't make the leap on the Browns game because we still had to drive down field and do something, and we couldn't do that all game.

[Typ0]

In the entire time he's been here the quarterbacking has been horrible. It's just impossible to tell if he's the cause of that or it's the Quarterbacks dragging the team down. I did think the quarterback did some things yesterday that bought time and helped out the OLine. TE isn't doing that he's just dumping the ball and running constantly. I don't think the QBs are any good and it's killing this team.

[Nighthawk]

I give DJ a ton of credit.
If some of his players dont make a few mistakes this post wont even exist and we would be over .500

Ha, ha...this is laughable.

[Nighthawk]

Honestly, if anybody is now thinking Jauron is a good HC, then you're a fool. It's unbelievable that there are some on this board who can't see that this guy is a complete loser and his coaching not to lose has cost this team a ton of games. I just can't believe how many people are so blind to how badly this team has played the past two weeks, but since they won, they're all of sudden being coached well?!?! What a joke!

[DraftBoy]

Honestly, if anybody is now thinking Jauron is a good HC, then you're a fool. It's unbelievable that there are some on this board who can't see that this guy is a complete loser and his coaching not to lose has cost this team a ton of games. I just can't believe how many people are so blind to how badly this team has played the past two weeks, but since they won, they're all of sudden being coached well?!?! What a joke!


I dont believe any one person said that he was a good coach. Most are just giving him credit for drawing up a game plan that has produced a couple of wins.

[Nighthawk]

I dont believe any one person said that he was a good coach. Most are just giving him credit for drawing up a game plan that has produced a couple of wins.

Please explain to me the "gameplan" he drew up that made the other QB throw all the picks over the WR's head? Also, what you're saying is his gameplan was to be totally inept on offense and get pushed up and down the field on defense, but then get an INT to win the game? Really? Really??

[DraftBoy]

Please explain to me the "gameplan" he drew up that made the other QB throw all the picks over the WR's head? Also, what you're saying is his gameplan was to be totally inept on offense and get pushed up and down the field on defense, but then get an INT to win the game? Really? Really??


All Im saying is that he has gotten our defense to play to a level at which they have caused turnovers which has put us in a position to win games. He has done that despite the ever growing injuries that we have. Does it make him a good coach? No, Does it make him keep his job? Hell no. Im simply saying that against basically all odds he has managed to coach two decent games in a row.

[Nighthawk]

All Im saying is that he has gotten our defense to play to a level at which they have caused turnovers which has put us in a position to win games. He has done that despite the ever growing injuries that we have. Does it make him a good coach? No, Does it make him keep his job? Hell no. Im simply saying that against basically all odds he has managed to coach two decent games in a row.

I'll give you the fact that he hasn't f**ked up these past two games with stupid in game decisions, but he tried...remember playing for a 47 yard FG agains the Jets? It's that stupid s**t that drives me nuts.

[DraftBoy]

I'll give you the fact that he hasn't f**ked up these past two games with stupid in game decisions, but he tried...remember playing for a 47 yard FG agains the Jets? It's that stupid s**t that drives me nuts.

Thank you, and I dont like playing for FGs either, but you can't zoom in like that and use that alone when on the whole the game was not his usual colossal cluster ****. I have no doubt he'll return to form soon enough but for now Ill give him credit.

[DynaPaul]

Even if they played a horrible game, the Jets aren't lowly.

That's true but their QB threw 5 interceptions and I can't think of any teams that win with that many turnovers. Even with the 5 picks we had to go to overtime to do it. We should have blown them out with that many turnovers.

[Syderick]

That's true but their QB threw 5 interceptions and I can't think of any teams that win with that many turnovers. Even with the 5 picks we had to go to overtime to do it. We should have blown them out with that many turnovers.

Monday Night 2007

[thenry20]

you mean like brady in week 1. cmon on man. get over it. if dumb asses werent fumbling two special teams plays, Dick would be 5-2 or 4-3 at worst this year. cant always blame the coach even though its the easy thing to do.

My sentiments exactly. You have to blame Ralph for choosing to keep mediocrity on staff even tho it's best to do otherwise.

[Oldbillsfan]

The only thing I'm giving Jauron credit for is wearing his sunglasses at night like terminator. The Bills have beating teams with losing records for the past3? years...

[LifetimeBillsFan]

Well said, Pat. I'll say the same thing here that I said in responding to your article on your website.

Dick Jauron may not be a good enough in-game coach to consistently make a team a playoff, let alone Super Bowl, contender, but his players love him and consistently play hard for him and he does a good job of developing young players early on in their careers. It may be that this will turn out to be nothing more than another run to a gut-wrenching 7-9 season filled with “what might have beens”, but, truth-be-told, with the young, inexperienced offensive line that the Bills and the problems at the QB position this team really isn’t good enough to be a 7-9 team. Nor was the team that Jauron coached to a 7-9 finish his first season.

Ultimately, however, head coaches aren’t judged on their ability to make bad or young teams competitive enough to finish 7-9. They are judged on their ability to take them to that point and then get them over the hump that separates the perennial Super Bowl contenders from the occasional one-year playoff contenders and the mediocre hopefuls that never are really good enough to make it to a Super Bowl.

Jauron has yet to show that he has what it takes as a head coach to get a team over that hump. And, all that a run to a 7, 8 or even 9 win season may serve to do is give Ralph Wilson sufficient reason to decide to give Jauron another chance to prove that he does, regardless of what Bills fans think about that.

[X-Era]

Know I won't win any popularity contest with this, but right now I feel some things have to be said.

LINK (http://www.buffalosportsdaily.com/2009/10/taboo-time-lets-give-jauron-some-credit/)

Well written and I thought of your closing thought last night.

That's the truth, we are likely to play our way out of a high draft pick.

Our mediocrity has bread more mediocrity for years.

The possible good new is that there are several QB prospects that may not be worthy of a top 5 pick but are likely 1st rounders. That would seem to favor a mediocre team like the Bills who may end up in the 10-20 range. That list includes Sam Bradford who may not get top billing due to his recent injury and maybe durability concerns...

The Bradford situation may be very similar to the McGahee situation on draft day.

If it isn't a QB, there is a nice sprinkle of talent throughout round 1 in various other positions of need such as DT, DE, LB, and OT.

In my dream world, we would see all the QB prospects fall to the Bills... like the DE's did last year.

With Bradford's injury, and Locker dropping you could see that actually happen.

[malo]

He'll get plenty of credit for another 7-9 season.

[Typ0]

Maybe that hump is insurmountable due to the QB play though. He's had one shot and it's been TE and it came through the draft.

[Billz_fan]

I will be more than happy to Give Dick credit once he gives the Bills a winning season and gets us in the playoffs. Untill then no.

[BertSquirtgum]

nope. worst coach ever.

[LifetimeBillsFan]

In my opinion a lot of Bills fans are criticizing Dick Jauron for things that are immaterial or fall into what can be categorized as "a matter of taste" or "a difference of philosophy"--things that have nothing really to do with whether a coach is or can be successful.

It doesn't matter how a coach looks, talks or whether he shows the slightest bit of emotion or not. Vince Lombardi looked like a freaking gorilla and Tom Landry was famous for not showing emotion on the sidelines or in interviews (the announcers made a huge deal out of the fact that Landry finally smiled towards the end of the last Super Bowl game that his Dallas team won)--and they were two of the best head coaches in NFL history. Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick are famous for not saying anything in their press conferences and Belichick rarely shows emotion. Personally, I could care less if the Bills head coach looked like the Crypt-keeper from Tales from the Crypt, used nothing but monosyllabic words and was as emotional as a stick if he were able to get the team to win a Super Bowl! It's not about looks or appearances, its about getting results.

The same thing applies to a coaches "coaching philosophy". A lot of fans don't like the fact that Jauron has chosen to play a Tampa 2 defense instead of a 3-4 defense. Others don't like the fact that his offenses have been anemic, that the team doesn't throw the ball down the field enough, etc. Others don't like the fact that he "coaches not to lose".

Indy and Tampa Bay have both won Super Bowls using a Tampa 2 defense, while Houston, SF and now Cleveland have been horrible playing a 3-4 defense in recent years. Baltimore and Tampa Bay both won Super Bowls with anemic offenses with coaches who "coached not to lose". It's not the system that a coach employs, but the players and how the coach employs both the players and the system that determines whether a team wins or not. Washington and Dallas have both proven that it isn't the highest paid coaches or assistants or players that win either.

The reality is that the Bills offenses have been anemic under Jauron for two reasons: quarterback play and the offensive line. You can criticize the front office and Jauron for their personnel decisions and the timing of some of them all you want (those can be legitimate criticisms, in many cases though not all), but the reality is that NO head coach could win a Super Bowl with the quarterbacks that Jauron has had (and has) playing behind the offensive lines that he has had (and has).

Even with Jason Peters, the offensive lines that Jauron had prior to this season showed that they simply were not good enough to make the Bills a winner, even working with a legendary O-line coach in McNally (who had offensive lines on two different teams that went to the Super Bowl). And, it would be utterly unrealistic to expect that an offensive line that is essentially starting 4 rookies would be good enough consistently enough to be playoff contenders. Even with a good or great QB, if you don't have a good offensive line there are a lot of things that you won't be able to do as a coach and it is going to be difficult, if not impossible, for your team to play an entertaining, wide-open style of offense.

And, Jauron has not had a good or great QB playing for him with the Bills. JP Losman, for all of his physical talent, turned out to be such a rock-head that nobody in the NFL wants him, even though there are plenty of teams desperately in need of a starting-caliber QB. Trent Edwards showed enough promise early on to beat out Losman in spite of his inexperience, but Edwards has taken such a beating behind the offensive lines that he's had in front of him that he is now showing signs of being "shell-shocked" in his play. A coach can tell his QB to throw the ball downfield and trust his receivers to go get it, but the coach can't make the QB throw the ball downfield when the QB is so afraid of throwing an interception or getting his brains scrambled by an opposing pass-rusher and decides to checkdown to his RB instead. Yes, it is up to the coach to tell the QB to take some chances, but, at that point, the responsibility is on the QB to do it.

The reality is that, regardless of what a head coach may want to do on offense, without an offensive line that can protect the QB and open holes for the RBs and a QB who can make good decisions, take some chances and make plays consistently there is no way that a coach is going to be able to run an offense that is going to be effective, high-scoring and entertaining. It doesn't matter who the head coach is.

That having been said, does Jauron bear some responsibility for not turning Losman or Edwards into a starting caliber NFL QB? Certainly. Especially with Edwards, who appears to be intelligent enough to grasp those things that are necessary for a QB to develop in the NFL. Does Jauron bear some responsibility for the performance of the Bills offensive line during his tenure. Definitely. Especially in terms of the selection of personnel and the curious timing of some of the selections that have been made. Jauron took a HUGE risk in the way that he overhauled the Bills offensive line going into this season and, while I think that that risk will pay off handsomely in the near future, the reality is that that decision has meant that the team's offense is going to be horrible this season and may have resulted in the ruining of Trent Edwards as a NFL QB.

The fact that Jauron has had to work with such young players, that he has had inadequate offensive lines, and that he has not been able to get consistently average performance from the QB position has dictated that, regardless of how he might want to approach the game, Jauron has had to adopt a philosophy of trying to keep games close and win them at the end--the kind of "coaching not to lose" philosophy that Bills fans so despise. Realistically, he really hasn't had much of a choice in that: what chance would his teams have of winning games if he had his inexperienced QB trying to throw the ball all over the place behind an offensive line that couldn't protect that QB?

Now, was it too easy for Jauron to fall back into that approach to the game? Probably. Would he still adopt this philosophy of coaching even if he had a great offensive line and an experienced, saavy QB with a big arm? I would have to say that it is likely. But, that question really relates to a situation that hasn't been the case with the teams that Jauron has coached in Buffalo--at least not yet: it is more a criticism of what folks think that he would do than a legitimate criticism of what he has had to do in order to give his teams a chance to win games.

As far as I am concerned, those kinds of criticisms simply aren't legitimate. And, because they aren't they have been making it difficult for the legitimate criticisms of Jauron's coaching--and there are PLENTY of them!--to be heard (although the posters here have done an excellent job of detailing many of them). It's not about how Jauron looks or talks or the coaching philosophy that he has had to adopt--it is about some of the personnel decisions that he has made (for which he may only be partly responsible), its about his unwillingness to interfere with the decisions that he lets his assistant coaches make, its about his poor clock management and in-game decision-making, etc.

One of Jauron's biggest strengths and, at the same time, biggest weaknesses is that he played the game for many years. That has allowed him to relate to his players and get them to be willing to work hard for him. But, because of the position he played and the era that he played in, it has also left him with an approach to the game that is very different from not only that of the fan, but that of other coaches who did not play the game at the level that he did and approach the game only from the perspective of coaching--the kind of coaches that most fans are familiar with seeing.

As a player, all you want is to have a chance to win the game you are playing. It doesn't matter how you win. This was especially the case for players back in the era when Jauron played--when he played games in the "Black and Blue" division in cold, wind, rain, snow and mud. For Jauron, a win is a win, it doesn't matter if it is pretty or ugly. It doesn't matter if it comes on a last second FG or was a blowout. It doesn't even matter if you "deserved" to win--if you win you deserved it because there are plenty of games that you "deserved" to win that you ended up losing in some way. Ultimately, it all evens out.

Well, that's not the approach that fans have, especially not modern fans. Nor is it particularly the best approach for a coach to have in a modern NFL game where the rules for the passing game have changed to the point where the game is more wide-open on offense. In that regard, Jauron's approach to the game is somewhat anachronistic. The fact that he has not had good offensive lines or gotten adequate QB play since he has been with the Bills has made it too easy for Jauron to fall back into this approach and it has adversely impacted his coaching--which is a legitimate concern for Bills fans and something for which he is open to criticism.

It is this approach that leads him to have the Bills run out the clock at the end of a half instead of attempting to score or to run the ball three times into the line to set up a 47 yard FG attempt into a stiff wind on the road. He is open to criticism for this because, as a former player and coach, he should know better than to do these things. But, from the perspective of his experiences as a player and his view of the inadequacies of his teams, he sees things differently. And, that is his weakness as a head coach.

This also has led him to leave a lot of responsibilities in the hands of his assistant coaches (including his coordinators)--which has proven to be disastrous on several occasions during his tenure with the Bills. For example: Jauron should have intervened when Perry Fewell had the Bills' DBs laying off of Dallas' WRs during their MNF comeback a couple of years ago; he should have objected to Steve Fairchild calling a pass that left Denver enough time to come back and kick a game-winning FG, etc. While it was Bobby April's responsibility to tell Leodis McKelvin not to risk running the ball out of the end zone late in the 4th quarter of the game against the Pats, Jauron could have--and it can be argued should have--made sure that McKelvin was told that by saying to him as well.

There is no question that Jauron bears a lot of responsibility for the failed "No Huddle" experiment this season. In theory, the idea to use the "No Huddle" to protect his young, inexperienced offensive linemen may have seemed very attractive, but, as a former player, Jauron should have known what the potential problems would have been and should have been quicker to end the experiment when it became obvious that it was not working well--which it certainly was by the middle of the New Orleans game.

While Jauron can't be held fully responsible for the rash of injuries that the Bills have suffered or the critical injuries that have hurt the team's performance the last four years, at some point the fact that his teams always seem to suffer and inordinate number of injuries should have dawned on him and he should have been aggressive in trying to get his assistants to find different training methods that would help his players to avoid some of the injuries that they have suffered. And, when, for example, Trent Edwards' "go-to-receiver" got hurt last season, Jauron should have intervened with his assistants and with Edwards when he saw Edwards struggling without Reed to help his QB overcome that loss. The fact that Edwards never did may be fully on his shoulders, but at least some of it may lie with Jauron as well.

And, as I said earlier, Jauron certainly is open to criticisms of his personnel selections. While some of the fault may lie with the front office and/or with Modrak and Guy in their positions, as head coach Jauron has or could have a lot of say in what players the Bills end up with on their roster. No doubt there are many reasons why the Bills didn't or wouldn't even consider making some of the personnel moves that their fans would have had them make (let's face it, at least 90% of the possible personnel moves that fans post about wanting to see here are either silly or utterly unrealistic for a team like the Bills). Still, in a league where rookies regularly make a difference and the best teams often win because they discover or develop players who give them more depth, Jauron does bear some responsibility for the team's lack of quality depth and inability to overcome certain injuries during Jauron's tenure.

But, perhaps the biggest criticism that can be leveled at Dick Jauron--and the biggest reason that he may deserve to be fired--is that he has failed to improve as a coach. Every offseason coaching staffs around the NFL tell their players in no uncertain terms that they expect those players to improve and to be better the next season. And they seriously expect those players to do just that--if a player does not continue to improve, there is a very good chance that he will eventually get cut. The best players in the NFL never never are satisfied with their performances and are constantly trying to get better--that's what separates the stars from the merely adequate in a league where everyone has talent. As a former player, Jauron knows this and has lived with this expectation. As a coach, he has undoubtedly had this expectation of his players. Yet, in his tenure as the Bills' head coach, we have not seen Jauron noticeably improve in those areas where his game, as a coach, has been weakest.

The Bills have already lost two games--and arguably three or four--because of mistakes that could have been avoided with better coaching by the head coach. While it can be argued that every head coach has his bad games--games when he doesn't get his team ready to play on Sunday, games when he gets out-coached, doesn't make the right adjustments at the right time, etc.--the problem is that Jauron seems to continue to make the same mistakes over and over and has cost his team at least one or two wins every season since he has been with the Bills. Observers and fans can point to at least two games each season where a Bills' loss can be directly attributed to a failure, decision-making error, or outright mistake by Jauron or his coaching staff that could have been avoided by Jauron in his position as head coach.

That kind of failure is unacceptable and should be considered unacceptable because, in a league as competitive as the NFL, losing two or more games that could have been won with better decision-making by the head coach can mean the difference between a team being or becoming competitive and developing into a winning team and a team languishing in mediocrity until it disintegrates into a loser. It becomes difficult for a head coach to demand that his players improve on their weaknesses when he, himself, fails to improve on his own weaknesses as a coach.

If you want to criticize Dick Jauron as a head coach and support an argument that he should be fired, you can start there. And, there are plenty of other sound reasons that you can find to support your argument. But, please, please, please, do not build a case for firing Jauron on how he looks or talks or whether he shows his emotions in public--those things are immaterial. And, when you do so, it obscures the real reasons why, despite the fact that his players love him and play hard for him, he hasn't done a good enough job as the Bills' head coach to get the team into the playoffs and, therefore, for him to be retained in his position.