Mitchy moo
12-14-2005, 08:40 AM
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left width=470>Time again for Bills to start fresh
<HR width="50%">Wilson must act to buoy franchise; Donohoe, Mularkey should go
12/14/2005 </TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2>http://www.buffalonews.com/images/space.gif</TD></TR><TR><TD width=2>http://www.buffalonews.com/images/space.gif</TD><TD vAlign=top width=499 bgColor=#ffffff>Most fans can't see a silver lining in New England's trouncing of the Buffalo Bills Sunday, but we can. Bills fans who feel depressed should think of owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr.'s aspirations. He can't be happy that his beloved team will not reach the NFL playoffs for the sixth consecutive season.
But what's worse is that without significant action, it won't make them for the seventh or eighth straight years, either. Wilson knows football and he is a businessman. He appreciates the loyalty fans feel for his team. We think he will be unable and unwilling to retain President and General Manager Tom Donohoe and head coach Mike Mularkey while they continue to fail and further damage the team and Wilson's franchise. The silver lining will appear with their dismissal. The facts are irrefutable and the judgment calls inexcusable.
Five years of fits and starts crowned by a season of ineptitude is enough. The reasons are no mystery. Bad drafts, weak personnel decisions and horrible coaching calls combined to make the Bills a pushover. NFL quarterbacks are key to a team's success, as Bills fans saw again in Tom Brady. J.P. Losman doesn't have it. Even Kelly Holcomb, never a consistent starter, has upstaged Losman. Holcomb started three Bills wins in five tries, while wunderkind Losman lost seven of eight starts. Holcomb's passer rating was 67.7, compared with Losman's 51.2, not including his dreadful 33.6 against the Pats. Stars play near 100. It's not all Losman's fault. The offensive line is weak, and things get worse from there.
The team is uninspired, split and thoroughly outclassed nearly every week. Even the man Donohoe and Mularkey banished, Drew Bledsoe, was 22 of 34 for 316 yards and no interceptions against an eight-win Chiefs team Sunday. Dallas coach Bill Parcells put Bledsoe behind a line and saw a winner; Donohoe and Mularkey saw a loser and put him out the door.
Teams in recent years that as franchises had little or no historic success hired new coaches who turned around their operations, while the Bills crashed. These include Carolina, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Chicago, Jacksonville, Seattle and Tampa Bay. Miami shows signs of vigor under a first-year coach. The Bills are most often mentioned with San Francisco, Houston and New Orleans (which beat Buffalo) as hapless teams. Mularkey, who continues to flaunt his inexperience, obviously lost his team in picking fights with defensive end Sam Adams and wide receiver Eric Moulds. Wilson tolerates much, but he won't stand by and watch a team going through the motions. Bills fans hope Wilson will demand excellence.
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20051214/1047388.asp?tbd1047388.asp
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<HR width="50%">Wilson must act to buoy franchise; Donohoe, Mularkey should go
12/14/2005 </TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2>http://www.buffalonews.com/images/space.gif</TD></TR><TR><TD width=2>http://www.buffalonews.com/images/space.gif</TD><TD vAlign=top width=499 bgColor=#ffffff>Most fans can't see a silver lining in New England's trouncing of the Buffalo Bills Sunday, but we can. Bills fans who feel depressed should think of owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr.'s aspirations. He can't be happy that his beloved team will not reach the NFL playoffs for the sixth consecutive season.
But what's worse is that without significant action, it won't make them for the seventh or eighth straight years, either. Wilson knows football and he is a businessman. He appreciates the loyalty fans feel for his team. We think he will be unable and unwilling to retain President and General Manager Tom Donohoe and head coach Mike Mularkey while they continue to fail and further damage the team and Wilson's franchise. The silver lining will appear with their dismissal. The facts are irrefutable and the judgment calls inexcusable.
Five years of fits and starts crowned by a season of ineptitude is enough. The reasons are no mystery. Bad drafts, weak personnel decisions and horrible coaching calls combined to make the Bills a pushover. NFL quarterbacks are key to a team's success, as Bills fans saw again in Tom Brady. J.P. Losman doesn't have it. Even Kelly Holcomb, never a consistent starter, has upstaged Losman. Holcomb started three Bills wins in five tries, while wunderkind Losman lost seven of eight starts. Holcomb's passer rating was 67.7, compared with Losman's 51.2, not including his dreadful 33.6 against the Pats. Stars play near 100. It's not all Losman's fault. The offensive line is weak, and things get worse from there.
The team is uninspired, split and thoroughly outclassed nearly every week. Even the man Donohoe and Mularkey banished, Drew Bledsoe, was 22 of 34 for 316 yards and no interceptions against an eight-win Chiefs team Sunday. Dallas coach Bill Parcells put Bledsoe behind a line and saw a winner; Donohoe and Mularkey saw a loser and put him out the door.
Teams in recent years that as franchises had little or no historic success hired new coaches who turned around their operations, while the Bills crashed. These include Carolina, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Chicago, Jacksonville, Seattle and Tampa Bay. Miami shows signs of vigor under a first-year coach. The Bills are most often mentioned with San Francisco, Houston and New Orleans (which beat Buffalo) as hapless teams. Mularkey, who continues to flaunt his inexperience, obviously lost his team in picking fights with defensive end Sam Adams and wide receiver Eric Moulds. Wilson tolerates much, but he won't stand by and watch a team going through the motions. Bills fans hope Wilson will demand excellence.
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20051214/1047388.asp?tbd1047388.asp
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