The signs and symptoms were there. They were there in the first half when the Bills practically dominated the Rams and merely held a 3-0 lead. They continued to show when the Bills took a puny 6-0 to the locker room. I thought for certain the Rams were going to come out after halftime and go up 7-6 and collectively we’d say “here we go again”. It’s a new week, but the same tired story. Eventually the Rams did take that lead but the Bills answered only for the Rams to reply. Then the Bills took over needing only 3 points to force overtime at home, but again another ill timed 4th quarter Ryan Fitzpatrick interception ended the Bills hopes for the game and for the season.
I don’t know about all of you but I’m tapping out. I’m done with the 2012 Bills. I’m going to watch next week versus Seattle and then the following week against Miami because they are on TV and I can (the Jets game to close the season will surely be blacked out), and it’s my duty as a Bills fan, but will I feel bad if they lose? Nope, not in the least, in fact I think deep down I am hoping they lose out and finish 5-11. The worse the finish the better and I know some of you are thinking, what kind of a fan wants his team to lose? How about a fan who is tired of coach Chan Gailey? How about a fan who has seen enough of likeable but ultimately ineffective Ryan Fitzpatrick who never ceases to amaze with his predictable 4th quarter Fitzmagic? You know the trick, the one where the Bills have a shot and then Fitzpatrick fumbles or throws a terrible interception to ice the game for the opposition… tada! How about a fan who wants changes and knows the only way to get any from this team is when it falls to pieces or goes to extremes? How about a Bills fan, like most of you, who is tired of being so bitter and cynical about my football team that hasn’t been to the playoffs for a league longest 13 years!?!?
My feeling is if we finish with a worse record (5-11) than the previous year (6-10) with an easier schedule than we faced in 2011, someone over at One Bills Drive will see that for what it is, a regression. It’s harder to hide behind the veil of progress and in the name of continuity when things get much worse when they were supposed to get better. In year one, we started the rebuilding (again!) and went 4-12. Last year we started to show progress and went 6-10. Now in the pivotal third year of the rebuilding effort we went backwards when everything was in our favor. We had one of the easiest schedules in the league. Owner Ralph Wilson went against type and spent big money to improve the defense and the talent level on this team had definitely improved. I think it was pretty reasonable to expect an 8-8 or 9-7 season, and many people who get paid to talk about football were calling the Bills a potential playoff team before this season. Whether you wanted to buy into the playoff talk or not this team was universally expected to take a step forward. Well, now we know this year’s Bills are nowhere close to playoff caliber and if they end up with the same record or a worse record than last year’s team after all the hype, after all the money spent, after all the talent added, then someone should have to answer for it. That someone is Head Coach Chan Gailey.
His continued inability to get the ball into the hands of one of the most dynamic players in the league is baffling. His misuse of the clock in several instances this season is laughable and his downright fear to be aggressive on the football field is unforgiveable. Sending Ryan Lindell on the field for the 52 yard field goal that would have put the Bills up eight points was probably the right move. Lindell hit from 50 last week in similar if not worse conditions and he made both of his earlier tries in the game. If Coach Gailey suddenly acquired cold feet about trying the kick, so be it, take the delay of game penalty and punt from the 39 instead of the 34. But to call and waste a timeout and then punt is ridiculous. I thought he should have went for it, a 4th and 7 that was makeable and if not converted, would have given the Rams the ball at or around their own 30, hardly scoring position for an offense that up to that point generated only 7 points against the Bills defense. You don’t think he wanted that timeout back at the end when the Bills offense tried to get into field goal range to tie the game? Maybe with an extra timeout in his pocket Fitzpatrick would have thrown or dumped it over the middle of the field instead of that fateful toss to the sideline that was intercepted by St. Louis. Who knows, but having 2 timeouts in that situation instead of one surely would have made things easier. To make matter worse, both of the 2 teams in front of them for that final playoff spot lost as well, meaning the Bills could have moved to within one game of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati with 3 to play. The questionable decision making is killing the Bills from within regardless of who they are playing.
I’ve been done with Gailey for a while now. He makes some great calls at times but has trouble adjusting to the flow of the game and is absolutely brutal as a gameday “head coach”. His misuse of both the clock and the Bills’ assets are obvious to casual fans at this point and quite frankly he looks overmatched most Sundays. What he looks like to me is a solid, if not good from time to time, offensive coordinator masquerading as a head coach. He’s an offensive version of Dick Jauron and yes, I realize you can take that in more than one way. We all remember how that ended.
Losing out the rest of this season would probably bring an end to this ride. It might be the only way to get the Bills brass to move into a gear other than neutral. I know changes may take time to pay off but when you are certain the guy you have is not the guy for the job, you have to act. At this point, I think everybody knows Coach Gailey is not the man to lead the Bills to the next level simply because he hasn’t and he can’t. 3 years is plenty of time to prove yourself in the NFL. Consider this, when you bring in a new coach, you always take at least a half step backwards before moving forwards, it’s inevitable. Players have to learn the new system, some players get traded or released and new ones come in who better fit the new coach’s philosophy. Some new coaches take an already solid team and bring them to the next level quickly (the half step back) while others need time to achieve more than their predecessor (a full step). After that adjustment period, the honeymoon so to speak, owners and fanbases expect results. Now 45 games into the Gailey run, the honeymoon is long over. Sadly as we move towards the end of year 3, those results are not there and this team only looks better than most of the previous 12 non-playoff editions of the Bills on paper. In reality, a 5-8 record is par for the course around here and after 3 seasons of rebuilding on a large rebuilding job that was rebuilding on a huge rebuilding effort of another massive rebuilding endeavor I’m tired of the baby steps and the constant rebuilding. I want to win. For that, a new coach and a new quarterback are needed. All sentiments towards them aside, everyone knows it. When you can predict the outcomes of these games as they happen and you’re not the only one, then something has to be done.
Who else thought the Bills were going to blow this one? As I said earlier, the signs and symptoms were there. This game had a familiarity and comedic quality to it. It wasn’t difficult to diagnose. We’d seen this before. Some of the players were the same, some were different but it sure felt like a re-run. The predictable coach bumbling through clock management and timeouts, afraid to be aggressive and kick a long field goal or afraid to be aggressive and dial up some pressure and blitz a mediocre at best quarterback who seemed to be gaining rhythm as the 2nd half wore on. Any disruption in Sam Bradford’s timing would have helped. Even the passes he was completing were off target. His receivers had to routinely wait for passes, reach behind themselves or make circus adjustments to even get their hands on them (sound familiar?). You don’t think blitzing a guy like this would be helpful? The Bills front four while not completely ineffective at this point were not getting the same pressure they were getting earlier in the game and now that game was in the balance. Blitzing a linebacker here or a safety there could have disrupted Bradford’s already shaky timing and could have caused the turnover the Bills needed to ice the game since there was little to no chance the offense was going to put this one away. By the time George Wilson dropped two would be interceptions on that fateful last Rams drive, I think even the people who were optimistically delusional were starting to waver.
Every time the offense went 3 and out or punted the ball back to the Rams in the 2nd half all of us knew what was coming. The Bills only led by 5 points when the 4th quarter began and the Rams offense while largely unsuccessful most of the day was within one score. One score is all it takes to ruin an otherwise productive day by your defense when your offense can only score 1 measly touchdown… at home no less. Your best offensive player received 7 rushes and 1 pass and was even showing signs in the 2nd half that he was getting warmed up. Spiller had 4 rushes for 10 yards at halftime and finished with 7 for 36. That’s right, in a tight game where you held the lead for a long portion of the half, your best player had 3 rushes for 26 yards. I guess those numbers, albeit a small sample size, plus the countless highlight reel moments this season were not enough to convince this Bills coach to use him at least a little more frequently. So the Bills lost this game the way they always lose close games the past 3 years, on the arm of Ryan Fitzpatrick and through the football coaching of Chan Gailey.
Maybe the next few games they’ll fight through the skepticism and still be optimistic in that locker room. Maybe Coach Gailey will remind them that a team made the playoffs with a 7-9 record only a few seasons ago. Surely someone will mention how the Bills are still mathematically alive but I don’t want to hear about math here. Yes, the Bills are mathematically alive the same way I am mathematically alive to win the Mega Millions Tuesday night… it’s gonna take a miracle. And with the surging Seattle Seahawks coming to town err… Toronto next week fresh off of a 58-0 beatdown of Arizona, a team the Bills could barely defeat earlier this year, I’m thinking it’s high time to talk about what changes the Bills should make after the season, our potential draft position in April and which young quarterback we should target in that draft and where/when we should take him rather than discussing our pathetic playoff hopes which are only dwarfed in their ridiculousness by how disappointing this once promising season has gone. It’s time to accept that. The season is gone and it’s time to turn the page. This book seems like it’s been going on forever, or 13 years, which feels like forever to a sports fan. It’s a new week but the same story and I for one, am getting very sick of reading it… mostly because I know the ending.
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