When the head coach doesn't call the shots

[Guest BackInDaDay]

I've read many anti-Mularkey post since the decision came down to bench him in favor of Holcomb.

 

I believe this decision came straight from Donahoe with Wilson's blessing. Hey, it's the old man's team, but doesn't anyone else on this board suspect that JP and the coaching staff have been given a royal screwing here?

 

For me, it's more than who's behind Center this Sunday. It's about the BS that the owner and this GM have been feeding us about their commitment to winning. I believe they only care about winning enough games to keep us fans on the hook - year after year.

 

To explain my position I'd like to re-post an answer I gave to Nick from England's suggestion that the JPL/KH decision was reminiscent of the RJ/DF feud. I didn't receive any response about this, and after reading the anti-Mularkey stuff, I began wondering if I'm alone in my thinking. I apologize if I'm breaking any sort of TBD rule here. This isn't about what I think - the original post was - not this. I just didn't want to re-type everything.

 

No Nick, this is worse.

This isn't a player problem. This is a management problem.

 

The '2005 plan' devised and executed throughout the off-season, pre-season, and the first quarter of regular season was to take advantage of our steller ST units and ball-hawking D to setup our developing QB in as many 'short-field' situations as possible. Why?

 

All levels of football coaches relish this scenario because it places an inherent strain on the opponent's D. An opponent taking possession of the ball in your end can run their low-risk stuff at you and still be effective. Every play is designed to break for a score. If executed properly against the right defense, even the most conservative ones can get you in the end-zone. With their backs to the wall, most D coaches will not stunt and blitz as much because they don't want to create the afore-mentioned 'right defense'. They'll play it closer to the vest. In the NFL it's easier to get one of your fastest guys running free from midfield than it is in the red-zone. A condensed, conservative D will concede the FG, after their RB fumbles on their own 30, before commiting a high risk maneuver that may give up the TD.

 

Now the coaches know what JP Losman is capable of doing. They've taken him through many, many hours of individual training - mental and physical - to prepare him to play. The running game along with some executable pass plays should have been enough to capture some first downs while waiting for the STs and D to strike.

 

I get it. It's a sound plan. We shouldn't have to ask too much from the kid to win.

 

Now the coaching staff had to realise that any opponent would know that the key to beating us was to manage our O by taking away any big runs by Willis (outside), taking away our two best receiving threats (outside), and contain JP's rollouts (outside). If he can correctly read my coverage schemes and recognize my blitz packages, God bless him, but I'm gonna make life hard on him. Offensively, I drill it into my players' heads to take care of the ball. Do not turn it over. I ask my ST coverage units to focus and contain those return men.

 

There's the gameplan we face each week.

 

The Bills will tell us the decision to retard our young QB was based on his inability to get up to speed. They'll tell us it was a unanimous decision - owner, GM and coaches. I wonder. I've yet to meet a coach that will give up an opportunity to correct a situation within their powers to correct. That's what any coach lives for - the challenge! I have a hard time believing that coaches Mularkey and Clements have surrendered this challenge of their own accord. It may not have been until week 8, with the season looking almost lost, that they found something that fit their personnel just right, and took the opponents out the gameplan described above. But you know what, I bet they would have found it (please - no 'run the damn ball' responses - it includes that, but it's so much more).

 

No, for whatever their reasons - the least of which is winning football games - the owner and the GM are pulling these strings. They set the coaches up to fail. This lack of patience points to some short-term reward that they seek. I'm sure the coaches felt they had more than 4 regular season games with this team before being told what players should play.

 

Old friends or not, Sam Wyche may tell Mularkey that this isn't what he signed up for, and quit. Why can't we get a quote outa Sam? TD loved pushing him in front of the reporters all summer and pre-season. I'd love to hear what he thinks. He's been around too long to put up with TD's BS.

[finknottle]

You're right. Based on the Faulkneresque blue stuff it is quite clear that Mularkey doesn't know what he's doing and that Wilson and TD had to step in and make him do the right thing if we want to win. It's Mularkey who doesn't want to win - as long as he has excuses like a green qb, his job is safe.

[AJ1]

I'm at long last out of patience with this organization and Ralph Wilson in particular. For 36 years I've watched this fool interfere with the team in various petty ways. A QB change like this has to come from the top. Ralph have your stroke and get it over with. Leave the stage to someone who cares. I'm through waiting for miracles.

[Guest BackInDaDay]

I suppose the lack of interest and/or comprehension of this subject explains how Wilson and Donahoe have been able to pull this off year after year.

 

AJ1 - Thanks for your thoughts - I'm sorry that you feel as I do. Really, I am. I think you understand.

 

Finknottle - Enjoy the game.

[East Brady]

Ralph is the head coach

 

Donahoe is the asst..head coach

 

Mularkey is the asst....to the asst....head coach

 

That is why he was hired over other canadates ...they wouldn't play the game.....

 

just ask chuck knox.......

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

My sense is that all the theorizing is little more than dime store psychology. My guess (and guesses are about as best as we are gonna do here) is that they all realize that the thing which ultimately makes this thing work is if you are a TEAM. Thus dissension and fighting ultimately does not work if you want the team to be a TEAM and have a reasonable chance at suceeding.

 

Of course as in group that involves more than one person there are dyamics and competition within here and all is far from rosy in the best of situations. However, even in the best of teams that become TEAMs and win it all or come close, even these dynamics and tensions are ultimately overcome and that is actually how the team wins out.

 

This was the case with the Pats first SN win as the team was already showing signs of caving early, but the bigger threat of losing their "savior" QB slapped around and they all came together.

 

There big "break" two years later was when boy genius Belichick xompletely misread and mishanded the Milloy situation and pissed everyone off, but again some critical injuries slapped everyone around and the individuals responded to the challenge by becoming a team.

 

Even out own Bickering Bills of the early 90s soomehow found a way to overcome their own juvenile tendencies and somehow forged a bond and almost a sense of family bolstered by them all coming together and hold hands when Norwood was going wide right and formed a further bond in Niagara Sq. when 20K came out for a rally and to forgive Norwood for his miss.

 

Like every family there is an Alpha male and oecking order and make no mistakes Ralph writes the checks and is on the downhill side of his life and his word rules. HE has dictated that this is TDs team and as long as he is happy (which he seems to be because even though TD has failed to deliver a playoff team, he has done an outstanding job making the cash register ring at a rate which outpaces the league average (already a huge profit center and looking at the increase in team value is where he excels). The fact that he had pulled this off in a small market which Ralph took by default after his first 2 or 3 choices were taken way back when seems to be centerpiece of why TD just got an exrension.

 

As far as MM, he is TD's boy from way back and just as when it was TD who hired him and gave him his big chance and $ score, it really is TD who rules the roost here as well as beat as I can tell. Not onlu are many of the assts holdovers whom TD first hired (Krumrie, Gray, et al match the MM boys like Clements or guys they hired together like April) but the front office like Modrak are TD boys too.

 

The idea that this is somehow unexpected (or quirte frankly even much of a problem) that MM does not ultimately call the shots may be true, but I think bigtime his is totally what was expected when MM took the team and signed on the dotted line. In fact, if one wanted to say what were the two big mistakes of TDs reign to me they have been hiring his first HC GW who was better suited to be an Adminstrative Asst to TD than a full HC (he simply did not have the offensive skills to totally head up a team) and even worse did not have the security to hire me who were older than he was or potential theats to his psedo-regin.

 

TDs second big error was that he actually did not interfere enough to override some lame GW choices like hiring first time OC Sheppard and then based on TDs public admission giving him his choice of the wounded Gilbride to replace the immature Sheppard instead of inisiting on his choice at the time Tom Clements.

 

TD did slowly enforce his will attracting buddy LeBeau amd evem hiring a former OC as his RB coach but never forcing GW to pull the trigger and demote Kevin Killdrive who refused to diversity the O calls or rein in Bledsoe from chaning the run calls on 3rd and short in his feeble second season to run plays almost all the time.

 

I'm sure there are tensions between the coaches and GM and the players and the owner do tgheir bit of kibbitzing where they can (though Ralph knows his suggerstions tend toward having force of law and holds back publicly as a wild or disinterested owner will make this a team with small letters as quick as anything).

 

It's interesting to watch this play out, the injury to Spikes presents a clear opportunity for the team to suck it up and become a TEAm. Depending on what is going on internally this JP move can be part of how this psychology is also being worked in this transformation.

 

It may or may not work as a lot of this is going to be a gut check for the individual players. I doubt it will lead to any big time dissension because this would not have happened because it is Ralph's money bigtime and if he did not want this it would not happen. Further, JP has not been a teammate of the other players long enough and his the older players do not have the future to weight for him to get it together.

 

I think all the Bills are oretty much on the same page with this move and if any of the four (owner, managers, coaches, players) were not orginally they read the handwriting on the wall and got on board pretty quickly after a 1-3 start.

 

If TD led the charge, fine it is a good thing because he should have interfered a lot more with GW's mistakes and we'd be better off.