Jauron is Schottenheimer's "mini-me"

[truth on hold]

That's what I realized today. Jauron & Co. do above average coaching jobs when there's nothing on the line and expectations are low, and then do a Cinderella and turn into pumpkins when something's at stake.

 

I remember the 1st 2 games of the season when they clearly outcoached Holmgren's Seattle and Del Rio's Jaguars. After getting to 2 & 0 with the win over playoff-projected Jags, expectations started to build and Bills coaching started to deteriorate. 1st sign came in week 3 with a very narrow (should have lost) win over Raiders. Even the Bills couldn't lose the next week to a Rams team that was reeling with Trent Green replacing the benched Bulgar. Then came the blowout loss to Arizona, but given it was on the road and Edwards went down early, (although expectations were lowered), they were given benefit of the doubt.

 

The bye-week gave Bills 2 weeks to prepare for Chargers, and they put forth one of their better efforts of the season in a win. Expectations were highest at this point as it erased memory of the blow out to Cards. Many analysts were proclaiming Bills are "for real" and Warren Sapp went as far to say they'd go to the Super Bowl if they won next week against Miami. Statisticians were citing the high probability a 5 & 1 team makles the playoff, based on historical data.

 

And then the floor fell out from underneath them, losing 4 straight, 3 of which were division games, and the 4th a poorly coached MNF loss to Browns, culminated in Jauron & Cos' biggest choke job of the year, settling for a 47 yard FG that Lindell not surprisely missed. This was a mental error, or a "choke", by any other name. The Bills were firmly in the grasp of "Dick-ball."

 

A gimme win next week against Chiefs kept Bills squarely in the playoff hunt. Was it not surprising then that the next game against the 9ers resulted in a loss? And the game thereafter against Miami which would have given Bills hope in the division in front of a national audience for the 1st NFL game in Canada, resulted in poor effort and humiliating defeat?

 

Yet with all that Bills were still mathematically in it as 3 more wins would get them to 9 & 7, with all 3 games conference, and 2 divisional. With that was it any surprise the strongest player effort of the year fell victim to shoddy coaching? NO!

 

And yet another proof of the "Dick-ball" theory happened today when with nothing at stake, they win on the road against a Denver team that had playoffs on the line and that had owned the Bills in the past. This time excellent player effort was matched by solid coaching with no obvious blown play calls.

 

The key thing is to not get fooled by the apparent potential of Marty- or Dick-ball, thinking "if they could only get it right when it matters, then we'd be something." This is a very serious problem with almost no cure. It's something that resides deep down inside the pysches of coaches like Schottenheimer and Jauron.