BillsNYC Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 If it shows anything, it shows GW had no balls to stop a train heading for a wreck, and didn't have what it takes to be an NFL coach. Maybe he'll get a set after working for Gibbs. TD's hands were tied.
John from Riverside Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 what else was interesting was that SG said that the entire offense wanted Les Steckle to be handed the reigns to the offense midway through the season. They clammored for this. They thought they could go to the playoffs with Steckle calling the plays. He also said that the offensive players knew there were BIG problems coming after game 4 or 5!!! Thats after the two big wins in weeks 1 & 2, which he said was just alot of smoke and mirrors. Most of us were saying the same thing last year and did not even have the benefit of this insight. How could GW drop the ball on such and obvious decision. He HAD to know he was putting his job in jeopardy. Maybe he just didn't enjoy being here? 8666[/snapback] I can remember back to when I was praying Gilbride would get fired ans Steckle put in as interum OC....... At lease we would have ran the ball more....and Bledsoe wouldn't have taken multiple concussions.....
Guest BackInDaDay Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 I think SG's remarks last October said it all (see my sig line). Obviously, he was expressing the thoughts of many of his teammates, and it was the closest he could come to calling KG out in the press without being fined.
KnightRider Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 Put this together with the fact that Phillips departure was predicated by Ralph insisting that he fire an assistant and I wonder if ended up with Williams in part because "quality" coaches were looking at the Bills as being a team that micro-managed its coaches and over-ruled their decisions (and thus not answering the calls or turning down the job...). 8790[/snapback] Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! I don't think the rest of the league appreciated the way RW dismissed WP and JB. It has probably kept RW out of the HOF the last few years. Add the fact that TD and Bill Cower had a rough time and an arguement can be made that if TD had dismissed Gregg, the Bills reputation as an organization would have gone down the tank. Instead, Gregg's contract was not renewed. While I was calling for GW's head early in October, I think over the long term TD made the right choice.
RJ (not THAT RJ) Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 Amen, Yoho!! I really think that any Bills fan who thinks that TD is a horrible GM should be forced to stay after school and write "Stew Barber" 500 times, followed by 500 more of "Terry Bledsoe..." You know, the Bills may be victims of their own success and have drawn front runner fans who only want to follow a winner. For those of us who lived through the mostly awful years from 1967-1986, being a Bills fan was a labor of love. There were no front runners rooting for the Bills. Some of those teams were beyond embarassing but there I was every Sunday hoping that magically this was the week that Perry Tuttle would live up to his reputation or that Walt Patulski would finally get a sack. I remember us picking up players off the waiver wire the week before the season and they would start opening day. However, our success in the late 80's through the mid 90's drew a new sort of fan; the type of fan who would have been Cowboy fans a decade earlier or whatever team was winning at the moment. Everybody knew guys like that when you were kids- they were always rooting for whoever was winning at the moment. Now, some of them are stuck with the Bills as their team and can not handle a little adversity. No slow rebuilding program for them. Success now or we fire your ass and start a new rebuilding program. Organizations run that way start to look like the San Diego Chargers in a hurry. It is hard for us old-time Bills fans to realize that those sorts of fans would follow the Bills. Believe me, there were no front-runners rooting for the Bills in 1969 or 1984. So, to all of you, sorry that the Bills are not winning every year to your satisfaction. I hope it doesn't have a negative effect on your egos. For the rest of us, seeing the talent that Donohoe has assembled in this salary cap era and the realistic hope that we can go a long way if things fall right this year is good enough for many of us. 8970[/snapback]
nodnarb Posted August 27, 2004 Author Posted August 27, 2004 maybe we should make an effort to find gilbride's email address. or perhaps better yet...Eli's. saving this thread might make an interesting attachment.
bills_fan Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 I have never HATED a person. I truly HATE Killdrive. I hope that piece of stevestojan jumps off a bridge somewhere. I had higher hopes for last season than any season since 1992. Killdrive killed those hopes. !@#$ YOU KILLDRIVE!! The Giants are stupid for letting Killdrive anywhere near their franchise QB.
obie wan Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 Take this for what it is worth and I am not naming names, because I would likely never get information again if I did. I was told by a !@#$, that Donohoe knew he had a serious problem early in the season on play calling and implored Williams to address the issue but Williams never took control. Greg was loyal to his assistants. Dononoe refused to order Williams to do anything because the GM felt that word would get around the NFL that the coach is not allowed to make his own decisions and thus would limit our ability to attract a talented coach the next time around. It is not Donohoe's style to micromanage (by the way, I believe he is correct). When Williams did not take action, his fate was sealed but Donohoe saw little value in firing Williams and hiring an interim coach that would have to rebuild our offense past mid-season. Instead, he played out the string hoping that the coaches would figure it out. Obviously, they did not. This is what I was told by someone at One Bills Drive. 8229[/snapback] 1. Teflon Tom should have taken action to correct the problem with his OC. There is no excuse that justifies tanking the season to preserve some misguided perception from the outside world. Especially since he had MM in his pocket as the next coach - and he wouldn't have cared if Gilbride was fired in mid-season. 2. Drew does not get a free pass. He has the abiltiy to change the plays on the field. if anything, he changed from runs to passes.
CoachChuckDickerson Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 2. Drew does not get a free pass. He has the abiltiy to change the plays on the field. if anything, he changed from runs to passes. 9368[/snapback] Bledsoe had the ability to audible out of a called play if the D was giving him a certain look. Other than that you run what is called. Football is not a democracy. Coaches coach. Players play. It is not the movies.
LabattBlue Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 2. Drew does not get a free pass. He has the abiltiy to change the plays on the field. if anything, he changed from runs to passes. 9368[/snapback] obie, obie, obie.....go to your room right now and write 1000 times..."It is never Drew's fault". How could you have forgotten this??
Foxboro Mike Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 obie, obie, obie.....go to your room right now and write 1000 times..."It is never Drew's fault". How could you have forgotten this?? 9402[/snapback] I wish I could make Gilbride the scapegoat for everything that goes wrong at MY job!
BuffaloBob Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 1. Teflon Tom should have taken action to correct the problem with his OC. There is no excuse that justifies tanking the season to preserve some misguided perception from the outside world. Especially since he had MM in his pocket as the next coach - and he wouldn't have cared if Gilbride was fired in mid-season.9368[/snapback] First, your assertion that TD should hve "corrected the problem" seems to presume that such correction would have led to a "non-tanking" of the season. Otherwise, what you say TD should have done without the benefit of hindsight would likley have led to preceisely the same result as what actually occurred, or worse. Moreover, you have not demonstrated how the corrective action you seem to propose (firing the OC) would have led to (or even increased the chances of having) a more successful season than we had. Firing Gilbride (which would have likely required at least forcing GW to fire him, if not requiring that GW be fired himself), would have been highly disruptive. Putting aside the issue of making the hiring of good coaches in the future more difficult, what have you accomplished here? You are talking about a team that has run the same offense for 1.5 years. Would we be installing a new offense in the middle of the season with a new coordinator? Not exactly the most likely course to a better season than we had. Ahhh, you say no, we'll run the same crappy offensive scheme, but we'll get somebody in there to call the plays better (i.e. always run on short yardage, etc.) Putting aside the fact that no matter who would have been calling the plays, the offensive scheme was still flawed, the fact is that even the running game wasn't all that good when it counted. And who would we have [promoted to OC? Les Steckel? It would have to be someone familiar with the offense so he could still work within it. Unless of course you decide to just let Drew take a stick to the huddle with him to draw plays out in the dirt. And if you fire Williams, too, who becomes the interim head coach to be the caretaker of this mess? Dick Lebeau? Ahh yes, he was incredibly successful with the Bungles. That most assuredly would have made the season better than it turned out....... not! And when should this no doubt disruptive corrective action have been taken, which would have done little to improve anything during the season while making a dismal mess of an already bad situation? When we were 2-0? Probably not. Things looked pretty good then. When we were 4-3, or even 4-4 after half the season? To fire an OC and possibly a HC after half of the season would have been as much a surrender as you claim not acting would have been. The reality is, once you start the season with a HC and OC, it becomes exceedingly difficult to fire them during the season unless you are intending to run up the white flag in doing so. 2. Drew does not get a free pass. He has the abiltiy to change the plays on the field. if anything, he changed from runs to passes. 9368[/snapback] First, how much leeway did Drew have to change the plays on the field? Do you know this? I doubt you do. Further, even if he did change runs to passes, I once again have to dispute your actual knowledge of this and whether he in fact had any leeway to do the opposite. Or are you advocating that other guy's assertion, that Drew should have just ignored his OC entirely and called his own plays? Yeah, I bet he'd have been on the field a long time doing that!
JoeF Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 1. Teflon Tom should have taken action to correct the problem with his OC. There is no excuse that justifies tanking the season to preserve some misguided perception from the outside world. Especially since he had MM in his pocket as the next coach - and he wouldn't have cared if Gilbride was fired in mid-season. Just like Al Davis and Mike Brown had MM in their pocket when they offered him their head coaching jobs....TD left Pittsburgh as part of an argument with the head coach over shared power--what part of that would attract MM to Buffalo and more importantly put him in TD's pocket...nice revisionist history.
MadBuffaloDisease Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 I wish I could make Gilbride the scapegoat for everything that goes wrong at MY job! 9439[/snapback] You should more be holding out hope for a Weis to make you look good.
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