Buffalo Bills Midseason Analysis

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Eight games down, eight games to go. We have now reached the halfway point of the season, and now with a convenient bye week at hand, we are primed to assess how the Buffalo Bills have performed so far in their 50th Anniversary season.

With a 3-5 record on the books, and sitting alone at the bottom of the AFC East Division, the team will be heading in to their bye week vacation with the bitter taste of defeat and a second half collapse at home in dropping a game to the Houston Texans that they led for the first three quarters.

Coaching

This is Dick Jauron's team. Make no mistake about it. Dick Jauron is the guy that told Turk Schoenert that he was coming up with an offensive scheme that was too confusing and too complicated, so Turk was fired and booted off the team just before the season began.

Too confusing for who exactly Coach Jauron? For you personally? As a former NFL safety for Detroit Lions back in the 1970's and a former Defensive Coordinator, it was probably a good thing that Schoenert tried to be creative and come up with elaborate schemes for the modern NFL.

Eight weeks later, I think it is safe to say that the proof is in the pudding. On his way out the door, Schoenert complained that Jauron wanted a plain, simple vanilla offense. A Mickey Mouse attack. Well, for everyone that has been following the Bills this year, I think it is safe to say that Jauron got his wish.

The glaring problem is that this offense is as simple as it gets. Simple is as simple does. It is very easy for opponents to create a defensive scheme against the Bills.

What is sad is that our troops are going out there to battle every week and they have limited resources in their arsenal to counter what the defense is doing to them. The opponents have two hundreds rounds of ammunition and we have ten.

It is for this very basic fundamental flaw in Jauron's coaching philosophy and judgement that he needs to be relieved as the head coach. He has not been able to make adjustments on the fly to stay ahead of his competition.

Houston coach Gary Kubiak made adjustments at half time that led to the victory in the second half. Maybe he was able to adjust due to his prior quarterback experience as a player. It was hard to distinguish what adjustments the Bills made at halftime, if any.

Jauron can join the ranks of prior Bills head coaches Mike Mularkey and Gregg Williams and return to a job he is suited for as a coordinator for some other team. Jauron came on board due to the recommendation of Marv Levy. Because of my respect for Marv, I personally endorsed the decision. But that was then, and this is now.

Next Head Coach?

Was watching a UFL game this past week on TV, which featured JP Losman as the quarterback and his opposing coach was ex-Buffalo Bill Jim Haslett, the former New Orleans Saints head coach. Haslett is somebody I could get behind as the next Bills coach. There is another ex-Bills player with head coaching experience that I have wondered about, namely Marty Schottenheimer.

Both of them are fiery personality types and have enjoyed various degrees of success as a head coach. I just have grown tired of the passive Jauron style. He does not appear to be the right style or personality for a game that requires so much passion and aggression.

I think that if the Bills owner Ralph Wilson ever decides during the season that enough is enough, he will relieve Jauron and turn the reigns over to the assistant head coach Bobby April. The only problem with that scenario, is that April will be viewed as more of a threat to the next head coach that comes in. He might want April off of his staff, to make sure he maintains control of the team.

We will pick up the head coach talk later on, so for now I want to focus on the team and the players.

TEAM PSYCHE

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