Hypocrisy in the NFL?

On Sunday I saw a touchdown (TD) celebration that broke the rules. A player scored a TD, quickly went to one knee and said a 3 second prayer. He then got up and quickly jogged to his bench (while high-fiving his teammates) yet he was flagged for excessive celebration because of the drop to one knee. However, in that same game whenever a defensive player made a tackle or a sack, they ran 10 yards down the field in exuberant elation! Were they flagged at all? No.

I'm not arguing that the celebration rule is wrong (although I think it should be changed, but that is neither here nor there). I just don't know how on simple plays where players are paid to make those plays, and afterwards players do some flamboyant act, there is no penalty for excessive celebration but on a TD where a player is quiet and quickly acts in humility he gets flagged for excessive celebration.

Go figure...

Another reason the BCS is whack

How can the #1 team in the nation be a double-digit underdog on a neutral field?!
I love college football, but the bigwigs at the BCS need to make some changes to their system. In college basketball you would never see the #1 team be a 10 point underdog. In the NFL the #1 team (right now it's the NY Giants) would never be a double-digit underdog. Plus, those sports have playoff systems to decide who the best team is. There is no question at the end of the season who is deserving to be the champion. But that's neither here nor there.

NCAA Football needs to stop being subjective in their rankings. Alabama is undefeated and #1, but they haven't beat anyone. Utah is undefeated and #7 overall, but they have more quality wins than Alabama. Utah has beaten two top 20 teams, Alabama has only beaten one. Utah has also had a harder schedule. Plus, the Mountain West Conference is just as good as the SEC this season when you look at it objectively. Heck, even Boise State can say the same as Utah, but yet Alabama is #1 because they have traditionally been good. Last year or 10 years ago doesn't matter when it comes to this year. It's just not fair for deserving teams like Utah. At least Alabama will be exposed on Saturday as the frauds they are.

The futility of the Buffalo Bills

Sorry, but I am frustrated and don't know where to begin. There are too many problems with the Bills that it’s hard to start this! Maybe I should waste one of my timeouts and think things over. Or better yet, why not allow one of the players, a respected and highly credible veteran, to get it started for me?

Lee Evans, what was the problem with the offense Sunday?
"It's really hard to put your finger on one thing," Evans said after the Bills' perplexing, 10-3 loss to the 49ers. "But when you get down there (the red zone), you've got to have a certain attitude that you have to get in the end zone. You let your linemen be your linemen and you let Marshawn do his thing. We really didn't have a whole lot of balance down there, and it cost us."

Uh…Lee, you put your finger right on the problem. There's plenty to criticize about this mind-blowing loss (don’t forget, there is much to criticize about the overall Bills organization, management, and team). I can't believe I'm saying this, just two weeks after the fact, but it was worse than the Cleveland loss on Monday night. In terms of offensive futility, squandered opportunities and dumb coaching, it ranks with the worst home losses in recent times, at least the ones I have been at.

But this one comes down to coaching incompetence (what else is new?) and the play calling in the red zone. Dick Jauron should be the most criticized of them all and I say it’s open season now. Evans took his shots. His teammates were muttering blanketed criticisms of the play calling. That's good, because at some point it's not enough for Joe 6pack to spew second-guesses at his wide-screen TV. When the players are howling along with everyone else, you know there's a problem.

Really, what was he thinking on second-and-goal at San Francisco's 2-yard line midway through the second quarter? The Bills were in the midst of an 18-play drive that had carried over from the end of the first quarter and dragged on for more than eight minutes. The 49ers' linemen were beaten and exhausted. The Bills' offensive linemen were pushing them all over the field and having one of their best games of the season. And apparently Trent Edwards was injured and it showed in his inconsistency.

So what do they do? With 2 yards to go and three plays to gain them, Jauron calls for a complex pass play on second down. This was after the Bills ran it for 6 yards on first down. The pass on 2nd down was tipped at the line and fell incomplete. And on third down, what inspired genius followed? Trent Edwards rolled out to his right with no play fake and couldn't find anyone open, and had to throw the ball away.

Rian Lindell then plunked a 20-yard field goal off the left upright, his first miss inside 40 yards in 53 tries. They come away with zero points. What kills me is the second-down pass was a soft, inexcusable call. "That's an example right there," Evans said. "I think we had all the momentum running the football. We ran the ball to get down there. The line had a good rhythm, had a good feel, and Marshawn as well."

They could have gathered some momentum if they had won this game. The Bills could have been 7-5, riding a modest two-game winning streak and harboring playoff hopes, even after a bad home loss to Cleveland and a 0-3 divisional record. Now they're 6-6. They've lost five of six, three straight at home! If you’re still dillusional and think the Bills are good and could perhaps make the playoffs, say the previous sentence OUT LOUD and be objective when you listen.

Playoffs?! (think Jim Mora circa 2001). They've lost consecutive home games to the Browns and 49ers — bad teams. The Bills are NOT a playoff contender. Right now, they're one of the worst half-dozen teams in the NFL. They're good enough to beat Kansas City in a fluke game. Who else would they beat now? Detroit, St. Louis...Cincinnati, perhaps?

They wasted a sensational performance from Lynch, who ran 16 times for 134 yards, a staggering 8.4 yards a carry. Wait a second, haven't I seen those numbers before? I've got it. Thurman Thomas in the Giants Super Bowl. He went 15 for 135 that day. And what have Bills fans been asking ever since? Why didn't he run more?

Yeah, do you think they might have handed off to Lynch a time or two more, considering that he was running with more determination than a Wal-Mart shopper on Black Friday? What do you suppose Jauron will think when he sees 16 for 134 on the stat sheet? That assumes, of course, that he was thinking at all Sunday. He wasted four more timeouts, three on offense and one on special teams. What do these guys do with their 16-hour days at One Bills Drive, if they can't get the players and personnel on and off the field in time? What makes it worse is they lost at home to a team who is also inept at the same thing.

Early in the fourth quarter, the Bills were on the march again. J.P. Losman was the QB now (urgh…), with Edwards sidelined by a sore groin. On third-and-1 from the 49ers' 6-yard line, Fred Jackson lost a yard (why it wasn't Lynch, I have no idea). Then, with the play clock winding down, Losman had to call timeout on fourth-and-2. There were several options. With 10:05 left, a field goal would have been acceptable. Considering his success to that point, handing off to Lynch would have been OK. The Bills went for the pass. Losman ran out of the pocket and underthrew the ball to Evans. Again, no points.

The 49ers wouldn't quit. They kept bungling situations and handing the ball back to the Bills, inviting them to come back and win. After all, no West Coast team had won in the Eastern time zone this year. The Bills had every chance to keep that streak alive. But they weren't up to it.
Boy, what a dreadful game. It was even worse than those three dog games on Thanksgiving. And it was ugly afterward, with the cold rain falling on the disgruntled Buffalo fans as they trudged out of the stadium. My friend Brian in Buffalo told me as the Bills went out the tunnel, fans threw cups and plastic bottles and called for Jauron to be fired.

A year ago at this time, they were also 6-6 and looking ahead to a home game against Miami. They were seen as plucky overachievers. This is a different sort of 6-6, a sad, dysfunctional mess. Maybe it's better that next week's home game against the Dolphins will be played in Toronto.

"I mean, the record speaks for itself," Evans said. "You can't say that you're one thing and show up on the field and be something else. We are a .500 football team. That's what we are."
After the great start, it's hard to believe they're a .500 team. Even harder to swallow, I suppose, is the fact that they're even worse than that when you're objective about it.

The Bills' performance Sunday was so far removed from even remotely resembling playoff-caliber football that it left everyone speechless and shaking their heads.

- Numerous questionable coaching decisions by Dick Jauron and his staff went wrong. The Bills didn't manage time well, either, wasting four timeouts.

- Their mistake-prone offense squandered four trips inside the Niners' 20-yard line.

In case you missed it, some of the big coaching decisions were these:

- In the second quarter, the Bills marched 84 yards in 15 plays to get to the Niners' 2, but rather then run Lynch, they threw incomplete passes on second and third downs. Singletary showed blitz on 2nd down and Jauron was too afraid to run it on 3rd down, even though it had worked ALL GAME.

- With 5:56 left, the Bills faced third-and-4 from the Niners' 19. The offense looked confused before the snap, and Losman was sacked for a 3-yard loss. Facing a fourth-and-7 from the 22 with 5:32 left, Jauron opted not to go for it and tried a field goal, even though the Bills still needed a touchdown to win and Lindell has been off the whole day. A couple of assistant coaches on the sidelines seemed to want to go for it. Lindell missed the kick.

Just ask to get me started on Jauron overall as the Bills coach and I could write pages and pages. He needs to be fired. It will be funny if he gets fired the same year the inept management gave him a 4 year extension! The Bills need a legit GM (they don’t have one) and a legit offensive coordinator (they don’t have one) as well as a legit head coach (they don’t have one).