There was a good feeling knowing that your team would automatically be at a coaching advantage. Sure, the Jets lost to the Jauron-led Bills last time they faced them but that was because both teams played putrid.
Jauron and his coaching staff almost single-handedly kept the Jets in the playoff race last year. Remember Week 15 of last season?
The Jets were on a two-game losing streak and on the brink of seeing their playoff hopes collapse. All the Bills had to do was run down the clock. They couldn't even do that. The Jets called a timeout right before the two-minute warning and the Bills inexplicably called a play-action rollout for J.P. Losman. Abram Elam knocks the ball away from Losman, Shaun Ellis picks it up and runs it 11 yards to the house. Jets take the lead, Jets win, Bills lose.
No one had a knack for giving away games like Jauron did with the Bills. And they did it under the brightest lights.
There was the Week 5 Monday night game in 2007. Bills up 24-13 with 3:46 left in the game. Yet they allow Dallas to kick a FG, score a TD, recover an onside kick and then lose on a Nick Folk game-winning field goal.
Then they did it again in a Week 1 Monday night game this season. Bills up (deja vu much) 24-13 with 5:38 to go. New England scores a TD. Buffalo's Roscoe Parrish fumbles the kickoff, New England recovers, scores a TD. Pats win, Bills lose.
Maybe it wasn't all Jauron's fault. He wasn't the one who fumbled the ball in the New England game. But Jauron's teams showed a propensity for failure when it came to closing out games, on multiple occasions. For that, I will miss you, Dick Jauron. May you eventually end up back in the AFC East. And may the Bills please hire Romeo Crennel.
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