The last six minutes of Monday Night Football was THE SINGLE WORST coaching display by an NFL coach I have seen of recent vintage.
I mean, there wasn’t a SINGLE thing that Dick Jauron did down the stretch that was even remotely designed to win the game, in fact, if anything, he is the SINGLE reason the Patriots won yesterday…not Leodis McKelvin’s fumble, not Bill Belichick and Tom Brady taking advantage of a gift, but Dick Jauron’s TERRIBLE coaching.
Now, this post could get a little Gregg Easterbrook-ey, but just bear with me.
Lets start with some context…sixish minutes left, Pats have to go 70 or so yards and are down 24-13 despite the Bills just marhcing down the field and punching it in for what felt like the game winning score. I even wrote, “game over” in my notebook (Easterbrook’d).
But…fuck. I was wrong.
Per Jauron’s style, the Bills played a completely pussified Tampa 2 with the CB’s giving 7-10 yards of a cushion, right off the bat. Of course this opens up EVERYTHING underneath, which was displayed almost right off the bat by Brady finding Welker for 10 yard gains over the middle.
The Patriots ran quick plays and didn’t waste time, which is no surprise seeing as they knew they were two scores down and needed to score quick and get the ball back. So…here we go…underneath, dink, dunk, yep…we’ve seen this before. They get around the 20 and what do we have? The Bills STILL giving 10 yards of cushion even though they were backed up in their own red zone.
No press. No jamming. No pressure. NOTHING!!!
Guess what…the middle was wide open, because the Bills didn’t think it was necessary to call a different defense, and Brady took advantage with a perfect pass up the middle to TE Ben Watson.
A failed 2-point conversion later…24-19 Bills.
After the kickoff which Jauron STUPIDLY had his hands team out there even though there was gobs of time left, and which Leodis McKelvin coughed up said fumble, the Bills still had a chance, even though the Pats had good field position.
Here’s my problem…you just watched your defense get SCORCHED while playing a soft zone, so what do you do? Well, seeing as I already said they should’ve been jamming WR’s right off the bat when you’re that close, there you go…there’s your answer.
Well, it didn’t take long because as soon as the Pats get the ball back, Brady saw the exact same defense, and EVERY SINGLE RECEIVER got a free break to the end zone.
Now I’m not sure if the Pats called the exact same play or if Brady audibled Watson into the same route that just killed the Bills, literally 20 seconds earlier, but whatever…Watson ran the same route.
And he scored.
But there was still time left and a chance for the Bills to get into FG range, which would’ve won them the game seeing as the Pats failed on another 2-point conversion. Then again…maybe there wasn’t a chance because Dick Jauron was the coach.
So you have two timeouts left and about 35 yards to go to get into your awesome kicker’s FG range and what do you do? If your answer was dink and dunk, get to the line quickly and play it smart, you would’ve been right.
What does Jauron and his braintrust do?
Call 7-step drops with slow developing plays.
What does Bill Belichick do?
Throw a bunch of rushers at the QB.
I guess when you want to win, you play aggressive and when you play not to lose, you call plays like a fucking bitch. Belichick called plays like the genius he is and he won a game he had no business winning. Dick Jauron called plays like the pussy he is and he gave away a game against the team that has caused the Bills migraine headaches twice per year since 2003.
It isn’t science here people…if you give a top-flight QB days to work and WR’s a chance to get into their routes, you’re probably going to lose. When you were doing well all game long by getting pressure on Brady, and IT WAS WORKING seeing as you had a two score lead with six minutes left, you do not abandon that strategy.
Yes, I feel terrible for Bills fans, but you know what? Dick Jauron didn’t deserve to win that game.
Fucking. Pathetic.
Needs more “boom went the punt”.
i would have thought that eric mangini not putting 8 in the box against the best running back in the league with the weakest armed quarterback who he coached last year and knew full well that he can barely throw would have been one of the worst coaching display in a while, but what do i know, i am a viking fan and reaped the benefits of said horrible coaching move.
/sincere
ark…that’s not a bad move, that’s strategy. the last six minutes was a comedy of errors on jauron’s part. it’s like he read the pamphlet on how to coach in the last 2-minutes and then did everything the exact opposite of that.
But… Jauron didn’t fumble the kickoff.
/can’t believe I’m defending Jauron.
Or he was writing the pamphlet on how NOT to coach in the last 2 minutes. Veteran move that Dick Jauron. He’s just looking out for his future.
dude…the fumble was jauron’s fault too.
WHY DO YOU HAVE YOUR HANDS TEAM IN THERE?!?!!? that wasn’t an onside kick situation and the pats had their coverage unit out there. there was a ton of time left and the pats had all their TO’s…they were kicking deep, you knew this as soon as they scored.
jauron is a fool. HE’S to blame, not mckelvin.
spencer, agreed. i didn’t get to watch much of the browns-vikings game, but that “strategy” by mangini baffled me, especially considering that he coached favre last year. although i doubt i am telling you anything you didn’t know.
I didn’t. Jaws told me that the onside was coming.
i even wrote in my notebook “the pats will kick deep because jauron will run three straight iso’s and waste all of 20 seconds and give the pats a short field to work with.”
i saw this coming the minute the pats started their 2nd last drive. check the TBL comments for proof.
what the fuck is jauron doing coaching anyways? he fucking sucked for the bears except for one fluketatious year, when he still lost at home in the playoffs.
Jaws reminds me of this guy.
http://forum.grasscity.com/image.php?u=102333&type=sigpic&dateline=1216876517
My fiancee saw Jauron and asked if he was sick.
Hey you’ve got to provide your own links to your facts around here.
How does Jauron still have a job? Even the Lions knew this guy is not a head coach.
Since this is a Pats post, the Goolge Ads are showing three chicks wearing nothing but Pats jerseys. That would be fine but the chick wearing the Bruschi Jersey looks like Bruschi. That makes me unhappy.
/Gregggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg Easterbrook fucks small children, kidnapps them, impregnates them, holds them captive in his backyard waiting for the new children he fathered to grow up and then rapes his own kids.
The thing that makes me dislike Jauron more than anything is that it seemed acceptable to him that McKelvin fumbled trying to make a bonehead play.
With 2 minutes left, up by 5 points, your hands team/formation on the kickoff, and the ball kicked into the endzone you should NOT take that ball out. ESPECIALLY after fumbling on the previous kickoff return.
If McKelvin didn’t know what to do, he wasn’t prepared to be in the game and should not have been. Good coaches know this and adjust accordingly.
phatjohnson…i disagree. mckelvin is a fantastic returner and the ref clearly indicated that they would’ve had the ball at the one yard line, clearly playing into belichick’s hands.
he had to take it out, he had no choice.
but who DID have a choice is jauron EVEN FUCKING HAVING HIS HANDS TEAM OUT THERE. he should’ve had the regular unit in there from the get go. no excuses for that.
spencer… I don’t disagree with you that McKelvins a good returner. I do disagree with the “ref clearly indicated that they would’ve had the ball at the one yard line” statement. It obviously wasn’t that clear because McKelvin himself said he didn’t know whether he cleared the goal line or not, so he took it out. I also didn’t notice the ref make the indication on the field (which means not much I know).
That being said, I still feel like the fact that McKelvin didn’t know means he was unprepared… which I’m going place at least some of the blame on the coaches, you can do with it as you please.
Part of it is that I know when I played football in HS, that kinda shit was unacceptable to our coaches (I think I woulda got cut for lining up twice off the line of scrimmage in a game… I played O-line) but hey thats just me. I think that little stuff makes a team go from bad to good in a hurry.
Lastly, if his hands team wasn’t out there and the Pats kick the onsider and get it are we sitting here saying how dumb Jauron is for not having his hands team out?
as stupid or stupider than you for not closing your quote tag?
haha
Not to defend Dick “I barely have a pulse” Jauron but Belichek could’ve easily put either team out there and gone with the opposite type of kick as trickery. Then everyone would’ve said how genius he was.
I hear what you’re saying. Its funny because we are both arguing on the side of Jauron sucking, but we can’t come to agreement on how he does his sucking. Philosophical differences…
honestly though, i’m more appalled by the fact that jauron got burned in 6 plays that covered 80 yards by playing soft zone, then, when he goes right back on defense, doesn’t even switch it up or get aggressive at all.
that’s what sickened me more than anything else.
No doubt. I feel like that is the prevailing thought in the NFL for some reason though. Dickie isn’t one to go against the grain either. I often feel like he does shit cuz he thinks everyone else is doing it and thinks that covers his ass.
He seems like a pretty dumb person for having gone to Yale. Ivy league educations are obviously overrated.
totally…jauron is so bland and flavorless, it hurts.
you know…in today’s NFL, with the copycat bullshit and unimaginative schemes, i find myself missing mike martz that much more. sure, he ran the blandest of cover 2’s, but his offense was awesome.
but his offense was awesome.
until the last 2 mins of a game and he turned into a moron.