As you all know by now, Dick Jauron, and his weak sauce leadership is gone. Having lost 14 of their last 19 games, and never posting a winning season in his previous three years here, let me just say that I’m 100% behind this move. In fact, when the Bills hired Jauron, I actually did a double take.

This is after all a coach who coming into his career in Buffalo had posted exactly one winning season in his five and a half years as a head coach. That means in the equivalent of nine seasons as and NFL head coach, he’s got exactly one season where his team finished with a record above .500. That inexplicable 13-3 Bears squad he led in 2001 was knocked out in the first round of the playoffs, and was sandwiched between a five win season, and a four win season. Truly it is a mystery how this man was ever considered a candidate for the Bills head job in the first place.

It’s not like his last head coaching job should have been enough to convince the Bills’ front office that he was the best available candidate. After being fired following the 2003 season, the Detroit Lions picked Jauron up as an assistant and in 2005 named him the interim head coach after Steve Mariucci was fired. Jauron went 1-4 with the Lions in his interim stint and that was apparently enough to convince the Bills they needed him as their next coach.

Following a 5-11 season in 2005, Dick Jauron’s 7-9 record in 2006 actually looked like he was improving the team. An identical record in 2007 made some people wonder if perhaps a sub-.500 coach is all Jauron is. Last season, after starting the year 5-1, his Bills team absolutely collapsed, going 2-8 down the stretch, with one of those wins coming only after his team had been eliminated from the playoffs. Everyone in Buffalo knew this year was Jauron’s make or break season. He had exactly one more year to get the team turned around. Bills Owner Ralph Wilson attempted to get him at least one piece of the puzzle in wide receiver Terrell Owens hoping having a receiver to complement Lee Evans would at least get the Bills into the playoffs.

So what does Jauron do? On the eve of the regular season, he fires his offensive coordinator, and promptly promotes the quarterbacks coach. What better time than right before your penultimate season to make such a drastic shakeup right? Right? Right from the first game, it was clear this season was going to be one of disappointment. With five minutes and 32 seconds to go in the season opener, Jauron’s squad held a 24-13 lead over the hated New England Patriots. Just over four minutes later, the Patriots lead 25-24, and the Bills were headed for yet another season opening loss.

The team rallied in week two, beating what has turned out to be a much worse Tampa Bay Bucs team. That 33-20 win still ranks as the team’s season high in points scored, and after that victory, the Bills dropped three straight games never scoring more than one touchdown in any game. That included an embarrassing 6-3 loss to the hapless Cleveland Browns. Finally breaking out of their slump, the Bills actually won two in a row against the division rival New York Jets and the Carolina Panthers, and there appeared to actually be some life in the Bills. They were playing better, and playing within themselves. Then, as if the football gods saw another potential reprieve for old Dick, the Bills were handed two of their worse losses of the season, 31-10 to the Texans, and 41-17 to the Tennessee Titans. (The same Titans team that owns a 59-0 beat down by the Patriots this season)And that was all she wrote for coach Jauron in Buffalo. It’s fitting, because that’s Dick Jauron’s legacy; so much promise, so much hope, and so little delivery.

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