WELL, THAT DIDN’T WORK OUT TOO WELL...
When the Bills started Rob Johnson instead of Doug Flutie at quarterback for that ill-fated playoff game in Tennessee January 8, 2000, the big secret yet to be revealed is who called that shot – owner Ralph Wilson (probably) or coach Wade Phillips (probably not)?
That probably was the most controversial QB switch in team history.
We know who called Sunday’s Tyrod Taylor-to-rookie Nathan Peterman switcheroo: coach Sean McDermott. Ooops. Peterman threw five interceptions in the first half and Buffalo lost 54-24 at the underrated Los Angeles Chargers, who said they were insulted and inspired by the Taylor-to-Peterman switch.
Three weeks ago, the Bills were 5-2, thinking playoffs and McDermott was a hot candidate for NFL Coach of the Midseason. The main reason for the team’s success was an NFL-best plus-14 in turnovers.
Then Buffalo suffered lopsided losses to the Jets and New Orleans. They were total team lack-of-efforts.
Taylor was ineffective. So were most of his teammates. But Tyrod became the scapegoat.
I hated McDermott’s explanation before and after Sunday’s 54-24 loss: He was making the switch for the present and for the future.
Most of the fans and western New York media were ripe for the move: Taylor can’t do this. Can’t do that. Can’t take us to the Super Bowl.
I was in the other camp. Before McDermott leads the Bills to Super Bowl glory, could he please make ending the hideous 17-year playoff drought the top priority?
I get why McDermott isn’t nearly as frustrated by that playoff drought as some of us are. He just got here. He gets a free pass for a few years.
But the AFC is incredibly weak this season. 9-7 almost surely would be good enough for a wild-card playoff berth. 8-8 might be good enough.
The way the Bills have performed in three straight losses, they might be the third-worst team in the NFL.
They entered are 27th in total offense and 25th in total defense. They have no pass rush. They’re now a mere plus-5 in turnovers (down from an NFL-best +14) and sinking fast.
The roster has very little starpower – Shady McCoy and who else? – and is hurting for quality depth.
I believe making the playoffs with Taylor would’ve been a long shot. With Peterman, forget it. But I understood McDermott’s thinking. Taylor won’t be back next season so let’s see if Peterman might be the “franchise quarterback” of the near future.
The best thing Peterman showed in his NFL starting debut Sunday was that he throws a “catchable ball.” He was 11 for 14 in the first half. He completed six passes to Bills and 5 passes to Chargers.
Taylor played in the second half and looked much better than Peterman. But was his performance in extended garbage time enough to inspire McDermott to name Tyrod the starter for Sunday’s game at Kansas City? I hope so. But who knows?
THE MARCELL DAREUS FACTOR
By the way, trading former Pro Bowl offensive tackle and chief run stopper Marcell Dareus to Jacksonville for a few trinkets isn’t looking real smart, either.
Buffalo is 0-3 and allowing an astounding number of yards up the middle. Meanwhile, Dareus is playing very well for the streaking Jaguars. He wasn’t doing great things for the Bills but he was huge and got in the way of opposing runners. Buffalo clearly misses him – at least on game days.
Bills in the three games (all losses) since Dareus left – 638 rushing yards allowed on 124 attempts (5.15 yards per carry).
Jaguars in the three games (all victories) since Dareus arrived – 166 yards allowed on 65 carries (2.55 yards per carry).
If coach Sean McDermott didn’t tell us that winning now means something – sort of – I’d think trading Dareus and benching Tyrod Taylor were symptoms of tanking.
CHIEFS FAVORED BY 9 ½ POINTS OVER BILLS
Here are the early NFL odds for NFL Week 12: Thursday’s Thanksgiving Day tripleheader, Minnesota at Detroit (-1)...Los Angeles Chargers at Dallas (-2 ½)...New York Giants at Washington (-7)...Sunday, Buffalo at Kansas City (-9 ½)...Tampa Bay at Atlanta (-8 ½)...Cleveland at Cincinnati (-8 ½)...Tennessee at Indianapolis (+4 ½)...Miami at New England (-16 ½)...Carolina at New York Jets (+4 ½)...Chicago at Philadelphia (-11)...Seattle at San Francisco (+7)...Denver at Oakland (-5)...New Orleans at Los Angeles Rams (-2 ½)...Jacksonville at Arizona (+4 ½)...Green Bay at Pittsburgh (-14)...Monday night, Houston at Baltimore (-7).
RANDOM THOUGHTS ON COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield is the clear frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy, but he didn’t help himself with his foul mouth and the obscene gesture directed at Kansas players and fans during Saturday’s 41-3 road romp over the lowly Jayhawks (1-10 record) in Lawrence, Kan.
Mayfield is a fiery player and a bit of a showboat. He was upset because the Kansas captains refused to shake his hand after the coin flip and by crude comments from some Kansas fans during the game. But that didn’t excuse his crude gesture and taunting.
This wasn’t Mayfield’s first display of poor sportsmanship. For the sake of his Heisman hopes, it had better be his last. He’s fortunate that he has separated from the rest of the QB pack and his closest Heisman pursuers are closely-bunched running backs Bryce Love (Stanford), Saquon Barkley (Penn State) and Jonathan Taylor (Wisconsin).
--Remember when Syracuse upset then second-ranked Clemson 27-24 at the Carrier Dome October 13?
The Orange were 4-3 and a bowl invitation appeared inevitable.
But SU is 0-4 since and has been outscored 174-96 and outgained 2,285 to 1,818.
SU’s regular-season finale will be Saturday at home against Boston College. There will be no bowl game.
--Saturday night’s UCLA-USC game was a showcase for quarterbacks Josh Rosen and Sam Darnold and scouts and GMs from at least 20 teams (including the entire AFC East) had credentials. USC is the stronger team and prevailed 28-23, but Rosen played better than Darnold and appears to be more-ready for the NFL.
THROUGH 20 GAMES: AMERKS ARE GOING GOOD...SABRES ARE GOING BAD
The AHL Rochester Americans and NHL Buffalo Sabres are going in opposite directions.
Rochester is off to a mildly surprising 9-5-1-1 start (20 of 32 possible points in the standings).
Buffalo is off to a surprisingly poor 5-11-4 start (14 of 40 possible points). The Sabres have been outscored 71-46 (-25).
The Sabres are fortunate that the Arizona Coyotes are a fellow member in the 31-team NHL. Only Arizona has a worse record (4-5-3; 11 of 44 possible points) and goal differential (54-85: -31) than Buffalo.
The biggest problem for Buffalo is a lack of firepower. The 10 defensemen used this season have zero goals. The player most prominently mentioned in trade speculation – Evander Kane – leads the Sabres with 11 goals.
Is it only a matter of time before the miles soar for Thruway traffic between the Amerks and Sabres?
A SHARE OF SYRACUSE CHIEFS STOCK: FROM $10 to $1,300?
The International League Syracuse Chiefs no longer are community-owned. Shareholders voted last Friday to approve the sale of the team to the New York Mets for $18 million.
The deal needed approval by two-thirds of the roughly 11,000 shares. The vote was 9,485 to 45 in favor of the sale.
The deadline is November 27 for shareholders to reclaim stock deemed abandoned and turned over to New York state. The shares now are expected to be worth around $1,300 each.
The Chiefs became a community-owned team in 1961. Shares cost $10.
The Triple-A affiliate of the Mets currently is Las Vegas, Nevada (Pac fic Last League). The Mets wanted to bring their top farm team much closer to home and paid $18 million to make it happen. Syracuse’s board of directors figured selling the team would be the best way to pay off $1 million in debts.
The Chiefs are expected to be stocked by the Washington Nationals again in 2018. The Mets will take over in 2019 and keep the team in Syracuse through the least 2025 under terms of the current lease. After that? Who knows?
Could something like this happen to Rochester Community Baseball? I’m not a shareholder so I sure hope not.
BROCKPORT STATE VS. WESLEY COLLEGE SHOULD BE FUN
If you want to see a dynamite college football game, check out Saturday’s Wesley College (Dover, Delaware) at Brockport State Division III tournament second-round game. Kickoff is noon.
Brockport State is 11-0 and coming off a 66-0 home romp over Plymouth State in the first round.
Wesley College is 10-1 after a 45-27 first-round victory at Rensselaer. The Wolverines have won 10 straight games since as season-opening 24-19 loss at Delaware Valley.
The winner of Wesley vs. Brockport would play the winner of Delaware Valley vs. Husson University (Bangor, Maine) in the quarterfinals.
Here’s how Brockport State and Wesley College measure up:
Records – Brockport State 11-0...Wesley College 10-1
Scoring – Brockport 39.8 PPG...Wesley 35.4 PPG
Scoring defense – Brockport 10.7 PAPG...Wesley 11.6 PAPG
Coring differential – Brockport +29.1 PPG...Wesley +23.8 PPG
Total offense – Brockport 478.7 YPG...Wesley 450.4 YPF
Total defense – Brockport 223.5 PAPG...Wesley 260.6 PAPG
Yard DIFF per game – Brockport +255.2 YPG...Wesley +189.8 YPG
Turnover differential – Brockport +12 (25T/13G)...Wesley +5 (23&/18G).
SHORT SHOTS
Former Rochester Red Wings left-handed pitcher Jason Wheeler has signed a one-year deal worth $575,000 with Korea’s Hanwha Eagles in 2018. The 6-foot-6, 255-pounder was 11-6 with a 3.53 ERA for the Wings in 2016 and 4-1, 4.50 when he promoted to Minnesota last season. He worked two games in relief for the Twins, was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers and spent the rest of the season in AAA and AA.
Outfielder Niko Goodrum, who had a solid 2017 season with the Red Wings (127 games; .265 BA; 25 doubles; 5 triples; 13 HRs; 66 RBI) and made his major-league debut with Minnesota in September (.059’ 1-for-17 with 10 strikeouts), has signed with the Detroit Tigers and likely will play for the Toledo Mud Hens in 2018.
Will the 32nd NHL team be Houston or Quebec City?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...
Monday, November 20
Max Pacioretty (29)...Greg Holland (32)...Carlos Boozer (36)...Dominique Dawes (41)...J. D. Drew (42)...Tra Thomas (43)...Joey Galloway (45)...Dabo Swinney (48)...John MacLean (53)...Dwight Stephenson (60)...Mark Gastineau (61)...John Van Boxmeer (65)...Rick Monday (72)...Louie Damper (93). Bo Derek (61) and Joe Biden (75) are invited to the birthday party. Bobby Kennedy was born on this date 92 years ago (1925) and died in 1968 at age 42.
Tuesday, November 21
Antoine Roussel (28)...Brie/Nikki Bella (34)...Alex Tanguay (38)...Danny Kanell (44)...Michael Strahan (46)...Ken Griffey Jr. (48)...Troy Aikman (51)...Olden Polynice (53)...Jerry Fontenot (51)...Reggie Lewis (52)...Cedric Maxwell (62)...Eamonn Coghlan (65)...Earl Monroe (73). Goldie Hawn (72) is invited to the birthday party...Bobby Mathews (297-248 record as a pitcher a very long time ago) was born on this date 166 years ago (1851) and died in 1898 at age 46. Stan Musial was born on this date 97 years ago (1920) and died in 2013 at age 92. Boston Celtics star Reggie Lewis was born on this date 52 years ago (1965) and died in 1993 at age 27.