Accountability Takes Day Off

What does a guy have to do to get himself fired around here, anyway?

I mean, besides allowing his net punting average dip below the league norm?

In the interest of full disclosure, I stopped watching the San Francisco 49ers’ exploitation of the Buffalo Bills at halftime. Not out of disgust, as years of training enable me to watch even the worst football without undue emotional distress.

No, we had a previously scheduled family outing that involved walking in the rain for an hour or so. So I got off easy. Those similarly blessed, as well as masochists, can relive the key moments at their leisure, courtesy of the NFL.

An hour or so was the same amount of time it took for the Bills to let this one get away from them completely. Turning off the television after San Francisco’s third touchdown could not have been easier.

Moments earlier, the Bills got the biggest of several breaks that had kept them within seven points, despite giving up nearly 300 yards in less than two full quarters when Marcell Dareus recovered a fumble by San Francisco Wildcat back Colin Kaepernick at Buffalo’s 17-yard line.

The obvious move was to run out the clock and go in at halftime down only 10-3, particularly since the Bills had been thoroughly outplayed and were set to receive the second-half kickoff. Chan Gailey, though, had a better idea.

Moving at least 50 yards against the league’s best defense, one that specializes in forcing turnovers, just to get into range for a long field goal try was not too daunting for Gailey. Ryan Fitzpatrick threw deep on first down. Predictably, that did not work.

A draw play to Fred Jackson picked up 4 yards and seemed to signal a return to common sense. Let Fitzpatrick take a knee, let the 49ers call their last timeout and have Shawn Powell, the punter for whom the Bills cleared a roster spot by firing the best punter in franchise history, kick it away. San Francisco would have the ball at around its 35- or 40-yard line with 20 seconds or less remaining and no timeouts.

But, no. Gailey thought another pass was in order. Not one that could put the ball anywhere near scoring position, but a short pass to tight end Scott Chandler. For all his good qualities, being a threat to break free after the catch is not one of them.

Turns out holding onto the ball when doing so is the most important thing he can possibly do is not on the list, either. Chandler’s seemingly inevitable fumble brought to life what should be the marketing slogan for the 2012 Buffalo Bills: “An Awful Idea, Pitifully Executed.”

On the next snap, San Francisco capitalized on its remarkable good fortune. Alex Smith tossed it to a wide-open Michael Crabtree (I know, “wide-open” is a redundancy when describing 49ers receivers on this day) in the end zone, and it was 17-3.

“Ballgame,” I said while hitting the off button on the remote and heading out into the rain, confident I would not have to recant.

Of course, it would get much, much worse in the second half. After the 49ers made it 24-3, Buffalo’s Wildcat produced its first truly big play in three years of trying, with Brad Smith’s 35-yard run putting the Bills 20 yards away from pulling within two touchdowns.

Instead, Fitzpatrick fluttered the sort of easily intercepted ball that has become his trademark well short of the intended target and into the hands of 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver.

You know the rest.

To be fair, Buffalo’s defense did improve slightly as the game went on. After watching his highly acclaimed (before the games actually started, at least) defense give up 320 total yards in the first half, legendary Defensive Coordinator Dave Wannstedt made the halftime adjustments necessary to tighten things up and hold San Francisco to a paltry 301 in the second.

Wannstedt’s continued employment in a position of importance, in combination with Brian Moorman’s release two weeks ago, exemplifies the NFL’s double standard. Players are judged based on what they have done lately. Once a coach has entrenched himself in the old boy’s network, however, he is secure in the knowledge that he will remain employed somewhere indefinitely.

After becoming the first team since the 1950 New York Yanks to give up more than 550 yards two weeks in a row, a healthy portion of the blame falls on the defensive players (and please don’t pin this one on Mario Williams, whom the stat sheet indicates made two tackles and bumped into Alex Smith twice). But a coach’s job is to prepare a workable game plan, then make sure his underlings are prepared and motivated to execute it.

If anyone other than a television weatherperson underperformed so wildly, he or she would be packing up his office at this writing.

Wannstedt will not be fired, though. Not today, at least.

Neither will Gailey, the acclaimed offensive mind whose offense piled up all of 204 yards, with 83 coming in a second half that consisted almost entirely of garbage time. He is safe, even if his team’s three losses have come by 20, 24 and 42 points.

Fitzpatrick will not be the fall guy, either, even though he again clearly demonstrated an inability to consistently make the basic throws required of an NFL quarterback. You cannot blame him alone for his continued presence in the lineup, since the Bills thoroughly neglected to give themselves another viable quarterbacking option in the offseason.

No one of significance will lose his job this week, which will be filled with the usual platitudes about putting this one in the past and focusing on next Sunday’s game in Arizona. And the Cardinals, despite a rather fluky 4-0 start, showed enough flaws in their first defeat last Thursday to suggest Buffalo might not get humiliated for a third straight week.

That’s the thing about these Bills, though. Just when you think they have hit absolute bottom, they surprise you.