Wannstedt's Folly

On the decisive play of Sunday’s 35-34 giveback loss to Tennessee, Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator Dave Wannstedt’s defensive call placed two of the 11 players at his disposal off the field of play entirely.

On Buffalo’s most important offensive snap of the game, Ryan Fitzpatrick needed to pick up an all-but-clinching first down if possible, but moreover, to avoid a turnover at all costs. So he threw a risky pass incredibly poorly.

Spending a week off before returning to the two most imposing dates on their remaining schedule is depressing enough. Doing so secure in the knowledge that Wannstedt and Fitzpatrick will each get nine more games to demonstrate such incompetence is unfathomable.

At least Fitzpatrick had his best game of the season up until the moment he decided to fling the ball in the general direction of Donald Jones. He hit his receivers in stride, rocketed touchdowns to Jones and Stevie Johnson to give the Bills a 34-28 lead and generally avoided the sort of ineptitude that exemplified his performance for the first six weeks. For 57 minutes, anyway.

The same could not be said of Wannstedt. Through the first half and the start of the second, his defense looked every bit as pitiful as it had in its historically permissive outings against New England and San Francisco.

Chris Johnson, the bane of Titans fans and fantasy-football owners everywhere, ran like it was a non-contact training-camp drill. And for most of the day, it was. He piled up 139 yards on just nine carries, including an 83-yard touchdown sprint that made it 14-7, Tennessee.

Buffalo finally slowed Johnson in the third quarter, doing just enough to give Fitzpatrick’s offense a chance to take the lead. After his interception, though, it all fell apart again.

As bad as the defensive call on the winning touchdown was (and we’ll get back to that a minute), Wannstedt’s strategic instincts were just as bad earlier in the drive. With Tennessee facing third-and-1 from Buffalo’s 43-yard line and just more than two minutes remaining, you would think Wannstedt would have considered the possibility the Titans might send their suddenly scorching runner straight up the middle.

Apparently not.

With the Bills looking absolutely stunned at the development, Johnson shot up the middle, cut to his right and motored 27 yards. Still, after holding Tennesee to a single yard on the next three snaps, Buffalo could still pull it out with one more stop.

Instead of trying to get to 37-year-old backup quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, or at least jam up his receivers at the line, Wannstedt called a defense that might have been appropriate if the Titans were at their own 16 – a two-deep zone.

It is a defense made popular in large part because it makes throwing downfield difficult, with both safeties hanging back to prevent a long ball. The problem for Buffalo was that there wasn’t enough field remaining to allow for a long throw, anyway.

The two safeties in question, George Wilson and Bryan Scott, retreated into the end zone at the snap. Had Tennesee been focusing on picking up the nine yards needed to pick up a first down, they would have been of little help, too deep to make a play before the receiver crossed the goal line or the imaginary yellow one. As it was, Hasselbeck – essentially working with an 11-to-9 advantage, went for it all and the deep two proved equally useless, frozen in place as Nate Washington raced by to catch the game-winner.

Of course, Wannstedt can’t be blamed for all Buffalo’s defensive shortcomings.

Mario Williams had another paid afternoon off, registering all of one solo tackle and one assist. On many snaps, he failed to even cross the line of scrimmage, being held off by little more than some firm pushing by Tennessee’s offensive tackles.

Wilson dropped an interception that would have won the game two plays before being put out of position on the touchdown that won it.

Buffalo’s undersized-yet-slow linebackers were equally ineffective against the run and pass.

And the term “shut-down” should never be used in a non-ironic sense in the same sentence as cornerbacks Aaron Williams and Stephon Gilmore.

Other than tackle Kyle Williams, naming a Buffalo defender who had even a decent day is pretty tough.

Add it up, and in two months, the Bills have gone from being a preseason darling of the national football media to serving as the subject of what-went-wrong stories.

Which brings us back to Wannstedt. He can’t play for his defenders, but he is responsible for their preparation and focus, both of which have appeared sorely lacking in Buffalo’s four losses. His passive schemes and failure to make adjustments, like insisting on remaining in a nickel defense while New England’s previously anonymous runners made like All-Pros, have repeatedly put his unit in a position to fail. And fail it has, again and again.

Wannstedt’s boss, Chan Gailey, didn’t exactly cover himself in glory, either. Some of his decisions were questionable, from kicking the extra point after Fitzpatrick’s 15-yard touchdown pass to Johnson at the end of the third quarter to calling for just three running plays on Buffalo’s nine offensive snaps while clinging to a six-point lead in the fourth quarter.

Those choices did not lose the game, however. Nor did Fitzpatrick’s interception, as abysmally ill-timed as it was. Despite his turnovers, and Gailey’s sideline shakiness, the Bills scored 34 points. When you do that, you should win.

This one’s all on the defense. And the guy who runs it.

WWM MVP(S): Fitzpatrick may have earned this if not for the pivotal pick, which is a bit like saying Napoleon might have retired undefeated if he had just waited until spring to visit Russia.

So we’ll split it between Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller, just as they split the burden of Buffalo’s offense for most of the day. The two, each apparently fully recovered from their respective injuries, combined to run for 141 yards and catch 14 of Fitzpatrick’s 27 completions for another 81. Their 222 combined yards from scrimmage was 26 more than Johnson, who had easily his best performance since, well, the last time Tennessee played Buffalo.

DOES DAN TANA KNOW ABOUT THIS? According to the incessant promos during the CBS telecast, the network has a hit show – whatever that means, in this era of streaming internet and narrow-casting cable networks – called “Vegas.”

This should not be confused with (though the show’s producers probably hope it will be) the 1970s private-eye series of the same name. The main character in that one, played by the late Robert Urich, was named for the owner of Dan Tana’s, a West Hollywood eatery known for its Italian food and movie-industry clientele, as well as for being the place legendary record producer Phil Spector dined before killing actress/hostess Lana Clarkson. Not because he was a private eye in Las Vegas, or anything, but because the creators of that show liked his name and his restaurant, and secured permission to use the former.

I was there a few years back and saw Dabney Coleman having dinner with a friend and their dates. He was a lot shorter than I expected.

Don’t really have a point here -- just wanted it to be known that I once saw Dabney Coleman.

AND YOU CUT BRIAN MOORMAN BECAUSE? For the second straight week, rookie punter Shawn Powell shanked a crucial punt, this time hooking his only boot of the day 22 yards to give Tennessee the ball in Buffalo territory with 5:33 remaining. Tennessee didn’t score on the ensuing possession, but gained a field-position advantage that, along with Fitzpatrick’s interception (hate to keep bringing that up, but … ) set up the winning touchdown.

The best punter the Bills have ever had, meanwhile, registered a 49.3 gross average on four kicks for Dallas, two of which left Carolina pinned inside its own 20-yard line. His net average, the area in which Bills management evidently found him deficient, was a robust 48.3.