Chan. Gone.

Well, that didn't take long.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, including Chan Gailey, Buffalo's 28-9 "win" over the New York Jets on Sunday did not save the job of the head coach, or any of his assistants.

The primary reason for Gailey’s demise was his defense. Despite replacing George Edwards with Dave Wannstedt at the coordinator’s spot and adding $100 million free agent Mario Williams, the Bills actually got worse on defense, by various measures. 

They gave up 435 points, second worst in Bills history, sixth worst in the NFL this season and one more point than they allowed in 2011.  

They ranked last in the NFL in rushing yards allowed, down four spots from the year before. They were worst in the NFL on third downs and worst in the NFL in the red zone (preventing touchdowns on opponent drives inside the 20-yard line).

That Buddy Nix was not among those dismissed today does not guarantee his return for a fourth season as general manager. Traditionally, the franchise's leadership meets with Ralph Wilson immediately following the season.

Nix repeatedly talked about his desire for continuity at the head coaching position, which suggests the decision to hire Gailey was forced on him by Wilson, who may well decide that the 73-year-old general manager is not the ideal choice to oversee Buffalo's first complete rebuilding attempt since 2001, when he brought Tom Donahoe in to run the operation.

As for Gailey, he handled losing what will almost certainly be his final NFL head coaching job with style.

“I want to thank the fans,” he said. “Great Buffalo fans. Great football town. These are loyal, loyal fans, and I understand that. I think that the next staff will have a great opportunity for success and to make this another great football franchise.” 

“This will probably be - and I say probably but I think it will be - the first place that’s ever fired me that I’ll pull for,” Gailey said.

Having covered a number of coaching changes, I've never gotten any pleasure from seeing someone lose his job -- though, in the interest of full disclosure, I couldn't muster a lot of sympathy for Gregg Williams or Mike Mularkey, who quit in a huff because his kids got razzed in school, or something, either.

For the record, I like Gailey as a guy, and the idea of him as a head coach. Same with Nix and Ryan Fitzpatrick, who just completed his third full season as the starting quarterback without giving any indication he has improved over this span, or is likely to do so.

None of the trio is the stereotypical type for his role, and, having spent a lifetime rooting for just about every variety of underdog, I would have liked to see them succeed despite not being a drill sergeant, a tight-lipped automaton and a rocket-armed alpha male, respectively.

I just wish all three were better at their jobs.

We will most likely know Nix's fate in the next few days. Fitzpatrick may be in limbo until after the Super Bowl, when the Bills -- whoever is running them -- start making roster and salary-cap decisions before free-agency begins.

The bet here is that Nix and Fitzpatrick will follow Gailey out of town, in that order. If I'm 94 years old, my team has won a Super Bowl and I still care enough to pay a head coach not to coach for the next two years, which is what Gailey's firing reportedly requires, I'm going all the way with the reboot.

After 13 seasons that ended when the schedule ran out, anything less makes no sense.

Your Jets-Bills Open Thread: Nobody, But Nobody, Runs For The Bus Like The Buffalo Bills

About the only drama involved in today's season finale between the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills will see which team wants the season over more.

Running for the bus is a Bills tradition as hiring head coaches no one else wants. Fourteen times over the past 44 seasons, Buffalo has ended a playoff-free season by getting beaten by at least 17 points, with a margin of 28 or more on 11 occasions. The average score of those 11 surrenders: 40-10.

These Bills have even given up without urgency, looking very much like a team bereft of desire or pride through a 50-17 loss to Seattle in Toronto and a highly deceptive 24-10 walk-through in Miami last Sunday.

The Jets, of course, have problems of their own. But Rex Ryan retains realistic hope about coaching the Jets again next year, while Mark Sanchez should be rather desperate to prove that New York doesn't have to blow up its salary cap in order to get rid of him.

That this will be the last game for Chan Gailey and Ryan Fitzpatrick, though, is as close to a foregone conclusion as you're going to see in the National Football League.

This one is, thankfully, banned from local television. But if you would like to share your thoughts on the past or the future of the hometown team, feel free to do so in the comments below.

Chan, Buddy Reportedly To Hit Bricks

Contrary to widespread speculation, Ralph Wilson, according to the Buffalo News, may be paying attention after all.

Rumors were swirling in NFL circles Saturday that the Buffalo Bills would clean house and fire not only head coach Chan Gailey but General Manager Buddy Nix as well.

Gailey getting whacked could not possibly come as a surprise to anyone, given his 15-32 record in Buffalo. Jason Cole of Yahoo Sports mentions a few possible replacements here.

Dumping Nix, though, would show that Wilson is willing to undertake the franchise's biggest shake-up since he dismissed former team president Tom Donahoe after the 2005 season, and the first full-scale management makeover since hiring Donahoe in early 2001.

Marv Levy replaced Donahoe as general manager in the winter of 2006, but kept much of the team's front-office and scouting structure in place.

After Levy retired following the 2007 season, marketing chief Russ Brandon took over the former coach's football duties until Nix was hired in 2010.

All those changes were more tweak than reboot, though, with quarterbacks, head coaches, assistants and scouts overlapping the reigns of the various GMs.

Gailey's departure would almost certainly mean the end of Ryan Fitzpatrick's stint as Buffalo's starter, though keeping him around to back up a rookie or free-agent quarterback wouldn't be unthinkable.

Nix's replacement will be at least as important as Gailey's. His assistant, Doug Whaley, has been touted as his potential successor, but going outside the organization would make Brandon's job -- selling tickets to a dispirited fan base -- significantly easier. Especially with the new lease deal, which pumps nearly a quarter-billion dollars into Wilson's budget over the next decade.

So today's season finale against the New York Jets, quite possibly the least meaningful game in the team's history, could acquire some historical significance as the day the Bills' darkest age came to a close.

See Timmy Sulk

The brave souls who attend Sunday's battle for last place in the AFC East at the soon-to-be-rebuilt Ralph Wilson Stadium will not see a number of things:

-- A game with any playoff implications.

-- A game with any other implications, beyond next year's schedule and (UPDATE: As reader Patrick Keyes pointed out, the Bills have already locked up last place in the AFC East) draft position. If you are the type capable of hoping your favorite team gets beaten, the Bills could advance as far as the fourth overall pick with a loss to the New York Jets, according to Mark Gaughan of the Buffalo News, or drop as low as No. 11 if they win.

-- Tim Tebow do much of anything besides stand or sit on the sidelines, trying not to visibly pout. In case you missed it, which would be perfectly understandable given the irrelevance of the teams involved, but Tebow was bypassed when Jets coach Rex Ryan dumped Mark Sanchez in favor of former third-stringer Greg McElroy. When symptoms of a concussion McElroy apparently sustained last Sunday surfaced while lifting weights Thursday morning, Ryan scratched him for this Sunday.

With an ideal opportunity to give the left-handed sort-of-quarterback something resembling a shot, Ryan instead went back to Sanchez. While the Sanchez-Tebow controversy that ESPN did its very best to foment never quite reached a boil, Timmy Touchdown got the tabloids fired up this week by either refusing to take part in the Wildcat package designed for him, or not, depending on whose story you buy.

"I never said, 'Hey, I don't want to do anything. I won't do anything,'" Tebow said on Wednesday. "That wasn't the talk at all. He knows that. And everybody on this team knows that I would never not do something if I was asked. That's what's disappointing. ... People saying, 'Oh, you quit.' That was not it at all. It was just me asking to get an opportunity to play the position I love, which is quarterback. It wasn't me asking out of anything." 

Maybe not, but many people in the organization definitely perceived it that way. A team source told the Daily News on Sunday night that Tebow had told Ryan that he didn't want to play in Wildcat situations after he was bypassed for the starting job.

 The whole mess should put a couple of the Tebow myths to rest.

First, there's the notion that he is capable of playing quarterback on a regular basis in the NFL. Denver's run to the playoffs with Tebow last season looks flukier than ever, since whatever he showed during the exhibition season and practices wasn't enough to convince Ryan to plug him in for the imploding Sanchez while the Jets were still alive for the postseason. Or even start him ahead of a last-round draft pick who once the season was effectively over.

So he's now been dumped by one team that reached the postseason with him playing, and another that exploited his name to sell tickets, then made him watch as their season, and the guy he was backing up, disintegrated.

Then there's the idea that Tebow's faith, selflessness and extraordinary athleticism more than offset his inability to throw a football with the consistent zip and accuracy required at the sport's highest level, inspiring the teammates who love him so dearly that they will win despite his flaws.

If that myth was not thoroughly debunked by the parting shots delivered by former Denver teammates, it has been now.

Who knew so many well worn sports-media tropes could collide in one player? Tim Tebow is the plucky winner who rides his leadership and intangibles to greatness. Tim Tebow is also the overrated prima donna, the one who grumps over limited playing time and sulks and eventually quits on his team before demanding a trade. All things to all men, this guy. Which one is the real Tim Tebow? Find out by tuning into Jaguars games in fall 2013.

'On The First Day Of Christmas, Ralph Wilson Gave To Me ... '

Join this guy and We Want Marangi for this trip back to Christmas 1980, when "the Bills in the playoffs" was a realistic gift request and not a perverse tease.

Note: You have to listen to the whole thing to get to that part.

Merry Christmas Eve from O.J. and WWM

I can't quite bring myself to spend any significant portion of Christmas Eve dwelling on yesterday's, um, exhibition in Miami.

So in the spirit of the season, We Want Marangi presents the solitary Bills highlight from their 10th loss of 2012.

Can't figure out how to embed it, so you'll have to click the link to see C.J. Spiller make like The Juice.

In a good way.

Your Bills-Dolphins Open Thread: 'He's Going To Run It!'

Today's Buffalo-Miami game might mean less than any other in the 37 seasons the Bills and Dolphins have been meeting at least twice a year.

So whether you're watching today or, like the We Want Marangi staff, catching bits here and there while walking and driving around this Christmas Eve Eve, enjoy this taste of a time when the Bills played games that mattered.

And then feel free to share your thoughts and feelings in the comments below.