WHAT WE LEARNED: NFL WEEK 10

BY ADAM GREENE

THE BUFFALO BILLS FIRED KEN DORSEY

If you’re a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, all I can say is, “see, it can actually happen.” After months of wacky play calling in weird situations and the outright abuse of every single fantasy football manager fielding James Cook, not to mention repeatedly attempting to get quarterback Josh Allen obliterated, the Buffalo Bills saw fit to send offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey to a “farm upstate.” And, considering the Bills already play in Upstate New York, there’s not a lot farther he can go.

Yes, the Bills fired their offensive coordinator after their latest awful loss, an embarrassing 24-22 bed soiling at home to the formerly hapless Denver Broncos. And while Allen has received plenty of blame for his turnover issues since Dorsey took over, if you actually watch these games, it’s obvious that a change needed to be made. As opposed to some of the other horrid recent play callers in the league, namely Greg Roman and the Steelers’ Matt Canada (should I have put a trigger warning in here before I wrote out that name?), Dorsey could design NFL caliber plays. What he couldn’t do, is call them at the appropriate time, capitalize on the strengths of his own roster, and repeatedly leaned on Allen to run the ball when Cook averages about 5.1 yads per carry and 8.6 yards per reception. Cook has two touchdowns this season, total.

That is downright offensive malpractice.

The loss to the Broncos dropped the Bills to 5-5 and, if the playoffs started today, Buffalo would be watching from their icy hellscape at home.

“There’s been times when we have moved the ball and scored points, but those times, I believe, have become few and far between,” Sean McDermott said Tuesday. “I can point to the Miami game [in Week 4], which I felt very good about, obviously, we scored on just about, if not every, drive there. But since that Miami game, and really, before that, there were some times when I didn’t feel like we were moving the ball well enough and scoring points. So, it’s just — it’s the whole thing, right? The whole body of work. It’s not just off of two games or four games. It’s the entire season at this point.”

The whole body of work has not been impressive. While Buffalo did win the AFC East again last season, they made a quick exit in the playoffs in the divisional round, losing to the Cincinnati Bengals (who also defeated them two weeks ago). With Brian Daboll, now, of course, the head coach of the New York Giants, calling plays, the Bills were one of the four best teams in the league. Since he’s been gone, you can’t really say that in spite of the improved roster around Allen.

Quarterbacks coach Joe Brady has been elevated to interim OC and, if he can actually call these plays at the right time, right spot on the field and use the talent on his own team, especially at running back, then he could very well keep it next season.

The firing also shows that McDermott is also feeling a little heat on the tush. For most teams, not the aforementioned Steelers, repeated mediocrity when you have an elite roster is a bad thing. Owners, generally, don’t like that and are more than willing to make coaching changes if it means pushing their team over the hump. After all, and, again I’m looking at you Pittsburgh, finishing with a winning record and getting blown out in the playoffs repeatedly is not good enough. They want a Vince Lombardi Trophy and these windows, with a QB like Allen, don’t stay open forever.

Allen, of course, blamed himself for Dorsey’s firing. And, you know, he did contribute, but he’s not calling the plays that send him straight into the defense’s teeth every time the team crossed the opponents’ 20 yard-line.

“Without a doubt, and I take that very personally,” Allen said. “It hurts a lot to see someone you care about go through a situation like that and to know that if I could have done more, if this offense could have done more, we wouldn’t have had to do something like that. …It’s an unfortunate series of events that have led up to it, but, again, as much as you can sit here and feel sorry for yourself and you can sulk on what’s going on, we got a game to prepare for and it’s four days away, so we can’t pay too much attention to it.”

Again, Steelers fans, cover your eyes. Firing an OC on a good team this late has worked out before. Back in 2012, the Baltimore Ravens cut loose offensive coordinator Cam Cameron after a lackluster coaching performance and replaced him with Jim Caldwell. All they got from that was a Super Bowl championship.

There’s plenty of season left, and if Brady can put it together for a solid run, not only will he keep the job, he could end up on some future head coaching short lists. Every team is looking for a young genius offensive minded coach to run the show now.

DESHAUN WATSON IS OUT FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON

After playing in two consecutive games, and looking very much like the old Deshaun Watson, the Cleveland Browns quarterback will miss the rest of the season as he will undergo shoulder surgery. An MRI Monday showed that Watson had a displaced fracture to the glenoid (a real word, I was shocked to learn) and required immediate surgery so Watson wouldn’t do even more damage.

“I’m still in disbelief. I’m still trying to process all the information,” Watson said. “I felt like we were turning a corner to really make a run and still believe we still will with the guys in this locker room. I just wanted to physically be a part of it. … It’s tough to try to wrap everything around my head right now.”

Now, back in the preseason you’ll remember that the Browns had a certain guy the NFL has fallen in love with over the last few months, one Joshua Dobbs, on the roster as Watson’s back up. They traded him to the Arizona Cardinals who then turned around at the trade deadline and sent him to the Minnesota Vikings, who have won two straight games with Dobbs under center.

You’ve got to feel as if the team regrets that a tad right now, considering they are currently sitting in playoff position and are a half game out of first place in the AFC North.

They won with PJ Walker when he played, but if you look at their current depth chart on ESPN, Dorian Thompson-Robinson is listed as the starter and I agree with that. He had a promising preseason and, you never know. They should give the kid a chance to see if he can figure it out, if for nothing else than to build some insurance into a suddenly brittle Watson for next season and maybe some potential trade bait after that.

I’m not sure, in a highly competitive AFC, that the Browns can seriously contend for a playoff spot, even with one of the best defenses on the planet. But, you know, one of these offensively-challenged teams — the Steelers, Browns or New York Jets, is probably going to sneak in there and get absolutely destroyed in the Wild Card Round as God intended.

SPEAKING OF THE PLAYOFFS

If the postseason started today, here’s what we’re looking at;

AFC

1. Kansas City Chiefs (7-2)

2. Baltimore Ravens (7-3)

3. Jacksonville Jaguars (6-3)

4. Miami Dolphins (6-3)

5. Pittsburgh Steelers (6-3)

6. Cleveland Browns (6-3)

7. Houston Texas (5-4)

On the cusp: Cincinnati Bengals (5-4), Indianapolis Colts (5-5), Buffalo Bills (5-5), Las Vegas Raiders (5-5), Los Angeles Chargers (4-5), New York Jets (4-5), Denver Broncos (4-5)

That’s right. The Texans are currently holding down the seventh seed. Do I think they’ll keep it? No. The fact that they have it halfway through the season should have DeMeco Ryans right up there with Dan Campbell in the NFL Coach of the Year conversation.

NFC

1. Philadelphia Eagles (8-1)

2. Detroit Lions (7-2)

3. San Francisco 49ers (6-3)

4. New Orleans Saints (5-5)

5. Seattle Seahawks (6-3)

6. Dallas Cowboys (6-3)

7. Minnesota Vikings (6-4)

On the cusp: Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-5), Washington Commanders (4-6), Atlanta Falcons (4-6), Green Bay Packers (3-6), Los Angeles Rams (3-6)

That is quite the drop off after the top three spots in the NFC, so that means we could see any of these teams sneak in by just posting a winning record. I do like the Saints to hang on to the NFC South and no other team in that division to make it. That means that the Seahawks, Cowboys and Vikings will probably have to hold off the Rams, if they can keep (or get?) Matthew Stafford healthy down the stretch. Los Angeles has a favorable schedule coming up and, if they can knock off Seattle Sunday in SoFi (and I think they can), it’ll change everything in a single Sunday.

Follow Adam Greene on Twitter @TheFirstMan.

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