Coach Killers, Week 7: Jake Delhomme

Every week, NFL FanHouse hits the lowlights from Sunday's action, looking at those players who did the most to move their head coaches that much closer to returning to the Bed and Breakfast business.

In light of their recent faux pas, it'd be easy to make JaMarcus Russell or Larry Johnson the Coach Killer of the week. After getting benched in a loss to the Jets, Russell explained that he wasn't Oakland's problem, proving that he's as aware of himself as he is of a blitz. Or how to line up for the first play of the game, despite practicing it all week.

Larry Johnson, well, we know that story by now. Johnson added insult to ineffectiveness in the wake of the Chiefs' 37-7 loss to the Chargers, making life harder on a first-year coach trying to retain any shred of credibility with a terrible roster.

But Russell is not an NFL-capable player, and Johnson is a headcase. They haven't fooled us into believing otherwise. Jake Delhomme, however, had us all believing he was an NFL quarterback. A gambler, sure, but one who came through more often than not. ... D'oh.

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Delhomme's travails of late have been well-documented, and this isn't the first week of the season he's qualified for this award. But his three-interception performance against the Bills was particularly egregious.

You can argue that he deserves the benefit of the doubt against a Bills defense that is 10th in the league in passing and ranks first in interceptions, with 13 (10 in six games before Delhomme came along), despite missing key starters. Knowing that information, you can also argue (as my esteemed colleague Matt Snyder did) that the fail whale should belong to the Panthers' coaching staff, who decided to counter a stellar pass defense by, um, passing 44 times and running a talented young combo of backs a total of 23 times.

And yes, maybe that strategy is questionable. But in the specific instances of Delhomme's three interceptions, they weren't terrible play calls. Everything was in position for the quarterback to deliver completions, yet Delhomme's inexplicable inaccuracy led to turnovers that caused major point swings in a game that still ended with less than a two-score differential.

Interception No. 1 -- 1st-and-10, Carolina 13. A play-action fake that gives Delhomme great protection for routes to develop (approximately 2.1 seconds from the end of the play fake, when Delhomme first looks downfield, and the throw). He attempts to hit tight end Gary Barnidge, who's about 30 yards downfield without a defender close enough to him to make a play on the ball. Instead, Delhomme overthrows him by about six yards, right into the arms of Jairus Byrd, who barely has to do anything. A 37-yard return and two plays later, Marshawn Lynch gave the Bills a 7-0 lead. Who knows if the Panthers would have scored on that drive, but a completed pass to the open Barnidge would have gone a long way towards putting them in field goal range. Still, let's just call that pick a seven-point swing.

Interception No. 2 -- 2nd-and-6, Carolina 39. Down 7-2 late in the third quarter, another play-action fake gives Delhomme lots of time in the pocket (approximately 1.9 seconds) to make the throw. He tries to hit Steve Smith for another big gain, but the ball bounces off the outstretched hand of Steve Smith and right to Byrd. While quarterbacks typically get leeway for a tipped interception, this one was on Delhomme, too. Smith was running a cross pattern with nothing but wide open field in front of him. Instead of leading Smith into an easy reception and at least another 10 yards after the catch, Delhomme throws directly above the diminutive Smith, who had to betray the momentum of his run, leap and stretch to attempt to get his hands on it. The inaccurate throw (with, again, plenty of time to set up) led to the tip, not a problem with Smith's hands. A 30-yard return and six plays later, the Bills take a 14-2 lead on a Lee Evans reception. Like Interception No. 1, a completed pass would have put the Panthers close to field goal range, but let's be generous and call this one a seven-point swing as well.

Interception No. 3 -- 2nd-and-14, Buffalo 49. Down 20-9 with 1:30 left in the fourth, it's desperation time. A lot has to be done to erase the deficit, but a quick touchdown makes it plausible. Once again, Delhomme has a ton of time (approximately 3.1 seconds on a shotgun snap), and again tries to hit Barnidge about 40 yards downfield. This time, however, Barnidge is covered by two men on a go route. It's a questionable choice for any quarterback to force that ball, but an elite few can drop it into such a tight spot. Delhomme isn't one of them. He overthrows Barnidge by two or three yards, into the waiting hands of George Wilson, who promptly drops at the Bills' 6-yard line where his offense could kneel three times and walk off the field victorious. In that situation you take your chances, but Delhomme had two much safer options on the left sideline in single coverage, where each receiver could have picked up a sizable amount of yards and stopped the clock to boot, instead of going for a home run on one throw to the middle of the field. It's too far of a reach to guess whether the Panthers would have eventually scored had Delhomme made one of those throws, especially given the irrelevancy of a field goal in those circumstances, so we'll give Delhomme the benefit of the doubt and call this a zero-point swing.

Still, that's a 14-point swing based on three Delhomme throws, enough to have made the difference in a potential Panthers' win. The Panthers' only problem isn't Delhomme, they're underachieving elsewhere, but does anyone doubt that with a better quarterback this team would at least have a shot at .500?

Instead, John Fox has reportedly already intimated that he expects to be fired after the year, and talk is already swirling of Bill Cowher swooping in and taking control of the franchise. It's partially the fault of the Panthers front office for committing to Delhomme with a five-year, $42.5 million extention despite his foreboding clunker in the playoffs against the Cardinals last year. But in the end it was on Delhomme to prove that he could pass the test in rebounding from that performance. He passed it, all right, directly into the waiting hands of Cold Reality.