As one of the original AFL owners, Ralph Wilson has been around pro football for 50 years. And as owner of the Buffalo Bills — a franchise that hasn’t won a championship since 1965 — Wilson has been long on patience.

But even a Hall of Fame owner has his breaking point.

Wilson reached it last week when his Bills were routed by Tennessee, 41-17, to fall to 3-6. So he fired head coach Dick Jauron and named defensive coordinator Perry Fewell as the interim replacement.

If Wilson was hoping to jump-start the Bills and spark a second-half run at the playoffs, he’s already too late.

Since the AFL came into existence in 1960, there have been 71 interim coaching hires in pro football. Only one rallied his team to the playoffs — the first one.

In 1961, with the Houston Oilers struggling along at 1-3-1, Bud Adams replaced Lou Rymkus with Wally Lemm. The Oilers went on a 10-game winning streak, capped by a 10-3 victory over San Diego in the AFL title game.

Only one other team reached the postseason with an interim coach: the 1978 New England Patriots. But the Patriots had already clinched a playoff berth with an 11-4 record when Chuck Fairbanks walked away as head coach with one game remaining in the regular season.

Co-interim coaches Ron Erhardt and Hank Bullough combined to lose the finale, and the Patriots then suffered first-round playoff elimination.

Only four of the remaining 69 teams rebounded under interim coaches to have winning seasons: the Patriots under Mike Holovak in 1961 (9-4-1), San Diego under Don Coryell in 1978 (9-7), the Patriots again under Raymond Berry in 1984 (9-7) and Detroit under Gary Moeller in 2000 (9-7).

Subtract Lemm’s nine regular-season victories and the 70 interim coaches since 1960 have a combined 159-353-4 record — a dismal .312 winning percentage.

The ’09 Bills were doomed to struggle in the second half of the season whether it was Jauron, Fewell or Vince Lombardi coaching. Wilson knew that when he made the move.

History has already taught Wilson that firing a coach during the season is merely waving the white flag. Wilson has done it three times before in his ownership, and all three interim coaches were failures — at least for the short term.

In 1976,Wilson fired Lou Saban after a 2-3 start. Interim coach Jim Ringo went 0-9 the rest of the way. In 1985, Wilson fired Kay Stephenson after an 0-2 start. Bullough went 2-10 the rest of the way. Then in 1986, Wilson fired Bullough after a 2-7 start. Marv Levy went 2-5 the rest of the way.

In the short term, Ringo, Bullough and Levy all flopped. But in the long term, Levy was a rousing success. He coached the Bills to the AFC title game by the 1988 season and the Super Bowl by 1990. Levy is now in the Hall of Fame along with Wilson.

Maybe Wilson sees the next Levy in Fewell. He knows 2009 is already a lost cause. That’s why he fired Jauron.

Around the AFC

•The Denver Broncos have blown a three-game lead in the AFC West, losing their last three games to fall into a tie with San Diego at 6-3. The culprit has been Denver’s run defense. The Broncos have allowed 100-yard rushing games the last two weeks to Rashard Mendenhall of the Steelers and Ladell Betts of the Redskins. Ray Rice ran for 87 yards and a touchdown three weeks ago in Baltimore’s victory, which started Denver on its slide. If you can’t stop the run, you can’t control the clock. That means fewer scoring opportunities. The Broncos had the ball for 27 minutes or less in all three of those losses. Now the Broncos face San Diego’s perennial Pro Bowler LaDainian Tomlinson, who is coming off his best game of the season, a 96-yard, two-touchdown performance against Philadelphia. He has five career 100-yard games against the Broncos, including a 220-yard game in 2002.

•The New England Patriots will attempt to rebound from a difficult 35-34 loss to the Indianapolis Colts last Sunday. The Patriots have not lost back-to-back games since November 2006. They hope to avoid that fate Sunday when they host the New York Jets. The last time the Patriots lost back-to-backers was to the Colts and Jets. “It’s the same for us every week,” Patriots QB Tom Brady said. “We put a lot into each week and there’s not a lot left in the tank. What we have in our tank, we put out there on the field. It gets drained after one week and then we have to fill it back up the next week. That’s what we’re doing now.” The Patriots lost the first meeting of the season to the Jets, 16-9, in September. But New England didn’t have Pro Bowl WR Wes Welker that game. He has caught a whopping 52 passes, including four for touchdowns, in the six games since he’s been back.

•The Cincinnati Bengals control their destiny in the AFC North. They sit alone atop the division with a 7-2 record and hold the tiebreaker on both Pittsburgh and Baltimore, having swept both teams this season. After emotional back-to-back victories over the Ravens and Steelers, it might be difficult for the Bengals to dial it back up Sunday for the 2-7 Raiders. For those players who think they can win this game on form, Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis has two words for his Bengals: Philadelphia Eagles. The Raiders rocked the Eagles, 13-9, in October. “It doesn’t matter who you’re playing against,” Lewis said, “it’s a guy who is getting paid just like you are. You’ve got to respect that and respond to that. This is a football team that beat the stuffing out of Philadelphia when they (the Eagles) were riding high.”

So we’ve got to play football the way we know how to play it.”

Around the NFC

•The New York Giants caught a huge break during their bye week; they didn’t fall any farther behind in the NFC East race. The Giants arrived at their bye week reeling with a four-game losing streak, falling out of first place all the way to third, behind Dallas and Philadelphia. But while the Giants were off last week, the Cowboys and Eagles were losing. So the Giants resume play tied with the Eagles for second place at 5-4, a game behind the 6-3 Cowboys. And the Giants have home games remaining against Dallas and Philadelphia. “The most important thing to me is our team, the word ‘opportunity,’ and the fact that what we do is the most important thing of all,” Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. “This is the National Football League. It’s mid- to late November. Things happen in our league. It’s just the nature of the business that, with the caliber of teams, on a weekly basis anybody is capable of beating anybody else. That’s the way it is. So the important thing to me, again, is team. Now, what can we do with the seven games remaining on our schedule?” The first of those comes Sunday at home against Atlanta.

•The Eagles visit Chicago to play the struggling Bears. Chicago has lost two in a row and four of its last five. Bears QB Jay Cutler has thrown twice as many interceptions (12) as touchdown passes (six) in the last five games. But the Eagles have a major issue themselves. With Pro Bowl running back Brian Westbrook having suffered his second concussion in a month last week against San Diego, he may be out for a while. A long while. That leaves the running game in the hands of rookie LeSean McCoy. When he’s been featured, McCoy has delivered. He started in place of the injured Westbrook against the Chiefs and Giants. He rushed 20 times for 84 yards and a touchdown against Kansas City, and 11 times for 82 yards and a score against New York. “He’s excited about the opportunity to jump in there and be the guy,” Eagles coach Andy Reid said.

•New Orleans is back on the road in its quest for perfection. The Saints take a 9-0 record to Tampa Bay on Sunday. “We’re trying to be spoilers to everybody else,” Bucs coach Raheem Morris said. “We were given a top-four schedule in terms of difficulty. It’s been fun. We have a chance to play all the best teams.” Thus far the best teams have prevailed. The Bucs are 1-8 with losses to Dallas, New England, the New York Giants and Philadelphia.