I voted for Gruden because I don't necessarily swear it was Gruden himself, but i honestly think he thought he had someone lined up before he fired Dooley. He finally pulled the trigger, and was working this in the background and it fell through.
I have no idea if it was due to incompetence on his part, an issue with something in the "front office," or extremely unrealistic demands/expectations on the candidate's part, but it fell through and now he is in a mad scramble and figures if he says anything without a kill of some sort on the plate he will look stupid.
Kind of like when Caveman go out and feels he has a mammoth to bring home but only ends up with a squirrel, with one leg missing...