I disagree. When a coach or lead player goes public -- to the national media -- and basically slaps you in the face with a challenge, you need to respond with force. Ryan called BB out on Sunday/Monday last week, and BB's response was to try and make a joke out of it. Didn't work. Didn't impress the Jets, and even more importantly, it didn't impress his own players.
By Ryan calling out Belichick, and Belichick's non-response, Ryan immediately got into the heads of the Patriots players. They began to secretly wonder if BB was *really* the guru and master -OR- if maybe Rex Ryan had replaced the Hooded One as the new grand master. That's the nature of a public challenge. You either answer it with force, or you lose face. It's not something that can be laughed away with one liners. BB got owned by Ryan a week ago, and it all played out that way yesterday. Super bummer.
BB was all business and NO smiles during those early years when he was winning, but now that he's gotten a few Lombardis, he seems to have gone soft. Maybe time to retire. He's got lots of dough, he doesn't need to just take up space by living off his past laurels, doing well in the regular season then choking in the play-offs. If he's going to let other coaches call him out, he's not going to win any more championships. Time to call it a career and go off into the sunset. There are hungry, smart, and tough coaches who are waiting in the wings.