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(PHOTO: ORCHARD PARK, NY - JANUARY 14: Rex Ryan speaks at a press conference announcing his arrival as head coach of the Buffalo Bills on January 14, 2015 at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York. (Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images)) Defiant Ryan Defends The Mess He Created
What is the difference between the Bills and the Jets that Rex Ryan coached for the past several years?…other than the color of their uniforms not much. One color that remains the same though is yellow.
The Bills once again shot themselves in the foot by taking stupid, undisciplined penalties, 17 in all like they did two weeks ago against the Patriots, where they had 14 enroute to a losing effort 24-10 against the Giants at home. At times it was almost painful to watch.
Ryan stated in the off-season that he wanted to create a bully in the AFC East, a team no one wanted to face. Raise your hand if you heard this before. Rex has built his bully all right and they’re an out-of-control, undisciplined mess.
And yet Ryan as defiant in loss as ever…raise your hand if you’ve heard this before as well, not only gives his team a pass on their play but defends it like it is some badge of honor.
“Well, I’m going to tell you something: I’m proud of the way this team played,” Ryan proclaimed after a debacle that saw not only one but two touchdowns called back because of penalties.
He then took a shot at the officiating while praising his team’s ‘fight’ further stating, “Give me a team that’s got some fight, and we’ll compete to the very end, right, wrong or indifferent. No matter how good the officiating is, or whatever.”
The Bills are leading the league with 47 called penalties in four games and many others that have been declined, yet Ryan defends this and has his players crying foul with the officials. That’s what happens when the lunatics run the asylum.
Preston Brown committed two personal fouls in a five play stretch and was clearly out of control and does Ryan pull him off the field? No, he remains out there, the message to him and the rest of the players is clear.
Does Ryan think it’s a problem? Obviously not. His Jets teams lost because they made mistakes over and over and were undisciplined with penalties. The Bills are already a mirror image of those teams. Those personal foul calls were not only warranted, much to the chagrin of the players but totally inexcusable. That reflects on their coaching.
In building a winning team, there is more to it than projecting a bully image and collecting talented players. There is the major factor of building a cohesive unit where the assembled group is better than their collective parts. And the coaching comes in where the head coach puts his players in a position to win buy playing to their strengths.
Ryan talks all the time about not being as good a coach as Bill Belichick, he’s got that right. Belichick would never allow a team to play out of control like that for a game let alone a quarter of the season.
“We had 17 penalties, two touchdowns called back, a fumble, all that kind of stuff,” said a defiant Ryan. “I’ve been a part of 20-some penalty performance by the Ravens, OK. And went on and we fixed it. We’ll fix it here.”
This Bills team looks good on paper but they’re not pretty to watch on the field. And just like Ryan’s Jets teams, they’ll win some games, play teams tough but they aren’t going to win anything meaningful. Not as long as Belichick and Tom Brady reside in this division.
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