“It’s nearly a little competitive advantage of having a little mystery going into Sunday”, center Eric Wood said with a sly smile, insinuating that maybe this upheaval can work in the Bills’ favor. So you got [Cardinals coach] Bruce Arians this week and [Patriots coach Bill] Belichick next week.
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Rex Ryan remains the Bills’ defensive play-caller and Dennis Thurman remains the defensive coordinator, but Rob Ryan has played a part in preparing the Bills’ defensive players.
No matter how you look at it, Ryan is on the hot seat.
You know what the Bills need?
And later that day he scape-goated, er, fired offensive coordinator Greg Roman.
You know what the Bills might need?
It was odd timing in that the Bills had scored 31 points – granted, one of their four touchdowns was logged by the defense – considering Ryan’s “D” had surrendered 37 and its alleged “shut down” corners had been embarrassed by former Buffalo QB Ryan Fitzpatrick and his Jets receivers.
Sure, Roman’s firing could generate some fire inside the players. Forget Arizona for a moment and think long term because the games don’t get any easier.
Time will ultimately tell us, but while Ryan and co. have two tough tests ahead, he still has to spend time plugging holes on his ship that’s taking on water – and fast. After all, the Bills can’t just tear up the playbook and start from scratch.
“Obviously I’ve never been 0-2 in my National Football League career so I never really knew how to feel, but I feel rotten”, he admitted. He publicly criticized several of his players and said, among other things, “we can be a (heck) of a lot better”.
Things were slightly better in Week 2 against the New York Jets when Buffalo put up 31 points, but production remained sporadic; Buffalo shined on just a handful of big plays and boosted its stats with the game out of reach.
“We want to be accurate with the football”, Bills coach Rex Ryan said.
Ryan said he considers it a positive that the Pegulas get involved, and added they don’t need his permission to speak to anyone because they own the team.
In many ways, the relationship between professional sports teams and the media is an awkward one.
“I’M VERY aware of some of those reports out there”, Ryan admitted.
What will be interesting to watch Sunday and in the weeks to come is whether Taylor develops more consistency to his game. Is that a sign that maybe Taylor is the problem, and Roman was scapegoated?
One area the Bills offense has struggled this year is staying on the field, and controlling the game clock from start to finish.
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“It’s going to be (Lynn’s) offense and we’ll be running what he wants to run”, said Wood. “We want to dictate to who we’re playing, how we’re going to play”.
