REX MACHINE
Ryan off to fast start with Bills
ORCHARD PARK — Everything went Rex Ryan’s way Sunday afternoon. And, not surprisingly, he was happy to talk about it.
“[The fans] knew it was going to be a special day,” Ryan said after the Bills cruised to a 2714 victory over the Colts in Ryan’s first game as the team’s coach, “and so did I.”
No, Ryan hasn’t changed much since he was summarily dismissed by Woody Johnson last December after six seasons with the Jets, including missing the playoffs in each of the final four. But the Bills didn’t hire Ryan to be someone else. They hired him to give this team — and its fan base — the booster shot of confidence both needed following 15 years of ineptitude.
And, for at least one week, Ryan’s Bills played the way he always has preached he wants his teams to — by controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.
The Bills ran the ball 36 times for 147 yards, only throwing it 19 and taking the pressure off Tyrod Taylor in his first NFL start. Meanwhile, Buffalo’s defensive line — missing suspended AllPro defensive lineman Marcell Dareus — harassed Andrew Luck throughout the game, sacking him twice and forcing him into a pedestrian performance (26for49 for 243 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions) as the Bills easily dispatched one of the AFC’s preseason favorites to make the Super Bowl.
“Fantastic feeling,” Ryan said of getting a win in his first game here. “Absolutely fantastic.
“I gave the game ball to [Bills owner Terry Pegula] … he had the courage to hire me, and that probably wasn’t easy to do. But he did, and it wasn’t what I bring. It’s the staff that we put together, the vision that we have as an organization, that’s what’s going to make it work.
“But, man, am I proud to be the coach of the Bills.”
Ryan pulled out every trick in his playbook after this one. He repeatedly praised the hometown crowd at Ralph Wilson Stadium, saying the fans were so loud that it created mistakes for his defense. He said he told his players Saturday night that, “you guys are going to find out why Percy Harvin’s here,” after the former Jet streaked down the right sideline and caught a 51yard touchdown pass from Taylor, who went 14for19 for 195 yards and that touchdown to open the scoring at the end of the first quarter.
Ryan also created an alternate reality, as he’s capable of doing. When asked about former Bills coach Lou Saban, the coach of the 1965 AFL championship Bills team who was named to the franchise’s Wall of Fame Sunday afternoon, Ryan said Saban was “a phenomenal coach, and his kid is pretty decent, too.”
Ryan was referring, of course, to Alabama head coach Nick Saban. The problem with that? Well, Nick Saban isn’t Lou Saban’s son — or related to him at all, in fact.
But that was only a minor and amusing footnote on a day that marked the beginning of the most anticipated season around these parts in quite some time. The Bills set a record for season ticket sales this summer despite having a leagueleading playoff drought of 15 years — back when Bill Clinton was still president and Odell Beckham, Jr. was seven years old.
“The message is clear,” Ryan said. “When I think about this football team, the personnel we have here, the organization … we feel great about this team, and we also feel the responsibility not to let our fans down.”
Only time will tell if Ryan can do with the Bills what he promised — but ultimately failed to deliver — with the Jets. But the Rex Ryan Era in Buffalo could not have gotten off to a better start.