IronyAbounds

Just goes to show that the front office remains inept. Rob Ryan's defenses have been terrible as have the teams he has coached for. If this doesn't convince everyone that Rex Ryan is a con artist of the highest order then nothing will.

So an OC with a team that leads the league, or is close to the league lead in 3 and outs is the Coordinator of the Year? Wow.

Hmmmm, listening to the clips from Rex and somehow all I hear is BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH. Yes Rex, we know you want to win for the community. How about extracting your head from your ass and actually do it instead of talking about it. As we learned from all your blather this year, words are cheap you asshat.

That pretty much sums it up for me. I don't want NE to win, other than that I have about as much interest in the NFL playoffs as I do the WNBA playoffs.

People seem to be in agreement that Mario's saved cap money, and that of a few other of the Bills' B list players (excluding EJ since cutting him saves $0) will be used to resign Glenn and Incognito and pick up a few B list players from other teams. What baffles me is that people think that tinkering with this roster with a few B list players is suddenly going to transform this team into a playoff team. Perhaps on a planet where Rex Ryan is suddenly transformed from a blowhard buffoon into a competent head coach, but not on Planet Earth. The Bills are going to need more than just a few B list replacements for their B list cuts to make the playoffs. Perhaps the money spent on McCoy wouldn't accomplish that, but it would help a little. If Dareus doesn't revert to prime form next year the big hurt will be the cap hit he causes. Frankly, as long as the Bills are stuck with Ryan, it's just shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Odd that the 2 seeds both seem to have the easiest road to the Super Bowl. Also odd that Minnesota screwed itself by winning. It's a pisser that the team with the best chance of knocking off New England (Pittsburgh) is on the other side of the bracket, but in reality, given the injuries to NE and most of the other teams' QBs, the AFC really looks extremely average this year. In any event, until the Bills are involved in the playoffs, I could not care less. Just going to have to double up on the good luck charms for next year I guess. Surely the drought can't last 17 years can it? Sigh.

My thoughts exactly, although you're a bit easy on the Asshat head coach.

For the most part, the people who buy sports franchise are just insanely rich people who have the money it takes to buy the team, but they almost always earned their money in other types of businesses. A sports franchise is not just another business and success in one area of business does not necessarily translate into success in the sports business. Also, given the NFL's socialist system, even crappy teams like the Bills make money, so while the team may be unsuccessful on the field they are likely still making money or appreciating in value, or both. Sports franchises are mostly toys for their ultra rich owners. The best sports franchise owners are the ones who buy the team, hire good personnel to run it and just sit back and watch the money roll in. If the Pegulas depended the opinions of Brandon and/or Whaley to hire Rex, then the stupid hiring is not their fault, although they should look at is as an indication of the quality of management that Brandon and/or Whaley bring to the table. I can understand the Pegulas getting conned by Ryan, but it is unforgiveable if Brandon did.

Thus sayeth the Ravens and the Rams, two teams with a combined record of 12-18. Perhaps the Rams should petition the NFL to take the Seahawks place in the playoffs. Sometimes teams just matchup against another team and can beat them. Head to head record only counts in tie-breakers. Any sensible person would judge the Jets as a better team than the Bills this year no matter what happens Sunday.

Hence the origins of this thread. Only in the Homer Universe would you find people who think that Rex is anything other than a lousy head coach, or that Rex's departure from the Jets wasn't beneficial to the Jets, or that the 10-5 Jets are somehow equal to or worse than the 7-8 Buffalo Bills, or that the two games against different opponents make all the difference between the two teams' years. In these people's minds Rex is an upper level head coach and the Bills are a playoff team that only missed the playoffs because of their schedule and injuries. Never mind that the Bills could only muster a 4-4 record against the two worst divisions in football (with losses to Jacksonville on a neutral field and an Eagles team in disarray), or that they pissed away the KC game, had to struggle to beat a horrendous Titans team, lead the league in penalties, have seen their defense go from elite to porous, lead the league in 3 and outs, and only beat the Jets the first time by 5 points despite winning the turnover battle 4-0.

So the Ravens are better than the Steelers? The Rams better than the Seahawks? Injuries no doubt hampered the Bills, but post-bye up until the Dallas game the teams was, relatively speaking, healthy given the natural attrition attendant to the NFL. Prior to the Dallas game, the Bills were 3-4 post-bye. Hard to pin it all on injuries. As for Rex, two things: 1. The thought that Rex "REALLY wanted to be part of this team and community" is just nonsense. That was all Rex's con job on the Pegulas and the Bills' fans. Fraud in the inducement. What he REALLY wanted a was a job since he had be unceremoniously been fired by the team that is on the cusp of a playoff bid this year. 2. The thought that Rex as a first year coach needed to have a year to get his system in place is also nonsense. He had the personnel to run a quality defense using the scheme that was already in place. Rex said, again as part of his con job, that he wouldn't impose his system on the personnel if it wasn't the right thing to do. Yet he did from the get go and ruined the defense. He flat out lied. He is just a blowhard jerk who talks a good game but is incompetent as a head coach.

It is the motivating factor for the Bills, which is exactly why it is so pathetic. 16 years without the playoffs, but we get to play spoiler and beat Rex's old team (which has improved this year without Rex while the Bills have regressed with him) - Yippeeee!!!!!!!!!!

The Rex apologists are out in force, and the stupidity hurts. His "scheme" worked with a Ray Lewis led Ravens' defense, and it worked for a couple of years with a Jets team that Ryan didn't build, but for the last five years it has been in the bottom half of the league for points allowed, he is a sub .500 head coach, he has flat out lied (promised not to impose his "scheme" on the team if the personnel didn't dictate use of it), been a complete jackass in his selection of captains, filled the roster and coaching staff with rejects from his failed Jets' teams, has had horrible game management, and overall been an absolute douche bag. And why does having a reputation for having players love him signify he is a good head coach? There is no evidence that they have played harder or smarter because the "love" Rex. Sorry, but at some point Rex and his myoptic apologists can't keep blaming everyone else for his failures. 5 straight non-winning seasons speaks volumes, and why shouldn't Rex be held accountable?

Hiring Rex was simply a stupid move that was sold to newbie owners by Brandon, who is completely worthless, and the con man himself, Asshat Ryan. Rex might have salvaged the situation if he had stayed true to his word and not tried to impose a scheme on personnel that were not suited for it. The Bills D under Pettine was ok, but not elite. It was the switch to the 4-3 that resulted in last year's quality defense. The personnel on this team simply aren't suited for Rex's defense, but he is such an ego maniac that he couldn't help himself and he had to impose his system on player unsuited to play it. Remember, this wasn't a case of Rex taking over after a disaster season. Marrone left of his own accord after the first winning season in quite some time. This should not have been a rebuilding year, but now, after scattered ruins remain after Rex's bomb of a first season, the team faces the need for a complete revamp at a time when it has salary cap issues. It is as though Rex was a secret agent sent by Jon Bon Jovi to destroy the Bills as retribution for that clown not getting the Bills.

Yes as to Rex not being HC material - 100%% agree. No, as to having a beer with the guy. He is the quintessential self-absorbed !@#$ who has to be the center of attention, always puffing, always bloviating, always selling something, in his case, himself. I couldn't drink my beer fast enough and get the hell out of the bar if I had to spend time with that asshat.

Let's assume we aren't able to get all of the cancer, what next?

At least Pittsburgh winning made today a tiny bit easier to take, and since I don't like the Steelers, that isn't easy to say.

I'm not as hurt, but a hell of a lot angrier. Williams, Mularky, Jauron, Gailey and Marrone weren't great coaches, although every one of them were better than Asshat Ryan, but at least they weren't blowhards blowing smoke up your ass 24/7 like the clown at the helm now. Ryan proved he was incompetent at NY, which makes his hire doubly vexing. I realize Levy wasn't particularly successful at KC in his first NFL head coaching gig, but KC improved bit by bit, unlike the Jets under Ryan, who had early success then fell into clown status by Ryan's last year. Plus, Levy took some time off before becoming Buffalo's coach, so perhaps he learned something in that time. Ryan, on the other hand, kept blaming others for the Jets' problems and continued his snake oil salesman act and conned the Pegulas into hiring him.

Team stinks, fans get pessimistic, fans' pessimism makes team stink? Don't think so. It's simply bad decision after bad decision, and the hiring of Rex is simply another in a long list of boneheaded decisions.

Why would a Bills' fan give a rat's arse who wins the Super Bowl? The any team but the Cheats is appealing, but honestly, if it ain't Buffalo playing, I simply do not care. In fact, I am pissed that the Super Bowl sucks the oxygen out of the air and all you hear about is the gawd damn Super Bowl. It has become my least favorite day of year, edging out April 15th.

I know it's Rodak, and people like to shoot the messenger, but this article is Exhibit A on why Rex Ryan is just a blowhard con artist who bedazzled the inept owners and front office of the Bills into hiring an incompetent head coach (and one almost universally ridiculed on this Board as the Jets' head coach prior to his hiring by the Bills). The quote about not changing the defense and going with the personnel's strength is perhaps the most obvious example of Rex just blowing smoke (or flat out lying through his teeth). Given his contract, the Bills are stuck with this clown for at least another year or two. Perhaps they will fall to such lows they will get the #1 pick in a bumper year for QBs. That may end up being the only positive out of the Ryan Era.

What about 64 and 65? Would have been great to have had a Lake Erie Super Bowl in 64 - Bills vs. Browns, Cookie vs. Jim Brown.

With respect to the over/under at the beginning of the year, what that failed to take into account was the fact that the AFC South and NFC East turned out to be the two most putrid divisions in football, and certainly with respect to the NFC East, that was unexpected. The Bills already have 3 losses against those teams (with 2 games to go), when at most it should be 1. So when the preseason over/under was 8.5, if you factored in what ended up being a pretty easy schedule, at would have been 10.5. Next season the schedule is unlikely to be as easy, so consider 2015 a blown opportunity, with the main blower being the big mouth head coach whose promises have been completely unfulfilled.

And yet, since the bye week the team has been relatively healthy and only gone 3-3 against mostly week opponents (including a loss to NE which was far more injured than the Bills were). There are always some injuries on every team. If the injuries were the reason for the disappointing first part of the year, the second part would be going much better than it is.

Let's go to the tape: This will be his third straight year in the playoffs (out of his 5 years as head coach - this will be Rex's 5th straight not making the playoffs ). This is his second year with at least 12 wins in the regular season (something Rex has yet to achieve). Is Rivera a Lombardi or a Bellicheat? Not likely, but I'd sure take him over Ryan every time.