All Rex Ryan could do before his team played the New England Patriots in Week 2 was talk about how they were going to be ready and weren’t afraid of Bill Belichick and his unmatched track record. Nearly two weeks after being handed a beating, Ryan still hasn’t gotten over it.
On Wednesday, a reporter asked Ryan about facing Eli Manning this weekend. Rex found a way to work the Patriots into the conversation.
“I like the fact that he beat (Tom) Brady twice. I like that,” he said, via Tyler Dunne of The Buffalo News. “I’m not all the way over the Brady butt-kicking he did against us.”
Ryan should be over his Week 2 loss by now, especially after destroying the Miami Dolphins last weekend on the road. He was then asked how he was able to get his players to refocus after getting clobbered by New England.
“We are who we are and we don’t need to apologize for it,” Ryan said. “Our emotions got the better of us but I loved how we battled back when a team was clearly trying to embarrass us. We scored three TD to their three points. We’ll see. We’ll play that one down the road.”
The 40-32 final was not indicative of how badly the Patriots manhandled the Bills. Brady threw for 466 yards — a record for any quarterback against the Bills — and tossed three touchdown passes. New England let its foot off the gas at the end and probably got too caught up trying to embarrass Buffalo, as Ryan alluded to.
Ryan knows his team has to face the Patriots again this season, which is why he has made remarks like this in the wake of the first matchup. But next time, it probably wouldn’t hurt to tone down the trash talk just a bit. It clearly motivated Belichick’s squad.
