Poor Todd Bowles. He had no chance. Rex Ryan was going to eat him alive, then pick his teeth with his bones. Maybe not on the football field when the Jets and Bills played in Rex’s old stomping grounds, but in the hype before, during and after.
Bowles lost the hype game. He also lost the real game, 22-17 on Thursday night, and that had to hurt. The praise for the new, post-Ryan, calm-thinking, clear-headed Jets turned out to be premature. So was the image of Bowles straightening the Jets out and showing how overdue he was to get a job like this.
MORE: Week 10 Power Rankings | Bills' defense helps Ryan get revenge in Meadowlands
Not that he doesn’t deserve it — not at all. But yikes, he forgot to bring some of his coaching smarts to the Meadowlands. His team was a mess, but he didn’t help them with some of his decisions. The less said about the third-down play call in the final minutes with the game on the line, the better.
That’s how Rex Ryan ended up able to revert to the guy Jets watchers had known for six years, and had mostly had their fill of by the time he was fired after last season.
After the game, Rex talked the talk. And everybody listened, because during the game, his team backed it up, sort of. His Bills just played less bad than the Jets did. But that was good enough.
Good enough for him to tell reporters of his return: “It’s kind of like being dumped by some girl you had the hots for. Every guy in the room has been dumped by some girl before. That’s what it feels like.’’
Pause. “You move on. Every now and then, they call you back.’’ Another pause. “They can’t get you back.’’
Lots of what else he said will go viral, if it hasn’t already, like the flurry of F-bombs after the game-clinching interception, and the explanation for his very-delayed arrival on the field before the game (“You guys made it all about me … It had jack s— to do with me”). Or the explanation for naming IK Enemkpali, who broke Geno Smith’s jaw, as a captain.
“It would have been a story had I not named him captain," Ryan said. But wasn’t rewarding him like that setting a bad example? “It’s a bad example to judge people, that’s what's a bad example," he retorted.
MORE: Jets' worst first-round draft picks | 'Color Rush' uniforms make it difficult for colorblind people to view 'TNF"
Ryan’s new team followed his old team’s blueprint to the letter. His Jets won more games than they probably should have over the years because he did outrageous things to shift attention onto himself and take pressure off the team. He pushed whatever emotional and motivational buttons he could find on his players.
It sounds so amateurish sometimes to see and hear all the plaudits about how he’s a players’ coach and they go hard for him. But then they do it, and gush with praise for him when it works. The Bills did it Thursday night, against a team that, on the whole, had been steadier, smarter and more composed all year, using Bowles’ blueprint.
The Jets, though, did a lot to give the game to the Bills. Bowles’ Jets fell apart, like many of Ryan’s lesser teams did … with Bowles’ help this time. It wasn’t a reversal of roles as much as a dose of reality for a team still in transition.
Rex jumping around, pumping his fists and screaming unprintables at the end? That’s the Bills’ reality.
“I forgot I did it," Ryan said. “But it was real."