Buffalo Bills: Rex Ryan Feels Good About Team Despite Stinker in Detroit
By Paul Taylor
The Buffalo Bills ended the preseason in disappointing fashion, but head coach Rex Ryan remains confident in his team ahead of the opening weekend in Baltimore.
The Buffalo Bills finished their preseason with a whimper, as the Detroit Lions roared to a 31-0 win on Thursday night. Yes, the game didn’t matter much, but it still doesn’t instil much confidence when the other team’s backups and third-stringers dominate your backups and third-stringers.
In that respect, Rex Ryan admitted to the media afterwards, that his team played poorly: “Obviously it was a really disappointing game – I mean, it was a stinker.
“Detroit played extremely well, so I tip my hat to them, they were a more physical team. They did everything — offense, defense — shoot, they handed it to us pretty good.”
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However, in typical Rex Ryan fashion (and we’re not knocking him for it on this occasion), he was still able to come away with a positive perspective: “Like I told the team, this was more of an individual game, trying to evaluate guys.
“(We wanted to) put them in certain situations where we could evaluate guys. From that, I think we got a pretty good idea of working out who’s going to be on the roster.”
As you would expect from the way things have gone for the Bills during the last few months, the game wasn’t without some casualties. Jerel Worthy, James Wilder Jr. (concussion), Blake Annen (neck) and Colt Anderson (foot) all had to leave with injuries, with only Worthy returning to action.
Another player forced to leave the game was Marquis Lucas, who suffered an ankle injury. Combined with EJ Manuel having to at times run for his life in the first half, the Bills’ head coach was asked how concerned he was about the depth of the offensive line.
Ryan said: “I feel good about our depth, as long as we’re healthy. I mean if Seantrel (Henderson) comes back, that’s obviously a big plus having him.
“I thought (Cyrus) Kouandjio had an outstanding training camp, I feel great about him. I thought (Ryan) Groy did a good job for the most part and we just picked up this young man from Seattle, Patrick Lewis…I’m excited to see what he can do.”
Regardless of Ryan’s confidence in the offensive line, he still acknowledged they played poorly against Detroit. As such, he admitted it made it hard to evaluate Cardale Jones, who was returning after a week off.
Ryan said: “We could have had Jim Kelly back there today with that type of protection and we still would have been in trouble…One thing I love about him is he competes and he kept competing, but I wish we had been able to protect him a little better.”
Further extending to just how important a solid offensive line is to a team, the 53-year admitted he couldn’t even comment on how the receivers performed: “I couldn’t evaluate them for this game guys, for the simple fact that I didn’t know what kind of route it was.
“I just knew we couldn’t throw the ball, because of the pressure we were getting. I really can’t tell you how well they played today, I really can’t.”
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Moving forward, Ryan says there is a very good chance the team will know their 53-man roster before the end of Friday: “I think there’s a real strong possibility of that.”
However, the Admore, Oklahoma native did qualify this by adding: “It won’t really be finalized until the following week. However, we’ll go into it assuming we’re not adding anybody or whatever.”
Of course, the media being the media, Ryan was asked if anyone surprised him and stood out during preseason, who will now be in line to make the team. However, the Bills head coach wasn’t biting.
Ryan said: “I’m not going to tell you who. (However), I feel like there’s some guys that played well enough, that earned the right to make the team.”
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What did you take away from the Bills final preseason game in Detroit? More importantly, how much confidence do you have in the team, ahead of their visit to Baltimore in Week 1? Let us know in the comments section below.