The Buffalo Bills are one day removed from their second loss of the season, and head coach Rex Ryan updated the media on a few topics Monday.
What were the biggest takeaways from the press conference? Here are five of them:
1) Rex takes more accountability for penalties
- The biggest story stemming from the 24-10 loss to the New York Giants has a lot to do with the penalties the team took — 17 of them for 135 yards, to be exact. After the game, Rex Ryan was adamant that he was proud of his team, essentially eschewing the team from a large amount of accountability for such a high number of penalties. Something changed with Ryan, and he started to acknowledge that his team had a problem. The head coach told reporters that the penalties are something that keeps him up at night in trying to figure out how to fix it. He also took responsibility for all the personal foul calls, 13 in total, from the season, agreeing that it all starts with him and his approach. How do the Bills fix the problem? Ryan said he has some ideas and first wants to discuss it with his players. He also didn’t rule out the idea of benching players for it as well. Either way, the Bills are acknowledging all the calls against them were an internal problem, and one they have to sort out immediately.
2) Hughes can’t be a ‘vigilante’
- Stemming from the discussion on penalties, the topic of Jerry Hughes was brought up. Hughes, the team’s starting right defensive end, has been flagged four different times in 2015 for a personal foul call. He also picked up another two of them Sunday against the New York Giants. Ryan acknowledged that there is a problem, saying that his players can’t react to not getting a call on one play by playing outside of the rules, essentially with their own justice system, on a future play. On Hughes, he said, “A vigilante, we don’t need that.”
3) Rex seems fine with the quick throw opposition
- For the second time in two weeks, the Bills have lost a game in which the opposing quarterback was taking an average of two seconds or less to get the ball out in his pass attempts. The Giants, like the Patriots, had a fair amount of success in the passing game early on, and it helped them to an early lead. Ryan was asked what kind of changes they can institute for it, the head coach essentially said they were fine with that attack against them, because it limits how many routes can be run by the receivers. While that much is true, the Bills still need to play up on the receivers, or, need to figure out how to get their front four involved more than they have been. To this point, they have been neutralized against the pass.
4) No news on Sammy, McCoy
- Those hoping for some good news on either wide receiver Sammy Watkins or on running back LeSean McCoy will have to wait at least another day. Watkins, who sat out Week 4 with a calf injury, was said to be moving around pretty well according to the head coach, but that he also has “no idea” on the updated status of the receiver. The same story goes for McCoy, minus the moving around well part. There was a pregame report that indicated the Bills could be without McCoy for three-to-four weeks because of his hamstring injury. The Bills players will reconvene on Tuesday for meetings at One Bills Drive.
5) Gray fractures forearm, Rambo update
- The Bills did not escape the loss to the Giants without injury. According to Ryan, backup tight end MarQueis Gray fractured a bone in his forearm, but it has yet to be determined how long he’ll be out of action. Adding to the news, shortly after the press conference, Gray tweeted this:
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— MarQueis Gray (@MarQueisG) October 5, 2015
Besides Gray, safety Bacarri Rambo suffered a quad injury and the Bills have yet to find out how long he’ll be out for. Other than that duo, the Bills didn’t include any other injuries from the game.
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