If there is one thing we know from last year, it’s that when it mattered most the Bills managed to beat themselves… a lot.
Yellow flags were a common sight a season ago. Buffalo was flagged a league-leading 168 times, and 143 penalties were accepted against them. That tied for most in the NFL – an honor shared with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who finished 6-10.
Well, you know what they say about old habits: They die hard.
For all intents and purposes, day two of Bills training camp was sloppy – offsides was a common theme -- and Rex Ryan was none too happy when meeting with reporters after practice.
If the Bills are going to become an elite squad, they’ve got to avoid falling back into bad tendencies now and avoid a repeat come September.
It’s about discipline.
“That’s something when you look back on last year, obviously some of the things that we’ve got to get a heck of a lot. That is obviously the penalties. And those self-inflicted ones which is jumping offsides, false starts, late hits. You know those are things that we know we can clean up and we have to clean up,” Ryan said.
A year ago Ryan tried pushups. He even gave players “Yes Sir” bands to keep emotions in check to curtail penalties. By the time the final three weeks of the season rolled around it was too little, too late.
Starting Monday the head coach is going ”old school” to get his message across.
“I think it’s best that, you know, we’re going to start running laps. That was the old, my old coach used to have you do that and it seemed to work then so we’re going to go back to it.”
Rex Ryan said for self-inflicted penalties, lap running will be doled out here at training camp #Bills
— Joe Buscaglia (@JoeBuscaglia) July 31, 2016
Artist rendering of tomorrow's #Bills practice pic.twitter.com/Vw6pZtfML4
— Joe Buscaglia (@JoeBuscaglia) July 31, 2016
 |
Live video, the latest news and no surveys - download the WKBW app |
 |
News, forecast and Bills newsletters delivered to your e-mail inbox |
