Decked out in an eye-burning Christmas sweater, Rex Ryan on Wednesday took blame for a Buffalo defense that hasn't lived up to the offseason bluster.
The Bills coach summed up a unit that ranks 30th in sacks, saying point blank, per The Buffalo News: "We haven't been the dominant unit any of us anticipated."
"I set the expectations high, but I always set them high," Ryan said. "I'm the guy it should fall on. I don't point fingers."
Ryan wasn't done, telling the room: "This is the first time I've ever been considered the weakness of the team, the way I coach defense."
Rex's much-ballyhood "exotic" blitz scheme has produced just 19 sacks on the season despite a star-studded -- and massively expensive -- roster including Mario Williams, Marcell Dareus, Jerry Hughes and, before his season-ending knee injury, Kyle Williams.
With the same players, ex-coordinator Jim Schwartz milked a league-leading 54 sacks out of the Bills last season after former Ryan lieutenant Mike Pettine coaxed a franchise-best 57 takedowns from the club in 2013.
"The stats are ugly. We don't expect to get the numbers like that. It's certainly not what we expected," said Ryan, before acknowledging: "Maybe I set the expectations too high, so that's my mistake."
This is where we are with Rex Ryan in mid-December. Weekly sessions with the media offer either outrageous promises and streams of bloviation or windy mea culpas from a coach who spent the offseason telling Buffalo's fan base that his Bills were ready to compete with the big boys of the AFC.
Their 6-7 record is no fluke, but that didn't stop Rex from telling us after Sunday's loss to the Eagles that Buffalo was the better team.Â
We've heard it all before, but Ryan's pretty words are losing their sway. Press conference fever dreams aside, Rex has failed to deliver.
