Buffalo Bills

Rex Ryan needs a miracle to save his job after the Bills' embarrassing loss to the Jets

Published Nov. 15, 2016 2:15 p.m. ET

Dieter Kurtenbach

Rex Ryan probably isn't going to be fired as the head coach of the Buffalo Bills tomorrow, but he confirmed that his exit is imminent Thursday night in a 37-31 home loss to the rival Jets.

In a season with high expectations, the Bills are 0-2. Whether the pink slip comes next week or in January, Ryan is done in upstate New York, and the only thing that can save him is a miraculous turnaround in the coming days.

In a contest between two evenly matched teams, the Jets won because Todd Bowles and his staff roundly outcoached Rex Ryan and his staff.

They didn’t even have to try that hard.

The Bills were dominated by the Jets for the majority of the game. Buffalo even handed New York a few advantages for good measure.

Buffalo took unnecessary timeouts that would come to haunt them late in the contest, consistently ran directly into the strength of the Jets’ defense, despite having success in the deep passing game, and defensively posed no threat to the Jets’ offense, which nearly had three 100-yard receivers, had a 100-yard rusher, and averaged 11 yards per pass attempt Thursday night.

The Bills have no pass rush and a secondary that isn’t as good as advertised. And while they supposedly have a pair of defensive mastermind brothers as their head coach and defensive coordinator, you perceived none of that brainpower watching Thursday’s game.

The Bills might have some injury problems, but that’s life in the NFL. Make no mistake, Buffalo has the players to contend for a playoff spot -- Thursday night proved that it doesn't have the coaching.

With Arizona and New England looming in Weeks 3 and 4, if those aforementioned problems aren’t solved in the coming days, the coaching issue will be.

Ryan -- who has been outspoken about his hot-seat status this season -- was quick to credit the Jets after Thursday’s loss. Why take the blame when you can deflect attention away with praise?

It was a wise move: If you were to look at the Bills, you’d have seen a team that was disorganized and undisciplined. It’s a small thing, but players in the bright red jerseys had terrible body language the entire game, too -- this squad clearly picked up on its coach’s cues.

There’s nothing to cheer for in Buffalo when it comes to the Bills -- there's no silver lining to be found -- and that, more than anything else, is an indictment of Ryan.

Last Sunday, Buffalo was able to muster only one flukey touchdown against the Ravens, losing 13-7.

Thursday, the Bills scored 31 points -- a total that should result in a good team winning nine out of 10 times, if not more.

Some -- including Ryan -- have tried to spin those losses as positives. They lost in two drastically different ways, but hey, if they put the defense from Game 1 together with the offense from Game 2, they’ll have something special brewing.

That's wishful thinking.

Even if Ryan could create a Frankenstein win at this point, it probably wouldn’t be enough to keep his job. It's difficult to do, but in the span of just two weeks, Ryan's team’s weaknesses have been totally exposed.

Ryan likely received a second year in Buffalo only because of two wins against the Jets last season -- rivalry games go a long way to winning over favor. The Bills don’t play the Jets again until Week 17. But given how the first contest went Thursday, don’t expect Ryan to be on the sideline for the New Year’s Day tilt.