Buffalo Bills

Rex Ryan regrets playoff guarantee: 'I let my mouth get ahead of everything'

Published Dec. 29, 2015 5:06 p.m. ET

foxsports

Let Rex Ryan serve as your daily reminder that you should never count your chickens before they hatch.

Earlier this week, the Bills head coach, known as much for his brash, outspoken personality as he is for his defensive brilliance, expressed regret for his preseason guarantee that the team would make the playoffs.

“I think we got a great thing going here. We just didn’t produce the wins I thought we would,” Ryan said to WGR 550 radio in Buffalo per ESPN. “The thing that kind of gives this team a black eye when we’re looking at it is that I let my mouth get ahead of everything. And I think if I would have come in there and just said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna compete,’ and do all that stuff, maybe we wouldn’t have such a bad feeling about this team.

“This team doesn’t deserve that,” Ryan said. “This team has fought, and they’ve played extremely hard. We’ve had a lot of things happen this year where we’ve felt, where we’ve came up short. There’s no question about it. But I think I could have handled it differently.”

The Bills are 7-8 on the season, and Ryan’s hallowed defense ranks just 20th in the NFL in total yards allowed. They were eliminated from postseason contention with a 35-25 loss to the Redskins in Week 15. While the Bills could still potentially play spoilers to the Jets’ playoff hopes in Week 17, it’s become abundantly clear that Ryan, who has engaged in more than his fair share of trash talk and shenanigans this year, is hinting that he’s making like Scrooge and seeing the errors in his ways. But knowing Ryan, he’ll probably revert back to his old antics within a few months.

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