Miami Dolphins not hearing a lot from Rex Ryan

The Miami Dolphins are not hearing a whole lot coming from this weeks division rival coach Rex Ryan. The Buffalo Bills head coach is rather subdued this week. Perhaps it’s because this week is an away game or perhaps it’s because hit foot was firmly planted back in his mouth after last weeks loss to the New England Patriots.

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Leading up to their game against the Patriots last week, Ryan was his typical loud self calling for Bills fans to rally behind the team at home. They challenged the Guiness World Record for noise but came up short. Ryan also publicly insisted that everyone in the NFL wanted the Bills to beat the Patriots.

Hey I get it, the Miami Dolphins are not the Patriots by any means but Ryan has taken a quieter approach to this weeks divisional game.

Fans have been waiting for this game all off-season as Ryan was a top fan candidate for head coach here in Miami should Philbin have been fired. Philbin was retained, Ryan became the Bills new head coach and since then the Bills have become more physical and the Dolphins are still, well, Joe Philbin’s team.

There is no greater contrast in coaching styles than that between Philbin and Ryan. One could also argue that the performance on the field is as contrasted. The Bills under Ryan are still an enigma simply because it’s too young in the season but they have played much better than last season and are getting a lot of production from their young inexperienced quarterback Tyrod Taylor. The Dolphins on the other hand are playing down to their opponents.

Miami suffers from a passive approach which has been the MO of Joe Philbin since his arrival. It’s hard enough to beat other NFL teams than to expect your team to play so tempered. Ryan doesn’t tolerate soft play from any player on his field and while he tends to voice his expectations publicly, his team does a decent enough job of backing him up.

There is little doubt that Ryan didn’t quite meet the expectations shouldered on him while with the New York Jets but there were a lot of factors that played into that including chemistry between Ryan and the teams management who made the player decisions for him. It was still good enough to beat the Dolphins once a year.

Had Ryan come to Miami it’s possible that the team would have a different look and attitude but that is very hard to prove if not impossible. Frankly it’s never worth talking about what if’s. The Dolphins are who they are and Rex Ryan is who he is. The only way to compare the two teams coaches is how each team shows their preparation on the field. Or the lack of. This week will not end any debates on whether or not Ryan should have been the Dolphins head coach or shouldn’t have been but it will put one team behind the other in the divisional standings.

It’s hard to imagine Rex Ryan learning anything from last weeks thumping of the chest but this week has still been oddly quiet from the large ego coach. Maybe the Dolphins to him don’t pose much of a threat to him or maybe he simply realized that opening his mouth can get him nowhere. It’s likely just a matter of time before he gets in his own way once again.

How Ryan prepares his team this week will leave Dolphins fans comparing what could have been to what is. Fair or unfair, right or wrong. To many this game is one of the must win games for the Dolphins if for no other reason than to get back on track yet a big part of me looks at this game and see two completely different coaches taking completely different approaches to how they will win. It won’t take a lot of talk to inspire each coaches’ team but I suspect that Ryan has a lot more ability to inspire his.

Here’s to hoping Philbin can find something to spark his team on Sunday.

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