It seemed like Bills head coach Rex Ryan emptied 20 years of NFL defensive genius into the cauldron Sunday at Ralph Wilson Stadium and nothing could stop old boss Marvin Lewis from scoring at will in the Bengals’ 34-21 victory.
Cover Two, an offshoot of the turn-of-the-century Ravens scheme that Lewis used when Ryan was his defensive line coach. The crazy array of zone blitzes that Ryan used when he was the head coach of the Jets. The Bear look that his father Buddy created and made popular 30 years ago.
But quarterback Andy Dalton and his shut-down offensive line stared it all down with another steel-belted road performance when he parceled out his three touchdown passes, 22 completions on 67 percent to seven different receivers with no sacks that featured a career nine-catch day from No. 2 wide receiver Marvin Jones.
Tight end Ryan Hewitt caught a 16-yard bullet over the middle for his first catch of the season. Rookie backup left tackle Jake Fisher dropped what would have been his second catch of the season. Running back Jeremy Hill caught his first NFL touchdown pass, but most of the acrobatic 13 yards came after the catch when he deftly stayed in bounds on a missed tackle.
Weapons?
And we haven’t even mentioned a wide receiver.
When Dalton threw his third touchdown pass by simply isolating 6-6 tight end Tyler Eifert on 6-0 safety Corey Graham with a four-yard lob, it was 31-14 at the end of the third quarter and Bengals radio analyst Dave Lapham reported Ryan turning to his assistants and throwing up his hands with a helpless-what-more-can-you do surrender.
“That team has lit up everybody in the league,’ Ryan said after the game. “Obviously that team is difficult. You take away this guy, take away that guy, and this other dude beats you. So it is kind of what happened. Dalton got hot, made a great pass into a single coverage, other than that I mean it was tough sledding. We knew it was going to be tough. That is about, you know, about as good as an offense you can play in this league.”
Because it’s about as deep as you can get. Ryan successfully schemed four-time Pro Bowler A.J. Green out of the game on four catches for 36 yards with what Green called “a Cover Two on my side,” that consisted usually of cornerback Stephon Gilmore and a safety.
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