Rex Ryan knows a lot about strategic planning with the Baltimore Ravens. After all, he won a Super Bowl with the franchise while coaching team legends Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Sam Adams, and the late Tony Siragusa.
While he’s been far removed from his Ravens days, he wasn’t mincing words about the game plan Baltimore came up with in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game loss.
Rex Ryan Rips Baltimore Ravens’ Plan
Now an ESPN personality, the verbose former NFL head coach of the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills called out his former employer for its offensive game plan — which was created by Todd Monken.
Ryan went scorched earth on the national title game-winning offensive coordinator while demanding the team apologize to its previous OC.
“This is the stupidest game plan I’ve ever seen, and you know what, Greg Roman? Every single person needs to apologize to you — because you got blamed for everything about what was wrong in Baltimore, and it wasn’t you,” Ryan said on “Get Up.”
Roman was replaced by the former University of Georgia coordinator ahead of the 2023 season. Monken left behind an offense that averaged 501.2 yards per game in 2022 and totaled 44 rushing touchdowns with 31 aerial scores.
Roman’s offenses, though, ranked no higher than 28th in pass attempts. Roman was often criticized by analysts and fans for his failure to open up the offense more for quarterback Lamar Jackson.
“This new guy that we’ve praised the hell out of [Monken] — you don’t have Tom Brady. You have Lamar Jackson. What in the hell are you doing dropping back 82% of the time? This is a team that led the NFL in rushing attempts. They had six whopping rushing attempts to the running back. What the hell are you doing?”
Was Ryan Critical of Another Criticized Coach During Championship Sunday?
Meanwhile, Dan Campbell of the Detroit Lions was heavily bombarded with criticism over his decision-making in the NFC Championship Game.
Fans and analysts blamed his aggressive play-calling for Detroit blowing its 24-7 lead in Santa Clara, Calif., and eventually falling 34-31 to the San Francisco 49ers.
MORE: ‘This May Be Our Only Shot’ — History Suggests Dan Campbell’s Words Could Be Prophetic for Lions
While Ryan lit into Monken for how he called his own game, was Ryan just as critical of Campbell?
Ryan, instead, was more on the sympathetic and relatable side. He knows what Campbell is going through the morning after the conference championship weekend.
“I’ve lost three championship games,” Ryan said. “You know what you get when you lose a championship game? Not a dang thing. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. This will haunt you for the rest of your life,” Ryan said on Get Up. “I get it. I can remember every damn one of those losses.”
Ryan, though, sent out this fiery message about how to handle the loss moving forward.
“You’re going to react two different ways: You’re going to let it just kill you, or you’re going to sit back and say, ‘I’ll be damned if this happens again.'”
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