NFL Sunday Night Football Was Really Rex Ryan vs. Rob Ryan

The tickets for last night’s game read “Dallas Cowboys vs. New York Jets,” but the real matchup was really “Ryan vs. Ryan.”  Although former Cowboys quarterback Jason Garrett is the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, the sideline matchup of choice involved his defensive coordinator, 48-year-old Rob Ryan. Rob’s twin brother was the head coach of the Jets, and as Rex Ryan proclaimed to be sending his team to the Super Bowl (again), Rob found himself opposite his brother for what must have been the umpteenth time of his life.

This game was primed to be a defensive showcase. The brothers were defensive-minded coaches looking to torment the other’s quarterback, and while both Tony Romo and Mark Sanchez gather plenty of press, their on-field accolades were scant. Even Rex and Rob’s dad, legendary NFL head coach Buddy Ryan, was eager to see how the young signal-callers would be agonized, and made it to the game.

The Cowboys won the toss, orchestrated by former US President George W. Bush, and I wonder if after the game, it would be revealed that the Cowboys also won 50,000 shares of Halliburton stock. Dallas would receive, and with the help of three catches from second-year wideout Dez Bryant—including a long gain over a disgruntled Darrelle Revis—the Cowboys scored on their opening drive and took a 7-0 lead.

The Jets went three-and-out and punted. Rob’s defense held its ground.

Dez Bryant would later leave the game with a reportedly bruised quadricep (he is not expected to miss next week’s game in San Francisco), leaving Romo to the devices of tight end Jason Witten and Alex Rodriguez lookalike Miles Austin. Romo would find them four times in total, rattling off a 10-play drive that would stall in the Jets’ red zone. Rex’s defense held Dallas to a field goal, but the Jets were in a 10-0 hole.

Sanchez would answer with a nine-play drive of his own. Although Rob Ryan seemingly called every blitz he had to rattle the Jets quarterback, the Jets took advantage. Sanchez connected with LaDanian Tomlinson on a screen pass that he would take 32 yards. A four-yard touchdown pass to Dustin Keller would send the Jets to the locker room trailing only by three.

Buried in the Robert DeNiro monologue and gigantic American flag last night was a matchup between brothers. This was a family affair, a battle for the living room fort made out of couch cushions. Instead of little green army men, Rex and Rob fought using world-class athletes, though Rex’s troops were still clad in green.

It’s said that football coaches adopt their respective collections of philosophies from their predecessors, that they stem from the “trees” of other coaches. Rob and Rex sprouted from their particular tree at birth.

After serving in the Korea conflict, Buddy Ryan moved to Gainesville, Texas to manage a different sort of brigade. In 1959, he was named head coach of the football team at Gainesville High. Ryan would work his way around the country as an assistant in the amateur ranks, and later in the upstart American Football League—beginning with the New York Jets.

Rex and Rob surely would have benefited from growing up in a football house, but they didn’t. Buddy and his wife divorced when the twins were just two years old. They followed their mother to Toronto.

The twins would rejoin their dad in Minneapolis and would witness their dad writing NFL history. The Purple People Eaters in Minnesota during the 1970s and the almost-undefeated Bears in 1985 had Buddy’s defenses as their cornerstones. When Bears coach Mike Ditka was carried off the field after Super Bowl XX, his defensive coordinator, Buddy Ryan, was carried off right behind him. And even the most bombastic Rex remark pales to the events of 1993, when Daddy threw a punch at his head coach in Houston.

Rex and Rob were carrying their own water at this point, conducting their own whistle-stop tours from one college program to the next. In 1994, Dad was named head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, and Buddy brought his boys in to run the defense. The elder Ryan, as he did with the Eagles in 1986, introduced himself to the media, saying “You’ve got a winner in town.” But the Cardinals didn’t, and the whole Ryan clan was let go after two years.

Mark Sanchez opened the second half with another three and out, and Romo took advantage. While not known as a scrambler, Romo made good use of his agility while in the pocket, dodging pressure to find Miles Austin scrambling down the right sideline, and heaved accordingly. Jets defensive back Antonio Cromartie would come down with the ball, and Miles Austin would come down with Cromartie, using his strength to at least partially wrest the ball from his opponent in the Jets’ end zone. Unsure of who rightfully caught the ball, the officials ruled the play a simultaneous possession, which is credited to the offense. Touchdown Cowboys.

Those who were waiting for Shonn Greene to assume full control of the Jets backfield can keep waiting. Other than keeping the Jets on schedule with four-yard runs here and there, Greene still couldn’t match his impact on the game with that of Tomlinson, who was left for dead by the Chargers two years ago. Tomlinson led the Jets with 73 yards receiving, including a seven-yard reception that kept Sanchez’s third quarter drive alive. But Rob Ryan brought the pressure in the red zone, and the Jets would again settle for a field goal.

Sanchez would get a shot of redemption at the end of the third quarter and would literally throw it away—to linebacker Sean Lee. The young Penn State product ran it back to the Jets’ one-yard line, and on the first play in the fourth quarter, Cowboys tailback Felix Jones did the rest. The Cowboys held a 24-10 lead, and it appeared that Rob would be king of the fort.

But Sanchez answered, reading the blitz to hit Santonio Holmes for a long gain, and then Derrick Mason, and Tomlinson again, all for first downs. Two plays later, with the Cowboys only rushing four, Sanchez would find Plaxico Burress down the left sideline for his first touchdown since November of 2008.

Jason Witten would take his next catch from Romo down to the Jets’ two, and the end was nigh. But when Romo fumbled when making a break for the goal line on third down, and the Jets recovered, a horrible play for Romo. Even a sack would have led to an easy field goal and a 10-point lead with only nine minutes remaining.

Calamity did, in fact, ensue. Sanchez, seemingly out of sympathy, would answer Romo’s fumble with one of his own at midfield. The Jets would block the subsequent punt, and Isaiah Trufant would run the loose ball to the house. Nick Folk’s extra point would tie the game with exactly five minutes remaining.

The teams would trade punts, and Romo found himself at midfield with less than a minute left. Of the innumerable options a quarterback here, “Throw” might be toward the bottom of the list. “Throw toward Darrelle Revis” would be at the absolute bottom, but this was Tony Romo’s second half. Instead of finding Bryant, who had re-entered the game, Romo watched Revis return his interception 20 yards, enough for Folk to boot the 50-yard game-winning field goal.

Rex’s little green men had prevailed.