The Bills on Sunday shot themselves in the foot over and over again in a sloppy 24-10 loss to the New York Giants.
The lack of discipline was stunning, with Buffalo flagged an outrageous 17 times for an NFL-leading 57 penalties on the year.
A typically defiant Rex Ryan still praised his squad in defeat, though, saying he was "proud of the way" his Bills performed, per ESPN.com's Mike Rodak.
"Can you play a lot smarter? Absolutely," Ryan said. "But I'll take a team that can fight over a team that won't -- that will sit back and take it -- any day of the week.
"The discipline things? I get it. When you have 17 penalties, that's obviously a sign of lack of discipline," said Ryan, while prodding reporters to "write it the way you want to write it."
Said Ryan: "We can focus on the negatives and all that -- and I get it, that's your guys' job -- but you might not understand the game the way I understand (it) because I've been on the other side. I've been a part of a 20-some-penalty performance by the Ravens, OK? And we went on and we fixed it. We'll fix it here."
Rex won't blame the flags, but his players asked openly after the game if the refs were targeting Buffalo, with defensive tackle Kyle Williams saying that "the reputation is out" and "officials are looking for certain things -- so we have to be choirboys."
No matter how you spin it, the flags were an absolute killer in a home game the Bills needed to keep pace in the AFC East. There's plenty of talent on this roster, but a fringe playoff hopeful like Buffalo isn't built to survive a mountain of mistakes.
