As the postseason approaches, plenty of folks wonder whether we’ll see a clash of the Manning brothers or the Harbaugh brothers in the Super Bowl.
The Ryan twins? Not so much.
Both the Jets (coached by Rex) and the Cowboys (whose defense is run by Rex’s fraternal twin, Rob) lost on Thanksgiving, sliding farther out of playoff contention. To make matters worse, the defensive gurus gave up a combined 87 points and 912 yards of total offense.
Rob was as gracious as he possibly could be in defeat. After saying in the day preceding the game that Rob Ryan doesn’t like Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III and that the Cowboys have to “hit him hard,” Ryan resorted (sort of) to excuse making.
“We only had two days to get ready for all that crap,” Rob Ryan said in comments aired on ESPN, “and I thought we were actually OK on the college stuff. It’s just they out-executed us throwing the deep ball.”
More importantly, the Redskins out-executed the Cowboys in scoring points.
In New York, the Pats out-executed Rex’s Jets in pretty much every way possibly, racing to a 35-0 second-quarter lead and easily hanging on for a 49-19 win.
Though a lot can happen over the final five weeks of the campaign, both Ryans could be out of jobs when the dust settles on the 2012 season. And their respective fates may have been sealed only hours apart on Thanksgiving night.