After his team committed 17 penalties in a Week Four loss to the Giants, Bills coach Rex Ryan came up with a couple of plans to help keep the team from hurting itself on that front in the future.
Bills players did pushups during practice when one of their teammates were penalized and all players got bracelets with “Yes, Sir” written on them to use as reminders of the only words to use in response to calls by officials. Those efforts seemed to work out well in the 14-13 victory.
The Bills were penalized seven times and they avoided unsportsmanlike calls after some questionable flags, including an unnecessary roughness call on cornerback Corey Graham late in the game that extended a Titans drive. The defense forced a punt three plays later,
“The defense we came out there and played through all the adversity,” cornerback Nickell Robey said, via the team’s website. “We still had penalties, we still had questionable calls. We still kept playing. We said, ‘Today, that isn’t going to happen. We’re not going to let the crowd get us out of our mojo. We weren’t going to let the referees get us out our mojo. We just kept playing football and we came away with a win.”
The only person who seemed to have a problem with the bracelets was Ryan himself. The Bills were penalized on the opening kickoff for being offside, which wiped out a fumble recovery deep in Tennessee territory and caused Ryan to snap his bracelet in frustration.