Rex Ryan already proving he can at least make the Bills relevant early on

It's been 16 seasons since the Buffalo Bills reached the playoffs and that one ended in the Music City Miracle for Tennessee, so it's not exactly a celebrated memory in Western New York. The drought is the longest active one in the NFL, yet that's only part of the lament for Bills fans.

It's not just the losing. It's been the lack of relevancy, the lack of excitement, the lack of, well, things like this:

"The world champs, you've got to play twice," coach Rex Ryan said Wednesday about facing the New England Patriots. "… but hey, bring it on."

Bring it on.

This is Ryan's way of nodding approval to the Bills fans who celebrated Sunday's impressive victory over the Indianapolis Colts by chanting, "We want Bra-DEE. We want Bra-DEE."

Why pretend otherwise, especially with Buffalo's defense looking so menacing?

"We expect to win," Ryan said. "Period."

The marriage between coach and culture here is so perfect, sometimes you wonder how it took Rex Ryan so long to get to Buffalo.

This isn't just a fan base that is loyal and loud, it's one that sat through Dick Jauron, Chan Gailey and Doug Marrone, none of which is known for his personality.

Buffalo is begging for bravado, a chance to remind the world that it's there. The Bills need someone to point to something positive and forceful for a town that is enjoying a renaissance downtown and looks at seven-foot snow drifts and finds a way to make it through together.

Ryan doesn't come here and complain about winter, he buys a monster truck to mock it.

Bring it on.

New England arrives Sunday and it's the most anticipated game in Buffalo in who knows how long?

"The 2004 season finale versus Pittsburgh," said longtime Buffalo News columnist Bucky Gleason. "The Bills needed a win and lost." If you can recall that contest, you not only can properly pronounce the Scajaquada, you know what times of day to avoid it.

The Patriots aren't just another game to Buffalo fans and Ryan isn't just fine with that, he embraces it and encourages it.

"I know how I'm going to feel on Sunday," Ryan said. "I know how our players are going to feel. And guess what, I know how our fans are going to feel. We are all going to feel that we've been challenged. We've been challenged because here come the defending Super Bowl champs in our backyard.

"Are we looking forward to the challenge? We accept the challenge. I can speak on our fans' behalf, our players' behalf, my behalf, our coaches' behalf: We accept the challenge."

Imagine what the pregame speech is going to be like?

New England is the gold standard in the AFC East and Ryan tried, but could never quite topple it during his days with the New York Jets. There was that 2010 AFC divisional round playoff victory in Foxborough, but overall he's 4-9 against Bill Belichick.

"I'll take it," Belichick told Buffalo reporters on Wednesday, which is about as close to bold talk as he's going to engage in.

Four and nine is still better than Buffalo, which is 4-26 since Belichick took over the Pats. That includes an overtime win the first season (2000) before the machine got cranked up and another in the regular season finale last year, where Brady and the regulars barely played as they rested up for the playoffs. So even 4-26 isn't as good as it looks.

That last Buffalo victory, which pushed the Bills to 9-7, was so satisfying that Marrone promptly quit as the coach. He just left town – he's now a Jacksonville Jaguars assistant. What other franchise has a coach do that?

So here comes Rex, who smartly brags he'll never leave and has done nothing but bask in the passion of the community.

"I'm anticipating it to be extremely loud," Ryan said. "We don't need to sell seats, our guys stand the whole way. Golly, take a breather. I was blown away by it. I was shocked by it. Oh my goodness."

Ryan's players have embraced the big talk and mimicked some of it themselves, a number of guys noting their dislike of New England and how this is a game everyone's been looking forward to playing.

Long-standing criticism of Ryan is that his showmanship isn't matched by accomplishment – just two AFC championship game appearances with the Jets. That's still pretty good, of course, but it struggles to stand up to the often stoic Belichick.

"I get it," Ryan said, "but do you think if I muzzle it we'd have four Super Bowl rings? If we would I wouldn't say a word. But I can honestly say […] that ain't gonna help.

"The thing I admire about Belichick [is] the way he is and the way he controls that organization," Ryan continued. "It's clearly driven through him; that's his blueprint for success, that's truly who he is. And for him to be somebody else, that would be a mistake.

"The same thing for me," he said. "This is who I am. It's different or whatever, I get it. I don't have the four Super Bowl rings but neither does anybody else. They can try it, hell they got a bunch of his guys who have gone on and left and tried to be him, but they ain't him. So it doesn't work for them. If you're yourself you've got a chance. If you're acting like someone else, you don't have a chance."

So Ryan will act, always, like himself. He'll praise Tom Brady non-stop but note that the Bills have a pretty good defense. He'll say he doesn't even know the name of Patriots running back Dion Lewis because he expects LeGarrette Blount, back from a one-game suspension, to get most of the carries.

He'll laugh at the concept of trying to cover Rob Gronkowski with one guy. "You'd have to look like King Kong or something. Yeah, you got him. We got the Gronk. We're putting Kong on him."

Isn't Gronk, who grew up in the Buffalo area no less, a Rex Ryan kind of guy?

"Of course he is but he's on the other team so you can't stand him," Ryan joked.

He'll dare New England to play the same defense it did against Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger, noting that his guy, Tyrod Taylor, "will take off with it and they know it."

Mostly he'll just stand up there and make everyone pay attention. ESPN ran his full news conference live on Wednesday morning – 20-plus minutes. When was the last time that happened for the Bills? When was the last time a Week 2 game was this hyped? When was the last time the entire NFL will be focused on a big game in Buffalo?

Bring it on.