That was the day Rex Ryan took office. Everything was so perfect then. So hopeful. Ryan stood at the lectern and made anyone with a pulse want to run through a wall.
• “Is this thing on? Because it’s getting ready to be on.”
• “Are we going to play a physical brand of football? Absolutely. We mentioned Cookie Gilchrist, well, all I know is that it might be, ‘Lookie, Lookie, here comes a Buffalo behind you.’ ”
• “Are we going to do ground and pound? Yeah. You’re darn right we are.”
• “I think running the football is important to us, especially when you come down to playing games and winning games in December and January, especially in the conditions that we’ll play in.