The Jets coach was too angry about how his defense — his pride and joy — allowed the Miami Dolphins to pull one out Monday night.
"It absolutely was a humbling experience," Ryan said of the Jets' 31-27 loss at Miami.
New York's defense had given up three touchdowns in the first four games, but allowed three in the fourth quarter against Miami and blew three leads in the second half.
"I mean, that's our time to go for the jugular and we just never responded," Ryan said. "On defense, it's like, I'm mad, still. That's unacceptable."
Miami did it with lots of wildcat trickery, especially on the game's last drive when four different players took snaps and kept New York off balance. Running back Ronnie Brown capped the 13-play drive when he took the snap and scored the winning touchdown on a 2-yard keeper with 6 seconds remaining.
"I've been down that road before where you don't play great on D, and we've always responded," Ryan said. "This is a different group of guys and I've got confidence in this group, and there's one way: When I'm backed in a corner, I'm going to come out swinging, and that's what I'm looking forward to."
Ryan and the Jets (3-2) won't have to wait long with a short week to prepare for Buffalo (1-4) at home.
"This is a must win for us, and I think we have to respond," Ryan said. "I think playing at home in front of our fans is going to be huge for us, but from an organizational standpoint, our entire organization, this week has got to be huge."
That's because the Jets' defense, No. 1 in the league just a few weeks ago, has fallen to ninth overall and appeared alarmingly vulnerable — especially against the run.
"We were riding high," safety Kerry Rhodes said after the game. "We thought we were one of the best defenses in the league, and we are. But not on the field (Monday), so we have to get back to work and get it done."
The Jets gave up 151 yards rushing to Miami after allowing 153 at New Orleans last week and 127 in a win over Tennessee the week before.
"Normally it's a thing when somebody runs the ball, we're able to smash it, but the last three weeks, we haven't performed that way," Ryan said.
Making things worse, Dolphins second-year quarterback Chad Henne was able to throw consistently, finishing 20-for-26 for 241 yards and two touchdowns in the best passing performance by a Jets opponent this season.
"The thing I never really knew and never really gave enough credit to was Henne," Ryan said. "He made some great throws. He was on fire and he made some big third-down calls as well, where all we had to do was make one play and we end up winning that game."
Miami faced a third-and-five on the winning drive and Henne found Greg Camarillo for 14 yards. Three plays later on third-and-10, the two connected again for 12 yards.
"We had a chance to make a play and get off the field, and we didn't," defensive end Shaun Ellis said.
Even star cornerback Darrelle Revis wasn't without fault. After shutting down the likes of Andre Johnson, Randy Moss and Marques Colston, Revis was beaten by Ted Ginn Jr. on a 53-yard pass from Henne just a few minutes after the Jets took a 20-17 lead.
Ryan also second-guessed leaving two timeouts on the board and not giving his offense an opportunity to put a final drive together.
"I would've handled it differently," he said. "I really was shocked by that. … I just assumed we'd stop them."
The Dolphins proved Ryan wrong.
"We're embarrassed by the way we played," Ryan said, "and I know we truly won't get it back until we play Miami again."
The Jets get another shot in three weeks at the Meadowlands.
"This is a step back, but we can make a huge leap forward," Ryan said. "We've just got to learn from this and we've got to practice better."
Ryan said the scout team was "horrible" in practice last week and didn't do enough to prepare the team for what it would face in Miami.
"As a coach, I'm not going to allow this to happen again," Ryan said. "We've got to get back and sharpen up what we do defensively. I know we have the talent. We just have to play better."
Notes
Ryan said WR Jerricho Cotchery (hamstring) was fine after it appeared he might've tweaked the injury. Cotchery had one catch for 4 yards. … WR Brad Smith (foot) left in the second quarter, but Ryan had no immediate update on the injury. … Ryan said he was "really encouraged" by the offense, particularly rookie QB Mark Sanchez and newly acquired WR Braylon Edwards, who had five catches for 64 yards and a TD in his Jets debut.