Le’Veon Bell might’ve gotten Rex Ryan fired with his monster day in Steelers vs. Bills game

There were high expectations for the Buffalo Bills in the offseason with talks that Rex Ryan was given a ”playoffs or bust” ultimatum from Bills owner Terry Pegula, who later said that those weren’t quite fair standards to hold Ryan to.

But the expectations were certainly that the defense wouldn’t have performances like the one it had against Le’Veon Bell and the Pittsburgh Steelers in a 27-20 loss Sunday.

Just hours after a report that Ryan could be out of his job in Buffalo as early as Monday, Bell racked up 236 rushing yards and three touchdowns against the Bills defense.

The rushing total for Bell was the 23rd most all-time in an NFL game and the first time a player had more than 225 rushing yards and three touchdowns since Doug Martin tallied 251 yards and four touchdowns in a game in 2012.

In addition to his rushing total, Bell added 62 receiving yards and four receptions. That made him the first player in NFL history with at least 220 rushing yards, 60 receiving yards, and three rushing touchdowns in a game.

It wasn’t the first horrible game for the Buffalo rush defense, either. In October, the Bills allowed Miami Dolphins running back Jay Ajayi to finish with 214 rushing yards, now the second-highest rushing total of the 2016 season, behind only Bell’s performance Sunday.

“We tried everything, believe me,” Ryan said after Ajayi carved up the Bills defense. “We were trying base defense. We were trying everything, putting our base defense against three-wides. We were trying a bunch of different things. We were up for suggestions, I can promise you. We were trying everything.”

Ryan is searching for answers, and it wouldn’t be surprising at all if Pegula has already made up his mind that Ryan doesn’t have them.

With the loss, the Bills are 6-7 and all but out of the postseason race with a two-game difference between the Bills and the second AFC Wild Card berth. It’s essentially the end of the road for Buffalo in 2016, and likely the end of Ryan’s tenure with the team.