Sean McDermott Show, AFC Championship

go play some ball. We'll play some football. It's an exciting time to be a Buffalo Bill in the sand of the Buffalo Bills. Welcome into another playoff edition of the Sean McDermott Show, presented by Connors and Farris, your workers comp attorneys. Sean, thanks as always for joining us all year. The story has been about your record breaking offense, but your defense went out and got you the win

against the Ravens in the divisional round. How did it feel to see your defense go out and have that kind of performance against the reigning MVP to earn you your first trip to the AFC Championship. Well, it felt great, Steve, and I thought the defense really had a great week of preparation. That's a very unique offense, the Ravens offense, and they've got weapons all over the offense, with explosive players all over the offense, and there really hadn't been

a defense that had done that to them. And give a lot of credit to Leslie Fraser and our defensive staff. And then the players went out there and the great week of preparation executed at a high level. Well, you guys broke the tie in the second half with a touchdown on your first drive, and the Ravens responded with a trip to the red zone and we're looking to tie it up, and then Tarn Johnson picked off Lamar Jackson and took it one hundred and one yards for

pick six. What was it like for you watching that play unfold on the sideline. Well, first of all, I thought it was a great call by Leslie and for the situation and just to watch Terran go through his progression. He executed at a high level and that's what you

gotta do this time of year. And then when he when he got out of the end zone, I was just thinking, first of all, I kind of looked to my right and we had some people on the sideline that needed to get back because once in a while, you get those referees flying down the sideline, you know, going after the play, and sometimes you get those unfortunate collisions there. So I was trying to get people back and the rest was just fun to watch. I mean,

just uh, just joy and players going down there. It's just what a great moment for the Buffalo Bills and the history of our football team and organization. Yeah. Well, when your defense holds your opponents just three points, it's got to be more than one guy that has to step up. And on Saturday, Jerry Hughes had a monster game.

He had two sacks on Lamar Jackson. How important is it for you to get performances like that out of your leaders in these playoff games, Well, it's huge, Steve, As you know, captain's the best way they can lead is by example. He's one of our captains and one of our really ambassadors on our football team and he's been here the longest as the Buffalo Bill on our current roster. So just fun to watch. Happy for him, happy for his family. We'll have to do it again

this week and for the second straight playoff game. Steph Diggs had over one hundred yards and a touchdown, he joined Hall of Famer James Lofton as the own receivers in franchise history to ever tally back to back one hundred yard receiving days in the same postseason. After the game, he had Josh did the postgame interview together. How is their relationship indicative of how close your whole team is? Well, I think it's a reflection on how close our team is.

You know, these guys came together in training camp without any springtime in terms of being in person with one another in terms of organized activities. It's been fun to watch these guys grow together, respect one another in terms of the different backgrounds and really, to me be a an example to our community but also the world of

loving one another and supporting one another. Well, you're going into your first conference title game as a head coach and you're gonna be facing the first coach you worked under in the NFL and Andy Reid. You've had the chance to coach against him a couple of times now, But what's different preparing to face him with a trip to the super Bowl on the line. Well, and he's a great coach. He and I have been together in

this game. I'll be it in the NFC Championship game more than a few times, and so he does a great job. His team will be well prepared. They're a strong football team with a lot of weapons, and we're going there, so it'll be a big challenge for us that they're defending world champions and so this is our first trip, but mostly it's the first of many as we continue to build our program here like he's built

his program there. All right, thanks, coach. We'll catch up with you later in the show to get your final thoughts on facing the Chiefs in the AFC Championship. Shopping Wood is presented by Saint Bonaventure University, the official education provider of the Buffalo Bills. Welcome back to the Sean McDermott Show, and it's time to break down the film with our good Eric Wood and an AFC Championship edition

of Chopping Wood. Eight. The Bills are back in the AFC Championship for the first time since nineteen ninety four after a huge win over the Ravens. They held the Ravens to just three points. How did the defense shut down the reigning MVP. They did a number of different ways. They started off by bringing a lot of pressure. They brought defensive backs, even cornerbacks in pressure during this game. They were also able to generate pressure with just the

four man rush. Jerry Hughes was excellent throughout this ball game, seven total pressures on the night. And when the Ravens started to get some momentum in this game, Taran Johnson put an end to that with his big pick six. Well, let's start by taking a look at one of those blitzes the Bills used to bring pressure on Lamar Jackson. The first sack of the game came from Levi Wallace on a first and ten. On first and ten, the Bills were anticipating run and so they brought a corner

cat a corner blitz. You rarely see cornerbacks blitz in the NFL, but on a run heavy offense like the Ravens, you will try these. And this one paid off big for Leslie Fraser on the defense. Lea By Wallace comes home Scott free and able to make the sack to bump the Ravens back and ruin their field position. Yeah, and then Jerry Hughes got going and he had a

monster game. Had two sacks break down. The first one that came This was also on a first intend This is a four man rush here and what happens on this play is they run play action. Jerry at first has to play the run against the Ravens. You can't just fly up the field. So he comes off the ball, uses two hands to engage the blocker in front of him. He then sheds that one and stays a lot and then he's able to defeat the double team and come

away with the sack. Anytime that you have this much time to rush the passer, though, you got to give some credit to the back end of the defense in their coverage. Later on, Arren Johnson came up with the play maybe of the season. Break down this pick six for us. Yeah, here we got third and nine and third to goal to go, so the Ravens have to try and push the ball to the end zone. The

Bills show a blitz look. They end up just running four and in this cover two zone, Tarn Johnson's able to read the eyes of Lamar Jackson step in front of the receiver and pick the ball and he thinks about stopping for a second, and thank god he didn't, because he takes off. He has the green light in front of him, and a convoy of blockers gets out in front of him, and all he had to do was avoid that will first tackle at the one yard line and no one else touches him. Tredavious White out

in front blocking. Look at Justin Zimmer get down the field as well, almost running stride for stride with him. Pretty athletic for the big guy. Now, Eric, let's take a look back at some of the things the Bill's offense did well against the Chiefs in Week six. We'll start with Josh's first touchdown that went to step dig This is one of the goal to go situations the Bills ran this year that someone wasn't completely wide open, and here Diggs makes an incredibly contested catch on the sideline,

gets his feet and bounds on a whip route. He's able to create just enough separation that Allen's able to find him for the touchdown. All right, Now, let's take a look at what the Bills did on defense against the Chiefs. Mario Addison had a sack in the two minute drill at the end of the first half. What did you see on this play? Bills run a four man rush here Mario Addison You'll see him do a

spin move against the left tackle, Eric Fisher. Eric Fisher sets out at him and at that moment, Mario Addison knows that he can spin and get back inside of him. It always takes a couple of guys though, to get a sack. The left side of the Bills defensive line was able to generate some pressure and Mario Addison was able to finish him off. It'll be great to see if the Bills can knock off the defending champ to get back to the Super Bowl. Eric, thanks for this

and go Bills. Go Bills. Mattie Glamm here this week's game preview. The Buffalo Bills are heading to Arrowhead Stadium to take on the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game. It's the bills first conference championship appearance since nineteen ninety four, when they beat the Chiefs thirty to thirteen to move on to the Super Bowl. Kansas City beat Cleveland with two quarterbacks in the divisional round. Patrick Mahomes left the game and entered concussion protocol in the

third quarter. Backup Chad Henny came in and helped the Chiefs seal the victory with the completion on fourth and one to Tyree Hill. During the regular season, Mahomes threw for the second most yards with four thousand, seven hundred and forty while completing sixty six point three percent of his passes. Mahomes led the NFL averaging three hundred and sixteen passing yards per game and fourth with thirty eight

passing touchdowns. Kansas City had the best offense in the NFL from weeks one through seventeen, averaging four hundred and fifteen point eight total yards per game and sixth averaging twenty nine point six points per game. Titan Travis Kelsey led the team in receiving yards with one hundred and five catches for one thousand, four hundred and sixteen yards and eleven touchdowns. Rookie running back Clyde Edwards Laire had the most rushing yards with eight hundred and three, averaging

four point four yards per carry. During the regular season, Kansas City's defense ranked sixteenth overall, allowing three hundred and fifty eight point three yards per game and tenth allowing twenty two point six points per game. While the Chiefs decreased in production from weeks twelve through seventeen, the Bills improved in multiple categories, moving into first with the best scoring offense, averaging thirty eight point two points per game

over that time. The defense allowed less points during the last six games as well, allowing only eighteen point three points per game, which ranked in the top five. Quarterback Josh Allen joined Patrick Mahomes and Ben Roethlisberger as the only qbs under the age of twenty five to have multiple wins and at least a one hundred passer rating in a single postseason. Wide receiver Stefan Dix also became the first player ever to have seventeen games at least

six receptions. Buffalo and Kansas City have played each other forty nine times. The Bills lead the series twenty six, twenty two and one. That's this week's game preview. Steve back to you. Thanks as always, Maddie, coach. You've come a long way with this group here and really turn the franchise around. I know a Super Bowl championship as the ultimate goal, but a lot of your guys haven't played in a game of this magnitude yet. What's your

message to your team this week? Or really it's two things. It's to knock out all the distractions or things that could become distractions earlier in the week and try to do our best to ignore the noise and get ourselves back into a normal routine to play. Our best football comes Sunday evening at six o'clock or thereabouts, So we've got a lot of work to do this week. This is a very good football team, as I mentioned earlier, Steve,

the defending world champs. Well coached, they'll be well prepared, and so we're going to have to continue to take our game and our quality of play to another level. The Chiefs have one of the greatest tight ends in NFL history, and Travis Kelsey, he had two touchdowns against you in that Week six game. What's it like preparing

for a tight end of his caliber? Knowing the Chiefs also have guys like Tyree Hill on the outside right, as I mentioned, very powerful and explosive offense, not only with those two, but Patrick Mahomes the running backs, and then the other complimentary pieces they have around them. We'll do the best we can to get ourselves ready to go and again play our best football as we head

into into Sunday. All right, thanks coach good luck this weekend against Kansas City, and to everyone at home, thanks for watching The Sean McDermott Show, presented by Connors and Ferris. Enjoy the game and as always, go bills. Final thoughts. It's presented by your local Toyota dealers. The Sean McDermott Show its presented by Connors and Ferris. You're a Workers' comp attorneys by Independent Health you deserve the Red Share treatment, and by your local Toyota dealers.