Sean McDermott Show, Week 13

a Buffalo Bill and I'm a fan of the Buffalo Bills. Hey, everybody, and welcome to Week thirteen of The Sean McDermott Show, presented by Connors and Farrish, your workers comp attorney Sean, We've got to do things a little differently this week for the show, So thanks for joining us from your house. And by the way, how do you like working from home? That's a loaded question. I think there's some good to it, and there's some challenges, as we both know, and as

I think most people would agree. I got my kids here trying to do remote school, and I'm here and we're all on the wife at the same time. So that's been a challenge to say the least. But at the end of the day, we're gonna find a way to get it done. Yeah. Well, your team jumped out to eight and three record with a win against the Chargers this last week. He improved four and oh as a head coach coming off your bye week as a head coach, how did you get your team back on

track after a week off? Well, I think you know it starts with them having the right habits in the off week. There, you know, they set themselves up for success. They came back ready to go and and ready to have a good week of practice, and staff did a great job shaping game plans that aren't too big. Sometimes when you have that extra time as coaches, we find a way to lose the game before it's even played with with game plans that aren't the right side. So

I thought they did. They all did a great job. But you got peppered with questions over the bye week about what you were gonna do, and you said, you know, you've admitted that you're gonna look at your heart, at your offensive run game and your defense. You're both gonna be points of emphasis during your bye week. Let's start with your offense. You ran that came out against the Charges, ran the bowl thirty times for a buck seventy two.

You average almost six yards that carry. You know, is the running game fixed and what was the key to making it come out and have a day like that? Uh? Yeah, you know, I think I think it's improved. I don't know that it's fixed, and it's it's it's an ongoing deal. It's an every week and every play mindset. Right, If you want to control the line of scrimmage, you can't just do it one game, or you can't just do it one place. So that's an ongoing mindset and attitude.

And we'll see how that plays out moving forward for us. Yeah, and on the other side of the ball, you guys held the chargers of just seventy six yards on the ground the the the average just three point one seven yards per carry. It's the lowest your defense is allowed all year. What adjustments did you make to your run defense and what do you think is the biggest factor in its improvement. Well, it always starts up front, you know. I know I sell like a broken record, but I

firmly believe that. And it's hard to play good defense if you don't have it up front. And our our defensive line played their tails off. They play gap sound and play with great hand violence at the point of attack, and and that the second and third level. I would say the same. It takes all eleven to defend the run and outside of two runs in particular that we're really just poorly execution on our part. We did a good job and we're pretty salty in the run game.

Good to see A big part of your running defense was Aj Klein. He had another huge game and led the team with fourteen tackles and a sack and a half. He had three tackles for loss. How big and an impact has he been and how big of a relief it has been has he been in the absence of Matt Malana. Yeah? Huge and and not surprised. I mean Aj just took him some time to get his feet back underneath him in the new surroundings and into a good rhythm. And that's where he is. He's in a

good rhythm. He's playing good ball, and he puts a lot of time in He's extremely smart and I think he helps us overall out there in terms of in terms of the communication as well. You know, well, in the fourth quarter, your offense began to turn the ball over, but your defense kept bailing them out. And when it was a seven point game, you got a huge interception from Trey White And that's really the second time he's

had an interception in the fourth quarter this season. How much confidence you got in Trey your other leaders to step up in big moments like that. Yeah, great to see. And uh and I think our defense, in particular, to your point, is developing that mindset of after Sun changed situations. They're just really focused on on getting the stop they need to get to do their part in the game. And they're mentally tough group and I love how that's

growing as we've been through the season. Though, Josh had a couple of the turnovers you guys suffered, and he also had a passing touchdown, He had a rushing touchdown um and he also got his leg twisted up had to miss the play with an injury. Battled through that led you guys to victor what you think of Josh and how he's how he's doing coming down the stretch. Yeah, he's He continues to impress and do some really good things in his third year here, and I've just been

very happy with him. There's certainly plays he wants back, and all of this continues to add to his resume in terms of things he can he can do again and things that he's done well and things that he that he wants to improve on and I think he's only going to get better. He's extremely smart, extremely tough, works his tail off and and uh, you know, I think again, how we continue to play complimentary will be a big piece to how we do as an overall

football team. Coach Cole Beasley had his first touchdown pass of his career and he threw it to Gabe Davis. And a lot of fans talk about the players in this situation, I wanted to talk to you about Brian Dable. He's dialed all these plays up, his play selection has been great. He's gotten kudos from fans and football people alike for how he's handled Josh Allen and this offense.

Talk about his evolution as an offensive coordinator. Yeah, I mean, I don't think there's any any substitute for experience and whatever whatever role you're in, if you're if you're worth your yours salt, you get better every year because because you take it seriously, you're passionate about it, and you continue to learn and grow. And that's true for all of us, Brian in this case, and so he's added

to our staff in a lot of ways. I've learned some things from him and it's a good kind of staff harmony where we can iron can sharp and iron as they say. And I think he's off to a good start and he's got a good staff that that's helping him out there. And so it's it's been fun to watch. Well, you've got four primetime games in a row coming up. You've got the Niners on this Monday night, the Steelers on Sunday night the following week. Then you

got a Saturday game at four o'clock against Denver. Then you've got a Monday night game again against the Patriots. I mean, how is it with these these primetime games in the in the unusual time slow it's different mindset for your team or what will you change over the next four weeks because you're playing in front of the big stage. Yeah, I mean, I think it's two things. Hey, I'm going to handle with my staff with the sports science and stand in great communication with them, and our

strength and conditioning coaches and our trainers. I'm going to handle that piece of it so our players and staff don't have to worry about it. Then it's just hey, let's let's just go out and play. You know, we're at the point in the season now where we know what the schedule is, we know when we're playing. Not one week is going to be the same basically as we come up here. So we just that's that's what we're scheduled to do, that's where we play, that's how

we do it. And so I know that's how your teams did it back in the day, and that's that's the same mentality we're trying to embrace. Coach, Thanks for that. We'll catch up with you later in the show to get your final thoughts on your upcoming matchup with the forty nine Ers. Shopping Wood is presented by Saint Bonaventure University, the official education provider of the Buffalo Bills. Welcome back

to the Sean McDermot Show. It's time to break down the film and another edition of Chopping Wood with our good friend Eric Wood. Eric Seawan McDermott said he wanted to fix the run game during the bye week, and they came out and ran for one hundred and seventy two yards against the Chargers. What adjustments did you see from the Bills had led to their success on the ground. I really liked the way they mixed up looks throughout

the game and what they were giving the Chargers. They used Zack Moss, they used Devin Singletary, and when they needed to, they got back to some Josh Allen runs, which may be a sign that he's fully healthy again. And I also liked that early on, when the pass rush was getting home to Josh Allen, they switched and worked in a bunch more screens and draws. Well, let's start by looking at how the Bills used Devin Singletary,

who had over one scrimmage yards. The screen game is an extension of the run game, as you know, so let's take a look at his fourteen yards screen pass from the Bill's second touchdown drive to the game. Screens can be a great way to neutralize the pass rush, and here the Chargers bring a blitz and the Bills have another timely screen called We've seen him a bunch this year on third downs to wide receivers. This time they get one to Devin Singletary. He does a great

job getting behind his blockers. These athletic offensive line making gets down the field and get blocks, and this one is executed perfectly. And then two plays later they ran a draw that went for twenty one yards. Yeah. So on this play, Deon Dokins does a great job of using the defensive end who's in a pass rush mode to use his momentum against him. The rest of the line does a great job. Devin Singletary is phenomenal in space, he always has been, and these draw plays moving forward

could be a great asset for this offense. And I gotta give a shout out to my boy. Deon Dokins actually made two blocks on that play, that's right. So they got Devin Singletary going, and they also got some designed runs with Josh Allen. So here's an eleven yard run on a draw from the field goal drive right before the half. We saw these a bunch early in

the season. Josh heard his shoulder and we didn't see them for a while, and now we're seeing more of these designed quarterback runs for Josh Allen, especially in the red zone when the safeties can play down lower because the back of the field obviously didn't that far. You add another blocker with the running back in these QB draws can be extremely effective. And then the Bills come out in the second half, march down the field and get into a second and goal situation. From the three

and decide to run read option here. So Bills have shown so many different looks in so many different ways to score in the red zone this year, which is a great sign from their offensive coordinator Brian day Ball, and here they run a simple read option. These plays can be extremely effective. Quarterbacks often like to keep these in these situations and get the ball in the ends on themselves. But on the outside you have a great block at receiver Bostefon Diggs who comes in and gets

just enough. And then Josh Allen uses athleticism to beat the Chargers defense of the pile on jumping ahead here to the fourth quarter, the Bills get the ball back after the Tray White pick and they hand it off to Zack Moss who rips off a thirty one yarder. Yeah, the Bills go with a tight condense formation here just so that there's gonna be no free hitters. There's gonna

be no one that can get penetration. They use two double teams at the point of attack to move guys off the line of scrimmage, and Zach Moss does a great job of finding the hole and then exploding once he does, making a playoff the field and just a shame that this little ticky tack penalty got caught at the end. Yeah, I did not like that either. They got a penalty on that one for a celebration, and on the next play, Singletary broke off another long one

to set up the game clinching field goal. This one goes for twenty four yards. Yeah. So this is a pin and pool scheme. So what that means is the front side blockers Dion Dawkins and Lee Smith are going to try and pin their guys and then Feliciano and Morse are gonna pull around and get out in front. We saw these plays a bunch last year and the Bills were extremely effective using it. Here, Mitch Morris and John Feliciano show off their athleticism. Feliciano has a great

block on Joey Bisa. Mitch Morse help secure it gets to the second level, gets a block. That's excellent execution in a situation one of the chargers assume you're running the football. Anyways, it was great to see the Bills get that run game going their best rushing performance of the season. They're going to need it for the playoff push. Here in December. Thanks for all the inside Eric Absolutely thanks Chris Maddie glab Here was this week's game preview.

The eight and three Buffalo Bills are heading west to take on the five and six San Francisco forty nine Ers. The game won't be played at Levi's Stadium due to Santa Clair County COVID restrictions, so the Bills will head back to State Farm Stadium for their second straight road trip, making it the second year in a row they have played multiple away games in the same stadium. The forty nine Ers have been hit hard with the injury bug,

but that hasn't completely shut them down. Their offense ranks fourteenth overall, averaging about three hundred and sixty three yards per game. Receivers Deebo Samuel and rookie Brandon Aiyuk have combined for sixty two receptions and seven hundred and sixty four receiving yards. Buffalo Bills are searching for their first Monday Night football win in this century. The last time the Bills won a Monday night football game was in

nineteen ninety nine. The Bills offense ranks tenth, averaging twenty seven point two points per game. They have the second best third down conversion rate at forty nine point six percent. Quarterback Josh Allen is averaging two hundred and seventy five passing yards a game, good for eighth in the NFL. The Bills defense ranks twenty first, allowing three hundred and seventy three yards per game. Since Week seven, the Bills defense has combined for twenty nine sacks and takeaways, which

is second most in the NFL. The Bills split even with the forty nine ers at six. That's this week's game preview, Steve, back to you. Thanks as always, Maddie coach. The NFL took preventative measures during the early parts of the week that closed down all the facilities Monday and Tuesday except for the teams that we're playing on Monday and Tuesday. Now they move your game to Arizona. How

does that impact your preparation process? Does having the game in Arizona giving any chance to maybe erase those memories from the hail murray that doomed you last time you were in that stadium. You're funny, Steve. Now listen, We're going to play a game at the end of the day. It's a home game. For San Francisco. It's an away game for the Buffalo Bills, and we're gonna go play a game, and we're excited about it and looking forward to all we could practice. Yeah, you've got the forty

nine ers. They've battled injuries all year, but still they managed to beat the Rams with Nick Mullins at quarterback. What do you see from the forty nine ers and how they've overcome their obstacles and their injuries. Yeah, you know, similar to a lot of the teams out there. You know, they've had a number of injuries. We've had a number of injuries, and you play the guys that are available. And I think Kyle Shanahan does as good a job

as anyone in the NFL. He's a great coach. This team is fresh off of the Super Bowl appearance last year, and we're within a whisker of winning the game and being world champions. So he's done a phenomenal job. Yeah, this is going to be your second game as head coach on Monday Night football? Does that hold any special meaning for you? You know, I'm always honored anytime I can go out there, and you know, coaching this league in particular as a head coach and lead a group

of men and women out on the field. But outside of that, I really want to be focused on our quality of play and my quality of coaching, and you know, us improving as we continue to go here. Thanks for all this, coach, and good luck this week against San Francisco. We're gonna be back next week to recap your game against the forty nine Ers and preview your Week fourteen matchup against the Steelers. Thanks for spending some time with us,

and thank you everybody at home for watching. And this has been the Sean McDermott Show, presented by Connors and Ferris and has always go Bills. Final Thoughts is presented by your local Toyota Dealers. The Sean McDermot Show is presented by Connors and Ferris, your workers' comp attorneys, by Independent Health you deserve the Redsher Treatment, and by your local Toyota Dealers.