Sean McDermott Show, Week 16

join Sean McDermott once again. Sean recap the big win in Pittsburgh. It was the second primetime game you guys have had, the big Thanksgiving Day game and then of course the Sunday night football that was flexed in because everybody wants to see what you guys are doing here in Buffalo. Is it a kind of a statement win to show up on a night like that and get five turnovers defensively, hold that team to ten points and get the win. Yeah? I mean it was, and it

is and I could use some rest. So no, we enjoy the prime time games. It's hopefully becoming more of the norm. It doesn't help coaches planning for the next week or getting rests. But it's good for our players. It's good to get recognized as an organization and to play well in those games. Well, you knew that they had a young, inexperienced quarterback going in, but they do

have one of the best, most veteran offensive lines. And yet still your defensive front cranked out a bunch of sack four sacks, five turnovers, four or four more interceptions and held them to fifty one yards that rushing. You'll be really proud of your front, defensive front as well as your whole squad. It starts you hit it, Steve. It starts up front, right, and it's hard to play well as a defense or really as an offense if you don't play well up front. And the challenge was

to our front, and they really responded at a high level. Yeah, and they came through some big plays and really set the tone. Or even on that opening drive it turned into kind of a long punt on that third and nine. Still, a turnover is way better than a punt return, isn't it. Well, I think a lot of ways, one of which for when you're going against a young quarterback that gets in his head a little bit, and I think it did, and it kind of just kind of just snowballed from there.

You talk about that interception, just shout out to Trevis White. He had two interceptions on the game. I thought he was going to take one to the house. You know, his play has really been a cornerstone for what your defense has been able to do all over the field, right, And he's really taking a huge step this year as a pro. And that was a pivotal point in the game.

They were driving a little bit. They may have been up at that point as well, and try Davis made a huge play, great call by coach Frasier, and we were one one away from scoring on defense. So that's

still out there, right, We've got to do that this year. Right. Well, you're fourteen games into this season, fifteen weeks, and you got a quarterback in Josh Allen that got a lot of fourth quarter comebacks, got a great quarterback rating in the fourth quarter, doesn't throw interceptions in the fourth quarter, throw some touchdowns in the fourth quarter. I mean, he really seems to have that clutch gene. How much confidence does that give your team to have a young guy

like that playing with such confidence it's at those critical moments. Well, it's huge for me in a lot of ways. For young players, there's there's boxes you want to be able to check and some of those critical moment games and having success in the critical moments of games, in this case the fourth quarter. You want to be able to check that early in someone's career, and we're able to

do that with Josh at this point. And so much about what's talked about with this team is the culture you've built, and you got a chance to see a glimpse of it once again when Josh Allen found Tyler Croft. It's a testament. I got to tell you to your coaching staff. You got a guy like Tyler Croft, got one target, hasn't contributed much, doesn't get many snapped, but when he gets in there, his number was called, he

was ready. They executed game winning touchdown at the time when that's the only chance he got to contribute, and it was crucial. Yeah. And the two words really that come to mind with Tyler or resiliency and accountability really and his resiliency to come back from the injury, to continue to work even though he wasn't seeing the results maybe early on. Really attribute to him, and then the accountability really of the whole team to one another and the serve one another and be ready to go even

though he maybe wasn't. His number hadn't been called to that point, Steve, when his number was called, he showed up. Yeah. And that's really the crucial port because when you get into the playoffs, and you're in the playoffs, now everybody's going to have to contribute, and even if they haven't had a chance or an opportunity, it comes up unexpectedly. You have to feel better or at least used Tyler Croft's contribution as an example of be ready at any

time because your moment could come. Yeah, And we call it work while you wait, you know, and your time is going to come if you keep working. And that's true in life and it's true in this case in football. Sean, thanks for these insights. We're gonna come back and get your final thoughts later in the show and get a preview of the New England Patriots. Chopping Wood is presented by Saint Bonaventure University, the official education provider of the

Buffalo Bills. Welcome back to the Sean McDermott Show. Everybody, We're here for the segment with Eric Wood in the segment we call Chopping Wood, where we're gonna break down the game tape of last week's win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Eric, last week, we spoke to Sean McDermott and he told us that, listen, we gotta win the turnover battles when you're playing playing a team like the Pittsburgh Steelers. And certainly the Bills defense showed up big on Sunday Night Football.

They did, and coming to the game, a lot was made out of the Pittsburgh Steelers defense leading the league in sacks, leading the league in turnovers, and what the Bills were able to do in Pittsburgh where flip was flipped the script. They forced five turnovers, they sacked the quarterback four times. Yeah, and this is one of those games where it started right off the top, first series for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and it's Trey White on a third and nine where this turns into a little bit

of a short punt for the Steelers. Nevertheless, it's a turnover. Yeah. Trey White has been having an absolutely incredible season. With two picks in Pittsburgh, he now ties for the league lead. And here you're right. This is this is basically a glorified punt. But coming into this game, Devlin Hodges he would throw a number of jump balls and he just wasn't punished for him. And what the Bills defensive backs were able to do, especially Trey White, was capitalized on those.

So he's playing off coverage here reads the route doesn't break onto the little stutter stead because he give a Washington some cushion there and he's able to come up with an easy interception. He actually bobbles it a little bit, does a great job of resetting his feed before rolling out of bounds to force the first turn over the day. Yeah. Of course, later at the end of the first half,

Pittsburgh had a golden opportunity to swing the momentum. After a pick of their own, an interception and a long return, they get deep into Buffalo territory, but deep in their own end zone. It was Trent Murphy who stepped up made a huge play to keep the scores seven to three going into halftime. Yeah. So the Pittsburgh Steelers, because of their limited offense without Ben Roethlisberger, they've been implementing some wildcat in the wildcat if it's not your bread

and butter. It's if it's not something you do all the time, it can be tough. Well, this place starts off on the wrong foot because of a snap well the running back James Conner. When you're in the wildcat, you'll generally line up at six yards instead of five. It causes a low snap if you're not careful of it.

It's happened to me before in my career. The low snap causes, you know, a misfire with the running back on the read and Trent Murphy, who's in the backfield with a ton of penetration, able to get his hand on the ball before the running backs able to secure it. And then the Buffalo Bills rallied to the football, a team that's always hustling, and of course they're going to come away with the football. Fast forward to the third quarter to Davious White's game just got twice as nice

as he basically runs the receiver's route for him. This almost was a complete pick six, but because of the angle of the offense, he couldn't quite get to the end zone. Tredavious White though this was a game changer. It was a game changer and Tredavious White makes another incredible play, and after he picks this ball up, the lead blockers out in front, Kevin Johnson just assumes that this offensive lineman at filer would not be able to

track him down. Don't doubt these offensive lineman, Steve, some of them can run. I was known to track down an interception or two my day, and here he's able to force Trey White out of bounds, which ended up being a really big play for them to stay in the game at this point. But credit Tredavious White. He's been making a huge place for the Bills all season and here you see another one. Love the coaches trying to track him down the sideline. Eventually you just let

him go because he's gonna outrun you. Now further down into crunch time, you got to give the Steelers credit. Still a one score game. But however, right after the two minutes real Jordan Poyer again he's around the football. He pulls down the third interception of the game, and this one very nearly could have ended it. Yeah, it could have. And this is another huge play by the Bills defense. The Bills ran this pressure a number of times.

They lined up in a double a gap look and they would fire Tremaine Edmonds and he would create immediate pressure on the quarterback. The reason Tremaine Edmonds is coming here is because marquis pouncing the center. He slides to Milano, so at that point Milano will drop. Now they know James Connor has to pick up Tremaine Edmunds and now here comes the pressure off the left edge coming three. Deviln Hodges has to rush the throat to him. This play seems open, but it's not because you have ployer

in the middle of the field playing center field. Initially he starts outside of the right hash well, it's what the safeties always do. They're disguising coverage. He retreats back to the middle of the field, able to come away with a fairly easy interception here for himself. Eric, thanks for your insight. Let's hope the defense continues this on slaughter turnovers. It's always a huge thing and a huge boost, particularly in New England, one of the most difficult venues

for anybody to go into and be successful. Let's wish the Bills all the luck in the world this weekend. Thanks Eric, absolutely thanks for having me Steven game preview is presented by independent Health from her every day to your unexpected. That's the Red Shared Treatment, Maddie Glade with this week's game. Pres In Week sixteen, the ten and four Buffalo Bills head to Foxborough to take on the AFC East leaders in the eleven and three New England Patriots.

The division is still up for grabs, and it all begins with the Bills beating the Patriots. This matchup is the latest the division has been decided since two thousand and eight. The Bills will face another stellar defense as they take on a top ten defense for the fifth straight week. They allow the least total yards per game, the fewest first downs, and allowed just twelve point nine points per game. The Patriots have a plus twenty four

turnover ratio, the best in the league. Quarterback Tom Brady hasn't been his normal self in the last six games, as he has had a tough time connecting with his receivers. Brady ranged thirtieth in the NFL, completing just fifty four point one percent of his passes in the last six games. On Buffalo side, Over the last six games, the Bills offense is averaging more than the Patriots, scoring twenty three

point three points per game. Tredavius Wife recorded two interceptions against the Steelers, making it his second I Think game with two interceptions this season. That brings us total to six on the season, which is tied for the most in the league. Jordan Phillips has helped his secondary get interceptions with the pressure he brings, recording nine and a half sack so far, which leads the team and is the second most by any defensive tackle. That's this week's

game preview. Steve back to you, thanks again, Mattie and coach. You had a chance to win an in and you are. You're in. You won that game, and you know, it's always quite a moment, particularly when you do it in week you know, fifteen to the season, where you got two games left and you're already in the playoffs, got the five seed, all wrapped up with bigger things perhaps

on the horizon. Give us an idea of what that was like for your team to react to the fact that they've accomplished at least that at this point, and

the fan reactions been phenomenal. Yeah, awesome, Just you know, we had an opportunity to clinch, and you always want to clinch, as soon as you can clinch, right, and so you can, you know, take a lot out of that time a game and that type of maturity and growth from our football team, from our young football team in particular on being able to perform like they did in that game and then moving forward, how that should help us? How do you handle these last two weeks?

I mean, you certainly can't be satisfied with getting into the playoffs. Your team has bigger goals and you've grown to a point where you should expect bigger things. How do you handle it when you've got two weeks of football left and you're just kind of waiting for the tournament to start. Well, you know, it's about competing too. I mean, the tournament will start in a couple of weeks here, and we're in it. That's the only thing that's guaranteed right now. But outside of that, it's how

do we continue to grow between now and then? And that starts with this week against New England. Sean, congratulations on the playoff birth, thanks for being with us today and thank you at home for watching us today. We're going to come back next week recap the New England game and also look forward to week seventeen, the final regular season game of the year against the New York Jets. Have a great weekend, everybody. The Sean McDermott Show is

sponsored by Independent Health. From your every day to your unexpect that's the Red Shirt treatment, and by Yancey's, Fancy New York's artists and Cheese, the official cheese of the Buffalo Bills.