Sean McDermott Show, Week 17

thanks as always for joining us now. Earlier this year, you got your first win against the Patriots, and this week you completed the season sweep in a win on Monday Night Football. It was the Bill's first season sweep over the pat since nineteen ninety nine. What does it mean to you to have that kind of success against the franchise that's dominated the division and the league for that matter for twenty years. I think it's great for

our organization, but also great for our fan base. Steve, and it's been a long time coming in terms of the pain and challenging times and days and weeks and years that we've all been through, and good to continue to persevere and to play the way we did and I thought the players just did a great job of taking ownership of the situation. Coach Josh set the franchise record with his thirty fourth passing touchdown against New England,

surpassing Hall of Famer Jim Kelly. He now has the second most total touchdowns in the NFL with forty three, trailing only Aaron Rodgers. You could argue there isn't a player more valuable to their team than Josh and he has been mentioned as a part of the MVP discussion in the national media. How much do you think he

deserves to be part of that conversation. Well, I'm obviously biased, Steve, and I see josh every day, so I know what he's done for our football team and the things he does on the field off the field, and I think, really that's what that's what the MVP should come down to. And and Josh as a young player, and so you know, I hope he wins at this season at the end of the day, and I know Joshua is the same way.

We've got more important team goals in mind, and if he doesn't win this year, you know, I'm sure he'll have other opportunities down the road. Here so I'm just happy for him and his success. One thing that's been really noticeable in Josh's game this year is his maturity and poise. The game appears to really slowed down for him. He's making more adjustments at the line, he looks so

calm in the pocket, and he's been incredibly efficient. Who do you give credit for for Josh's development this year? Just myself, really Steed more than just me. Now there's a let's start with Let's start where we need to

start and give credit to Josh. I mean, he worked extremely hard over the off season and then you know, you look at what he's been able to do with with Jordan Palmer, his quarterback, his quarterback Tuitor in the off season, and Ken Dorsey, Brian Dabo, and then the cast that he has around him, the team that has around him, and really endears himself to his teammates and so all of that, I think it's never it's never just one person. He just does a great job along

with the team that's around him. Well, it's not all about Josh. And now, for the second week in rows, Stefan Diggs set a single season franchise record. Last week, he broke Eric Moule's record for the most receptions, and then this past week he set the franchise mark for receiving yards. He scored three touchdowns against the Patriots, and currently he leads the NFL in catches and yards. He has the most receptions by a player hit his first

season with a new team in NFL history. How did he come in and have so much success in his first year with this team? Start? Steve was really his demeanor, his personality, his commitment to being great. You know, he went out of his way to meet some of those guys, I guess down down in Florida wherever they were working out this summer, and you know, that's hard to do when you don't really know the guys and and so

you're kind of on the outside looking in. And step did a great job of just being a guy, being one of the teammates, you know, just kind of humbling himself and coming in and trying to earn every relationship and every snap that he got. And he's a he's a heck of a competitor on the field. We see that, but I think more importantly, off the field, he's earned the respect of the locker room. Well. Now on the other side of the football. Your defense every week looks

better and better. You held the Patriots just two hundred and one total yards, the second fewest of the season, and only fifty six net yards passing, which was your fewest allowed this year. Earlier in the season, we were talking about your offensive identity, but lately you've been playing complimentary football. What's been the biggest improvement you've seen from your defense down the stretch. Well, we're playing as a team. On the defensive side, we're playing good team defense, and

that starts up runt. You've got to be able to establish again the line of scrimmage, control the line of scrimmage, and you get to a point where you're saying, Hey, a team can't just be multidimensional. We make him one dimensional and we can then affect the quarterback third down. And I think that's been a big part of us, as I've talked before, about the rush and the covers working together, and that's been fun to watch. Coach. You've won eighty year last nine since back to back losses.

It seemed like a lifetime ago earlier in the season, as the Titans and the Chiefs, your only loss in that stretch came on the Hail Mary in Arizona. You've shown the ability to win close games against good teams and dominate some of the other teams. Looking back, was there something that clicked for your group that propelled you to this great run down the stretch? Well, you know that's that's a great questions. As I look back, I think all the moments that where we've had to learn lessons,

hard lessons, like the Hail Mary game in particular. I think that that story needed to be written this year because the pain that we all felt after that game, the pain that I saw in our locker room. Man, I don't ever want to forget that, and I won't ever forget the looks in our players' faces because that's that was a pivotal moment in our season, and I think that's where our guys they don't want to feel

what they after that game again. And so I've seen I'm more motivated, not that they weren't motivated before, but I'm more motivated and determined football team because of it. Thanks coach, We're gonna catch up with you later in the show to get your final thoughts on your upcoming matchup with the Dolphins. Chopping Wood is presented by Saint Bonaventure University, the official education provider of the Buffalo Bills.

Welcome back to the Sean McDermott Show. It's time to break down the film with our good buddy Eric Wood and another edition of Chopping Wood. He The Bills dominated the Patriots on Monday Night Football, on a night where Josh Allen set the franchise record for most passing touchdowns in the season and Stefan Diggs set the franchise record for receiving yards. What did you see out of this Bill's team and this dynamic duo of Diggs and Allen on Monday Night? I see a duo that at this

point looks like it can't be stopped. Stefan Diggs has led the league in receptions for a lot of this season, so teams know that the ball will be going to him. And in the year with no OTA's a limited preseason, for them to be having this kind of chemistry is unbelievable in their first season together. Yeah, well, let's get started with the fifty yard touchdown that Diggs had in the second quarter. What did you see on this play?

This is a shop play here on first and ten from the fifty yard line and Stefan Diggs waits for Gabriel Davis to clear off the zone and on the play you'll see Jackson try to undercut this throw, which is a dangerous thing for a cornerback to do in the NFL because it's manned free the middle of the field. Safety gets caught up by Gabe Davis and when he tries to undercut it and Stefan Diggs catches it, he's off for the races. Yeah, and then this third quarter

plague they connected again, this time for an eighteen yard touchdown. Yeah. This one here, it's all digs and Diggs runs a little bit of a short post here in the red zone. The windows get extremely tight and Stefan Diggs does a great job securing this catching that he'll get hit. He avoids the big shot, turning away from it a little bit, ducking a little bit, and then he gets into the end zone on a play that just showed what type

of receiver he is. We've been talking about this Bill's red zone offense all year as well, and this was a new look for Diggs and the third touchdown of the game. To break this one down for me because this looked like it might have been catastrophic. Yeah, so all season long, they've shown short fly motion with Cole Beasley, and right there they didn't time it up perfectly to

allow the Patriots all their eyes to get on Cole Beasley. There, Josh bakes like he's going to roll out to his right, He's actually going to be rolling back to his left. Stefon Diggs makes a great catch. He's one on one. Look at all that space that Brian dave Ball was able to create for this matchup. Rolling to his left, Josh guns one right on the money and a great catch by Stefon Diggs. All right, Well, I know you love to see Lee Smith, so I figured we'd celebrate

his best game in a Bill's uniform. He had two big catches in this game, So let's start with this twenty seven yard or in the fourth quarter. I never thought we'd be talking about a guy catching multiple passes in the game that weighs about thirty five pounds more

than I do right now. But Lee Smith does a delayed release he chips on the outside linebacker that gives him the idea that Lee Smith's going to stay in a block at that point, Chase Winnivich is going to continue as rush that Lee Smith does a great job of giving him a little bit of a legal tug gets him to run up the field and Lee Smith's wide open. A great play design with everybody's eyes on the other side of the field. Yeah. Now, let's flash back to the Bill's second touchdown of the game that

went to Lee Smith. It was another great goal line concept. Yeah, this is another one in the amount of man to man defense at the Patriots run. When a tight end simulates that he's going to be blocking, that's always a tough look for them to handle because a lot of times they will trigger or they will drop back in zone when it looks like the tight end's going to block.

So here Lee Smith's going to block. That gives the lineback a look that he needs to sit back in his own and then Lee Smith pops out the other side. With all the traffic going back to the right side of the formation, Lee Smith sneaks out the back end for a walk in touchdown. Eric, it was great to see the Bills get their win number twelve and complete this season. Sweet for the Patriots. Thanks for this, Eric, and let's enjoy this one, says it was pretty sweet. Absolutely,

let's do it. When we come back. We'll have Mattie Glab here with this week's game preview. The Bills have won twelve games for the first time since nineteen ninety three and are looking to close out the regular season with a win against the ten and five Miami Dolphins. Dolphins quarterbacks two a Tongue of Iloa and Ryan Fitzpatrick have each played in nine games. Two has thrown the

least interceptions in the NFL with only two. The Miami Dolphins have gone from worse to first in terms of points allowed per game, allowing more than thirty last season to allowing a league low eighteen point eight points per game this season. The Dolphins also lead the NFL with twenty seven takeaways. A big reason why is because Zadie and Howard has nine interceptions, which is the most in

the league. The Bills are Hail Murray away from nine straight wins, but have won the last five, their longest win streaks since two thousand and four. Quarterback Josh Allen wrote two more records in Week sixteen, passing Jim Kelly for most passing touchdowns in a season. With thirty four, and passing Drew Bledso for most completions in a season

with three hundred and seventy eight. His partner in crime, Stefan Diggs, has one thousand and four hundred and fifty nine receiving yards, which is a franchise record and the most in the NFL. The receiver also leads the NFL with one hundred and twenty receptions. Buffalo's defense has jumped into the top ten, ranking tenth, allowing three hundred and forty five point seven yards per game. Since Week twelve, they have allowed only sixteen point eight points per game,

which is the third lowest in the NFL. They tie for fifth with twenty two takeaways. The Dolphins lay at this series against the Bills sixty one fifty one and one, but Buffalo has won the last four matchups. That's this week's game preview. Steve back to you, Thanks as always, Mattie coach. Last year, you played a game with no playoff implications in Week seventeen and wound up pulling your starters pretty early. Now this year, with the number two seed on the line, how much do you have to

balance resting your starters and playing for the win. Yeah, I think it's you know, it's it's really relative to your team, and each year is different, each team is different, and so because of that, every situation is different. And what we're gonna do is do what's best for our team. What we're gonna do is continue to practice, continue to grow and get better, and embrace that growth mindset and look to improve and play our best football each and

every week. All right, coach, I know you still have one game left, but this is our last show of the regular season. It's been the best season in a long long time for a lot of reasons. If you had to describe this season in one word, what would that word be? Grateful? How about that? Is that a good word? Gratitude? Grateful? That is a very good word. Thanks, coach,

you got good luck this week against Miami. We'll be back next week to recap your game against the Dolphins in preview your upcoming playoff game, no matter who it's against. And for you at home, thanks for watching The Sean McDermott Show, presented by Connors and Ferris, and for this final week of the regular season, we are gratefully saying Go Bills. Final Thoughts is presented by your local Toyota dealers.

The Sean McDermott Show is presented by Connors and Ferris, your workers' comp attorneys, by Independent Health you deserve the Red Share treatment, and by your local Toyota dealers.