Sean McDermott Show, Week 3

healthcare providers of the Buffalo Bills. I'm Steve Tasking. I'm please to be joined once again by the head coach of the Bill, Sean McDermott. Sean, thanks for giving us some time. Oh thanks, thanks for having Congratulations on the big win in New York for the second straight week. Yeah, I appreciate it. A good team win, hard to win on the road, hard to win, but hard to win on the road than do it two weeks in a

row at the same place. It's a little bit unique, you know, being on the road, but we took advantage of the opportunity to grow as a football teams, spend time together and really looked at it from a positive standpoint. You know, they weren't far trips, not a lot of teams get that opportunity to spend some time earlier in the year, especially the first two weeks consecutively, So why

not make the most of it. You know, you've always had a growth mindset when you're your entire ten you're here in Buffalo, and it kind of showed up and week little microcosm week one to week two. Turn the football over all over the place in week one, zero turnovers and you're actually on the plus side of the turnover ratio for the game in week two. You gotta be happy with Oh yeah, And to make that type of adjustment goes a long way, and we have to

continue to do that. And so we tried to double down on that after the game and making sure guys understand why we got the results we got, whether it's preparation during the week in terms of the work ethic, the study time, the communication in this case, taking care of the football. Well, your quarterback Josh Allen has made some strides. We talked about the growth mindset you have, and he's now he's completing sixty five percent of his

passes and showing some better decision making. Course, the offense has changed so much around him, but what's the next step for him? I think consistency. Really, it's to string a couple of good games together and why not this next game? Just that games one on top of the other and continue to learn. And and that's the great thing about Josh. He's a student of the game. He

wants to learn. He learns. He loves to learn from different people around our building and including his coaches, both Ken Dorsey and Brian Dable and and and the other quarterbacks. Which is neat. It's neat to watch and to watch his growth, watch his development on and off the field, and then the way he takes care of or he's begun to really take care of the football using his checkdowns, using his feet has been fun to watch. Well. One of the things we said, the offense is very different

around him. He proved that there were ten guys who caught passes from him. This last Sunday will boost a confidence that he doesn't care where it's going as long as he finds somebody. How important is it that he spreads it around And how difficult it is that as a former defensive coordinator. How tough does that make it? Yeah, it makes it really tough. It's a big challenge because and I like it from the standpoint of Josh is forced to go through his reads, He's forced to go

through his progression. You see a lot of quarterbacks out there, young ones in particular, who you know, see a receiver that's every play they're waving their arm in the air saying, throw it to me, throw it to me, throw it to me. Well, Josh is going through his progression, getting the getting the ball where it needs to be thrown to and on time for the most part. And so we just continue to grow, and as he grows, we'll

grow on offense and we'll continue to get better. One of the neat things to see in this last game against the Giants was they can tip your hat to the They came out and kind of hit you in the mouth offensively right out of the gate, but your defense responded and really took control of the game from

then on. Yeah, that first drive was it kind of took the win out of our sales a little bit, but it wasn't It wasn't unexpected because it was their home opener and we knew that they had We're going to come out with a lot of fire and energy, and they did and give them credit. But we adjusted. Our players and staff did a phenomenal job of adjusting and really settling into just just doing our job. And that's really what was going on in the first drive.

We weren't doing our job, and so we were guessing a little bit, and so we just settled in and played good, good old fashioned Buffalo Bill style defense. One of the things that hidden stats about your defense this year has been your defensive lineman batting down balls. Five in the first game, five in the second game. Your defensive lineman batting those down. They go down as passes defense,

but still a hidden staff that seems pretty important. It is because you never know where those passes were intended to go. Sometimes and sometimes it was to an open receiver. Sometimes we felt like we had good covers. But the one play in particular before half that Ed Oliver batted up in the air and Trent Murphy comes around from the backside, great effort play. I don't care if you're an nfler or if you're a peewee Pop Warner football player.

That's that's a great effort play and fun to watch. Well. One of the things that concerns coming into the Giant game was Tarren Johnson had gone down with an injury, and it wasn't just him being sidelined with putting another player in. You really had a platoon effort to replace Taron Johnson. It really showed the quality of the depth that you have in your defensive back. Yeah, that was That was also fun to watch. You know, these guys prepared.

Taren went down, and we had Sarran Neo go in and Sorran and Dean Marlow prepared, and then we added Kevin Johnson into that mix. So it's by committee and each one of them took their own piece of the equation and piece of the pie. And then they also all three of them have special team's responsibilities as well. So fun to watch those guys put the team first but also get themselves ready to play. Sean, we'll see you later in the show for your final thoughts. But

thanks for getting us some time here. Yeah, thanks, Steve. All right. Shopping Wood is presented by Saint Bonaventure University, the official education provider of the Buffalo Bills. Welcome back to the Sean McDermott Show. Once again, We're gonna go down to the tale of the tape. This week. Look at the video from last week's game against the Giants, and of course we'll bring in our good friend Eric

Wood onto the show. Eric, thanks for being here. We're gonna look back at the Giants game, big fellow, and then we're gonna look ahead to the Cincinnati game. Are you up for it? Let's do it. I'm looking forward to it, all right. Awesome. Last week, the Bills against the Giants spread the football all over the place and it started two. They did three touchdowns on the ground,

with Josh Allen scoring again. He scores an exact same end zone he did against the Jets, same quarner of the end zone, same direction, except this time the play was designed for him to run it in. I'm not a huge fan of design quarterback runs in the NFL, unless they are down in the red zone where you're thinking touchdown or it's a critical third down play just because you want to limit the shots on your quarterback.

I thought this was an incredible call, an incredible design, and on this play, Josh Allen does a great job of using his athleticism to get out there, but out in front of him you have a two pulling offensive lineman, so you have John Polissiano and Mitch Morris. Mitch Morris is a great cut block, almost gets two. I'll give him credit for two because because Ogiltree hit the ground as well, so he gets two guys down on the

cut block. Police Siano with a nice little dance at the end of the play there and Frank Gore out leading the way. Doesn't have to do too much work here because the offensive line cleans it all up. But Josh Allen goes in unscathed to the end zone and I absolutely love that play call. Lastly, we've got this play that technically counts as a touchdown pass, but Brian day Ball once again finds a way to get Isaiah

McKenzie into some space on the edge. He does, and I love that it counts as a pass because I'm one of those guys that says Josh Allen is definitely going over sixty percent this year passing and hopefully closer to sixty five just like in week one. But a great play design here. So here he brings Isaiah McKenzie again on the jetsuitep motion and it comes with a play fake to the running back as well. The soft toss allows Isaiah McKenzie to not have to break stride

at all. And again you saw trips to one side and they're attacking that open side of the field when all the numbers four the Giants are over on the Bill's right hand side and out in front of this one, which I absolutely love is you have knocks. They're tight end known more as a receiver, super athletic rookie out of All miss third rounder. But he's out there doing the dirty work. He's out there making a block for the touchdown on Jabrill Peppers, who's a great safety in

his own right. So great play designed again by Brian dave Ball and great execution by the Buffalo Bills. Good stuff. Eric. Now let's transition into our Week three opponents, Cincinnati. They've struggled to get the running game going consistently in the first two weeks, so most of their offense has fallen on the shoulders of Andy Dalton. But he's found a big play threat in the speedy receiver John Ross. He has and when you say it's fallen on Andy Dalton,

he's delivered. He's thrown for over seven hundred yards so far through two weeks. And here as I was watching this game. This comes after a big play. A lot of times when teams get big plays or turnovers and they're on the opponents side of the field, they'll take a shot towards the end zone. A lot of times it comes out of play action. Here it comes off of a flea flicker and here you get the Bengal is now doing the fake jet sueep motion. Then you hand it off to Bernard back to Dalton and he

hits Ross. And where Ross starts on this play, he starts in the slot and he runs a wheel route and the outside receiver clears out the field and that's just an extremely tough matchup for a linebacker out there in space. Lastly, 's talk about the pressure that a guy that runs a four two forty can have on a defense. Ross is one of those low four two forty guys, and it's really rare to have a guy like that on the field. Yeah, John Ross shows off here why you always have to respect where he's out

on the football field. Because this is not a long completion like we saw before. This is a fifteen yard toss. But it shows and now this is at the end of the game. This is against some backups in there for the forty nine ers, but he's able to show you what he can do with the ball in his hands. Even on a not long throw he can take at the distance. Thanks you your thoughts on the team's performance

versus the Giants. Eric, We're definitely excited to see if they can carry this momentum in against Cincinnati and the home opener on Sunday. We'll see you out there at the stadium. Yeah, I'm looking forward to at Bill's coming home two and oh. The fans will definitely show up. It's going to be a fun one, all right, Eric. Thanks. Game preview is presented by Independent Health. From your every day to your unexpected. That's the Red Shared Treatment. I'm

Mattie Glab here this week's game preview. The Buffalo Bills are heading into their home opener two and oh, and we'll take on the Cincinnati Bengals in Week three. The Bills go to two and our first time they've started a season with two consecutive victories, and they're coming home.

The FC North foe comes to New air Field, OZ and two after losing forty one to seventeen against the forty nine Ers in Week two, Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton has the second most passing yards in the league with seven hundred and twenty nine through two games and four touchdowns. Dalton has also been sacked the second most times with nine sacks. Since the wide receiver John Ross has the most receiving yards in the league with two hundred and

seventy through two weeks. The Bengals have had success through the air, but on the ground, the team is rushed for league wars to fifty nine yards to start the season. Cincinnati will try to recover from giving up five hundred and seventy two yards on defense against San Francisco. But we've built for Brown. Maybe if he didn't bad each and every week Bezon three. For the first time ever, Buffalo opens their season with all six of their touchdowns

coming on scoring drives of seventy or more yards. Rolls right still looking downfield, Fire's downfield caught at the twenty seven yard line by John Brown. Second year quarterback Josh Allen is eleven or fifteen on third downs, completing seventy three point three percent of his third down passes through two games. Allen's completion percentage is sixty four point two percent. That's up more than ten percent from last year. On defense,

the Bills currently ranked tenth in third down defense. Opposing offenses have converted on just ten of twenty nine attempts on third down. On Nate, Buffalo is looking to keep their perfect record, while Fricinnati is trying to get their first win of the season. Steve back to you, all right, thank you, Maddie, and we're back here with Sean McDermot to get some final thoughts before you head into this game with the Cincinnati Bengals. You know, I wanted to

ask you. I've walked down that tunnel on a home opener and I know it's different. Do you have a special message for these guys that maybe haven't done that here in Buffalo? Yeah, they played a preseason game, but this is different. Do you have a special message for those guys? Well, we'll talk about that the night before

the game. But you know, one of the things we've talked about since we've come here as a staff is defending our dirt and knowing how important that is in the blood, sweat and tears that so many have poured onto onto that field and in that stadium, and the sacrifice that our fans make to support us, a sacrifice that our families and friends make to support us. And I think that goes a lot into the defending the dirt type of type of mantra, Steve, and so when

we take that field, it means something. All Right. So you're two and o on the seasons early, obviously early in the season. But what are obviously the fans very excited about that, But what are the encouraging signs for you about this particular squad. Yeah, I'll tell you the biggest thing that stands out to me. Obviously we're two and oh, but the biggest thing that stands out to me more than anything is the heart and the nucleus of our team. Is these guys are very They're very close,

they enjoy spending time together. They seem to play as hard as anybody around the league. And I don't know, I haven't looked at every game this year to this point, but these are a group of guys that love to prepare, love to work at it, and to get the results they've gotten early on is really a credit to their preparation and the coaches as well. Sean, thanks for that, and thanks to you at home for joining us here.

On The Sean McDermott Show. We'll be back next week to recap the Cincinnati Bengals game and look ahead to the Week four matchup with the New England Patriots. Have a great weekend, everybody. The Sean McDermott Show is sponsored by Independent Health from here every Day to your unexpected. That's the Red Shared Treatment, and by Yancey's Fancy New York's artists and Cheese, the official cheese of the Buffalo Bills.