Sean McDermott Show, Week 4

of the Buffalo Bills. Hi, everybody, and welcome to the Sean McDermott Show, brought to you by ECMC and Kalid to Health, the official healthcare providers of the Buffalo Bills. I'm Steve Task and once again we're joining Sean Mcdermotshwan. Congratulations on the wind against Cincinnai. Thanks for taking some time for us. Yeah, thanks to a great win. Yeh win at home, in particular in front of our fans,

and good to be home. Um. So it's it was a game that trended up and down, it ebbed and flowed and uh and got away from us for a little bit. But then I thought the guys showed a tremendous amount of heart and resiliency and we got to win. You know, you said in the speech that you made just after after the game, you mentioned hard and your players really seem to respond to that word. What kind of chord do you want that to strike with your players when they respond so heartily, do you, you know,

tell them how much heart they showed? Well, you know, you think you know your team, but you really never know it until you get into the battles that the week to week battles during the season, as you know, Stephen and so early on. It's It's one of the things I can say is that I know this team has heard. I know that they have resolved, and they've built up a bank of h They've done it before and they found different ways to win and and so

that goes a long way. I think we can check that box with with a lot more to check at this point, a lot of work to do, but um, I'm confident that these guys have heart. One of the things that happened outside the lines on Sunday was Ezra Castro. His family was there and you got a chance to say hello to them, and so Poncho Bia the fans had a chance to say thank you to him and to see what his legacy is going to be about in the Buffalo area. Do you have any personal feelings

about that at this point. Well, it's good to have his family here. They had a chance to visit us a practice, and the players had a chance to come around them and support them, and they left us with some patches and some bracelets to remember Poncho by And just as you know, and we all know in Bill's nation here he lived life with such a passion and he supported this team with such passion. It's the least we could do to help support his family, and we

hope his legacy, to your point, carries on for many years. Okay, so you're three and oh and interestingly enough, you've won these three games three different ways. You came from behind in the Jets late, you were kind of total in control with the New York Giants, and then you had to lead, you lost the lead, and then you had to come back late and win it in the week three. What all those different ways of winning tell you about your squad? Yeah? Again, you know, I think it speaks

to the heart. It speaks to the mental toughness of our football team and the leadership of Josh and Tremaine and the leadership of the coaches on the sideline that they're able to keep their poison composure overall as a group, make the adjustments and move forward and go to win a football game. And it's hard to win in this league. It's hard to win and be able to win close games. And I feel like we won at least two of the three have been close, and maybe in some ways

all three. To me, all three have been close, right, So that's a good thing. One of the things you've been preaching out throughout the offseason was turnovers. They hurt you in the Week one and then there was a seesaw battle in this game against Cincinnati. They had one, you had one, they had one that you kind of traded back and forth. There's a little bit of a roller coaster. How has that helped you and getting that message across to your players, Well, the players see the

benefits of taking the ball away. Defensively, we got we had four against the Bengals, and that set us up with some short fields and we need to take advantage of those short fields. And then offensively, we didn't take care of the ball and because of that, the game was the way it was down the stretch, and that wasn't that wasn't the way we wanted it to be. We had a chance to go up two and a half to three scores at halftime and we weren't able

to do that. And so that starts with me. I've got to do a better job and continue to drill that message home. Well, you got a contribution from your rookie tight end Dawson Knox this last game. He had an in sweep, a jet sweep, a touchdown catch, a long catch, and an angry run at the end of it. You know what's to say about to the other young guys on your team that you've got a rookie like Dawson stepping up and contributing in such a big way. Maybe not every week, but when his number was called,

he certainly came through. Yeah, and he was prepared. That really starts with the process that they go through our players Monday through Monday through Saturday, getting themselves ready with the proper habits, preparation, the work ethic, the work in the way room to work in the film room to work with in this case, the tight ends coach Rob Us and with Brian Dable as well, So you know, you get what you earn, and he earned that opportunity and he did something with it, and which is good

to see. Now it's where we go from here. You've had a team that has come out and being really productive offensively in the first half, your defense has been solid throughout. You seem to go into a lull or have had some third quarters that haven't gone your way consistently. What's spend your message your team to try and fight through after halftime, maybe continue your production from the first

half into the second half. Yeah, it's it's being efficient with our time and halftime right, with communication, with where we spend our time, making sure everybody's on the same page, making sure we were proactive with our adjustments in terms of what they could do next to us on offense defense, we're special teams and then that translating to the game field.

So we've got to continue to work on that amongst other areas this week as we prepare all Right, most people talk about defensive pressure because it's like a pass rush. The more guys but talk. I got to ask you. You've got some secondary guys from Turdavis Wide, Micah Hyde, Jordan Poyer, it's really about your defensive secondary putting pressure on the offense. These days, they got a lot of turnovers, tippin' bowls, tipped interceptions. It's been a real job by your secondary

really to put the pressure on the offense. It's kind of the reverse of what people would normally think, and that's that's what we try and do, but really do it through our base fundamentals, and that's when players have clarity about what their role is and what's expected. As you know, in the heat of the battle, things get gray. But we want we want them to be black or white, and so they within that they can play fast and

execute at a high level. That's that's what those players have done, all right, Sean, thanks for spending some time with this. We're going to come back and finish our conversation later in this show. Thanks. Choppin' Wood is presented by Saint Bonaventure University, the official education provider of the Buffalo Bills. Welcome back to the Sean McDermott Show, and we're thrilled this week on a home game, we get Eric Wood in studio in person to break down the film.

In the segment we call choppin'wood. Eric, Nice to have you at home. How's it going, Yeah, it's great. It was great being yesterday, always fun. Bills are three and oh life is good. Yeah, we came the Bills. In the offseason. A lot was made to their offensive line rebuild, but they also rebuilt the tight end crew as well. They drafted Dawson Knox, signed Tyler Croft, brought back Lee Smith, drafted Tommy Sweeney, and one of the tight ends, Dawson Knox,

really had a data of the day. We're gonna break down some film against the Bengals he did. I'm looking forward to seeing it because it was a ton of fun to call from the booth yesterday, and he made a bunch of big plays down to the first quarter. An early lead, you get an easy pitch and catch. They send Knox in motion and it turns into an easy completion for sure. Here we're on the goal line. They bring Dawson Knox in motion. They're gonna fake frank Or into the a gap on the left side. Again.

This time they bring Dawson Knox and you're not gonna get an easier pitch of catch of this. After the game, Dawson Knox said, my grandmother could have made this catch. Now, I don't know how the plant his grandmother is, but this is great execution by the Bills, a great play designed by Brian Dave all and that is what you call a layup toss from Josh Allen in a great way to start the game. Go on plays in the NFL.

With as talented as defenses are. In the NFL's biggest defense Laminar, sometimes it's hard to just run straight out of defense, and plays like these are a great change up. Well. Later on in the game, Brian Dayboll gets a little bit creative with his play calling and sends a rookie tight end on a jet sweep. Maybe I'll call in

jumbo jet sweep. Yeah, you don't often see jet sweeps come from a tight end, but with Devin Singletary out of the game and the lack of speed that the Bengals had at linebacker, they wanted to get them running laterally. So you saw it in a number of different ways. Yesterday you saw John Brown on an end around, you saw a number of Isaiah McKenzie handoffs on jet sweep, and then here you even get Dawson Knox, who is

fast for a tight end. We talked before the show, he's young, he's still got the juice in his legs and he shows it here. And this is a great run. And the best part about this this is still early in the game. The best part about this is how he finishes this run. And watch the Bill sideline. They are loving it. These type of tempos setting big hits, especially from an offensive guy that this lights up the team. It's so energetic. And this is a great play by

Dawson Knox. And lastly, we get to the fourth quarter. Now Cincinnati has scored seventeen unanswered. The Bills need to get back in if they need to play from somebody, and Dawson comes through again on this corner route and then he turns it into an angry run. Yeah, this

is absolutely incredible. And the same guy Williams that Knox ran over early in the game on the jet sweep, he stiff arms him, runs over number thirty and gets the Bills all the way down to the twenty two yard vine when they desperately needed a play at this point of the game, like you mentioned, seventeen underanswered points five of the Bengals. They take the lead and this play brings the Bills all the way down the field, setting up what would be a game winning touchdown for

the Bills. They've seen him through three weeks, there are three and oh. Certainly they've they've got it out a couple of wins and come from behind victory. What's this tell you about the Bills team going forward? And can they carry that forward? Do they need to get more even more consistent. They're kind of riding a roller coaster right now in their play they are. But the thing I liked most about the Bills starts of the season at three and os. They've won in three different ways.

They've had a comeback, they've held onto the lead, and then they've blown the lead and then taken the lead. So as the season goes on, where in the past it might have been, here we go again. Oh shoot, we blew the lead. We're gonna lose again. Now, the Bills can always revert back to these early games and say we've been down fourteen enough, and we did it on the road at the Jets. Hey we've held onto a lead. We did it against the Giants, and now

against the Bengals. Hey, yes, we hit a slump in the third quarter and the Bengals came back and took the lead. But you know what we still got If we got one drop left, we can still go win this game. And I love the fact that they've won in three different ways. All right, Eric, thanks for being here and take us through the film study at the Sinsati Bengals game's great dramatic victory. Appreciate it. It It was

Thank you bactlys Sean McDermott. Sean, you have been three and since twenty eleven, what's your message to your team about keeping this momentum going? Yeah, I mean it's it's great to be three and oh it's week four though, right, So we've got to continue to focus on our internal process and each one of us get better at our jobs and then collectively we'll grow as a football team. And we understand the opponent this week is they're the defending champs, right, and you know we've got our work

cut out for us this week. But it's another opportunity for us to grow as a football team and as an organization. And you've got to take these guys on your three and oh they're three, and oh what have you found out about your team? And your three games. That gives you confidence about this one, Well, this is a tough minded group, it really is. They we found

different ways to win. Hasn't been perfect, and I think you discover things about your team through the first three to four weeks, continue to try and put them in better positions to win football games and better positions to succeed. And that's part of our process this week. And one thing I gotta ask you about your quarterback, Josh Allen. He's got fourteen starts under not even a full season. He's got five comeback wins under this belt already. What's

that tell you about that guy? Well, he's a young player, that's what it first tells me. And but no, he Josh is a tremendous competitor. He works extremely hard to prepare to put himself in position to be successful and put this team in position to be successful. And he's a guy that I think the guys and his teammates really really love and respect because of the way he prepares and the way he treats them and the way

he plays at the end of the day. So it's a good group and I'm happy to be a part of it, all right, Sean thanks for joining us, thanks for giving us some time, and thank you for joining us here on The Sean McDermott Show. We're gonna come back next week to recap the New England game and also look ahead to the Tennessee Titans. We'll see you next week, 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.