Sean McDermott Show, Week 5

we're live. Everybody got me not Let's go bury. Everybody do their job. One to love it well, caliber defense. Let's go no overthinker, right, go play some ball. We'll play some football. It's an exciting time to be a Buffalo Bill and a fan of the Buffalo Bills. Welcome to Week five of the Sean McDermott Show, presented by Connors and Farrish, your workers comp attorneys. Sean, thanks as always for joining us. Hey, your defense came up with two huge turnovers in the second half to seal the

win in Vegas. You guys are four and oh for the first time since oh eight. How does it feel to see your defense step up and get you a win like this? Well, I think it was huge, you know, Steve, to watch them step up have a big second half, three drives in a row. I believe it was. They turned the offense away, you know, the fourth and one stop, the takeaways, all big plays, and to me, it's the start of us getting our feet underneath of us as

a defense. Yeah. And you speak of those two turnovers, Josh Norman force the first one in a crucial moment with a vintage peanut punch in his first game as a member of the Bills. He had a great quote after the game about wanting to be the one to make a play. What did you see from Josh in his first game for the Bills against the Raiders, Well,

he played more than we expected him to play. Honestly, with Levi going out, we were planning a little bit of a different rotation there, so he was in shape. Credit our radical staff and Josh for putting in the work. He was able to sustain that type of that level of play the entire game. Really after leave I went out in Series one or two there and he just justice brings a personality to our defense, the ability to take the ball away and edge to our defense. If

you want to if you want to call it. That all healthy and so as a defense, and in this case, Josh, we still have a lot of work to do to get ourselves where we need to be as a defense. Now you go from Josh Norman to Josh Allen on the other side of the ball. He had another efficient day two hundred and eighty eight yards, two touchdowns through the air and another on the ground, And he came back from a shoulder injury and he led the team

to a win when he wasn't one hundred percent. How big an impact does his toughness have on the rest of the team. I love it. I love it man, as he's a tough sucker, and what better position to be tough at than quarterback? I think I remember another tough quarterback back a couple of years ago that that had some success with this team as well, so I think.

But you know, as I said before, Josh really fits buff Buffalo fits him, and you know, he's a great, great teammate to have, and the players love him and play for him, and shoot, I coach for him. The coaches coach for him just like we do the rest of the players. So it's a it's been a good, healthy, dynamic and so proud of him in the start that he's off to at this point with much work and much football he has to play. Yeah, well, every week we kind of talk about this guy, Steph Diggs. He

had another huge game. He's looking even better than advertised this year. He seems to be the go to guy in big moments. He had six catches one hundred and fifteen yards in Vegas. Sean. We know the stats, but outside the stats and outside what we see on game day, what kind of contribution does he make to the culture you're trying you're building here. Well, you know, Steve, it's a little bit like we've talked about with Josh, Josh Norman and Josh Hllon. To be honest with you, he's

a dog and a good guy off the field. But when you when you when he steps over and crosses over that line, man, he flips the switch and and I just love how he gets himself ready to go for games. And he's highly com petitive, intense, brings juice. I mean, you know, I'd love to get into it even more during the game when he made that when he lost that guy deep on on that post route there and I can't quite get in go to that level as a coach and trying to control the game

and manage the game myself. But I really appreciate that. I know his teammates do as well. This was a game, for the first game of the season where your offense didn't have any turnovers. What kind of adjustments did you make, What kind of message did you give your players? What do you think leads to them getting better in that area? Well,

those guys, they would tell you. We talk about the ball every week in my team meetings and our individual unit meetings as well on offense, defense, and special teams. We had two takeaways on defense, didn't turn the ball over on offense, and then almost had another takeaway on special teams. So we're moving in the right direction. Those turnovers, those takeaways, if you will, come and bunches, and that's

a good thing for our team moving forward. Yeah, you were seven for thirteen on third down against the Raiders and that's your best conversion rate of the season. Three of four touchdowns came on third downs, including both of Josh's that he threw. What's been the key to having success on third down so far this season? Well, again, I believe it starts with continuity and consistency and also putting ourselves in manageable third down situations. I mean, I

don't care how good jars an offensive football team. If you're living at third and ten, third and long the whole afternoon, that's tough sledding. So we're doing a good job on first and second down. It creates some advantageous third down situations for us, or in fact skipping some third downs at times, which is also healthy for us as an offense. Thanks coach, We'll catch up with you

to get your final thoughts later in the show. Shopping Wood is presented by Saint Bonaventure University, the official education provider of the Buffalo Bills. Welcome back to the Sean McDermot Show, and it's time for our good buddy Eric Wood to break down the tape in a segment we call chop Wood. Eric Josh Allen threw for less than three hundred yards for the first time this year, but he was still incredibly efficient with a passer rating of

over one hundred for the fourth straight game. Even though the Bills led the whole game, they still stuck with their passing game to lead them to victory in Las Vegas. What did you see from Josh and company against the Raiders. Yeah, one of my favorite things about this game is going into the game, everyone saw that the Raiders run defense has been susceptible this year. Last week the Patriots ran

for two hundred and fifty yards against this defense. Well, the Buffalo Bills have relied heavily on their passing attack to exploit defenses this year, and they stuck with it this year. They didn't say, Hey, we're gonna line up in big personnel, We're gonna try and copy what the Patriots did. No, they stuck to what they did best. They got in ten and eleven personnel, threw the ball all over the field and continue to have great success. And they had success early and often throughout the game

throwing it all over the field. Steph Diggs was a big part of it. He was awesome against the Raiders. Six catches for one hundred and fifteen yards. Let's take a look at a big third down catch from the first drive of the game. Yeah. Prior to this play,

they were sitting at third and eleven. They used the hard count to get it the third and six and on this play, Stefan Dick was going to come across the formation, these crossing routes that Brian dave All and Josh Allen have loved throughout the season, and Stefan Dick makes this look so easy in separating from the Raiders defense. Later on in the drive on a third and one, they draw up a play a play action bomb to

Gabriel Davis and they get their first touchdown of the game. Yeah, this is a great use of the play action on third and one. The whole defense and everyone watching at home would have assumed that the Bills are going to run the ball here and try and get the first down that way, and they draw up a great play action passed amos a wheel concept coming from across the formation with Gabriel Davis, and this is about as easy

as it gets for touchdowns in the NFL. Rarely are you going to get that much separation in the red zone area of the field. So that's a great play designed by Brian dave All to get Gabe Davis that

wide open there. And the Bills have been good on third down and on a third and thirteen where Josh hits Isaiah McKenzie across the middle, here and Isaiah does the rest to pick up the first This type of past concept got really popular maybe seven or eight years ago, and Andy Reid started doing this in third and long. When you know you're going to get some type of off coverage, you'll you'll send three receivers on one side

of the field, essentially ahead as lead blockers. Now they can't make contact people the ball is completed, but they're they're kind of stalking the guys in front of them. And this actually worked out perfectly that the Raider brought fresh are on this play. But as you see, it's it's set up perfectly Isaiah McKenzie, who is great after the catch. It's an easy pitching catch and it ends up being an easy third down on third and thirteen,

which is absolutely remarkable. Yead. Later on in that same drive, you got another critical third down in the red zone. Now, Josh threw this one up to Beasley who makes this

incredible catch. This is an incredible catching. Great job by could easily to maintain the catch through the ground here and in the red zone there's extremely tight windows as we mentioned earlier, and Josh Allen here he sees two defenders go to the outside with Stefon digs and as he sees that, he knows there's gonna be a window for cool Beasley, so he rifles it in there and

Cole Beasley, like I just said, makes a spectacular play. Yeah, they were hot throwing the ball on third down, particularly in the first half, and then in the second half, Josh was hitting some big ones on first down. Let's start with the John Brown catch that's set up the touchdown. Brian Day ball again is going to use play action and here it's on first and ten, and I will know that Josh Allen makes this throw a year ago.

He had to show tremendous confidence in his receiver throwing into double coverage that he would come down with football, not batted up, not risking interception. Also shows a lot of confidence and himself to put it only where his receiver is going to get it. But this was a spectacular play. It actually became almost the most famous play of last week because everybody watching at home, Raiders fans, Bills fans, regular spectators all thought after the replay this

would be called a touchdown. I agree, But then you get the big turnover from Josh Norman and Brian Dable draws up a shot play to Diggs on another first down. Most shot plays in the NFL or either drawing up on second one or after a turnover. So here the Bills draw up a shot play and Josh Allen takes a shot down the field two Stefon Diggs, and last year we saw Josh Allen miss on so many of these. Well, it takes It takes many things to make these happen.

It takes a receiver like Stefon Diggs to go up and make a play. It takes the offensive line to provide great protection. It takes a great throw, which Josh Allen has shown early in the season despite not having preseason games and no OTAs that he is on a great report down the field with his receivers. Great stuff is always Eric, thanks for bringing this to us and we appreciate your insight. Yeah, always a pleasure, Steve. Final thoughts, It is presented by your look. We'll tell you what

the dealer is. Coach, you're after the best start and you've had as head coach of the Buffalo Bills. What have you learned about your team a quarter away through this season? Well, every team and every year is different. Steve, And when you look at this football team, the one thing I can tell you is that they're committed to

finding a way. Extremely resilient football team, extremely hard working group of guys and gals around our building, and they understand that at any moment, this league can jump up and grab you if you're not if you're not focused, and if you're not working hard to continue to grow and become the best football team and the best individual that we can all become. Here now, your your offense is started off as one of the best in the league,

averaging over thirty points a game. How do you plan to keep that up for the rest of the season. Is there a chance you could peek too early? I don't know. I mean, let's hope not. We have you know, we've got a lot of work to do. We've got some things we've got to get straightened out. We've got to be able to do some things better in certain

areas and situations. Uh, And so we've got to, you know, have basically a look in the mirror type of approach and say, hey, truthfully, what what do we need to improve on? And if you don't do that, we're not gonna We're not gonna grow and address to the critical areas that we need to get addressed here. Obviously, a lot's going right in a four and oh start, But what has gone right for your team that maybe you want to improve on as well as just enjoy the

success you've had. Where do you want to get better? Tangibly? Well, I think you know, as we've talked a lot about, you know, over the course of the off season and into training camp and now four weeks into the season going on week five, is is making sure that that our line play is strong. Um, that's a foundational peace in a cornerstone of the Buffalo Bills football team, and it's something that's important to us. Uh, that's that's just so important that we can control and win that line

of scrimmage on offense and defense. And then making sure that, uh, that our special teams play. It's been you know, we've had some big time productive moments on special teams and then we've had some things that that we've taken some points off the board or or we haven't taken advantage of field position when we can pin a team down there deep inside their own ten yard less. So there's there's always things we can improve on and UH and I just love the fact that our staff and our

players are committed to that process. Thanks Coach, appreciated. We are off next week due to the short week for Thursday Night football against the Chiefs, so we're gonna catch up t in week seven to preview the Jets game and wrap up the Chiefs game as well. Thanks for watching the Sean McDermott Show, everybody. This has been presented

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