Speaker 1: We're live right now. Hey, we're live. Everybody got me not?
Speaker 1: Let's go bury everybod do their job. What to loove well,
Speaker 1: Calvert defense, Let's go no overthinking, right, Go play some ball,
Speaker 1: Go play some football. It's an exciting time to be
Speaker 1: a Buffalo Bill and the fan of the buff Blow Bills.
Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome to Week seventeen of the Sean
Speaker 1: McDermott Show, presented by Connors and Ferris, your workers camp Attorneys. Sean,
Speaker 1: thanks as always for joining us now. Earlier this year,
Speaker 1: you got your first win against the Patriots, and this
Speaker 1: week you completed the season sweep in a win on
Speaker 1: Monday Night Football. It was the Bill's first season sweep
Speaker 1: over the pat since nineteen ninety nine. What does it
Speaker 1: mean to you to have that kind of success against
Speaker 1: the franchise that's dominated the division and the league for
Speaker 1: that matter for twenty years. I think it's great for
Speaker 1: our organization, but also great for our fan base. Steve,
Speaker 1: and it's been a long time coming in terms of
Speaker 1: the pain and challenging times and days and weeks and
Speaker 1: years that we've all been through, and good to continue
Speaker 1: to persevere and to play the way we did and
Speaker 1: I thought the players just did a great job of
Speaker 1: taking ownership of the situation. Coach Josh set the franchise
Speaker 1: record with his thirty fourth passing touchdown against New England,
Speaker 1: surpassing Hall of Famer Jim Kelly. He now has the
Speaker 1: second most total touchdowns in the NFL with forty three,
Speaker 1: trailing only Aaron Rodgers. You could argue there isn't a
Speaker 1: player more valuable to their team than Josh and he
Speaker 1: has been mentioned as a part of the MVP discussion
Speaker 1: in the national media. How much do you think he
Speaker 1: deserves to be part of that conversation. Well, I'm obviously biased, Steve,
Speaker 1: and I see josh every day, so I know what
Speaker 1: he's done for our football team and the things he
Speaker 1: does on the field off the field, and I think,
Speaker 1: really that's what that's what the MVP should come down to.
Speaker 1: And and Josh as a young player, and so you know,
Speaker 1: I hope he wins at this season at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, and I know Joshua is the same way.
Speaker 1: We've got more important team goals in mind, and if
Speaker 1: he doesn't win this year, you know, I'm sure he'll
Speaker 1: have other opportunities down the road. Here so I'm just
Speaker 1: happy for him and his success. One thing that's been
Speaker 1: really noticeable in Josh's game this year is his maturity
Speaker 1: and poise. The game appears to really slowed down for him.
Speaker 1: He's making more adjustments at the line, he looks so
Speaker 1: calm in the pocket, and he's been incredibly efficient. Who
Speaker 1: do you give credit for for Josh's development this year?
Speaker 1: Just myself, really Steed more than just me. Now there's
Speaker 1: a let's start with Let's start where we need to
Speaker 1: start and give credit to Josh. I mean, he worked
Speaker 1: extremely hard over the off season and then you know,
Speaker 1: you look at what he's been able to do with
Speaker 1: with Jordan Palmer, his quarterback, his quarterback Tuitor in the
Speaker 1: off season, and Ken Dorsey, Brian Dabo, and then the
Speaker 1: cast that he has around him, the team that has
Speaker 1: around him, and really endears himself to his teammates and
Speaker 1: so all of that, I think it's never it's never
Speaker 1: just one person. He just does a great job along
Speaker 1: with the team that's around him. Well, it's not all
Speaker 1: about Josh. And now, for the second week in rows,
Speaker 1: Stefan Diggs set a single season franchise record. Last week,
Speaker 1: he broke Eric Moule's record for the most receptions, and
Speaker 1: then this past week he set the franchise mark for
Speaker 1: receiving yards. He scored three touchdowns against the Patriots, and
Speaker 1: currently he leads the NFL in catches and yards. He
Speaker 1: has the most receptions by a player hit his first
Speaker 1: season with a new team in NFL history. How did
Speaker 1: he come in and have so much success in his
Speaker 1: first year with this team? Start? Steve was really his demeanor,
Speaker 1: his personality, his commitment to being great. You know, he
Speaker 1: went out of his way to meet some of those guys,
Speaker 1: I guess down down in Florida wherever they were working
Speaker 1: out this summer, and you know, that's hard to do
Speaker 1: when you don't really know the guys and and so
Speaker 1: you're kind of on the outside looking in. And step
Speaker 1: did a great job of just being a guy, being
Speaker 1: one of the teammates, you know, just kind of humbling
Speaker 1: himself and coming in and trying to earn every relationship
Speaker 1: and every snap that he got. And he's a he's
Speaker 1: a heck of a competitor on the field. We see that,
Speaker 1: but I think more importantly, off the field, he's earned
Speaker 1: the respect of the locker room. Well. Now on the
Speaker 1: other side of the football. Your defense every week looks
Speaker 1: better and better. You held the Patriots just two hundred
Speaker 1: and one total yards, the second fewest of the season,
Speaker 1: and only fifty six net yards passing, which was your
Speaker 1: fewest allowed this year. Earlier in the season, we were
Speaker 1: talking about your offensive identity, but lately you've been playing
Speaker 1: complimentary football. What's been the biggest improvement you've seen from
Speaker 1: your defense down the stretch. Well, we're playing as a team.
Speaker 1: On the defensive side, we're playing good team defense, and
Speaker 1: that starts up runt. You've got to be able to
Speaker 1: establish again the line of scrimmage, control the line of scrimmage,
Speaker 1: and you get to a point where you're saying, Hey,
Speaker 1: a team can't just be multidimensional. We make him one
Speaker 1: dimensional and we can then affect the quarterback third down.
Speaker 1: And I think that's been a big part of us,
Speaker 1: as I've talked before, about the rush and the covers
Speaker 1: working together, and that's been fun to watch. Coach. You've
Speaker 1: won eighty year last nine since back to back losses.
Speaker 1: It seemed like a lifetime ago earlier in the season,
Speaker 1: as the Titans and the Chiefs, your only loss in
Speaker 1: that stretch came on the Hail Mary in Arizona. You've
Speaker 1: shown the ability to win close games against good teams
Speaker 1: and dominate some of the other teams. Looking back, was
Speaker 1: there something that clicked for your group that propelled you
Speaker 1: to this great run down the stretch? Well, you know
Speaker 1: that's that's a great questions. As I look back, I
Speaker 1: think all the moments that where we've had to learn lessons,
Speaker 1: hard lessons, like the Hail Mary game in particular. I
Speaker 1: think that that story needed to be written this year
Speaker 1: because the pain that we all felt after that game,
Speaker 1: the pain that I saw in our locker room. Man,
Speaker 1: I don't ever want to forget that, and I won't
Speaker 1: ever forget the looks in our players' faces because that's
Speaker 1: that was a pivotal moment in our season, and I
Speaker 1: think that's where our guys they don't want to feel
Speaker 1: what they after that game again. And so I've seen
Speaker 1: I'm more motivated, not that they weren't motivated before, but
Speaker 1: I'm more motivated and determined football team because of it.
Speaker 1: Thanks coach, We're gonna catch up with you later in
Speaker 1: the show to get your final thoughts on your upcoming
Speaker 1: matchup with the Dolphins. Chopping Wood is presented by Saint
Speaker 1: Bonaventure University, the official education provider of the Buffalo Bills.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Sean McDermott Show. It's time to
Speaker 1: break down the film with our good buddy Eric Wood
Speaker 1: and another edition of Chopping Wood. He The Bills dominated
Speaker 1: the Patriots on Monday Night Football, on a night where
Speaker 1: Josh Allen set the franchise record for most passing touchdowns
Speaker 1: in the season and Stefan Diggs set the franchise record
Speaker 1: for receiving yards. What did you see out of this
Speaker 1: Bill's team and this dynamic duo of Diggs and Allen
Speaker 1: on Monday Night? I see a duo that at this
Speaker 1: point looks like it can't be stopped. Stefan Diggs has
Speaker 1: led the league in receptions for a lot of this season,
Speaker 1: so teams know that the ball will be going to him.
Speaker 1: And in the year with no OTA's a limited preseason,
Speaker 1: for them to be having this kind of chemistry is
Speaker 1: unbelievable in their first season together. Yeah, well, let's get
Speaker 1: started with the fifty yard touchdown that Diggs had in
Speaker 1: the second quarter. What did you see on this play?
Speaker 1: This is a shop play here on first and ten
Speaker 1: from the fifty yard line and Stefan Diggs waits for
Speaker 1: Gabriel Davis to clear off the zone and on the
Speaker 1: play you'll see Jackson try to undercut this throw, which
Speaker 1: is a dangerous thing for a cornerback to do in
Speaker 1: the NFL because it's manned free the middle of the field.
Speaker 1: Safety gets caught up by Gabe Davis and when he
Speaker 1: tries to undercut it and Stefan Diggs catches it, he's
Speaker 1: off for the races. Yeah, and then this third quarter
Speaker 1: plague they connected again, this time for an eighteen yard touchdown. Yeah.
Speaker 1: This one here, it's all digs and Diggs runs a
Speaker 1: little bit of a short post here in the red zone.
Speaker 1: The windows get extremely tight and Stefan Diggs does a
Speaker 1: great job securing this catching that he'll get hit. He
Speaker 1: avoids the big shot, turning away from it a little bit,
Speaker 1: ducking a little bit, and then he gets into the
Speaker 1: end zone on a play that just showed what type
Speaker 1: of receiver he is. We've been talking about this Bill's
Speaker 1: red zone offense all year as well, and this was
Speaker 1: a new look for Diggs and the third touchdown of
Speaker 1: the game. To break this one down for me because
Speaker 1: this looked like it might have been catastrophic. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: all season long, they've shown short fly motion with Cole Beasley,
Speaker 1: and right there they didn't time it up perfectly to
Speaker 1: allow the Patriots all their eyes to get on Cole Beasley. There,
Speaker 1: Josh bakes like he's going to roll out to his right,
Speaker 1: He's actually going to be rolling back to his left.
Speaker 1: Stefon Diggs makes a great catch. He's one on one.
Speaker 1: Look at all that space that Brian dave Ball was
Speaker 1: able to create for this matchup. Rolling to his left,
Speaker 1: Josh guns one right on the money and a great
Speaker 1: catch by Stefon Diggs. All right, Well, I know you
Speaker 1: love to see Lee Smith, so I figured we'd celebrate
Speaker 1: his best game in a Bill's uniform. He had two
Speaker 1: big catches in this game, So let's start with this
Speaker 1: twenty seven yard or in the fourth quarter. I never
Speaker 1: thought we'd be talking about a guy catching multiple passes
Speaker 1: in the game that weighs about thirty five pounds more
Speaker 1: than I do right now. But Lee Smith does a
Speaker 1: delayed release he chips on the outside linebacker that gives
Speaker 1: him the idea that Lee Smith's going to stay in
Speaker 1: a block at that point, Chase Winnivich is going to
Speaker 1: continue as rush that Lee Smith does a great job
Speaker 1: of giving him a little bit of a legal tug
Speaker 1: gets him to run up the field and Lee Smith's
Speaker 1: wide open. A great play design with everybody's eyes on
Speaker 1: the other side of the field. Yeah. Now, let's flash
Speaker 1: back to the Bill's second touchdown of the game that
Speaker 1: went to Lee Smith. It was another great goal line concept. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is another one in the amount of man to
Speaker 1: man defense at the Patriots run. When a tight end
Speaker 1: simulates that he's going to be blocking, that's always a
Speaker 1: tough look for them to handle because a lot of
Speaker 1: times they will trigger or they will drop back in
Speaker 1: zone when it looks like the tight end's going to block.
Speaker 1: So here Lee Smith's going to block. That gives the
Speaker 1: lineback a look that he needs to sit back in
Speaker 1: his own and then Lee Smith pops out the other side.
Speaker 1: With all the traffic going back to the right side
Speaker 1: of the formation, Lee Smith sneaks out the back end
Speaker 1: for a walk in touchdown. Eric, it was great to
Speaker 1: see the Bills get their win number twelve and complete
Speaker 1: this season. Sweet for the Patriots. Thanks for this, Eric,
Speaker 1: and let's enjoy this one, says it was pretty sweet. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: let's do it. When we come back. We'll have Mattie
Speaker 1: Glab here with this week's game preview. The Bills have
Speaker 1: won twelve games for the first time since nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: three and are looking to close out the regular season
Speaker 1: with a win against the ten and five Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 1: Dolphins quarterbacks two a Tongue of Iloa and Ryan Fitzpatrick
Speaker 1: have each played in nine games. Two has thrown the
Speaker 1: least interceptions in the NFL with only two. The Miami
Speaker 1: Dolphins have gone from worse to first in terms of
Speaker 1: points allowed per game, allowing more than thirty last season
Speaker 1: to allowing a league low eighteen point eight points per
Speaker 1: game this season. The Dolphins also lead the NFL with
Speaker 1: twenty seven takeaways. A big reason why is because Zadie
Speaker 1: and Howard has nine interceptions, which is the most in
Speaker 1: the league. The Bills are Hail Murray away from nine
Speaker 1: straight wins, but have won the last five, their longest
Speaker 1: win streaks since two thousand and four. Quarterback Josh Allen
Speaker 1: wrote two more records in Week sixteen, passing Jim Kelly
Speaker 1: for most passing touchdowns in a season. With thirty four,
Speaker 1: and passing Drew Bledso for most completions in a season
Speaker 1: with three hundred and seventy eight. His partner in crime,
Speaker 1: Stefan Diggs, has one thousand and four hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: nine receiving yards, which is a franchise record and the
Speaker 1: most in the NFL. The receiver also leads the NFL
Speaker 1: with one hundred and twenty receptions. Buffalo's defense has jumped
Speaker 1: into the top ten, ranking tenth, allowing three hundred and
Speaker 1: forty five point seven yards per game. Since Week twelve,
Speaker 1: they have allowed only sixteen point eight points per game,
Speaker 1: which is the third lowest in the NFL. They tie
Speaker 1: for fifth with twenty two takeaways. The Dolphins lay at
Speaker 1: this series against the Bills sixty one fifty one and one,
Speaker 1: but Buffalo has won the last four matchups. That's this
Speaker 1: week's game preview. Steve back to you, Thanks as always,
Speaker 1: Mattie coach. Last year, you played a game with no
Speaker 1: playoff implications in Week seventeen and wound up pulling your
Speaker 1: starters pretty early. Now this year, with the number two
Speaker 1: seed on the line, how much do you have to
Speaker 1: balance resting your starters and playing for the win. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it's you know, it's it's really relative to
Speaker 1: your team, and each year is different, each team is different,
Speaker 1: and so because of that, every situation is different. And
Speaker 1: what we're gonna do is do what's best for our team.
Speaker 1: What we're gonna do is continue to practice, continue to
Speaker 1: grow and get better, and embrace that growth mindset and
Speaker 1: look to improve and play our best football each and
Speaker 1: every week. All right, coach, I know you still have
Speaker 1: one game left, but this is our last show of
Speaker 1: the regular season. It's been the best season in a
Speaker 1: long long time for a lot of reasons. If you
Speaker 1: had to describe this season in one word, what would
Speaker 1: that word be? Grateful? How about that? Is that a
Speaker 1: good word? Gratitude? Grateful? That is a very good word. Thanks, coach,
Speaker 1: you got good luck this week against Miami. We'll be
Speaker 1: back next week to recap your game against the Dolphins
Speaker 1: in preview your upcoming playoff game, no matter who it's against.
Speaker 1: And for you at home, thanks for watching The Sean
Speaker 1: McDermott Show, presented by Connors and Ferris, and for this
Speaker 1: final week of the regular season, we are gratefully saying
Speaker 1: Go Bills. Final Thoughts is presented by your local Toyota dealers.
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