BUF Post-Game Quotes & Videos

Head Coach Sean McDermott

Video: Here

Vic Carucci, Buffalo News: When you took a look at it, how uneasy is it to win a game when you don’t get a touchdown? Obviously, those opportunities were there, your quarterback threw for 300+ yards.
It’s hard to win in this league. I don’t care what the standings are. Standings don’t matter. Every team is in its own situation. You have to bring you’re A game every week. The stats speak for themselves. There were certainly things we did well, moving the ball in the middle of the field. We can’t hurt ourselves in the red zone. We had some self-inflicted wounds there coming up with three (points) instead of seven. That’s what keeps a team in the game, or else it’s a different game at the end of the game there. I thought our defense stepped up and did a heck of a job in the second half. On special teams, Tyler Bass I know had a couple of miscues, but at the end of the day he made some big time kicks at big time moments in the game.

Vic Carucci, Buffalo News: It seemed like your team showed far more energy and performed well enough in the second half to come out of that 10-point hole you had initially gotten into. Was there anything particular said at halftime that drove that?
I praise God for every victory, and every loss to be honest with you. I praise God for these guys in the locker room. This was a character win. It was a tough week. Again, another short week. It will be good to be on a normal schedule this week for the first time in a few weeks. We knew it was going to be like this. You play in the NFL and every week is like this. You have to find a way to win. Again, I thought this was a character win. The guys showed their character through this game. We got down early. We chipped away. I thought Josh (Allen) did a good job of being patient and trusting the guys around him. When you move the ball, you have to be able to convert those into seven (points). Another great lesson for our football team. We’ll go back to the drawing board this week.

Sal Capaccio, WGR 550: Looking at the halftime stats, 186 yards for the Jets in the first and negative 6 in the second half. Was there anything specific that you identified schematically to do differently in the second half or was it just people playing better?
A little bit of both. I give credit to Leslie Frazier and the staff. They did a phenomenal job at halftime. The players executed in the second half. They got back to playing Buffalo Bills-style of defense and were flying around. That was fun to watch.

Sal Capaccio, WGR 550: What about Dane Jackson? He got his first NFL start and had an interception early in the game. How did that feel for you?
How cool was that? The guys were fired up on the sideline for him. It goes to back to our coaches (who) do a great job working with every player on our roster. From the minute they get in the door to the minute they leave, developing our players. Give Dane credit too. When his number was called, he was ready. That’s part of being a team and we have to continue to get contributions from these young players. That’s the strength of our football team as we continue to develop as an overall team here.

Chris Brown, Buffalo Bills: The pressure you were able to generate on Sam Darnold. He had a lot of rollouts early in the game and then you shut that valve off completely after the first two scoring drives. What was so effective about your pressure?
I thought our guys did a good job of adjusting to what they were doing and how they were trying to attack us on both sides of the ball. That’s what you want to be able to do. You want to be able to adjust during the game on the sidelines. The players take it to the field and execute. I thought we did that at a high level.

Heather Prusak, WIVB-TB: How badly did this defense need a game like this to get back to playing the way we’re used to seeing them play?
It’s big. We’re all humans and confidence ebbs and flows through a season. They stayed confident all week long. They had a great week of practice. They worked hard and they’ve been working hard. You saw the fruits of that labor today. We have to continue to develop our football team. It’s a journey of a season. We’re being challenged in different ways, like all teams are challenged. We have to continue to stick together and I was proud of the way the guys did that today. It was a character win.

Heather Prusak, WIVB-TV: I know through the contact tracing you determine who came in close contact with Dawson Knox. How tough is it for the first time this season to have a player test positive for COVID-19?
It’s unfortunate. It’s a reality of our world. We’re trying to manage it like everyone else is out there and trying to make smart decisions. Through the course of the season, we expected this to may come up and it did come up. The unfortunate part is when you lose players to it. Number one, you are always wanting to make sure they are medically ok and hanging in there. Then, the guys we lost to the contact tracing, are unfortunate. We have to continue to learn through this. It’s new for all of us in terms of what we can and can’t do and try to play a football season at the same time.

Marcel Louis-Jaques, ESPN: We heard Josh Allen talk a lot about taking what the defense is giving him, especially when they are playing safeties deep to take away the explosive plays. How do you feel like he did that today and how does a guy like Cole Beasley factor into that kind of game plan?
It was a phenomenal job by Josh. He showed a tremendous amount of discipline and patience. That’s a next step for him in terms of taking what the defense is giving him, remaining patient where he needs to be patient with calculated shots down the field. We wanted to get the running game going. We popped a couple for runs there, credit to our offensive line. It’s just continuing to evolve. Cole Beasley is such a critical part of our offense. He has a great feel. We were able to get him down the seam a couple of times there as well.

Matthew Fairburn, The Athletic: What were the emotions of the team as you guys got ready to board a flight for a road game with everything going on with the positive test and contact tracing? How did you keep everyone focused?
It was a curveball. We woke up yesterday morning and we had a positive test. Our plan went into action. I give a lot of credit to Nate Breske, our trainer, leading that effort. We got on the phone early yesterday morning, Brandon (Beane), Nate and myself and put our plan into action. We pushed things back as you are already aware to give ourselves more time to make the adjustments we needed to make. The players were phenomenal. It was really cool to watch how they came in. Obviously they wanted to know what was going on and by then, they had heard some of it. We tried to do a great job of communicating and then we went out there and had what we call a mock game or dress rehearsal practice. They cared first and foremost for their teammates, but they were unphased after that. We made adjustments here as well. For our meetings, we went virtual last night. In terms of meals, the guys had to come in and grab their meal in a bag and go back to their room. A true professional effort and a character win.

Matthew Fairburn, The Athletic: You mentioned it is tough to win in the NFL. What do you attribute to the Jets getting off to the start that they did?
We just weren’t in sync offensively at times and defensively they hit the run on us a couple of times. We had some missed opportunities offensively. The bigger thing is we made the necessary adjustments. Our players hung in there and showed a lot of heart and character.

Heather Prusak, WIVB-TV: Back to the COVID situation. Tyler Kroft wasn’t in those meetings because his wife was giving birth, but was Reggie Gilliam not in those meetings? Why was it determined that he wasn’t one of the guys who came in close contact?
We have these tracers, so that’s what we go off of. Reggie bounces in and out that meeting and some other meetings as well from time-to-time. We really go by the letter of the law. We’re trying to be as diligent as we can be and that’s what we have to do. Err on the side of caution. Thankfully, Tyler’s wife was giving birth. What an awesome moment. Then he came in here and had a big catch in a big moment for us in the game. It’s just awesome to see the mental toughness he showed to be there for his wife on Thursday and then be able to come in and play at a high level like he did today.

Josh Allen

Video: Here

On how critical WR Cole Beasley was to the offense today…
Yeah, he was great for us today. That’s the benefit to having a guy like Cole. He’s super smart. Obviously, he sees zone defense very well. He knows where to find zones and sit down and give me good body language. So, we were working in there for the better part of the game. He stepped up for us, obviously. When teams want to drop back and put seven or eight in coverage, we’ve got to find ways to continue to move the ball and he’s been awesome for us. We’ve got to keep plugging away. Obviously, we want to score more touchdowns and more points, but it is what it is. It’s a division win. These aren’t always going to be the prettiest of wins, and we understand that, so we’ll take them when we can get them.

On throwing for over 300 yards but only scoring field goals…
Yeah, I think we did a good job of moving the ball. Obviously, the stats kind of speak for themselves. We’ve got to find ways to finish in the end zone. It’s got to be better on my part. A couple of penalties pushed us back and put us in a bad position. Shoutout to T-Bass (Tyler Bass) for making those field goals and getting us the win. We’ll take a good look at it. The Jets did a good job of allowing everything underneath, rallying to the ball, and not letting anything over the top. There are still certain situations where I could’ve put the ball in better spots or we could’ve given ourselves a chance in the end zone. I know that. Again, it’s a division win, we’re going to take these when we can get them. We’re going to take all wins when we can get them. Wins aren’t easy in the NFL. It’s a win.

On if he felt the Bills brought more energy as the game went on…
Yeah, absolutely. Shoutout our defense for obviously giving us a push there. Special teams-wise, I thought Dre (Andre Roberts) did a good job of putting in a good position right off the get. Again, it was a situational football type of win today. It took all three phases, but we can do a better job on offense. Myself emphasized there. We can do a better job and put some more points on the board and make it an easier living for our defense, but guys stepped up when we needed them to.

On not handing the ball off until the second quarter…
We understand they’ve had a pretty good run defense and we were just trying to take what they gave us early on and try to get their defense to suck up a little bit so we could maybe find a play over the top. They did a good job of defending the pass early on. I think we did a good job of finding runs when we needed to. Our O-line did a great job of it. That third down to finish the game. I know they went zero, I could’ve checked out of it, but felt comfortable with the play calling, kept the clock moving. But again, if we get a first down there, it’s over. Coach Daboll trusts me and I trust him and what he calls. I’ve got to go out there and execute. I thought we executed pretty good for the most part throughout the day, except when we got down into the red zone. So, we’ll take a look and we’ll learn from it.

On how similar the looks the Jets defense used today were to how Tennessee and Kansas City defended them in recent weeks…
Yeah, very similar. Just kind of playing soft zone and understanding I’ve got to be patient and not put the ball in harm’s way. With how the game was going on early on, just trying to take advantage of every opportunity that we got and emphasize ball possession, and keeping the ball moving on third down. We’ve got to do better on third down, we’ve got to better in the red zone. So, again, we’re going to learn from it. We’ll find new ways to get the ball in the end zone. But, again, shoutout to the defense for what they were able to do today.

On how he handled that coverage today…
Just taking what the defense gave us. You know, we’ve got guys running underneath and guys were able to make some plays, but too far and few in between down in the red zone. We’ve got to be smarter with penalties. I’ve got to be smarter with the ball. Possession – you know, can’t fumble that one, and give ourselves a better opportunity to put more points on the ball.

On if he took what the defense gave him and whether that opened the field up for him the way that he hoped…
Yeah, I definitely think so. Protection-wise, I felt like I knew where we were good. If we had guys coming hot, our guys did a good job of giving eyes and giving good body language. In the third quarter, throwing the touchdown to Gabe (Gabriel Davis), understanding what they were in. Obviously, it got called back. We’ve got to be better there and that starts with me, making sure that we’re all set and we’re all on the line. We can’t have those little penalties when you had opportunities to put points on the board. I clearly saw what they were doing. I put the ball in good position there. If I saw something earlier and could’ve fixed it, I think we’re talking about a different score, but it is what it is. Those are situations we can learn from. We’ve got to be better. We understand that, but the fact is we’re 5-2. Guys made plays when we needed them, especially our defense and our special teams, but as an offense we’ve got to do a better job.

On whether the running game is trending in the right direction…
Absolutely, and our guys are doing a good job, and they want to run the ball. Whatever Coach Daboll calls, we’ve got to go out there and execute. I thought there were a few runs where we popped off pretty good and we had guys in the right spot, receivers blocking down field, so it’s promising to see that. We’ve got to do a better job. I can do a better job with getting in and out of good looks and bad looks. Kudos to our five up front today, they did a great job of blocking.

Dane Jackson

Video: Here

Mitch Morse

Video: Here

Tyler Bass

Video: Here

Cole Beasley

Video: Here

Jordan Poyer

Video: Here

Devin Singletary

Video: Here

Tyler Kroft

Video: Here