‘“It’s comforting to know that when you come back in the spring, you know we have a good feel for who Robert is, who Levi is, Corey Thompson now, Keith Ford,” McDermott said. “We got Ike Boettger out there yesterday, Mike Love was out there for nine or 10 plays, as well. We’re getting these young guys some valuable playing time. For all of them, it’s really an interview. It’s a two- to three-week interview to see what we’ve got and we can build on top of it if we need to.”’
Archives for December 18, 2018
Upon Further Review: Lorenzo Alexander continues to amaze at age 35
‘“He has high expectations of himself, and that’s why he prepares the way he does,” added safety Jordan Poyer. “He’s a great mentor for younger guys. Looking at him in the fourth quarter and him being someone I want to play for. He’s a huge asset to our team. Can’t say enough about Lorenzo.”’
Video Review: The stats lie; call it a 68-percent accuracy day for Josh Allen
‘“For the most part, I think there was a spy on me most of the time,” Allen said. “He was staying back there kind of mirroring what I was doing, and that’s where the timing that I was talking about comes into play. If I’m good with my timing, with the depths and where the receivers are and getting it out on time, I don’t have to worry about that.”’
Position Grades: Brian Daboll used 5-wide wrinkle, Leslie Frazier brought the heat
‘Leslie Frazier had his biggest blitzing day of the season. The Bills rushed five or more on 14 of 30 drop backs, or 46 percent. Given the Lions’ depleted receiving corps, the Bills were not too fearful of the deep ball. Stafford completed 11 of 13 passes against the blitz but only for 81 yards, 5.8 per attempt. The Lions average 6.9 per attempt overall. Frazier blitzed Stafford into a check-down game, and the Bills did a good job of tackling and preventing yards after the catch.’
Jim Kubiak: Throwaways, hard counts show Josh Allen’s progress
‘Allen did perhaps his very best job to date of managing the situations, leading the young troops and minimizing his own potential mishaps.’
Fox crew didn’t say much worth hearing in Bills victory
‘Quinn has a decent voice and a pleasant manner and obviously does his homework. But I can think of only one astute thing Quinn said in the entire game. That was when he praised the Bills for calling a timeout before the fourth-down play that clinched the victory after seeing what the Lions were doing defensively. Other than that, the late Howard Cosell would say Quinn had “a firm grasp of the obvious.”’
Keith Ford’s ‘work for everything that I have’ mentality endears him to Bills coaches
‘“Got a soft spot for him, the way he works,” Daboll said. “One hundred percent all the time, out at practice on the look team. Gives great effort, one of the guys that kind of stands in the background when we’re working on our reps and is asking a lot of questions. Just a young guy that’s trying to develop the best he can, and you appreciate guys like that.”’
Buffalo Bills’ Josh Allen on sealing win with QB sneak: ‘I’m going to get it’
‘One day following the win, head coach Sean McDermott said the play was his call and it sounded like it was an easy decision to make.’
Bills youth movement is beginning to make an impact
‘”Obviously, we haven’t won as many games as we wanted to win, but the fact remains that we’re trying to build this football team, I feel, the right way,” McDermott said. “That’s the type of culture that we’re trying to build in that you have to earn things here.”‘
Bills motivated to finish strong
‘”Yeah, I’m proud of the guys and the way that they battled,” McDermott said. “I thought the character of our football team, the men in our locker room was on display today.”‘
McDermott: Allen ‘completed key passes at key moments of the game’
‘”He did have more time in the pocket than he had in the weeks prior. When you can give the quarterback that amount of time it allows, especially a young quarterback, ample time to go through all of his reads.”‘
Daboll on completion percentage: Every game is a ‘unique situation’
‘”I think every game is such a unique situation. Everybody would like to be 80-, 78-, 75-, 71-percent, but you kind of need to peel it back and figure out the reasons why. Some of them could be throws, some of them could be decisions, and some could be a good decision, where we throw it out of bounds four or five times last game.”‘
What a weekend!
‘I’ll start with the Bills and the continuing evaluation of rookie quarterback Josh Allen. Sunday was a good bounce back for the seventh overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. The Detroit Lions didn’t want Allen to beat them with his legsm so they went with a scheme designed to keep Allen in the pocket and “make him be a quarterback”. Allen was able to do just that, while putting together a fourth quarter comeback victory at home for the second time this season.’
Sean McDermott: 4 Notable Quotes(Monday)
‘Yeah, I think we had six of those undrafted rookies out there yesterday. Good to see. Guys played with a lot of energy. [Corey] Thompson, as you asked, I thought there were some plays that he looked like a rookie and then I thought there were some plays where he really seemed like he was comfortable out there. He made a good tackle on a ball that was checked down to a tight end somewhere underneath. He showed his speed and made a nice tackle. He’s only going to get better with time. And then you asked also about [Keith] Ford. With Ford, I was impressed in the way that he came in and also handled himself, the way he ran behind the line. I thought the line did a good job in that third quarter there.’
Close knit Bills pulling for each other as season closes
‘”The locker room has been built with high character guys and that was on display yesterday and, really, the entire season,” McDermott said. “These guys care about one another. It’s a good feeling.”‘