Olean Times Herald

‘“I wouldn’t call it an escape,” he said of the Bills blowing a 14-0 lead. “We found a way to make more plays than they did and close the game out. In NFL games, teams go up by a couple of touchdowns. It’s not like we were blowing them out by 30. Two touchdowns in this league is not a big lead. What we didn’t do was continue to add on to that lead, and they made enough plays to get back (then) we finished it off.”’

‘The bad is that Buffalo’s performance against Cincinnati was strictly not-ready-for-prime-time. This game never should have been a 4-point win. And after the first half, they should not have trailed. When a team wins the turnover battle, 4-2, and has a 110-yard edge in offensive yardage, it shouldn’t come down to a tipped interception in the final seconds to secure the victory.’

‘Buffalo’s first takeaway came when safety Micah Hyde separated Bengals wide receiver John Ross from the ball with linebacker Matt Milano recovering, his first of the season and fifth of his career.’

‘Cincinnati’s passing success this season, though, is offset by an invisible ground game. The Bengals are averaging a beyond-anemic 30 yards per game, last in the league. And that’s not all the bad news. The Bengals are 32nd (last) in the NFL in percentage of red zone touchdowns (17), 30th in rushing yards surrendered (166 per game) and 29th in points surrendered per game (31).’

‘To which Daboll added, “With experience, the more you see, the more you play, the more comfortable you get. I have a lot of faith and confidence in Josh, the way he goes about his business, and we just keep on grinding and getting better.”’

‘“Last time I checked, nobody’s done anything special by just winning two games. We’re putting those behind us and focusing on Cincinnati … just trying to put our best foot forward and prepare as well as we can so we can go out there on Sunday and strive for 1-0 each week.”’

‘“I’ve been around teams that were 4-0 and not made the playoffs,” he said. “I’ve been on teams that were 6-2 and not made the playoffs. You can never get complacent or really care about what the perspective is from the outside. Sometimes when you win, that can be even worse than when you lose, because you have a tendency to relax a bit.”’

‘“(The NFL) put us in an ideal situation having us come to New York two games in a row,” Poyer said. “And this team handled it extremely well throughout the week. The focus has been amazing and now we get to go home in front of our home fans and continue to show why we are the team we are.”’

‘When asked if Shurmur’s comments were a motivator – even though they were posted on the Buffalo locker room’s video board, McDermott maintained, “No … look, our guys are focused on the process and I’m extremely proud of the way they handled (the perceived disrespect). We’re moving forward.”’

‘Thus far this season the Bills have scored six touchdowns and their drives, in order, have been 85, 80, 75, 70, 98 and 75 yards.’

‘And when Buffalo coach Sean McDermott was asked if his team might have had a slight edge playing in the same road stadium in back-to-back weeks, he allowed, “I don’t know. That’s for you (media) guys to write about and talk about. We’re just trying to win a game.”’

‘But why would he take that shot before the two teams are about to play … especially coming off an embarrassing road loss?’

‘“Now we’re getting into the weeds here a little bit, Feature back, No. 1 back? How about just running back?” What about Gore? “He’s one of our running backs,” McDermott said.’

‘It was an unexpected win in the season opener, a bit lucky to be sure, but a hard-to-miss show of character for a Buffalo team that seemed doomed to start the campaign with an embarrassing loss.’

‘“We were moving the ball well (167 yards to the Jets 104 before intermission) but I put the ball in a couple of spots where it shouldn’t have been. We got lucky with some and some went the other way. But our defense was playing fantastic and we knew we were going to have a shot in the second half.”’