Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

‘On the positive side, Hurtt joked, “I figured I was going to spend a good chunk of change on tickets and dinner and everything else so hey, I keep some money in my pocket.”’

‘But western New York is leading the state in its infection rate, he said, with a rate of 3.1% in Erie County and 2.6% percent in Monroe County, the two largest counties in the region.’

‘“We recognize they’ve got good players, a good scheme,” said coach Sean McDermott. “They’re playing at a high level and they’re tough, man, really tough. We’ve got to play great team defense and everything that goes into that, the fundamentals and everything on down through the line.”’

‘The last play made by the defense in the first half of the season was certainly a positive one, Justin Zimmer’s game-saving forced fumble, which was recovered by Dean Marlowe Sunday against the Patriots. But that’s not enough to erase a season-long slumber by a unit that ranked second in the NFL in fewest points allowed and third in yards allowed in 2019.’

‘Allen has improved his decision-making, though he still has some head-scratching moments and he’s fortunate to have only five picks — it could easily be double that. He has also shown patience and the ability to get through his reads and, for the most part, deliver the ball where it needs to go.’

‘The fact is that for all the excitement Josh Allen and his arsenal of wide receiver weaponry provided in September, the ideal weather (plus an indoor game in Las Vegas) Allen had during the Bills’ 4-0 start is long gone. It’s going to be tough to be that effective through the air, so they have to be able to run the ball.’

‘Yes, 2020 just keeps getting weirder and weirder by the day.’

‘McDermott did allow himself one moment where he veered away from his standard cliché answers and acknowledged what this victory meant to a fan base that was starving for it. He’s only been here for a small portion of New England’s dominance, so while the win was nothing more than checking another box in a long season for him, he knew what it meant to western New York.’

‘My pick: Bills 23, Patriots 19.’

‘Buffalo lost to the Titans and Chiefs, and despite penetrating the Jets 35-yard-line on nine possessions, five of those moving into the red zone, the Bills were fortunate to win as they were unable to score a touchdown against a winless New York team whose defense had been pillaged for 22 TDs through six games.’

‘“They definitely were my guys that kept me going and kept me on the right path,” he said. “When I’m here, those guys always came up to me and always made me still like part of the team because when you’re hurting on IR, and you’re on IR for an extended amount of time, things go on. They still gotta win games, people still got a job to do. So I appreciate those guys making sure that I didn’t get left behind.”’

‘“Jerry’s been playing well, he really has,” said McDermott. “He finally got to reap the fruits of his labor and got the production with it. Very good effort, very good discipline, consistency throughout the game, attention to detail, and then he capped the game off at the end.”’

‘“We came out (in the second half) with a new objective, a new goal,” Hughes said. “We weren’t going to allow them any more points and we were going to try to do our best to get off the field, and when you challenge us like that, we answer that call. I was really happy to see us on the defensive side of the ball figuring out ways to get off the field on third down and going out there and just playing fast.”’

‘Still, it’s tough to feel too enthusiastic about the way this victory was achieved as all 18 points came courtesy of the right leg of kicker Tyler Bass. Ugly? Yeah, that’s one of many words you could use for this one, and a few curse words mixed into the description wouldn’t be out of place.’

‘Give credit to the defensive staff for really getting things turned around after a bad start. One of the keys was the Bills generating a pass rush and using blitzers to do it. They knew the Jets were playing without their most productive receiver and that they could cover man-to-man, so they went after Darnold and the result was a lame passing performance from him which included six sacks taken.’