Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

‘How’s this for a defensive domination: Six sacks aided by a relentless blitz package; an interception by Levi Wallace; a fumble forced by Taron Johnson and recovered by Matt Milano; four turnovers on downs; and just 216 yards and 13 first downs allowed. It’s been a long time since a Buffalo defense played that well.’

‘Last week was undoubtedly a gut punch, losing the emotional home opener to a Steelers team that Buffalo is also better than – for proof, Raiders 26, Steelers 17. This was a soul cleanser, so, whether he chooses to revel in it or not, at least for the proverbial 24-hour window, McDermott must know that his Bills put forth quite an impressive performance.’

‘It was certainly not a vintage Allen performance, let’s not sugarcoat that.’

‘There are three things that would concern me if I was McDermott regarding the offensive line. Was LG Jon Feliciano deciding to lose 25 pounds in the offseason a good idea since he was pushed around so mercilessly by Cameron Heyward last week? Was last year’s strong performance by RT Daryl Williams, which led to him re-signed as a free agent, merely a one-off? And is LT Dion Dawkins’ severe case of Covid still affecting his play?’

‘Some fans can be fickle – you read that here first. This fan, positive at kickoff, has morphed into negative. He punctuates his comments on the Bills’ performance with a word and its variants that can’t be written here.’

‘Since that day, Allen has played five games against the Dolphins. The Bills have won them all, have averaged 39.4 points per game, and Allen has completed 64.4% of his passes for an average of 259 yards with 17 touchdowns and just four interceptions. He also has 340 yards rushing and three TDs.’

‘“Yeah, that’s the game, right there,” offensive coordinator Brian Daboll said. “There’s plays here and there throughout the game that you’re gonna hit, you’re gonna miss. But 1-for-4 in the red zone, we’re down there and we’re settling. That’s hard to win a game, particularly against a defense like that.”’

‘”It was a joint decision between the Pegula organization and the county. We believe that the only way to ensure a real safe atmosphere is to actually have people vaccinated,” Poloncarz said.’

‘Left tackle Dion Dawkins was flagged for one holding penalty in 2020; he was nailed three times in this game, though two were declined. Feliciano, Williams, and center Mitch Morse also were caught holding.’

‘One of the hot button topics heading into this season of high expectations was how would the Bills handle playing every game this season with a glowing target on their collective back? One week in, I’d have to say not very well.’

‘McDermott admitted it afterward: Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin and his staff outcoached their Buffalo counterparts. It’s hard to argue.’

‘Bills 27, Steelers 23.’

‘One of McDermott’s greatest strengths will really come in handy this year, that being his ability to stick to his beloved process, which his players are fully invested in, and keep the team’s focus right where it needs to be.’

‘“It’s harder when you’re playing well and people know that you can play well,” Diggs said earlier this week. “And then you’ve got to live up to a standard of playing well each and every day, each and every game. Last year is over. We can’t translate those wins, but what we can do is take what we did from the good side of it and translate it to this year and the things that we didn’t do well. We didn’t do X-Y-Z well, let’s make sure that’s a point of emphasis going into the year.”’

‘“When we started OTAs and the offseason program, we put a heavy emphasis on tackling,” Frazier said Wednesday. “That was an area we really wanted to improve as a defense, which we thought would also help our run defense. There were some other things that we emphasized, but that was probably the one thing we really harped on, improving our tackling.”’