WHAM

‘“It was just a lot to process within my own self – mentally, physically, even spiritually,” Hamlin said. “It’s just been a lot to process, but I can’t tell you how appreciative I am of all the love, all the support and everything that’s just been coming in my way.”’

‘Dorsey had an up-and-down first season calling the plays for Buffalo.’

‘”Last season, he actually made his biggest jump with taking less hits,” general manager Brandon Beane said. “I think this year, there were some times in some games where he felt, for whatever reason, maybe we weren’t rolling the way we wanted to in the passing game, and he’s like, ‘I’m going to put it in my hand.'”‘

‘”It’s easy for us to all sit here and question, ‘Ken Dorsey, why did you go deep there and not get the first down?’ or ‘Why did you not run the ball there on 3rd & 2?’ or ‘Leslie Frazier, why didn’t you blitz more? Why were the corners off?’ Beane said. “You can second-guess these guys all day long, (but) you have to understand that sometimes games aren’t going to go, for a player or a coach, exactly the way you want.”‘

‘Hurts, Jefferson and Mahomes are also finalists for the Offensive Player of the Year award, along with Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill, but Allen and Burrow are not.’

‘”There was a lot of stuff that happened to a football team that I don’t know if it’s ever happened before,” Allen said. “Just battling through that with the guys in this locker room and trusting each other. Obviously, we want to win — make no mistake about it — but I’m proud of how this team was able to fight through some of the stuff we went through.”‘

‘”We’re a good football team, and we’ve been good for a number of years,” McDermott said. “The goal is to win a world championship. So for us to have a true evaluation of where we’re at, we have to be objective with ourselves and say ‘Hey, where are we?’ Look around the division, the division is improving. The gap is closing, as far as that’s concerned. So if we didn’t (evaluate ourselves), we wouldn’t be doing it the right way.”‘

‘”I ask that question just like you ask that question,” Isaiah McKenzie said. “I really don’t know. We’ve got the players, we’ve got the coaches, we’ve got everything going, we’re winning football games when we need them during the season. Then when we get to the playoffs, it’s like, it’s not there. I’m still not understanding that.”‘

‘Diggs didn’t talk to the media Sunday or Monday, but he did take to Twitter.’

‘The Bills scored to make it 14-7, but you got a feeling they were going to have a long day when the defense just couldn’t get off the field.’

‘Number 3 is back at Highmark Stadium for gameday, just three weeks after suffering cardiac arrest in Cincinnati.’

‘”That experience, we’ll carry that with us,” McDermott said. “There’s a challenge to that, but there’s also a lot of good that came from that.”‘

‘”Von put the Super Bowl trophy out in the locker room, and put, ‘You said you’d do anything for it,’ [in writing],” Davis said. “It reminded me of what we need to do to get there, and I’m going to do my best to try to show the guys they can trust me.”‘

‘But what’s even more concerning is that Buffalo has turned the ball over three times in each of the last three games.’

‘”We know that we’re the defending AFC champions,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. “There’s an edge to this team that we’re not an underdog to anybody. That’s been the feeling this whole season. We don’t really care what anybody else says about us. We know we belong on the field with every team in this league.”‘