26CornerBlitz

Larry!

It had to be a gut punch! Eureka!

No one saw this coming at just past the 1/4 mark of the season.

Subscription required for full access. ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The first hit came in Week 1. Taron Johnson was playing in his first NFL game in a driving rain. The Bills were losing to the Ravens 17-0, but Johnson was still playing like his hair was on fire. Joe Flacco dumped a pass off to Javorius Allen, and Johnson, a 5-foot-11, 192-pound nickel corner, barreled toward the ball. He lowered his shoulder and jarred the ball loose. In the process, Johnson’s right arm was left dangling as he reached for his shoulder. Johnson would miss the rest of the game and the Chargers game the following week. But since then, he’s been playing through the injury. Sporting a brace and grimacing through the pain, Johnson refuses to miss time. He shrugs it off, saying, “Everyone has their dings and this is one of mine.” But his teammates notice the pain he’s in. Anyone who has watched the Bills regularly this season has noticed Johnson leaving the game. He’s missed an occasional play after certain hits cause the shoulder injury to flare up. More than 10 weeks after the initial hit, Johnson sat in the locker room and explained why he continues to fight through the pain for a 3-7 football team. He traced it back to when he first started playing football. “I just felt like my goal was to just be physical and fearless,” Johnson said. “I’ve always felt like that. Playing football since I was in Pop Warner I told myself I was never going to be soft on the field. Nobody was ever going to be able to tell me that. I started that young. Nobody is going to tell me I’m soft. It’s been that way ever since.”

I don't know why this is a recent revelation to Beane and McDermott.

The Buffalo Bills’ wide receiver group has been maligned all season long. Lack of speed, separation, consistency, or reliability has marked the group in 2018. In fact, it wasn’t all too different a year ago. Brandon Beane came from the Carolina Panthers and brought the same approach they had there: towering, possession-type targets with a wide catch radius, and with the intention of facilitating the job of their big, strong-armed QB. The Panthers invested a first round pick in the 6’5″ Kelvin Benjamin in 2014 and a second on the 6’4″ Devin Funchess a year later. Jerricho Cotchery (6’1″) and Brenton Bersin (6’3″) were on the roster, too, with only Ted Ginn Jr. (5’11”) and Corey “Philly” Brown (5’11”) offering great speed in the group in that span. The team found success, especially in the 2015 Super Bowl season, but the running game was always the strength of those Panthers offenses. The passing game was a bit predictable, with Benjamin being the number one target and Ginn responsible for stretching the field vertically. After a historically bad start by the Bills’ offense, it looks like Beane and McDermott have stolen another page from the Panthers’ book. The head coach revealed a talk between himself and the GM about the need to insert speed into the offensive unit before the game versus the Jets. Brandon and I talked a couple weeks ago and we thought we were lacking in the speed department on offense. That’s been an emphasis the last couple of weeks. You saw some of that against the Jets. That just opens things up a little bit, not only for the passing game, but at times, the running game. That’s not the only part of what we’re doing right now, but that’s some of what we’re trying to get on the field at this point. HC McDermott They acted quickly, adding former Broncos wideout Isiah McKenzie to the mix and calling up Robert Foster from the practice squad. The impact was immediate. The running game started to work and the quarterback, Matt Barkley, found success, even having only been with the team for two weeks.

ORCHARD PARK – Come late Sunday afternoon, as he’s peeling off his equipment following the Buffalo Bills’ game with the Jaguars, rookie offensive guard Wyatt Teller sure hopes he isn’t ruing what he wished for. Teller will be making the second start of his NFL career, and playing in just his third game, when Buffalo hosts Jacksonville at New Era Field and he’s going to have one tough assignment on his hands: trying to block stud Jaguars defensive tackle Malik Jackson. Naturally, Teller has been studying film all week in preparation for Jackson, but he fortuitously had a head start on this dating to before the 2018 draft, months before the Bills selected him out of Virginia Tech in the fifth round. “When I was in Atlanta training for the combine, I was with Jon Stinchcomb,” Teller recalled of his sessions with the former NFL offensive lineman who helps draft prospects prepare for the scouting combine and their pro days. “He pulled up some game film and we literally studied (Jackson) because he’s one of the best. So to me it’s like, wow, I was watching this guy thinking it would be really cool to block him one day, and here I am.”

Bills Today: McDermott: Jags the NFL's Most Talented Team

Post-Game Report: 11/21 vs. Philadelphia Final Score 1st 2nd 3rd OT SO Final SOG Flyers (9-10-2) 0 2 0 – – 2 25 Sabres (14-6-2) 4 0 1 – – 5 21 Game Summary Event Summary Top Notes Buffalo now has its first seven-game winning streak since the team won its first 10 games of the 2006-07 season. With an 8-2-0 record in their last 10 games, the Sabres have eight wins in a 10-game stretch for the first time since the last 10 games of the 2010-11 season. The Sabres are 7-2-1 through 10 home games, their best 10-game start to the home schedule since their identical 7-2-1 start at home in 2009-10. Carter Hutton extended his win streak to a career-best six games. In those games, he has posted .933 save percentage and a 1.99 goals-against average. With his goal tonight, Jeff Skinner now has nine points (5+4) in his last six home games. Kyle Okposo’s assist on Tage Thompson’s goal gives him six points (1+5) in his last six games. Okposo now has a point in each of his last three home contests. Evan Rodrigues’ goal tonight was his third career power-play tally. With two points tonight (1+1), he now has four points (1+3) in his last four games. Rasmus Dahlin’s assist on Rodrigues’ goal gives him six points (1+5) in his last six games. With a goal and an assist tonight, Sam Reinhart now has 10 points (2+8) in his last nine games. Tonight’s Goaltenders Tonight’s Stats Team Goaltender Decision SV% GAA Flyers Lyon Pickard L ND .667 1.000 12.00 0.00 Sabres Hutton W .920 2.00 Updated Season Stats Team Goaltender Record SV% GAA Flyers Lyon Pickard 0-1-0 3-1-2 .667 .858 12.00 4.13 Sabres Hutton 10-6-1 .917 2.57 Post-Game Audio Sabres head coach Phil Housley Sabres forward Evan Rodrigues Sabres forward Jack Eichel Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol Flyers forward Scott Laughton Flyers forward Claude Giroux Flyers defenseman Christian Folin

FINAL: Flyers 2 - Sabres 5 The Sabres win their seventh game in a row. FINAL STATS // STAY TUNED FOR POSTGAME COVERAGE Game Summary Event Summary Full Play By Play Sabres Ice Time

Great hustle Captain Eichs!