THANK YOU BUFFALO BILLS!!!!! It has been quite a year for us and we have really enjoyed the season! Well done players, coaches, management and the Pegulas for the team you gave us for the 2017 season, we have no doubt the team will continue to progress in the 2018 season. So take that Smoking Man! BILLS MAKE ME WANNA SHOUT!!!!!
What they're saying: Bills discuss season-ending playoff loss in Jacksonville
Sean McDermott, Kyle Williams, LeSean McCoy, Eric Wood and others discuss the 2017 season and Sunday's loss to the Jaguars.
Head coach Sean McDermott
(On the disappointment on a “day like that”) “Yeah, you know, the guys played extremely hard, and, you know, you don’t get anything for the effort in this game. It’s won or lost on the scoreboard. Obviously we need to score more points. I appreciate the fans making the trip like they did down here to support us. Heck of a year. Appreciate how hard the guys played, how hard they worked all season. This was a step. We learned a lot of valuable lessons today, ones that we’ll carry forward as we move forward as an organization. I’m proud of the way LeSean (McCoy) rose to the occasion. He battled in there, and it wasn’t easy for him, but he put a good week in in terms of getting himself ready to go.”
(On how he thought Tyrod Taylor
handled the game, and how he is physically right now)“He’s physically in the concussion protocol, and I thought he handled himself just like the rest of our football team, with class and with a lot of pride. I could say that about every single one of those men in that locker room.”
(On what doing what he did this year means to this team moving forward) “Well, you know, it’s a step. We’ve come a long way in a short amount of time. That said, we’re not where we need to be, that’s obvious. We still want to be playing; we’re not playing next week. So, we learn lessons from today, we learn lessons from all season long that we must use to help us to continue to improve. I know Brandon (Beane) and I will sit down and talk about things as we move forward, making sure that we continue to grow and build on what we did this year. It’s never easy, but we’ll stay on it, and continue to pursue our goals for the organization.”
(On what went into the first play on the drive that led to the field goal in the first half, trying to throw the ball to Kelvin Benjamin when you’ve got a pretty good running game)“Yeah, you know, there’s some calls we want back. That’s probably one of them. Just situationally right there more than anything.”
(On coming up short in the loss) “It was a lot of fun, wish we could have done more and coming up on the short end of the stick is tough to end the season that way. We had our opportunity and we just didn’t make it happen today.”
(On a game with one touchdown) “That’s kind of how this league is and there’s plays here and there to be made and one of the teams has to make them and they made them. They basically put one drive together and that’s what the difference was.”
(On the support of fans) “They are the best fans in the league and you could never say enough good things about them. It’s just awesome to have them behind us.”
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(On how he felt he played) “I thought I played solid. It wasn’t a 100%. It was different, I think the cuts and runs I did were probably made. When you’re out there you don’t think about it. Just a little pain though. Overall I think it was solid. It’s not the reason we lost. We just didn’t play well.”
(On how they did everything on offense but score) “Everything but score. Made some plays that hurt us. Just not converting. We dropped the ball. Not making plays. We have to do our job and make plays and we didn’t do that. We should’ve done that. We had this game. I can confidently say that we had this game. You know it was a tough-fought game. We were battle tested. They’re a good defense. I would never take that away from the defense. Most people know me as a straight shooter; from a bad game to solid, it’s down to the guards up front. I thought we had them tired. We were just running the ball at them. I thought we could have mixed it up a little bit, keep them off balance.”
(On if he was surprised they didn’t run the ball on first and goal) “Well, during the week we had plays set up and if we get the matchups we’ll take it. Then concerning that #20 was out there, I thought we were going to run it. He is a hell of a player but we didn’t run it. I don’t really fight that battle if we should have run or if we shouldn’t have because if we catch the ball and we score everybody is happy. If I run it and I don’t get it I second guess it, and I do score everybody is excited. We need to score here no matter what it is. If I was running it or we are throwing it, whatever it was he’s practicing the same reps. The same situations in the week. That’s the part of the game that hurt us the most.”
(On the injury near the end of game to QB Tyrod Taylor) “It was a scary sight. I saw him in the locker room and he’s doing better. Hopefully, that will be a quick one to recover from.
(On offensive struggles) “That’s a talented defense. We had some long fields and were able to move the ball. It’s tough to convert a ton of third downs, so we were just trying to say ‘Let’s get some chunk plays.’ We were able to do that at times in the second half with obviously no points.”
(On LeSean McCoy playing with ankle injury) “It doesn’t surprise me. He’s one of the best competitors I have ever been around. That’s what makes him so successful in this league. We definitely appreciate his effort and I thought he played pretty well.”
CB Tre’Davious White
(On the defensive battle) “We knew coming into the game we would have an opportunity to stop their offense by playing hard and hustling to the ball. We didn’t get the takeaways today so I feel like that made the difference in the game. I had an opportunity to catch one. I didn’t catch it. It would have set up our offense on a short field before halftime. I feel like that’s a big part of it. Hats off to them. The quarterback did a great job of scrambling and getting out of the pocket.”
(On Blake Bortles) “We were able to sort of confuse him with our looks and disguises. That’s why he was taking off running, but we didn’t do a great job as a defensive backfield coming up and helping our front line. But he did a great job of adjusting.”
LB
(On the success of Blake Bortles running) “There were a couple of broken plays and read zone is something that he does well. But that didn’t beat us. We stopped (Leonard) Fournette when we needed to. It was a critical situation when he picked up the first downs on that long drive. That was really big.”
(On breaking the playoff drought) “We want to build off of this and you can’t take this for granted. Next year is a whole new year and have to work hard in the offseason. We did pretty well at home this year, we were 6-2, but we need to do better on the road. I think we were like 2-7.”
WR Kelvin Benjamin
(On penalty near Jacksonville’s goal line) “It was a simple fade route. I came off the ball. All I did was try to come around and catch the ball and they called pushing. You try to move on from it.”
(On offensive struggles) “That’s terrible. As an offense, you definitely have to put up points if you want to advance in the playoffs. All you can do now is go back and correct mistakes, and get ready to come back next year. They were giving us every opportunity in the world.”
(On battling his own injuries) “I was trying to make that push. If I had to go all the way to the Super Bowl, I would do it. It’s the grit. We’re out there playing for each other. You have to play hurt and just push through it.”
STANDINGS
AFC EAST
| TEAM | W | L | T | OVERALL PCT | PF | PA | NET PTS | NET TD | HOME | ROAD | DIV | DIV PCT | CONF | CONF PCT | NON CONF | STREAK | LAST 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NE * | 13 | 3 | 0 | .813 | 458 | 296 | 162 | 16 | 6-2 | 7-1 | 5-1 | .833 | 10-2 | .833 | 3-1 | 3W | 4-1 |
| BUF x | 9 | 8 | 0 | .563 | 302 | 359 | -57 | -7 | 6-2 | 3-5 | 3-3 | .500 | 7-5 | .583 | 2-3 | 1W | 3-2 |
| MIA | 6 | 10 | 0 | .375 | 281 | 393 | -112 | -14 | 4-4 | 2-6 | 2-4 | .333 | 5-7 | .417 | 1-3 | 3L | 2-3 |
| NYJ | 5 | 11 | 0 | .313 | 298 | 382 | -84 | -14 | 4-4 | 1-7 | 2-4 | .333 | 5-7 | .417 | 0-4 | 4L | 1-4 |
- x -
- Clinched Playoff
- y -
- Clinched Wild Card
- z -
- Clinched Division
- * -
- Clinched Division and Homefield Advantage
