BILLS HEAD COACH SEAN MCDERMOTT
Jaguars vs. Bills
Postgame Media Availability
Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021
Q. Sean, Micah [Hyde] was just out here a little while ago. Said the team wasn’t ready to play today. How was that possible?
SEAN McDERMOTT: Well, it’s a one week at a time league. You guys know that. We preach that. Give them the credit, they were ready to play, and we weren’t.
Q. You guys had five personal fouls today. Whether or not all of them were legitimate could be maybe debated, but that’s a really high number. It’s tough to win with that many. What’s your message to those guys?
SEAN McDERMOTT: Yeah. You can’t beat yourself. Let’s start there. Whether it’s penalties, turnovers, fundamentals. And so, yeah, way too penalties, self-inflicted. Got to keep our poise. That was a crew that called taunting, I believe, more than any crew in the league and we were aware of that and we didn’t execute.
Q. Sean, are you concerned by the play of the offense? Everybody had a rough day, but the offensive line in particular, a lot of problems seemed to start there today?
SEAN McDERMOTT: Yeah. We’ve got to fix some things. Let’s just start there. We’ve got to fix some things. Going to take a hard look at the film and got to win up front in order to play well offensively or defensively.
Q. Sean, you always keep an even keel no matter what happens. But does a game like this offensively make you want to really dig maybe even a little deeper than you normally would because this type of performance?
SEAN McDERMOTT: Yeah. I have confidence in those guys, both the staff and the players. But that was — to score six points. I did think we moved the ball at times. But where we had opportunities and then the drive would stall, whether it be in the red zone early there or with a turnover or for some reason, you know, we stalled out. So, we’ve got to go back — I’ve got to go back and look at it and scrub it down and figure out what was going on there.
Q. What was your take on Josh’s [Allen] game? Some questionable decision making there at times. I know he protection was an issue.
SEAN McDERMOTT: Yeah. I mean, that’s the turnovers. You know, that’s what jumps off the paper at me. I thought Josh made some great throws at times. As he would tell you, we’ve got to be smarter with the football in certain situations. And just overall as an offense, we’ve got to figure some things out.
Q. Sean, on the other side of the ball, do you feel like the defense left a few big turnovers out there on the field today, had a chance to make some bigger plays?
SEAN McDERMOTT: I thought defensively, you know, that first — the first — I believe it was the first third down where Trey [Tremaine Edwards] had the penalty, it gave them life. And it gave them some energy on their sideline where we were off the field. And you can’t do that. I thought defensively we did some good things. 218 yards, nine points. You feel pretty good. If you were to tell me that, hey, but at the end of the day it wasn’t enough. And we’ve got to look back at some of the things we did defensively as well and try and get off the field earlier in some of those series where we weren’t off the field and give the ball back to our offense.
Q. Sean, why not take the penalty and take them out of field goal range and let them try a 55 yarder? SEAN McDERMOTT: Yeah. I felt we weren’t playing great at that point. And, you know, felt like he hadn’t had a lot of field goals. I’m not sure if he had any at that distance at this point in the season. But, you know, that’s one I want back, yeah, obviously with the result the way it was.
Q. Have you seen anyone miss three in a row like that?
SEAN McDERMOTT: Yeah. I mean, that’s — I think he only had a handful of attempts on the year. And he squeaked that one that Jay is referring to over the crossbar. So, give him credit. But just, you know, felt like defensively we weren’t in a great rhythm right there. And we were off the field and felt pretty good about our chances on that field goal. But that’s one, you know, could probably go either way. But, obviously, with the result, I want it back.
Q. I recognize there’s only so much you can change in terms of game in terms of who’s dressed. But did you consider any lineup substitutions up front on the offensive line?
SEAN McDERMOTT: We always look at it, Jay. You know that. Some of it was where we were at this week with the injuries and everything. And we’ll see — we always look at everything we can going into a game.
Q. Sean, why a punt after the false start penalty?
SEAN McDERMOTT: What did we go to 4th-and-7? You know, I felt like we could get the ball back. I think we did get the ball back there. Is that right? We had three time-outs; I believe still. Didn’t we have three time-outs? I felt like we were in a pretty good spot clockwise. And, like I said, we got the ball back there. 4th-and-7, you know, percentage-wise, we felt like, hey, let’s go try and pin them down and go play defense and win the field position battle there.
Q. This is the second straight week that the offense especially has come out in the first half slow. Is there anything that you attribute that to?
SEAN McDERMOTT: I mean, listen, if I knew what it was exactly, we wouldn’t have done it today again. But when you go back in there, you’ve got to look at energy level, execution, red zone. I think in the early drive or two, we were in the red zone there on that one and had the ball first and goal I think from the 4 or 5-yard line there give or take and didn’t get much out of it.
Q. Sean, it seems like the offense has looked different since Dawson Knox’s injury there in Tennessee. Miami game wasn’t great. This game. Is it too simple to say that offensively still trying to figure out how life is without Dawson Knox?
SEAN McDERMOTT: No. I wouldn’t go there, Josh. I understand where you’re coming from. But we’ve got to go out there — we’ve got enough players out there to make plays. And we’ve got to execute at a higher level and make sure we’re putting them in position. When I get on this plane, I’m going to go look at it.
Q. Sean, in our opinion, why is there such a difficulty right now to be able to gain consistent knowledge when you’re handing the ball off to your backs?
SEAN McDERMOTT: Yeah. That’s a big — that’s a huge issue right now for us, Joe. Got to be able to run the football when it’s handed off. I think we were 9 carries for, what, 22 yards with the backs? So that’s not good enough.
Q. Josh came out here and was probably more upset than most of us have seen him after a loss at any point in his career. What do you attribute that to? And how do you make sure that his head space remains where you need it to be?
SEAN McDERMOTT: Yeah. It’s a long season. Right? I mean, the guys have to realize that there’s — the season is going to ebb and flow a little bit. Today, obviously, we were down and didn’t get the result we wanted. But you’ve got to hang together. And we’ve got to go back and fix some things and make sure we identify where those problems are, in particular on the offense side right now and get them fixed in a hurry.
Q. Sean, you’ve rarely had this where you’ve been the favorite in this kind of game and lost. Is there an overall message you’ll have or do have for the team right now? Because this is something that hasn’t happened since you’ve been here.
SEAN McDERMOTT: Yeah. Well, we’ve been fortunate that way. But, to me, it goes back to preparing every week. And, you know, that’s the National Football League. You’ve got to prepare every week. They’ve got good players, good coaches. And they played really, really well today. And so, you know, we preach that all the time. And that’s why we’ve gotten the results we have to this point. Didn’t get it today. So, we’ve got to go back and look at why.
Q. Sean, this is more minor, but last play on the punt, why send 11 rather than go for a punter SEAN McDERMOTT: Yeah. Just trying to make something happen with the block. So can go one of two ways there. Put the returner back and try to get something going or go for the block. 7 seconds left. I think they reset it. It was 5 initially or 4 seconds or even down to 3 and they reset it to 7. So just trying to make something happen there at that point.
Q. The personal foul penalties as a whole were an issue today. How do you fix that? SEAN McDERMOTT: Well, I’d like to believe we’re a disciplined team, but it doesn’t show right now. So I’ve got to go back and look at that as well. We practice a certain way. But for some reason, it’s not being reflected in the way we’re beating ourselves with penalties.
Q. I know you’re going to go back and look at the tape. Stefon [Diggs] had some success in the second half, but it seemed like a struggle to get him involved. Did they do anything to take him away or is it just something offensively?
SEAN McDERMOTT: I didn’t feel that. I didn’t feel that. Like you said, we’ll go back and look at it. But that’s something we have to think long and hard about.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
BILLS QB JOSH ALLEN
Jaguars vs. Bills
Postgame Media Availability
Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021
Q. To be honest, it was a horrible performance on offense. Can you even put into words what went on out there today?
JOSH ALLEN: And credit to them. They came out. They wanted it more. You know, we had a lot of little things add up to big things. I put the ball in danger too often. [That] bit us in the butt. [I] played like shit, excuse my language, but that starts with me, so I’ve got to be better for this team. But, again, those guys on defense get paid too. They had a good game plan.
Q. I don’t know if it was communication breakdowns or what, but you were scrambling a lot, took some sacks. What could you identify as to what was going wrong up front and giving you enough time to find guys?
JOSH ALLEN: It’s part of the game. You know, we talked about their front being pretty good. Again, it starts with me. I can do some things better to help our guys out [like] get rid of the ball a little quicker. This one stings, but I’ll tell you that this one makes the other games feel better. You know, having this, this pit in our stomach right now puts things into perspective. It’s a week-to-week league. Any given Sunday, any team can come out here and play well and beat the other team. That’s just how it goes. It’s life sometimes.
We’ll use this to our advantage. We’ll be better from it.
Q. For the first three quarters, WR Stefon Diggs was reasonably invisible. What were they doing? Really, WR Emmanuel Sanders didn’t have much of a role either. What were they doing specifically to take them away?
JOSH ALLEN: [They had] just two high shells forcing us to throw underneath. Again, I can do things different to get our guys going early on. We didn’t do a good enough job of that today. So, again, like I said, we’re going to learn from this and be better from it.
Q. Was it a frustration in that second half that maybe led to some of the mistakes? JOSH ALLEN: I wouldn’t say so. Just, again, [we have] got to be smart with the football, can’t end every drive in a kick, understanding how our defense was playing, not giving them a short field. Again, I’ve got to be better, you know. I played like shit today.
Q. What do you think lead to your poor performance today?
JOSH ALLEN: [It was] just decision making; trying to get our guys going early on, finding check downs early on. But, again, there’s a lot of just little things that added up throughout the game that kind of put us behind where we wanted to be, stalled a couple drives. They had a couple tips that were big on third downs, and they hats off to them. They played hard.
Q. You were 5-2, talking about being playoff contenders, Super Bowl contenders. They were 1-6. Was there any semblance of overlooking this opponent?
JOSH ALLEN: No. It’s the league. It’s hard to win football games no matter who you play. We’re all grown men. We all get paid to play this game. They came out, they wanted it more.
Q. You always maintain a sort of even keel no matter what happens, but does a game like this make you feel like you need to re-evaluate everything or is that overreacting to one game? JOSH ALLEN: No. We’ll let you guys do that. We’re going to come out and work hard and practice hard and turn our focus towards the Jets tomorrow.
Q. It seems like you’re taking this loss harder than some other losses in your career. Why is that? JOSH ALLEN: I mean, we don’t want to lose games and I feel like I could have played better, could have helped our team, and put us in better situations, and I didn’t. [I’m] frustrated with myself more so than anything and I’ve got to be better for this team.
Q. You’ve had to definitely shuffle some things up on the offensive line. Do you feel like that’s affected of the overall performance of the offense?
JOSH ALLEN: No. We got guys that come in, work hard. You know, [Offensive Line Coach] Coach Johnson does a great job with them. We talk throughout the week, and we practice hard. [It was] just one of those games, you know. They found a way, we didn’t. Again, our defense allowed nine points with a couple short fields, so we’ve got to be better for them.
Q. The running game is just not working. When you hand the ball off, it’s not working, and it really hasn’t worked great all year. It’s been very spotty. What can you do to get that turned around? JOSH ALLEN: [We have to] keep trusting it. Our guys are running hard. That’s about it.
Q. S Micah Hyde said he felt you guys weren’t ready to play today. Is that something you felt also? JOSH ALLEN: We put up six points so that’s how I felt.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
BILLS S MICAH HYDE AND S JORDAN POYER
Jaguars vs. Bills
Postgame Media Availability
Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021
Q. Since 2017, it’s safe to say that this might be one of the most disappointing, surprising, outcomes for you guys. Do you agree?
MICAH HYDE: I mean, yeah. Yeah. You’ve got to come every day ready to play. This is the National Football League. We understand that. [It] doesn’t matter what the record indicates every week. I don’t think we were ready to play today.
Q. Is there anything you point to with the penalties today why that was such an issue? MICAH HYDE: Next question. No comment on that.
Q. You said you didn’t think you were ready to play. That’s a pretty powerful thing to say for a team. Why do you think that was?
MICAH HYDE: If I knew, I would have fixed it going into it. I don’t know. I don’t know.
Q. Has this happened before or is that the first time?
JORDAN POYER: Next question.
MICAH HYDE: I don’t know, man. I’m thinking about this game. I don’t know what happened before we went into this game. [They’re] a tough football team, we knew that. [They have a] young quarterback that had the opportunity to go out there and send the ball around. We knew what they were going to do, and they just beat us. They beat us.
Q. Did you guys feel prepared?
JORDAN POYER: I feel like we felt prepared. [We] had a good week in practice, felt confident going into the game. They came out real aggressive. You could tell from the start their game plan coming into the game. They were going to play physical, and they just beat us.
Q. Both of you guys had the message to not panic after you lost to Pittsburgh in Week 1 and you bounced back. How do you do that after today?
JORDAN POYER: The same thing. This is the NFL. You’ve got to learn how to handle wins, handle losses. This one hurts, but we’ve got to play another game on Sunday. Yeah, this one is going to hurt, but [it’s the] 24-hour rule. Watch the tape tomorrow, learn from our mistakes, and get better.
Q. You’ve been supportive when the offense hasn’t had a good today. Today you give up nine points and you lose. Is there a conscious thing to keep that support going? Is that just the message this team always has?
MICAH HYDE: We had some opportunities to take the ball away, and I’m not sure how many takeaways they got, but I think on our side, we got one and left a couple opportunities out there. So, we take pride
in getting those takeaways and I feel like that could have changed the game a little more, put the offense in a little better field position. Even if they did get three points, obviously you can see that three points was big in this game. We felt like we could have had opportunities for the offense.
Q. You guys had five personal fouls today.
MICAH HYDE: Jeez.
Q. You guys are leaders. How does that number go over when you hear it and what is your message to that locker room given your status as leaders for this team?
JORDAN POYER: Guys are out there playing football. There’s a lot of, “He said this,” you know, “He said this”, “He pushed me first”, depending how the ref sees it. Obviously, we’ve got to be able to handle our emotions in situations like that in a football game, but sometimes they’re aggressive penalties, sometimes they’re not. We’ve just got to be able to bounce back off of it. Thanks guys.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
BILLS C MITCH MORSE
Jaguars vs. Bills
Postgame Media Availability
Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021
Q. How do you keep conscious mindset and keep a positive mindset after a loss? MITCH MORSE: Yeah. Absolutely. You can’t put this on one person. Every person’s got a little bit of blame simple as that. So much like every loss or every game, you look at what you can fix. I can only speak for myself. There’s quite a few plays I wish I had back, put us an in optimal position to play more efficiently. And I think, you know — I think most of the guys would say the same thing.
Q. Was there a sense of frustration as the game kept going and just — there wasn’t a rhythm? MITCH MORSE: Yeah. Absolutely. It was one of those things where you try to keep the best poise you can but understand there’s a sense of urgency. And I think for us, it will be finding that balance. I think we just didn’t do a good enough job. They outplayed us and the final score shows it. [The] defense did a tremendous job today. [They] gave us every opportunity to win this game. Just speaking for myself, I need to do more.
Q. I know you’ve got to watch the film. But a lot of times with this team, no matter what the situation in game, you guys have found answers maybe even at halftime. There was never an answer up front today. They pressured you all day. And I don’t know what was going on on the sidelines. But you never had an answer. Can you explain why that was?
MITCH MORSE: You know, sometimes — sometimes we just get outplayed. Sometimes it was the right call against the right play we had. It was just kind of an accumulation of a lot of stuff, which made it very frustrating. But all you can do in games like this, all you can do is point inwards, look intrinsically. That’s what professionals do. And it’s the hardest thing to do. It’s the hardest thing to do is look at yourself. And I think as an offense, we have to do that, each and every one of us, and go from there. [We have] got to figure some stuff out, plain and simple. [There needs to be a] sense of urgency now. So we’ll go from there.
Q. When you say sense of urgency within this game, a couple of comments. Can you take me inside that? Were you guys urgent enough in this game? Was that an issue?
MITCH MORSE: Yeah. Like you said, I can only — you can only point to yourself as a player, as a professional to do the best you can when your number is called. For the offensive line, our number is called for protection, whether it’s communication, whether it’s just getting the job done. Urgency is just putting points on the board as an offense and we would kind of matriculate the ball down the field and then find a way to shoot ourselves in the foot. So, for us, it will be doing a lot of soul searching, as cliche as it is and as frustrating as it is.
Q. You used the line combination that you haven’t used this year with some injuries. Was communication an issue up front?
MITCH MORSE: No. I wouldn’t say so. I thought we did a good job communicating for the first part. When we didn’t, it showed. So, yeah, maybe not. You’d like to be perfect and we weren’t. On those times we weren’t, there was some unfortunate results so…
Q. Micah and Jordan were in here earlier and used the words they didn’t feel maybe prepared for this game. That’s not an exact quote. But did you guys feel as an offense that you were adequately prepared coming in?
MITCH MORSE: I mean, you’d like to say so. But I guess we weren’t. So for us, it will be finding ways to maybe change up your routine because today, unfortunately, was not it. So we’ll have to re-evaluate and go from there.
Q. Josh made some tough decisions late in the game and bad decisions that led to turnovers. How much do you think the pressure and the hits early on accumulated?
MITCH MORSE: Yeah. I mean, you answered your own question there. Right? Not to be — I’m not trying to be mean. Yeah. When you don’t give your quarterback time early, even when the pocket is clean, you kind of feel someone breathing down your neck. It’s human nature. I would do the same exact thing, so yeah, absolutely. I mean, you can’t put this on one person. Every person’s got a little bit of blame in this. And that’s — that’s the frustrating part, and it’s the beautiful part. You can only point at yourself.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
BILLS LB TREMAINE EDMUNDS
Jaguars vs. Bills
Postgame Media Availability
Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021
Q. Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer both pointed out they thought the defense left some turnovers out on the field and they felt they could have gotten a few more. Did you see the same type of thing?
TREMAINE EDMUNDS: Yeah. We got our hands on a couple balls and, you know, in particular myself early in the game, there was a couple plays I definitely left out there. Sack on the quarterback I believe I left out there, and I mean, we could find ways to take the ball away. I mean, defensively, that’s what we pride ourselves on just to help the offense out. You know, this game is a complementary game, and anything that we can do on defense to help the offense out, we’ve got to come away with it. So, I felt like we definitely left some plays out there.
Q. Tremaine, you’re team captain. You had five personal fouls today and that’s a really high number. What’s the message to the rest of that locker room when you hear a number like that because that’s hard to win when you’re taking that many personal fouls?
TREMAINE EDMUNDS: I think the message is we’ve got to play smart. Definitely in close ball games, we can’t beat ourselves. We can’t point fingers at the refs or whatever it may be. We’ve just got to play smart ball out there. Whatever the call is, whatever we think, in close games, we’ve just got to play smart.
