McDermott makes a Shocking Statement with Mocking 8-words to Josh Allen after Bills dominate Jets to take AFC’s No.2 seed
McDermott: ‘Josh Allen showed why he should be MVP’ as Buffalo Bills dominate Jets to take AFC’s No.2 seed
What’s certain is, the Bills have earned the No. 2 seed in the American Football Conference playoffs. That was assured Sunday afternoon in front of 70,728 raucous fans at Highmark Stadium as Buffalo (13-3) locked up that spot with an emphatic 40-14 victory over the Jets.
What’s uncertain is who they will play when the postseason begins two weeks hence.
Odds are that the opponent in Orchard Park will be Denver (9-7), though Cincinnati (8-8) could earn that seventh seed with a Broncos loss to top-seeded Kansas City, which has nothing to play for, and a Bengals win at Pittsburgh (10-6).
Indeed, even Miami (8-8) stayed alive by beating Cleveland but could only earn the seventh seed by beating the Jets in the Meadowlands next Sunday and having both the Broncos and Bengals lose on the road.
Meanwhile, Buffalo, after a lousy performance in beating the Patriots 24-21 last week in Orchard Park, has nothing at stake when the Bills travel to Foxboro to meet New England next Sunday.
An upbeat Bills coach Sean McDermott enthused, “Josh Allen showed why he should be MVP (two TD passes and a rushing score) and it was great to see our offense show what they’re able to do.
“I’ve been around this league long enough to see MVPs every year for many years and what he has done on this team, for this organization and in this community and no offense to anyone else, but I have a hard time believing that someone’s done more.”
He added, “We played a game last week where I felt we beat ourselves in certain situations … we didn’t play our best football but we found a way to win. I think that’s important if you don’t have your best game and this one, we knew this was going to be a tough game and it was … 12-0 for (most of the first half) and then we blew it open. Really, that’s how the NFL is and if you can blow it open you’ve got to make sure you finish it off and our defense did a great job of that.”
IN ASSESSING his team’s performance, McDermott pointed out, “It goes back to guys working hard, working together, being unselfish, coming to work every day focused on getting the job done. We know there are some doubters out there and we knew that early in the year. The team just did a great job of coming together led by Josh and did a phenomenal job of trying to adjust week-to-week. We’ve had some injuries and guys have stepped up for us and that’s been important as well.”
As for next week’s game offering a chance to rest some starters, McDermott admitted he hadn’t thought much about it, yet, but added, “It does give us options and we’ll see where it takes us … we’ve got some guys who are hurting now and might need some rest.
“We also have some guys we might want to take a look at, offense, defense or special teams that we’re curious about but maybe just weren’t ready to be active yet. So I’ll sit down with Brandon (Beane, general manager) and Terry (Pegula, owner) and we’ll try to make the best decision overall for our organization.”
Allen wants to keep alive his streak of NFL starts but that can be accomplished by having him take the game-opening snap, handing off and leaving the game after a single game.
— The win marked the third time in franchise history that the Bills went undefeated (8-0) at home in the regular season, following the 1988 and ‘90 seasons.
— The Bills logged their first safety of the campaign when Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers was tackled in the end zone by Buffalo edge rusher A.J.Epenesa. It was Buffalo’s first safety since Nov. 2022 when defensive tackle Ed Oliver tackled Lions quarterback Jared Goff in the end zone.
— Buffalo’s first takeaway came when defensive tackle Jordan Phillips intercepted a deflected Aaron Rodgers pass by edge rusher Greg Rousseau. It was the second of his 10-year career.
— The Bills second takeaway was an interception of Rodgers by cornerback Christian Benford, his second of the season. It ended the Jets’ QB’s streak of 14 touchdown passes and one pick in the previous eight games. It also came one play after Rodgers was sacked by Rousseau, giving him a team-leading 8.5 on the season. That sack also made Rodgers the NFL’s all-time leader in that statistic as he passed Tom Brady who was dumped 565 times.
