1. Why the Bills are happy for what's to come
The Bills defeated the Patriots for the first time at home since 2011 on Sunday. For Sean McDermott, this was the seventh matchup between his Bills and Bill Belichick's Patriots. After falling short in all six of the previous games, he finally came out victorious and he knew this was an emotional win for the team and the fans. Dion Dawkins was asked about it after the game and the left tackle was happy he could be a part of it.
"I am happy for him, Dawkins stated. "I'm happy to be a part of his process, a part of his plan, and that I can be a player that he has beat the Patriots with. Our head coach, he's also a workhorse he just keeps coming back, keeps coming back, keeps coming back. I'm just proud that we could finally get a win, but this isn't our Super Bowl. I guarantee you it's not the Super Bowl for McDermott. He's just going to tuck this one away, he's going to show no emotion, maybe he will for a couple more hours, then it'll be over and we're on to the next game. I'm happy for him, I'm happy for his family, I'm happy for what's to come."
2. Receivers provide big plays on a day dominated by the run game
The Bills game plan going into yesterday's game was to establish an efficient running game. The team succeeded in executing that, they beat the Patriots and have started 4-0 against divisional opponents for the first time since 1991. Getting the ground game going took some stress off of Josh Allen, who only threw the ball 18 times, and completed 11. That being said, the Bills had seven passing plays that went for at least 10 yards. Stefon Diggs was on the receiving end of three of those, even springing one for 41 yards. Diggs now has six or more receptions in five straight games, becoming the second Buffalo Bill ever with a streak of at least five games. He joins Eric Moulds who had a six-game stretch in 2001-2002. Cole Beasley's only two catches were both 12-yard gains, John Brown's only catch of the day was a 21-yard gain and Tyler Kroft's lone reception was for 11 yards. Josh Allen explained the 41-yard passing play to Diggs.
"It was a shot play," Allen said. "And they flew out and we didn't have a chance to throw it and he did a good job of working back to me. I just got it to him, and he made the play from there. So, you know that's what you'd love to see from 14 there and our guys were working extremely hard."
3. Jerry Hughes now fourth on Bills all-time sack list
Jerry Hughes has been an outstanding player for the Bills since he came to the team in 2013. He got his first sack of the season last week and had two on that day. Yesterday, he followed that up by having another sack against the Patriots. It is Hughes's ninth sack streak of his NFL career and his first since week 16, 2018, and week 1, 2019. With the sack, Hughes also passed Kyle Williams for the fifth-most sacks in Bills franchise history. Hughes's career sack total is 54.5, his sack total with the Bills is 49.5, and with four sacks he can pass Cornelius Bennett on that list. After the game, Hughes commented on what that honor and what passing his former teammate Kyle Williams means to him.
"I honestly didn't know I was anywhere near #95, big Kyle," Hughes said with a smile. "It's a huge honor to be mentioned in the same sentence with him just because he's a legendary Buffalo Bill. I got to play with him, so I know what he means and what he brings to this organization and this city. Anytime you put my name with Kyle Williams' name, that's a huge honor just because I know he's a stand-up guy, and he's a great player."
