The Bills quarterbacks took it upon themselves to dress up as golfers for Halloween as they entered Highmark Stadium on Sunday. Josh Allen was dressed up as Phil Mickelson and decided to wear his costume into the postgame press conference. Allen revealed some insight into his relationship with Mickelson which includes the fact that the championship golfer spoke with the team before the season started.
"That was in the in the preseason or training camp, he got to talk to us as right after he won the PGA and he's right there with his trophy in the golf cart," Allen said. "He was on the golf course and took about 30 minutes to talk to the team and it was really cool."
Mickelson, who's won 45 events on the PGA Tour including six major championships knows about balancing emotions to stay cool when the pressure is on. With Josh Allen not playing up to his standards in the first half, Allen needed to remind himself to calm down because he knows he doesn't play well when he's frazzled. Allen finished the first half 10-17 for 80 passing yards but he went into halftime and remembered what Mickelson told him and that changed his mindset for the rest of the game.
"He had a chance to talk to us early on in this year and he talked about finding like your Zen, finding your calm," Allen said. "I think it's just self-knowledge and understanding who you are. I know I don't play well when I'm frustrated. And again, hearing that from a Hall of Fame golfer, one of the best of all time to say that type of thing, that resonated well with me, because that's exactly kind of how I feel, too. It helped me today and hopefully, that'll help me in the future."
It's a cool moment for any team to have an athlete of that caliber talk with your players. They can bring insight and a boost of motivation for the coaches and players heading into a season. Sean McDermott was thankful that Mickelson took that time to speak to them a few months back.
"What a special moment that was for me, for our team and an honor to ... you get a guy of that stature to talk to your team," McDermott said. "It was pretty cool, about a half-hour or 45 minutes, whatever it was. It was an awesome opportunity for us."
Allen and Mickelson have a special connection and Allen called him "one of the greats" after the game. With his performance today, Allen put himself in the conversation with some of the NFL greats. He had three total touchdowns in the second half which brought his career total to 112. He tied Johnny Unitas and Deshaun Watson for third-most touchdowns (passing + rushing combined) ever by a quarterback in his first 50 career starts. Only Patrick Mahomes (135) and Dan Marino (118) had more.
In addition, his rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter was the 28th of his career. Allen has tied Cam Newton for the most rushing touchdowns by a quarterback in the first 50 starts in NFL history. Allen has set numerous records to start his NFL career but he knows that all those numbers don't matter as much as winning football games. He is proud of his guys for playing four tough quarters of football and coming out with a win.
"We're fighting, that's all we're trying to do, Allen stated. "We're not trying to be the best team in the league every Sunday, we're trying to be the best team on the field that we're on every Sunday, so we got to find a way and we did."
Micah Hyde explains the goal is to always pick each other up during adversities in the game
The best way to win football games is by playing complementary football. That starts with a great line of communication between the offense, defense and special teams. When the Bills offense was struggling in the first half, the defense had their back and knew they would make adjustments and get something going in the second half. Micah Hyde had a momentum-swinging fumble recovery at the end of the first half that kept the score tied 3-3. After the game, he noted that they never lost confidence in the Bills offense.
"No matter what, no matter how well we are doing, we obviously want to pick them up on defense," Hyde said. "We know what type of offense we have, so, a game like that, obviously that's not them. They know that and we all know that. There are going to be games where they pick us up. And we are a complete football team. So, when that happens, obviously we are talking but it's all about motivating each other."
Jerry Hughes is glad to see the team back to playing Buffalo Bills football
Sean McDermott is now 5-0 coming off of the bye. He's proved that he can get his guys back in the regular routine and get the win after extended rest. The team got off to a slow start but found their footing in the second half and ran with it. Jerry Hughes had one of the team's two sacks today and now has 52.5 as a member of the Bills. He's now tied with Cornelius Bennett for the fourth-most sacks in franchise history. After the game, Hughes discussed how the team was able to turn things around against the Dolphins.
"Coming off the bye week, we just started slow and that's something that we realized there's going to be a thing when whenever you're coming off the ball kind of get back into the swing of moving at full speed and full tempo. We were able to keep points off the board that first half and I think that really helped us in the second half. Our offense picked it up in the second half. The secondary was lights out in the second half. Ended the game on an interception and we got back to playing Buffalo Bills football, which was great."
