Following their 44-42 loss on Sunday afternoon to the Los Angeles Rams, the Buffalo Bills returned to practice on Wednesday with their sights set on the 12-1 Detroit Lions.
The key word that was used by head coach Sean McDermott and QB Josh Allen was "urgency" in their postgame comments. McDermott addressed what he saw against the Rams and that the Bills need to recapture that this week.
"I've seen consistently this year them being very urgent," McDermott said. "I think there's potentially things that factor into that, whether it's coming off of the couple games that we come off of and perhaps maybe losing just a little bit of the urgency… So what has to be in front of us this week is the opportunity that's in front of us, quite frankly, to challenge that team. It's going against a 12-1 team, and at their place, it's going to be a heck of an environment."
Head coach Sean McDermott emphasized before practice that as a team, particularly on defense, that they will go back to their fundamentals to ensure that their standard is met.
"Trust the routine and trust the process is certainly one approach," McDermott said. "It's certainly what I subscribe to. But within that is you better bring your heart, you better bring your guts, you better put it on the line, you better give max effort, you better put it on the line… It's the approach and the preparation and the mindset has always been the mindset of this is football. You've got to bring it every day, every week."
Allen and DT DeWayne Carter reiterated the trust the process approach that McDermott spoke about.
"I think we just continue to trust the process," Allen said. "Don't change anything after wins, obviously trying to make corrections after wins as well and that's all we're trying to do. We're trying to stick to what we know, learn from what happened and move on."
"Just go back to our fundamentals," Carter said. "We're process driven team and can't worry about the results if we just focus on doing our job, reading our keys, doing our one-eleventh on defense, that's all we can do."
For the second week in a row, the Bills will be on the road. The Lions are currently the first seed in the NFC and the highest scoring offense in the NFL, led by QB Jared Goff.
"He's in sync with the coordinator, and they do a great job and just very creative in how they scheme things up," McDermott said. "It's just credit to Dan (Campbell) and coach (Ben) Johnson in the way that they've gotten and developed the players that they've gotten over there to be one of them."
In addition to Goff's play, RB Jahmyr Gibbs and RB David Montgomery have been part of a potent run game; WR Amon-Ra St. Brown leads all wide receivers in catch rate.
"I know I'm gonna go out there and just be physical, go hard and do my best to get the W," DE Greg Rousseau said. "They got a good offense. They run the ball good, throw the ball good. So we're gonna be locked in on our keys, locked in our details."
Allen also spoke on the Lions defense saying that they are as "high effort as they come."
"It's a really, really well coached team and they've battled with a lot of injuries throughout the season on that defensive side and you wouldn't know by watching the film because they know their film and they attack on each and every play, and we got to be ready for them," Allen said.
McDermott emphasized winning the line of scrimmage because the Lions do a great job at the line of scrimmage.
"We've got to get better," McDermott said. "We've got to perform better, and that starts in practice today. It is a mentality. It is an attitude. And if you want to play good defense, that's where it starts… There's not a whole lot of shortcuts or ways around it. It's got to be a mentality for us, first and foremost, that we carry through the rest of the season."
McDermott also said that the practice window to return from IR would be opened for LB Baylon Spector and DE Dawuane Smoot and OL Tylan Grable would be in his third week. All three players were full participants in the walkthrough.
Injury Report
- Did not practice: CB Rasul Douglas (Knee), S Taylor Rapp (Neck/Shoulder)
- Limited: DE Casey Toohill (Ribs)
*The Bills conducted a walkthrough practice Wednesday.
