Amid the tough 21-19 loss to the Miami Dolphins, head coach Sean McDermott and the Bills locker room remain confident after the resilience they showed between the team's injuries sustained prior to and during Sunday's game — and 100 degrees-plus field temperates in Miami.
Looking past the final score and their first loss of the season, the Bills still had plenty of positive takeaways from Sunday's game.
Bills locker room remains confident and encouraged
The limited depth the Bills had in certain positions throughout the game mixed with the Miami heat presented a tough challenge to the Bills' sidelines on Sunday afternoon. But even though they didn't come away with the outcome they were hoping for, the locker room remains confident in what the team is capable of accomplishing this season.
"I think this game was very encouraging from the standpoint of, this team's got no quit in us," tight end Dawson Knox said. "There were guys that were jumping on the offensive line playing, playing positions they never played. Some guys were getting their first start on our defense, and it just shows that we got guys that are ready to go. They're going to jump up, play to the best of their abilities, and give us their best effort."
After calling on multiple players throughout the game to step in at all different positions, head coach Sean McDermott shared how proud he was of the guys for the battle and effort they put forth against the Dolphins.
"Got a lot of confidence in the guys in this room, a lot of confidence," McDermott said.
And the confidence in the guys who stepped into these new roles wasn't just noticed by the head coach.
"It's super encouraging, as a teammate, to see guys that are coming off the bench playing positions they've never played, given us their best effort," Knox said. "Some of those guys are back here getting IVs because they busted their tail all game doing something they've never done before."
Linebacker Von Miller shared that it's games like this that really bring a team together.
"In Buffalo, that's all we have is football," Miller said. "That's all we care about is football and winning games and a loss like this early in games is good medicine. Adversity like this truly reveals character and we have a team full of tough guys."
"This is all just adversity and I'm excited to see how we respond. Real men respond to things like this and I'm excited to see how we respond."
The team also acknowledged that it's early on in the season and this was just one game, further boosting everybody's eagerness to respond accordingly next weekend against the Baltimore Ravens.
"We'll learn from this one tomorrow, take it on the chin, and prepare for next week," quarterback Josh Allen said. "That's all we can do. We can move forward. We're 2-1. I'd like to be 3-0. But 2-1, we can still accomplish everything we want to accomplish."
Like many of their teammates and coaches, Dawson Knox and wide receiver Isaiah McKenzie have faith in this resilient team to overcome and preserve from Sunday's loss.
"We didn't play our best football, but we're going to put our best foot forward, watch this film, and get better for next week," McKenzie said.
"There's so much football ahead of us," Knox said. "I think this can be a great focal point for us moving forward just to see the fight that we have in us."
Allen and Tagovailoa's performances
QB Josh Allen put up record-breaking numbers in the hard-fought battle against QB Tua Tagovailoa and the Dolphins.
Here's a breakdown of the two quarterbacks' stats from Sunday afternoon:
Allen:
- 400 passing yards, 42/63 for completions
- 47 rushing yards
- 2 passing TDs
Tuagovailoa:
- 186 passing yards, 13/18 for completions
- 1 passing TD
- 0 rushing yards
Between all offensive position groups, Allen worked with every option he had on the field which resulted in 11 Bills players having a reception on the day, setting a new club-single game record.
"I thought Josh and the back did a good job getting on the same page early," McDermott said. "They were doing some things blitz-wise, which we expected, and some dropout as well. I thought they handled it at times fairly well, but other times we can grow from it."
Allen also set team records for:
- Most pass attempts (63)
- Most completions (42)
- Most 400-yard passing games in a career (3)
