1 - Tremaine Edmunds reflects on 'amazing' win
Buffalo's Week 5 contest with the Tennessee Titans was a nail biter, but ultimately, the Bills came away with the 13-12 victory.
The win can largely be attributed to the success of the defense. Buffalo's defensive unit was extremely effective on Sunday, keeping the Titans out of the end zone and limiting them to just 221 net yards.
Bills' middle linebacker Tremaine Edmunds loved playing in a defensive battle that came down to the final play.
"Man, it's amazing, man," Edmunds said. "This is why we play the game of football, for games like this, games that go down to the wire. Man, it's amazing. I love being in games like that. Man, hats off to [Stephen Hauschka], he's a clutch guy."
“I think it’s important for us to find an identity as a football team. Whether it’s offensively, defensively, special teams, I think that we need to find our identity. I think there’s a peek of it there, but it’s a process." Defensive tackle Kyle Williams
2 - Kyle Williams thinks Bills 'needed' a hard-fought win
Buffalo's Week 5 matchup with the Titans was not the type of game that you see often.
Both teams finished with less than 225 net yards. Both starting quarterbacks completed less than 15 passes for less than 130 yards. Sunday's contest was a defensive battle, a contest in which two stout defenses showcased their strength.
Defensive tackle Kyle Williams thinks that the team was well prepared for the matchup.
"I think we kind of needed it," Williams said. "It was going to be physical, it was going to be a tough game, it's going to be a fight the whole way. That's how [the Titans] have won their games this year. Really challenged guys all week to get their mind right and set their jaw a little bit, and we were able to do enough."
In the win, Williams thinks that Buffalo showed signs of something it had last year but has lacked thus far this season - an identity.
"I think it's important for us to find an identity as a football team," Williams said. "Whether it's offensively, defensively, special teams, I think that we need to find our identity. I think there's a peek of it there, but it's a process. We're going to have to commit to things and really just be who we are."
3 - Josh Allen "Final drive was in 'linemen's hands'"
Buffalo focused on running the ball throughout the majority of Sunday's game, handing it off 38 times. When it came time to construct the game winning drive, their focus didn't change.
The offensive line played well as LeSean McCoy and Chris Ivory led the team down the field in the game's dwindling moments. The one-two punch of McCoy and Ivory eventually got the team into field goal range, and Stephen Hauschka won the game for the Bills with a 46-yard field goal.
According to Josh Allen, relying on the run game and trusting the offensive line was something that the team wanted to do on the final drive.
"Yeah we went out with four minutes left I believe, and we decided we were going to run the rock," Allen said. "Coach [Brian] Daboll told me we're going to put it into our linemen's hands and they did a really good job. That's a really good front that we faced today, Tennessee Titans are a great defense, top seven or top ten in basically everything so to see that from the guys and to see the excitement that they had, it's going to definitely progress us moving forward."
4 - Jerry Hughes praises raucous Buffalo crowd
The Bills' defense played with an intense energy throughout Sunday's game. The group fed off of the loud and energetic Buffalo crowd, an audience that was 68,000 strong.
Jerry Hughes thinks that the energy within New Era Field propelled the team to victory.
"It was a lot of fun," Hughes said. "Our crowd was in the game throughout the whole time, they brought that extra energy that we needed. It was great. We went out there and we executed, we forced some turnovers, we gave our offense a short field, we did everything we wanted to do, and we came out with the outcome."
5 - Shaq Lawson details defensive game plan
Buffalo largely contained the versatile Marcus Mariota in Sunday's contest. The Titans' quarterback completed just 54 percent of his passes for 129 yards and one interception, finishing the game with a quarterback rating of just 51.6.
Mariota couldn't get anything going against the Bills' defense, but according to Shaq Lawson, the quarterback wasn't even the team's primary concern. Stopping Tennessee's rushing attack was the main thing that Lawson and his teammates focused on throughout the week.
"The game plan, you know what kind of guy Mariota is, he likes to use his feet just like we had with Aaron Rodgers last week," Lawson said. "We just had to play smart defense, everybody get to the ball. That's all we did, try to affect him. We tried to take the run game from them, that's what they live by - the run game. They like to play small ball, so we had to take the run game and get negative plays on first and second down."
6 - Taron Johnson talks comfort in defense
For the second consecutive week, rookie cornerback Taron Johnson was an impact player for the Bills.
The nickel cornerback recorded the first interception of his NFL career on Sunday, picking off Mariota in the second quarter. Johnson also tallied four tackles and one pass deflection.
Throughout the past number of weeks, Johnson has established himself as an impactful starter in Buffalo's defense. He credits his strong play to his comfort in the team's defensive system.
"Just basically I'm knowing the defense a lot more," Johnson said. "There's some games that, I'd say earlier in the season, my first game, I wasn't as comfortable as I am now. That's just something that I want to continue, to build my knowledge around the game and just continue to make plays."
7 - Lafayette Pitts talks about touchdown saving tackle
The Bills did not allow a touchdown on Sunday, but they came pretty close to doing so in the first quarter.
Titans' returner Nick Williams broke off a few tackles on a punt return and appeared to be on his way to the promise land. Cornerback Lafayette Pitts got off of a block and tackled Williams by his legs, saving six points. Those saved points would ultimately give Buffalo the win.
Pitts thought the play energized the team.
"It was good," Pitts said. "A lot of energy, we just saved a touchdown, saving points, just not giving up on the play. Energy was real good."
