Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott was obviously happy with a victory, but it's no surprise he wasn’t satisfied.
Asked about the Bills playing a “complete game” in a 35-0 shutout of the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, the coach smirked, mildly chiding the reporter.
“We definitely did some nice things. As far as completeness, nice try,” he said.
In a season of soaring expectations, the Bills lost at home to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Sept. 12 season opener and then came back with a victory to move to 1-1.
“This is how the NFL works. We understand that,” McDermott said. “That’s why we have to stay humble. I saw a hunger in our football team this week. We’ve got plenty to work on, though. Get back to it and that will start on the plane as coaches watching film and trying to improve every week. That’s the goal.”
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As for bouncing back from a loss, “You’ve got respond and it doesn’t mean you’re perfect,” McDermott said. “It doesn’t mean where we need to be, but our job as coaches is to get them the adjustments they need moving forward after this week because we didn’t play a perfect game.”
Here is more from the coach’s postgame news conference.
Overall: "It’s a divisional opponent. They know us, we know them. With our situation, we have a little more continuity with Josh than they did with Tua. We were trying to figure out a little who they were. I thought our offensive and defensive line did a really good job. Our offense got going in the second half there. Some big halftime adjustments. Defensively, they held us in the game early and made some big fourth-down stops and got stops after the turnovers we had, as well. The drive after half was big for our offense."
On turnovers: “We win the turnover battle and we still put the ball on the ground too many times and that’s going to come back to haunt us if we don’t get that corrected fast.”
On the pass rush: “When given the opportunity, they were affecting the quarterback early in terms of what they were doing. I thought Leslie called an aggressive game and did a nice job of letting those guys go with a four-man rush once in a while. Rush and coverage have to work together. I thought the back end was doing their part also. … Anytime you can get to a quarterback like they did today and get six that’s a good sign.”
Better offense in the second half: “There was good communication into halftime and then at halftime by our offensive staff. We came out and got into a better rhythm in the second half there. ... I didn’t think we were really into a rhythm in the first half, even though we scored 14.”
On Allen having trouble finding open receivers: “There are going to be times when that happens. They have the highest paid corner tandem in the league, so they’re really good players. You’re going to win some of those, you’re going to lose. I thought, in the second half, we came out with a different mindset.”
On 14-0 early lead: “I liked the start. I could feel them in pregame. They were ready. Give credit to our guys. They put in a really good week of work and, more important, the focus and the mindset and that’s what we’ve got to take, that humble and hungry approach, as we always talk about around here.”
