Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott, along with offensive coordinator Joe Brady and defensive coordinator Bobby Babich, discussed their approach to the upcoming bye week following two recent losses. The team stands at a 4-2 record after six games.
McDermott emphasized the importance of using the bye week to examine all aspects of the team’s performance. “We’ve had some good moments, but I also want to kind of look under the hood a little bit more and [make] sure that we’ve got everything underneath in terms of the foundation that it’s helping us, from the way we practice, to the way we meet, to what we emphasize, to what we’re asking our players to do,” he said.
He noted that he made a list of areas for review immediately after Monday’s game. “We’ve got a great staff. Our staff works extremely hard, and I’m looking forward to coming out of this with some good solutions,” McDermott said. “We turn over some dirt here and kind of till the soil a little bit, and we’ll find something.”
McDermott expressed confidence in his coordinators despite recent challenges. On defense, he highlighted Babich’s adjustments during games: “Some of it is a little bit big picture, some of it’s more of the more of the details,” McDermott said. “And just based on my experience of being in that position for a number of years, I really appreciate the way that [the defense] adjusted, led by Bobby.” He added about Brady: “[Brady’s] a great offensive coordinator. He’s a great play caller, right? At the end of the day, whatever play we call, we got to execute at a high level as well. So that’s a piece of it. But I remain confident, very confident in [Brady] and his ability to put us into the right situations and put our players in good positions on offense.”
McDermott stressed accountability and teamwork as key elements moving forward: “We all have to be accountable to one another and work so hard that we’re not going to let each other down,” he said. “And that’s really been the recipe for us in the past.” He added that during the bye week they will have extra time to “hunker down and study things, study scheme, study all the hotspots.”
Joe Brady reflected on both positive developments and areas needing improvement on offense: “If we started 0-2 and we’ve won the last four, we’d be feeling completely different with the exact same record. But that’s reality, and we have to look at it from perspective,” Brady said. “… There’s going to be a lot of diving into it this week. And are you going to see a completely different offense next week? No, but I hope you see a more efficient with higher detail, higher execution and to be able to get to where we need to get to.”
Bobby Babich pointed out resilience on defense despite injuries: “Have we gotten the complete result we’ve wanted? No,” Babich said. “But we’ve shown resiliency, and guys have stepped up and ready to play as was evident [against Atlanta], especially in the second half.” He emphasized consistency as an ongoing goal: “We’ve been at this spot before,” Babich said. “Completely understand the sense of panic, but in this building, we know where we have to improve.”
Babich described how he views this break as timely for evaluating performance across various scenarios such as red zone efficiency and two-minute drills: “This is a long season. We’re a 4-2. We know there’s things we have to improve on,” Babich said. “… Our whole goal is to be peaking at the right time during the season. We understand that and that’s our approach. It’s going to be consistent every day with an urgency to get better where we need to get it better.”
Brady spoke about focusing on current identity rather than past seasons or earlier games: “Who are we this year? And how do we need to evolve this year and not worrying about what it looked like in the past or what it’s looked like in these six games,” Brady said.
McDermott concluded by outlining his expectations for daily progress through focused effort during this period: “We’re going to work our tails off to get it done,” McDermott said.”… It’s just going happen one day at a time at this point.”
