Bills - 31, Seahawks - 10
SEAN MCDERMOTT: Good to get a win. Anytime you can win, we'll take it. It's hard to win in this league, especially on the road, especially here. They have a track record of playing great at home. A great fan base.
I thought our fan base showed up today, man, big time. Not surprising, but never taking it for granted. The red, white and blue of the Buffalo Bills showed up all the way out here in the Northwest. And couldn't be more grateful.
Winning the line of scrimmage, that's where it starts every week. I thought our O line and D line did a phenomenal job. Great week of preparation. The three-and-out by the defense the first two series, two three-and-out drives.
The first one led to a nine-minute drive by our offense. Took up a lot of clock, which helped with an explosive offense on the other side.
We were able to double dip, score before the half, score after half.
The turnover that we had, the offense did a good job, although we never want a turnover, getting us to line up again, the defense went out and held them, which was big from a momentum standpoint.
And then the second half, I thought the second half, getting off to a good start, scoring, like I said. And then we got the takeaway. Austin Johnson got the big takeaway, which I think led to seven as well.
Some good things by the special teams. I like the kickoff coverage. I think it was third quarter at that point. Very physical, swarming type of coverage.
Still a lot to work on. Penalties being one of them. Some things that we did, some decisions that we made that led to some poor field position. So we've got to continue to work on that and get those things cleaned up.
Q. You obviously went through everything there, but when you look at venue, opponent and the way you play, aside from the penalties, might that have been your best, most -- I know you're going to say --
SEAN MCDERMOTT: You know the answer to that.
Q. But this was a pretty good performance, wouldn't you say?
SEAN MCDERMOTT: By our fans, for sure. By our fans, yep. Did you hear them out there? I've never heard this place like that in all my years in the NFL. Been out here a number of years, I've never heard that.
That's a testament to the Bills, testament to the Bills fans and the organization, really, for the tradition they've built over the years.
Q. You're 6-2. Five of your first eight were on the road. Do you feel like this team continues to take steps forward?
SEAN MCDERMOTT: Yeah. I mean, we knew this was going to be a tough, tough game. And it was. We knew we were going to have to play well in all three phases. And I think we did at least at this point enough to get the result that we were looking for.
But there's definitely things, again, that we have to improve on -- pre-snap penalties and the penalties overall. And then just some decision-making, I felt like, that we've got some young guys back there on some special teams things. But plenty still to work on, even in the last drive, the second to last drive on the defense, too easy right there.
But a great week of preparation is what led to this. Focus. The leadership in the locker room. Guys stepping in for other guys that were hurt. We're missing Vaughn, T.B., D.C., and some things on offense there with Curtis being out.
Again, I applaud those guys that stepped up and did a great job for us today.
Q. We've talked a lot about slow starts for a couple of games now. To come out there, that 90-yard drive for a touchdown, just kind of set the tone. How big was that drive? And then you had another 90-yard touchdown drive after that?
SEAN MCDERMOTT: When you've got an explosive offense, just specific to this game, you know you have to be efficient offensively and explosive at the same time. I felt like we were both.
Albeit we were beating ourselves, feels like two steps forward, one step back. But we were getting some chunks all the while moving the chains, being efficient when we needed to be efficient.
I thought our third downs were around five yards to go on average on third down versus theirs were 11 yards to go. So you like the odds, the probability of those situations coming up in our favor.
Again, just good to get off to a good start holistically as a team and to cash in when we've got the chance to cash in, red zone included.
Q. How high on the priority list was that? Obviously you're coming here, you want to get a win but starting fast as you're planning out the week, how high was that?
SEAN MCDERMOTT: It's always a priority, even though we haven't done a great job of that. So we went back -- I tell you guys, we go back and look at everything -- so we went back and looked at some things.
I felt more than anything we got into a rhythm early. We had some momentum, got into a rhythm. Defense came out, three-and-out, that helps. The field position that they got off of that first punt, he hung it up there pretty far.
I think both three-and-outs by the defense, I expected better field position, quite honestly, and we didn't get it. But credit to our offense for getting us out of those situations.
Q. Are you seeing rapid maturation from Keon? It looked like he was as comfortable as he's looked all season in the run game and in the passing game on that touchdown today.
SEAN MCDERMOTT: Just growth, one week at a time, growth, development. Adam's doing a really good job with him. Having Amari, I think, helps too because he's another veteran in the room and, to me, a big-time established veteran that's done great things in this league for a while. So that helps with the guys that are already in that room.
We've got good guys in that room that help young players develop and teach them the right way, teaching them the right habits, the right routines, Monday through Saturday. That's what leads to what you saw today.
Q. Do you think is Khalil Shakir at this point where he might even be a better version of Cole Beasley? I say that because he has the ability to break tackles. Cole would catch a ball and go down. Shakir seems to make YAC all the time. Is he a better version of Cole?
SEAN MCDERMOTT: I don't disrespect Cole like that, number one. That's what you're asking me to do.
Cole was a phenomenal player in his own right. He did a lot of great things for this team. Khalil is his own player. And they're both similar, but both slightly different as well.
What you saw the last couple of weeks with Khalil was he was out there playing injured and finally, this week, I think he started to get back to closer to 100 percent.
Q. Cook over hundred yards. When you see him run that way early in a game, what kind of juice does that give the sideline?
SEAN MCDERMOTT: Yeah, I mean, it's just the momentum. All these things lead to momentum. You see guys straining. You see guys giving great effort. You see guys, offensive linemen finishing plays where James has the ball and they're finishing right on his heels when he's getting tackled, they're running to the football, defensive front runs to football.
You see Rasul Douglas, I believe it was the first series or second series, they tried to run the ball off tackle outside. They cracked a safety. He comes up, makes a great tackle, and a heck of a running back.
So those things are important to us as a team and it's never one player/one coach, it's playing good team football.
Q. On James specifically, though, he's already passed his career touchdown totals from previous seasons, that kind of thing. What do you think specifically he's doing this year that's helping him have days like today?
SEAN MCDERMOTT: Again, just more and more development from a young player. He's focused. He prepares. And you don't take that for granted. These guys in that locker room, they work during the week to get themselves to be the most prepared they can and they take it seriously. They hold each other accountable, which is very powerful, as you guys know.
Q. You mentioned it, penning in Kenneth Walker. How much of an emphasis was that this week?
SEAN MCDERMOTT: Really good running back. He likes to get outside and you could tell when they didn't have him in the stretch of two or three games it was, I believe, that they didn't have him, you could see a difference in their offense.
So we knew that they were going to challenge the line of scrimmage, and they did and they did it early, and we were able to snuff it out a little bit there, which helps to make them more of a one-dimensional. Plus we're scoring points and you get into more of a drop-back game like we did.
Q. Austin Johnson, first interception of his career. Didn't have one in college, doesn't look like.
SEAN MCDERMOTT: I think he had a fumble return. I remember watching him at Penn State, I believe. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought he had some scoop-and-score, something. I remember it was going left to right on the video, for whatever that's worth. It was not an interception. This is his first interception. That must have been a scoop-and-score.
Q. How do you remember that?
SEAN MCDERMOTT: I don't know. (Laughter).
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports