Jaguars 9, Bills 6
Q. Dawuane, can you talk about the performance of the defensive unit today? You guys really struggled the first 35, 40 minutes last week against Seattle and today you looked like the '85 Bears.
DAWUANE SMOOT: I feel like we just came together as a full defense today. Everybody showed up on every level. DBs really came out there and locked up everything and the pass rush really came together. On every level I feel like we all came together as a defense for sure.
Q. Dawuane, what strides have you made this year becoming a better rusher off the edge and did you see that pay dividends today? How were you able to get the sacks you got today?
DAWUANE SMOOT: I was just focusing more than anything on just getting off on the ball. That's what I worked on a lot this off-season, just my techniques and how I get off and everything, knowing I was going to have a lot more opportunities on the edge, so I just focused on getting off the ball and just be able to get that first step.
Q. Can you talk about the growth of the defense from week one up until now? This is by far the defense's best game of the season.
DAWUANE SMOOT: Yeah, I feel like we're finally figuring it out. The back end are finally finding different calls and different zones and different man schemes that work for them. I feel like they really came together and they really balled out today and that's really full credit to all of our rushing attempts today.
Q. I know he's your tag team partner, Mr. Josh Allen. Can you just describe the performance he had today, and was there any conversation coming in that this might be a historic performance on his part?
DAWUANE SMOOT: I mean, the way we came in today, we both were just like, we know they're going to throw it a lot. We know they have one of the quickest releases, so we were just like, we're just going to win. Just focus on winning, and we never know what happened. The DBs had locked up so we had a lot of opportunities to be able to hit him, and just like, hey, we just come to work every day, me and him. We train in the off-season together. We do everything together. We train during the week and we just focus on just coming out and balling every week, and that's what we did.
Q. I know you've been in the league, this is your fifth year and obviously played college. Have you seen one player have a sack, a forced fumble, an interception that you've been on the field for that?
DAWUANE SMOOT: No, ma'am, I've never seen it. He's an unbelievable player. He really came out here and balled today. I'm proud of him for sure.
Q. You've been teammates with Taven for a while; what's it like seeing him have a couple of sacks and be such a critical part of a victory?
DAWUANE SMOOT: Taven is a dog at the end of the day. There's a reason why he went first round. Really if you just make him go forward, no one is going to stop him at the end of the day, and that's what he did today. He had two sacks, unbelievable, and I'm happy for him for sure.
Q. What did you think of Taven's celebration after that sack? Did you have any idea what it was?
DAWUANE SMOOT: I have no idea at the end of the day. I just know he's flexible. For him to be able to get down in Indian stance and be able to stand up with it, I don't know how he does it. He's unbelievable.
Q. Three turnovers in the second half; how much of really a boost to you guys' confidence was that, to be able to have those come in bunches?
DAWUANE SMOOT: It was huge. Just like Joe has been saying each week, they're going to come in bunches. We've just got to keep punching at it. Keep punching at them attempts. At halftime that's all we talked about is we need to get our attempts up, we need to get our attempts up, the whole D-line, we were all on the same plane; just punch the ball and that's what we did, and it was huge.
Q. Is that what happened on (indiscernible)?
DAWUANE SMOOT: Yeah, definitely. It was kind of like fit him up and just get the ball out as soon as I could, so for sure.
Q. Did you see Trevor Lawrence's injury, and what kind of went through your head when you saw him on the ground getting helped by the trainers?
DAWUANE SMOOT: I mean, it was tough seeing that. We really didn't know what was going to happen. But the good thing is we got CJ Beathard back there. He's a gunslinger at the end of the day. We know we're going to be good either way. Them two in the same quarterback room is a problem for sure.
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FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports