HEAD COACH BILL BELICHICK

Press Conference
Thursday, December 1, 2022

BB: All right. Not really too much to say here. Just obviously couldn't do enough tonight. Got to give Buffalo credit. They're a good football team. We just couldn't do enough. Had some opportunities but just nothing in particular, just in general, just not quite good enough in any area, red area, offensively, making plays in the kicking game. Yeah, that's about the end of it.

Q: Buffalo's last possession, about two minutes left, what went into the decision to not call timeouts to get the ball back and let Buffalo run the clock there?

BB: Talking about on the kneel-downs?

Q: Yes.

BB: I thought that was the best thing to do for our team. We went the other way in the Baltimore game, lost Mac [Jones] for three weeks. I don't really think that was worth it.

Q: Three of 12 on third down offensively. Been an area that has been a struggle all season. What do you see there?

BB: Yeah, combination of things.

Q: The two-minute offense at the end of the second quarter, were you okay with the way the timeouts were used in that situation?

BB: Kind of short on a third down, cost us another – we didn't pick it up on third down, so we had to use a timeout there. I mean, in the end we should have had a field goal at the end of the half and we ended up not getting it.

Q: Why do you think the offense is still struggling so much at this point in the season?

BB: Well, I'll just say tonight, like I said, we just didn't do enough. Had some opportunities and weren't able to take advantage of them.

Q: You had a lot of the same players in place last year as you do this year. The offense was a lot more efficient. Anything specific that changed?

BB: Just got through with the game here.

Q: Given that he'd done it in college, were you always planning on at some point to use Marcus Jones that way or was it something specific this week?

BB: Yeah, he's played on offense before.

Q: Are there serious changes you have to make on third down? I think you're three for 10 last week, three for 12 today.

BB: Yeah, it's a combination of things, so there's a lot of things we could to do better. Some of it's third down, some of it's first and second down.

Q: Did you feel you couldn't be aggressive on first and second down based on some of the stuff you had going on your offensive line?

BB: We were definitely working round some things there. But, yeah, we just need to do a better job.

Q: Would you consider the struggles on offense more of a play calling issue or an execution issue?

BB: Yeah, well, we just need to do a better job overall.

Q: On the pass to Gabe Davis, the touchdown pass, looked like he was going to go out-of-bounds, Wilson was pursuing him on that. Did you think he was out-of-bounds? Some guys stopped playing. I don't know what you saw.

BB: Yeah, I don't know. I didn't really see it.

Q: There's a sequence at the end of the first half, second down and one, you guys ran it.

BB: We just talked about it.

Q: Came in late. Apologize.

BB: Yeah, no worries.

Q: Was there any consideration to bumping Mike Onwenu out to right tackle? Any consideration to moving things around to get Mike in that spot, moving someone else into that guard spot?

BB: Yeah, it's not always moving one or moving two. Moving two is always harder than moving one.

We looked at our options, felt like we did the best thing we could do. If we thought moving Mike was out there, we would have done that.

Q: Did you feel conditioning was an issue at all defensively? They were out there for almost 40 minutes.

BB: I thought actually we played pretty competitively.

Q: The decision to punt with 12 and a half minutes left around midfield on fourth down, what made punting the best for the team in that situation?

BB: Yeah, thought it to stay in the game.

Q: Did it feel like the Bills had a beat on what you were trying to do on early downs? Felt like a lot of short passing screens into the flat.

BB: You'd have to ask them that. I don't know.

Q: Do you think it's hard to keep players from getting frustrated against an offense like Buffalo when you're not incredibly aggressive through the air?

BB: What players are you talking about?

Q: Sorry, your offensive players.

BB: I don't know. You'd have to ask them that.

QUARTERBACK MAC JONES

Press Conference
Thursday, December 1, 2022

Q: Mac, there's a video going around right now from the broadcast showing you on the sidelines, showing you appearing to be frustrated. Can you share what is being said in that moment or what was frustrating you at that time?

MJ: Obviously, just kind of let my emotions get to me but we're kind of playing from behind. What I said was about throwing it deeper in the short game. I got to execute that part better. But it's the short game we kept going to, which is working. But I felt like we needed chunk plays. I shouted that out to kind of get everyone going. That's emotional. That's football. I'm passionate about this game. Obviously, you don't want to let your emotions get the best of you. But yeah, I think that's pretty much it. It wasn't directed at anybody. Just emotion coming out and we kind of needed a spark. When you're playing from behind against a pretty good team and a good offense, you need to go out there and make better plays. That starts with me. Definitely wasn't good enough by me tonight. All you can do is watch the tape and see where we can get better. Playing catch-up is hard. We didn't want to do that all game. I didn't do a good enough job of getting ahead early, making it work. So tough one, but hats off to the Bills for playing a good game.

Q: Obviously a somber atmosphere in the locker room. What's the frustration level like for this locker room now on the offense?

MJ: Yeah, I think we didn't play our best game obviously. We let our team down. I think when we all play together, the defense, special teams and offense, when we finally get a chance to do that, I think the results will be there. We didn't do that on offense. I thought the defense did great. Special teams did great. Got more games to be played. Season's not over. Got to watch the tape and see what we can do better and just have a positive attitude. That's a good football team that we played against tonight. We'll have to play against them again. You have to give credit where credit's due. Yeah, just got to work harder.

Q: There was a third and six play right before the half, 29-yard line. Looked like you were pressured, threw the ball out of bounds. Did you look down the field thinking maybe I could pick up the ball with your feet or no choice?

MJ: Yeah, I'm not sure. I think there was 22 seconds. We didn't have any timeouts. If you take a sack, not only do you lose yards, but you don't have a timeout. We would have to run the field goal team on with a sack maybe out of range. It's a tough thing to do with 22 seconds left. I threw it away and played for the field goal. I'll have to watch the tape and see if I could have done something differently. But that's something we focus on a lot here, situational awareness. That was the right play for that time.

Q: You have some teammates in the locker room talking about feeling like for lack after better term telegraphing stuff on third down. Do you feel that package needs to be better going forward? Obviously been a roller coaster.

MJ: What do you mean? Tele? What does that mean?

Q: That the scheme is easily answerable for the defense.

MJ: Yeah, I'm not sure. You'd have to ask the defense. We practice these plays. They work in practice. We know what we're supposed to do, it's just a matter of if we can go out there and do it. This is a good football team, a good defense, a good third down defense. I'll have to watch the tape and kind of see. But I feel like by the end of the week our plan is our plan. We feel confident in it. That's all you can do, right? Once you go out there, you kind of have to read and react. Whatever they give you, they give you. Might be different than what you saw in practice. We need to execute better. I need to execute better. I felt like we couldn't get that rhythm tonight, couldn't get the third down, couldn't kind of move the ball consistently enough. That starts with me. Definitely let a lot of people down with that. Want to be able to score points, but you also want to be able to move the ball, move the ball. It's tough to sit here and watch the defense play a great game, not being able to give them anything back. I think once we all hit together, it will be a great result. But tonight we didn't do anything good enough. I didn't do anything good enough to put enough points up to beat a good team.

Q: We were asking you about some offensive struggles back in the summer. Those are still popping up. What do you think is holding back the offense despite execution?

MJ: I think it's accountability. It starts with me. I think I want to be coached harder. I want to be a better player. The coaches have given us everything they've got. They've done everything to put us in position to win. But I want to hold everybody accountable, including myself. I think it's tough, right? You get called out a little bit, you have to admit that you didn't do your job. That's part of the game. A lot of that blame falls on me. I didn't do my best tonight. I think a lot of other guys played with a lot of good effort. We played with effort. I played with effort. I'm going to give it everything I've got every week, no matter what. I'll go until the wheels fall off. But got to be better executing plays. They're putting us in a good position. We just got to go out there and do it together. That starts in practice, 'hey, I didn't do this right, call me out for it, tell me that I'm wrong.' If you're a good leader, you can accept that. You can look at the other guy and say the same thing to him that he says to you. The best players in the world at any sport, they have that accountability with their teammates. That's something that we need to have that's better. Obviously, the coaches are a big part of it, but it really starts with the players. Clearly I haven't done a good enough job of doing my part in that.

Q: Third and run handoff there. What led to that breakdown? Then the two-minute with the run play, timeout, the sneak, the time out and managing that.

MJ: I think the first one's my fault. I can't let that happen. Something we talked about on the sideline. I didn't do the right thing, so that's on me. It's a big play in the game. Once again, that kind of goes back into getting into the flow. Rhamondre gets that, I give it to him the right way, he'll make a play. Then we can kind of move on and create a drive. That was on me. Yeah, I think the two-minute stuff, it's all situational awareness and time management. There's communication that comes from the side to me, to the players. We just need to improve that. For what it's worth, we were trying to get the first down. Got the first down. Obviously, you got to take the timeout or spike the ball. I have to go back and watch it and talk to coach about it. He does a great job handling all those situations. Just got to learn from it and try and score points. Whatever we can do better, we will. Good learning experience, but it's going to be tough to watch, for sure.

Q: How do you feel the variety in your passing game in terms of the different route concepts you're running is? Do you feel you have a good variety of plays you're calling up?

MJ: Yeah, I always talk about that. It's the short, the medium, the long, the RPOs, screens, everything. Move the pocket stuff. We were getting out of the pocket. We have all that stuff. I think the coaches have a really good plan for what they think's going to work for that week. Today was kind of like the quick game, get the ball outside, make everyone tackle and stuff like that. That kind of was our plan. I'm sure I'll watch the film and see what I can do better in that part. We also had -- I'm sure I'll watch it and see guys I could have got the ball to in the medium and long passes too. I'll have to just watch it. I'm not sure based on my recollection or anything like that.

Q: Follow up on the first question because I haven't seen the video. When you're talking about wanting chunk plays, is that a decision you can make play-to-play or is that a play call decision that you were venting about?

MJ: Yeah, I think it was just me at that point in the game like, 'all right, we're playing catch-up here, let's go for it, let's be aggressive, let's take those shots, just go down fighting.' Matty P. was on the same page. We kind of did it there at the end and moved it a little bit more. At the end of the day we have to execute the plays and do a better job. Sometimes you're just so competitive, right? You want to go out there, 'hey, let's get a 50-yard gain.' Sometimes it doesn't happen, but we might as well go down trying, and try to make it work.

Q: Any reason you didn't adjust sooner?

MJ: I'm not sure. I think that's definitely a coaching question. I think we had the right game plan. I got to execute some of those quick game plays better even. They're good plays for us, just like every other play. I think for us, we want to be aggressive and play on our terms. Sadly we didn't do that tonight. A lot of that has to do with a good defense. No excuses, but that's a good team out there. You got to do what you do well, but you can't be ignorant to the fact they have a good front. They have good backers, corners, safety. It's a good defense. They played a great game today. We just have to be better. So it is what it is.

CENTER DAVID ANDREWS

Press Conference
Thursday, December 1, 2022

(On what the Bills defense did to keep the Patriots offense off the field)

"I mean look, they're a really good team, really good defense obviously. Coach McDermott, Coach Frazier, really good coaches. A lot of it, we didn't execute. Hats off to them, like I said, lot of really good players. But at the end of the day, we've got to go do our job too."

(On the frustration level of the offense)

"Look. I mean, I want to win. We want to win. And we're not doing that. We've got to find ways to win, whatever that is. It doesn't always have to be pretty but you've got to find ways to win. You've got to win your individual matchup and that's what different about offensive football. It takes 11 guys operating very efficiently to have a good play. Just to have a good play – not a great play, a good play. You've got to have 11 guys operating efficiently and winning. So we've got to do a better job of that."

(On if there's anything he can point to leading to the offense's struggles)

"It starts with us. So take a look at it here tonight, tomorrow, see what it is and try to learn from it. Get a chance to play them again at the end of the year."

LINEBACKER MATTHEW JUDON

Press Conference
Thursday, December 1, 2022

(On how he processes that game from a defensive perspective)

"It's just, we have to get stops and get the ball back to our offense. Let them create momentum, sustain drives. But they had too many third downs that they converted to first downs. So we have to get them stopped. Then in the red-zone, we can't let them go 3-for-3. We can't let them go 3-for-3. We have to force field goals. We can't let them run it in like that."

(On how tough it was to get three stops and then have the Bills go on a 15-play drive)

"That's really tough. It was short plays, intermediate plays and it just kept seeming like they would just get a first down. Right there you really want to get off the field. Put four stops back-to-back. You want to get off the field. It just seemed like they were just getting five, four, first down. Five, four, first down. Five, four, three, first down. That's kind of how it went. They worked the clock and they worked the whole field."

(On if there is any reason the defense had those struggles on third down)

"I believe they were just in a short yardage situations. That's a good offense. They can move the ball. They have a lot of weapons all over the field including their quarterback. So we really just have to keep them in hopefully third-and-long. Keep them in third-and-long, and then we can pin our ears back and get to them. Make them be a thrower. Even though you see who he is. But just force him to sit in that pocket and complete passes."

(On who this team is and what they have to do to get better moving forward at 6-6)

"It's not over yet. Right? We're 6-6. We have more games to play. That's what we're going to do. We're going to go out there and we're going to play. We have to put this one behind us. We see this team again. We have to play this team again. We have two more division games. As hard as this is we have some tough games ahead of us. We have a little west coast trip coming up. We have to focus. We have to come back. We have to be ready."

(On how tough it's been not having Christian Barmore)

"I would love to have Barmore out there. But don't discount the people that are out there rushing. [Josh] Uche played a hell of a game. We have [Deatrich] Wise [Jr.] in there. We have [Davon] Godchaux. We have Daniel [Ekuale]. We all want Barmore out there, playing and back healthy. But we have some really good players. We have some really good players out there rushing the passer. Uche played a heck of a game. When Ant's [Anfernee Jennings] out there, he does a great job. So when Barmore comes back, he's going to fit right back in. He's going to make his plays. He's going to do what he do. I would love to have whoever out there rushing with me. That's what it is. That's how we have to play. Whoever we have out there, that's who we have out there. We have to make it work. We have to hold ourselves accountable for every play on the field. We have to defend every blade of grass or turf. It doesn't matter who we're playing, what's the obstacles, what the offense's doing, what special team's doing. We have to defend every blade of grass because that's what they ask us to do. We have to be held accountable. We have to stand up. We have to play like that. So whoever is out there, is out there. If we're rushing, we're all rushing.

SAFETY DEVIN MCCOURTY

Press Conference
Thursday, December 1, 2022

(On what frustrations there are after tonight's loss)

"Tough game. I think obviously did some things well, but not enough things well. So yeah, I mean, we've been talking about it I think the last two weeks, these games get bigger and bigger, so when you fall short it's disappointing. We've got some time, we need to try to regroup, reset, figure some things out and decide what the rest of our season is going to be."

(On how the team is now compared to the season-ending loss against the Bills last year)

"Listen, I think we played better than the last game we played them, but when it all breaks down it doesn't matter. A loss is a loss. If you're betting on the game, you care about the score, but everything kind of turns into win or loss. I think we kind of feel like we're in the same position as far as we lost last year to this team, two times at the end of the season and then starting off this year, we've got them one more time, but another loss. We got to make more plays. I think in the first half, defensively, just third down killed us, better in the second half, being able to hold them and get some stops, but I think defensively, we just needed a couple more big plays and we were close. Dug [Kyle Dugger] almost gets an interception and plays like that we've got to kind of turn and make those plays positive for us."

(On the third downs in the first half and how the defense turned the tide in the second half)

"Some of them, like that first one, we just came out of coverage too early, with [Josh] Allen scrambling. [Stefon] Diggs made a couple really good catches, like some of those it's just a great catch, but that's the battle of going against this team. When you get in third down situations, we've just got to win more and I thought in the second half we did a better job of that, of combining rushing coverage and being able to cover these guys up and doing a consistent job of trying to keep Allen in the pocket. All that stuff marries up and they're explosive enough that when you don't do it right, they usually make a play. I think at times we did a good job at that and other times, not so great and that was the difference."

(On being surprised that the team is making the same mistakes from September and October)

"Yeah, I mean some of the things you talk about is teams of the past. It just kind of is what it is, like this isn't that and I think we've got to get out of the mindset of what we used to do in December and focus on just now and what we are now. I think that's something we've got to improve on. The small mistakes are killing us. I think defensively we did a better job of that, but this is a team that they're explosive. It's hard to hold that offense to seven points, 10 points, but I think the biggest thing is we've got to get more turnovers. We had a couple of chances today, but I wouldn't say small things were the biggest thing for our defense. It's just making some more plays. At times we were there in position, good position to make a play, they made a few more. We're going to get another crack at them and going forward, this long week, we've got to get ready to go and do something that's not normal. We've got to go on the road to Arizona, stay on the West Coast, then play Vegas. Those will be two big games and we go to start off by focusing on Arizona, which defensively, another running quarterback, a guy that can make plays all over the field. We'll have another challenge that we've got to rise to."

RUNNING BACK RHAMONDRE STEVENSON

Press Conference
Thursday, December 1, 2022

(On the offense's struggle to put drives together and consistently score points)

"I think you said it, we're just not consistent enough. We drive the ball into the red area and things like that, but we can't score. So we just need to work on that and work on finishing our drives."

(On the frustration level of the offense right now)

"We know what we're doing wrong and we know what we need to do to start winning and progress in the right direction. It's a little frustrating but we all know what we've got to do. So we've just got another week of working on it and trying to be better next game."

(On how his leadership and production can help the offense moving forward)

"You said it best, it's not really an individual thing. But just been trying to go one hundred percent each play and just trying to give our offense a spark in any type of way possible. Just to get that spark and try to let the team know, 'Let's go, let's play, let's do this.' I feel like everybody does that though. Like I said, just going one hundred percent every play to try to make a play."

PLAYERS IN THE LOCKER ROOM

Marcus Jones, DB

(On his touchdown and how often they worked on that play)

"It was one of those situations where it was a week thing, so Coach came and took me and asked me about different things and everything and then I mean, there isn't too much to it after that. Just came in and tried to do it as Coach said."

(On if the touchdown gave the team a spark)

"During that moment, yes, due to the ball movement and different things like that, how the game was going. I mean we definitely didn't get the win that we wanted to get, so that's the main thing."

(On if he anticipated the opportunity to score a touchdown)

"It was one of those situations where you have to be ready, no matter what it is. That's a Mac [Jones] read and whatever he sees, that's what we go with."

(On his comfort playing offense, defense, and special teams this season)

"I'm definitely one of those people where I'm learning each and every day, so I'm not going to say that I know everything, because, as a rookie especially, you don't know everything. New things come in, you have to absorb and just go."

(On having the trust of his coaches)

"It definitely means a lot. Just coming in and making sure I'm one of those people to where I try to keep my head down and just keep working and things like that. For the coaches to trust me, that means a lot."

Kendrick Bourne, WR

(On the frustration level of the offense)

It's hard. It goes into the aspect of it, you go to the sideline you're just like, 'man.' You can't not believe in your abilities, you know we're all here for a reason. It's just frustrating as a man, you know what I mean? We're all men in here and we all want to contribute, but it's just hard because it's 11 men. One person can't mess up, it'll mess up the whole thing. It's just about being mentally strong every single play, every single second of the game. It gets frustrating, it's just a part of the NFL."

(On if Marcus Jones' touchdown gave the team a lift and what happened afterwards)

"That was a great play by him. He's been making a lot of plays all around. It was definitely a spark but that was a fire that went out for forty. We've got to make the plays, we've got to make bigger plays. As players, we have to make the tough catches, things like that. We're not getting wide open, so we've got to make the tough catches and have more plays like Marcus had. Using our ability more, just to help the coaches out and things like that. It's a balance."

(On Matthew Judon's recovery of the fumble and other defensive plays)

"It's definitely annoying to not capitalize off defense. They're doing well man. Them being out there that much is crazy. The Bills had a good game plan and we just need to play complementary football better and we've been struggling with that all year. Just capitalizing every single time we get a chance, plus-forty, plus-fifty, we need to capitalize. We've got great position and we need to come up with points, and we've been struggling with that."

Jonathan Jones, DB

(On covering Stefon Diggs)

"Yeah, I mean just at the end of the day, have got to play better. Just have to make more plays. It's not play calling, just at the end of the day you have got to play better."

(On if they weren't able to execute their plan coming into the game)

"Yeah, you know, just have got to execute. Week-in and week-out, that's what this game comes down to is executing and making plays. There are going to be some plays that go our way and some that do not. You've got to make more of those plays."

Adrian Phillips, DB

(On if the Bills threw in any wrinkles in their gameplan)

"Yeah, they had a couple of wrinkles in there. Anytime you play somebody, they are always going to have some wrinkles in there from what they did from film. The rest of it, they just did what they did. When Josh [Allen] dropped back he did a good job checking the ball down when he needed to. He made some exceptional plays in there, with the scramble, firing it back down open in the flat. He just did a good job making plays and we didn't do a good job of making them. He ended up hurting us today."

(On if they are any closer to stopping the Bills after their last few matchups)

"I mean, we're not in this game to be close to somebody, we are in it to win. So if we didn't win, then we didn't get the job done. I'm not really into moral victories, or, 'at least we did this.' Did you get the job done? No. So it's back to the drawing board."

Hunter Henry, TE

(On the team's struggles on offense)

"Same story every week. It's not good enough across the board. I wasn't good enough today. We all weren't good enough on offense."

(On what's holding the offense back)

"Not sustaining drives. Not getting first downs and getting things going. Not possessing the ball, beating ourselves, not blocking the right guy, not communicating well or whatever it is. Penalties, turnovers, early on in the season, It's not been good."

(On if the offense should be further along)

"We should be playing better. We're not. We've got to look ourselves in the mirror and decide what we want to do. We put some good things together last week and weren't able to carry it over tonight. We got to give the credit to them tonight. They have some really good players but we need to be better too."

(On the Marcus Jones touchdown)

"He's a really talented player obviously. You saw that on the punt return against the Jets and throughout the year. Playing on defense, he can do a lot of good things so it's good to have him make a play for us tonight."

Jack Jones, DB

(On how difficult it is when Josh Allen extends plays)

"It's really difficult because it goes from a three-second play to about a seven to ten-second play. So, it's hard to stick anybody for that long of a time. You have to just go out there and do your best until the linemen get home."

(On their conditioning with the Bills possessing the ball for roughly 40 minutes)

"I feel like part of that was on the defense. We were out there for a long time, didn't make them punt the ball. We have got to hit the film room and make our corrections."

(On playing against Stefon Diggs)

"He is a great competition, man. I look forward to games like that, playing against big guys and big names and great players. It was good to get out there and compete against him."

(On the locker room after the loss)

"It's tough, it's tough. You never want to come into a locker room with a loss, you always want to come in with a win. It's always tough after a loss but the best thing to do is just shake back and look for next week."