Orchard Park, N.Y. — The Buffalo Bills are off to the worst start under Sean McDermott since Josh Allen’s rookie season. If the playoffs began today, the Bills would be on the outside looking in.
Veteran running back Latavius Murray is nearing 150 regular-season NFL games played and has been on multiple teams throughout his 10-year career. So he decided to impart some of the wisdom he’s acquired in a players-only meeting on Thursday as the Bills begin preparation for the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football.
The Bills lost their fourth one-score game of the season last week against the Cincinnati Bengals and Murray diagnosed the problem.
“I just feel like we can play and beat anybody,” he said. “A lot of times, and it’s getting redundant, it’s us beating ourselves. How can we avoid that? What can we do possibly different during the week, or how can we avoid that?”
Bills second-year receiver Khalil Shakir said that this is the second time this season Murray has spoken in front of the offense. Murray gets everyone going and his message is simple, Shakir said
“The main thing is, he’ll just say welcome to the show,” Shakir said. “As an offense, we have to realize, this is us, we’re the show. We’re going to keep going and doing what we’re doing. Looking to your right and looking to your left and realizing the talent that we have.”
The Bills are surprisingly healthy on the offensive side of the ball after nine games. The only major missing piece is tight end Dawson Knox, but his absence has led to the emergence of rookie tight end Dalton Kincaid.
Kincaid has already broken the Bills’ rookie receiving record with 40 on the season and 23 of those have come in the team’s last three games.
The injury picture on the defensive side of the ball is a whole other story. Buffalo is banged up on defense with defensive tackle DaQuan Jones, linebacker Matt Milano, and cornerback Tre’Davious White all potentially out for the season. Greg Rousseau has been playing hurt the past few weeks and starting middle linebacker Terrel Bernard (concussion), safety Jordan Poyer, and safety Micah Hyde were all on the injury report on Thursday.
McDermott was asked on Thursday how the players have responded to 5-4 start and he said they’re asking questions like, “What can I do? What can I do better? What can I do to help someone else?”
“Every year is hard,” McDermott said, “And you come out of (most years) and you’re saying, `Hey, dang it, we were pretty good and we learned some lessons all the way through it.’ … The belief is important. And I feel like these guys know what’s ahead of us, but they also know we got to take it one game at a time. I think they’re ready for the challenge.”
Shakir said Murray’s message centered around making sure every player realizes the talent that exists in the offensive meeting room.
“The talent that we have, the leaders that we have on this team, making sure that every time we step on the field, our mindset is that, we’re all dogs, savages, and we’re gonna take what’s ours,” Shakir said. “I look to my right, I got (Stefon) Diggs. I look to my left and I got Gabe (Davis). And we got Josh and all the dogs within the o-line.”
Allen shared a sense of resolve that he felt within the locker room as the team began their week on Thursday.
“The sense is we’ve got our best football to play and it’s in front of us,” he said. “We’re not going to let the fact that we’re 5-4 make this team and divide us apart.”
The Bills face the Broncos (3-5) and New York Jets (4-4) up next before a gauntlet against teams with winning records in the Philadelphia Eagles, Kansas City Chiefs, and Dallas Cowboys. Two of those games are on the road and the next five will go a long way in determining the fate of the Bills’ season.
Allen said there have been stretches where the Bills haven’t played up to their standard since he entered the league and the team has always found a way through tough times.
“That’s what we’re doing right now,” he said. “We’re trying to find a way through it. We have an opportunity Monday night at home against a hungry, hungry team in the Denver Broncos. So we’ve got to be ready and we’ve got to do everything we can do to get a win.”
