| Advertisement |
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- As the media walked into the Buffalo Bills' locker room Sunday afternoon, running back LeSean McCoy was there to greet everyone, volubly. Irritated that so many had picked the Bills to lose the game - both locally and nationally - he wanted to make sure everyone knew who actually won the game. "Y'all picked us to lose; come talk to the winners," McCoy said, over and over.
Advertisement
Later, when he went to the podium for his actual media session, he had toned it down a bit, saying, "I was just letting the media know that it's time to talk to the winners. I'm just having fun with it."
The Bills were having plenty of fun in the wake of their 23-17 upset of the Falcons. Defensive tackle Jerel Worthy tweeted that he thought it was "hilarious how people called this an upset. But we expected today."
"I don't think we're going to sneak up on anybody anymore after the last couple of wins," Bills center Eric Wood said.
It was a good day to be a Bill as head coach Sean McDermott's team moved into first place all alone in the AFC East, though he cautioned everyone Monday, "There is still a long way to go. We're not where we need to be, and anyone who thinks we are in this building, they're not being honest with themselves."
While some were playful, others followed the lead of McDermott and put the victory into perspective because it is just one-quarter of the way through the season and Buffalo has several tough games ahead on its schedule, starting Sunday in Cincinnati against a Bengals team that may have finally woken up.
"It's a great win, but there's no statement wins in Week 4 of the NFL season," said 34-year-old defensive tackle Kyle Williams, who has seen a couple fast starts fizzle during his time with the Bills. "We've got a long way to go and we're just going to continue to work and get better. We'll take them as they come."
One point that was driven home was the way this team has come together in such a short period of time. Wood said that's what he believes might be the difference between this team and others he's been on in Buffalo, and perhaps that's been the missing ingredient all along during a 17-year playoff drought.
"It's a very close-knit group of guys," said Wood. "They did a great job breaking in the right guys that all mesh well. Every person they brought in has a certain type of work ethic, act a certain way, and we all get along because of it because we all respect each other and trust each other. When a guy makes a mistake it's not, 'Was that guy out partying? Was he not in his playbook?' When a guy makes a mistake, it's because he got beat, it's not us hurting ourselves and that's evident on a day-to-day basis."
