Bills Coach Sean McDermott on Coaching Against Bill Belichick: 'He's the Standard'

Following Buffalo's 33–21 win over the Patriots on Sunday, Bills coach Sean McDermott clarified his comments from early December when he said “not [to] give more credit than we need to give credit to Belichick.”

The initial comments came after New England's 14–10 win, a game in which the Patriots attempted just three passes.

On Sunday, McDermott told The MMQB's Albert Breer, “I’ll talk about that quote, first of all. I know what I meant to say, and I have the utmost respect for Bill. And it was more about what I and our team didn’t do. And things sometimes take on a life of their own, I guess. But look, Bill Belichick makes me a better coach. He’s the standard. And so he just … he challenges even the opposite coach to continue to grow. It’s so hard to beat his team.”

The Bills defeated the Patriots 33–21 on Sunday in Gillette Stadium to move into a tie for first-place in the AFC East. Buffalo currently holds the division tiebreaker.

Quarterback Josh Allen threw for 314 yards and three touchdowns and added 64 rushing yards in the victory. 

“I think probably the bigger maturation area is taking some of those checkdowns early in the game like he was, and us getting some RAC off of those checkdown opportunities that we had there after that,” McDermott told The MMQB of Allen.

Buffalo never trailed Sunday and became the first team to win at New England in consecutive seasons since the Colts in 2005 and 2006.

Buffalo finishes off the regular season at home with games against the Falcons and Jets. The Patriots host the Jaguars in Week 17 before traveling to Miami to face the Dolphins in Week 18. 

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