Effort is praised, but improvements still need to be made
Buffalo had a 13-play drive at the end of the fourth quarter in attempts to take the lead and win the game. Joe Brady said he told his offense to give it all it had and "empty the tank." While the ideal result did not come to fruition, Brady and Sean McDermott were not displeased with how hard Josh Allen and the offense fought through the final few seconds.
"As long as there's time on the scoreboard, we got a chance, and it was fourth-and-27. Didn't blink," Brady said. "… The guys just executed – and we asked them to empty their tank, and they emptied it. We didn't get the result, but the guys were rising the role the whole way."
That effort that extended all the way through the end of the fourth quarter is the resiliency McDermott praised on Friday. The opportunities that weren't capitalized on weren't indicative of which team wanted it more, but rather where improvement needs to be made.
"Our players wanted it," McDermott said. "You look at that room after the game, that locker room, they were exhausted and they gave everything they had."
Allen was sacked eight times on Thursday, something McDermott and Brady didn't want to see. It's one area McDermott emphasized needs improvement.
"We need to be better there," McDermott said. "We absolutely do. We need to better there. If we want to win or give ourselves a chance to win, we have to be there."