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Even though he was wearing a Halloween mask during his post-game video conference on Sunday, Bills offensive lineman Dion Dawkins is often the transparent mouthpiece for the guys in the trenches on Buffalo’s offense.
The team captain was the guy after the Bills’ 24-21 win against the Patriots who let everyone “Schnow” how important Jon Feliciano’s return was on Sunday. According to the eye test, Feliciano sparked the group.
Throughout the first seven games, not a hint of a successful running game. Insert Feliciano? It was a different story and Dawkins admitted that having Feliciano working with him just helps kick things up another notch.
“Jon Feliciano… he brought back the swagger… the juice… just the killer instinct. Jon’s impact, he came back with the will to want to win and it gave us that extra push just to have our guy’s back,” Dawkins said. “It was huge for us and it’s always good to have one of our brothers back.”
But Feliciano, who missed the first half of the season due to an offseason pectoral injury, was certainly kept on his toe in his season debut. On the Bills’ third snap on offense, center Mitch Morse was knocked out of the game due to a concussion. For the remainder of that first drive, backup Ryan Bates came in for Morse. For the rest of the game in its entirety, Feliciano moved over to center.
Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott said on Monday that Feliciano had “0.00% of reps” at practice last week at center… leading one to be even more impressed with what Feliciano pulled off. But Feliciano himself wasn’t scared off by that task. Instead, he wouldn’t have had it any other way.
“I love playing center. Being able to go out there, the center position your offense is really counting on you more. I love that pressure,” Feliciano said via video conference.
And perhaps most importantly, Feliciano, who now might get the bulk of snaps at center due to Morse’s injury, has the all-important Josh Allen seal of approval. Which is actually needed. Those two link up on literally every single snap, so they need to be on the same page.
“I mean he was huge, in the run game especially. You see on that first touchdown run with Zack (Moss) with that relentless effort of him being able to pull him and drag him into the end zone,” Allen said. “Just the toughness he brings, the communication aspect… he was called to play left guard and then he had to go to center early in the game so he stepped up and made some plays for us.”
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