The Bills defense wasn’t playing games on Sunday Night Football against the Steelers.
The dominating side of the ball for the Bills held the Pittsburgh Steelers to 229 total yards in the 17-10 win for Buffalo.
Featured running back James Conner returned to the lineup and only had 42 yards rushing. Quarterback Devlin Hodges suffered his first loss as a starter in his career and was 23-for-38 for 202 yards in the game.
Hodges had a score, but four interceptions as well.
Following the game, two Bills defenders, Shaq Lawson and Jerry Hughes, said some comments motivated the Bills in this one. Comments made by Hodges.
Prior to the game, Hodges joked a duck, his nickname, would play better in cold weather on Sunday. He also didn’t have the biggest endorsement of the Bills defense.
“[Buffalo’s defense is] just a solid group. They’ve got really good players just all around, I don’t know if there’s anything they do that’s special, they’re just one of those solid, solid defenses that comes each and every week,” Hodges said.
Hodges didn’t say the Bills defense sucked, or even was bad, by any means. The damage was clearly done.
“When you’ve got Duck running his mouth throughout the week. That’s the extra motivation that we needed,” Hughes told reporters. “Like I said, he went out there, and he talked a big game and our secondary showed up and came up big.
“Guys were fired up. We’ve got a quarterback that’s out there talking trash, that’s what makes football exciting. You go out there, play the game, pin your ears back, and have fun,” Hughes said.
“I was quiet all week. I was quiet all week. I was going to wait till the game and talk my junk,” Lawson added. “I had to say some words to (Hodges). I said ‘duck, duck, goose.’ Just letting him know… you only start three games or how many games you started? You can’t just go out there and talk junk like that. He saw we’re a normal defense? A normal defense got five turnovers? How many sacks? So, I mean, that’s just not a normal defense.”
By clinching a playoff berth, the Bills secured at least three more games this season, including playoffs. From the sounds of it, you won’t find many opponents saying anything remotely negative against the Bills.
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