Bills’ ‘silent assassin’ cements victory over the Patriots

Defensive Tackle, Justin Zimmer’s forced fumble helped Bills improve to 6-2.

Another week, another win and another unlikely hero.

Heading into Sunday’s game vs. the New England Patriots, few observers of the Bills were probably familiar with defensive tackle Justin Zimmer.

But following his potential game-saving forced fumble against Cam Newton in the fourth quarter, his name is one plenty will know now.

“I don’t know what to feel right now. I’m still breathing heavy from the game,” Zimmer said following the game. “I’m excited. It’ll probably take me 24-hours before I realize what happened. I’m just excited.”

With the Bills leading 24-21 late, Newton and the Patriots were driving down the field with the clock winding down. well within field goal range, looking for the game-winning touchdown. This is when Zimmer jarred the ball lose for safety Dean Marlowe to recover, cementing the victory and sending the Bills to 6-2.

“They were all just hugging me, giving me congrats, saying ‘huge play’, things like that,” Zimmer said of his teammates. “We’ve got a great team around here. Everyone’s a tight-knit family. It was just great to do it as a team, honestly. I might’ve made the last play, but everyone played a part in this. That one play didn’t win us the game, the whole game did.”

As one would expect, Zimmer’s teammates were extremely complimentary of the defensive tackle after the game.

“We call him our, ‘silent assassin’,” Jerry Hughes said.

Not bad praise from last week’s AFC Defensive Player of the Week.

Left Tackle Dion Dawkins & safety Jordan Poyer also added to the praise. Both referencing Zimmer’s strength quiet nature and extremely impressive work ethic.

Poyer even went as far as to call Zimmer’s forced fumble “the play of the year.”

Zimmer’s journey in the NFL actually started in Buffalo back in 2016, when the Bills signed him as an undrafted free agent.

Zimmer was waived before the season and saw his career take him to the New Orleans Saints’ practice squad, the Montreal Alouettes of the CFL, the Atlanta Falcons’ practice squad, the Cleveland Browns’ practice squad, before ending back up on the Bills’ practice squad this season.

Zimmer eventually get the permanent call-up to the active roster on Oct. 21 and he has taken full advantage.

Head Coach Sean McDermott, mentioned Zimmer fighting through all of that adversity in his career, to get to this point and Zimmer himself mentioned this easily being the biggest play of his career.

While the Bills now sit atop the AFC East with a 1.5 game lead over the second place Miami Dolphins, the road ahead gets much tougher, with Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks on deck.

In the meantime though, the Bills and Zimmer are going to enjoy this win over the Patriots, their first at home since 2011, just like Zimmer likely was happy to be honored by McDermott in the team’s locker room after the win:

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