Tag: John Brown

Colts worked out QB Jeff Driskel, four others

The Colts held a workout for five players, including QB Jeff Driskel.

The Indianapolis Colts held a workout for five players, according to the league’s transaction wire Monday.

Among those five players included quarterback Jeff Driskel, wide receiver John Brown, tight end Antony Auclair, defensive back Keidron Smith and wide receiver Makai Polk.

The Colts have Kellen Mond on the practice squad while Gardner Minshew and Sam Ehlinger are on the active roster so it’s interesting to see them work out Driskel, who was released from the Arizona Cardinals practice squad last week.

We’ll see if anything comes of these workouts in terms of a signing, or the Colts may just be keeping tabs on available options.

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3 areas the Bills must improve in during the postseason

3 areas the #Bills must improve in during the postseason:

Here are three areas where the Buffalo Bills need to improve in during their run in the NFL postseason:

Bills vs. Dolphins 7 things to watch for during Week 15’s game

#Bills vs. #Dolphins 7 things to watch for during Week 15’s game:

The Buffalo Bills (13-3) begin their postseason journey at home against the Miami Dolphins (9-8) in the AFC’s Wild-Card round.

Once the battle arrives, there will be a few particular things to keep in mind.

Here are seven things to watch for during Sunday’s Bills-Dolphins matchup:

Josh Allen finds John Brown, Stefon Diggs with deep balls in Bills win

Josh Allen finds John Brown, Stefon Diggs with deep balls in #Bills win:

The Buffalo Bills topped the New England Patriots 35-23 at home on Sunday in Orchard Park.

In a game that saw some electric scoring plays by the Bills in front of the Highmark Stadium crowd, several of those came by way of quarterback Josh Allen and the Bills receiving corps.

The longest of which was a 49-yard bomb to Stefon Diggs.

Diggs led all Bills receivers with seven receptions on ten targets and 104 total yards with the score, which was good for a third straight game against New England with at least 85 yards, seven catches, and a receiving touchdown.

The Patriots have simply not been able to stop him, and the Bills have too many weapons for New England to double-cover him with a safety.

In my Bills vs. Patriots: 5 things to watch for during Week 18’s game for BillsWire, I pointed out that Diggs was poised for another big performance against the Patriots’ secondary coverage and CB Jonathan Jones. Diggs has cooked Jones so often that he could have his own special on Food Network.

This after his lack of targets was questioned late in the regular season.

The wideout was involved in the offense early as the target of Allen’s first two passes. He played well against man coverage, and his TD catch was his 11th on the year, tying former Buffalo receiver Bill Brooks’s franchise record from the 1995 NFL season.

“We wanna throw to 14,” Allen said to the press postgame. “Teams do a really good job of taking that away, but at the end of the day they can’t do it every single play.”

Allen went 19-for-31 with 254 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception throwing with a 106.1 passer rating on the day.

“Just giving 14 a chance one-on-one and that’s something maybe I’ve gotten away from a little bit too much,” quarterback Josh Allen said. “The dinking and dunking is great, but sometimes you’ve got to let your dogs be dogs.”

Prior to the rocket to Diggs, TE Dawson Knox hauled in a four-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter, and Allen found John “Smoke” Brown who laid out for a big 42-yard scoring catch on a third-quarter dime the QB threw running toward the sideline on a broken-up play.

It was Brown’s only target and catch in the contest, and he made it count.

The two deep-scoring tosses came at a good time for Buffalo, while WR2 Gabe Davis was third in receptions with 39 yards and has factored more into the offense in recent weeks, he’s struggled with reliable hands and consistency this season, and was three for ten on catches in the game.

Brown’s touchdown was his first since the 2020 season with Buffalo, in a January 3rd, 2021 game against Miami. He recently re-signed with the Bills’ practice squad and was elevated to the active roster for the game.

With the win, the Bills have secured the No. 2 spot in the AFC playoffs and will host none other than the Dolphins, who might wish it was colder, in Orchard Park next weekend with a day and time yet TBD.

“I’m not going to say other teams haven’t been through a lot but we faced a lot of adversity and obstacles this season,” Diggs said to NFL Network’s Mike Giardi after the game. “It showed that we can really weather the storm on the field, off the field, everything. That all the trials and tribulations, we’ve got a strong group, a real family over here. And that’s something we’re going to lean on going into this new journey. But the mission starts.”

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Bills’ John Brown has special moment on & off the field vs. Patriots

#Bills’ John Brown has special moment on & off the field vs. #Patriots:

Wide Receiver John Brown, who was a pivotal part of quarterback Josh Allen’s early development, last played for the Buffalo Bills in 2020. During Sunday’s regular season finale vs. the New England Patriots, “Smoke” as Brown is known by, had a special moment both on and off the field.

Back in November, Brown was signed to the practice squad after a year and a half away from the team. Sunday was only his third game active with his old squad, but the WR made it count.

Late in the third quarter with the Bills (13-3) holding onto a four-point lead, Allen rolled out of the pocket and motioned for Brown to improvise his route and go deep… something the duo use to do quite often. Allen put the ball up and Brown made a spectacular diving catch that ended in the end zone for six points:

“I just kinda saw him back there and pointed to him and having that rapport I have with Smoke, he saw it and made an unbelievable catch,” Allen told the media during his postgame press conference.

“Unbelievable, so that was a pretty good feeling,” Allen continued. “Obviously, bringing Smoke back and I know he’s been inactive the last few weeks, but getting his shot and making a huge play for us, it was a really pivotal point in the game. You know, we definitely needed that and I just kinda chalked that down to who he is, his drive. Obviously being a smart vet, you know coming back and wanting to be here.”

While the play on the field was certainly memorable, what happened after the touchdown might have been even more special.

After catching his first touchdown since 2020, Brown was shown by cameras on the sideline walking over to Bills’ assistant athletic trainer, Denny Kellington to hand him the ball.

Kellington is the one who had administered CPR to Bills safety Damar Hamlin and has been credited as one of the main reasons Hamlin survived and is now recovering.

“I heard about it, ya, I didn’t see it,” McDermott told reporters after the game. “But ya, again, you talk about the people quotient and we’ve got good people. And our players are guys that do things the right way.

“And for that to be on John’s mind, I mean, I don’t know John’s numbers over the last year and a half, just overall in terms of what passes he’s caught and what touchdowns he’s caught, but for him to make that play number one, I mean this is a guy who hasn’t played in a number of weeks and that was a difficult, difficult play to make and he made it. And then to have the wherewithal to go to the sideline 15 seconds later and hand the ball to the trainer says a lot about who he is.”

While Brown has made a lot of big plays in his career overall with the Bills… this is probably a game and a moment he won’t soon forget.

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Bills’ Nyheim Hines: ‘Felt like Damar Hamlin was out there with us’

#Bills’ Nyheim Hines: ‘Felt like Damar Hamlin was out there with us’on kickoff touchdowns:

The Bills beat the Patriots in NFL Week 18  to secure the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoff picture and did so in aerial fashion.

Buffalo got the scoring started right off the bat thanks to a trade deadline acquisition GM Brandon Beane brought in to stabilize the teams’ kick return duties while adding depth at the running back position.

On Sunday, RB Nyheim Hines made good on the returns on that deal.  Literally.

It started on the opening kickoff to the game, when Hines took it 96 yards to the house for a touchdown at a max speed of 21.25 mph which was good for a career-high carrying.

And it didn’t end there.

If you might be wondering how Hines could top a game-opening 96-yard kickoff return for a touchdown? How about a 101-yard return to give the Bills another lead yet again in the third-quarter…

He became the first player in Bills franchise history to return two kickoffs for touchdowns in the same game, while also becoming the first Bill to log 235 kick return yards in a single game as well. Hines also became the first NFL player in history to have a game with 2 punt-return TDs and a game with 2 kickoff-return TDs in his career.

Buffalo improved to 13-3 in the regular season, matching a franchise-best mark during an emotional week that culminated in an inspired performance in lieu of everything that had occurred with Bills safety Damar Hamlin.

“It was spiritual,” Hines said after the game. “I felt like he [Damar Hamlin] was out there with us.”

On the field, Hines became the 1st player since Leon Washington (2010) to have 2 kickoff-return TDs in the same game.

Quarterback Josh Allen added three additional passing touchdowns to the cause in the victory. After the game though, he opened up about Hines’s return and what he felt and experienced.

“Obviously, that first kickoff, and you couldn’t have scripted it any better man, that one was pretty emotional. Just the way it happened,” Allen said during his postgame press conference. “You want the truth? It was spiritual it really was. Bone-chilling like, it was special”

While sharing how he’d just been told it’d been 3 years and 3 months since the Bills last returned a kickoff for a TD, Allen became visibly emotional, per Hamlin’s jersey number three.

And when asked where the memory ranked in his memory of experiences, he opened up further, saying “I can’t remember a play like that touched me like that, I don’t think in my life. So it’s probably number one.”

Instead of Bills special teams coach Matthew Smiley or Hines himself, Allen pointed to something greater behind the experience.

“It was just spiritual,” Allen added after a week of prayers around the league and sports world. “I was going around my team saying ‘God’s real’. You can’t draw that one up, you can’t write that one up any better.”

With a win against the Jets on Sunday, low-temperature enthusiast and Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel and his club will return to Highmark Stadium to face the Bills in the wild-card first round of the NFL playoffs next weekend, having lost to Buffalo during their most recent visit.

As seen today for the Bills, having an explosive and reliable return man can make a significant impact on the overall game, giving the team momentum they’ll need going into the playoffs.

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Instant analysis: Big plays fuel Bills victory vs. Patriots

Instant analysis: Big plays fuel #Bills victory vs. #Patriots (via @jdiloro):

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The Buffalo Bills completed an emotional week with a 35-23 victory over the New England Patriots.

The victory gives Buffalo the No. 2 spot in the AFC playoff standings.

Buffalo (13-3) electrified the crowd with multiple big plays that culminated with touchdowns. Nyheim Hines sent Highmark Stadium into a frenzy by taking the opening kickoff for a 96-yard touchdown.

He repeated the feat in the third quarter, returning the kick 101 yards to the house:

Josh Allen threw three touchdowns on the afternoon. His first was a four-yard touchdown pass to Dawson Knox.

Allen took the top off the New England defense on the next two touchdowns. First, Allen hooked up with John Brown on a 42-yard diving reception. Allen culminated Buffalo’s scoring with a 49-yard bomb to Stefon Diggs.

Buffalo’s defense joined in the big-play theme by forcing three timely turnovers. Tre’Davious White and Matt Milano recorded interceptions near the Bills goal line, while Tremaine Edmunds reeled in a tipped pass in the fourth quarter.

Stefon Diggs led the way for the Bills receiving corps, catching a game-high seven passes for 104 yards and the aforementioned touchdown.

Diggs was involved in the game plan early, as Allen’s first two passes were directed at the wideout. Diggs did well against New England in man coverage, and then smoked the Patriots secondary on the deep touchdown pass:

Buffalo primarily worked through the air on offense. However, in the few moments when they leaned on their run game, the ground attack moved the ball adequately. James Cook rushed nine times for 50 yards, while Devin Singletary carried seven times for 29 yards.

In particular, the Bills leaned on the run game late in the second quarter as they moved the ball into scoring territory ahead of halftime.

Buffalo’s defense had some challenges at times with New England’s offensive attack. All three of the Patriots’ touchdown drives were long, sustained drives. Mac Jones completed all 17 passes on the three New England touchdown drives.

New England utilized play action often early to help freeze the Bills linebackers and to set up the run game.  At times, it worked well for New England, as Jones was able to buy time with the fakes. The Patriots run game found space at times, with Rhamonde Stevenson rushing nine times for 54 yards and Damien Harris running 13 times for 48 yards.

When it counted the most, Buffalo’s defense made the big play to end any New England threats. In addition to the three interceptions, Buffalo recorded two sacks, three tackles for loss, and seven passes defensed.

Buffalo’s coaching staff did a masterful job getting the Bills ready for this game. Sean McDermott and company kept the Bills focused throughout the game. Buffalo responded to the events of Monday night in a magnificent way.

Buffalo will host Miami in the Wild Card round of the playoffs next weekend.

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