Lorenzo Alexander is Bills’ nominee for Walter Payton Man of the Year Award

Buffalo Bills linebacker Lorenzo Alexander is the team’s 2019 Walter Payton Man of the Year Award nominee. 

Buffalo Bills linebacker Lorenzo Alexander is the team’s 2019 Walter Payton Man of the Year Award nominee.

It’s the third-straight year that Alexander has been tabbed the Bills’ nominee for the award.

The award is honored to a player in the NFL who displays excellence on and off the field in their community.

Here’s the full list of players nominated for the award across the NFL.

The Bills have yet to have a player win the award. Alexander, 36, has 44 tackles, nine passes defended and one forced fumble in 13 games this season. The 2019 winner will be announced during the NFL Honors show on Feb. 1.

Alexander took to Twitter upon the announcement:

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Stock up, stock down following Bills’ loss to Ravens

Stock report from Buffalo Bills’ 24-17 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, NFL Week 14.

The Bills mustered together a late last-ditch effort against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 14, but ultimately fell 24-17 to the AFC leaders.

A loss brought the Bills to 9-4 overall on the year, which puts Buffalo still in a prime position for the postseason. But the loss, at times, was ugly.

With that, here’s the latest stock report on the Bills following their loss to the Ravens:

Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier. Credit: Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports
Stock up

DC Leslie Frazier

This one goes with an asterisk, of sorts. Defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier has a part in the Bills defense, but so does head coach Sean McDermott. We’ll give Frazier the nod here because McDermott was questionable with clock management in the game, and we have Frazier calling the plays. Man, did he call a heck of a game.

The Bills defense did what many haven’t this year, shut down quarterback Lamar Jackson. Jackson did have three touchdown passes, but he had his first interception since Week 5, only 145 yards passing and 40 yards rushing, his lowest total in a complete game played this season. Frazier might get head coaching sniffs this offseason, we’ll see. He deserves another crack at it.

Report card: Bills lose 24-17 to Ravens

In a classic AFC slugfest, the Ravens came away victorious over the Buffalo Bills at New Era Field to clinch a playoff birth.

The Bills received plenty of national attention after their Thanksgiving victory over the Dallas Cowboys, and with the national media watching two weeks in a row the team fell flat. The Bills offense was smothered by a dominate Ravens defense in Week 14 at New Era Field as the visitors took a 24-17 win.

While Buffalo’s defense had a stout performance they couldn’t stop MVP front runner, Lamar Jackson for four quarters.

A fourth quarter touchdown did make the final few minutes interesting, but it was too little too late.

Here’s how the Bills graded out in this week’s report card following their loss to the Ravens:

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)

Quarterback: D

Josh Allen had an atrocious first half, let’s not kid ourselves.

He was 8-for-17 passing, threw for just 39 yards, and was constantly hounded by a ferocious Baltimore defense. His production increased in the second half, which gave Buffalo an opportunity to tie the game in the fourth quarter but he couldn’t produce on the final throw of the game.

While the Bills kept it close throughout the game, Josh Allen simply wasn’t good enough during the first three quarters. Allen missed on a majority of his deep shots, which resulted in drives stalling out, or stopping before they could even start. He also missed on some of his shorter throws, with most of his misses sailing over the head of his intended receiver.

Allen’s final stat line was 17-for-39, 146 yards, and one touchdown, and one successful two-point conversion throw. Frankly, this may have been Allen’s worst game of the season and it couldn’t have come at a worst time.

Following Ravens loss, Bills feel they are not far off

Bills feel they are close to beating the NFL’s best.

Following their 24-17 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, Bills head coach Sean McDermott said that he was, “disappointed” and added that, “there are no moral victories.”

While that may be the case, many people gave the Bills little to no chance entering today’s game and despite suffering the loss, they were able to keep it close in large part to another special showing by their defense.

As McDermott stated, moral victories do not exist in professional sports, but it is hard to walk away from this one feeling to down on the Bills. Buffalo was able to keep it close against the hottest team in the league and make an NFL MVP candidate in Lamar Jackson, look pedestrian for most of the afternoon.

So just how far off are the Bills from going from keeping it close, to actually beating the upper echelon of the NFL? Several players on the Bills feel they are right there.

“The gap isn’t big,” Bills linebacker Lorenzo Alexander told reporters following the game.”You look at today as probably three plays in the game, where this game shifts big time… it’s not like it’s this big reach we’re looking for. We’re right there. I think the thing is just to learn from this. Obviously being in these big type of games, the margin of error is a lot smaller.”

Alexander isn’t the only one who feels like the Bills are close to figuring things out vs. the better teams.

“I think this loss and the Patriots loss rank in the same category, as far as two prestigious teams you’re playing right there with them and ultimately just coming up short,” Bills defensive tackle Ed Oliver said. “That’s what really pisses you off. You know, you go to work every day. You go to work with your guys and we know how good we can be, we just have to finish.”

At 9-4, the Bills don’t have much time to dwell on this loss, as their next test will be facing off vs. the 8-5 Steelers, in Pittsburgh, on Sunday Night Football in front of the entire country.

With a win vs. the Steelers next week, the Bills would clinch a playoff spot and perhaps show they can not only hang with good teams, but beat them as well.

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Josh Allen predicts Bills’ win total needed for playoff berth

Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen, LB Lorenzo Alexander and head coach Sean McDermott on wins needs for playoffs, Denver Broncos.

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen is prepping for the Denver Broncos with his teammates this week. With a win over the 3-7 visitors at New Era Field on Sunday, Allen’s team will be 8-3 overall on the year.

But the second-year QB knows the job won’t be done there.

In order to get his team into the postseason for the second time in three years and the first time in his career, Allen put a number on it.

While admitting he and his teammates are guilty of “keeping an eye on” the scoreboard around the AFC playoff picture, Allen predicted it will take double-digit wins to crack the playoffs on Wednesday.

“Ultimately, at the end of the day, I think you need to get at least 10 wins to get into the playoffs,” Allen said. “I know we got six or seven games left, whatever it is. We got to win some more games to kind of get in there. Whether we have an opportunity to make the playoffs, I think we’ve got a good opportunity in front of us right now.”

Naturally Allen didn’t want to get too far ahead of himself, though.

“Guys aren’t looking forward, we’re not talking about it, we’re taking it one week at a time, trying to win a football game this week,” Allen said.

While four games under a .500 mark, the Broncos will be among the better opponents the Bills have faced this year. At least, in terms of their defense.

After five weeks, the Broncos defense was the No. 15 unit in the NFL. Middle of the pack. Since then, they’ve blossomed into the fourth-best unit. The Bills’ stout defense ranks third.

While the Bills are a 7-3 for the first time since 1999, the group is planning to do their best in not worry about those types of figures at all. Veteran linebacker Lorenzo Alexander, like the youthful quarterback, only has the Broncos in mind even with the standings looming.

“Anytime you start looking past teams, you can get bitten,” Alexander said. “This Broncos team can come up and bite us.”

That type of message is coming from the top, down, as well. This week-to-week approach isn’t anything new for various NFL coaching staffs, with Sean McDermott being no different. He compared his team’s postseason approach in 2017 to their current one this week.

“We took it week to week back then, we take a week to week now,” McDermott said. “A lot of [his message] has remained the same because I believe in it.  And then, I’m hoping that I’ve gotten better with age, as well and experience.”

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Lorenzo Alexander named Bills’ Art Rooney Award nominee

Buffalo Bills linebacker Lorenzo Alexander was named the team’s finalist for the Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award this week. 

Buffalo Bills linebacker Lorenzo Alexander was named the team’s finalist for the Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award this week.

The award was created in 2015 to honor late Pro Football Hall of Famer and Steelers owner Art Rooney.

The winner of the NFL Sportsmanship Award is determined by a vote of current players. A panel of former players from the NFL Legends Community will select eight finalists from the 32 original nominees, one coming from each team.

That panel will include Warrick Dunn, Curtis Martin, Karl Mecklenburg and Leonard Wheeler.

The award is presented each year to an NFL player who best demonstrates the qualities of on-field sportsmanship, including fair play, respect for the game and opponents, and integrity in competition.

Here’s the full list of nominee via the NFL:

» Arizona Cardinals C A.Q. Shipley
» Atlanta Falcons WR Julio Jones
» Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson
» Buffalo Bills LB Lorenzo Alexander
» Carolina Panthers RB Christian McCaffrey
» Chicago Bears DB Kyle Fuller
» Cincinnati Bengals DE Sam Hubbard
» Cleveland Browns RB Nick Chubb
» Dallas Cowboys CB Byron Jones
» Denver Broncos LB Von Miller
» Detroit Lions QB Matthew Stafford
» Green Bay Packers CB Tramon Williams
» Houston Texans QB Deshaun Watson
» Indianapolis Colts WR T.Y. Hilton
» Jacksonville Jaguars DL Calais Campbell
» Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes
» Los Angeles Chargers LB Thomas Davis Sr.
» Los Angeles Rams S Eric Weddle
» Miami Dolphins C Daniel Kilgore
» Minnesota Vikings DE Danielle Hunter
» New England Patriots WR Matthew Slater
» New Orleans Saints T Terron Armstead
» New York Giants DL Dalvin Tomlinson
» New York Jets DL Steve McLendon
» Oakland Raiders QB Derek Carr
» Philadelphia Eagles QB Carson Wentz
» Pittsburgh Steelers RB James Conner
» San Francisco 49ers T Joe Staley
» Seattle Seahawks LB K.J. Wright
» Tampa Bay Buccaneers LB Lavonte David
» Tennessee Titans C Ben Jones
» Washington Redskins RB Adrian Peterson

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