Buffalo Bills LB AJ Klein on his career-day in Week 9 vs. the Seattle Seahawks.
Bills safety Micah Hyde had the summarization about linebacker AJ Klein that’s been heard around the world… or at least western New York… following Buffalo’s 44-34 win over the Seattle Seahawks in Week 9.
Klein’s performance was a good game… then Hyde put the bar a lot higher, as he said Klein played “the game of his life.”
And for what it’s worth, Hyde might be right.
Klein had five tackles, one for loss, two sacks, four QB hurries, a forced fumble, fumble recovery and even a pass breakup. Klein also had two stand-up tackles in the game, one of which was on third-and-1, leading to a fourth-down attempt by Seattle which ended up going down as a Jordan Poyer interception.
What a game, especially considering the reviews of Klein were pretty harsh throughout the first half of the season from both fans and analysts alike. Heading into Week 8, Klein was graded as Pro Football Focus’ 81st best linebacker in the NFL out of 92 qualifying players.
But good news for the Bills, those low-star reviews on Klein’s hypothetical Amazon page played no part in his mindset. Following the win, Klein said via video conference that he didn’t listen to any of those critics and he just tried to play his game… which he did in gold-star fashion.
“I don’t pay attention to any of that stuff,” Klein said. “I’m glad that those sacks and those plays came up. I think that’s part of the mentality, that we went into this week knowing that we were going to have opportunities to get after Russell (Wilson). We didn’t want to let him get comfortable.”
“It’s a good feeling when you go out and preform like this,” Klein added. “I know I can play football.”
Of all those plays, certainly his forced fumble/ recovery combo was the most impressive late in the game, helping cement his team’s win. That was a effort was even something defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier had to acknowledge on Monday via video conference when discussing his team’s efforts.
“A terrific effort by AJ,” Frazier said. “Probably the most impressive sack was the one where he had the awareness to recover the ball and set our offense up with points. That was a huge play in the game,”
While a promising outing, the Bills do really need more of this from Klein. If all goes according to plan, linebacker Matt Milano, who’s battling a pectoral injury, will get back into the lineup later on this year. However, Milano’s landed on the Bills’ injured reserve list due to that injury. No one can be sure how long Milano will be out, but Klein will be starting for him in at least the next two games… so the veteran linebacker needs to build on this.
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