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Ryan Fitzpatrick – September 20, 2020 (Postgame) Download PDF version

Sunday, September 20, 2020
Postgame – Buffalo

QB Ryan Fitzpatrick

(Obviously you have a close relationship with Mike, but what type of growth have you seen from him from the time you got here to where he is right now?) – “I think a lot of it for him has been confidence. It’s been going out there and working hard in practice and seeing results in the games. I think everybody – I think all you guys saw that the last half of last year with how much better and more confident he was playing. But this year he’s taken another step and you know, he came out of that first game and I thought, I needed to get him some more targets. And every week is different, every matchup – is it man, is it zone. He does a good job of finding the spots and working hard in practice to figure those things out. So his confidence continues to rise and I think we’ll just continue to see him get better.”

(Obviously last week didn’t go as well as you wanted offensively but it looked like you guys had more chemistry, timing this week. What was your takeaway from your improvements this week offensively?) – “We played better, but in the key situations, not being able to punch it in, and especially on that fourth and one, for ‘Coach’ (Head Coach Brian Flores) to have faith in us and leave us out there; we’ve got to convert on that. But there was plenty of stuff early where we stalled a little bit. We weren’t converting third downs.  We got into a better rhythm in the second half, and I think some of that was some of the adjustments that we made and some of it is just comfort level with the guys that we’re playing with right now. But I think we’ve got to continue to find ways to run the football and rely on the backs because they’ll be a big part of this offense as we get going, and just showing up in those critical moments and we missed out on a few of them today.”

(Six plays after the delay, the 10-play drive, 12-play drive, how did those long drives kind of help you in the second half, kind of gain your footing and tire out that defense?) – “They were good. I felt like in the second half, we used kind of the climate to our advantage. They were gassed a little bit. We went on some long drives. But again, they go and score and we’ve got a critical drive where we get the ball and have probably our worst drive – definitely our worst drive – of the second half where we needed it most. So there’s some stuff that we need to continue to get better at and a lot of it is just those critical moments, making sure that we’re doing the best we can.”

(What do you see as things to build on in this game?) – “I think we fought hard. We had a couple nice drives in the second half. We made some adjustments and were able to do some things in the locker room that really helped us in the second half. So those were all good things. I think the continued emergence of Mike (Gesicki) and the stuff that he’s going to be able to help us with. It was nice to have DeVante (Parker) out there for the whole game today, and Isaiah Ford made some really nice plays, as well.”

(I have an idea of how you’re going to answer but you threw for 300 yards. You threw three touchdown passes, but your team loses, so you leave the stadium today feeling, how?) – “I feel bad because, I mean, really it was two drives. It was the drive in the second half after they took the lead and it was the drive where we were inside their five-yard line and had the fourth-and-1 and couldn’t finish.  And those were the two drives that kind of led to us losing the game. It’s great to throw for yards and touchdowns, but that’s not what we’re here for.”

(I’m just curious how the fans affected you or didn’t affect you in today’s game.) – “Way better. It was a way better environment. Way better atmosphere. Even though the place obviously wasn’t at capacity, it felt a lot more like a football game. It was not eerily quiet the whole game. That was I think huge for us and something that as players we all really enjoyed.”

(You mentioned that fourth-and-goal. It seemed I guess it looked like just a drop by WR Preston Williams. What do you say to a guy like that on a big play where he can’t come down with it for whatever reason?) – “We’re going to rely on him to make a lot of big plays this year, so that was just one opportunity, one moment. The ball is going to come back to him, and he’s a guy that we’re going to have to rely on to make some big plays along with some of those other guys on our offense and he knows that. And he’s made plenty in the past and I know he’s got a bright future in making a lot of them for us this year.”

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