About a half-hour after the Buffalo Bills beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 17-10 on Sunday to clinch a berth in the AFC playoffs with their 10th victory of the season, Jordan Phillips fielded a question from a reporter in the locker room about the meaning of the Bills beating the Steelers for the first time since 1999.
"I couldn't care less about that," the fifth-year defensive tackle said. "I was 7 years old when that happened."
Several lockers over, cornerback Tre'Davious White was still buzzing from his two-interception, player-of-the-game performance. He had heard earlier in the week the Bills hadn't won in Pittsburgh in a long time, and he surveyed the assembled media to help him land on a year. It was 1975, they told him, since the Bills last won here in the regular season.
"We know we're not connected to the past, this team is not connected to the past," White continued. "But we just wanted to be the team to break down those barriers."
Nostalgia is attached to this franchise and its fans as much as anywhere else in the NFL. But these Bills aren't those Bills. The players and coaches respect and appreciate the past, but with their second playoff berth in three years, they also wish to make clear that this is different.
Coach Sean McDermott took this job in 2017 knowing the challenges ahead. He followed the boisterous Rex Ryan, who failed in his two seasons in Buffalo. The franchise hadn't been to the playoffs in 17 years and didn't have a franchise quarterback on the roster.
He held his introductory press conference with lame-duck general manager Doug Whaley by his side before finally getting paired with former Panthers assistant GM Brandon Beane after the draft.
"I understand the expectations that come with the job and I accept that challenge," McDermott said at that introductory press conference. "I am looking to build a culture of winning, and that starts inside these walls and extends to our community."
Having already replaced Stephon Gilmore's loss in free agency with White in the draft, the Bills looked to change the culture of the locker room (the attempted trade for Antonio Brown notwithstanding). By his own admission, Beane traded "some talented players out of here, and that was not easy," including Sammy Watkins, Ronald Darby and Marcell Dareus.
That "rag-tag group of guys" got the Bills to the playoffs in 2017 before losing on the road to Jacksonville. Now they're back with a team made in the image of McDermott and Beane, one that has a different outlook heading into games now than it did even two years ago.
"I think that's part of changing the mindset as we continue to establish a culture here in Buffalo of that being more than norm is expecting to have success," McDermott said. "If we do things right during the week and respect the process leading up to the game that instead of hoping, wishing to win, that we expect to win."
So what does that nebulous word "culture" even mean? Veteran safety Kurt Coleman told me it's about having a group of guys who never point fingers when one phase of the team lets the other two down.
That's the sort of player Beane told me he's trying to bring to Buffalo.
"We're trying to get guys who love playing for their teammates. It's not about 'me,' it's about the 'we.' Smart and dependable guys and tough guys who are resilient," Beane said in the visiting locker room of Heinz Field. "Sometimes it's not always the guy who's most athletically talented. We're shooting for guys who even when our backs are up against the wall, nobody's pointing the finger when bad stuff happens.
"Everybody's all in. You see it. We hit some bumps in the road multiple times, including tonight. You don't see anybody wavering. Nobody's backing down."
After taking a slight, but expected, step back in 2018, the Bills have emerged as a legitimate AFC East contender. They face the Patriots on Saturday in Foxborough, and though a win still wouldn't get them the division (and, seeing as though New England has to lose to Miami to open the door for Buffalo, a division title likely won't happen anyway), a victory could force the Patriots to play on Wild Card Weekend.
"When we came to Buffalo, one of the things we wanted to do was to challenge and to do it every year, sustained success, and I think that this is an opportunity that our players have earned," McDermott said. "We have a great amount of respect for the Patriots. Very well-coached team, disciplined football team, with a lot of talent and so, it's an opportunity for us to continue to compete and to take another step as a football team."
Players like White were on the front end of this turnaround. He knows the job isn't complete and he and the team must "continue to trust the process." A changing culture will eventually change the perception of the Buffalo Bills.
That's what Ed Oliver is hoping for. After Buffalo took him ninth overall in April's draft, he only heard two things from the haters.
"When I came here for sure they told me it's cold and we're going to lose. That was their exact words," Oliver told me. "Guess what? We winning. Now what?
"But it's still cold, though. Winning ain't changed at the fact it's cold."
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December 19, 2019 at 08:02PM
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How Buffalo Bills shook off ghosts of seasons past to earn second playoff berth in three years - CBS Sports
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