Bills’ AJ Epenesa explains plan to produce turnovers vs. Commanders
No one can expect to have that many turnovers and sacks in a single game… but the Buffalo Bills were optimistic heading into Week 3.
Against the Washington Commanders, the Bills took home a 37-3 road victory. While the 37 stands out on paper, the defensive box score was where the real fun was found.
Buffalo went into D.C. and took the ball away five times and had nine sacks.
Included in that was four interceptions against quarterback Sam Howell–The most exciting of which came from AJ Epenesa.
Epenesa, who also had a sack, properly read that Howell was going to try and toss the ball over him. Instead of running at the QB, he backed off into coverage and grabbed the ball.
Teammates such as Bills quarterback Josh Allen said that Epenesa reads plays correctly like that in practice all the time. To them, it felt like it was only a matter of time until it happened in a game.
Not only did it, Epenesa went and took the ball down for a score. His first-career interception was a pick six.
In heading down to D.C., Epenesa said following the win that forcing Howell into mistakes was all apart of the plan during the prior week.
“Yeah, especially with a young quarterback,” Epenesa said. “His thought process or whatever that is for him — to make him try and have another second to try and break it down, that’s our chance.”
Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott echoed that he thought there would be chances–And while the interceptions were spread across the defense, the D-line is where McDermott believes everything started.
“I think the defensive line really set the tone for us up front, they did a really great job,” McDermott said via video conference. “We saw some things and thought there would be some opportunities for us and we took advantage of those opportunities.”
For more from Epenesa on taking down the Commanders, see the attached Bills Live clip below:
