Each Friday, a member of the Bills provides his insight from the NFL's front lines. This week, special teams captain and new starting safety George Wilson talks about the Bills winning streak and why he loves to visit Toronto.
Last week against the Carolina Panthers was a pretty good game for me, but it was a pretty good game for our defence period. With the Panthers having a strong running attack and two of the best receivers in the game, it was a good challenge for us and we were able to make the plays to get the job done.
What has really made the difference for us the past two weeks is just the guys not feeling sorry for ourselves, but getting back to work, working on the fundamentals, and then going out there and executing. The first quarter of the season we had good weeks of preparation, we just failed to execute the game plans on Sunday.
Our coaches do a good job of preparing us, the starters as well as the backups. The coach in charge of my position (the defensive backs coach), George Catavolos, has always preached to us we have to prepare like we're the starter. Even if we're not the starter, to prepare like we're going to be the starter. Because in this league you're one play away from an opportunity you've been waiting for your entire lifetime. And you're one play away from having a career-ending injury, so you have to make the most of every opportunity.
We've had to adjust to a bunch of injuries. We've lost three of our top starters in the secondary and one of our starting linebackers. Paul Posluszny was gone for a while before he just came back a few weeks ago. So there's been a lot of rotation on the defensive side of the ball. But the more time spent with each other in the meeting room, on the practice field and in the games has really built a strong chemistry on our team. And we've had guys step up on offence too, including Ryan Fitzpatrick stepping in for Trent Edwards at quarterback.
This Sunday against the Houston Texans will be my fifth consecutive start at safety. My regular role has been on special teams, on the coverage teams as well as the return teams. I try to lead by example because special teamers don't really get a whole lot of recognition, unless there's a big play that you make or a big play that you give up. So there's not a whole lot of glory in that position, but it's a vital part of any team. One of the things we say around here is, "Special teams is the first play of every series, whether it's on offence or defence."
With the Texans coming in this week, it's a great opportunity for us. We started out 1-4 and to have this opportunity to even up our record at 4-4 going into the bye week is one we can't allow us to pass up. We have one of the elite offensive units coming in with playmakers at every position that we have to account for so we'll have to be fundamentally sound.
Outside of football, Brad Butler, our offensive tackle, and I started a speaker series this past spring with the Buffalo public school system called, "That's Life." We went in to one school each week to talk to kids about life, give our testimonies and life stories, trying to encourage them and inspire them to pursue their dreams as Brad and I have pursued ours. Letting them know that it's not going to be easy, but that when adversity arrives in their life, it builds character and it's not going to hurt you if you respond to the adverse situation properly.
Finally, I like to visit Canada from time to time. Any time I want to get away from Buffalo without flying, I try to drive up to Toronto. There I get the big-city feeling without really having to go too far. When the weather's nice, Toronto is really great.