Head coach Dan Campbell has a simple message to his team as they prepare to head into hostile territory in Buffalo Thursday night as the Bills open their new Highmark Stadium.
"Drink it in," Campbell said. "Enjoy this."
The new $2.1 billion stadium in Orchard Park is engineered with steep vertical seating bowls and a protective 360-degree canopy designed to trap and reflect crowd noise directly back down onto the field.
Bills Mafia, Buffalo's loyal fan base, is expected to be out in full force. The game being played on Thursday Night Football on national stage just adds to the electricity and expected hostile environment for the Detroit Lions.
"This will be one of those places it'll be loud. Their fanbase is outstanding," Campbell said. "They are a lot like our fanbase, man. They love it and they show up and they're loud and they're all in and now you're in a new stadium.
"It's a new environment and this is the first one in that place – the christening. It'll be special. I'm telling our guys to embrace it. Keep your composure. Don't forget it's one play at a time. Stay focused on your job and keep your head about you, but man, enjoy it."
It made Campbell think back to his college and professional playing days and some of the tough environments he got a chance to play in. The two at the top of his list were old Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia and Tiger Stadium at LSU.
He said he's never forgotten those experiences playing in those environments and how it forced the visiting team to have an us-against-the-world mindset. He said it's important to absorb the energy, try and send it the other way and most importantly, have fun with it.
"Enjoy every bit of it," Campbell said. "That's part of all this too, man. Being able to play at a high level, competitive, the best against the best in that environment on the road in a new stadium. That's stuff you never forget. You're telling your grandkids one day."
ROOKIE DEBUT
Rookie sixth-round pick Skyler Gill-Howard ended up playing 47 snaps against the Saints in Week 1. Only Aidan Hutchinson, Alim McNeill and DJ Wonnum played more.
"It was awesome. I wasn't expecting to go out there and play 50," Gill-Howard said. "It just shows the trust coach (Kelvin Sheppard) Shep has in me to go out there and do different things. It was just a blessing overall. Rookie debut I wasn't expecting to go out there and play almost 50 snaps, but it was awesome."
An undersized defensive tackle at 6-foot and 280 pounds, Gill-Howard was expected to have a sub-package rush role early on, but he's shown the ability to also play the run at a high level and is already logging significant snaps.
After watching the tape of his first NFL performance, Gill-Howard thought he did a great job in the run game and a decent job in the pass game.
"I had a couple wins, but there's still stuff I can clean up to be able to win cleaner and get out of other people's way," he said.
He made three tackles and two quarterback pressures, one leading to a Hutchinson sack. He and his defensive linemates know the challenge in front of them this week on the road against the Bills and MVP quarterback Josh Allen.
Gill-Howard said it will be important to generate that interior pass rush and get Allen off his spots as he looks to record his first career sack in front of a national audience.
13 PERSONNEL
The Bills ran 13 personnel (one running back and three tight ends) on 50 percent of their offensive snaps in a Week 1 win on the road over Houston. It was the heaviest use of that personnel package in the league the first week.
Do the Lions expect to see a heavy dose of it again this week?
"They have three tight ends. They have three real guys that have three different roles that they're all three pretty good at," Campbell said. "(Jackson Hawes) 85 can block a little bit. We liked him coming out and he proved to be a pretty good blocker last year. So, he's kind of their heavy-Y.
"And then Dalton (Kincaid), 86, he's a mismatch in the pass game, man. He's one of these big skill, get through the defense, one-on-one matchups. And then (Dawson) Knox does it all. He does everything. He's the guy, he's the jack of all trades and he makes it right. He's kind of the glue that, 'What do you need? I'm the release guy, I'm the blocker, I'm the hybrid H-back, I'm the split me out one-on-one.' He does it all."
The versatility allows the Bills to throw a lot of options at a defense in that package. More than anything, Campbell said Allen and his skillset makes it all work.
"They're good at it. Look, they're good in 11, they're good in 12," he said. "They've got personnel, they've got a quarterback who makes it go and they've got a coaching staff that can find those little nuggets and the mismatches."
EXTRA POINTS
-Bills wide receiver D.J. Moore (100) and tight end Dalton Kincaid (130) each had over 100 receiving yards last week against the Texans. It marked just the second game in Bills history with a 100-yard receiver and a 100-yard tight end in the same contest.
"As a competitor you hate to see good teams add even more good players," Lions cornerback Rock Ya-Sin said of Moore. "He's a great player. From his time in Carolina and Chicago he made a lot of plays. A deep threat down the field. He can line up in the backfield and do some things out of the backfield."
-Detroit's offense finished Week 1 with a pressure rate allowed of just 22 percent, second-lowest among teams in Week 1, per TruMedia and The Athletic.
