A long night for the Buffalo Bills’ defense led to a tense moment during Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde’s postgame press conference.
A reporter asked the Bills safeties if they were “embarrassed” by their team’s inability to stop the run after the New England Patriots ran the ball 46 times (94% of their offensive plays) for 222 yards in Monday’s 14-10 win over the Bills.
Poyer and Hyde took serious exception to the question, with Hyde telling the reporter “don’t do that” as he walked off the podium. But should the Bills defenders have handled the situation better, or were they right to bristle at the line of questioning?
Van Noy names this Belichick decision as key to win over Bills
Joining our Tom E. Curran Tuesday on NBC Sports Boston’s “Quick Slants,” Patriots linebacker Kyle Van Noy admitted he wouldn’t have been pleased fielding that same question.
“That’s a tough question, especially after a loss,” Van Noy said, as seen in the video below. “Yeah, that’s a tough one.”
But Van Noy also pointed out the obligation of a player to answer “tough” questions from the media, even if you disagree with what’s being said.
“As hard as it is after a loss, you’ve just got to answer it,” Van Noy said. “Whether you like it or not, you’ve got to be truthful. I feel like I’ve always been truthful in my answers. If someone says I suck, I’ll be like, ‘All right.’ I can argue with them a little bit, and then sometimes, like, ‘You’re right. I did.'”
So, while Van Noy sympathized a bit with Poyer and Hyde for being put in a tough spot, the veteran linebacker suggested they could have reacted a bit differently.
“At the end of the day, you’ve got to answer the question,” Van Noy said. “You’re a professional. You have a job, I try to be respectful to that and answer the questions you have. As a player, unfortunately you get put in tough situations that you’re not always happy about, but you’ve got to answer the question.
“Now, did they answer it well? I don’t know. You can be the judge of that.”
Poyer and Hyde appeared irked by the term “embarrassed,” and the reporter probably could have asked his question a different way. But after allowing the Patriots to run the ball down their throats for four quarters, the Bills’ run defense certainly deserved criticism.
Check out Van Noy’s full interview with Curran on “Quick Slants” in the video below.
