Getty Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs celebrates a touchdown with running back Zack Moss during their matchup with the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football.
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen has been collecting AFC Offensive Player of the Week awards left and right this season. The talented quarterback has won the award a franchise record four times this season. But after his performance on Monday, it was time for wide receiver Stefon Diggs to take the award.
The former Maryland wide receiver was awarded the AFC Offensive Player of the Week award on Wednesday after torching the New England Patriots secondary for nine catches, 145 yards, and three touchdowns as the Bills stomped on the Patriots, 38-9, and handed Bill Belichick the worst home loss of his Patriots tenure. Diggs is also the first Bills receiver to win the award since Andre Reed in 1994.
9 catches. 145 yards. 3 touchdowns.
@StefonDiggs is the AFC Offensive Player of the Week‼️
Diggs was explosive all night long as he caught touchdown passes of 50, 18, and 8-yards and turned in his first three-touchdown performance since last season when the Minnesota Vikings took on the New York Jets.
Not only did Diggs’ performance earn him the weekly award, but it also etched his name in Buffalo’s record books even more.
The 27-year-old broke Eric Mould’s single-season receiving yards record just one week after he snapped Moulds’ single-season receptions record. Diggs currently leads the NFL in both categories with 120 receptions and 1,459 receiving yards. He also has eight touchdowns after his touchdown hat trick on Monday night.
Diggs also needs one more touchdown catch to tie his career-high of nine touchdowns in a single season. He had already set new career highs for receptions and yards earlier this year.
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Diggs’ Exchange With New England’s J.C. Jackson Fuels Big Night
Patriots cornerback J.C. Jackson has been one of the best in the league all season long. He’s tied for second in the NFL with eight interceptions and he has tallied 13 pass deflections. His matchup with Diggs was one that everyone has been waiting for all season long.
Then, about midway through the second quarter, the two players started jawing back and forth after Allen just missed Diggs on a pass into the endzone.
That play came before Diggs torched Jackson for his 50-yard touchdown reception with about 3:55 to go in the second quarter. After the game, Diggs didn’t go into too much detail about what he said to Jackson, but he did describe the situation a little bit.
“He was saying ‘Don’t play with me,’ and he was doing the whole no-fly zone thing and I don’t really like that very much. I don’t take too kindly to that,” Diggs said in his post-game video conference call. “I just told him to relax.”
It took a little bit of time for Diggs to get going on Monday but when he found a rhythm with Allen, the duo took off to have a historic night.
“Early on we were just trying to get on the same page, you know how it goes, there are flows of the game,” Diggs said in the video conference call. “Early on they tried to take some stuff away and they were sitting on a lot of stuff there was just an open line of communication between me, Josh, and coach Daboll.”
Diggs Showed Signs of Greatness on Final Touchdown
On his last touchdown catch of the game, Diggs did something that has caught a lot of people’s eyes.
Allen started off the play by looking right but whipped his head back around before bootlegging to the left side of the field. After scrambling for a few moments he squared his shoulders and fired a rocket to Diggs along the left side of the end zone for his fourth touchdown pass of the night.
Hat trick for @stefondiggs!
“That’s, in my opinion, the best receiver in the game,” Allen said during his post-game video conference call on Monday.
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