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Alaina GetzenbergESPN
ORCHARD PARK, NY – Fun in the Middle Buffalo Bills receiver Stefon Diggs and Green Bay Packers hidden corner Jaire Alexander starts when both players run out of the tunnel at the same time to warm up. But how did it end? Well, that depends on who you ask.
“I don’t care — who started it, I finished it. I won,” Diggs said after the Bills beat the Packers 27-17 on Sunday Night Football. “I don’t deal with moral victories. I don’t deal with one-on-one battles because it’s not a one-on-one game. … It was a team effort and I had it. a dub. I feel like at the end of the day there’s no moral victory.”
Alexander offers a different point of view.
“No, neither do I,” Alexander said when asked who initiated the verbal exchange. “I finished it.”
The trash talk apparently started when Diggs was spotted running past and shouting at Alexander on his way out of the tunnel. Their feud continued as the teams returned to their dressing rooms, and again when they came out of the tunnel in the second half.
Diggs again became the Bills’ top collector on Sunday night, with the highest six in-game receptions of 108 yards and one touchdown. However, Alexander is not the closest defender in any of Diggs’ goals, according to NFL NextGen Stats. Alexander only lined up against Diggs on his three routes (13%).
Diggs and Alexander previously faced each other for two seasons when Diggs played for Packers’ NFC North rivals, Minnesota Vikings. Diggs, who spent his first five NFL seasons in Minnesota, became the first player to score a goal in eight consecutive games against Green Bay.
“I mean, I’ve always thought of him as a good receiver, but I can’t say much about him,” said Alexander, who also said he “just kept it real” and told Diggs when they stepped out of the tunnel before the game where Diggs “couldn’t mess with me”, calling the recipient “a boy”.
During the first inning, while Diggs was on the ground recovering from his own trip, Alexander ran over and appeared to push Diggs’ helmet down.
Alexander also appeared to exchange words with the recipient of the wide Bills Gabe Davis, who he lined up on 60.9% of Davis routes (14). Davis has been targeted four times without a reception with Alexander as the closest defender.
And Diggs has sometimes joined it with the Packers’ support Rasul Douglas, who gave up three receptions in 85 yards and touched down as the closest defender on Diggs. After his 26-yard TD catch, Diggs had to be held back by teammates Isaiah McKenzie and Davis as they approached Douglas.
“Of course I would be aggressive and set the tone. And they grabbed me at a crucial moment,” Diggs said. “I should have had a flag. So it’s not so much like chasing a guy, but he knows to be smart. It’s just the way this game goes when it’s a little bit fun.”
There seems to be no love lost between the Bills’ offense and the Packers’ defense throughout the game.
“It was the most talk that ever happened with another team,” Diggs said. “Because I don’t know why. You know, we don’t really talk too much. You’ve seen us week in and week out. We just come in and try to get things done. Things just go along. this way sometimes I don’t care no matter how the game goes no one won’t be pushed around.”
Diggs on Sunday became the first Bills player to get 100 yards and receive a touchdown in three consecutive games since Elbert Dubenion (1964). He also ties Dubenion in the most games with 100 yards received and one encounter in a season in franchise history (five). Diggs has now been tied up with Chiefs Travis Kelce for the most receptions this season (seven).
Rob Demovsky of ESPN and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
