ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — No, they’re not saying boo. They’re saying “COOP.”
Amari Cooper made a strong first impression on Bills fans, and they on him, Sunday afternoon.
Despite playing limited snaps (unofficially 19 plays, not counting penalties, or 35% of the offense), the star veteran wide receiver made an instant impact on the Bills mere days after a trade brought him to Western New York from Cleveland.
OK, well not quite instant: the first target to come Cooper’s way saw a drop end Buffalo’s opening drive on third-and-2.
But the next time a Josh Allen pass went Cooper’s way, it went for six.
Cooper’s first catch as a Bill gave his new team the lead, 14-10, and they never trailed again Sunday at Highmark Stadium in a 34-10 win. Here came the “Coop” chants.
They’ve followed him to different football stops, from his college days at Alabama to three previous franchises. Buffalo was no different, though the chants sound unique to Cooper’s ears.
“I played for a couple different teams that have done it, including Alabama, collegiately,” Cooper told reporters Sunday. “It seems like a different feel every single time. It seems like a different ‘Coop’ chant every single time. Just grateful, appreciative. It was something special about that one today.”
Cooper drove here along Lake Erie for three hours Tuesday night and started diving into the playbook Wednesday. On Sunday, he caught four passes for 66 yards and the score.
“That’s a lot harder than people realize,” tight end Dawson Knox observed in the locker room. “Coming from a completely different system into our system, being able to immediately go out on the field and make good plays for us, that’s something I’ve never had to do, and I hope I never have to do it. But it’s extremely difficult, and it just is a testament to him as a professional, just being ready to go.”
BOTH ALLEN and coach Sean McDermott credited the extra work Cooper did with offensive quality control coach D.J. Mangas this week.
“No. 1, it takes two of them, right?” McDermott said. “So the player has to want to do it, and that’s the start of it, willing to put in more time … in and around the normal schedule and the gaps of the schedule, and we’ve got a lot of good young coaches that do a lot of work for us behind the scenes.”
On that first touchdown play, Allen signaled an ‘alert’ to change the play at the line of scrimmage. TV cameras showed Cooper exchanging a quizzical look with Keon Coleman, to his left. Coleman pointed in the direction Cooper would run. Did the rookie teach the vet something in that case?
“He knew the play,” Coleman told reporters. “I just helped him confirm it, is all it was.”
Cooper’s explanation: “Yeah, we had an alert on the play built in, predicated on if we got a specific look. We got the look that we wanted, we checked to it and it worked just like it did in practice.”
NOT TO BE overlooked during Cooper’s impressive debut, Coleman enjoyed a breakout performance, the first 100-yard game by a Bills pass-catcher this year and the first of his young career. He grabbed four balls for 125 yards, including a 57-yard gain on an impressive catch-and-run with a broken tackle.
“I liked it,” Coleman said of playing next to Cooper. “He brings a different dynamic to the offense, another guy that can do similar things that I do at a very high level and he’s proven himself in the league for a long time. Just another threat, man. You gotta respect it.”
Coleman nearly had a touchdown as well, but his end zone corner catch was overturned by replay in a close call.
“Congratulations to the young buck Keon for his first 100-yard game. He really put together a string of plays out there,” Cooper noted, adding he thought Coleman’s touchdown should have stood up on replay.
Khalil Shakir and tight end Dalton Kincaid also exceeded 50 receiving yards. Suddenly, an offense searching for wide receiver options had some effective choices on display for Allen, who also had his first 300-passing yard game of the season (323) in his 100th career start. That was despite opening the game 1-for-5 amid a sluggish start as Tennessee took a 10-0 lead.
Maybe it’s no coincidence the offense took off — scoring 34 unanswered points — more once Cooper become involved.
“Any time you have a player of his caliber, he demands extra attention and if you don’t, we’re probably going to throw him the ball,” Allen said.
“Our guys did a good job of getting open, making plays.”
If he keeps making plays like Sunday, he’ll keep hearing some Highmark “Coop” chants. Cooper called the stadium atmosphere “heightened,” even for someone accustomed to playing for loud fans.
“It just felt different, the fans for some reason. I kind of got the warning throughout the week that the fans are very passionate,” Cooper said. “I have been a part of a lot of very passionate fan bases, and I played for the Raiders, the Cowboys, the Browns, Alabama. But this one, it seems a little bit more heightened. So I guess that’s a good thing.”
