Spags Prep: O'Cyrus Torrence on how the Buffalo Bills prepare for the great unknown

Once again, it's Bills-Chiefs. Steve Spagnuolo tricked Buffalo in the AFC Championship with a unique pressure. Is Buffalo ready this time?

Tyler Dunne

Nov 01, 2025

A trip to the Super Bowl on the line. Fourth and 5. Arrowhead Stadium roaring at a fever pitch. MVP under center.

A trip to the Super Bowl on the line.

“Spags” did what “Spags” does.

Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo saved his absolute best for last.

As Buffalo Bills guard O’Cyrus Torrence told us the morning after, the Chiefs had shown a pressure all game long… and backed off. They were sending pressure where they weren’t showing it pre-snap. That’s why the Bills slid their protection left and that’s why Josh Allen was immediately met by a convoy. “They set it up,” said Torrence, mystified. “It was like they were waiting to get in that situation all game to bring out that one pressure.”

Down in New Orleans during Super Bowl week, I chatted with several Chiefs players and Spagnuolo about that pressure and his unique coaching style. He’s one of the greatest defensive minds in NFL history.

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Now, the Bills (5-2) and Chiefs (5-3) meet again. Go Long will be on-hand at Highmark Stadium to cover the game of week. On Friday, I thought it’d be a good idea to touch base with Torrence again to figure out how on God’s green earth you prepare for Spagnuolo’s encyclopedia of pressures.

No DC sets stuff up like him. He turns this bloody sport into chess.

Inside the locker room, left tackle Dion Dawkins is blaring music at full blast. It’s the final battle scene from 8 Mile and players are loving B-Rabbit’s timeless takedown. Safe to say these Bills are in a good headspace ahead of their latest showdown vs. KC.

Since we can’t hear ourselves think, let alone carry a conversation, we walk out onto the practice field and Torrence — a player who missed a block on that fateful play — is an open book.

Our full chat is below.

See you inside the Gameday Chat on Sunday, all.

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Bills-Chiefs. You’re getting used to this rivalry. What makes this one special?

Torrence: The caliber of players all on the field at once. It’s that type of environment. It’s good-on-good at every position. It just makes the whole game more intense. Everybody looks forward to it.

You’ve got to use your mind on a different level against this team, right? You’ve experienced that against this DC. We talked in that locker room about Spags after the playoffs and how he unleashed that pressure at the perfect time. How do you prepare for him?

Torrence: Being confident in our communication. Being confident with what we worked on this week. Knowing that if you see something that we don’t like — go into alerts, going to the screens, spit it out. Don’t just sit there and let the on defense dial up the play and let ‘em hit. Make ‘em have the think: “Oh they might do this. Maybe this.” We’re not just going to sit back and drop back and throw the ball when we know they’re going to blitz. We can call a play that beats the blitz. So hopefully playing at home — being able to communicate — all that plays a part in us being able to switch into a new play when we need to.

What else goes into dictating against this coordinator, this defense? How can you guys say, “This is what we’re going to do. We’re going to call the shots in this heavyweight fight?”

Torrence: If we get the run game started, we can dictate when we want to throw the ball and we can find (plays) from there. We can determine when they might throw a blitz at us. I feel like getting a good run game going against a blitzing team always opens up the rest of the game because they can’t just pin their ears back. Because you can run it. If you gash on a team that’s blitzing, that makes them iffy about blitzing. They want to play it safe. So I feel like we can get a few runs and cut some for a few yards when they blitz us and pressure us, it’s going to open up the defense.

It starts with that, doesn’t it? You guys were in-sync in Carolina. What did you guys unlock in that win? (James Cook rushed for 216 yards.)

Torrence: We went into it knowing the run plays we like to run and we ran ‘em. Early in the game, we hit ‘em. They hit for a lot of yards. So that confidence early in the game got us going and we rolled with it the whole game. Whether it’s pass plays or run plays, if we get good first- and second-down plays, it’s going to give us confidence that we can ride it into the second half.

With how that AFC Championship ended, do you think about that last play at all or do you bury it? Do you use it or do you forget about it?

Torrence: You ain’t going to forget about it. They called a better play than us. Now we know what we would’ve done if we’re in that situation again. So the reason we think about it now is because we know we would’ve done better in that situation. But you don’t forget about it because it’s a learning experience.

What did you learn? What could you have done different? Because if they didn’t use that pressure all game, how would you even know?

Torrence: I learned that if I’m seeing something that I hadn’t seen all game, say something. I never saw No. 90 in front of me all game. The D-End. He was in front of me that specific play. The only other time he was in front of a guard, it was the left guard and he backed up into coverage. So me just knowing that — playing the game within the game — maybe I shouldn’t have stayed as aggressive and sat back a little bit. If he drops back, I can open my eyes and look out there. I feel like stuff like that on my part, I can do better.

It’s so tough, though, because you’ve got to play off tendencies.

Torrence: Yeah, you’ve got to go off tendencies, but you see something you’re not used to seeing, you’ve got to play a little bit differently. Usually if I see somebody inside of me, I’m going to sit flat to try to keep him right there. If you do bull rush, I’m going to stop him. So why not sit back and see if I can see everything else coming? If I pick up one of them rushers, Josh is breaking a tackle and making that throw. It’s something you think about, but that’s how football goes.

This rivalry, these games are always won on the fringes. It’s one play. You lived it. Do you like that or is it kind of maddening?

Torrence: In college, I played in rivalry games at Florida. I felt some the real rivalry games then, but that was only one year. I’ve been here three years and played against the Chiefs six times. It’s definitely a rivalry. It’s one I enjoy being a part of.

What’s it going to do for this team this season if you guys can figure out a way to win?

Torrence: It’s going to boost our confidence and give us more conviction and belief in what we can do at the end of the season. That’s win a Super Bowl.

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