Latest / Patriots Catch-22 / Patriots Catch-22 10/6: Bills Recap - The Good, The Bad, and the Stuff That Gets You Beat

Transcript

Patriots Catch-22 10/6: Bills Recap - The Good, The Bad, and the Stuff That Gets You Beat · Patriots Catch-22

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: This is the Patriots Catch-22 podcast with Evan Lazar and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Alex Barth.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: I'm Evan Lazar. I'm Evan Lazar. I'm Evan Lazar.
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: Hello, everybody.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Nailed it. Joined, as always, by our Barth.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: That's a pick. That's a match.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: No risk it. No risk it.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: What are you doing? Here is Evan Lazar and Alex Barth.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: The last thing I want to do is offend the
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Josh Allen Industrial Complex.
• 0:23
  Speaker 4: Good.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: So I am going to run my takes by you
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: before I give them up. am I allowed to give
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: my take about teams respecting Josh Allen too much? This
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: is your, this is no, I don't want it. Cause I, I.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: I bills week and I feel like you're holding back.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: It's a very powerful lobby. The Josh Allen industrial complex.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: I don't want to run afoul of it.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: You better not.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: So I want to make sure. Because you see it
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: where I don't know if it's because he's so big.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: You guys don't want to deal with the contact or
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: the worried about the QB call flag, the superstar QB flag.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: You have to finish plays against Josh Allen. Obviously, don't
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: take cheap shots. Don't commit penalties. But like, yeah, there
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: might be a superstar flag. You have to finish the play.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: You have to finish the play. He is going to
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: finish the play. He is going to play to the whistle.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: You have to as well.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: I have a feeling that this is going to be
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: a lot of victory laughing, a lot of peacocking in
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: this studio today. Look at how happy he is. Look
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: at how happy he is.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: I made that one just for you, Barthie.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: He compared himself to Joseph Gordon-Levitt in 500 Days of
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Summer on our way in here. That's how giddy he is. Wow,
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: on a take. That the Patriots went into the new
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Highmark Stadium. And I really like Mike Vrabel's.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Every week.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: They kind of have this like team mantra. I don't
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: know what else to call it. Like it's a team.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: They have keys to the game and some of them
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: are team big picture. And then some of them are offense, defense,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: special teams have individual keys to the game. And the
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: big like team message this week was be the reason
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: we get back in the race. Be the answer. Be
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: the answer. And I thought that that's the perfect way
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: to sum up this win on Sunday.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: You must have liked it. Did you see what Andrew
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Callahan had on that? The be the answer thing?
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: No.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Brable was showing the picture of Allen Iverson stepping over,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: not Derek Fisher, Tyronn Lue, right?
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: So.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: They're back in the race.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: They're back in the race.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: That's all this win is. It's week four. I don't
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: want to... It wasn't a playoff game or anything like that.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: But they were... Let's face it.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: They were.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Their backs were against the wall.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: You don't want to be one and three. One and
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: three is not a good place to be.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Their backs were against the wall here a little bit.
• 2:50
  Speaker 6: And.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: You know that I love my tight pants, guys. You
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: know I love the play callers on offense and the
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Shanahan's and the Ben Johnson's. One of the things that
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: I really admire about Mike Vrabel is how he gets
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: the train back on the tracks when they hit a
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: little bit of adversity. And this is probably the most
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: adversity that they've hit. They were 1-2 last year, but
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: they didn't play as badly as they did in Jacksonville
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: last year.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: And they weren't carrying the expectations they are this year.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: So this is probably the most adversity that the quarterback
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: and the whole team has really hit under Mike Vrabel.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: But the ability to know which buttons to push, to
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: send the right messaging, to lead the team through a
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: rough patch, that is something that... I hate to like
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: be corny or cliche about it, but that's like a
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: leader of men trade.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: You know, there's value in that in your head.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: That's what that is.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: And, um, you know, it's important that a head coach
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: can do.
• 3:49
  Speaker 5: Yes.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: And I, I'm going to, you know, I'm hard on
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: coaches because I think that coaching in a lot of respects, uh, is, uh, Controllable,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: like your preparation for games, your game plans to an extent,
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: you know how the games are called and the play
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: calling and the whole overall approach holistically of how you
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: are your system offensively, your system defensively. I want the
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: players to always be put. in positions to maximize their
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: talent and to be in positions to succeed. So that's
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: why I tend to lean more on the coaches than
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: the players, because I think the coaches are the ones
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: that set the table. You know, we often talk about
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: like coaches setting floors for teams and the players setting
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: ceilings for teams. So I really do admire that. I,
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: I would also say just last little corny thing. Uh,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: That was a great win and a great atmosphere on Sunday.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: That stadium is really nice. I was impressed. It's a
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: brand new stadium, obviously, so it's going to be pretty nice.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: But what a massive upgrade over the old place, right?
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: I liked the old place. That was, you know, it's
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: a real football stadium, but dumb. I clearly the crowd
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: was going, did you see what D Alford said after
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: the game?
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: It was so loud. They couldn't hear him.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Have you ever heard a defensive player say, or the
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: home crowd was too loud?
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: No, I mean, it was, uh, it was a really
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: great atmosphere. The place was, uh, from had a jump
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: to it from the beginning and to go into that environment.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: It was like, I think it's fair to call it
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: a hostile environment, uh, to go into that environment and,
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: and win the game and play well late. And, uh,
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Even in-game adversity, like I thought in the second quarter
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: they took a little nap. You know, Drake May had
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: the fumble. He had back-to-back plays on that drive that
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: we'll talk about in a little bit that kind of
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: started to compound some of the mistakes we saw in
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: the first three games of the season from him. And
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: then they had the halftime, you know, end of halftime. scenario,
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: which did not, was basically a 10 point swing in
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Buffalo's favor. And, uh, that could have been, they could
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: have gone off the rails then again, just individually in
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: that game in a vacuum and they didn't. So, uh,
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: just a really gutsy, great performance all around from the Patriots.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, coaching, it was a big game on coaching.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: The coaching staff needed that one. I thought they delivered
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Mike Rabel, Josh McDaniel, Zach core. I thought all had
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: really good plans. Uh, a lot of mental toughness that
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: that's a tough game when you're in it, you know,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: the Patriots won and we're going to enjoy that. They
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: hardly went away with it. It was a back and
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: forth game. You know, they were backed into a corner
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: at times. They were back against the wall at times.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: They were more aggressive, which was good. They were a
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: little more diverse on offense, which I think was good.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: But just a real, and they went toe to toe
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: with that. That's really what it comes down to, especially
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: now that there's only one by, and I, I, almost
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: feel like it comes down. I don't want to say
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: it comes down to like tiebreakers or whatever, but really
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: if you win your division, you're in good shape.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: You know, obviously the buy is great, but the fact
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: there's only one it's, it's, It's hard to say, okay,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: we want to be the best team in the conference. Like,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: that's not always a realistic goal. Top two was a
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: little more in play. So that's who you have to
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: be better than. That's who the Patriots have to be
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: better than. And I guess the Jets and Dolphins, but
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: I think we know those boxes are checked.
• 7:13
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: That's who you have to be better than over the
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: course of 18 weeks.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: And you said it's just one game and it's early
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: in the season. It's kind of two because now you're
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: in the driver's seat to have that tiebreaker.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: It's like one and a half.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: The last three years have all been splits.
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah. For the Patriots and Bills, that does include the
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Joe Milton Week 18 game, but that's the real measuring stick.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: And they'll play some other teams here.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Didn't they split in 23 also?
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: They split.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: The last three years have been splits. And this year
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: will be a split. This year will at least be
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: a split. At least be a split, right. And they
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: split in 21, too. It's just 22 they haven't. And
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: that's divisional football, man. And that's a team you have
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: to be better than over the course of 18 weeks.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: If they do that... They're in relatively good shape. It
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: doesn't mean they're automatically going to win the Super Bowl.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: It doesn't even guarantee them they're going to win the
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: playoff game, but you get a home playoff game. You
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: get to face a wildcard team. The wildcard teams, the AFCs,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: you're probably not going to be very good. Because the
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: conference just as a whole, again, does not look like
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: it's very good. And so that's, I think that that
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: gives you something to hang your hat on. Like, we
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: were talking about this, and I've seen some people say, well,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: this doesn't erase the Jags game. You still have to
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: consider the Jags game. And that's true. Like, you can't
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: forget about that. I think it's important. You heard from
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: players this week that Mike Vrabel really, I mean, he
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: cranked it up this week in practice and meetings and
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: all that. You now can't, it's, this doesn't mean, all right, well,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: now we can go back to the easier way. If anything,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: this is, this is proof positive that no, it needs
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: to stay cranked up because this is what it takes. But,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: you know, there's a huge difference. If they play this
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: game against the bills and win like that, and then
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: play the Jags game, you look at it a whole
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: lot differently, right? And that's why people are like, well,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: you know, if you lose this game and any of
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: the Raiders and the Jets and you can get back
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: to three and three, like the mentality at one and
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: three is so different. So it doesn't automatically put them
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: in the playoffs by any means. I'm not going there,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: but not all 18 are created equal. And I do
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: think that this was one of the more meaningful games
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: on your schedule, right? If they can take care of
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: business against the Raiders and Jets, They're 4-2 going into
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: a Bears game where if Caleb Williams' back is another
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: good measuring stick, that'd be a really good place for
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: them to be. Can I give one other take real quick?
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Yes, real quick.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Divisional football rules.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: It's great. And you saw it in other games this weekend.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: The NFL, one of the best things the NFL has
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: done in recent memory, and I guess like 20 years
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: ago now, was make Week 18 all-divisional games. They should
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: take that one step further. Your last three games should
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: all be divisional games. I would love to see them
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: go to that. No divisional games in September or the
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: first half of October. You play your first three rounds
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: of divisional games kind of interspersed from mid-October to Thanksgiving.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: How great would it be if your last three games
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: you had to play all in the division? And it
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: would keep some of these playoff races open. And I would,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: I've said this for a while. This game just reminded
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: me of it. I would love to see the NFL
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: go to that.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: Okay. Yeah. I, I, I have no quibbles with that
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: if that's what they end up doing, but I, I
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: really just, then we'll get to the good and the
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: bad stuff. It gets a beat, but this, this, I'm
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: ready to start calling this a rivalry.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Now?
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: It's been. Well, I don't think that really the Patriots
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: and Bills have been good at the same time. The
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: Bills are really good. You know, the Jim Kelly Bills
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: in the 90s. The Patriots had their moments, 96, things
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: like that. But not a really dominant team in the
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: 90s like the Bills were in the AFC. Then the
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: Patriots obviously have the dynasty and they have the Brady
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: years and the Bills were not very good. This Josh
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: Allen-Drake May thing has the chance, and Allen's older, so
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: we'll see how long he plays for. But at least
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: for the next, let's call it four or five years,
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: this really has a chance to be a ton of fun.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: He's not that much older.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: Oh, he's 30. He's nine years into the league.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Wasn't he track? Oh, no, he's track. Okay. I was
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: going to say, could this be like a generation's Brady Manning?
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: I don't think so, because it's too much time. Manning was, what, 98,
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: 99 draft, right? 97, I think. And then Brady was
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: the 2000 draft. So I think that May is quite
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: a bit younger than Josh Allen. That's fair. And the
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: way Josh Allen plays as well.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: I just mean in the sense that Brady Manning was
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: an event.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: And I guess maybe it's more Allen Mahomes. Those games
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: are events.
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 11:36
  Speaker 5: But.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: This one feels like.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: We're getting there.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Alan May is an event. Now, I think when those
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: two face each other, it is shocking to me.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, the last two years, all three of the
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: games have been fantastic football games.
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: It is.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: And even the one May's rookie year, when they went
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: up to Buffalo and almost won.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah. It's... I almost won.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: That was a relatively close game.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: It was a close game for that Patriots team.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: They had a lead early... It's shocking to me neither
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: of these games are in primetime. The league should be
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: propping this up as an event.
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: Agreed.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: I was just about to say that. That's the one. Now, selfishly,
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: I hate primetime games. You hate primetime.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: You don't care.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: Although, is the December 6th one 1 or 4 o'clock?
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I love that I walked into my.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: 4 o'clock. That could get flexed.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: My house at like 9.30 on Sunday night and not
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: at 2 o'clock in the morning or whatever. So, selfishly,
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: I don't mind that this wasn't in primetime. but I'm
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: shocked that it wasn't in primetime.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: At least one of them, if not this one.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: Or like a 425 game or whatever, because that game,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: the NFL needs to start treating this as like a
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: true division rivalry game. Two superstar quarterbacks, two really good teams.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: They play great games against one another, one score games.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: Patriots have won twice now in Buffalo the last two years.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: The Bills won up here with a big comeback in
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: the second half. These have been great, great football games.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Bears-Packers, every year there's a Bears-Packers game in primetime, if
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: not at 425. Cowboys-Eagles always gets primetime. This should be
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: treated like that. Yeah, I agree. We'll see if that
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: later one gets flexed. It wouldn't surprise me if they're
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: both good.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: All right, let's get down to it. Let's get to
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: the nuts and bolts here. Plenty of goods to talk
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: about in this game. I do want to start with
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: Josh McDaniels because last week I was pretty critical of
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: Josh McDaniels. And I'm nothing but fair, Alex. Just fair
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: and objective here, okay? They coach well and they have
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: a good game plan and a good script. I'll give
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: them praise when they don't.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: That's what we do. We call like we see it.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: That's the way that it works on this show and
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: it always will. Josh McDaniels in this game, and I
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: really don't want to turn this into a victory lap
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: for myself because it's not about me, but the easy
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: buttons are how I would describe what the Patriots turned
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: up in this game. And the two biggest easy buttons
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: in football, just statistically the things that help inflate efficiency
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: the most. schematically are motion and play action. If you
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: have the ability to motion and use it to your
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: advantage and you have the ability to then script play
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: action off of a run game, then that is the
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: easiest way to move the football offensively from a statistical perspective.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: So in this game, uh, they motion 75% of the time, 75.3%.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: That was their most in the game in almost three years.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: So this was like a significant, uh, departure from what
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: they were doing in the first three weeks of the season.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: The first three weeks of the season, they were dead
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: last in the league in motion rate at 54%. So
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: they increased their motion rate by over 20% in this game.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you have it, their motion rate
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: just on run plays?
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: It's like 67%. of their run plays had that hot, like, yes.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: So anything like over, I would say, you know, 54
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: was the bottom of the league.
• 15:01
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: So for just run, uh, no, that's just overall, but like,
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: you know, I would say anything over like 65 ish percent. Now,
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: like the, the Shanahan tree guys are up at like 85, 90%, right.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: They're near the top of the league. Uh, but in
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: terms of McDaniels and what he is, uh, you know,
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: used to and what he's done, what he's put on
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: on tape. That was a very high motion rate. And
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: you saw it just from an efficiency perspective. The motion
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: rate increased. The play action passing increased by 15 percent
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: in this game, 20 percent in the first three weeks,
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: 35 percent, almost 36 percent. If you round up in
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: this game, it's almost 16 percent. And I don't think,
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: you know, maybe some of this was, you know, just coincidental.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: But I don't feel it was. I don't think it's
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: a coincidence that all of a sudden they're using a
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: lot more window dressing, a lot more motion. They're gathering
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: information with the motion. They're using it on run plays.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: They're play action passing because they have a little bit
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: more success running the football and it's more effective. I
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: don't think that this is all coincidence that they literally
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: doubled their scoring total from the first three weeks of
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: the season when they got a little bit more dynamic,
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: a little bit more creative with what they were scheming offensively. So,
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: you know, look, kudos to them. Kudos to them for adjusting.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: The other thing that we talked about a little bit
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: last week was that they actually were creating big plays
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: in the shotgun passing game. Nine of the first 12
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: plays on that opening drive that they went 97 yards on,
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: Drake May was in the shotgun. including the touchdown to
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: Romeo Dobbs. All shotgun, basically out of the chute. So
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: shotgun heavy opening script, motion at the snap rate just
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: jumped significantly. You have a little bit more success running
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: the ball, 45% success rate rushing the football, which is good.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: All that leads to some better play-action opportunities. You get
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: some explosives off of play-action, and around and around we go.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: So schematically... this was a huge improvement from what we
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: saw in the first few weeks of the season. Maybe
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: it was a slow build. Maybe that was all this
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: was about was that they were kind of adding a
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: little bit more and a little bit more.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: He's done that in the past. That's kind of Josh
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: McDaniel's MO.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: I also think that you're one and two, you're reeling
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: a little bit. It's a divisional game against a team
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: that you expect tiebreakers and things like that to be
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: important at the end of the year in Buffalo. And
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: maybe this was what's let the Ferrari out of the garage, right?
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: Like we're not going to play this as conservatively. Just
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: last point on McDaniels, and then you can give your take.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: I felt like just anecdotally that they were playing more
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: of a aggressive downfield passing game. Like they were sending
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: four and five receivers into the route consistently. They didn't
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: help the tackles as much in this game. Now we'll
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: get to the bads with Will Campbell and how that
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: kind of reared its head a little bit. But in
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: this game, it felt like they said, we're going to
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: send five guys into the pattern. We're going to play
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: real football here. And we're going to just live with
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: the fact that Drake may is going to be under
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: a little bit of pressure, but we think that with
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: the bills, especially without Christian Benford in the secondary, and
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: they already had some issues in the secondary, we feel
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: like we're going to have some opportunities to throw the
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: ball down the field against this team. And Drake will
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: handle the pressure. Like he'll handle the pressure, which he did. So, uh,
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: kudos to Josh McDaniels. If it was an adjustment, if
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: they got in the lab and we're like, we need
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: to liven this up, we need to spice this up schematically. Uh,
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: if it was building towards this and he just was
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: a little bit more patient than me, I don't know
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: which one it is, but either way, they, they did
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: everything I asked them to do.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like this is kind of the
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Josh Daniels MO that the offense builds over the course
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: of the year. How many times did we say this
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: last year? The offense is different in December than it
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: is in September. Remember the offense from the Raiders game
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: last year that we never saw again.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: So maybe the situation in terms of the record and
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: the opponent, all that might've accelerated it a little bit,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: but he builds his offense as the year goes on.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: That's what he does. And I think probably adding as
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: many different weapons as they did and then losing some
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: of those guys made it a little tougher. But hopefully,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: just like last year, I mean, remember that.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: Set. Who'd they play?
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: I can't remember who they played second game of the
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: year last year.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: Miami.
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: They went down to Miami. That game kind of felt
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: like this one. Now, the Bills are a much better
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: team than the Dolphins, but in terms of like.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: Empty the clip.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: There were all these things offensively that we were looking
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: to see that we didn't see in the opener that
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: they then did in Miami. And it was like, oh. Okay,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: and then most of that hung around. Like, some of
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: it's going to be matchup-based, and we could probably go through, okay,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: what was specifically about the Bills versus what's maybe more
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: here to stay, because I think there's some things that
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: fall in both categories. But it's kind of felt like that. Like,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: he's done this before. And it's a little frustrating at
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: the beginning, but this is what his offense is. Like,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: he builds it over the course of the year.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: And I would say he builds it over the course
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: of games, too.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: You know, individual games. Like, they ran the reverse to
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: Travion Henderson.
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: In this game, which it barely worked, but they got it.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: How about Drake set in a couple of blocks?
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah. They got it around the edge and he gets
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: 11 yards. They come back to fly motion later on
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: in the game to Travion Henderson and they fake it
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: to him this time. And it's kind of carries out
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: like a play action. And they hit that 19 yard
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: into Matt Collins off the fake because the Bills linebackers
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: widened because they reacted to the motion. So like, They
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: were able to, and sometimes this happens, and I would imagine,
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: and we'll talk to McDaniels on Thursday, I would imagine
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: that Some of it is when you find a rhythm offensively,
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: now you start to get to things on your call
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: sheet that you wouldn't necessarily get to because you're starting
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: to build off of the success you had earlier in
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: the game. So they run the reverse. The reverse gains
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: 11 yards. Now when Travion Henderson comes in motion, the
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: Bills have to respect the fact that he might get
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: the football, and now you can build things off of
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: that motion, and then that's when you really can start
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: to have some fun. So when you play a game
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: like in Jacksonville, uh, or in Seattle where you're just
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: doing nothing offensively pretty much. And you're really struggling to
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: move the football, uh, that tends to kind of like
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: take away things on the call.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: The stuff you wanted to build on, like all the
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: setup plays, you want to take shots off. You can't
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: take the shots cause you never set them up.
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Um, So very good adjustments or whatever. Just one little
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: thing I would just say about your point, how much
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: of this was about the bills, how much of this
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: was what they're going to do moving forward. some of
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: the coverage indicators stuff. So like when they're shifting or
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: motioning guys from one side of the formation to the other,
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: they're really just trying to get a tell on what
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: kind of shell the defense is in. Are they in
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: one high, two high man zone? You know, if it
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: gets followed, it's probably man to man. If it gets
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: bumped or passed off, it's probably zone coverage. Sometimes defenses
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: play tricks too, but that's usually like 75, 80% of
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: the time I would say is the case. The Bills
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: didn't do a whole lot of disguising in the back
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: end of this game. So a lot of this was
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: undressing the coverage pre-snap. Now, you might say, okay, that
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: wasn't necessarily like the Shanahan tree guys are using motion
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: to add on things, right? Like add on blockers, create
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: blocking advantages. There was some of that for the Patriots,
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: no doubt. Some of it, too, was coverage indicators.
• 22:24
  Speaker 6: But.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: To me, like when your quarterback is clearly struggling a
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: little bit with seeing the field through the first three weeks,
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: giving him as much information at the line of scrimmage
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: as you possibly can to kind of get a read
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: on the coverage. Now, Buffalo, they are down a few
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: guys in the secondary. They also lost D. Alfred in
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: this game as well. So maybe they just didn't have
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: the personnel. They had to kind of go basic, especially
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: in the second half. But they kind of sat in
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: what they sat in. And so that piece of it
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: might have increased the motion rate by like 10 or
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: 15 percent on its own. So I am curious to
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: see going into next week against the Raiders and so
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: on and so forth. Like, is this here to stay
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: or was this. a bill specific thing.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: It just kind of worked against Buffalo and maybe it
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: will go back down week to week, you know, kind of, I.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Mean, they're probably not going to be at, you said
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: it was like 70 something percent, 75. They probably won't
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: be at 75% every week, but it might not go
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: back down to 50.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: I hope not. I hope not. Especially the run game
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: stuff like the past game and like what you do there.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: I'm not as concerned about whether or not they you know,
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: when they're in the shotgun, if they motion or not,
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: it's not like the biggest deal. But they're under center.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: You know, we talked about it last week. They were
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: 31st in the league in EPA per play from under
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: center through the first three weeks of the season. That's
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: like your, your structured offense, like running the football play action,
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: passing from under center. Like that's like your base offense.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: So if you can't execute that at a high level,
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: like you're really in tough shape. Like you're in third
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: and pass a lot. You're in the shotgun a lot.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: So in order to really increase that run game productivity,
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: I think they needed to dress it up. I mean,
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: I went on a rant about it last week. I
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: think they needed to dress it up a little bit
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: better because, Now 45% success rate running the ball. Isn't like,
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: they're not all of a sudden like the number one
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: team in the league rushing the football, but they were 28%
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: in the first three weeks of the season. So a
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: nearly 20% increase in success rate is just, even that
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: is just like a huge kind of, uh, you know,
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: release for them to be able to do some of
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: the other things that they're able to do offensively. So, uh,
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: just a much, much better all around approach. I thought
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: offensively game plan wise, uh, The quarterback, Drake May. I mean,
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: that's the other. I kind of think these things are
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: tied together. That's why I did it in this order.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: Drake May, just right from the jump, right from the get-go,
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: looked like the quarterback of the 2025 regular season. Looked
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: like MVP Drake May. I know he had the fumble.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: I talked about a little bit of that nap in
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: the second quarter. But for the most part, he was
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: locked into this game. I thought early on in that
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: opening drive, maybe that 15-yard scramble kind of got him
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: going a little bit.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Just a little bit of an exhale.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but the play other than the touchdown. Uh, the
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: play that to Dobbs, the touch, the play that really
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: stood out to me was the throw to Raritan over
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: the middle of the field. So they're running like a
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: levels or, you know, a high, low kind of concept
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: where they have a short in, and then they have
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: a deeper dig or an in cut at about 12 yards.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: The shorter ones usually at about six. And what we
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: were seeing from Drake made in the first three weeks
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: of the season is is he just wasn't letting the
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: routes develop. He was kind of a one-read quarterback, and
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: he wasn't allowing the clear-out routes and the underneath routes
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: to make the zones move and attach and then find
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: the open spots. And in this game, he was so
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: much more patient and trusting in the pocket. I think
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: it's trusting of the protection, but also trusting of... the
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: concept and the receivers and that this is going to
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: work like this is going to work. And that really
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: leads to decisiveness, right? So, you know, Romeo Dobbs on
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: the short end, he runs across the field. He gets
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: the double team. He gets the linebacker in the middle
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: of the zone to attach to him. And then Raritan
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: is just coming on the deeper one and it's timed up, right?
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: The short one's going to come first and then the
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: deeper one's going to come second. And the opening is
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: created by Dobbs' route. And I think in the first
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: three weeks of the season, when Dobbs isn't open initially,
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: we see Drake Mays start to get panicky back there
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: and start to bail. In this game, he was just
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: so much more calm in the pocket. and allowing things
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: to develop. And then, of course, on the touchdown to
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: Dobbs later on, he looks off the bluff screen side,
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: the first read and the progression isn't there, and he's
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: able to come backside on time and throw before Dobbs
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: is even out of the route and throw on time
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: on the post. Like those, the timing, the decisiveness, the
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: trust in just everything going on around him. It was
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: like night and day. Like it was, it was like
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: he flipped a switch. I don't know what it was.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: Maybe it was playing Buffalo and Josh Allen.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: And like, I mean, this is what happened with Josh
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: Allen early in his career.
• 27:06
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: He figured it out against the Patriots before he figured
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: out against everybody else. Cause there was just a level
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: of disdain there or whatever, but. More than any one play,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: and you kind of highlighted it, he just looked more comfortable.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: His feet, did you see his feet in the pocket?
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: They weren't jittery. And he was stepping up, not bailing
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: out and back around and just looked like himself. And
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: a big thing for me that I haven't heard a
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: lot of people talk about, but I want to point
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: it out because it's worth noting, part of what made
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: him so effective throwing the ball to the intermediate and
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: down the field last year Like, the overall success rate,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: the completion percentage on deep balls, odds are that wasn't
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: going to carry over. It's just, it was such an
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: anomalous number, how efficient he was. But part of why
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: he was so good on those throws was he did
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: an excellent job of, there were no true 50-50 balls.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: It was either my guy's going to catch it or
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: it's going to be incomplete. And yeah, there's a decent
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: chance it's going to be incomplete. But the one thing
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: that's not going to happen is it's not going to
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: be intercepted. He gave his guy a chance without putting
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: the ball at risk. He was, to put it bluntly,
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: horrible at that the first three weeks of the season.
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: That was the big takeaway coming away from the Seattle
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: game is you want to throw that ball to Mac Hollins. Fine.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: It has to be where either Hollins gets it or
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: it's incomplete. And the defender's not near it. And he
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: didn't do that in that game. He didn't do it
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: in the Jaguars game. I thought he did a great
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: job in this game of getting back to that. The
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: touchdown to Chisholm, like, it's a good throw, don't get
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: me wrong, but that's not like a high percentage. It's
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: a good throw because he gives Chisholm a chance without
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: putting the ball at risk. If Chisholm doesn't catch that,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: it's incomplete. The corner's never making a play on that ball.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: The one to Dobbs, it was ultimately incomplete. The deep
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: ball to Dobbs up the right side. But we saw
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: him make that throw a million times last year. It's
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: a great throw in part because... Either Romeo Dobbs catches
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: that or it's incomplete. There's really no way for the
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: defender to make any real play on the ball. There's
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: a few more like that in that game that he had.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: There was one to Henry that I thought was like that.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: Even the one, and again, it's incomplete when they're trying
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: to run the clock out before the one to Henry.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: When they throw the crosser to Chisholm. Either after Chisholm
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: catches that ball or it's incomplete.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Like there's no way the defender is going to make
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: a play on that football. It's, it's such an important
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: skill for quarterbacks. And I think, you know, we talk
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: about this. There's some quarterbacks that worry a little too
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: much about their completion percentage and they go away from that.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: Like you have to be willing to accept that there's
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: a chance for an incompletion there. It's something Drake may
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: was so good at last year. And it's how he
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: really cut the turnover number down last year. And it's
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: something he was again, just bad. at for the first
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: three weeks of the year that to see that come
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: back was maybe more encouraging than anything else that he
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: did a really good job of in that sense, protect
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: protecting the football. There were some other ball security issues,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: but throw the ball where only your receiver can make
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: a play on it, not the defensive back. If it's incomplete,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: so be it. You live to see another down. He also,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: he took a sack in the red zone. He threw
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: the ball away in the red zone, just making plays
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: to see another down. I think that was huge.
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: I thought that just his ability to trust the pocket
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: and trust the plays around him. He, I only really
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: had him with one bad bail where he bailed early
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: on a clean pocket. He had a throw to Matt Collins.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: It's kind of like what you're talking about where he,
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: Matt Collins broke off his route and cut out instead
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: of running across the field when Drake may was sort
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: of like looking for options and the middle of the
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: pocket opened up and there was a running lane and
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: his intrusive thought almost won. He like went to run
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: and then he was like, wait a second, there's nobody
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: around me in this pocket right now. Let me just
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: sit here for an extra beat and Hollins opens up
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: for him and he throws it. He completes it for
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: 26 yards down the field. First three weeks of the season,
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: he's taken off. He's taken off, and that puck gets
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: closing on him faster than he thinks, and it's like
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: a one-yard or zero-yard sack or something like that. It's
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: a one-yard scramble, zero-yard sack. In this game, he just
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: was so much more trusting, more patient. He was getting
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: through progressions. He was going all the way across the
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: field at times through progressions. That was... In structure, he
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: was playing really high-level NFL quarterback, and that's what they
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: need him to do. They need him to play within
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: the structure of the offense.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: It can't just all be the playground stuff.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: Right, and trust that the offense is going to work,
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: and I think that's what he was battling with the
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: first three weeks of the season. was that things weren't
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: popping open consistently and the scheme wasn't working as well
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: as they wanted it to. And so he was kind
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: of losing trust and faith that it was going to work.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: And he was trying to just improvise and make plays like,
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: you know, off script or off out of structure. And
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: in this game, he just trusted it so much better,
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: really right out of the gate. So just a remarkable improvement.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: Not perfect.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: You know, there's still some things to nitpick, which we'll
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: get to at the end of the breakdown. But overall,
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: I just thought really, really.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: Just a huge step in the right direction, like huge strides,
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: you know, just lastly, we'll put a bow on it.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: I chart like the plus and minus plays in this game.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: I had him with 16 and a half plus plays,
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: which is the only game that I have in his
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: career that had as many was that game last year
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: in Baltimore. where they just made a ton of haymakers
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: in the second half. And then the fourth quarter of
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: that game. So this was one of, in my charting,
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: one of his, you know, best games in terms of like,
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: plus like big time plays. Some of those are scrambles,
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: but overall just really, really good. A couple more things
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: on the goods here. And then we got to take
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: a quick break. Efton Chisholm. Are you kidding me? I mean,
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: that was one of the better catches you're going to
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: see this season. Does it, I mean, I think people
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: are kind of downplaying the throw a little bit just
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: because it ended up being a one handed catch. Superb catch.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: Superb throw. Just all around play. I was just as
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: impressed by the 19 yard that he caught earlier in
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: the game. You know, Drake throws those high sometimes and
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: usually he's throwing it to six foot four Matt Collins.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: So like when he throws it high a little bit,
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: it's not that big of a deal. Chisholm climbed the
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: ladder on that one. And did you notice the little
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: subtle nudge of Cole Bishop on the on the boot?
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: That's the game.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: So he, he comes in another one of those blocks
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: on a Drake may scramble too.
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: Like he was going to crack Cole Bishop. Like they
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: were going to run a, a block on Cole Bishop
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: and he just, he doesn't deplete them because I, I,
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: you know, OPI is in play there if you do that.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: And so he just kind of nudges them, like gives
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: them a little shove and it just was enough to
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: throw Cole Bishop off balance and And and he just
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: couldn't recover to the route to Henry. So Bishop was
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: in man coverage on Henry on the play. So just
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: a bunch of little subtle things, obviously an unbelievable, superb catch.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: And you could just tell after the game just how
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: happy the whole locker room and the coaching staff was
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: for one. Just a grinder like a guy that's just
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: working his ass off to make an NFL team.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: I think the craziest thing for me is you have
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: a guy that measures in a 5'10. They put him
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: in for the guy that was 6'4, that left the
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: game in Matt Collins, and he's making the plays the
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: 6'4 guy was making.
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: And, I mean, they're size and strength plays. And clearly
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: following Matt Collins around worked, because he played the Matt
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: Collins role very well.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: Very well. It was really unbelievable. And that throw... Just
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: the play overall. You know, he knows he's got Hamlin
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: as a free runner when Hamlin blitzes from over the slot.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: He made a really similar play, but I think it
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: was a backside like over route. It wasn't just a go.
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: He made a really similar play at North Carolina. That
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: was like, yeah, that was on all the highlight reels
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: where he's got the free runner to his left. And
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: he does. You know, I think Aaron Rodgers might have
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: might have. been like the one that I saw do
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: this the most. It's a slow roll. It's not like
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: a sprint out. It's like a slow roll. And he's
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: just buying time and buying time for the receiver to
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: get down the field.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: I feel like I saw Big Ben do that a
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: few times.
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: Maybe, yeah. But Rodgers is always the guy I think
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: of with the slow roll. And he's just going to
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: his right. And he knows Hamlin's coming. But if he
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: could just drift just enough to give... Chisholm time to
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: get down the field and get open. And then he
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: just throws it at the perfect time off platform and
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: just drops it in the bucket. Now Chisholm makes a
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: great play on it with one hand, but it just,
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: the whole play was, was, you know, hanging in the loop, right?
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: Like that, that's as good as it gets. But, you know,
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: I just thought that the whole thing was just awesome
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: to see. It just, what a moment, you know, for
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: Chisholm and, and the team and all that stuff. And
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: you could just tell after the game, just how happy
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: everybody was for him. So, uh, really, really cool stuff.
• 35:42
  Speaker 6: All right.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: We're going to take a quick break. Uh, when we
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: come back, we'll finish up the goods and get to
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: the not so good.
• 35:47
  Speaker 7: The heaviest metal credit card of all time wielded at
• 35:51
  Speaker 7: business dinners, like a samurai sword. It's a classic corporate
• 35:56
  Speaker 7: power move, but the real power move having end to
• 35:58
  Speaker 7: end visibility on your most critical shipments, FedEx, the new
• 36:02
  Speaker 7: power move.
• 36:03
  Speaker 6: Whether you're in the game or betting on the game,
• 36:05
  Speaker 6: you'll need a game plan. DraftKings Sportsbook, the official sports
• 36:09
  Speaker 6: betting partner of the New England Patriots, provides you with
• 36:11
  Speaker 6: everything you need to build your personal betting game plan
• 36:14
  Speaker 6: so you can get in on all the action while
• 36:16
  Speaker 6: practicing safe bets. Visit DraftKings.com slash Responsible-Gaming to learn more
• 36:23
  Speaker 6: about all the safe betting tools DraftKings has to offer.
• 36:26
  Speaker 6: Hope is here. 800-327-5050 or GamblingHelplineMA.org. Must be 21+. Play
• 36:33
  Speaker 6: it smart from the start. GameSenseMA.com. Physically present in Massachusetts.
• 36:38
  Speaker 6: See DraftKings.com slash Responsible-Gaming for details and state-specific responsible gambling resources.
• 36:46
  Speaker 5: Come welcome our newest restaurant additions at Patriot Place. Estella
• 36:50
  Speaker 5: brings a celebration of flavors with a modern fusion menu,
• 36:53
  Speaker 5: exciting cocktails, and brunch available daily beginning at 11 a.m.
• 36:57
  Speaker 5: Enjoy freshly brewed coffee and Mediterranean-inspired breakfast and lunch from
• 37:00
  Speaker 5: Angels Cafe.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: Craving the classics?
• 37:03
  Speaker 5: Chick-fil-A makes it easy to grab your favorite with mobile through,
• 37:06
  Speaker 5: carry out, and dine-in options. Download the Patriot Place Advantage
• 37:10
  Speaker 5: app for special offers and to earn rewards every time
• 37:12
  Speaker 5: you visit.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: Patriot Place. Shop. Dine.
• 37:15
  Speaker 4: Enjoy. Welcome to the most powerful kind of cancer care.
• 37:20
  Speaker 4: One team unites two of the nation's best hospitals. One
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: team saves more lives every year. Our team, we're one
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: against cancer. Mass General Brigham.
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: If you're gonna play the game, boy, you gotta learn
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: to play it right.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: DraftKings is all about responsible gaming. It's more fun when
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: it's for fun. So play responsibly. DraftKings.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: The crown is yours.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. 21 plus. Age and eligibility varies
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: by jurisdiction.
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: All right alex a few more on the goods this
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: was a great win so we got a lot of
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: talk about on the good side this week which is
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: good because last week i barely had anything so right
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: is a step in the right direction uh we got
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: to give the defense some flowers you got to give
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: zach core some flowers and i actually don't want to
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: speak too loudly about zach core because i hope that
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: he continues to fly under the radar because if somebody
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: hires him away as a head coach it's going to
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: be disappointing.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: It's coming eventually.
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: So just let's all like keep that under wraps a
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: little bit. Uh, but Zach core deserves to be, he
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: deserves to be talked about with all of these like
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: McDonald's type of guys right now. He is on a heater.
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: He's had a great season so far. Uh, he had
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: a great playoffs last year, uh, as a play caller
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: as well, uh, in this game though. And I know
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: the zone coverage is sometimes frustrate people, myself included. Uh,
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: but I really just thought that, um, this was, uh,
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: a really sound game plan from them. They played 71% zone.
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: So it was maybe a little bit higher than I
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: normally like, but they didn't have Christian Gonzalez. So they
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: play a little bit more zone in this game. The
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: stat that really stands out to me, I guess two
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: of them, but the one in particular that really stands
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: out to me is that Josh Allen had one scramble
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: for four yards in this game. So the zones, the
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: pass rush, the coordinated pass rush, uh, it was a
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: mush rush kind of game for the most part, put
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: him in the trash compactor and you know push the
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: pocket that really really executed to perfection like what Josh
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: Allen's rolling He's scrambling. He's out of structure. He's, you know,
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: really all of the tools that he has are out
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: and at his disposal. The Patriots took away one of
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: his biggest weapons, which is his legs. They completely erased
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: that from the game. I really just thought it was
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: an excellent game plan. 20 of Josh Allen's throws were
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: short of 10 yards.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: He had an eight dot of like three.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: So, so this was a, we are going to turn
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: Josh Allen into the check down Charlie. And just like
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: Drake may in the first three weeks of the season,
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: especially in Seattle, Josh Allen is the one that lost patients.
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: He is the one at the end of the game
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: that lost patients. This is earmarked in parentheses because I
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: have some things to rag on the bills about too.
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: The Josh McDaniels portion was a me victory lap. This
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: portion is a you victory lap. So I'm going to
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: clear this.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: So let me start here because I'm going to, I
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: need to be very careful.
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: No, you don't.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: I do.
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: No, you don't. There is a mother down.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: The, uh, Does the Josh Allen industrial complex allow me
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: to say there is a blueprint to defend Josh Allen?
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: Because I believe there is. And the Patriots ran it
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: to perfection.
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: I thought the Chargers ran it pretty close.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: The Chargers, yeah. But the Patriots did better. Like, sit back,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: take away the deep stuff, keep him in the pocket.
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: Since the beginning of his career.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: Checked out. And then the big thing, too, that I
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: think some credit got lost on because of just what
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: they did on Allen himself, a big part of that
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: blueprint is when he hits the checkdowns, because you're giving
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: him the checkdowns, You have to come up and tackle
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: and you cannot let them come to you. You have
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: to be aggressive, stepping up and tackling. And they did
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: for a team that had some tackling issues. First three weeks,
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: they did a great job. There was very few extra
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: yardage for the bills. One play that was a sneaky,
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: huge play in this game. It was late in the third,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: maybe early in the fourth quarter. Do you remember they
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: threw a screen to Ty Johnson kind of near the
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: red zone to the right? And Marcus Jones comes up
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: and tackles him at the line of scrimmage on third
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: and 10. And I remember seeing that thinking if they
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: get five, they're going on fourth and four, fourth and five.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: The bills are.
• 41:37
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: And instead they have to kick a field goal. So
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: like plays like that were massive. And as much as.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: I get on Josh Allen, maybe wrongly, according to the
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: Josh Allen industrial complex, that he'll get impatient.
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: I'll give you this. It's a good coin that.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: I'm just trying to make sure that I'm being respectful.
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: You know that I'm like, you know.
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: You're a part of the complex, yes. As much as
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: I get on Allen for being impatient, I think there's
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: also something to the fact that defense is getting patient
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: and you end up in these close games with him
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: and with the bills, it's really him. And it's really defensive.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: Defensive corners are third and five game on the line.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: I got to send somebody. I got to go. Like,
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: I can't wait anymore. He's not making the mistake. Zach
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: core ice water in the veins. Like they didn't break it.
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: They kept going with it. What is the Josh Allen
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: industrial complex approved way to say that He chucked the
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: ball up into double coverage like an idiot because he
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: couldn't be patient anymore.
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: Let's not call it double coverage.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: Whatever. Smothered coverage. Smothered coverage. What is the JAIC-approved way
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: to say meatball sub time?
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: Are you good now?
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: No, I'm asking.
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: I don't want to say that. I mean, I got nothing.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: I don't know what to tell you. I was in
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: the elevator on the way down to the locker room postgame,
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: and everybody in the elevator on the Bills side, all
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: the Bills writers and stuff like that, I don't want
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: to name names, but they were all saying the same thing.
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: You threw the game away. So you didn't have to
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: do it. It was second down. They had all their
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: timeouts or two of their timeouts. I think I had
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: all their timeouts. Yeah, it was second down. They had
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: all their timeouts. They only needed a field goal to
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: go to at least get the game into overtime. He
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: chucked it. He didn't have to.
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: So let's let's talk about what that play was, too.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: And we don't know for sure what was going through
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: his head, like a lot of the time. But what
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: was interesting is Draymond Jones almost becomes the GOAT. And
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: I use that in the old sense, like the guy
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: at fault. Because he misses that sack.
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: I kind of feel like the pressure, though, like sent
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: the whole play off.
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: Is exactly what happened. So there's an angle of it.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: And I'm curious your thoughts. I've seen some people point
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: this out that. Palmer initially breaks open, and I think
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: it's a cover two hole that he's in, right?
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: No, it's man-to-man.
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, he ends up in a hole. And Allen's
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: ready to rip it and kind of hit him in
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: the hole by the sideline. He then has to dodge Jones,
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: and when he breaks the sack, he just instantly throws
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: right back to it, and he doesn't double-check to see
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: if that hole is closed. And it's the NFL. Of
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: course the hole is closed. It's like the second and
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: a half.
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: So Woodson's playing the post, right? He's in the post.
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: It's cover one, man-to-man. They have a three-receiver side with
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: the trips. Woodson's playing the post, and initially– Palmer wins
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: off the line and stacks Marcus Jones, but then by
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: the time Allen comes back to it, Woodson's over the top.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: Right, but he never looks. He just throws.
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: He never confirmed that it was still open.
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: The pressure from Draymond Jones there, although he misses the sack,
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: is massive. That's a huge play from him. And I
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: thought all the edge rushers in this game, again, such
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: a big part of this.
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: That was the second part, and then I do want
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: to rag on the Bills just a little bit.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: Well, I'll bridge that in a second. Such a big
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: part of this game plan, too, and executing at the
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: high level and not letting him out of the pocket
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: is the edges to hold up. And I thought Gabe Ackes,
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: Elijah Ponder, Draymond Jones did their part.
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: I think that they've been doing their part all season.
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: They have been, but this was a much bigger challenge
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: than anything they'd faced. So they deserve a little more
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: credit than the baseline game.
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: I think they deserve credit for all of it.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: No, they do. But I'm saying, like, this was another
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: level of challenge. And they were disciplined in their rush.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: And there was one time Gabe Ackes, he bites on
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: that pump fake. And it was one of the biggest
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: plays of the game for the Bills, the 50-yard to Shakir.
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: And there's the clip on Mic'd Up. I don't remember
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: if it was Patriots.com or NFL Films that posted it.
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: Where if Rabel's like, you're going to get a chance
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: at it again, like go for the ball, he does it.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: It leads to the near safety, which that should have
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: been a pick six. I don't blame anybody for it,
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: but I wanted that to be a pick six. Spillane
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: was close. But part of what made their job so easy,
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: and I think this is what you're going to get to,
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: and it's something that I just still can't really believe.
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: The Bills completely abandoned the run. Joe Brady, and I
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: don't know what it was. Patriots didn't do a tremendous
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: job against the run in this game. There's a couple
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: runs late.
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: James Cook gets going. Poor job against the run in
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: this game.
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: And the Bills never went to it. It reminded me of, Evan. Well,
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: it would have been the reverse. Remember the Ravens game
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: last year? Derrick Henry just rolls over him for three
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: quarters and Harbaugh benches him in the fourth. I was
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: ready for the reverse of that. Like, oh, fourth quarter,
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: Joe Brady. Remember he had James Cook and this great
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: offensive line and Josh Allen's legs and all of that.
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: What was my game plan coming in for the Bills?
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: Run the ball 40 times. Run the ball until the
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: Patriots make you not. It's the fewest carries James Cook
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: has had in a game. Since December of the 2024 season. Yeah.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: Which was also, by the way, against Patriots. It was here.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: Like they completely took James Cook out of that game.
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: The bills did on their own accord against Patriots run defense.
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: It was struggling. That did not have one of their
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: best defensive tackles. I do not understand why they did that.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it was just Josh Allen hubris.
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it was panicking that Gonzalez was
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: out and feeling they needed to take advantage. I don't
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: know if it was just trying to throw a counter,
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: something the Patriots wouldn't expect. But late in the game,
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: it was clear they needed it. And they never went
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: to it. Mind-blowing. Mind-blowing stuff from Joe Brady, who... completely
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: did not write horrible game from joe brady um you're loving.
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: This there were this is why i said this was
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: the alex victory i had section of the show but
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: i don't think i'm the only one that felt this
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: way about joe brady so let me just like let
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: me jump in yeah so i i think the biggest
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: thing that the bill the bills took them the bills
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: out of the game yes like they took themselves out
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: of their game yeah and what they were doing well
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: for the first three weeks of the season of the
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: season James Cook only ran the ball 12 times, but
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: I think.
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: The 19 design runs total 35%. Yeah.
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: So they, they, yeah, they had 65% called a pass
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: rate was what I was going to say. The, the
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: biggest number to me though, is that they played 63%
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: of their plays in 11 personnel, three wide receivers, one
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: tight end, which running back.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: At having not had their top receiver for most of
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: the game too.
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: So they played 54, 55% in two tight ends to
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: start the season. The first three weeks of the season,
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: it was by far the number one rate in the league.
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: It was a lot of Dawson Knox, Dalton, Kincaid, Hawes,
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: like all those guys, they played 13 personnel. Like they're
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: just under center, heavy. I called him the bully ball bills.
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: Like that was how they were playing football the first
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: three weeks of the season. And I texted you a
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: quote this morning from Brady and, I think that they
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: saw that there was no Christian Gonzalez on the other side,
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: and were like, we're going to attack them with our receivers. Now,
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: to their credit, just a tiny bit, Keon Coleman had
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: a huge game.
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they went after Charles Woods. They went after Vildor.
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: Which we'll get to in a second. But at the
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: same time... That's not how they play football in Buffalo.
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: They want to run the ball. They want to script
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: off the run game. They want to go to Josh
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: Allen Yolo mode when they need to like that. That's
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: the way that, you know, the, the Cape comes off
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: on third down and things like that. But they, for
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: the most part, they want him playing within the structure
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: of the offense and, And in this game, I was
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: just absolutely stunned that they played so few multiple tight ends.
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: And I know in Buffalo right now, a lot of
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: the criticism in the commentary is about Dalton Kincaid. And
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: Dalton Kincaid had two targets in this game. He had
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: one catch for like, what, a couple yards?
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: Seven yards on the last drive.
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: Seven yards. And he only ran 17 routes because they
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: played a ton of 11 and he... can't block so
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: if you play 11 with Dalton Kincaid on the field
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: it's basically 10 it's basically a four wide receiver personnel
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: package and it completely takes you out of being able
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: to really run the ball effectively So they had to
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: play a ton of Dawson Knox in this game was
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: a good player. Don't get me wrong, but Kincaid was
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: their engine for the start of the season. He was
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: leading tight ends and receiving like he was having a
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: great start to the year. The bills took themselves out
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: of their, their game. They didn't play Buffalo brand of
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: football offensively. And eventually it crept it down. They still
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: scored 26 points. So I don't want to act like
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: they were completely inept offensively, but.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: They got a touchdown off the May fumble, right? Like
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: some of that was a short field.
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: They got a field goal.
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: Did they?
• 50:03
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, field goal. Or off the pick. Sorry. The May fumble,
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: that was a drive. Like, they May fumbled at, like,
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: the Patriots.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: They had a short field in there.
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: They had the field goal.
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: That was the field goal. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: So, look, I agree with what you're saying, though. I
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: think Joe Brady overthought it. I think Joe Brady just
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: didn't really coach a great game.
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: He didn't rise to the moment.
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and, you know, they have concerns about their D.C., too.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. I... I put less on Leonard.
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: Like I, they didn't have a tremendous plan. Don't let
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: Drake may roll to his right. Maybe that was the
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: biggest difference in this game. One team let the opposing
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: quarterback world was right. The other team didn't.
• 50:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: But just, I didn't understand the three receivers stuff. I
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: think with Leonard and the bills defense, it's a, Personnel thing. Yeah,
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: he was really good in Denver. You know, running it
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: with Patrick Sertan as your top corner versus whoever their
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: top corner was in that game with Benford out to
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: kind of rotate it.
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: Alford, maybe?
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: Alford, Harrison, you know, Igben Ozen, whoever, right? Like, I just,
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: outside of those two defensive tackles, again, I'm huge fans
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: of it.
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: We are doing a terrible job of pacing this show.
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: They don't have the horses.
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: We got to get to some of the bad stuff.
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: Can we just override the Madden stream and do this?
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: Okay. Okay. The pass protection. We're on the bads now,
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: by the way.
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: Pass protection. Not a great game for Will Campbell.
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: 43% pressure rate if you go by next gen. 47,
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: almost 48% pressure rate if you go by PFF. Whatever
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: one you want to use, let's split it down the
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: middle and call it like 45%, 44%. Not good enough.
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: Last week, it was the right side of the offensive line.
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: This week, it was the left side of the offensive line.
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: Will Campbell and AVT Vera Tucker allowing 10 quarterback pressures
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: combined in this game, six of them by Will Campbell. Now,
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: I will say this, not as a cop-out or anything
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: like that, but I said earlier in the show, them
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: getting four or five receivers out into patterns more consistently,
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: I think was a big reason why they threw the
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: ball better in this game. And at that point, you
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: kind of have to live with will Campbell on an
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: Island against Greg Russo and Bradley Chubb and TJ Parker
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: and some pressure. Like you're, you're asking your offensive line
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: to block one-on-one with five man pass pro. You're going
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: to give up some pressure against good fronts. Like Buffalo
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: has Dion Walker, you know, really dominated this game and
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: stretches and Vera Tucker had a tough time with him.
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: So you just kind of live with some of that pressure.
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: And I thought may, handled it beautifully, handled it as
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: well as you possibly could expect. But if you were
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: asking for taking the training wheels off of the, the
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: offensive line a little bit, they did. And Will Campbell struggles.
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: So do you live with the struggles? Maybe not every
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: week he's going up against, this is a good group.
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: So it's just AFC defensive player of the month. Like
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: he's a good group. He's on a heater. Dion Walker
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: made some plays like when it comes to Patriots offensive
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: line in both ways. I need to see more because
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: they were also much better on the run game, and
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: I thought they got more of a push. I know
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: the motion helps. There's something to be said for just
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: getting a push. Rousseau's really good. The Bills' run defense
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: is really bad. Those, to me, feel like they could
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: be Bills' specific things, and it'll be interesting to see
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: more what it looks like. with a larger sample size.
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: Totally fair.
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: Uh, but Campbell, that's not to like, excuse it. Like
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: Campbell needs to be better.
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, no doubt. Uh, the one thing that just
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: lasting on Campbell, uh, that was a tiny bit concerning
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: is a lot of the pressure was on bull rushes,
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: which is what gave him the problems in the post
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: season last year. And we kind of chalked it up
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: to the knee injury. Uh, This week, they got him
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: a couple of times on the bull rush, including the
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: strip sack. It was him getting bull rushed by TJ Parker.
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: So that was a little bit concerning. The other bad
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: I had on the list, a handful of zone coverage
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: busts in this game, mostly by Craig Woodson and Charles Woods.
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: Both those guys were involved, and I counted.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: Four of them.
• 53:54
  Speaker 2: Christian Ellis also had one, too, on that fourth down
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: play where they got a little bit weird in their zone,
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: their short zone distribution. Uh, but what's in twice as
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: a deep safety vacated his responsibility. And he won Keon
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: Coleman dropped it. There was also a hold. So it
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: was coming back anyways. Uh, but Keon Coleman was wide
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: open behind the defense and the coverage bus ran right
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: by Craig Woodson. And then on the, uh, 34 yard
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: touchdown to Coleman later on in the game, Charles was
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: expecting Craig Woodson to be in the post. So when, uh,
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: Kion Coleman breaks on the post, Woodson's outside leverage. If
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: the post isn't there, then he's out to dry. He's
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: the primary defender on the play, but he's expecting Craig
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: Woodson to be in the post. They've got to clean
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: up some of those coverage busts and the stuff that
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: gets you beat.
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: Two turnovers.
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: They can't keep turning the ball over.
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, especially the Drake May one. Need to have better
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: ball security in the pocket. Ball was too far away
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: from his body with the pocket closing in. And the
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: end of first half stuff, still kind of messy.
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: We're going to get to that.
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: We have like 30 seconds.
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: No, I'm going over. Sorry. The Dobbs INT I didn't
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: think was a great throw. I thought that it also
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: needed to be caught.
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: That's on both of them.
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: So I put a blame on both of those guys
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: on that one. The strip sack, he's trying to hit
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: Chisholm over the middle of the field.
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: He's open.
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: You have to do one of two things. You got
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: to throw it early and just anticipate that he's going
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: to be there, or you just got to eat it.
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: You can't hold the ball like that. The ball is
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: up here. You can't do that. That's a strip sack
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: waiting to happen. And the last thing you mentioned, the
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: end of half, like the end of half easily could
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: have been a turning point in this game and gotten
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: them beat in this game. They go, uh, bill score
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: with one minute and three seconds left on a touchdown drive.
• 55:39
  Speaker 2: The Patriots go three now, then the bills fumble it
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: back to you. Khalil Shakir fumbles and gives you the
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: ball back. and then the Patriots throw the pick to
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: Romeo Dobbs, and then the Bills get a free three points.
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: It's a 10-point swing. The game goes from 14-7 to
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: 17-14 before halftime. situational football. Can't have it.
• 56:00
  Speaker 5: Nope.
• 56:01
  Speaker 2: Can't have it.
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: That does it for today's show. Uh, we're going to
• 56:05
  Speaker 2: wrap it up and, Thursday we'll talk a little bit
• 56:07
  Speaker 2: more about this. I'm sure we'll, we'll go to a
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: little bit more about this game. We'll preview the Raiders game, uh,
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: Patriots unfiltered. It's coming up here in four minutes. We'll
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: see you guys. Then we'll see you guys Thursday on
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: catch 22. Thanks for listening.
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Deuce. Thanks for tuning into the show.
• 56:26
  Speaker 3: If you really want to help us, make sure you
• 56:28
  Speaker 3: like us wherever you get your podcasts, like Apple Podcasts
• 56:30
  Speaker 3: or Spotify. Also, make sure you follow us on the
• 56:32
  Speaker 3: New England Patriots YouTube channel to see this show and
• 56:35
  Speaker 3: everything else that we do here at the Patriots.
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: Thanks a lot.