Latest / Bills Mafia Carolina TAKEOVER / Bills vs. Rams Preview | Can Josh Allen Save Buffalo? | The Other Sideline
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- Owen Wilson: Welcome Bills Mafia again to the other sideline. I got a special guest, Darnell from Ramley Talk, who is a podcaster for the Los Angeles Rams. All right, mafia, it's time for the other sideline where we bring in fans from the teams the Bills are facing this week. We get their perspective, their passion, and maybe even a little trash talk. So buckle up because it's not just Bill's Mafia in the house. It's game week and the spotlights on both sidelines. Let's go, Bills. Darnell, welcome to the other sideline. Thank you for having me. Thank you for the invite. I'm happy to top some bills and rams with you. Yes. Yes, sir. Well, we appreciate you coming in here. Obviously, being out on the West Coast with the Rams. not too familiar with kind of The Rams and all that, obviously these last couple of weeks checking in on there. So I do appreciate you coming in and kind of giving us a little bit about what's going on here. And I guess we'll just start right now. Like, you know, four games in, Rams are two and two. Kind of what's the temperature of the team right now? Are are they better than what the record says? Well, with the injuries that we have, we know Miles Garrett, Aaron Donald didn't play against Philly. We just got Puka back for that game. We also end up getting back Cam Kittens back for that game. So we are not fully healthy, so I mean, two and two is pretty much where I like us at right now, given the circumstances, but I feel like once we get fully healthy then y everybody can see what the rounds are. Yeah, has anything oppressed you about this team being two and two? They stayed with it against Philly. Okay. A place where we haven't really had much success at on the Sean May Bay and Matthew Stafford to be down ten in the fourth quarter to stay with it defense, knock it down the Eagles offense. Matthew Stafford, Booking Akua, Kyra when it was getting the offense going and getting them two touchdowns to come back and win that game. So just just sticking with what's oppressive last week. Okay, yeah, perfect. And talking about last week there against Philadelphia, you know, was that a obviously that was a big comeback for you guys. Did you felt like it was more on Philadelphia kind of letting that one go, or or do you feel like maybe s Rams started figure something out here leading into Monday night against the Bills? Well, it's both, because when you look at it, you're looking at the Eagles offense, like when Tell me the last time you ever heard something like this when it comes to this Eagles team. Foot 12 on third down. That's crazy. Foot on third down. They couldn't convert on fourth down when they went forward. And the bubbly shove or the touch push was not effective. Yeah. It hasn't been for a while. So it's just a little bit of bobble. You gotta have one team that's not that stopped playing the way that they started, and you have another team who was staying with the game plan, staying. in the game, even though it could be out of reach if you could feel that way. But yeah, it's a little bit ball. Yeah. And as far as the offensive side of of the ball, I want to kind of get a little bit into this, especially for Bill's Mafia here. Matthew Stafford, big plays. I've always liked Matthew, obviously, but you know, there's been turnovers there as well. Obviously we're dealing that with Josh with Josh Allen these last couple games here. Are you concerned at all about Stafford in in those turnovers? Or are you just kind of living through Matt like we lived through Sugar High Josh here recently? Matt's a gunslinger, so it's it ha it's gonna happen. You know. When you're a gunslinger, you you you trust your arm, you trust your receivers. You know the thing with Matt, he even as much as spirit that he had, he has a tendency of just looking at that one receiver. And it's like, Matt, come on, you're better than that. You know. So when you throw some of these in a so you go back looking there he threw, he's looking down running receiver and the defense know where he's going at. Yeah, it's a good point. you know, and I mean one of the things that kind of scares me is, you know, obviously Drake May was last week, obviously not anywhere near Stafford right now or Josh Allen, even though, you know, they won, but Stafford does scare me. You know, certainly if the Bills are all of a sudden this turnover machine that we've seen these last couple weeks here, you know, definitely if we give the ball over five times like we did against the Chargers, it's gonna be a long day. But what is what is Buffalo on on kind of the the Rams side of things, what does Buffalo have to do to really make Matt Stafford kind of uncomfortable and get in the situations to get the ball, you know, back to the defense? For Buffalo, the key thing for Buffalo, if they want to pressure Matthew Stafford, you have to get pressure. with your defensive line. You have to if you can't get pressure with your front four, you can get picked apart by Matthew Stafford. This will be a surgical picking apart of the secondary of the Bills defense. Because you can't double Devontae Adams. You can't double Puka Nakoa. We have running backs that can catch the ball at the backfield as well with Kyron Williams and Blake Corn. The thirteen person up with the three tight ends, even though we're gonna be down ten Terrence Ferguson because he was on IR. There's there's ways that, and you have to think about it. Sean May Vay is the mastermind of the offense. Yeah. He knows how to scheme up ways to get different players involved in the game. So the best thing for the Bills to do, can you get pressure with your front four? Because if you can't, and you let Stafford be back there, it's going to be a surgical picking apart of the secondary of the Bills defense. Yeah, I mean I couldn't agree with you more. I think every Bills Mafia, you know, member here in this is going to agree with you. Our secondary is very, very slim. It's not been what we wanted. And, you know, that's one of the things that, you know, scares me about Matt Stafford. It's a different animal versus Drake May from last week. So yeah, I mean, that is definitely something that the Bills have to have to, you know, at least try to find ways to move him off the spot for sure. I want to get into your wide receivers, Adams, Puka there. Has Sean McVay figured out exactly how to use those two together, you think, in these four games that have come, or they it's still kind of a work in progress? It's a work in progress. Puka, he played he briefly played against the Forty Niners, didn't finish the game. Monday night, it was the Devontae Adams show against the Giants. Then you have the Denver game where I ain't gonna get into it. I did that on the show last week, so I'm not gonna rehash that, but that was a game we should have on. And then Philly game Puka, Matthew Stapper, Kyro's in the fourth quarter. Like I said, Sean Baby, he has different ways of getting making sure certain players get the ball. But it really depends on how Matthew Stapper is seeing the game, seeing the defense. Or what receivers gonna do week in and week out. Yeah, yeah. And and on the point with the wide receivers, I mean, with our secondary basically reeling right now and and quite honestly from Buffalo standpoint, I mean Our best defense right now is our front seven, but when it gets past that, it's it's tough there. And so, you know, the wide receiver is gonna be a huge challenge for for the Bills. But the MO since Josh Allen's been drafted by the Bills and Sean McDermott's defense is the run, unable to stop the run. So do you do you think that LA may make Buffalo kind of prove that they can stop the run with Williams there? And should, you know, I mean, do you is that more of a worry, do you think? For for Buffalo or Bills Mafia is is the run game versus versus the passing game because right now, you know, they're you McBay is just still kinda working in those two wide receivers. For Bills Mafia, you will you will want to stop the run first because which has been hard to do because that opposite line, which has been vastly approved from years past for the Rams. Stafford has barely getting hit and Kyron Rayles has been averaging over a hundred yards from scrimmage. in all four games. So the line for us is has been spectacular. They have been holding up, keeping Stafford clean, creating running holes for the running backs. So if they can continue to create holes for the running backs, then the Bill's gonna have a a long day at the office. So what has been kind of the two and two start, because what I'm hearing from you here is like you got these two bookend wide receivers and, you know, we all know about Puka, he kind of lighted up there, but then you also got this this back and the Bills are familiar with it with Cook and all that. So what's kind of been like the reason why they really haven't maybe got off? Is it, you know, is it teams are shutting down the the w you know the the two wide receivers and trying to beat the run? But what what seems to be kind of the MO of the offense at this point? Or is it or you guys just really trying to figure it out at this point? You know, we're only four weeks in. Well, you first first thing is we play we opened the season down in Australia, flying to the game twenty eight hours before kickoff. And like everybody, including Bills Marvel, looked at the TV as like, That's not the Rams. Yeah. We don't know what that is. That's not the Rams. So and then it doesn't help when the San Francisco on the other side. Mm hmm. Who who basically want to punch you in the mouth right at the gate anyway? Right. Every game. Like I say, I wanna I ain't gonna rehash that. We already know what happened. And shout out to the NFL for the apology, which doesn't change the outcome of the game. Do you s do you see the Rams like do you see the Rams offense tr leaning on one or you know, leaning on the run game more going, you know, now that we're past four games, you know, getting in the next set of quarter here. Do you see him maybe leaning more on the run or you know, trying to really open up that pass game? This is gonna be a bonus attack. Because Sean McVay, he loves the thirteen personnel, and with the thirteen personnel he can run out of there any given time. And then once he once y'all know y'all trying to stop the run, we have tight ends that can catch and fly down the field too. So And then you also talking about poking the court back who was who doesn't mind sticking his nose on a DN on the run. So there's a lot of different when it comes to Sean McVeigh, it's so complicated because You have to know who you you gotta know your assignment. You gotta know your assignment very well on defense. Cause at any given moment, you might think this is going number look for number 12, number 12, number 12. Next thing you know, we got Tyler Hidbee out on the on the flat, wide open. So like you saw in that final drive, Puka, Puka, the next thing you there's Tyler Hidbe hitting a little corner out. First down round. So it's you have to be keen in on your assignment. If you want defense. Yeah. And yeah. And again, it's going to be a challenge for the Bills. And I talked about this on the ma on the Mafia Mayhem review show of the New England. I you know, this is gonna be a huge test for the Bills, you know, especially wide receiver. I'm just trying to think. This is probably going to be in these last four games, this is probably gonna be the toughest wide receiver test I think the Bills have had in the last four, four games here. So, you know, certainly something that you know, where we are right now with injuries, not really looking looking forward to. But we always you know, we have Josh Allen on the other end and so I kinda wanna flip the flip the side of the ball for you here. Aaron Donald I know is com working his way back with a team, I believe he is, and I from all indications it sounds like he's gonna be ready to go on Monday. I mean how how much different I mean obviously we know who Aaron Donald is. I mean he's a Hall of Famer and all that stuff and, you know, just an impact player, but How much difference is the Rams defense going to be if Aaron Donald plays on Monday? You can't, you can't let you cannot block him one on one. And everybody knows that. So the problem is for the Bills offensive line, you have to block you have to send two at ninety nine. Problem is Brian Young, who's been a monster this season so far, caring off two and a half sacks and a fourth rumble Jalen Hurts last week. You have Waist Bailey, our rookie pick from this past year, who made the team who also can't come off the edge. You have Panuna Four, you have Brian Fitz, you have Kobe Turner all in the middle that can interchange with Aaron Donald. And the crazy thing about it, this is all without Miles Garrett. Who will be back. Yeah. So Yeah, and it has it. Yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry. So it's gonna be key for the Bills office to see if they can hold up one on one with everybody else. while you trying to double team Marandon. 'Cause you know you cannot block him no more. That's just that's just you just asking for it, like. And then also paramount for Josh Allen to make sure he is on his game. Disney one of them games to be Superman every play. Well I was actually gonna I was actually gonna ask you that next. You know, how do how do you think like the Rams should attack, you know, Josh Allen? You know, should they bring the pressure? I I New England did a lot of QB spies last week. They did a good job of that. But how how do you like how do you how do you think the Rams should should kind of handle the pressure and especially when he's when he gets out of the pocket and escapes? Here's the thing. So you looking at for the last three games, the Rams has faced Jason Dark, Bo Nicks. Jalen Hurts. All of them got in common? The same type of skill set Josh Allen possesses. The ability to throw and the ability to run. Well, I wouldn't necessarily put all three of them in the same category as Josh Allen, but I but I as far as like escaping it, but I do think Josh Allen, you know, I do think Josh Allen has a better skill set when out of the pocket for sure. I'll say he's the biggest one out of all of them. Yeah, absolutely. 100%. But I bring that up because you kept Jackson Dart in the pocket. That's why he ended up getting hurt. You kept Bo Nitts in the pocket for most of the time. You kept Jalen Hurts in the pocket most of time. Keep Josh Allen in the pocket. Gap integrity. Gap integrity. Don't get too far ahead. Keep Josh Allen in that pocket. If he if he escapes out there, we got Landman and Omar Spades. They are they are good enough to, you know, stay in front of Josh Allen and make sure he doesn't break out. But For the D line is Gap and Terry. Make sure you keep the same. Make sure he he he's in the pocket. Force him into the middle, cause every quarterback, I don't care. I don't care if you're a running cornerback or part quarterback. Every single quarterback in NFL hates pressure up the middle. Yeah, I would agree. I would agree with that. I mean, you know, New England showed it last week, when they were able to get up the middle. I'm just thinking like a couple like the the God knows what behind the pass that should have been a safety. They just kinda touched you know, just threw it behind him. So yeah, I mean I I get it, you know, up the middle. But it it's gonna be interesting. I think it I think and I think you would agree with this. I I it's gonna really be a battle of the Bills offensive line versus especially if Aaron Donald can go versus versus the defensive line for sure. I do think Josh I do think Josh hasn't really showed it a lot this year, but he is definitely a cat that if he gets gets space and gets open, I mean it it's big time plays. So I do think that teams that don't do a good job of spying on Josh and Josh is able to get out of the pocket relatively free and open grass. I mean that that could be dangerous for them. But the other side is when you have a spy, then that leaves open, you know, Kincaid or or Shakir down the middle. so it's gonna be, you know, be interesting to see kind of how the Rams do do that. I'm always interested to see how the how teams kind of match up with Josh Allen. So I want to when you look at Buffalo from the Rams side, what w what worries you the most? I'm I'm gonna exclude Josh Allen because I'm I'm maybe maybe I don't exclude it. I don't know. Maybe he doesn't doesn't worry you. Josh Allen Josh Allen is Josh Allen. What worries me is number four. James Cook. Yeah. And what what what worries you about James Cook? 'Cause I've done a f I've done these the other sidelines and everyone always talks about Josh Allen and you're really the first one that talks about James Cook, so I appreciate that. What worries you about James and your Rams defense that we just talked about, you know, that is if Aaron Donald can go, is is pretty stacked. Cause here here's the thing, and and I think if Joe Brady does what I think he could do, if James Cook is allowed to run the football and the Bills up his alignment to creating holes for him, that makes it more difficult. To stop Josh Allen. If it's just Josh Allen is like, all right, it's gonna be Josh Allen and Bris is our entire defense. We'll take them sides. But if James Cook is involved and is effective, now we have a problem. Because now Josh Allen has to worry about the D-line getting off like that. Because James Cook is being effective. James Cook is getting the ball, he's making things happen. And now Now the office can actually open up. You can you can slip a Shakir across the middle or you can have a Kincaid take a corner out and be open because now J number four is in the game. Number four is in the mix. Yeah, I mean I I I am a big I've been you know years past I I would say that you know, I am more of a passing guy. Like I like the the the passing, but all the Bill's losses have really been on N not on James Cook, but defense has shut down James Cook. Like last week against New England, they shut down James Cook for a little bit there. And that's kind of where Josh Allen gets in that mode where sometimes he's got to do everything, be sugar high Josh. So yeah, I mean from a Bills standpoint, I think getting James Cook involved early and often is gonna be good. I think he had you know, he wasn't out there on third downs. So you know, so I think from a Rand standpoint, you get you get the Bills third and long or a passing down. Typically the Bills don't put James Cook out there and that that that could really help help your, you know, obviously the Rams and in your in your defense on that side. Rams capable of a shootout right now, if the if if it does get there, and I'm reverting back to I think last year forty four, forty two. Is that if if if we get that again are the Rams capable of keeping that up? Yeah. You too you're talking about the highest scoring offense in the league from last year who brought everybody back from that offense. Like w week in the school with the best of De is the defense good enough to hold you think to hold Josh under thirty points in the offense? Yes. Okay. With the offseason move with getting trading for Trent McDuffie. we might won't we probably won't have Jaden Watson, who also came up from Kennedy, but having Kim Kitchen back. Quit and late has stepped up, being a more pivotal role in the secondary. You looking at a team Like even even though we got beat by San Fran, San Fran didn't put up that ton of points. It's just when you watch the game, it was a beatdown from the start. The Broncos, they didn't score that many points. The Giants, I think Giants only kicked two field goals. Philly got the twenty, the Rams shut it down from there. Yeah. Before I let you go, just a couple quick quick hits here for ya. Rams two and two must win here Sunday. Yes. Or sorry, Monday. Yes, must win must win on Monday. They lose and what happens? If they lose, you still have a chance, but as a r seeing how the Seahawks are playing, how the Fort Nines are playing, you don't want to get up too much of the Rams player who is going to have a big game against the Bills. Look for Kyron Williams to continue to surge. Okay. That's good. What what ultimately decides this game? Is it gonna be a shootout or closer than you think and field goal? Wins it. Turnov turnovers. How many you got? Which scene can can cut down turnovers? So I say I can see the Bills. They might give up they might give us two turnovers. Okay. All right. That's fair. That's fair. Final score, are you a predictor or not really, but I do have the Rams winning this one. I'm sticking with my I'm s I'm sticking with my preseason pick 'cause I had us going three and two and since we two and two, I went Yeah, this is Right when I had Ozek after the first five weeks of this season. So I do have the Rams winning at home. I do see them they probably win this one if I put a pr score on it. thirty to twenty four. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I yeah, I mean like this is really tough for me because as I mentioned in Mafia Mayhem earlier this week, like you know, I I I don't I'm not a homer, but any time that Josh Allen's on the field he can win any game. But this one really scares me here, especially with our with our with our secondary down. So I've actually got the Bills losing, believe it or not, to the Rams. And I just think like I I just think like Matthew Stafford finds a way to get the ball and our secondary is depleted here. So I do think the Bills lose. I don't think it's gonna be quite a forty four, forty two game, but you know, I I do think it's a little bit closer there. So I'm gonna go twenty one, twenty eight Rams there. It's It's very hard for me to say, Darnell. I've only picked him to lose twice in the whole time that Bill's mafia Carolina Taker's been around. So this one's very tough. But I had to s I had to stew on this one all week, just how b how bad the defense is. But hopefully my prediction is wrong and maybe that would be the case. I mean for me, I don't I don't look at it as a homer of this. I look at it from this is our schedule, what the teams look like who we playing, and I objectively try to go through it as I see it. So For us, I didn't have us losing in Australia, but we did I did have us losing to the Broncos and and the Eagles. So said we lost to the San Francisco. So we gotta get one of those games back so we can stay on track. And I said, We got the Bills coming in Monday night. We are at home. I like our chances at home. If it was going to Buffalo, it'd have been different. But since it's at home, the bo Bills gotta make that trip to California. I like our chances. Monday night football. We gon' I like how we finish off in Philly, we can come back home, feel good about ourselves, get ourselves back together, and we can win this game be three and two as we go into a much favorable side of our schedule now. Because these first five we've I've never seen any NFL team have this type of openness stretch like we have. Yeah, I bet Pat's fans would probably disagree with you on that. They have a pretty big gauntlet. Or no, the Chargers fans. I'm sorry. The Chargers fans would probably disagree with you on that. They have a pretty big gauntlet. It started with Buffalo, so They I get it. No. When you look at the first s San Francisco in Australia, first ever game in Australia. Yeah. You come back home Monday night against a Giants team who came off beating the Cowboys to open the season. You gotta go to Denver Sunday night. Then from Denver you fly to Philly. From Philly, you come back home and play you come back home and play the Bills on Monday night. I I get that. Travel that. Yeah, that's f that's good. I know I said before I let you go, but one more, you 'cause you you had brought this up a little bit just a few minutes ago. Would you be surprised if the Bills win? No. I would not be surprised if the Bills will win because Josh Allen Josh Allen is who he is. And he is capable of turning the game around. Yeah. All right, man. Well, I appreciate it. Why don't you tell everyone how how they can find you on socials and all that good stuff? You can find me almost anywhere on socials, Facebook. At Twitter and Instagram, whatever the case may be, Donna Playmaker Southness. you can find the Playmakers Network everywhere too, on the YouTube channel as well. That's where we host four different shows, colors football, round show, wrestling, and even basketball. We we we working our way to doing it all at the Playmakers Network. So well if you get a chance, type in the Playmakers Network, check us out, see whatever show that you like, stay connected. Yeah, I appreciate it. So make sure you check him out and Hey, I really appreciate you jumping on, and good luck on Monday. Good luck to you. That's a wrap on today's episode of Bill's Mafia Carolina Takeover. Thanks for tuning in and repping the Mafia with us. Don't forget to subscribe, drop your mafia mail, and join us next time as we bring the passion, the pride, and the power of the Buffalo Bills straight from the Carolinas. Let's go, Buffalo!