all right welcome back to Buffalo Bread podcast this is the game 6 recap show we're gonna talk about the Buffalo Build and the New York Giants and what was a miserable
rumpings news fest and I did not enjoy it damn how did you do with that I needed I needed a health and safety check after that game I'm not gonna lie you know and it's but we should have known something was gonna go crazy because week six in the NFL was crazy no more undefeated teams
substandard teams playing out of their minds this particular week and something that I think we underrated JJ and our pregame assessment of how this game would go was the familiarity factor between not just Dabal and Alan but so many folks in in East
Rutherford New Jersey headquarters of the New Jersey Giants that just know Josh Allen know Sean McDermott and know how that bills team likes to operate this divisional games are always weird I mean I think that's a staple because you see these teams so many times multiple times over the course of a season this felt like a divisional game to me where there was so much familiarity on both sides of the ball that I think we underrated what impact that would have in our
pregame and I don't think that explains everything about how that game went I do think there's some definite systemic deficiencies that the bills need to address particularly on offense but I think when you wait the factors of why that game was so competitive familiarity has to rank in the top two or three for sure
yeah I mean I think I was texting you throughout the entire game especially the first half when the bills offense was stymied at kind of every turn and I was just like that's it you know Dorsey doesn't know what he's doing Dabal literally it's Dabal's playbook Dorsey just changed the names of some of the plays and copied and pasted most of the formations
were doomed were doomed because it felt that way they were leading throughout the entire game up to the fourth quarter and it was you know somewhat disturbing that they could not get anything done they were force feeding stuff on digs and it seemed like the Giants
defense Martindale knew what was what was happening and it was literally just Josh Allen and stuff on digs chemistry and stuff on digs excellent route running ability that kept him getting receptions because they were doing everything could to erase him from the field
he was overcoming it which was just impressive but it was you know they definitely knew what what and how to apply pressure to Josh Allen to him double clutch and second guess some things and they tried to erase most of the route combinations that the bills like to go to when they really need to get their offense going
I think also we saw a precipitous drop of 12 personnel in this game without concait in the lineup and was somewhat to be expected but that's been a good their best formation to pass out of or the best alignment to pass out of and they did not weren't able to hit that as much
it was it was a weird and I think that you know I was really impressed most of the time with the Buffalo Bills defense I was really disappointed in the Buffalo Bills offense and I wonder how much of that is you know they will literally built Josh Allen he knows all of his weaknesses
yeah it's and I don't know that we're gonna ever get any definitive answers until they they do the 30 for 30 on McDermott and Dabal's relationship in and out of Buffalo did you did you see that shit did you see that post game handshake or lack thereof right
oh my gosh oh my god just flipped each other the bird as they walk past because that was as loving as the handshake quote unquote that they had I was half expecting it to go wwe and like Dabal just all of a sudden give McDermott the stone cold stunner in the middle of the field
like it's spun around as if he got beat but grabbed a chair like just no love loss there no love loss and you know it was interesting to work we're gonna get into we'll get into the stats and we'll get into the observations but the vibes on this game we're very much so Buffalo Bills Kansas City Chiefs AFC championship
game back in 2021 I think it was where it was clear from the get go dude we had our first flag in this game or flags before the first snap even oh I know so it was right and it was it was really clear that the the giants wanted to get under the skin of the Buffalo Bills
they wanted to get them off their game they wanted to play with an edge and that translated to particularly to their defensive alignments and a lot of the quote unquote sticky coverage IE we're just going to P I every time down the field until someone flags us for it
and strategy which Spagnolo is so so well known for rolling out against these Buffalo Bills and Stefan Diggs is a lot of things he's a terrible actor like I went back and I watched some of his routes and he dude is literally get it's amazing he was open as much as he was because the dude is literally getting mugged and I'm like dude flop or like hold up an arm act like act I don't care how much you have to
embellish but these guys are mugging you draw so you're a star draw some attention from the referees to what they're doing for you see this is something can Kate is really good at and I don't know if he's got like a soccer player it's like experience in his background but
he is really good at flopping and drawing flags right I think Diggs needs to learn some of that because dude was getting mugged but but I definitely got those vibes the Giants wanted to come in and try to bully the Buffalo Bills mentally and physically as much as they possibly could to get the bills off their game and I think we have seen like Christian Wilkins does this too for for Miami like he jaws a lot
with Christian Wilkins exactly because he's like because he's such a turd he's such a turd he does he said that dude is such a turd and but like you saw it with tibet oh too like when Dawkins ended up getting flagged for that sportsman like conduct the stuff that was going on in those piles was like beyond what normally happens in a
game so so so statistical observations film observations aside it was really clear that the Giants knew they were coming in as underdogs and they were going to try to play some sort of mental edge in order to try to gain some sort of upper hand on the bills and there were points where it looked like it was working pretty effectively
especially early on and you combine that with the defensive aggressiveness of Martin Dale his ability to mix where pressure was coming from simulate pressure then drop out of pressure I think we saw what saw very frequently what happened tends to happen with Josh when you
when you start like that it was effective for a time and then Josh eventually was figuring it out and figuring it out but again and we're going to talk about this I don't think the play sequencing which is a theme that we're carrying over from our analysis of the Jaguar game I don't think the play sequencing
maximized Josh's ability to exploit what wink Martin Dale was doing defensively to put it in short thing Martin Dale probably out coached out coach Dorsey in this particular game.
Yep.
And it God yeah yeah you you wrap yeah God.
I was going to say that that's absolutely right I think that the application of pressure and blitz looks at exactly the right time and Dorsey not having anything really dialed up to counter them, and then also the the ability to kind of add different coverage
schemes on the back end to bungle up what the bills like to do most Dorsey wasn't really coaching his way out of those conflicts you know Martin Dale was doing a good job of taking away basically the raids that Josh Allen likes to make the most and Dorsey wasn't finding any
different answers for him it took him a little while to scheme past it.
And he I mean I think we've seen now a trend that the Buffalo bills abandoned the run a way too often I think yeah yeah when they're when they're looking to get things going on offense.
They try to sprinkle in too many passes I think and anybody watching can see it that like, even though the the run was cooking a little bit for you know the first in the first half on a couple of those drives.
And then they would get a first down then they throw two passes and it'd be third and 10 and then one of those exotic blitz looks or simulated pressure looks that was really throwing Josh Allen off would come up and you know that that drive is done.
I also thought it was you know, it was pretty clear early on that like, even if it was, even if they did a great job of selling it as unintentional.
The whole tripping they tripped multiple receivers, multiple big plays where those those receivers for the bills would have been wide open. And to the point where it's like is this a strategy right like just make it look like you're getting your fingers or your feet tangled up, because they weren't
looking at the ball at all. There are those those plays. Yeah, okay.
How incompetent can you look right.
But you mentioned something about the run game and I think that's a great way to segue into some of our more salient observations of this particular game.
So I was trying to make this game make sense because from a statistical standpoint, these two teams could not have been further apart in every metric success rate DV or DV a EPA wins and losses point differential, you name it.
The two bills are as we're a superior team to this Giants team in a lot of different ways.
And yet the Giants still made it a close game and in yes a lot of it was coaching some of it was just pure moxie for some of these backups that were playing for the for the Giants.
But again, and I don't know if this is my my arrogance is a bills fan in this area. I don't know if I've got a blind spot to this.
But I feel more often than not that when the bills find themselves in games like this, they are in fact, they are in fact beating themselves.
So JJ, I'm going to run through some really quick observations here, which I think for the most part will showcase that this game was a reversion at least from my mind back to 2022 habits and predictability that had sunk the bills last season.
So you had mentioned the you had mentioned the lack of use of 12 personnel.
So this has been a staple of the bills this year. Now granted, Kincaid was out and Quentin Morris is not the same type of receiving threat that Kincaid is.
Although, although if you had Quentin Morris, any time touchdown score, and you had bet a dollar on it, you don't want three grand, because I'm pretty sure his odds were like plus 350,000 to score.
He hadn't been targeted at all this season. And his only target was a touchdown.
So if you were a Quentin Morris, any time touchdown score, email the pod and tell me how I should play my money this weekend.
Okay, tell me what a single single parlay should be for.
Right. Right.
But it was interesting. It was interesting because Kincaid has not been used a lot in the past game.
So one would think that they would still utilize 12 personnel because they've installed it to such great success in the playbook, but they didn't.
They went to 11 personnel on over 80% of their snaps, 81% to be exact, of their snaps ran out of 11 personnel for the season heading into this game.
They only run 11 personnel and 57% of their snaps.
In this game, they only ran 12 personnel JJ for 8% of their total snaps.
What this leads to, and we have said this again and again and again, is the predictability of this offensive play sequencing that allows other coaches and defensive coordinators to key in on what the bills want to do.
And this JJ is where I will.
So I'm not trying to be a Dorsey apologist.
I think his play sequencing and personnel package management needs to improve, but his overall scheme for what he's trying to do play to play.
Like when you watch it, some of it makes sense.
Like for example, out of 11 personnel, Dorsey was running, scheming up these very nice mesh concepts where you've got David Davis running a clear out.
You've got Knox in as your primary tight end.
You've got Shakir or Hardy in the slot.
And then you've got digs on the other side.
Digs was commanding double coverage pretty much the whole game.
So you know that when you run digs out there, you're going to get a bracket of a safety and a cornerback.
The clear out route that Davis is running is designed, especially when defeating zone to have the opposing cornerback trial him for a bit and then pass him off to the safety.
You then flash at various levels, digs, Knox and whoever your slot receiver is, Hardy and a lot of cases Shakir and a lot of other cases across the middle at various levels.
And that's a basic mesh concept.
And Shakir and Hardy and Knox found themselves open many, many times.
But early on this concept wasn't working because of the pressure that the Giants were successful enough in getting.
So the issue early on wasn't necessarily the concepts or the scheme, if you will.
But once Josh began to assimilate and find some of these looks, Dorsey had already turtled back into himself and gone to his typical play calling tendencies,
which made the Buffalo Bills offense predictable, i.e. 81% 11 personnel in this game.
And I think that that's the kind of thing that you know, that's the kind of thing that you hope he grows from.
I mean, this is his second year as an offensive play calling the NFL.
But you know, it's also really concerned because it's like we, we the Buffalo Bills, that team does not have time to wait for him to get better at play calling, right?
Like they are playing high stakes games now.
They're playing them in a few weeks in the middle of their schedule, extremely hard opponents several weeks in a row.
And they can't afford to have Dorsey scheming, repetitive, predictive looks for two or three or four drives against the Chiefs against the Bengals,
who are probably going to find their footing against the Eagles against teams that are kind of a higher caliber.
They play the Cowboys, don't they?
Oh, yeah, we play the Cowboys.
We've got a we've got a murderers row here at the end of the season.
But honestly, we might not even have to wait for that because this Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense that we're going to be playing on Thursday night.
It's a pretty good defense and their ability to take away the middle of the field with Devin White.
This is going to be it's going to be interesting for Dorsey to try to try to figure out.
But you know, Dorsey just continues to play into the hands of opposing coaches.
They want him to go away from some of these concepts.
They want Josh to funnel targets to digs, which is we're getting to my next observation here.
Right.
They want this offense to become predictable and Dorsey is Dorsey is accommodating them.
You know, he's accommodating them.
And then you can see these moments in the game where Josh figures out what's going on.
But Dorsey has not yet.
I mean, Josh sounded exasperated at the end of this game.
No one on that offense seemed to be on the same page with the coaching staff and it wasn't just the personnel on the play calling.
I mean, why the hell was Latavius Murray starting that game in place of James Cook?
McDermott's comment at the end of the game was all we wanted to see what the offense would look like with him with a 33 year old running journeyman running back.
I think we know like I think we know what that would look like.
So if they were trying to send a message to cook for his minus four rushing yards, like, hey, kid, hit the holes quicker.
That is what it is.
But that seemed like a pretty dramatic statement to make.
And to me, it signaled that maybe McDermott and Dorsey weren't taking the Giants as seriously as they should have.
Well, and also why are the bills on the one yard line throw, you know, draw play from shot?
Just another.
And none of those have a six foot five water buffalo as your quarterback and you're just going to do a shotgun draw handoff like what is happening?
It just it makes no sense.
Thurman Thomas tweeted about that.
I think I think his son was tweeting like these these second down shotgun runs need to go and Thomas was like you said a kid, right?
Now, in fairness, the cover one guys that they've got because they always do.
And if you if you're listening to us, you should also listen to the cover one guys.
They're they're incredible, right?
They're absolutely incredible.
But they, you know, Dorsey Dorsey has been asked now in multiple times about what is with these second and nine second and ten shotgun handoffs to the running back.
And he's like, well, you know, we're trying to keep teams honest.
And the cover one guys translate that into teams are continuing to disrespect us on the run on second down.
They're playing two high shells on second and long, daring us to pass and rushing the outside hard.
Exactly.
Painting their ears back.
No, we can't do like a really solid run play up the seam in the middle of their defense.
Correct.
Right.
So he's like, so some of these things that Dorsey is trying to do theoretically and philosophically, they make some sense.
Just the execution looks or is absolutely putrid.
Right.
So and so yeah.
Well, I think at least a little bit of it, you know, Conor McGovern, Mitch Morse, not there of them is an excellent straightforward road grading run blocker.
Right.
That's not there.
That is not their bread and butter.
That's why the build looks so with the tackle trap when they actually bring Dion through the hole behind Osiris Torrance.
Play looks play works, but that is an under center normal handoff where one of the running backs has a full head of sand when they hit the line.
They can pick their lane and go.
The thing that I think, you know, I don't mind running on second and 10.
I mind a shotgun draw play on second and 10, which is all I'd love to see a statistic where the from that alignment in that position with that play call, the bills get more than negative two yards because it seems like every single time it's.
And I don't I don't even know that is it intended to be a draw.
I think the problem is when you run out of shotgun, the ball is it the ball is in the air.
It's not the QB taking it from under center and then running it back to the running back who is running at him.
Everybody's got to stand the F still while that ball gets from the center in air to the QB.
To the QB to the hands of the running back.
Exactly.
But JJ, this is this is such a great segue.
I don't know if you're you're in my head or not, but it's such a great segue into my second observation.
The jumbo set runs that Dorsey was happy to call on like six of his first eight run calls at the beginning of the game and then two of the final three play calls on the final Buffalo Bills offensive drive of the game.
So last year, we knew the Buffalo Bills had an inability to get any push on the offensive line, ie the Bobby Hart package, right?
Enter Bobby Hart and these big jumbo six offensive line packages where Hart reports in as an eligible receiver.
I don't know how many times you heard that last year, number 68 reporting in as eligible eligible receiver.
So with the the addition of this 12 personnel rollout that the Bills have been so successful on installing these jumbo sets by and large have gone away.
But as was the theme of this game hitting hitting the the the greatest hits of 2022 and the Ken Dorsey playbook, these jumbo sets with now David Edwards playing the the role of Bobby Hart made an ugly ugly return to this.
Game.
And these sets, the reason they didn't work last year is because you're announcing to the opposing team what it is you're going to do.
No one thinks that you're going to leak out Bobby Hart or David Edwards all of a sudden and then use them as an eligible receiver at any length of the field.
So you're limiting the amount of route runners that you have out there and you're tele telegraphing to the other 11 guys on the other side of the ball.
What you're going to do, even the most depleted poorest coach off a defenses will keep you from getting the ball.
The defenses will key in when you are telegraphing to them what it is your intent was and Dorsey reverted to his 2022 self by rolling out these packages again.
I mean JJ that final drive was jumbo set for no gain jumbo set for I think two yards and then we're at third and eight and the bills I have no problem with them calling the past to Knox but I could have predicted what was going to happen.
I could drop it and listen to their credit both Allen and Knox have taken blame for why that was Josh probably could have thrown a better ball but that is a ball we have seen Knox reel in more often than not.
Knox makes the drop the decision to go for the field goal I disagree with I think you have an anemic offense on the other side of the field.
I think you punt and you pin them down and then the clock and the length of field or your friend but McDermott decided to go for it with a fairly reliable tire.
Bass misses it.
And then like I was watching that freaking Minnesota Vikings game from last year, the Giants take a short field.
And then the penalty penalty on the bills gets them to the one yard line for an untimed down and thank God for Taryn Johnson and thank God for those thank God for those refs eating their flags on that particular play.
Well, I play it could have easily been called for a penalty.
But I think that you know it also could have been called against Aaron Waller for his hands.
And that could have been offensive as interference the two seconds before the Jersey grab on top of that it was not really perfectly not a great thrown ball for somebody as tall as Darren Waller against somebody as short as Taryn Johnson was shocked.
They threw it.
Yeah, I was shocked.
They threw it would have been a better different, you know, trajectory on the ball.
So like, I think there's some of that too is the ref kind of keeps his flag in his pocket because it's somewhat uncatchable.
But on top of that, I think the point comes down to like fans can whine all day and all they want like big a bad I think that bad beat that call was one against them they should probably gotten a passenger fair.
Another untimed down.
Fine.
But in Tara Johnson's defense, that's exactly the right play.
I would realize the shit out of somebody because if you let them have the touchdown the game's over.
Exactly.
Go for the go for the belly stop that score because you give your team another chance to stop the score.
Right, your worst case scenario when you play when you play the ball like that or you play the opposing player like that is you get called for another penalty.
The worst case scenario if you don't make that decision is that you lose the game.
They catch the they catch the ball.
Right.
But I mean JJ, how many times did we watch games last season agonizing games that didn't go in the bill's favor that looked just like this where it was incompetence on offense, a defense that had literally been carrying that same goal.
And then JJ, I was really been carrying that squad all game finally breaks and bows under the pressure of the weight that they had been bearing for the the 60 minutes that they had been on the field.
Like how many times did we seen that last year not go in the bill's favor.
This I was having literally having flashbacks to 2022 watching that final that final play sequencing.
And then JJ my final observation from this and we'll get to some of the stuff that you want to cover.
Because of all this because of the ineffectiveness of the run game the predictability of the play calling.
Josh went to where Josh likes to go which is Stefan digs so digs on the season leads the league and target share for any wide receiver on any team this includes Tyree kill in Miami, but Stefan digs is vacuuming up third over 33% of the Buffalo Bills total target share
which leads the league credit to ESPN stats and info. In this game credit to my calculator for me doing the hard math.
He was targeted on 55.2% of the buff of Josh Allen's past attempts. He had 16 total targets in this game.
All other bills past catchers were targeted 13 times and on top of that only six Buffalo Bills including digs caught a pass.
We have talked ad nauseam about the need for Josh to play point guard about the need for Josh to spread the ball around because when he completes passes to seven or more wide receivers the outcomes for the Buffalo Bills are much more positive than when he doesn't.
And this happened just happened to be one JJ where they're playing an opponent that was so inept and so inferior on the offensive side of the ball that all of these bad habits that this team has been trying to erase from last season could rear their head but the bills could get away with it.
I don't know though that against better teams coming down the pipeline here. I don't know that the bills would be so fortunate and other circumstances and again against a team like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers which has a much better defense and a much better offense than the New York Giants do.
Absolutely well and I just think that you know another thing that's worth noting about the target share is you mentioned all the targets in terms of receptions digs had 10 and everybody else combined had nine and that's
the top player being Gabe Davis with three. I don't think Gabe Davis had a single catch after he had that fumble. Maybe one so it's just we saw too many mistakes Gabe Davis with a fumble and a drop Dawson Knox with a drop stuff on digs with a drop like those are we know that those can kill a drive.
And if you're not going to have Josh Allen running the ball which they're making a clear effort not to do. Yes. It's really going to limit your offense. Everyone else is not efficient with their opportunities and so this team is going to have to determine
if they want to use that trump card and run Josh Allen on you know student body right or you know QB power or zone reads because without it I think that they're severely lacking if they can't get any of these other players involved and also worth note there wasn't a single
pass caught by a running back which makes me believe that either they kept them in the entire game to help as personal protectors for Josh Allen or that he just wasn't he wasn't seeing it and Bobby O'Carier was was too Johnny on the spot with coverage.
I think I think honestly it's probably a combination of all of those things. There were times and if you and again my my thing is if you can see it on the broadcast it's a problem. Yeah. And there were a multitude of times where James Cook was run was flashing out to the flat and had nothing but
green space in front of him. I mean the the Stefan digs was commanding so much attention this game gave Davis commanding so much attention this game. It's it almost looked like it points as well coached in his greatest scheme as Mardale had come up with.
The giants were like fourth graders on a soccer field and everybody was just chasing the ball right. Everyone was chasing digs and Davis and so large chunks of the field were open and again Josh just at points was not seeing Cook available on the flat.
I did the math at eighty nine percent of cooks hundred and forty receiving yards this year have been yards after the catch. So he is a Yak machine when he you get him the ball in open space. There were a couple of times where Cook had had Josh swing it out to the flat to him probably could
have broken this game wide open a lot earlier but again it just Josh wasn't seeing it. Dorsey was having a hard time drawing it up and it just never fully came together. It is the definition of a disjointed effort.
I think too that the bills on offense part of the struggles was the table table helping Mardin Dell's defense in knowing exactly which throwing lanes to clutter and exactly how to send delayed pressure on Josh Allen right to throw him off of his spot.
Speaking of delayed delayed pressure. Do you want to talk about my three observations on defense. Yeah I would love to.
So the first one is actually you know guess I'll go bad bad. The first bad is I think that this team is really in trouble because this offense was abysmal and still they picked on Kyrie Lowe. They had Tyra Tarad Taylor who all bills fans know as a super elite
passer somebody who needs a guy open to throw throw the ball was picking on Kyrie Lowe in the slot a bit also picking on Dorian Williams a little bit but mostly Kyrie Lowe were like scheming ways to get bunches and bringing the the receiving options
and getting close to the line in Kyrie Lowe in motions and things like that and it was he was he was getting picked on and kind of he had a number of tackles and you never want that because that's indicative of completions on his coverage right so
I think that with that I think that you know I don't know that I'm ready there I don't know that I'm ever going to be a Kyrie Lowe believer I think that I've seen enough so far to to know that he might not have it and I think he you know
face of it and I go to him who's literally and that's bowlism where I Lovek叫 you they call me with that and you know I was in there earlier and I don't know the that day and never senator
why I know I'm not reading the NFL bloodlines or whatever argument was made with the draft in but his uncle was not actually any call usually a special teamwork him
you know, so I just don't know. I don't know. Kyrie Lump just looks like he's not he's not it.
I'm not ready to write the book. Give me two more starting games of Kyrie Lump playing like this.
And I will say he's a 100% bust. I want to and keeping our own receipts here. I want to remind
you that we asked for this, my friend. We were aware is Kyrie Lump. What white these guys can
take to Marcus Ingram off the UDFA list and they can't coach up this kid with these elite traits
and this elite football heritage. What the hell is wrong with this coaching staff and now we're
like bust. We're like bust. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Like you can call me out on that all day. Like I
wondered where he was. And now I like, oh, McDermott and apology. Oh, I get it. I get why where he
was like, I know why he was an active. I appreciate I appreciate the take I do. And as I was watching
that game, I was thinking to myself, would it be so bad to give up a first and a fourth for Pat
Sartan and just figure out the salary thing? Would it be that bad? Would it be that all that will
cut Josh just bring in Pat Sartan, right? Yeah, I don't know. Don't cut Josh. No. But I mean,
you know, maybe if the Broncos wanted to take a flyer on Kyrie Lump, we trade him a one and a
four for Sartan like, I don't know. I'm not I'm not there yet. It's the kid's first meaningful
action. The first game that he was called into duty for was that bizarre London game where no one
on that bills team other than AJ Apaneza seemed to be awake to play. Then you come back to this
prime time game against yes, an inferior opponent, but against a backup QB who had there's not a lot
of a lot of not a lot of film on him from this season, because he hasn't played any meaningful
ball, that weird level of almost a vision like familiarity. I mean, I think two games granted,
he's been bad, like he's been he has objectively been bad. But he has gotten better towards the
end of both of these games. And I think he played well into the fourth quarter, because he started
to adapt to what the Giants were trying to do. It does does does he need to prove more? Absolutely.
But I'm not yet ready to give up on the dream are our dream JJ of Kyrie Lump being the one that we
can pass the torch to after Trey White has his hung up his cleats. Okay. And I honestly, from a
draft capital standpoint, I don't know that the bills can afford to walk away from him unless
they get someone absolutely elite in return. When you look at where the cap is headed in the next
couple of years, and you look at what the position priorities for the bills are going to be, that
they've got some hard questions that they need to answer. And I don't know that you can as an
organization, duff a number one, someone who was a number one pick all but two years ago and move on.
I don't know that you can be that wasteful at draft capital. I really do think
I really do think he needs more time in the tank. We're stuck. Yeah.
That's fine. I have my reactions. But and I'd love to be wrong. I mean, this is like me
initially like right after I think you might have even been the person who called Josh Allen,
another Tim Tebow, right? I did. Oh, my God. Two years. Oh, my God. Into Josh's first full season
as a starter. The things we said, if anyone ever uncovers our text chain from like 2018 and
2019, seriously, our bill, our bills mafia bonafides are going out the window. But the thing is,
we weren't the only ones with those opinions. I mean, that's the thing. That's why people come
to the pod and thank you for listening out there, people. That's right. We are one of you, two of
you. Yeah, we're honest and we're critical. And we try to come with like reasonable rational
takes on our team, which brings me to my second observation. I hope Kyrie Linn works out, but
I don't think he will. We'll see where that receipt goes. But my second observation is that
I think we're seeing how much of a massive, massive, turned down in efficiency, this defensive
line is capable of without Dequan Jones. Yeah, we talked about the amazing season he was putting
the other before he got injured in that Jaguar's game. And is I mean, the proof is in the pudding.
We both anticipated the bills would get over five and a half sacks on even to Rod Taylor.
And they they I think they got to like they had three, they had three this game all all came in
the first half. The second half of this game was weird. But yeah, yeah. So yeah, three sacks on
to Rod Taylor. And I think that we saw with Ed Oliver's even with still having high efficiency
in his patch, Rush win rate at Oliver is was doubled more often. He was erased from plays more
often because they didn't have to worry about as much in the interior that defensive line when
it's Punefort and Jordan Phillips, you know, and Tim Settle there, right, as they did when it was
the quant basically had to double both Juan Jones and that Oliver and that's impossible from a
number standpoint, unless you're keeping it tucked in. And so, you know, I think we're seeing that I
think the interior defensive line is struggling a little bit to find its identity in the post DQ
era. And, you know, really hoping that that that injury can be resolved by playoff. Like, I think
JJ Watt had that a couple years ago, he was still in Houston and came back for playoffs. So
hopefully that that's the same story and we can get DQ back. Yeah, that would be great. I totally
agree with you. His this pace he was on, as you had mentioned, was historic. He was number one in the
league in pass rush win rate for interior defensive linemen, according to ESPN stats and info. And he
was number three in the league and run stop win rate as well. Just insane. And the level of double
teams that he ate up, which freed Oliver to win his his one on one battles with his quickness. I
mean, this game and sticking with the theme, talking about a throwback to 2002, we were reminded
for as good as Oliver has been this year without Dequan Jones eating up double teams next to him
at Oliver is an undersized defensive tackle who is easy to erase with double teams. I guess just
it is what it is. Yeah. And then my final my final observation and this is the positive I think.
I saw a lot of really good stuff from Dorian Williams. And I think that kids for real, yeah,
him getting the start over Terrell Dodson and showing as well as he did and having the coaching
staff when asked about him specifically saying he just needs more snaps, he just needs more experience.
That's the same stuff we heard, you know, from the coaching staff and heard about the player
back in Milano's first year of he was sharing time. I can't remember the linebacker who shared
remote Humber. It was Humber. Yeah. Yeah. He was sharing time with remote Humber to start. It wasn't
as much as dramatic of a being forced into the starting lineup, you know, situation as this is.
But he played a few games, you know, getting the snap share and people were starting to talk about
flew around with his hair on fire, just, you know, shutting down everything. And I think that,
you know, what I'm seeing right now, we both question the Terrell,
Terrell Bernard pick, and we both question the Dorian Looms pick, we're both like,
like, what are we doing? Both third rounders. Yeah, we're burning these third rounders on like,
like linebackers built like safeties. This seems like an error. It seems like we're wasting a
premium jack pick. Where's our, you know, offensive line help? Where's our wide receiver help?
I don't know. I still think we need offensive line wide receiver help, but they're picking linebackers
who play like this. I'm okay with it. Dude, these guys are fast. They are. I mean, in Milano,
plays fast. And I think Williams may play faster than faster than Milano. And I think which is
crazy. Well, and at times, because he's so young, and this is this is different from Kyrie, I think
that you can see the youth and Dorian Williams play in ways where he is flowing too hard in
certain directions and gets taken advantage of. Yeah. And but he tends to correct himself series
to series, which is the difference. I think that's the big difference. You don't see him make
repeated mistakes in the same game often. I was I was texting with another Bill's fan during that
game. I'm sorry. Listen, I know, I know I've admitted to my infidelity now. Like I apologize.
But I was texting with another Bill's friend Bill's fan friend of mine. And I described
Dorian Williams as having fearless instinctiveness, his his ability to read plays as they develop
and act so quickly is 85% of the time a good thing that other 15% teams tend to to see what he's
doing and lean into that and bait him a little bit. But he course correct so quickly. And I think
again, the Elam comparison is great because unlike Elam, he never doubts his physical gifts and
the his ability to use those gifts to shut down plays. Whereas I think Elam does a lot of times.
I think Elam is just. And again, I don't know if it's a product of coaching or what, but he's so
in his own head about his spot in the scheme and what he needs to do. I mean, he he is the better
athlete. And he is the more he is the superior athlete against almost anyone he's going to line
up against. And sometimes being better just wins in this league. And I think if I were to say anything
to Elam, I'd be like, just remember that, you know what I mean? And the scheme stuff will come.
But but I think as we have, we've maligned Bill's coaching, we've got to we've got to throw some
roses to Bobby Babich, our linebackers coach for what he has done to get Bernard ready to run that
to run up brand new McDermid defense and what he's done to get next man up and Doreen Williams ready
to play too. Yeah, I mean, it and Babich is considered across the league to be the next great
young defensive mind up and coming in the league. And you're starting to see it with the way he
coaches this unit. Well, and I think that, you know, you can also throw some throw some of those
low rolls on on Brandon Bean for identifying underside line undersized linebackers who don't
seem to have it all together, who have this knack for stepping it up in the next level and being
better NFL players than they were college talents. Because I think that everybody saw
Milano Bernard and even Williams in this case as like, cool projects who are that kind of safety
linebacker hybrid. But I don't think anybody anticipated them having like the impact plays
that they have. I think there was a number of times in that Giants game where both Williams and
Bernard were filling at the point of attack. And if they weren't getting the tackle themselves,
they were spilling, you know, Sikwan Barkley out around the edge, which is their job to do. And
it was really nice. Yep, I agree. I agree. And I think that's a great positive note to end this on
JJ. I think, listen, this was a this was a bit of a regression. And in a lot of ways that we have
both highlighted for the Buffalo Bills, but explainable. And again, the problems are clear
and solvable. And I think at the end of the day, a win is a win. Not everybody coming out of week
six, not a lot of these elite teams who played can claim the same. Filly went down to the New
Jersey Jets. The Browns, which might have the scariest defense in the league, which we've been
saying pretty consistently all season, played a great game against the Niners with a little bit
of help from the weather. Lots of good teams struggled this week. We were we should just
count ourselves lucky that the Bills came out with a win because if they hadn't,
they would be losing the tiebreaker currently to the New Jersey Jets and out of the playoff picture
at three and three this early in the season. So yeah, they pulled it out and you know,
if you want to say a high note, I just have to say we were off every single one of our predictions.
Of course we were because this game made no freaking sense. JJ, this game made no sense.
Both expected the Bills to win by like 20 plus points. You know, and it was not it was not that
at all. We expected the Bills to get five, five or more sacks. Nope. James over 19 and a half
touches, which has been your thing. I was right on that one, actually. I said under 14 touches.
Guess what I'm going to do for the Patriots pregame for one of my props.
Well, you'll have to, you know, people have to stay tuned for that one. And then, you know,
I expected to occur to have a bunch of catches and he had one catch. So let's
but that's that's not I mean, that's not a low note. Like we're we are wrong. That is a
that is a feature, not a bug of this pot. This is why people listen to us. So that's absolutely
true. So I think that's a perfect note to end on my friend. Absolutely. Keep our own receipts. So
for all of you listening at home, like, share and subscribe wherever you get your podcast,
Google, Apple and Spotify. And oh, quick note before I say go bills format change,
we are now we are now recording twice a week for you loyal listeners at home. So this is our
postgame wrap up of the New Jersey Giants game. Tune in tune in this Saturday or normal pod
drop date for our pregame against the New England Patriots. And as always, go bills. Go bills.