Welcome back to the Buffalo Bread podcast. We have a week 11 post game wrap up for you.
The bills are now on their by week, so we will not be doing a pregame this weekend.
However, we will tear apart this Buffalo Bills Chiefs game that resulted in the bills winning
in epic Josh Allen Superman fashion in the last two minutes. 30 to 21, the first team
in 30 opponents to to achieve more than 28 points on these Chiefs and their vaunted Steve
Smagnolo defense. Dan, what where are you in your feelings now we are you know it's
Wednesday following the Sunday game and a lot of the fervor has calmed down but people
are still feeling very very good. Oh, we're going to be riding high on this one for a
while JJ. My take is this. And listen, this could be foolish. And as a bills fan I've
been fooled before. This one felt different, right? Like people went in hedging expectations
anticipating that if the Chiefs did indeed continue this extraordinarily magical undefeated
season against the bills, and if Patrick Mahomes indeed was going to go three and oh against
Josh Allen and Sean McDermott in Highmark Stadium, that we were emotionally prepared
for that. So everyone was hedging the game didn't mean anything. Well, it's still unlikely
that the bills are going to get the one seed even if they do win. But JJ, this one felt
different. All the talk about the bills need to do it in January to me dissipated a bit,
not because they don't not need to do it in January. They absolutely need to if they see
this Chiefs squad again. But this one felt different different JJ because it felt like
a game plan that is finally sustainable against the Chiefs, particularly on the defensive side
of the ball, which I know we're going to get into. For the first time it felt like from
start to finish, the bills were the better coach team. And JJ they're also the most
the more talented team. I think that's fair to say at this stage of both of the roster
builds of these individual squads. So where do you want to start man because I loved what
the defense was rolling out against Patrick Mahomes, but Josh was doing Josh things too
and it's all going to be fun to get into. So you pick dealers choice my friend. Yeah,
let's let's start with the defense versus the Chiefs offense. Because I think that is
the easier matchup for this bills team in this game. Even though the Buffalo Bills defense
is the defense under Sean McDermott, Leslie Frazier and now Bobby Babich has had many,
many problems with Patrick Mahomes and particularly with Travis Kelsey. In this game, you know,
it was different. It looked different. And there was a lot of different factors to it.
I think that we should end the pod in the place where the game sort of ended with, you know,
our Lord and savior, Josh Allen, our Lord and savior and the offense. But yeah, to get
into the defense, I think that what we saw the biggest difference I think to point to
in this game was that the Buffalo Bills defensive line did something that no Buffalo Bills defensive
line has been able to do. And that was consistent, reliable pressure to support their players
and coverage by the front four or in some cases, the front three plus a linebacker.
That is something that we have not seen this bills team do and they got them on the ground
twice, they hit him, I think seven times, they pressured him over, you know, a dozen
times. And that was all of the difference in this game for the bills defense versus the
chiefs offense, a chiefs offense that is much maligned by a lack of talent on the outside
at wide receiver, they've had some injuries and some inefficiencies. And then also a tight
end position in Travis Kelsey and Noah Gray, that Gray is probably slightly better than
a Q Morris level. You know, tight end, he's solid but not spectacular. And Travis Kelsey
looked very, very old in this game. Dan, he looked slow, he looked old in the bills.
They did two things to him. And I can talk about these at length in a minute, but just
in general terms, anytime he was in covered man coverage one on one, it was either Christian
Benford or Taran Johnson, way more Christian Benford than Taran Johnson, because Taran
Johnson has had trouble with Kelsey alone. And then when he was covered in zone situations,
they did sort of kind of a magnet or a cloud zone, where the players dropping into coverage
mostly linebackers would hit their landmark. But if Kelsey came near, they would be sticky
to him over the rules of their zone. So they would leave some cushion behind them in order
to make sure that they were all over Kelsey the whole time.
And JJ, what you described is an incredible departure from defensive philosophy of this
Buffalo Bills unit in the Sean McDermott era. We said this last pod almost to the point
of comic pessimism, that the defense is the defense. And there were a whole bunch of creative
sets that we hoped the bills would run out there against this chief squad, that we didn't
have faith that they would. But JJ, not only did they get creative, but to your point,
they chose to go against type, they chose to go against what they typically put on film
against the chiefs, and throw something truly unique and truly new at a head coach and an
offensive mind and Andy Reed and a QB and Patrick Holmes that have seen just about every
defensive combination you could possibly imagine. And they threw enough new stuff at them at
the right sequence to stifle this chiefs, this chiefs attack. They discovered that they
can in fact play man coverage as well. But I want to go back to this concept that you
rolled out, because I love this term magnet zone, where the rules of the zone apply until
your primary target comes within range. And then at that point, your job is the man, not
the patch of green that's in front of you. And that is something JJ that we have seen
the opposite happen of when the bills have gone up against these chiefs, they are happy
to guard space and never guard the person that is killing them. And that's why Kelsey's
been so effective, he kind of leaks out and wanders out and finds nice, quiet places in
the bill zone and soft coverage that he can exploit. And the bills were not allowing it,
not allowing it this game. And it was absolutely something to behold. And this was in the text
chain that you and I were going over, you had a great breakdown of this magnet zone
stuff. I want you to dig a little bit deeper into it and tell us a little bit about what
you saw.
Yeah, so a couple of things they first of all, the bills defense did some things that
they have watched the all 22 at this point. And the bills defense did some things that
they usually don't do, in that they did a lot of mix, mix match coverage. And they did
a lot of outside corners in man coverage on their primary assignment with muddled, you
know, zones, zone looks in the center, the bills focus in this entire game was literally
shutting down the center of the field. Patrick Mahomes could have sent a lot of balls to
the sidelines, but he was unwilling to do so because of the talent of the bills outside
corners. And that I think was smart, because in the middle, they oftentimes had multiple
linebackers, they had one of the safeties come down and then they had the deep third,
the deep middle closed by Taylor wrap Taylor wrap was playing center fielder. Most of the
game with DeMar Hamlin getting messy in the middle, and coming down closer to the line.
And that really restricted what the chiefs wanted to do. The magnet zone was the reason
it was it was unique and it's somewhat dangerous. If you have a team that has weapons that you
respect and are afraid of. The magnet zone might kill you because the team after a few
series is going to say, Okay, if you're going to start floating towards Kelsey, we're going
to like send worthy on a deep over in the extra space that you've just freed up behind
your your landmark in your zone. And he's going to crush you for 100 yards on the TD,
like that the reason that didn't happen was the incredible sticky coverage of the outside
corners. And it was the lack of talent on the offense for the chiefs of having excellent
outside, you know, corners, or outside wide receivers, this is going to be harder to do
against a team like San Francisco, like Miami, with really, really talented outside wide
receivers, because they're going to be able to shake that kind of close sticky man coverage
and and make some hay in the now stretched apart or condensed zones around the target
you're trying to focus on. What bodes well for this going going down into the future
and into the playoffs and things like that is the bills will probably see the chiefs
again in a critical moment. This this coverage should work again. They do not have a magical,
you know, Tyree kill coming out of the woodwork anywhere, there's no, you know, additional
help for them that's going to really strain the bills. Again, if it's strength on strength
and everyone's healthy.
Absolutely. And Deandre Hopkins, we don't mean to undersell him and his talent. But
at this point in his career, he's more of a zone beater. He's more about finding some
of that open space and kind of sneaky crafty veteran ways. He's not running away from anybody.
So to your point, this coverage scheme, I mean, listen, and I think the bills have have
absolutely built off of what the Broncos showed the league a couple of weeks ago against
the chiefs, which is you should not be afraid to play man against this group. And you shouldn't
end as long as you maintain past rush lane discipline on Patrick Mahomes, if you can
limit his running ability and his ability to create out of the pocket, and you can stick
with man coverage, it is a recipe for really limiting this potent what has been a potent
chiefs attack. Even though JJ they've been winning close games, this is still an offense
that by EPA and by most DVA metrics was in the top 10 in the league. And Buffalo really
had their way with them. I want to flip it back to the defensive line for a moment as
well, because I feel like we've got a highlight Greg or so, I feel like every pod we talk
about him, you mentioned the pressure that the bills were so successfully getting against
the chiefs in this game. And a lot of that started and ended with so on his 28 pass rush
snaps, he gave he pressured the QB on 17.9% of those snaps JJ. And his time to pressure
was 2.7 seconds, which means that the coverage on the back end had to hold up longer to
some extent, because I believe Mahomes time to throw was like 3.3 seconds in this game.
3.3 average. Yep, something like that. So the coverage had to hold up. But they were
doing such a good job of getting Mahomes off script off his platform, making him go to
a second reaction throws that just weren't there. It was this great combination where
we thought quick pressure was going to have to be the key to this game. Russo himself
only generated two quick pressures pressures under 2.5 seconds. It was the ferocity of
the pressure. And it was the location of the pressure as well. We've seen Jerry Hughes
not to throw dirt on Jerry Hughes Buffalo Bill's grave, get pressure by statistical
measures on Patrick Mahomes, where Mahomes simply sidesteps Jerry Hughes who runs right
past him or is guided past him by an offensive lineman. We've seen it time and time again
with every single edge and defensive line combination. The bills have run against Patrick
Mahomes. Russo's discipline and not just his quickness and forcing Mahomes out of the
pocket was a real big difference maker, I feel like in this game. And JJ for back to
back games, Russo's pressure has also led to a turnover has been attributed to a turnover.
In this particular game, it was a Patrick Mahomes interception, I believe. So Russo
is the sack metrics aren't there. But by every other measure, he's getting meaningful pressure.
He's disrupting QBs and rhythm. And he is creating turnover opportunities for other
guys on this defense. We talk about complimentary football, we talk about everybody doing their
one 11th. I don't know that anyone has been more prominent in filling out their role this
season than Greg Russo has. Well, and I yeah, no, absolutely. Greg Russo is an absolute
monster. He's a nightmare for opposing tackles, and also for opposing quarterbacks. Part of
the game script for the bills on defense was to have Greg Russo either uses single arm
stab to push a tackle into Patrick Mahomes to make him uncomfortable, which happened
on both sides against both tackles multiple times, or to compress the pocket to make him
really not feel like he had a stable place to throw from, or to have Greg Russo deliver
one move to the tackle, and then really quickly scrape inside and run off of the inside hip
of at Oliver to loop around and just appear in that gap with all six foot seven of him,
which I saw multiple times on all 22 when you're looking at from the end zone camera
angle, where Greg Russo appears in what is an open gap in the line. And Patrick Mahomes
looks like he's about to step up either into it to throw or into it to run and immediately
changes his plan. And the play Oh, I mean, he duffs it in the dirt, he almost gets sacked.
It was always a negative play every time Greg Russo came through one of those loops or stunts
clean. The other piece was that the Buffalo Bill's defensive line not only got pressure,
but when you get pressure, Patrick Mahomes is so hard to sack. And so they only got him
down twice. But they hit him many times. And that's because the pressure was good enough
to get a near sack and to get a clean hit on him. And we know from all the way back
in the Tampa Bay, you know, Buccaneers Super Bowl against the the Chiefs, that if you put
him on his on his, you know, high and quarters enough times, his game is thrown. He does
not revel in the messiness of football. He is not a Josh Allen who needs one good pop
to feel like he's in the game. He wants to stay he wants his jersey to be perfectly
pristine and clean at the end of the match every single week. Are you Patrick Mahomes
soft? I'm calling him soft. Yeah, no, he I've said this for a long really the whininess.
I started to notice with the whole like, was it juju Smith Schuster lined up offside last
year or whatever. Was that that was the Kaderius Tony? Oh, there's Tony. Yeah, Kaderius Tony
lined up offside. His whininess and his like, you know, sore loserness and petulance. That
that was then. That's when I noticed that trait of his character. He's always been super
averse to to messy physical football. He's a finesse player. And you know, if that is
soft, then he's soft. Wow. Wow, breaking news. Buffalo bread thinks Patrick Mahomes
three or four three times Super Bowl champs. Yeah, it is soft. I love you don't have to
be tough to be a Super Bowl champion. I love it. But that's how we want our Super Bowl
champions to be in that's right because we're from Buffalo. This is a good opportunity to
flip it to the offensive side of the ball before we wrap up. Listen, we could dig in
a Brady scheme. He went toe to toe with Spags. The run game didn't have much efficacy in
this game except in the red zone for a couple of scores. This was really a game where the
bills were able to generate chunk plays in the passing offense, which they were not able
to do. And that divisional game against the Chiefs last season. And we've been saying
all year. This is the wrinkle Brady needs we know he can do or we know he can do the run.
But when a defense condenses down on this Buffalo Bills offense, can he get the chunk
plays? And this is where you saw the difference maker that Amari Cooper can be not just in
the fact that Cooper had some meaningful pivotal pivotal catches in this game for explosives.
But where he slots in and the attention that he commands, when you take away a Trent McDuffie,
when you put him almost exclusively on Amari Cooper, which is what the Chiefs did, Khalil
Shakir is going to eat in the screen game. He's going to eat in the slot. And he is a
yak machine. And we saw them able to generate explosives on place that started behind the
line of scrimmage on in both the run, but more frequently in the past. JJ, it was a
great scheme by Brady, but it all came down to Josh Allen at the end, fourth and two.
And McDermott made a call that I think two or three years ago, he would not have made
to you, JJ, is this a sign? Sean McDermott, let's say finding his killer instinct, right?
Because Josh always wants to go for the kill. Josh would go for on fourth and seven if you
let him, right? Josh has gone for an on fourth and 27.
He's just say like he runs, right? He's tried to run on a fourth and you know, more than
20. He absolutely is. He's almost gotten it a couple
of times too. So is this is this growth and Sean McDermott? Is this a sea change in his
philosophy? Because he's been getting better on fourth downs. But fourth downs and critical
game situations against the chiefs is is a place where he has really struggled. Is it
different this time with McDermott? And is this now the way he's going to coach in these
high leverage moments? So yes. And I think yes, because he's been
the second most aggressive coach behind me kept biting Dan Campbell this season.
Wild. He picked two different guys to be in the aggressiveness metrics when it comes
to like demeanor. They're both in the top. And so he's been
right up there this any any has been for a long time. I think last season you could say
he was one of the more aggressive coaches to the difference is is there's like, I think
the way that the best way to describe it is for this team to make it all the way over
the hump to the mountain to the championship. We need a Sean McDermott who's more like
a Yolo Josh Allen. And we need a Yolo Josh Allen who's more like the steadfast, steady,
consistent Sean McDermott. And they've learned from each other. And they seem to have have
taken those lessons to heart. Because Sean McDermott, who's just like himself, would
kick a field goal to go up by five to then have their soul snatched by Patrick Mahomes
to get a touchdown in the last two minutes and win the game.
Every time. Every time. And that and and, you know, Josh Allen,
who's too much like Josh Allen on fourth and two, maybe not for the heat, that was a total
Josh Allen play. Let me pick it for one on any number of other plays on like a third
and seven, where he threw the obvious best smart choice, 10 yard ball to Khalil Shakir,
instead bombs the 13% completion possibility, you know, sideline streaker to freaking Mack
Hollins, who has two DBs in his back pockets, right? Like that, I think that what you what
we need for this team to get it to reach its ultimate goal and why it might be different
is for Josh Allen to take the smart obvious play with the ball and for Sean McDermott
to to say, you know, to hell with it. And he even said it in his post game comments
with the media, we've seen Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reed march down the field and get
that score anytime they've needed too many times. We cannot play scared. We have to go
for it. We have to, you know, put it all out there as hard as we can and play for the win.
And that I think is a massive change. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Before we wrap up here,
JJ, question for you on this Josh Allen play. Where does it sit for you and your all time
Josh Allen moments? I gave this one a lot of thought, right?
Yeah, because like you could take his overall game performances. Like I think about his
torrid start to the 2022 season where he torches the Rams and the Tennessee Titans in back
to back weeks. There was of course his coming out party where he leapfrogged and was it
Anthony Barr on many so many bar. Yeah, there's that one. The Thanksgiving Day performance
against the Cowboys in 2021 was 2021. Yeah, that was Thanksgiving. Yeah. And then even
though it was it was an hour 13 seconds, he was the freaking tournament man. So I mean,
where does this sit for you? I my like Josh Allen performance Hall of Fame at the top
of it is the game we attended against the New England Patriots. Negative six degrees.
He he like literally threw a ball away and got a touchdown on it like the toss and knocks
T. Yeah, it was a perfect game. Every draw every single yard they could have gained they
gain and he was an absolute terminator that entire game. So that's number one for me.
This is probably in top three though. It's got me right. Yeah, it's definitely in the
top three. The only the and the other one in my top three. It's probably not even I
can't I couldn't tell you which year it was. But it was Josh Allen at Hard Rock Stadium
in Miami playing air guitar on the 50 yard line after sending a bomb to John Brown, I
think. I think that was 2020. I think that was a touchdown. Yeah. So that was that was
the season that like Josh Allen became Josh Allen. Yes. And that was the game. I remember
the moment in that game. Holy crap. Like he's coming for you league like this guy is dangerous.
He is the right Josh. That's the moment we knew. Yeah, for me, I mean, it's in the top
five. I'm with you. Perfect game is there. The Anthony Barley frog just because that
has become the signature Josh play. Right. That was like the first one, right? Yeah.
That's like watching the first godfather, you know what I mean? When it was released,
you know, I mean, I thought his run last year against Pittsburgh in the wild card round.
What was that a 53 yards scamper insane where he was compared to a Tonka truck on for Loco
with the heart of a puppy dog on Twitter. Now X now devoid of any real sports media
talent. Right. Yeah, man. But this this has to be for me. It's in the top five. And my
guess is as the years go on, if this game means what we hope it's going to mean with
a sea change for the bills and their approach to the chiefs. This is you could look back
on that moment and be like, Oh, this is when when we turn the page, this is when Manning
finally got the best of Brady, so to speak, right? So right now, it's squarely at the
bottom of my top five with the potential to be a riser, depending on the context by
which this game is judged in the future. Well, exactly right. This it drops out of my top
three if the bills, you know, puke all over themselves against the chiefs in the championship
game this year. I would do I would rather lose to the chiefs playing this this way.
Yes. Then we have lost to the chiefs the previous few years. Like go out on your shields, boys,
like play man, get pressure, rush five, get dirty, do everything you can. And if you lose
this way, I'm okay with it. I'm okay if you lose if Josh Allen gets tripped up and doesn't
convert that fourth and two into a first down let alone a touchdown. I'm okay. I'm sad today.
If that's what happens, but I'm okay because McDermott decided to go with his best plan
that moment, which is Josh Allen, right? If they lose like this to the chiefs, I'm good.
I like the way the squad is playing. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Instead of Sean McDermott,
just like really cranking on that small electric safe space heater, he chose to douse himself
in gasoline and hand Josh Allen the match and that to keep his team warm. And I think
that it makes all the difference. That is the clip we're going to put out on all of
our socials to preview this pod. A kerosene doused human torch.
Immolated Sean McDermott. Freakin love it, man. Freakin love it. All right, well, listen,
AJ, we are on a bi week. So for all you listening at home, there is no pregame pod this week.
So we're going to be dropping this post game pod at our normal time on Saturday. And then
you can tune into a hopefully relaxing Buffalo Bills free Sunday of football this week. And
then we'll be back the following Saturday with our pregame pod of Buffalo Bills welcoming
the defending NFC champion, San Francisco 49ers to Highmark Stadium. For all of you listening
at home is always like, share and subscribe. Drop us comments wherever you get your podcasts,
YouTube, Apple and Spotify. And as always, go bills bills.