Welcome back to the Buffalo Bread Podcast. Dan
and JJ are here in absolute awestruck, sometimes
dejected, sometimes celebratory fashion for you.
Bills mafia after what can only be described
as a jaw dropping 41 to 40 victory over the Baltimore
Ravens in Highmark Stadium slash Rich Stadium
slash Ralph Wilson Stadium. the last home opener
of the entire era for that stadium and couldn't
have asked for a bigger or more exciting game
for that to kick off this 2025 season. How are
you doing? I still don't know that last night
was real, JJ. I'm not going to lie. And it was
it was reminiscent of so many bills. comeback
moments where, you know, I think back to the
the Frank Wright game against the Houston Oilers,
and you've got and you know, Andre Reed was on
Instagram, you know, posting about this. And
how I remember even watching that game. I was
a kid, I was asking my parents like, Why is everybody
leaving? My my dad and my uncle's really because
the bills suck. That's why That's why everyone's
leaving. We're sick of this team. That's right.
They don't get a safety. They don't got nothing.
And then like flash forward, you know, 30 some
odd years, me and you and our text chain, which
is notoriously pessimistic, kind of in the same
vein, right? Even though we weren't at the game,
we had mentally left the game and we were, we
were ready, I think, to run this front office
and coaching staff like absolutely overboard.
And then Josh, Josh Allen happens, man. Josh
Allen. Yeah, Josh Allen is the deodorant on on
all porous defenses. You know, what can we say
on a stink fest otherwise? Yeah, no. And I think
you're right. I know if the Bills had if just
like one of the last five minute plays that went
in the Bills favor went in a different direction
and the Bills lost this game 38 to 40 or like,
you know, even lesser of a score. It would be
fire Sean McDermott today. You know it would
be. It would be fire Sean McDermott. He tried
three two -point conversions. They all failed.
Fire Joe Brady. He was running weird whip screens
to the outside through the middle of the game,
causing three and outs. Fire Brandon Bean. He
can't pick anybody who's a good receiver. It
would have just been, it would have been Bedlam
and Buffalo. You know, everything would have
been on the table. Sean McDermott can't coach
a defense. They were like too predictable on
offense. All of those things, all of those cards
would have been on the table. We would have heard
all of the cacophony of echoing comments. Again,
and some of that criticism is absolutely 100
% deserved. And yet, Josh Allen, right? Like,
I think that I, when people asked me my honest
opinion of the Bills chances against the Ravens,
I even think I said it on the pod. If Josh Allen
plays an MVP level game and somehow the Bills
caused the Ravens to make some mistakes, they
will win. But if the Ravens play a perfectly
clean game, they will dominate. And most of the
game, the Ravens played perfectly clean and dominated.
Yeah, no. It's amazing how much stuff we... we
predicted would happen in this game that actually
happened. This was a Zay Flowers game. This was
a Derek Henry game. The defense didn't have any
answers for Derek Henry, Lamar Jackson. We knew
that the Bills were going to play man coverage
at a high clip, which they did at about 41%.
We knew they were going to blitz Lamar, but Lamar
was really good against the Blitz. He was seven
for nine, 140 yards and a TD pass against the
Buffalo Bills Blitz. Everything we said would
happen happened and yet, Josh Allen, you know,
Josh Allen is the answer to a lot of how we wrap
our heads around last night, but also to man
I mean We've been asking for star performances
on the defensive side of the ball for so long
and you and I have talked about Numerous scenarios
where we're like, you know what if it's 35 to
35 because you're never gonna shut out the Chiefs
You're ever gonna shut out the Bengals You're
ever gonna shut out the Ravens teams that know
your scheme so well But when can we get a dude
on the other side of the ball? on the defensive
side of the ball to finally turn in a game tilting
star performance to help us get it over the hump.
And yesterday that was Ed Oliver, right? That
defense for the Buffalo Bills played bad. And
I'm sure we're going to break it down, but flowers
to Ed Oliver for turning in what was an absolute
star performance of the defensive side and a
game where, like we have described so many times,
the Bills defense was utterly futile, but in
high leverage moments, Someone had to step up
and that person was at Oliver on a multitude
of occasions. Whatever we're going to say about
the defense here, folks, please know that at
Oliver is exempt. That was a all pro star performance.
He turned in yesterday from his pressure rate
on Lamar Jackson. Of course, the highlight play
of punching out the ball from Derek Henry's massive
arms, right? Cole, Cole Bishop probably owes
at Oliver, I think steak dinner or something
to that effect because The lasting memory on
the defensive side of the ball is going to be
Oliver creating that fumble against Henry and
not Henry running 20 miles an hour and absolutely
ragdolling Cole Bishop on his way to the end
zone. So all things, all the things we've been
asking for the defensive side of the ball, we
got it. And we got it from a guy who has largely
been under discussed the soft season, you know,
and all this defensive line shuffle. People forgot
to kind of talk about at Oliver and the fact
that he's been a staple of this interior for
so long. When the lights were brightest here,
when his team needed him the most didn't matter
that they had given up 40 points at that point.
And at Oliver absolutely made miracles happen.
Um, I think that the entire defensive front seven,
all the linemen and the linebackers should actually
buy Cole Bishop and Taylor wrap steak dinners
for the amount of times that their leaky gap
play let a full speed, 250 pounds, six foot four,
Derek Henry running a four, three, 40 truck into
that secondary. It's a train on the tracks at
that point. You cannot expect a safety. It almost
doesn't matter who that safety is back there.
You cannot count on them to come up and tackle
that guy in those situations. And it was a lot.
A lot of it was on bad run fits on the front
end. A lot of it was on the pills. unwillingness.
One of my biggest criticisms of this defense
is we're just kind of getting into the defense.
One of my biggest criticisms is the fact that
they played just like gap responsibility defense
with absolutely no flavor on it. It was a cup
of vanilla soft serve ice cream and the Ravens
were just eating it up. There was like, oh, we're
going to do gap sound with the second level filling
and we're not going to do any run blitzes, no
run stunts. They basically only were reserving
blitzes during definite passing downs and otherwise
were playing basic flavorless defense. I didn't
see anything on the defensive line play. Granted,
I haven't watched all 22 yet. That just came
out today. I'm having that time. Based on just
the broadcast watch, it was an easily predictive.
And I think too that we talked about how, you
know, on the onset, if the Bills lose this game,
it's like, oh, McDermott should be fired. Bean
should be fired. Everyone should be fired. Let's
start over. This isn't going to get it done.
This game also is the kind of thing that's a
totem for the, for the coaching staff and the
players to point to and say, this is why you
never quit. This is why you never give up. And
that actually does indicate that they're receiving
a proper level of coaching. From Sean McDermott
the just the fact that they I mean John Harbaugh's
Ravens who he's lauded as one of the two or three
best coaches in the league They were like celebrating
on the sideline at 40 to 25 like they had the
thing in the bag They took their foot off the
gas his coordinators started coaching in conservative
clock kill type of ways That's all the bills
needed. That's that little window of time a little
gap in aggressiveness JJ, we talked about how
coaching was going to matter in this game. The
Ravens have blown game after game like this in
recent memory. I mean, they are the most well
balanced, maybe sound team in the league. And
yet they always have these weird moments where
they come up short for a variety of different
reasons. It's just, they find ways to lose these
games. And this is the position I think the Bills
were in, we felt like so many years ago, where
we just found weird ways to lose games. That
Jacksonville Jaguars game from God, what was
that? 2022, 2023, the nine to six game, one of
Urban Meyer's few wins. Yeah. Two seasons ago,
Mack Jones won an only fourth quarter combat
drive in his career against the Buffalo Bills.
I believe that was that in Highmark? I think
that was in Highmark, right? Yeah. I mean, it's
just, it's the Bills are very, we as Bills fans
are very familiar with the Bills losing games
like that in exactly that type of fashion. So
we can empathize with the Ravens. I mean, the
problem for me is that the Ravens dude, they're
completely loaded. That is a star -studded cast
from top to bottom on both sides of the ball.
They've had coaching continuity for what feels
like decades now with Harbaugh. They've got stars
all up and down that roster. They draft well.
They sign well. They manage their cap well. And
yet, despite all of those things, when the moment
is its biggest, this is a team that finds a new
way to come up short. I'm not trying to sell
the bill short in this particular situation,
but is like an objective observer and not a fan
who is giddy about what happened yesterday. Like,
if you're a Ravens fan sitting at home today,
you've got to be like, what do we ought to do,
right? What else could we have done? Exactly.
I mean, a 0 .09 % chance for the Bills to win
this game on ESPN, um, wind predictor analytics
with four minutes left. And yet they pulled it
out. Yeah. Yeah. With five minutes left, uh,
you know, what was it? Zero and 717. in NFL history.
Teams trailing by 15 or more points with five
minutes or less left in the fourth quarter since
2017. 0 -717. Now it's 1 -717. Terrible stat.
Terrible stat to hang on the Ravens. 1 -718 times
that's happened. It happened to them last night.
They squat. It's so interesting because I think
the narrative is going to be that they squandered
the lead. I would argue, and not just as a fan,
but as a football, you know, somebody who analyzes
football, the Bills snatched it from them. They
did not squander. I mean, they could have probably
coached a little bit more aggressive. They could
have done some different things and not been
so conservative. You know, they're punting on
fourth down. I don't think Andy Reid would have
punted that ball. I felt like they were surrendered
at that point. I feel like he would have gone
for it and said, if they get the ball back, if
we give this over on downs and they kick a field
goal and go ahead, we have time. We don't want
to control our destiny. They didn't do that.
They punted it away. And Sean McDermott after
the game was asked that direct question, he said,
it's really sort of a toss -up. Any coach in
the league is going to see it both ways. and
have a sense, you know, in the moment you got
to make that kind of a gut call. And I think
that was one. So, yeah, I think there's some
choices they made that indicate squandering a
lead, but for the most part, the way that the
Bills executed in those final five minutes, they
took it. They just claimed it. They claimed that
victory from the jaws of defeat. Mercilessly
targeting a Jair Alexander who... I mean, listen,
it's a great, great DB. I think we wanted him
right. But he's super talented. He's a great
scheme fit for the Ravens, like not a guy who
thought thought the bills would go after. But
they did they went after him when Palmer was
on him when Coleman was on him because they could
see that he wasn't up to snuff yet in this scheme.
And that's that's the transition that I loved.
And I credit Josh more with that than Joe Brady
for reading what was on the field in front of
him and making some of those aggressive decisions.
Because a lot of that listen, Joe Brady, probably
going to be a head coach at after the end of
the season. Love Joe Brady and everything he
brings to the table. Big caveat. That being said,
though, some of that some of that play calling
early on in the game, it's like he anticipated
that the O -line was going to lose its battles
to the Baltimore Ravens defensive line. I mean,
tight end bubble screens like to Dalton Kincaid.
I mean, Keon Coleman had a couple of screen passes
as well when he dropped. I just. Those are not
the two guys that I would factor into the screen
game. But he was trying to work up the quick
game for Josh and Josh was like, you know what?
Second half of the game in particular, he just
slowed everything down. Happy to buy time with
his legs when the line didn't hold up. Happy
to stay in the pocket when he saw his protection
was good and targeted the boundaries where you
didn't think. the bills were going to be able
to go. And he let some of these wide receivers
Palmer, we can debate if he had a good game or
not, but he definitely had a clutch. He had a
great fourth quarter, right? Great fourth quarter,
right? And made some of that Mac Collins, veterans,
veteran play stuff, drawing that DPI in the second
half as well. But then he allowed his guys to
rise to the occasion with him. And I love that.
And that's what Josh does. He makes guys better.
So it was just, it was the aggression. that they
showed, they went out to win it, not try to like
eke it out. And I think they absolutely deserve
the outcome that they got, especially after that
second half of play. Yep. Well, and I think too,
you know, again, just sticking with the defense
for a second. Lamar Jackson has the best QB rating
in the league right now, 144. Derrick Henry has
the most rushing guards in the league right now,
169. Dave Flowers has the most receiving guards
in the league right now, 143. None of it was
okay. None of it was good enough because Josh
Allen leads the league and Accumulated yet another
game with two rushing and two passing touchdowns
minimum Making him again the NFL leader of in
all of history with games of that number with
set hits his seventh time So wild and to your
point before about John Harbaugh He has lost
eight games when leading in the fourth quarter
by at least eight points since 2000. That's the
most that's the most that any coach in the league
has lost. Yes and for you Bills fans being like
well McDermott has lost his fair share I believe
the Bills are only second on that list with two
in that same time frame. Right yeah two eight
yeah so so if you think in and Harbaugh's still
employed I know, right? He owes a lot to Lamar
for saving his job when they drafted him. Oh,
yeah. They were about to move on from him. He
got the Joe Flacco Super Bowl, and then he didn't
do anything for a few years. They were like,
I think we're ready. I think we're done with
this Harbaugh. Yeah. But God, that's got to hurt
so bad if you're a Ravens fan. Oh, my gosh. I
know. God, we've been there. Ravens fan, we've
been there. We totally understand. We understand
that we are your the chiefs. Yeah, you also have
the chief so it's double insult but So so JJ
we have we have I think celebrated In a gentlemanly
fashion without gloating. Yeah, but there were
definitely some concerns here for the bills And
I understand that you're scaling up the level
of competition relative to what they may face
You know in the division and in the coming weeks
when you talk about the Ravens But man this defense
looked bad. Yeah, it looked it didn't look like
they needed It didn't look like they needed one
safety. It looked like they needed two safeties.
Now you brought up a really good point. The defensive
line did not hold up their end in the run game
at all. But I mean, dude, even in coverage, it
was a rough night. I'm just saying if anybody,
if any cornerback or safety is trying to tackle
a running back who makes it to them untouched,
that's not a safety problem. Yes. That is definitely
not a safety problem. That is, that is linebackers.
People, I was, we already said Ed Oliver for
the abysmal defensive performance, Ed Oliver
gets a pass, Joey Bosa gets a pass. I thought
Christian Benford also looked solid, right? Like
he had the third most tackles on the team. So
he was saving a lot of plays. His coverage, he
lost Zay Flowers a few times and that was surprising.
because you don't see that. And I wonder how
much of that could be laid at the feet of the
safeties or Dorian Strong, right? Because the
combination coverages that the Bills play and
their zone defense, and even in their man, there's
a lot of handoffs. And I saw a lot of handoffs
being messed up in the back end. Yes. They could
not communicate. They were having a really hard
time communicating about these things pre -snap.
I have some faith that this team who always has
a terrible defense is going to not be any better.
So I was trying to go positive there, but I'm
very worried. I saw you, you were, you were staging
a vociferous defense of the secondary where I'm
ready to go pull Justin Simmons and Dribble,
Dribble peppers off the scrap heap right now.
Um, you know what? I want to talk about Benford.
I, I, They kind of went after him in coverage,
right? Like Deandre Hopkins has no business getting
past a DB as talented as Benford. I just, and
we're going to see it again, I think this week
with Garrett Wilson, some of Benford's worst
games have been against Garrett Wilson. I just
think when you go dude for dude, right? And you
got to win a one -on -one matchup. No one is
putting Benford on an island. Right? No one is
like giving him the Sauce Gardener treatment,
the Darrell Rivas treatment. They are happy to
go after him when they feel like they have a
talent advantage against him. There are 16 wide
receivers in this league who will not struggle
to beat Christian Benford. They're not probably
going to catch a ball and run for a venture extra
yards. He's going to be tight. He's going to
give them some business. He's not going to give
them a clean release ever. But there's probably
like 15 to 17 wide receivers who I could line
up on a spreadsheet and be like, these are the
ones who are going to be Christian Benford. Yeah,
without a doubt. Because he, there's a reason
he's a six round pick. He has some athletic limitations.
He has some traits that are not elite. And so,
yeah, no, I agree that, but I don't think Deandre
Hopkins is of the caliber that he should be beating
Christian Benford. So I agree with that. He really
did. That was an incredible catch by Deha. Yeah,
incredible catch. But um, but yes, I think listen,
this is you everyone is ready to get rid of Cole
Bishop and Taylor wrap today. Everyone's ready
to go sign Stefan Gilmore to play CB2. I think
you offer a very sober though and rational analysis
of why the DB is yes looked bad on broadcast,
but it was because of a more holistic failure
on that defense, which brings me to the defensive
line. And outside of that Oliver, What specifically
did you see that would give you maybe a kernel
of? Optimism moving forward here because like
it was it was all bad most of the time for that
deal. Yeah, I Mean I would say you know Gregor
so Had some flashes that he is going to be what
we've always known him to be as a Excellent run
defender who will also be pretty solid in pass
rush situations, especially high leverage pass
rush situations. The problem was other teams
know it, and they were comfortable, especially
against TJ Sanders, Deion Walker, Daquan Jones,
and even Joey Bosa to some regard, and especially
AJ Vanessa. They were happy to just single all
those people and use, especially with the gap
power scheme that the Ravens often run and zone
reads and all of that. They were happy to just
be like, okay, we're going to either give help
to somebody who's blocking Greg Russo, or we're
going to double him straight up and make that
the point of attack. And he is a lanky guy. He's
not super stout. And so that is his kryptonite
is when you get two very, very large people pushing
him or use a tight end, like tight end trap on
the end to pin him in pin pull stuff like he
just he can't get off of it. He's not he's not
super dense. He's not powerful enough to like
split the gaps because he's also so tall. So
I worried about that. I think that he's talented
enough to do well, but it's really, his game
is 100 % dependent on at Oliver, Dequan Jones,
Dion Jones, or, you know, or Dion Walker, TJ
Sanders. It's, it's dependent on those guys demanding
at least one of them be double teamed because
he can do, he can do a lot of amazing things,
but only over one -on -one. Joey Bosa looked
like he was shaking off some rust. He got better
as the game went on. Yeah, I really liked and
you know Collins worth did a really good job
calling it out I really like the adjustments
may that Bosa made to some of the the big -ass
bites he was taking Oh, man, yeah, Mr. Action
game. Yeah Yeah, everybody saw it but that but
that's that's that's what a high -end veteran
will do for you, right? he'll make those adjustments
in game and and I thought he had a really good
one listen, I mean it was Not a lot of the lot
of these guys played in the preseason either
because they were banged up or they weren't healthy.
And I think that has to factor into some of it
as well. This is we cannot overstate. These are
probably two of the three best teams in the AFC.
And this was a super physical game for week one.
Listen, we're going to look at the tape. And
there was a lot of bad tape this defense put
out there. But I don't think you throw the baby
out with the bathwater. We've been saying for
years, how come McDermott doesn't play the young
guys, right? How come he doesn't let them take
their lump? They took a ton of lumps yesterday.
And because they've got a polished professional
alien, at quarterback on the offensive line,
that's going to buy those guys, I think, a longer
time to develop and a longer time to hit that
growth curve that we need them to hit. So it
is game one of 17. The defense looked bad, but
I would exercise patience before you start playing
fantasy football out on the waiver wire and seeing
what overpriced vets we can bring in, right?
Yeah, no, absolutely. I think it's a question.
It's like you said that between the safeties,
Certainly the corners and definitely the defensive
line Everybody playing together wasn't a thing
for any appreciable amount of the preseason.
It's they don't have they don't have reps together
They don't all have reps together. So and you
could tell from all that miscommunication Oh
my god, and it's gonna take it's gonna take a
minute and especially because I think that Dorian
strong being one a rookie and two then getting
the start against the Ravens and against the
root technician like say flowers He was just
getting his lunch eaten all day. But he did come
up and he came up and tried to lay a lick on
Derek, tried to lay a lick on Derek Henry a few
times and came over with a couple of tackles.
So he wasn't terrible. There's things to like
about him. It's a lot to be said that there are
players like Jamarcus Ingram on this roster who
have been in the system and he did not get replaced.
Throughout the throughout the whole the whole
game. So yes the code the coaching stuff is letting
these guys take their lumps And and I think to
like to your point that's something that we've
been super critical of McDermott for in the past
But yeah, he he kind of stuck with his men in
this one and gave them a chance Yeah, I would
very much like to see way less of AJ at Vanessa.
He his limited snaps were very poor Yes. Yes.
He did not much value added in this particular
game He is not a player that you like he's literally
an unplayable option against the Ravens He does
not like we've seen him against the Ravens and
multiple matchups He's never been the AJ open
as though they were like, oh man. All right,
that was a good play and it never never once
It just gets completely destroyed he does. He
does that. And that that's a dude that the bills
have given plenty of runway to develop and grow.
And, you know, there's been a lot of talk of,
you know, before Carter got her was Carter the
cut candidate. When Ogan Joby and Michael Hoy
came back, I, I think there is a world where
you just trade AJ epineza for whatever you can
get for him with his bag of salt balls. Ham sandwich,
right? But there is a world that when Hoyt is
ready to come back, there's a strong argument
that Eponeza should not be on the roster. Yes,
I agree with that. So we've kind of been all
over the map. Do you want to talk about our Lord
and Savior Josh Allen for a minute? Yeah, he's
awesome. I mean, what else can you really say?
I mean, I kind of talked about a little bit already,
like, and again, this is no shade of Joe Brady,
but what Josh saw developing on the field, he
went with, you know what I mean? Um, and he played,
listen, this was the, there was a lot of stuff
in this game where we're like, man, we've been
making the coaches to do some of this, like let
the young guys play. And maybe some of it too
much, you know, be careful what you wish for,
but to Josh was playing with pace in this. I
mean, part of it was because they didn't have
a lot of clock to work with in the second half
and they were down by so much. But like there
were points where that Baltimore Ravens defense
defensive line was absolutely gassed. Josh Allen
was going no huddle. He was going quick huddle.
He was keeping the pace of the game. flowing
and he is at his statistical and performance
best when he can operate a quick timing offense
like that. We've set it for forever. Josh is
great in all phases of the game. but he's as
least effective when he's stuck in the mud for
35 seconds trying to call out checks to his offensive
line. This was Josh literally making quick reads,
pre -snap, and slinging it. See it, sling it.
See it, sling it. Bam, bam, bam. Play every 24
seconds or less. Exactly. And a lot of people,
I've always, when people are like, oh, you know.
uh, why don't they just run that all the time?
Like Jay gun, you know, I, I, I caution people,
right? Like it's like, oh, they're like, NFL
has changed a little bit since those times. Like
that's not as effective today as you think it
would be. But then when that type of thing happens
in this game in the last five minutes, I'm like,
man, maybe they're on us, you know, because like
we've, we've all seen it as Bill's fans now for
years when he is in those two minute and short.
operation, you know, windows, he is basically
flawless. And so it's like, can we do this for
a whole game? Like, could we, but I get it. I
get that that's, and I'm, you know, it's the
same old thing we always say, like how much of
it is the coaches holding him back by doing things
the way they think they should be doing them?
And how much of it is like, oh, well in pressure
times you can apply turbo, but the tank is not
infinite, right? Like, yeah. Yes. And I mean,
keep in mind for speed reference. Yeah. Yes.
That's awesome, by the way. Um, a little bit
of NOS in the conversation, but, um, I mean,
also to keep in mind, again, be careful what
you wish for. They were doing this one playing
behind, uh, cause they needed to the bills using
this as a front running strategy. the quicker
they're off the field, the quicker the defense
is back on the field. And that's got to factor
into some of this equation too is why they don't
always run that J gun style no huddle offense.
Like there's got to be some sort of time of possession
strategy because your defense is just not there
yet. Just not there yet. Yep. So yeah, no, I
think that I for the receivers, Keon Coleman
with 100 yard game touchdown. He, he looks like
he could round into being a absolutely phenomenal
wide receiver too in the league right like I
don't think he's ever gonna achieve that kind
of big -time Justin Jefferson type role where
he's gonna get 12 to 15 targets every game because
he doesn't have that separation ability but he
he showed a lot like he definitely looked different
I'll say that he looked different from last year
he looked even better than the best he put on
He looked better than Keon Coleman against the
Seahawks, which you know is my, that's my like
bellwether of what is a good Keon Coleman game.
He looked better than that. So I was very, I
was very, very happy with him there. I think
that Khalil Shakir definitely looks like he's
got some rust to work off from coming, just coming
back for this being his first game action. And
we were both, you know, taking huge mega dumps
on Josh Palmer through the first three quarters.
But deservedly so. Yes. Deservedly so, because
we're like, oh, what do we spend all this money
on for somebody who looks like basically a practice
squad talent? Separation God. I know. And then
he showed up and did some amazing things. And
then just one more note on offensive talent.
I think that James Cook and Dalton Kincaid are
going to be major motors in this offense. Oh,
got you. Both. I mean, James Cook, we knew and
he looked the part right. We know he's not a
run into the teeth of the defense and the Ravens
defense is by poundage, one of the biggest in
the league. And so it was not going to be easy
for him and it certainly didn't look it. But
some of his catch and run, some of his ways to
like squirt through seams that didn't seem there,
seemed to be there. That dude is the dude. Yeah.
And then I think that, you know, a healthy Dolan
Kincaid could be really special. His god you
just see it when he catches the ball like his
his his smooth the smooth transition He makes
from point -of -catch Immediately into his run
like it's just he looks like a wide receiver
out there. It's wild. It's wild No, I mean offense
I think full of bright spots if the bills had
not been down 40 to 25 I think we have been like
man First week out, Josh hadn't played with the
squad, you know, guys battling injuries. 25 points
on this Ravens defense and still time to play
left in the fourth quarter. That's pretty good,
right? I think you're muted. Shit. All right.
You have to trim that or don't. Leave it. I don't
care. Blooper reel. Yeah, right. Yeah, that takes.
Yeah, no, I think we absolutely would have been
super happy with them like integrating some pieces
of this offense that we were waiting to see.
I struggled and I think I sent this to you in
the text, you know, while we were watching the
game that the Joe Brady like quick whip screens
to the outside. It's that was just that was the
Ravens. manufacturing the looks they wanted from
our offense by knowing how to line up. They basically,
they had his number. They're like, okay, if we,
if we have this sort of coverage look, Josh Allen's
gonna check to like the little whip screamed
outside. We're just gonna freaking, you know,
rally to the ball, tackle them for a loss. Rally
to the ball, tackle them for a short game. Next
thing you know, it's third and seven and we can
send all the art years back, right? Like that,
they gotta figure that out. I'm tired of that
because that's that's carried over from last
year. That was still happening in the AFC Championship
against Kansas City. Yep. There's a there's a
lot of carryover mistakes from last year. I think
they needed to iron out. Yeah. Again, though,
all of that being said, it's a huge benefit that
they are one to know with the benefit to work
on these things and in pole position already
and what is sure to be a competitive run for
the one seed in the AFC. And they get to work
on the mistakes from that position of power,
as opposed to being 0 -1 with a loss to a direct
competitor for that one seat of the Buffalo Ravens.
It is huge that the Chiefs lost, Ravens lost
to the Bills, and the rest of the AFC East lost.
That's crazy. It's the best start you want, and
now they have three of the next four at home.
Exactly, without a doubt. All right, man. Do
you want to quickly review our prediction sure
to go wrong? See where we landed? Yeah, sure.
The only one that we had in relation to this
particular game was a score prediction. Which
sucked. Yeah, we both were way under we thought
it was going to be under the 50 .5 and it ended
up being 81 points. So that was way off. And
then and then Dan picked against the Bills, Ravens
27, Bills 20. It was like that score in the second
quarter. Yeah, exactly. And then I picked for
the Bills with an even lower score of 2420. At
least I got the team right, but we were both,
you know, we were almost picking half the points
in the game. So, yeah, we were way, way off.
That's okay. We, you know, had some other prop
bets that were, you know, set for the whole season.
And I don't think... I think the only one that
matters for this game that kind of builds on
your, you know, cache is that the fifth prop
I put out was Dalton Cacade proves his worth
as T .E. Titan 1. You said you think he will,
and I said I don't think he will. And just with
the one game sample, I think he has so far proven
that he's capable of that, so. I would agree.
Yeah. I would agree. We almost skipped probably
the most important part, and that is... 57 -year
-old Matthew Prater. Had that on my bingo card.
Kicking the game winner. I mentioned in the Bill's
subreddit that he looks like a 50 -plus -year
-old man who spent way too much for the Halloween
party and bought a legit NFL jersey and whole
outfit, game -worn stuff. Because when he was
interviewed after the thing, I was like, that's...
That's somebody's grandpa. Is that a player?
Dude, he's our age. I know he's our old. That's
so old for the NFL. Dude, do you want to know
what my wife said to me after we posted the last
episode? I put some shorts on Instagram reels
and one of them popped up in her feed on Instagram
and she's like, oh, I'm like, what? She's like,
you and JJ are way too gray to be putting your
faces on YouTube. Well, my brother -in -law.
Brutal. That's rough. Yeah. My brother -in -law.
What's up, Jim? He asked me today, he's like,
what's the link for your podcast? I was like,
oh, here's the YouTube link. And here's a pod
only if it's just audio only. And I was like,
if you don't want to look at her ugly mugs, that's
probably the better option for you. Well, I say
this to your, I say this to your family and to
my wife. Uh, you know, over a thousand views
on YouTube will prove you wrong. So there you
go. Hey, there he wants to look at us. Even if
it's to mock. That's right. That's I assume that's
what 99 % of it is. And then the other 1 % arrived
at the page by mistake. So there you go. We'll
welcome them too. Hello fellow traveler. Oh Man
so glad we decided to settle in and talk about
this game JJ. It was a good one For you folks
listening at home, we are dropping this reaction
pod here on Monday We will be back to you with
our normally regularly scheduled pod drop on
Friday our pregame preview of bills versus jets
in week two But until then for all of you listening
at home like share and subscribe wherever you
get your podcast Unfortunately YouTube as we
have discussed Apple and Spotify and as always
go bills go bills