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Buffalo Plus: A Buffalo Bills podcast
Bills find a way, get a win now go back to Detroit for a bigger challenge
00:16:26
Bills find a way to get to Detroit and win
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- [00:00]
Mike Catalana
Foreign. Welcome back to the Buffalo plus podcast. Please make sure to rate us like us. Download the podcast, tell your friends about it. We appreciate it. Now, normally, you know, I'm here, Mike Catalana, along with Dan or Jenna, but this is a strange week for everybody. Travel, travel to Detroit, coming back, heading back to Detroit, all those things. So it's going to be just me talking with you for a little while as we sort of recap what happened in Detroit and look forward to what's going to happen in Detroit in the next game. So let's sit back and talk and, well, I guess in this case, I'll talk and you guys will get a chance to listen to my thoughts on what happened. What a strange turn of events to have that team make it to Detroit and then play a game. And I'm watching the first half of the game, and I'm thinking to myself, boy, they look sloppy. And this is off kilter. And Josh is throwing high and the run defense isn't there, and they're missing on those slip screens and they're giving up yardage. And it hit me at about halftime, I'm like, well, I think there was some reasons behind that. I mean, not only was this team with no practice or limited practice, not only are they banged up in general, but there's some sort of sickness going through the team. Now, those are reasons, not excuses. I say that all the time. You got to go out and play. And they did. But that first half was odd. And I thought, and some of you mentioned it, that Josh just didn't look like he had his same normal energy. And then it came back. Um, I think it was the drive and the touchdown to digs that got him going. And you saw it. McDermott on the sideline, sitting there with Diggs, talking to him. That's what a head coach does. I know people love to criticize Sean McDermott for every strategic move he makes during a game. He makes mistakes. That's what happens in the NFL. But the biggest thing an NFL coach can have is a connection with his players. The other stuff, there's talented people, there's talented coaches around. They're going to do some well, some not well. But you hear Stefon Diggs after the game, he was talking to NFL Network, and he said, sean, always. He said, our coach always knows the right thing to say. And I think he was, you know, frustrated, like a lot of people. I don't think there's anything between Diggs and Josh other than he wasn't getting the ball. Wasn't getting targeted. The offense wasn't moving and you could tell it was almost a. Okay, take a break, settle down. The ball's coming your way. You know it is. And then they have that drive where a forgotten play in that drive was the little dump off to Dawson Knox. Poorly thrown ball, but he reels it in. It takes it for the first down. It got him going. They move down the field, then he hits Diggs for the touchdown. Diggs is open. It's just a laser throw by Allen. He put his entire body. This will be the only time I ever compare throws by Josh Allen to Ryan Fitzpatrick because you know how Fitz used to throw and it looked, seemed like it took his whole body to throw it. Allen just curls his body and lets it rip and it's a touchdown and it's right before the half. So after all the issues they had, they went into halftime with the lead and Allen talked about it after the game, you know, yes, it was good. Yes, it was good. They got a touchdown in the second half with the offense. Yes, it was good. They showed flashes of that. But you know, this game did not make anybody feel like everything with the offense is ready to go. A lot to clean up. You know, the, the feeling that we have right now, we still don't feel like we played very well, but it goes to show you playing smart football. We put up 31 points and didn't, didn't play up to our standard. Now it is interesting about the run game and look, I've seen all the analytics, you know, and all the numbers that tell you the Browns are a lousy run defense team. They, they are. But you can go against a lousy run defense team and still not run the ball effectively. The Bills didn't do that. They did both. James Cook, Devin Singletary with 86 yards, both were really impactful in the run game. They ran it in the red zone again. They ran it when they needed to to run the clock and move the football. I thought that was by far James Cook's best all around game. I don't think there's any doubt about that. And you know, I, I enjoy analytics. I think it's a huge part of the game. I think it makes the game better in terms of preparation. Teams know what they should do and why, but you know, the analytics don't tell the whole story. This football game, the game in the NFL can be messy, it can be violent, it can be, you know, disorganized to some extent. It is big, fast, people playing in a row, relatively tight. Space. And sometimes I think when we all take that view, whether you're watching on tv, in my case, maybe when you're watching from the press box. But I've seen many games from the sidelines. You realize that it's not a video game. You're not just picking what it is, and it just happens. Those passes seem simple. Oh, just get it to the guy in the. In the slot. Yeah, okay. But there's a defender with his hand up in front of you or there's somebody coming from your backside. You feel pressure and you didn't make the pass correctly at the time. And now you've got pressure coming both ways. I mean, those things happen. So when I see right away. And again, I understand that the numbers make you not overreact to the fact that the Bills ran the ball well. But there was a Hall of Fame baseball player. He was a great player when I was a kid growing up and he made the hall of Fame. His name is Mike Schmidt, and he used to talk about what it's like playing in Philadelphia and the media was really tough. And he used to say, it's about the thrill of victory and the agony of reading about it the next day in the paper. And everybody laughed. Well, most of the writers didn't laugh, but it's sort of the case. Like you think it was good until somebody tells you it's not. And I'm going to say that a little bit about analytics, and I'm not again, talking about using them. I'm talking about diminishing results strictly on analytics. Again, it helps to not predict further outcomes. You play against better run defense teams. It's a bigger challenge. It doesn't mean you're going to do that all the time, but sometimes we can just say, hey, the Bills committed to running the ball with these two guys. The Browns knew it was coming at times and they still did a good job, even though the Browns are not a good run defense. So there's my case of enjoy the moment, don't overthink it, but if you keep running it better, which is how Josh Allen got out of his slump mid season last year when they started running it better and then he just took off. I think that in itself is an encouraging sign that they ran the football better. So that was good. And then on the other side, you had to stop the run. And you know, Nick Chubb is a phenomenal player. He should be the Browns option. I will say Jacoby Brissette was throwing the ball pretty well. They were mixing it up well, but you'd thought they just pound you with Nick Chubb in the backfield and say, go ahead and stop. And I know Jacoby Brissette's got a lot of, you know, sneaks for first down and all you got, you got Nick Chubb. And I joked during the game, I said, hey, you know, if you guys aren't going to use Nick Chubb, leave him here in Detroit. The Bills will take him on Thursday and play him against the Lions. You know, he should be getting the ball more. But the Bills, when he did get it, he got 19 carries or 14 carries in the game. Excuse me, for 19 yards. That's fantastic. And Vaughn, Vaughn likes to talk. Von likes to talk about a lot of subjects. And he's been telling everybody about the run defense and getting it right. And at least for this day, they got it right.
- [07:53]
Von
You know, I think the faith in this defense and what we do has never been shaken. You know, I came up here the last two weeks and I said, hey, you know, we gonna be good after Green Bay. You know, they ran on us, the jets ran on us, and, you know, Minnesota ran on us. It was like, hey, it's no panic. And I'm just proud of my guys for not panicking and really hunkering down and, you know, buying into what we do. And, you know, it showed today.
- [08:16]
Mike Catalana
So now they'll get ready the defense to play against the Detroit Lions coming up. And that's going to be an interesting game. And the one thing we want to see for sure is, you know, is Jordan Poyer okay to come back? Because, you know, he got on the field, which is great, didn't seem to have any issues, but man, it has been an effort to get that guy back on the field and he's put into it. And I was thinking about Poyer and I'm like, wow, the Guy took a 15 hour ride in a car or van to Kansas City to play in a game. And he probably thought, that's going to be the weirdest experience of getting to a football game and playing. And then he has this nuttiness getting out of Orchard park where he said, you know, he didn't like the snow, his daughter does. But getting out of Orchard park and getting to the game and he's playing with what has to be painful in that elbow. He can't totally straighten it out. I mean, it's, you know, Jenna just says, let's be honest, it's disgusting, this big knot on his elbow. But he played. So I asked him about what it's like for a guy who'll do anything, anything possible to get on the field, to miss games and then return to.
- [09:23]
Jordan Poyer
The field, you know, it's always hard watching, especially when you, you know, all you can kind of do is coach, help, help the other guys and kind of tell them what you see. You know, I love this game. I love my teammates, I love playing, I love playing in the NFL and, and I extremely just enjoy the process, you know, leading, leading up into the game. The game is, it's game day. You know, it's, it's what you, what you live for, what you play for. And you just get to go out there and have fun and play with your teammates. And, you know, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. You learn to bounce back and you move forward and, you know, we won today. We'll learn from it and move on.
- [09:59]
Mike Catalana
I've said this to you guys before, it's going to be fascinating with Poyer at the end of the year. What they do, contract wise, you can't ask a guy to do more. It's a shame that they as an organization could look at it and say he's nicked up, he's dealing with injuries, he's in his 30s. The guy's been so durable since he's been in Buffalo. And then this year, some bad luck the way he's gotten hurt. But boy, when he's on the field, he's a difference maker. And another guy like that who doesn't talk a lot, doesn't say much, but man, is he a good football player, is Matt Milano. I said he tackles violently, he plays that way, he explodes to the ball carrier, the quarterback, whoever he's going to hit. He's so important to that defense and you could see it when he's out on the field. And look, they miss Edmonds too. You know, we don't have to discuss how great is Edmonds. Should they resign him? To say they miss Tremaine Edmonds when he's on the field, when they had both of them off, it's really bad. But getting Milano back was huge in the game and he made big play after big play. Scoops up the fumble again, had a big sack in the game. You look, there he is, 58's making a play and he did so. Those were all positives. The coming back quick and playing against the Lions is not a positive. On the plus side, as opposed to the Browns, who had more days of practice, maybe certainly had an easier approach. Both the Bills and the Lions played quote on the road On Sunday, it's funny, their Lions was an actual road game. The Bills were at their home, considered a home game, but, you know, at the Lions. Home. But yet they flew and they flew back. So as I look ahead to that Lions game, I think it's going to be tough. I think it's going to be a battle. And I think the Bills are battling with themselves a little bit, just physically playing that game on odd rest. I mean, how much sleep did guys get? They're not practicing. The routine is off. Like, I know they got back in their beds. Maybe they get the rest. They go through really one practice this week on Tuesday, and then get back at it. And look, the Lions are one of those teams that scare you. I don't think they're going to the playoffs. I think it would take a lot. You never know, right? They're making a little bit of a run here. They've won three in a row. They were physically better than the Giants in the cold outdoors in Jersey, and they did it. And if you're them, you've won three straight. You're feeling good, you're feeling like you're on a playoff run, whether you are or you aren't. They've got ST Brown, a wide receiver. I love that kid. And Jared Goff has done enough. You know, he hasn't hurt his team in most games, so he's done enough. And when you look at their defense, Aiden Hutchinson has been really good. And, you know, he's probably in line, I would think, to win defensive rookie of the Year. He's impactful in the past game, certainly dropped back in coverage, had an interception. He's an athlete. He's had a couple of them. He had the one, you know, he really fooled Aaron Rodgers dropping back and got that pick. He had another one, Daniel Jones. But Jones has been doing a good job of protecting the ball, and that guy can wreck it. He can wreck your game plan. He looks like he's going to be one of those guys, so. And they've got Dan Campbell, a coach and, come on, you know, a little cartoonish and all, but like I said with McDermott, to whatever extent, it does appear the players are buying into what he's saying. They're trusting him and they're playing hard. And if anybody knows in Detroit, football wise, they don't get a lot of attention. They have been a irrelevant franchise in this league, except on Thanksgiving when they get to play and they hear from people, they'll be like, why do the Lions play every Thursday, Thanksgiving, you know, Usually the early game there on Thanksgiving, it's been the tradition and they've done it, but it's a big deal for them. I was talking to people in Detroit on Sunday. They're so excited. They're welcoming all of us back. They're like, can't wait to see you guys again and to come back. But that team is going to be fired up to play the Bills. Them knocking off Buffalo on national TV would be obviously the signature win for Dan Campbell this year. Just because it's, you know, that game in Detroit, you know, you want to play well and you want to show off well on Thanksgiving. So, you know, it's going to be interesting now. You know, we drive to Detroit when we go, the team flies. Most of the reporters, certainly anybody in Buffalo, Rochester, they drive, we drive through, get to Detroit. So Dan Fates and I will be making the trip back. Janet and I made the trip. We really avoided the snow. You know, it's crazy the way it was in Buffalo. We avoided the snow because the north towns, as they say, were. They weren't hit very hard on Saturday. We cruise through and even coming back, it was all plowed. It was fine coming back. Hopefully it looks like it's gonna be a little warmer outside, a little rain. So as far as travel is concerned, not a thing made total sense for the Bills to leave. They want to stay in Detroit a few days. Players had to take care of their lives, get themselves acclimated, get their treatment, get a regular practice in, and then fly back on Wednesday. So we're excited to go back. I know IMS is 3 times in 4 years to see a Thanksgiving game. I'll be kind of done with Thanksgiving at that point. Like, you know, three times in four years. You know, not around family on that day, except my Buffalo plus family and going. But yeah, if we'll play in all the time slots, I'm sure the Bills will do better numbers than most teams do in that early game. So it's going to be fun to see. So Dan and I will be there. Jenna will be back in the studio in Rochester, so she'll be able to contribute to all of our coverage. So make sure you check it out. Make sure you go on the Buffalo Plus YouTube channel, certainly make sure you comment and rate and subscribe or download this podcast, because we'll put this together every week. There'll be a new version, post game version of this podcast available on Friday morning. So while you're getting ready for your leftovers on Friday, settling down to watch some college games, whatever you're doing, taking a walk. Because we all need it that day. Listen to this podcast and we'll get a chance to talk to you about the Buffalo Bills. All right, so that's gonna do it for me. Thanks for hanging with me. Sorry it was a solo show this week, but, you know, crazy schedules during the holidays, so we will check you next time on the Buffalo Plus Channel, brought to you by Connors and Ferris.