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I call it on that theory. Hey everybody, welcome Back to the Buffalo plus YouTube channel. Thanks for being with me today. As always, please make sure to like, comment and subscribe to the channel. This is our league podcast brought to you by Stellar Roofing Windows and Siding. Expect a stellar job every time I am here today. Dan and Jenna, veteran days off, getting ready for the playoffs. Don't worry, I'll get a little time off on Friday before we head out on Saturday and head down to Jacksonville. All three of us are going on the road. Of course, it's Buffalo plus, we gotta be there. We will be there Saturday. We'll be reporting from Jacksonville on Saturday and then the game on Sunday. We're doing our TV show that's for Rochester and Buffalo and areas of New York State that'll be live in the morning. At 10:30 on Sunday we're going to be doing live podcasts from down there also. So we'll be ready for all of that and we'll be ready to give you all the Bill's content we can. We are coming to you right now from the Connors and Ferris podcast studio. We're always thrilled to mention Connors and Ferris, a loyal first ever sponsor of the Buffalo Plus YouTube channel. We got a lot to talk about in this one. First of all, I am wearing, I'm going to do it this way. I am wearing some of the gear we have gotten from starter not available yet on the Buffalo plus store that is coming. But to give you an idea, so here's the hoodie. Sorry I lost the sound there for a second but wanted to show you. We love this stuff. Very comfortable. We're going to get it for you there so people will be able to get it not in the not too distant future. So that'll be kind of cool when we have that going on. So this is the league pod and it's playoff time. So I'm going to talk to you about what I think is going to happen in the playoffs or could happen in the playoffs. I'm going to talk to you about where the Bills are going into this and I know Dan and Jenna, the three of us are going to talk about this during the rest of the week and then also look back at a little history of Bills and Jags. It's, it's not good. And yeah, it's been in different countries, different locations, different everything and it usually hasn't, usually hasn't worked out well for the Bills. But that's here nor there as they get set for this playoff game. Coming up on Sunday. Also, I wanted to talk to you about something we're going to do. You may hear it on some other podcasts, but come on, this is Buffalo plus. We have Dan and Jenna and myself. We are going to do some life advice. So we're going to. When you have something, right, and we all have this, where you're like, what was I supposed to do? Maybe it involves the in laws, maybe it involves your kids, your neighbor, you know, maybe it's something at work, maybe it's somebody you deal with all the time. And you're like, what would Mike or Dan or Jenna do? Now, in all likelihood, the three of us would have different ways to approach most of these things, but we want to have a little fun, too. And so we're going to start that. So we're going to set something up. Just keep that in mind. If you run into that situation, you know, probably during the holidays, it might have happened where, you know, that uncle, you know, they say if you're not sure who that uncle is, you may be that uncle. I'm not that uncle, I'll tell you that. But sometimes that uncle who just annoys everybody or says something all the time to your wife or your husband or whatever it is, you're like, how do I handle this? Ask Buffalo Plus. So that is coming really soon. So we'll tell you when that is all set up. But I'm looking forward to it. I think it'll be kind of fun. That'll be part of our podcast, especially in the off season when, by the way, somebody on the channel said we're going to miss you guys during the house. No, no, no. Buffalo plus doesn't go away. And there is Bill's content 11 months a year, and we can even find something for the 12th. But you guys need a break from us, probably, right? Well, at least from Dan. Sorry, Dan. So we will have content all during the off season, too. But, you know, for the podcast, a little life advice from Buffalo Plus. So it'll be some email segments. We'll look forward to doing that. So keep that in mind. Bills play the Jags. I don't know if you've heard this, but the national narrative on Josh Allen is no excuses. They're in it. The big quarterbacks aren't no excuses for Josh Allen. I call bullshit on that theory. Now, the reason I do is not that there isn't pressure on Josh Allen, not that this quarterback is too good to not have been to a Super bowl to this point. We all know that I Don't like the term excuses at all. Dan and Jenna have heard me say it a million times. Jenna repeats it a lot because it's accurate. We're not and so does Dan. We are not talking about excuses. We're talking about reasons. They are different things. I guess sometimes they could be the same. But there is no excuses for Josh Allen. Josh Allen has been good enough to be in the Super Bowl. There have been reasons this team hasn't made it. Some are Patrick Mahomes, right, the Chiefs were just better or made bigger plays in the moment or Allen didn't come through. I mean, I'm not absolving him of every time. I mean, they did have the ball the last two times they played the Chiefs in the playoffs with a chance, some drop passes, guys not coming through, miraculous play. Kincaid couldn't come up with the ball. All those things have happened. But I don't like this idea that just because those guys aren't in the playoffs, this is it. Josh Allen has got to make it. Now, look, if they were the one seed or the two seed, heck, just a division winner, I might give you that. They're a six seed. They kind of earned that spot, right? They weren't good enough to beat out the Patriots. They lost to them early. They lost that Dolphins game. They allowed New England, I know their schedule, but they allowed New England to keep winning and win the division they earned being a wild card this year in their division. New England, record wise, was better than them. So they have that spot. But if the Bills were in that spot, you might be able to say, all right, Josh, you're going to be home for one, maybe two, who knows, maybe three games. And now you got to make it. Now, look, I still believe absolutely that this team can make it to the super bowl. And we'll talk more about the way it's going to play out. But I look at it and say it's going to be a heck of a run. Are we going to pretend that the Broncos were flat out better than the Chiefs this year? You know, I know Mahomes didn't make it. Maybe they were just exhausted. Maybe it just reached that point with them where it was going to fall apart at some point for the year. But Denver is a much better team this year and beat them. And so who are we kidding here? Now they don't have the playoff experience, but they're the number one seed. A week off and two home games, that's. They earned it. That's a nice spot to be. The Texans are A five seed. They have the best defense in the playoffs. Bill saw it firsthand. They're better than the Ravens or the Bengals. Right. I know they have Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson. Heck, I know Lamar dealt with a little bit during the year, but, I mean, they lost to the Patriots late in the year. They lost to the Steelers twice. They weren't good enough. That's why they're not in the playoffs. It's not like the league kept them out. Burrows always hurt, their defense stinks. The Ravens blow big leads all the time. And the Chiefs just ran out of gas. I don't mean specifically this year. I mean, give them that. They've played a lot of football, and this year it just didn't happen for them. So those teams are out. But to almost pretend like it's. It's preordained that Josh is going to walk to the Super Bowl. He's had easier routes, really. I would say simpler, I guess. You know, home games and then the Chiefs. Right. That does make your life better and easier. They didn't get that this year. So. Reasons, not excuses. Put that on a coffee mug. Because I believe in that. I do believe there are reasons that teams fail, but they're not excuses. Like it was the ref's fault or, you know, somebody cheated or whatever. No. So you're going to hear it all the time. And the more they win, if they win, they win on Sunday, it's going to be all right. Now, Josh, you got to go to Denver. Yeah. There's pressure on them to do it, but this idea that they are now what. It's. It's super bowl or bust. When you're a six seed. I think that's a bit much. Let's see how it plays out. I do want to go over the Bill's history with this team, the Jags, and you know, the ones people always remember. I remember 1996 Jags expansion team, Tom Coughlin, the coach, they came into Orchard park and beat the Bells. Jim Kelly got knocked out of that game. That was his last ever game. That Jaguars team lost to Denver could very well have made the Super Bowl. They had a lot of talent on that team and they played really well. And they came in and were physical and beat the Bills. And so that was this Jags team. Like, after all the stuff the Bills had been through, to lose at home, like, that was the only home loss that the Bills had during that run of playoff games. Because think about it. You know, they lost in the AFC Championship, they lost at Cleveland. Then they Lost in the AFC championship game the next year or the year before them. Sorry. They lost to the Bengals in the AFC championship game and then they lost at Cleveland. Two road games. Then they were winning home games, winning road games. The only losses unfortunately were there in the Super Bowl. And then they ended up losing to the Jaguars and got knocked out. And that was Jim's last game. So that was against the Jags. And then, you know, they have Music City Miracle. Then they go 17 years without the playoffs. And who's waiting for him in Jacksonville? The Jags, with Doug Marone as the head coach. That game was just. I mean it was. It was a boring game to be quite honest. Bill's defense played really well. Tyrod was the quarterback. It was the excitement of being there at the way they broke the drought. Kyle Williams getting to finally play in a playoff game, it was great. Leading up to it, game was kind of a dud. Bill's defense played well. They gave up a fourth down touchdown to some guy would never caught a pass before. And they just couldn't get it in the end zone. Late in the game they were down 10, three, started to drive. Tyrod got hit, slammed to the turf, got a concussion. Nate Peterman came out, converted on a fourth down and then threw a pick to Jalen Ramsey who made a great play on it. And that ended the game. They lost 10 to three. But there's been some other wild ones in the history of these two teams. So 1998, the Flutie Bootleg game. It was in the middle of Flutie mania. They were down deep. I think Flutie did it on his own. I think he even told us that. He liked to tell us stuff like that. Bootleg scurries into the end zone. They win it on the last play. Tremendous. 2004 was the first game of the season. I remember this game. I was trying to remember the exact year Bills lost Byron Leftwich to Ernest Wilford on the last play of the game. How about that? Well, back to 2001 was Greg Williams first ever game for the first ever season for the Bills. They were 0 4. Rob Johnson and company went to Jacksonville and won to give Greg his first win that season. The Bills won there that Thursday night. I think back then the games were really lame on Thursday nights. It was just like people were excited to watch football because they gave you Bills Jags that year. And so they won that game down in Jacksonville. 2006, Ryan Lindell at the buzzer. Lindell kicked for this team for a long time. I think it was close to 10 years. I. I had to look back at that. They had one at the buzzer. 2008, late touchdown. The Bills won. Trent Edwards to James Hardy. James Hardy was a Bills wide receiver. Died very young. Tragic life for him. Made that play in that in the game in 2008. I might have had the years wrong there in 2008. You may remember this one fits to to 98 yards for the touchdown. It can still seem running left to right to the end zone for the score. 98 yards. But David Garage threw a late touchdown pass. They lost that game. Then you finally go to London. Bill's getting their trip to London to play against the Jags. Rex is the coach. Team spends the week there. Rex and the coaches seem to enjoy themselves. Tyrod was hurt. EJ played. We all love ej. Great dude. Good on tv was not good in London. They were winning and then he had three turnovers and it felt like a minute. It somebody will know this. Maybe it's a minute and a half. Turnover, turnover, turnover. They fell behind. They came back. Nicole Roby. Coleman got called for a bad pass interference call late and the Jags ended up beating them. We talked about the playoff game 2018. The Bills went to Jacksonville or no, it was a home game against Jacksonville and beat them. McDermott beat Marone. Josh was. Josh was a rookie. 8 of 19 for 160 yards. But the Bills won that one. I'm saying this without Dan here. He's going to talk about Dan and I speak of the 21 game all the time. From that moment on, we just kept saying, I can't believe they lost this game. I still think the Bills are going to win it. That is our joke. We're going to stick with it. They lost nine to six. Josh with three turnovers. Josh Heinz Allen now destroyed the Bills offense in that game. He was all over the place. Had an interception, a sack. Josh had the three turnovers. They threw 47 passes, 260 yards and they lost to Urban Meyer. Urban Myers had a lot of success in his life. Actually does a podcast for the same company that owns us. Good for Urban. He was a terrible coach in the NFL. That was a mess. Went back to London against the Jags again. Everybody got hurt in that game. Kyrie Elam got torched late in that game. Bills lost. Ugly game. Bad trip to London. The Bills went late. You know, remember it was only a few years ago and they were like, this is the best way to handle it. They look sluggish. They lost the game. I Do remember after that game leaving the media room, Jenna and I late heading back to wherever, going to dinner or whatever. And that's the first time I saw Mrs. Josh Allen in person. She and Josh were walking out to the well, he was going to the bus to go to the airport. I'm sure she had her own transportation to go. But he and Hailee Steinfeld, they were kind of behind us. You ever been in that spot where you see people all the time, but then when you see him in a different setting, you're like, I don't want to make eye contact. It's seems weird. That's what we both did. We just sort of moved along, let them go and then that was it. There's my TMZ moment. Entertainment Tonight for you. And then they played last year in Buffalo and the Bills blew them out. Blew them out. It's a different Jags team now. This team, as you know, is, is much, much better. So it is, it's going to be a challenge. And so, you know, we spoke, there's a, we have a video on here for the what they're saying in Jacksonville with Brent Martineau and he's covered the team forever. He really knows what's going on with the Jags. He told us about how different they are this year. Culture, new head coach. We got some players are playing up, some young guys are starting to really play better. The quarterback so much better. So it's a much different team than the one the Bills blew out last year. It is going to be a challenge and we're going to be breaking down the game all week long. I, I always try to take a step back when I look at these games. My initial thought is always, I think the Bills are going to win. They've got Josh Allen, they've got more experience. All those things I still do, but kind of don't like Max Hairston being out just because of the speed. You know, they cannot afford to lose a corner in a game now. We saw what happened in the championship game last year. Just really tough to lose Max the way they did. By the way, you heard Sean McDermott in the post game or excuse me, in the media session if you didn't. He was asked about that and having Max out there. He said they considered putting a non defensive player or just another position player out at corner late in the game. Maybe they just should have done that, gotten Max off the field. Then he ends up getting hurt with the ankle. But he referenced them only having the three corners on the 53. You know, because that was when Brandon Bean claimed Darius Slay. Then they ended up having to drop jamarcus Ingram. They lost that player. He's on the Texans. They didn't have another corner. That doesn't mean jamarcus Ingram is a great player for them at corner, but he would have been playing corner Sunday. So that's a tough one because you lose that guy for this game and they have some speed on this team. But when I look at the playoffs now, we're not going to do top five, bottom five, because, you know, we're in the playoffs now. I think all six wild cards can win, and I don't think it would be crazy. There's got to be a place to bet for that, right? There's got to be where you just say, I'm taking all the wild cards in this one. I'm taking all of them to beat the division winners that are playing. When you look at it. Well, let's start with some of the other games, obviously. Well, you got the Bills and the Jags. Bills are favored by a point and a half. Then you have games like fives and fours. It's like the Rams and the Panthers in the nfc, just like the Texans and the Steelers. I think most of us, not all of us certainly would believe that the Rams are the better team and the Texans are the better team. So they wouldn't even be big upsets. Can the packers beat the Bears in the nfc? Absolutely. Division rivals. They should have beaten them a couple of weeks ago. Lost to him in overtime. I know that Eagles team. I think the Niners are going to give them everything they want in that game. And if the Niners get anything out of their defense, I think they absolutely can win that game. And in the afc, you know, you look at it and you say Chargers, Patriots. I don't know what the weather is supposed to be. I know it's supposed to be milder in western New York. I don't know about New England. The Chargers weakness is their offensive line. I don't think the pass rush and the defensive line is the strength of the Patriots. So we'll see how much that factors into this game. But I don't think really that all six would win. But it'd be worth throwing a couple bucks on that to see if it could happen, especially if you want to bet on the Bills. And I'd also say both number one seeds to me are vulnerable. I think the Broncos are a really good team. Bo Nix has played well, but they have limited playoff experience. Was in Orchard Park. Bills blew him out. Now they're sitting there as the one seed. They're going to be waiting. Could be the Bills going there if they win and go in there next week. And on the NFC side, Seattle's really good, great defense. But we've already seen how tight they are with both the Rams and the Niners. Right. And I would think if the Eagles play them, it'd be a total rock flight fight in a game. So I think all of those teams are vulnerable. So it is wide open. But as we said, you know, Josh Allen has to make it this year because he's out of excuses. So take that for what you want. I just, I don't like all that going on. Josh Allen, look, there's pressure on, obviously there's pressure on McDermott, there's pressure on Allen, pressure on Brandon Bean, there's pressure on the entire organization. They got to win. They haven't won a road playoff game. We talked about that. Kansas City for a bunch of them early. Josh, this game against the Jags, you know, those are the games they've lost, right? Kansas City and you know, the Houston game in 2019, the Jags before Josh was there for this group. So they've been tough. But hey, you're gonna have to win. You're gonna have to win three to get there. Unless the Chargers win a couple of games. Imagine that. Six, seven. Back at Highmark Stadium. A year of six, seven. Why not? Maybe that could happen. Anyhow, I'm pontificating a little today, but you guys know me, you know that's the case. So that's going to do it for me today. As always, please make sure to like, comment and subscribe. This is the league podcast brought to you by Stellar Roofing Windows and Siding. There is our sponsor. Expect a stellar job every time. Coming to you from the Connors and Ferris podcast studio. We will be at practice. Depending on when you're watching this, we will be at practice on Wednesday. We will have our live podcast on Thursday. We will have content on Friday. We will be, we will have content from Jacksonville on Saturday and then obviously you know the post game podcast for you on Sunday. If you can get the TV show 10:30 in the morning, Fox affiliates in Buffalo and Rochester might be online. We'll see if that's the case for you on Sunday leading up to the one o' clock start. All right, that's going to do it for me, for our team. Dan Fates and Jana Cottrell, I'm Mike Catalana. Thanks for watching Buffalo plus and we'll see you.