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What they're saying in HOUSTON about BILLS vs TEXANS with Seth Payne
00:40:07
Bills vs Texans preview with Seth Payne in Houston
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- [00:00]
Seth Payne
I. I do wonder if he becomes kind of this guy who right now is being looked at as a very reliable and steady veteran wide receiver, but he's not putting up electrifying numbers. I don't know if he's ready to embrace that role.
- [00:22]
Mike
Hey, everybody. Welcome Back to the Buffalo Plus YouTube channel, presented by Connors and. And Farris. As always, please make sure to, like, comment and subscribe. We're getting ready for a trip down to Houston to see the Texans this week, and we have with us a former Western New Yorker, former NFL player who knows all about these football teams, especially the Houston Texans. Let's welcome in Seth Payne. Seth, thanks for being with us.
- [00:46]
Seth Payne
Hey, my pleasure. It's good to see you, Mike. I just. It's a. I used to think of you as a guy who was a lot older than me and you're not aging. I'm either aging really poorly or you're doing really well, so. Yeah.
- [00:57]
Mike
Well, I appreciate the compliment. Seth is a former Section 5 football player. A lot of people in the Buffalo area certainly know about Victor High School there. Ended up playing at Cornell in the league for over a decade. Play with the Texans and the Jags. Been all over the place. By the way, I was looking at your pro football reference today. You scored two points. You had a safety, right?
- [01:17]
Seth Payne
Yeah, I did. Yeah. It was. It was the first Texans game ever versus the Cowboys, and we ended up winning that game. It was a huge. It was. It was a huge upset, obviously. First. First team in expansion history. And. And that's funny. It was one of those plays where you hear about people sometimes they don't remember a play afterwards. You hear from running backs a lot. They just kind of go unconscious. I've never been like that. But for that. That sack, I got to the sideline where I was informed that I'd gotten the safety. Like, I had zero clue. I just knew that everybody was cheering and happy and there was a safety. And I ran off and. And I said, who got that?
- [01:52]
Mike
Like, I remember that game because I had a survivor pool with a bunch of people, and that knocked out about three quarters of the pool that first week. You guys were pretty big underdogs in that one. All right, let's get talking about this game. And yes, Bill's fans know at some point we're going to talk about Stefon Diggs and how things are going for him and what we can expect. But let's start with the quarterback. Everybody got a good look at CJ Stroud last year where he just Developed quickly and looked like he can be that guy. It's year two. It's four games in. The numbers look good. You don't see rookies look as poised and in control as Stroud did last year. Does he look the same, anything different to you now that everybody's got more tape and the expectations are higher?
- [02:40]
Seth Payne
Yeah, I think that some of what you're seeing this year is what you're seeing around the league. Teams are just saying, you know what? We're going to take away the deep ball. We're going to play a lot of COVID to. The Texans are facing cover two, three times more often than they did last year. So for CJ the challenge has really been like it is for a lot of young quarterbacks that have an appetite for the deep ball. Just being really patient and taking your time and hitting the checkdowns. And by young quarterback standards, I think he's done a good job of that. But this. This hasn't been the constant highlight reel that I think people would have expected when you've got three potentially very menacing receivers on the team all at once. So a big part of it right now is that CJ Is playing well. They're not electrifying numbers. This last week, it took until the last touchdown drive where they just surgically put together a really good offensive drive. But taking it in small bits along the way. The biggest thing right now, if you point to what might be holding C.J. back, other than just the way defenses are playing him, is that Joe Mixon's been injured since week one. And you know this, the offensive coordinator, Bobby Slow, it comes from San Francisco, a lot of the same philosophies and everything else. They want to be able to run the ball, and they just have not consistently run the ball effectively. And it's. It's kind of. It's thrown a wrench into the whole process with the way they want to operate this offense.
- [04:02]
Mike
Yeah, with Stroud, that can be a frustrating thing, especially if you haven't seen it as much. You talk about that in the league and needing patience sometimes. That's hard for the veteran quarterbacks, too. Has he talked about that? Is that or. I know it's just the league wide thing, but it does change a mentality when you go into a game knowing that they're going to want to have you go eight plays, nine plays, ten plays and hope you make a mistake as opposed to the big hitter down the field.
- [04:30]
Seth Payne
Yeah, he's been really mature about it. He talked about it in the off season. He Talked about it during training camp. Just the psychology of it. Because, you know, it's one thing to know it academically, but then it's another thing to actually be out there and be trailing in a game and knowing that you just got to bide your time. The, the other thing that I should have mentioned, aside from having just a very unreliable run game at this point, and Joe Mixon is probably going to be back this week, if I had to bet he's going to be back this week, is that they've just, they've crushed themselves with penalties. And it's one of those things, you know, sometimes some of the, some of the best teams in the league will also have a lot of penalties, but these are absurdly ridiculous. False starts, illegal alignment before the snap, like all of these little procedural things that are just dumb penalties that's knocking the Texans back into third and long a lot. So the third down conversion hasn't been great for the Texans this year. Part of it is that they've just been shooting themselves in the foot so much. And yeah, like CJ CJ has never looked in any of these first four games. Even though the three victories have been way tighter than it feels like they should have been on paper, I don't think it looks like he's been pressing. I don't think he's trying to extend plays, you know, freakishly long or habitually too long. But he's like any quarterback, you got to find that balance, you know, taking your shots downfield, but also just taking what the defense gives you.
- [05:50]
Mike
How good's Nico Collins? I mean, look at the numbers. I mean, and I think it's hard to put people in that spot. Right. When you think about Jefferson and you think about Jamar Chase and who are A.J. brown, who are the number one guys? I mean, is there anybody better than him right now in the league?
- [06:12]
Seth Payne
It's, boy, it's early. I mean, yeah, he's on pace for ridiculous however many yards, I would say. I think he's, he's working his way up into if he can sustain this, he's a top five receiver. And I think the cool thing about it is that look, yeah, they're seeing a lot of COVID too. And you know, everybody is acting like cover two is just invented last year or something. There have been good wide receivers in eras where almost everybody is playing cover two, but they tended to be the more conventional looking X type receivers, big strong guys that can take advantage of spaces and zones and everything else. And you see that with Nico over The middle catching the ball in stride, especially with CJ Stroud throwing in the ball. He's been very, very effective in that regard. But then, you know, the old seam shots down the middle in between the safeties and cover two, they hit him with that last year or last week. So I don't want to say he's scheme proof, but he's been steadily churning out production no matter what defenses they're facing. Other than, you know, and the Vikings. Yeah, like the Vikings defense is for real. I went in thinking like, ah, this is a lot of window dressing, man. They're. They're for real. But it's. Yeah, he's just, he's so big and so dependable, but also he's got CJ throwing him a ball. So that's really the one thing they've been able to hang their hat on so far.
- [07:37]
Mike
30 catches, 25 first downs, two touchdowns, 16 yards a game. Pretty good. As far as the COVID two goes. A Commissioner Mel Kuiper wants to get rid of it.
- [07:46]
Seth Payne
Are.
- [07:46]
Mike
Are we. You think that'll happen? Since Mel said they should get rid of COVID 2 defense and go ahead.
- [07:52]
Seth Payne
There's a part. This is where the rubber meets the road. Like I'd like to think I'm kind of old school meathead. Like. Yeah, teams are. Teams need to run the ball more. But we know what it is. The passing game is more exciting and entertaining and it's moving that way. I think the pendulum always swings. If you look at these two defenses, both the Bills and the Texans, they're kind of lighter. You know, they're. They in the D, in the back seven. They're athletic and they can move. But the Texans, I mean, they've. They've been a nickel and dime the entire season. They've got like, for instance, they've got two linebackers who have taken snaps on defense. There's a third. The guy that's in third place has one snap on defense. So they're always out there. Yeah. With five defensive backs and it shows up sometimes versus the run, you know, And I think likewise, some of these defenses are going to start swinging back the other way. Running backs might start getting paid a little bit more. I think it just, it's that pendulum that always swings between schemes and matchups and everything else like that.
- [08:47]
Mike
Yeah, well, the Bills have always. Basically their base defense, when Taron Johnson's healthy, is, is to play nickel and have him in the slot and maybe he's back this week. All right, let's. Let's continue with the wide receivers. Full disclosure here. I really like Diggs. I thought he was great for the Bills, I thought he was great for Josh Allen. But I do wonder because, you know, non stop we would hear was he this, was he that I would hear people say I heard he was a cancer on the team and all this stuff. I think he's an outstanding player. I think he works hard. I think he's all those things. My sense was he just kind of wears on people a little bit and, and after a while it changes and he goes to the next place. I know he's playing well. It looks like he's fit in the role that I would think Houston would want him in. What have you seen, what have you heard so far about Diggs and what's going on with he and the Texans?
- [09:44]
Seth Payne
I mean as far as on the fitting in, in the locker room side of everything and him being a leader, it's all been, it's all been really, really good. He said the right things. After these games after the Minnesota Vikings loss and just even after some of the offensive performances where our wins where the offense wasn't that good, he's saying all the right things. And yeah, look, I listened to and read enough from everybody in Buffalo and Rochester about the digs experience to where I think shelf life is probably the right word and especially the dynamics between him and Josh. I could see where it just over time was time for Josh to, you know, live on his own without his big brother. It was time for Josh to become the way he's played for the most part this season. And I think the biggest thing in Houston is he's on a one year deal. You know, they just, they flat out said, look, we know how the businesses conducted this, this in the modern NFL and if he doesn't have any guaranteed money left, it's going to be some kind of renegotiation. So they just lopped off the rest of the contract. And I think if you look at the track record of Minnesota or Buffalo, he's a okay after, you know, for the first year or two. So I'm not, I'm not really overly concerned about it. I, I do wonder if he becomes kind of this guy who right now is being looked at as a very reliable and steady veteran wide receiver, but he's not putting up electrifying numbers. I don't know if he's ready to embrace that role. But I also think the, the carrot on the stick of being a free agent at the end of the year and him knowing that, look He. He knows what his reputation is, I think. I think he's going to. I don't want to say toe the line because he's been doing everything really well, like he's helping everybody. Everything that people in Buffalo still say about him, how hard he practices and everything. We've seen the very best part of. Of Stefan Diggs off the field, but it's. I'd be lying if it doesn't enter my mind, you know, after an ugly loss or after. Stefan Diggs doesn't have a lot of. A lot of production in a game. Like, okay, let's. Let's just keep thinking that's a give this thing ascending. Right. You know, let's not get this thing out of hand.
- [11:45]
Mike
Yeah. I mean, he's a productive player, always has been. And you know what happens with the Bills? They have the theory everybody eats, which sounds great. When everything's going well. And I think it's pretty obvious if he walked back into Buffalo, he's the number one guy as great as Shakir or very well as Shakir has played. It still digs. It doesn't mean that's what you want, but at a certain point, you know, you miss it when it's gone after games like they had in Baltimore. I want to stick with your wide receivers. I love Tank Dell coming out of school. Brandon Meade did not read my mock draft because I had the Bills taking Tank Dell. I just loved what he could bring to an offense, and then he gets banged up. He had obviously had his offseason with the issues that he ended up having. Where is he now? Are we going to see him this week? And where is he now? With the Texans.
- [12:35]
Seth Payne
It's looking like he'll probably play. I think both he and Mixon will play. And I think with Tank, the biggest question really is just always going to be, can he say healthy? You know, he's 160 some pounds and he doesn't. He's not like these old. Remember the Colts receivers that would just dive to the turf before there was any hint of contact and how annoying and frustrating it was. And yet, you know, when you're a smaller guy, you stay healthy. When you play that way, he's the exact opposite. He's like. He seeks out Kai. I. I just. We need. We need Tank Dell to understand that everybody already knows he's tough. You know, like, you don't. You don't have to prove it to anybody. You're tough. Just please go to the turf every now and then. So that's. That's really the biggest question mark you know, when it comes to figuring out who's going to be the, you know, who would you start in a fantasy game? I think it's going to be Nico Collins the entire season, just because of everything we talked about earlier. But it is. It's. It's a headache for defenses. We've seen even when the Texans aren't operating really well on offense, the teams aren't moving away from that. They're going to play more conservatively. The Jaguars, who I know like the Jaguars, seem dead. Sit on. Dead set on playing, man, no matter what, no matter whether they were playing the Bills or anybody else. They realized last week versus the Texans, all right, we're going to sit back and play more zone than we typically do. And that was without Tank Dell there. So it's with or without production. It's kind of like when you got a. If you got a big home run, if Aaron Judge is slumping, but he comes up to the plate. It's not like everybody plays in, you know, like. Like, you gotta. You don't need to see the production to know the threat of Aaron Judge. And I think likewise with those three receivers on the field at the same time, you know what the threat is, and that's what you're most worried about.
- [14:15]
Mike
It's interesting that you said about a wide receiver or a player who knows how to get down. Diggs is great at that. And I always thought, you know, Dix is not that big of a guy and he stays on the field. He plays all the time. How's that perceived in a locker room? Like, when you played, if you saw it, would it depend on who the guy was? Like, if you're Tank Dell's teammate, you're saying to him, don't take those hits, man. You're not. You're not that guy. If you're Derrick Henry, you're gonna just try to run through people. Is it.
- [14:44]
Seth Payne
Yeah.
- [14:44]
Mike
Perceived a certain way. If a guy says, I can. I can get down here and be safe?
- [14:51]
Seth Payne
I don't. I don't think so. It's hard to, you know, because now it's. I'm 20 years removed from playing and things have changed a little bit. So I think with a guy, like with Tank Dell, I don't imagine that it would be. I'm thinking of Keenan McArdle is maybe like the wiriest guy that I played with. Yeah. And, you know, Keenan would take hits, but I also. There wasn't his calling card or anything. So, you know, and with With Tank, to be fair, too. I mean, some of the things have been, you know, he. He got a concussion last year and it was non contact. He just caught the ball, came down to the ground and hit his head. So smaller guys in general, including with head trauma, it's just there's, there's more opportunities to get injured. So I, Yeah, I'm trying to think of the guy. Usually, you know, what we'd get during camp is the guy that was hell on wheels in minicamp and OTAs and the coaches love them with defensive linemen. And then as soon as the shoulder pads come on, the guy disappears. You know, I like with wide receiver, especially smaller wide receivers. I don't think. I don't think we would have to worry about that.
- [15:53]
Mike
We always laugh at camp when the guy and, you know, they'll teach him or talk to them about run it out, run it to the end zone. And your defensive linemen or linebackers are sitting there looking at the guy go. And the crowd's cheering, yeah, touchdown. That you gave up. But nobody's in pads and nobody is tackling, tackling. Bobby Slark staying as the OC was. I mean, it looked like he could have been that guy. Big year getting an opportunity stayed. Where is he now? With this organization, obviously, it's a good team. People are going to look, they see what, what C.J. is doing. Where is he right now?
- [16:30]
Seth Payne
I think right now this is probably the most embattled he's been. If you want to use it, that. I mean, if the team wasn't three and one right now, if they're one in three instead, which they easily could have been, then I think the heat would be a lot hotter. The, you know, the big thing with him was he was a passing game coordinator in San Francisco, which, okay, you're the passing game coordinator for Kyle Shanahan, who's running his offense. But we just had questions last year as to whether he could get a respectable rushing attack. I didn't need him to be top five in the league or anything, but a respectable rushing attack. And so far, given him the excuse that Joe Mixon has only been there for one game. And Joe Mixon ran for 156 yards. The game he did play, it was against the Colts. So that doesn't really count as much as it did in Week one. But I think that's a huge question is can he put together a complete offense and can he engineer enough of a rushing attack that if the passing game is going, then you've got that as an option. But they're wasting downs at times now just sacrificing runs to set up the play action. And I'm, I understand why you have to do that. It's just, it's, it's sacrificing downs where all of a sudden it's second and 10. All of a sudden it's third and 10 because you didn't run, run the ball well on first and second. I think that's where, that's where we are right now with Bobby Slowik. And you know, Ben Johnson obviously is the, the guy that he gets compared to because Ben Johnson has been an offensive coordinator for the Lions that's turned down opportunities to leave. Seems like he really wants to just play it out with this. I think Bobby, Bobby has talked about this and mostly a lot of it comes down to you just got to be sure it's the right situation too. That his father was a coach in the NFL. He said conversations with Shanahan about this, that you can only do so much to overcome a situation that's not a good fit for you. So I'd, I would say 50, 50. Whether he gets hired at the end of the season or not, in the.
- [18:24]
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- [18:27]
Seth Payne
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- [18:29]
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- [18:34]
Seth Payne
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- [18:37]
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- [18:43]
Seth Payne
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- [18:45]
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- [18:54]
Mike
You mentioned it and I always think about this play action. Does a team have to have success in the run game for play action to work as. Even think back as a defensive player? I mean, I know you're on the line, but even for linebackers and all, does it have to be success? Run it, run it, run it and play action to work? Or does play action, if it's done well, just give give an offense the edge that they need to get guys open?
- [19:21]
Seth Payne
It's, you know, and I know the analytics bring up some stuff that's counterintuitive on this and I, and I agree with, I agree with the fact that, you know, the analytics will show that you don't have to run the ball successfully to set up the play action. But I think you do have to show that you're committed to running the ball. But then, then the question is also though, right? Okay, so if you show you're committed to running the ball, it's still going to set up the play action, even if you're not running well, but you're going to be running your play action when it's second nine, right? Or you know, or you know, you're going to have to pass on third down because it's third nine because you didn't run the ball successfully. So that's why I always phrase it. You're, you're sacrificing a rundown to, to set up the play action, which is effective in setting up the play action, but it's not effective in genuinely being a menacing offense. And that's where the bad like, and I'll say psychologically as a linebacker or a safety, you know, there's just kind of like having a power hitter at the plate. You got to respect them a certain amount and nobody wants to get run on. Like you just don't want to get trucked. So you're always going to check your run first. And even if that offense isn't running the ball that well that day, if they got a guy like Derrick Henry in the backfield, you don't want to be the dude that gets run on for 199 yards. And it's, there's always going to be that psychological, kind of the terroristic effect on the mind of a defensive player.
- [20:45]
Mike
I heard Chris Long talking about this the other day and you know, you'll hear respecting analytics and I do. I've been covering this league a long time. You played in it, you know it. The numbers can teach you a lot. But I watched the Bills, we were down in Baltimore. And what the run game, as you say, does to a team, what it does for the, for the offense when you can do it, what it does to the D lineman. He was talking about earning the right to rush the passer if you're not stopping the run game. The reason I bring it up is because a lot of times you will hear people talk about you gotta throw, you gotta throw, you gotta throw. And, and the run game maybe not getting the respect it deserves. I always say, like, even with Josh Allen as your quarterback, like you got to be able to do that. What does it do to a defense in that case? When is there, is there a difference between giving up 58 yards on a drive for a touchdown and 40 of them are on the ground as opposed to them just Chucking one over your head and making a play.
- [21:49]
Seth Payne
Yeah, look, I've always felt that. I honestly, I feel like you could probably measure testosterone levels at the beginning of a game and in the end of a game. And if you're a team, a defense that just got run on you, you've kind of been made the beta male, you know, Like, I feel like this is what happens with chimpanzees, you know, and when you ascend to alpha, the testosterone actually increases and the guy that used to be alpha, it actually decreases. Humans aren't, we're not that far off. I think we operate the same way. And it feels like you just, you got beat up in front of your friends and family and it does take something out of you now, you know, like in terms of you gotta run the ball and all that. We've just seen it done so many different ways. I think that the biggest thing is if, if teams are going to take away the pass game, the deep balls, the deeper stuff, you gotta be able to take advantage of your opportunities and at the very least, you know, run against those light boxes. And if you can't do that, then all of a sudden, you know what it is? It's awesome. Okay, Houston, here we, I'm pointing over towards Toyota center right now. Daryl Morey was a master at putting together teams that could just rack up threes in the, in the regular season, rack up wins in the regular season. But then when you get into a seven game series versus the spurs and it's a team that can adjust to, oh, okay, well, these guys don't throw any, shoot any mid range jumpers, so we're going to, we're going to take away the rim and then we're going to fly out to defend the threes. You're in the playoffs, it changes, it just changes. And I think likewise in football, there's things that make sense over the course of a season, but when you get to the playoffs most years you got to win, you got to be able to win multiple different ways. One, one game, it might be the run game, another game, it might be the pass game, but you just, you're not going to make a deep run typically unless you can do it in multiple ways.
- [23:42]
Mike
You've mentioned a few things about the defense. Let's talk about it. Will Anderson notice a former Bill Tim settle with a couple of sacks? How is the defense played and is it different than what we saw most of last year?
- [23:55]
Seth Payne
I think there are the couple things that I'm most concerned about right now. For the Bills defense. Excuse me, for the Texans defense, is that. Look, they did this experiment where they moved Jalen Petrie, a safety who's struggling at safety in his second year after a promising rookie season. In his third year this year, they moved him to nickel cornerback. I don't call it slot corner with him because during training camp, I was watching him play in the slot, and it wasn't pretty. Now, granted, he was going against Stefan Diggs and Nico Collins and Tank Dell. So I was wondering, like. All right, well, we'll see. We're seeing now that he's. He's awesome as a nickel linebacker in run defense, as a slot corner, especially when it gets into man situations. It's. It's. It's a battle. And likewise, like, they've got. They've got a couple guys that play in nickel and dime that are more safety than cornerback, and that's where some of the weaknesses are starting to show up. The other side of it is that look much like the Bills. This is a team that's probably not going to blitz a whole lot consistently every week. You got to get a good pass rush up front from your front four. And that's been a little bit of a disappointment for, you know, having Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson on there, as well as Derek Barnett and Jerry Hughes, is guys who are capable pass rushers. They just really haven't turned up the heat. And if you look at their sack numbers, they're respectable. But a lot of that was just from blitzing the hell out of Caleb Williams. The rest of the time, when they. When they try to generate a pass rush with four, they're just not getting enough push, especially from the middle, and. And that's a weak spot right now. Cause those. Those defensive backs just can. They can only cover for so long.
- [25:31]
Mike
Yeah. How's our buddy Jerry Hughes doing? I mean, Jerry was here for a while. He used to talk about his alter ego that would. Sometimes he would get some penalties. There was.
- [25:41]
Seth Payne
Yeah, yeah, he flipped out on the sideline a couple years ago, and I was surprised. I was shocked. It was an awesome. It was the appropriate time to flip out.
- [25:48]
Mike
Yeah, it was Gary. It was the alter ego of Jerry when he would. He would just lose it sometimes. He was a good football player, was a good trade that the Bills made when they ended up getting him, and he was good here, and. And a lot of people liked him in the Bills. Continually trying to find help on that defensive line over the past few years. But. But Jerry was a pretty popular guy with a Lot of people when, when he was here. I want to ask you about Matt Burke, the defensive coordinator. So again, I'm looking, I'm seeing he's an Ivy League guy, Dartmouth guy. Now I, I know, you know, Ross Tucker and Ross always talks about the, a little bit of the hierarchy of Ivy League and the, the way it's perceived. So he's, you know, he's, you know, the Princeton guy takes a lot of shots at Cornell. He does, yeah. And then I want to know, so. And this is a Dartmouth guy. Did you play at the same time as Burke? I think he was back there. Maybe he was a little bit after you.
- [26:44]
Seth Payne
I think he was a freshman when I was a senior or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was. Well, let me take on Ross first. All right.
- [26:49]
Mike
Yes.
- [26:50]
Seth Payne
I'm watching the Menendez brothers right now. And all I need to know from this. Don't. No spoilers or anything, but this Lyle Menendez is an idiot and he got into Princeton. So that's. Yeah. Oh, the lofty, the lofty expectations of how. Yeah. So Dartmouth. I've got no ill will or feelings towards Dartmouth, just other than like Jay Fiedler. My, my Jay Fiedler. I always respected him for going to Dartmouth.
- [27:17]
Mike
We would laugh that every time Fitz was mentioned they had to say, from Harvard. Yeah, Fitzpatrick, if you had any. Do Harvard guys. Is that just a thing? Do they. Is it like Harvard and the rest of the Ivies? Do they feel that way?
- [27:33]
Seth Payne
The.
- [27:34]
Mike
Well, Harvard guys themselves. Oh, all three of them up there, huh?
- [27:38]
Seth Payne
I don't know. I think, I think, I think a lot of guys are self aware enough to know, especially in the NFL. Like, I didn't like anybody pointing it out that I went to an Ivy League school because they get a certain image in their mind, you know, so I'd be like, yeah, but I went to the AG school. Like, come on, I'm just a guy. I'm just, I'm just a regular guy, you know? And yeah, I remember talking to. I remember talking to scouts and them, you know, telling my coaches, they were concerned about whether or not this guy actually really cares about football. And I'd have to tell them, like, listen, I almost got kicked out of school because I skipped all my. You can't tell a scout that. But I, I wasn't going to class at all. I was completely focused on football my last year. No, I hate school.
- [28:24]
Mike
Got to tone it down. You got to tone the, the school part down when you're coming. Cornell, I guess, was the case. I wanted to ask you about this before I get to. To what you think the Texans will try to do on Sunday. The Bills had played 43 consecutive games without losing by more than six points regular season, which is kind of incredible if you think about it, because it happens, games get away from you. They were within a 1 score of a game, and they won the majority of those. Obviously, they've had a very good record. I tried to ask McDermott this after a game, and he talks about his consistency and for the players and all, is it different for a player when you get your butt kicked like they did down in Baltimore, to come back the next week? Positive or negative, when that happens, did you sense it then? Do you think it's different for a team?
- [29:14]
Seth Payne
Yeah, I think it is. I think that everything, you know, you feel it emotionally, you know, and I, you know, playing for Tom Coughlin, you know, when he was at his most Tom Coughlinist, I didn't get the kinder, gentler version of Tom Coughlin, but one thing that he would always hammer into our heads is that it doesn't matter who you are. Complacency is a. I can't remember his exact phrasing, but basically it's universal that there's almost nobody that doesn't get complacent. And that's why you got to have somebody on you, you know, that's why. That's why professional golfers, no matter how good they are, how preeminent they are, that they still have a swing coach, you know, like, they still need. They still need the people pointing out their flaws. And I don't think most swing coaches do it as aggressively as Tom Coughlin does, but I think that there is that. And especially you look at the Bills, and I'm not trying to diminish how good they looked in the first three games at all, except that there is that element of, all right, you faced, you know, your second and third games were against the teams that were certainly not at their strength. And they, The Bills did everything that you would expect a good team to do versus them. It's not like they played down to the competition or something. But the old Jeff Van Gundy quote is, do not ignore in victory what you would address in defeat. That happens over and over again. And guys kind of get lulled into, like, oh, yeah, we just show up and play. And even if. And I'm working hard, the lessons just hit home, you know, and the corrections hit home a lot more acutely to where you feel it in your gut. You're not. You're not comfortable in meetings because they're showing a play where you got your butt kicked. So I think, yeah, all that accumulates and generally leads to if you are a good team that responds to stuff like that, I think you get a more focused and honed team the next.
- [31:02]
Mike
Week when you played. And maybe you could relate it to what we saw on Sunday night when Derek Henry runs somebody over or goes 87 on the first play. What's it like in the film room when you're watching that? Does it depend on the coach or.
- [31:20]
Seth Payne
Yeah, it depends on the coach and it depends on your. Just the culture of that. If you've got a. The funniest is when you've got a coach who's a little bit looser and you know, is trying to tell you to flush and not like. But you know you're going to hear it from the funniest guys in the room about getting baptized or, you know, I don't know. Do they got smoke a cigarette after that play like all this? They, they. Yeah, yeah. You hear, you hear about it in the defensive line meeting room. I would imagine offensive line players, when they get beat, the linemen are more sensitive about it, I suppose.
- [31:50]
Mike
Yeah, defensive guys have a little more sense of humor maybe about things like that. All right, so here we go. It's Bills and Texans. A lot was made on about the digs thing. The game's still Sunday. Well, one o' clock here in the east, which is. I think a lot of people were thinking prime time. I felt the whole time it was a bigger thing probably in western New York and with Bill's fans than it is around the country. But we will see. What do you expect and what is the Texans game plan, do you think? Attacking the Bills not just against what they'll do offensively, but to try to take care of Josh Allen and this Bill's out.
- [32:31]
Seth Payne
Okay. So offensively, this is the interesting thing is that they haven't really been able to trust their offensive line against the blitz. And the Bills don't blitz a lot. The Texans face the Jaguars and the Jaguars barely blitzed at all. And all of a sudden, okay, the offensive line for the Texans looked better in pass protection when they weren't struggling to pick up blitzes just because they didn't see that many blitzes. So I think you saw the Texans on their final drive spread it out a little bit more. C.J. went empty backfield. I think they've been hesitant to do that because they haven't trusted the offensive line. I think they might, I think the Texans might spread it out more and especially if Tank Dell's back, try to hit some of the more quick hitting stuff, get the ball out of CJ's hand faster, not have to sit back there behind an offensive line that they don't truly trust in some, some, some good pass rushers for the Buffalo Bills. And it becomes one of those like death by a thousand paper cuts that they're going to try to really get the, get the secondary and third, third options on plays or at least the quick hitters over the middle and, and just try to control the game in that regard. And then the big, the big wild card is with Joe Mixon, who I think is a better scheme fit for the Texans now than he had turned into for the Bengals because the Bengals are in gun all the time. Mixon's better with a quarterback who's under center, get seven yards lined up, get lined up seven yards behind the quarterback and just hit the hole full speed. Mixing looked really good doing that in week one. So if things are working out and if they can get some of the shorter stuff going in the passing game, I think they're going to try to run the ball a bunch.
- [34:08]
Mike
And against Josh Allen and the Bills offense, it is different. You know, this idea of them trying to spread it around, they haven't gotten big numbers in the total passing game and they do run it with James Cook. What do you think the, what's the plan for the Texans to deal with Allen and especially maybe the way he's playing now in Joe Brady's offense?
- [34:30]
Seth Payne
Well, and that's, that's the problem with Allen is that the Texans have had a hard time with, I was going to say athletic quarterbacks, but I get, I don't know, whatever you want to call Sam Darnold, that level of athleticism and above, when they get outside the pocket and they can extend the play. You've got some of these safeties and coverage at times playing. Man, it's been bad. Like teams of Anthony Richardson being able to make throws both, both from the pocket and under duress. Like we've seen teams get behind this defense, the Jaguars. Okay, this is, this is how I could sum up the Texans right now and why they're one in three. I can say it specifically. It's Anthony Richardson, it's Caleb Williams and it's Trevor Lawrence. They face three quarterbacks that if all those guys had been Sam Darnold, the Texans might not have won a single game. But they were, they were able to take advantage of Anthony Richardson just air mailed it over a wide open wide receiver for a touchdown. Trevor Lawrence air mailed it twice badly on wide open receivers last week after the, after Kamari Lasseter, the rookie cornerback had gotten beat and there were people behind him. And Trevor Lawrence isn't just playing well enough to be that kind of guy right now. Josh Allen obviously is. And you know, before the trick play last week, I felt like, okay, this might end up being an epic comeback for the Bills. So that's my biggest concern is that I know the Bills have struggled to get deep shots in their offense. This defense has had its lapses. This defense is they've got guys who have been on double moves. This Texans defense has had pad safety play at times where guys are able to get deep down the field on them. So the Josh Allen deep strike, even though it might not be as frequent as they would like in Buffalo right now, it looms large in my mind because the Texans have had some gaffes there that, that could get exposed by Josh Allen.
- [36:18]
Mike
Yeah, maybe this is the week they get MVs behind the defense and then see if he can hold on to the ball because he would be the guy that they would send deep. It seems to be. Or maybe Mac Hollins. That's kind of where they are offensively now. But we'll see.
- [36:32]
Seth Payne
I like, hey, Keon Coleman is interesting to me. I find this kid, I find this kid endearing as hell. But I is he the kind of guy that, okay, is going to be endearing for a year but then over time you might get sick of him.
- [36:43]
Mike
Or well, he, he had a drop. And I will tell you this though, Seth, he's. He started out that way. He had the whole thing with the cookies and the jacket and all. Since that point, like he has been way more, I'll say, serious. He's not the joker, the fun guy like he, he had a little spike, they spiked the ball there when he got his touchdown. But what the hell, it's his first touchdown in the NFL. Had a drop last week, but came back with two really nice sideline catches. If he didn't have that moment when he got drafted, I think I would just think, well, this is a pretty serious kid. So either he was very aware of that or that's really who he is. But he's been that guy since he's been there and he, it was good to see after, I mean Allen put it right on the numbers deep ball and he dropped it. Came back with a couple of Big catches. Had three catches in the second half. But, yeah, he can run. He's not a speedster, but he can run. He can go up and get the ball.
- [37:38]
Seth Payne
So he didn't turn around to Josh Allen to do that little. That little thing that stuff did last year after he dropped it.
- [37:45]
Mike
Now, none of that. None of that happened. So this is going to be fun. We're looking forward to coming down. We're looking forward to seeing Stefan. I'm sure we'll be playing catch with the fans before the games like he likes to do. And we laugh about our prediction is the pregame. It's when everybody's in the T shirts and the. Just the pads or the pants. They see each other on the field. Little hug, how's it going? Slap hands, you know, boom. Done. About an hour and a half before the game. Two hours maybe. Is that what you think?
- [38:17]
Seth Payne
Yeah, I think this is what I expect this week, is that both Josh Allen and Stefan Diggs at some point will say something nice about their own current teammates. And it's going to get spun into, you know, like it was last week with Josh Allen. Like, hey, he said something nice about his teammates. Sounds like he hates Stefan Diggs. All right. All right.
- [38:36]
Mike
Yeah, it'll be something to see. All right. Tell everybody where they can hear you and see you and follow you. A western New Yorker and a guy who's played in this league. And to find out more about what's going on with the Texans.
- [38:50]
Seth Payne
I mean, for all the people that watch you, the vast majority aren't going to care about my hot Texans. Takes most of the time. So at Seth C. Pain on X and the Seth Payne show on YouTube, which is. I do a little bit more general NFL content as long as well as a lot of Texans. But Seth paint show on YouTube.
- [39:05]
Mike
Awesome. Well, Seth, thanks again for being part of our podcast. I think Bill's fans are going to enjoy this to get to know a little bit more about the Texans and to look forward to the game coming up on Sunday.
- [39:17]
Seth Payne
Mike. No, I'll tell you, honestly, whenever, no matter how long I was in the NFL or anything, anytime somebody from Rochester reached out to me or Western New York in general, I kind of felt like. Like a high school kid when they write about you in the Democrat and Chronicle or something. All right. This is the big. Yeah, it was always. I always get excited to talk to guys that. That knew me when I was young.
- [39:38]
Mike
Oh, yeah. Well, that's. It's been a while for both of us, but it was a lot of fun when you were a player then and certainly is fun following your career now. All right, Seth, thanks very much and thanks to all of you for watching again. Please make sure to like, comment and subscribe and we will see you next time here on Buffalo Plus.
- [40:02]
Seth Payne
It.