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Ep. 15 - Jake & Tom: Unsupervised
52 Plays1 year ago
Jake and Tom are on the loose! They break down the Bills loss to the Bengals and prep for Broncos country. Recap of the past 4 Sabres games and look ahead as well.
3 buds. 2 teams. 1 city - The "Let's Go Buffalo" Podcast. Your new favorite podcast for all things Sabres and Bills. Our mission is to be your guide through the ups and the downs of being a Buffalo Sports fan. We are not members of the media nor are we experts - we’re just 3 friends who love our hometown teams and want to bring you along for the ride. This podcast will be for both veteran and newly ordained fans. We’ll have in depth conversation and debate with a few “newbie” questions sprinkled in to keep everyone afloat. Thanks for being here!
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Transcript
Introduction and Social Media Plug
00:00:10
Speaker
You're listening to the Let's Go Buffalo podcast, your new favorite podcast for everything, bills and sabers.
00:00:23
Speaker
What's going on, everybody? You are listening to the Let's Go Buffalo podcast, your favorite podcast for all things bills and sabers. With the pals, Tom and Jake, and I know Halloween was last week, but our ghost friend Nigel, we have, we've got episode 15 coming at you today.
00:00:47
Speaker
And before we jump into it, a quick reminder to follow our social media accounts at let's go buff pod. That's buff with two Fs on Instagram and X. So let's say hello to the fellows. Quick hello from Nigel. Hey, thanks for being here. And quick shout out to Tom. Tom, how are you doing today, pal?
00:01:08
Speaker
I'm good. I'm good. I can't wait to break all of the rules because Nigel's not here. Oh, we're going to misbehave this evening. That's for sure. Yeah. And he can't do anything about it. He can't. It is kind of nice. Like it does feel like he's he's still here because we have him record who he recorded the intro for us, you know, a long time ago back at the beginning of our little podcast run here. So it's nice kind of having him kind of lead us up and cue us up. But yeah, no, he can't do anything about it. We can say whatever we want tonight.
00:01:36
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. We miss him. We miss having him here, but wish him all the best. So not 90%. Yeah, we do. Yeah, we do. Yeah, we do. So anyways, Tom, we're going to get into some Bill's chat about their recent match-ups this week and where they go in week 10 against the Broncos. We're going to give a little recap.
00:01:56
Speaker
Oh, what's that? What's that? You're giving, you're giving an intro. All right. No, you're doing good. No, you're doing a good podcast with you. My bad. Unless you're doing a bills recap and then what's coming next. And then, and then we'll dive into the sabers. That's all I was saying. That's all I was saying. Just, just queuing it up a little bit. I know I don't have Nigel's, uh, panache as far as, uh, queuing things up, but I'm trying my best. I'm trying my best.
00:02:16
Speaker
Jacob thirsty. That was my issue. I was scared that you're going to get me going without a beverage of me. You better believe I won't do that, Tom. So let's get right into it. Let's crack them down in three, two, one.
00:02:31
Speaker
All right, I have double dipped on breweries, but a new beer for this week. This is from Zero Gravity up in Burlington, Vermont. And this one's called Powder Jones, which is definitely ski related. And I think that it's an IPA. I think it's quite fitting because we've already had our first snow up here in Vermont.
00:02:52
Speaker
uh is the season so cheers yeah you and you and your arctic circle pals up in vermont are getting ready to ski the slopes we're we're we're hunkering down well well me down in the the balmy 38 degree hudson valley and popping open an omegang omegong omegong i think it's a long a i'm guessing that rochester accent really really bared its ugly head there uh
00:03:18
Speaker
But I have what's called the dream patch from Olmagong. I'm so glad you asked. It's a fruited sour brewed with cherry, blueberry, and raspberry. Raspberry. That's a particular flower that you can find. Absolutely. Speaking of blowing raspberries, Tom, now we can get into the Bill's Bengals game.
00:03:46
Speaker
Yeah, we should. Last week, Sunday night football, the Bills fell to the Bengals 24 to 18, or 18 to 24, I suppose you could phrase it. It was a big inter-conference game, lots of implications, and the Bills fell flat. We all were there. We all watched it. Well, maybe not all there, but we all experienced it.
00:04:10
Speaker
And man, that was quite the let down. I did go in. I think you and I had predicted the bills to lose. So I should not have been as let down as I was. But no, that one didn't feel good. What was your gut reaction to experiencing and watching that game and looking back at it?
00:04:27
Speaker
Well, I got to say, I predicted 25-18 Bengals, which was a score agami, and I am pissed that I was one point away from that bingo of getting the score right. But more pissed that the Bills lost. I guess initial reaction was that it's tough to stop that Bengals offense when it's rolling, and especially when our defense is as banged up as it is.
00:04:49
Speaker
Um, and it just, it seemed like our offense again, uh, faltered when, when asked to step up to the plate and go win a game for the bills. And that that's been evident throughout the year and it reared its head again. Um, yeah, it's, it's tough to see. Um, I think, I think Josh Allen looks a little.
00:05:10
Speaker
broken, maybe, for lack of a better word. I don't know if you agree or disagree, but it hasn't looked the same. Where's our signature yearly hurdle? Why is he not running and pushing plays as much as he has been? The stallion needs to be cut loose, I agree. I agree.
Buffalo Bills Performance Analysis
00:05:27
Speaker
I have a little case to be made here in a moment and I have some points to be made of what I'm thinking of it, but I do want to stick kind of here in our general overviews for just a moment.
00:05:36
Speaker
I agree. It felt like the offense just was sputtering. They scored on the first drive and they scored on the last drive, but there were seven very, very sad looking drives in between where they scored only three points at field goal by Mr. Tyler Bass and just could not put it together.
00:05:57
Speaker
And that just can't happen, especially when you're playing a team like the Bengals, right? Who is starting to put it together. Art defense is definitely shaken up, right? We have all these losses at different positions, which we've already talked about. We don't really need to go into more there. But Terrell Bernard, Micah Hyde, both left for injuries, excuse me, within that game, which stinks.
00:06:23
Speaker
And catch me up. I know they lost, but lasting injuries. What happened to those two? So maybe I had a moment here. I'll do a little bit of producing and go look those up. Terrell Bernard was concussion. So he's in concussion protocol, I believe, which is it's kind of hit or miss. You don't really know when that's going to come back. And then Micah Hyde, again, I saw a quote by Sean McDermott. It's to be seen. We're not sure what's going to happen.
00:06:52
Speaker
when his availability will be back. So hopefully this week and hopefully it's not as serious as we are. It's been a busy week for me. I've not had time to go in and look at those injury updates. But that defense, despite losing all those players and being as pushed down the depth chart as they were, they still held the Bengals to only a couple points in the second half, right? They set this offense up to succeed. And it just didn't happen. I do not lay this,
00:07:22
Speaker
this loss at the defense's feet. I don't. I lay it at the offensive's feet. I lay it at special team's feet. This is, and we've heard Sean McDermott quote all week talking about complimentary football.
00:07:35
Speaker
and how it's been lacking in the last few weeks. So complementary football, just for those folks who maybe might be wondering, is all three phases of the team helping each other, setting each other up and not setting each other up in bad situations? For example, the defense throwing an interception early in the game
00:07:55
Speaker
in our own territory, right? And giving the ball back to the defense, setting the defense up in bad position, which happens, right? Then special teams. Sam Martin, who's looked great all year. So I got it. You gotta at some point take this with a grain of salt. He's not going to be perfect. But man, this was not a good game for him to have a bad game. He had a ton of just short punts that put the Bengals offense in great situations, right? So that's complimentary football.
00:08:22
Speaker
the special teams helping and pinning back teams and giving the defense some time. The offense continuing to move, the defense taking the ball away and giving the ball back to the offense in great situations. We haven't had that, right? It's been this, this, this, this bill's defense started off the year, taking the ball away left and right, interceptions, fumble recoveries, all over the place. It was awesome. And we haven't seen that. We have, we have not seen that. And I understand that we've
00:08:51
Speaker
We've definitely endured quite a bit of injuries, but that's an issue and it needs to come back.
00:08:55
Speaker
especially with all these different pressure packages that Sean McDermott is using. I mean, I don't know if anybody else saw it, but he was sending like the entire kitchen sink at Joe Burrow, which I didn't quite understand. That's not really the book on Joe Burrow. He's an incredibly intelligent person and intelligent football player. He's going to pick up on those on those blitzes and make it pay for it. So I don't know. I didn't quite understand. But when you send that many
00:09:22
Speaker
defenders and blitz packages and other really aggressive ways. In theory, it's supposed to set up some more high variance plays where maybe you can get a takeaway. And it just hasn't happened, right? I think we had, I think we had one takeaway in this past game. And it just that's that's not enough, right? We're not setting up
00:09:41
Speaker
and complimenting the offense and setting them up with the easy answers that honestly we've given to other teams. So I've got all this kind of coming back around for me is I'm ready to make my little case here for this Bill's team.
00:09:58
Speaker
Right. So we're at a little bit of a crossroads. They, the team can either turn around and face their five and four record and make something happen here. We have the Broncos coming up after that, we have the jets, and then we have the Eagles. And then we have the by when we come out of the by, we have the chiefs and it just continues to go from there. So this team needs to wake up. I'm hoping at this point, they're feeling they're back against the wall.
00:10:22
Speaker
I hope that, right? Like this is the time. We're five and four. We're more than halfway through the season. This team has to come alive or it's not. And that is what it is. I think there's a better chance for them to come alive because I think that this bill's, in particular, the bill's offense is operating at a more efficient pace than we think
00:10:48
Speaker
And there's a reason why it doesn't feel that it's very efficient. In my mind, the bill's offense is operating pretty well. It's just when it doesn't, it's at the worst times possible.
00:11:02
Speaker
So here's my case. The bill's offense in every statistical category is doing really well in the top third, even higher than that amongst most categories. We are top five in combined offensive and defensive EPA. So EPA stands for expected points added. And it describes how many points on average a team is expected to score on a possession given a particular field position. So are you deep in your own territory? Well, you're not likely
00:11:32
Speaker
to have much many points at it if you're deep and you have 90 yards to go. If you're within the 25, you're pretty much expected to add a couple points, right? That's a field goal. That's a red zone touchdown. That's you're more likely to score touchdowns and score points. Well, the Bills are top five.
00:11:50
Speaker
Right. We are, we are there. We're top five. We are when we're there, we're doing it. The, um, the bills are fifth in yards per game. We are a third in red zone or efficiency and we're fifth in points per game.
00:12:04
Speaker
That is shocking to me. The eye test doesn't match. It doesn't feel good. And I'm agreeing with everybody. This doesn't feel good. It doesn't feel like it should be operating like this, but it is. So in my mind, it's a matter of not that the bill's offense isn't operating well. It's when it's not.
00:12:25
Speaker
And that's the times, for example, the one that I already referenced today. It's that second down interception that Josh Allen threw in our own territory against the Bengals and a shot to Gabe Davis. And Cam Taylor Britt picked him, read Josh Allen like a book and picked him off and gave the Bengals great field position. And then they went and scored. And now we're down even further and we have to play even more aggressively. There's just been times where it just doesn't
00:12:54
Speaker
quite operate. We have penalties at inopportune times, taking away drives. We have drops. We have just a whole slew of different things that just start to really add up and make it feel like we're shooting ourselves.
00:13:10
Speaker
Yeah. And we've seen a couple games. The Jaguars game comes immediately to mind, but there's been others where they've been down by multiple scores, but then with 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, put together some incredible looking drives. And it's like, well, where was that on the past six drives? Like, how much do you think that plays into those stats that you're talking about and the overall narrative of them having an efficient offense, but not getting the results to match it?
00:13:37
Speaker
Oh, I agree. I think that's absolutely part of it. And I also think that in between, um, like I, I saw a stack up by where we're watching the Bengals game, the, the bills are best in third and five and longer and converting third downs, right? The best in the league and converting a third down means you're keeping the ball and getting another first down and you get another four downs.
00:13:56
Speaker
Right? Like, that's good. I think we're there. I think it's just something's got to click. I have some ideas for that. I'm going to get to that later. But I think things are closer than we really think. For another example of how complementary football has not really been helping us, in the past five weeks, the Bills' offense has played 51 drives. OK? 51 possessions.
00:14:20
Speaker
Only four of those 51 possessions have been passed the bill's own 35-yard line. We have had an enormous amount of distance to travel to try and go score. Wow, that's incredible. In that same time, do you have an idea? I'm going to tell you right now, it's more how many drive starts have been passed that
00:14:42
Speaker
for opponents. So pass their own 35 towards their own 35 better field position than we have. I'm not telling you right now it's a higher, but how much higher? Do you have a guess? I figured it must be higher than four. I don't know. Uh, eight.
00:14:56
Speaker
12. 12. So three times as often, our opponents are starting closer to their end zone, no, to our end zone at each drive. So that's a big deal, right? We're giving them better chances, and we've also had to just go for it. We've had terrible turnover luck. Almost every of Josh Allen's turnover-worthy plays has been turnover, has been intercepted.
00:15:25
Speaker
That's not often that it happens like that. Usually it gets batted down, it's a bad throw, but it gets batted down and hits the ground and we don't turn over the ball. Well, it's been happening. Then fumble recoveries. Every time we have more than statistical, a number of fumbles that have resulted in turnovers. At some point in my brain, the math does work.
00:15:49
Speaker
This has to start rolling back our way. It's just a matter of time. It's got to be right. And then my last little point here of why, how things aren't quite as bad as we think. Can you do a couple, a little bit of math for me? Ready? Do you have your ready? So this is some simple numbers, Mr. accountant. Ooh. Yeah, that's a bigger calculator than we need. Ready? So we, and our four losses week one against the jets, we lost 22 to 16. So that's six points at six.
00:16:19
Speaker
Week five, we lost to the Jags, 25 to 20, that's five points, add five. Week seven, we lost to the Pats, 29 to 25, that's four points, add four. Week nine, we lost 24 to 18 to the Bengals, that's another six points, add six. Cool, divide by four, please. How many points per game have we lost by? 5.25, Tom. Like that's not that much, right? We're in games, we're not getting blown out.
00:16:47
Speaker
It's a touchdown. Knock on wood. Knock on wood. We're not. We're in these games. We're not just giving it away. It needs to be more situationally aware, and we need to be more efficient.
00:17:00
Speaker
So that's my case. I totally agree with you. If I could push back a little bit, though, the Jags game and the Pats game, I think, in particular, we let them get ahead and then clawed back. But it was just too little too late. Right. So they made the game close, but they just didn't leave themselves enough time. Right. Yeah. And I don't know how you see that systemic. Mostly that's garbage time. Right. Are you saying that's like garbage time, make up time that we just we got another score in there, but we didn't. It was it was never going to be enough to get there. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, I guess so. Yeah.
00:17:31
Speaker
I think that's absolutely part of it, but I still think that we're in these games, right? It's not like we're playing, it's not like we're completely outclassed. It might feel like it because we're very sensitive Bills fans. We are. I'm right there with you. I'm right there. I am. Thankfully right now I'm feeling, um,
00:17:51
Speaker
Excuse me. Um, more, um, optimistic than maybe I was at about, I don't know, 11 30 on Sunday night. Um, but, uh, I think, I think something can turn around, but man, does this bill's team need to figure it out, right? They, this needs to be a back against the wall kind of situation. I'm ready to, I mean, we're going to talk about this Broncos game in a second here, but
00:18:11
Speaker
Um, this is a, this is a moment. This is a turning point in this season could go one of two ways. And I think this is, this is the flip of the coin right here. So I wanted to talk about two more things about the Bengals game before we get to the Broncos preview. But before we do that, these next two games against the Broncos and the Jets from, from a higher level are, are they as about must win games as you can get. And the question is.
00:18:37
Speaker
If they lose one of those games, how concerned are you about making the postseason? So I will let you know that. I actually had a stat, where did it go? While I'm talking, I'm gonna try and find this stat. Yeah, we had...
00:18:57
Speaker
They are. At this point in the season, they are must-win games. They are. They absolutely are must-win games. At the beginning of the season, looking at them, they're like, yeah, you probably should win, but hopefully we have stacked enough wins. At this point, no. We're 5 and 4. We need a win against the Broncos. Go 6 and 4. Win against the Jets. Have a divisional conference win. The Denver Broncos are also conference, so that's important. And then be 7 and 4 and going into this tough slate.
00:19:25
Speaker
Yeah, they're at this point, they need to be. Now, you said you had another point and I'm gonna go searching for this stat. So go ahead and give me your next point. Yeah, search away because we talked before the season that the Bills have had and have one of the tougher, if not the toughest
00:19:44
Speaker
schedules in the league, which isn't an excuse. You're dealt the games that you're dealt and you got to go out and prove that you're a team that you are. But I feel like the toughest slate of their schedule hasn't even arrived yet. I mean, they still have match-ups against the Eagles, the Chiefs, the Chargers.
00:20:04
Speaker
maybe missing another tough matchup in there. But still, those are games that are going to be hard fought against very good opponents. So it just puts even more emphasis on these games that they, on paper, should win against the Broncos and Jets, that if they had performed a little bit better in some of these other close matchups, that maybe we're not talking about them being as do or die as they are.
00:20:27
Speaker
You're not wrong. No, you're not wrong. These next two weeks need to be, OK, team, we need to get this figured out. Let's try some things, whatever it is that we need to do to be more efficient on offense. We need to be able to control things on defense. And then let's take that and roll because we need to figure it out. So I went to some playoff odds calculator. And currently, at 5 and 4, the Bills have a 50% chance to make the playoffs.
00:20:55
Speaker
If we win the next two games against the Broncos and Jets, we now have a 62% chance of making the playoffs. If we lose to the Broncos but beat the Jets, we have a 37% chance. And if we lose both games to the Broncos and the Jets,
00:21:20
Speaker
This'll be fun. 6% chance of making the playoffs. I'm not putting my money on those odds. No, no, you're right. It's gotta happen. It's gotta be. It's gotta be. So yeah, I think that's a great cue here. Is there anything else you had about the Bengals here that you wanted to talk about or do you want to just roll into the Bills Broncos preview?
00:21:43
Speaker
Let's focus on a positive before we move on. How about Dalton Kincaid, man? Didn't he look great? He had the one fumble, but that was, at least from my very inexperienced eyes, that was probably his biggest mistake of the year and not the reason that the Bills lost that game. But he's looked good, no? Correct. Dude, he is everything. He is electric. I feel like he's like Spider-Man out there, catching every ball that you could ever throw at him. It's insane.
00:22:09
Speaker
And you're right. You know what? Like he made a mistake. He didn't think about ball security. He was trying to make a play. He lunged. He got flipped over. And, um, that, uh, that Bengals linebacker, I can't remember his name off the top of my head, but he's been making plays. He's a clutch player and he punched a ball out. He played, he made a great play that Dalton Kincaid had the ball tucked. It just was right there to be punched. Um, so no, no, no, I don't, I don't blame the rookie.
00:22:32
Speaker
Um, he's going to learn from that. That's going to be a big emphasis from him here on out for the rest of the rest. Every practice he's going to be protecting that ball and he's got the coaches going to be trying to punch that thing out. So I think he's okay. Um, quick hits on them. Yeah, sorry. Now, just one other cool thing about Dalton. Okay. By week eight, he has, where's the stat? Where's the stat? I wrote it down. I wrote it down. He has, um, broken the team's rookie tight end reception record by week eight. Wow.
00:23:02
Speaker
He has 40, and the previous was held with 36 receptions in an entire season held by Tony Hunter in 1983. I have no idea who that was. So Dawson Knox had 23 his rookie year for reference. So in an entire season.
00:23:21
Speaker
He had 23 Dalton has 40 by week eight. So yeah, no, the kid's good. The kid's good. And he's looking the part. He's gotten incredible hands. He's been a great release valve and man, I hope between him digs and, and Shakir, um, and, and some other pieces on this offense that this, that we can get Josh humming and get on some easy answers. Wow. Notable snub to Gabe Davis there, but not undeserved.
00:23:46
Speaker
Yeah, you don't want to hear too many of me talk too much about him. So fair enough. Fair enough. Can I get some quick hits? So Dalton Kincaid, new player this year. Can I get some quick hits on the three new players that we either traded for or signed last week? Because I think two of them played the cornerback and the defensive lineman.
00:24:09
Speaker
Yeah, you did it. I'm buzzing now, Tom. And how did they look? And then a quick thought on why did Lenny Mr. Hamstrings not suit up? Dude, Mr. Hambone. Yeah. So let's start with Lenny. I think it's just a matter of
00:24:25
Speaker
We have the depth between Latavius Murray and James Cook. We had people there. And we have a third string. I can't remember off my head. Who's the third string running back? We have the depth there. And it's also not the easiest of positions to just plug and play.
00:24:43
Speaker
He also is coming off. He's not been practicing, so who knows? Maybe he just needed a couple more weeks of conditioning or whatever it is. I'm not worried. I do think I'm very actually interested of how they might utilize Leonard for net, but I think we were. I think they're going to keep him in the stables for what we need him later in the season.
00:25:00
Speaker
Linval Joseph, that big, ginormous human being in the detackle position. He looked good, man. He was a run stuffer. I mean, I don't know if you saw, but he just like WWE Joe Burrow, right? Did you see that on the little tush push? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The little tush push play that the Bengals tried to run. Well, Linval Joseph had other plans and stood him up and backed him right up, just like forklifted him.
00:25:26
Speaker
Um, so yeah, I'm excited. I definitely, I hope is, is let's keep them in the rotation with him and at Oliver and Jordan Phillips and Tim settle. Um, yeah, I think he's going to be, I think he's going to be a nice solid addition to the rotation. Russell Douglas. Um, I'd actually don't have the, um,
00:25:44
Speaker
stats in front of me. But man, I think just by the eyeball test, he looked good, right? He did not start, which is fine. Dane Jackson and Kristen Benford did. And they've been playing really well and playing really well together. So I think that's that's awesome. Dane Jackson, by the way, played out of his mind this game, he was everywhere.
00:26:02
Speaker
everywhere. He was particularly helping and taking away Jamar Chase. He had a bunch of great defended plays against Jamar Chase, which was great to see. I think Crystal Douglas looked awesome. And honestly, sometimes on defense, if you don't notice them, that's almost better because that means they didn't make a big mistake.
00:26:21
Speaker
So, um, I, yeah, I'm excited to see residual Douglas continue to play. Um, we actually might see him play more if, um, if, uh, Christian Benford, uh, can't be, I can't play this week. So, um, I'm excited to have him on the team.
00:26:34
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And so good segue. Let's talk about next week against the
Upcoming Game Against the Broncos
00:26:40
Speaker
Broncos. So obviously a weaker team on paper. They've struggled in the past couple of years and this year. And we talked about it being a must win game pretty much for the Bills. So talk me through where you think they can exploit some of Denver's weaknesses and what those weaknesses are and plot me a path to victory. Like what has to happen for the Bills to get it right this week?
00:27:03
Speaker
So the bills need to be efficient, right? The bills need to move the ball and can sustain drives. The Denver defense has honestly been very good in the last few weeks. They shut down the Chiefs. They had five takeaways against the Kansas City Chiefs, which is what queued that up. It was, yes, granted, Patchmore Holmes was not feeling well. I don't know how much that is, but you know what? He can go cry me a river because he gave away the ball like it was, I don't know, candy.
00:27:33
Speaker
It was so I think this Broncos defense is going to be opportunistic and especially because Josh Allen's been a little bit of a streak of giving the ball away. I think they're going to be ready for that.
00:27:45
Speaker
The, uh, so I think if the, if the bills offense can come out and be multidimensional, can they run the ball? Can they actually get some contributions that we haven't seen that for a few weeks? Can we be consistent by running the ball? Can Josh finds answers and not be looking for the go big game hunting, right? We need him to take the checkdowns.
00:28:05
Speaker
We need him to take who's open, take what's given to him, run when needed, right? Get that hurdle that Jake is asking for. Start to take over this game. We need the Josh that's ready to come in and see red and take over this game. That's what we need. Would be sweet to see. Yeah. How many times have we said that on this podcast this year so far and just keep waiting for it? A lot. It's a lot. And he's been playing well, right? He's not having a bad season.
00:28:36
Speaker
It's just his decision making at opportune times. I already talked about that, so I'm not gonna get back into it, but I think that's huge. I think our defense is gonna have to make sure that Russell Wilson, this isn't the game that Russell Wilson comes back to being Russell Wilson. He's had a fine season. He has not been bad. He's been able to move the ball, passing game has worked.
00:29:00
Speaker
But we need to make sure that this isn't the game that the Denver Broncos offense comes alive. Go out and score, keep the pedal on the gas and we're going to be fine. I think this is a winnable game, but they do need to make sure that they
00:29:19
Speaker
That way we come alive here. We come alive, it's gonna be important. So I think the change that we're gonna need to see in this offense is make sure we spread the ball around. Diggs is always gonna be Diggs. We need to get him involved. Get him involved early and often, make sure he is the solution to us being in sticky moments. Dalton Kincaid, he's been looking, like let's keep that, let's make that guy the second target. Let's get him juiced up, let's get him schemed up and get him the ball.
00:29:47
Speaker
James Cook. I want James Cook to be given the ball quite a bit. Let's get him in space. Let's let him be the athlete he is and make a difference. Let's get him the ball in the air, right? Get him some receptions. Get him some dinks and dunks. Take that when you need it. And then I think Kalir Shakir has been looking like a stud.
00:30:07
Speaker
I there was a catch. I can't remember when it was. It was early on the game that I didn't quite see the number 10 on his back when I saw the player and I saw the bills catch. But as soon as he caught the ball, I'm like, that's clear. That's clear Shakir. He has a style and I could tell just by watching him and I want him to continue with that. Like that's that's getting involved. He's been looking really good. He's been available. He's been playing in the slot and outside. So he's been moved around and I love it. And you know what? Yeah, we talked about Gabe Davis.
00:30:36
Speaker
Man, I need Gabe Davis to give me a reason to believe in him. Two weeks ago, he was schemed up left and right. He looked great. It was awesome. He had like 10, 11 receptions. It was great. And then almost nothing in this game against the Bengals when we needed him. He's a captain, man. He's a captain.
00:30:58
Speaker
Go be a captain. Go show in a contract year where he's trying to go make himself some money. Dude, go show us why we need to resign you and we need to keep you in Buffalo because right now I'm not convinced. A captain in a contract year in a revenge game against the team that knocked you out less than a year ago. Go and make something happen. Yeah.
00:31:25
Speaker
All right. Well, should we, uh, should we, should we, should we knock out some, uh, score predictions here for this is scary. Cause right now the bills haven't given me much of a reason to believe in them, right? They have not. Um, I know I laid out a great bunch of stats, but at the moment they're on the bad side of those stats.
00:31:43
Speaker
Um, and still just doesn't matter what they, what they, what they end up being. They still just don't equate to wins. So it's tough to say that the bills are going to win. Um, I am going to call for it just because I need to believe in my boys. I need to be here for them. I think the bills win 31 21, um, in, in, in a wind, the offense comes alive. The defense stifles might give up a point or two, but the defense does what they need to do to keep us in the game.
00:32:12
Speaker
Yeah, fair enough. I also think the Bills will win. Try not to be a homer, but I think they bounce back after a game that they probably want back in Cincinnati. I think they'll come away with a 28-24 win. I think it'll be close. I just don't have confidence that they're going to
00:32:32
Speaker
hold back anyone's offense with the number of injuries on D. And maybe I'm putting a lot of faith in them scoring four touchdowns, but we'll see what happens on Monday night. I mean, the Bills are 12-3 coming off a loss since 2020. So they're incredible against the loss. So that's really good. And I do think we're home, right? We're playing at home. We're playing in Orchard Park.
00:32:55
Speaker
That's probably involves primetime game. And honestly, the last little caveat to that is in my fantasy team, Jalen Hurts is out on by. So I picked up Russell Wilson. So I'm hoping I'm doing a little bit of a double Dutch here and putting Russell Wilson in for him to go have a stinker, because that's going to be my fantasy luck. And that means if Russell Wilson has a stinker, that hopefully it means that the Buffalo Bills don't.
00:33:19
Speaker
Well, hey, there you go. There you go. You heard it here first, double dutching. All right. Jake.
00:33:26
Speaker
The Sabres have played a few games, eh? They have, eh? So yeah, dissimilar from
Buffalo Sabres Recent Performance Review
00:33:33
Speaker
football. We got a couple of games to recap from the Sabres. So since our last podcast, there's been four games. We're going to talk through them real quick here. So last week, Wednesday and Friday, they had a home and home series against the Philadelphia Flyers. So they played on the road in Philadelphia on Wednesday night, and then we're back home in Buffalo Friday night. That's what I mean by home and home.
00:33:56
Speaker
So they won in Philadelphia, five to two. UPL was a net ukapekalukanin. I thought he looked outstanding that game and that was following up his performance where he had a shutout against the abs. He led in two goals but neither of them were at all his fault. Some fluky goals and I thought he played outstanding.
00:34:20
Speaker
Overall, the Sabres didn't get a lot of shots on net. They scored five goals on 15 shots, which is just absurd in the NHL. Philly's a hard four-checking team and really, really did a nice job through both of those games, Wednesday and Friday, of clogging up the neutral zone and taking away a lot of Buffalo's rough rush chances.
00:34:44
Speaker
And so I think Buffalo is a little lucky to come away with a win in that game on Wednesday night. But their elite finishing ability got them through and got the W. Bit of an ugly way to do it, but two points are two points.
00:35:00
Speaker
And that takes us to Friday night, which was undisputedly the worst game that they played all season. Philadelphia is not a good team on paper. They should not be, you know, pacing the Sabres in a 5-1 loss. It was a brutal game in pretty much every way, kind of a burn the tape game.
00:35:20
Speaker
You have two of your better players in Matias Samuelson and Dylan Cousins go down with injury in that game. UPL looked a little shaky. The whole team looked just completely flat. There were dead passes throughout the ice, careless turnovers. They couldn't keep the puck on their sticks. And just a lack of effort overall.
00:35:41
Speaker
The whole team just looked off that night. Every team, for the most part, in the NHL drops a game or three like that in the season. It's not something you get overly concerned about. If that happens again in the near future, that's when you start getting concerned.
00:35:57
Speaker
But yeah, the Flyers just played a style of limiting their neutral zone transition game. And that really, really throws the Sabres off their game. It happens against other teams. I'm remembering the Islanders game earlier this year. When they get forechecked hard and they can't break the puck out into the offensive zone, they struggle.
00:36:17
Speaker
And that's the style of play you need to figure out how to play if you're going to be a successful team later in the season and into the playoffs. So they need to figure out a way to beat teams when they come with that style against them. So we'll move on from that game. But the one player I did want to highlight from that positively, Tage Thompson was battling out there. He was trying to will this team into some effort and just wanted to shout him out.
00:36:47
Speaker
So from there, one win, one loss. They go into Toronto on Saturday night and go into a shootout with Toronto. Not literally, but a lot of goals scored. There was 10 goals scored in the game. It was a six to four win for Buffalo. Levi came back from injury, took back the net and I thought he looked okay. I mean, you know, not dominant. Obviously he's got, he gave up a hat trick to Austin Matthews, but
00:37:12
Speaker
It's also not a rarity for Matthews to put up a hat trick this year. That was his third of the season already. Good lord, that guy can score. And I thought Buffalo played a decent game. I mean, I think they got a little bit outplayed, but they still put up more goals. And that's at the end of the day what counts. Ryan Johnson made his NHL debut in that game and didn't play a lot. But I thought he looked good in the time that he did play and got his first point.
00:37:39
Speaker
And also, Alex Tuck has started the season a bit slow, but has started to heat up recently. And I thought that game was a good indication of that. And Buffalo came away with the win in Toronto against a division rival. So great game there.
00:37:54
Speaker
And then finally, before I catch my breath, Tuesday night, Buffalo was in Carolina. They lost in overtime, three to two. They have yet to win a game in Carolina since 2016. Not a good stat there. What? Yes, sir. Wow. Yes, sir. But I thought there was some really good takeaways from that game. Yes, it's a loss. However, I thought they hung in there with one of the best teams in the NHL.
00:38:22
Speaker
Credit to Carolina. Carolina is a powerhouse of a team. They play an incredibly stifling style. They throw a lot of pucks on the net, and they are constantly, constantly moving. Their defense core is the absolute best in the league for my money. They're incredibly fluid. They move their D around in the offensive zone and just get a lot of motion and shots on net because of it.
00:38:49
Speaker
With Buffalos, mobile and lethal offensive defensemen, I would love them to play a similar style to that. And maybe that's a topic for another day. But just credit to Carolina. They're an incredible team. But with that said, I thought JJ Peturka played really well in that game. Alex Tuck played really well in that game. They combined for a really pretty goal.
00:39:13
Speaker
And yeah, they stuck it out for a point to get to overtime, got the overtime loss points, and top turnover from tuck in overtime to get them caught out there on a long shift. I think it was tuck. I maybe need to be corrected on that, but getting caught out there on a long shift in overtime against a team like Carolina, it's almost a death sentence in overtime, and that's what happened.
00:39:36
Speaker
Yeah, the one thing I noticed from that game is that again, the shots on goal that Buffalo had were a bit anemic from halfway through the first period until halfway through the third period. So that's 40 minutes of hockey. Buffalo had only nine shots on goal.
00:39:56
Speaker
And that's just I mean, I know that they're an elite finishing team, but that's just that's an unacceptable amount of shots for two thirds of a hockey game. So I need to see some more shots on goal from the team in situations like that. But all in all, I really did think they hung in there with an excellent team and came away with a point on the road against one of the best teams in the NHL. So.
00:40:23
Speaker
All good stuff there. So in that four game stretch, they won two, lost one, and got the overtime point in another. And that leads us to their current record as of today, November 8th. The Savers are six, six, and one. And they are currently sixth in the division. However, they are currently tied in points for a playoff spot, the second wild card with two other teams.
00:40:50
Speaker
But of those three teams, Buffalo has played two more games than the other two. So you got to they still got to keep pushing. They're still a little ways out of a playoff spot. But I'd say an encouraging stretch of four games other than the one flyers game there. Dude, whoo.
00:41:09
Speaker
Oh, there it is. The update. I like it. Hey, cheers, buddy. You need a drink after that. Nice work. So I have a few questions. And my first question is I'm noticing a little bit of a trend in both the loss versus Philly five to one and then the overtime loss to Carolina. It seems as though
00:41:30
Speaker
the Sabres are having trouble getting the puck into the offensive zone. Because in the Flyers game, you mentioned that the Flyers pressured the neutral zone, kept the puck and the Sabres defensive zone and really pressured the Sabres.
00:41:51
Speaker
So which kind of discipled their offensive play, their really aggressive scheme. And then also against Carolina, that Buffalo only had nine shots on net in that period, the last 10 minutes that you said. So that seems like that means that the other team,
00:42:11
Speaker
that Carolina had the puck in the savers defensive zone. Is this an issue of getting and spending time having pressuring in their opponent's defensive zone and their offensive zone? Is that the issue?
00:42:27
Speaker
No, generally I don't think so. Overall, I think Buffalo is a great team at carrying the puck into the offensive zone. They are not a team that relies on chipping the puck in and forechecking to battle the puck back. They do typically carry the puck into the zone and establish pressure in the zone after that.
00:42:51
Speaker
I'm not checking stats with anything I'm saying right now, but they generally do spend a good amount of time in the other team's offensive zone. And so it's not so much that. And I think the two games were different, the Carolina game and the Philadelphia loss. The Carolina game was a lot of back and forth between the two teams. There was a lot of really quick back and forth between zones, between the offensive and defensive zones. And that's a product of
00:43:21
Speaker
the two teams playing a somewhat similar style, at least as far as that transition game goes. And when I say transition game, I mean breaking the puck out. So from the defenseman to the forward and then immediately attack the offensive zone. And that was evident in the Carolina game. Carolina does that, Buffalo does that, and so it just went back and forth often.
00:43:45
Speaker
Okay. The difference in the Philadelphia game was Philadelphia was pressuring a lot more in the neutral zone, so they would stack more of their players in the neutral zone between those two blue lines and clogging up the Sabres passes and the Sabres
00:44:02
Speaker
tries to get into the offensive zone. And so they just they fell short and they couldn't break past that armor, if you will, and establish anything off the rush. And that wasn't as evident in the Carolina game. Carolina kind of gave them a little bit more leeway to break into the zone. And it's just it's
00:44:22
Speaker
It's a, it's, it's the different play style of teams, right? So Carolina and Carolina was willing to accept that because as soon as they did get the puck back, they knew that Buffalo was caught far back trying to attack. And so then they could get a quick pass up to their forwards and then counter attack immediately. Whereas Philly wasn't as worried about that. They were more worried about clogging it up and then getting a dirty couple of shots on that. And they snuck through. So, and it just how, yeah. Okay. All right.
00:44:50
Speaker
So, I guess my next question is, we're 13 games into the season, right? Which is still not even a quarter of the way or even 20% of the way through the season, right? There's still a lot of hockey to be played. What do you see that you like out of the Sabres? And what do you see as things that need to be shored up, that changes need to happen so that way they can continue to be successful or be more successful than they are?
00:45:17
Speaker
give you one or two points in each category? That's a good question. I think I'll start with a positive. I think they have two positives, and I'll go on to what I think they need to improve on.
00:45:30
Speaker
They both revolve around team defense and how they're defending their own zone. They've done a better job at limiting opponent's odd man rushes and breakaway opportunities. Odd man rushes, meaning there's three opposing players coming at you for your two defenders or two to one, that kind of thing. They've done a much, much better job at limiting those and have placed a better emphasis on
00:46:00
Speaker
limiting opponents high danger scoring chances. It's translated they haven't given up as many goals against and that's great. They were one of the teams, I think they were the team that gave up the most chances last year, breakaways and odd man rushes.
00:46:18
Speaker
Right. They were known as they could score a lot, but they also gave up a lot. That was the issue. Doesn't matter how many points you score if you give up a ton. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. They were the third highest scoring team in the league last year and still gave up just as many goals. That's an issue.
00:46:39
Speaker
So I mean, it's still not great. They're about halfway. They're about the halfway point in the league as far as giving up goals against. But that's a huge improvement over last year. I mean, they were they were not the bottom of the league last year, but they were they were one of the teams that gave up quite a few chances last year. So that's been an improvement. The other big improvement is the penalty kill. We talked about it last week. The penalty kills look great. I think the addition of Eric Johnson is a huge boon to their penalty killing ability and has looked a lot more solid.
00:47:09
Speaker
Tage Thompson killing penalties has also benefited them. He's a huge dude.
00:47:19
Speaker
He doesn't have a long, he doesn't use a long stick, but he has a huge wingspan. And so he's been really good at disrupting other teams' movement in the offensive zone on the power play. And it's trains like us to do some offensive success too. I think Tage Thompson's size has like a, we need, he has an old segment on this podcast. I feel like we just talk about that bear every week. His length. He's a lengthy boy. You know, lengthy boy. Yeah. Look at him. He's just a giant. Yeah. It's super cool. Go ahead. Could continue, bud.
00:47:48
Speaker
So what needs to change? What are the things that they can tweak and improve and we need to see some difference making in the next 13 games? So I think there's a couple things. There are obviously things to improve given they're not undefeated by any stretch of the imagination, right? And some of the situations that they put themselves in
00:48:12
Speaker
don't lend to winning consistently. And I need to see some improvement on that. One thing I'll say before I get into the improvement is that the Sabres are an absolutely elite finishing team. And when I say that, I mean that they don't get a whole heck of a lot of quantity on net
00:48:35
Speaker
But the opportunities that they do get are very dangerous, and they capitalize on those chances. And so that forgives a lot of lack of quantity. And so through their first 13 games, the other teams that they're playing against are getting shots on net much more frequently than Buffalo. Through 13 games in all situations,
00:49:03
Speaker
Five on five, penalty kill, power play. Their shot attempt differential is negative 76. So of all the shots that were attempted through those 13 games, the opponent was shooting 76 more times than Buffalo. Really? Wow, that seems like a lie in 13 games.
00:49:23
Speaker
Yes, sir. And it busting out that calculator that I got prime. That's about six shots, six shots attempts per game, which is not massive, but it does. It does add up, especially over the course of an 82 game season. Right. Yeah, especially. Yeah, you just got. Yeah. OK. You're throwing darts at the board.
00:49:37
Speaker
Yeah, and so there's a stat in hockey that called Fenwick, which is basically so there's a shot on goal, which is a shot you take. And it's if the goalie doesn't make a save, then it's going in. That's a shot. Then there are shots that you missed the net. And then there are also shots that you shoot, but are blocked by a defender. Those are the three types of shots, we'll say. So looking at Fenwick, looking at the shots that were not blocked, so shots that you got off clean, but you either missed the net or you hit the net.
00:50:07
Speaker
Of those attempts, there was, well, I'll ask you the question. How many games of those 13 do you think Buffalo outshot those types of shots than their opponent? So kind of based on what we've been talking about, I think less. I think it's got to be, I don't know, four out of the 13.
00:50:29
Speaker
It's a good guess and that would be a fine stat. There was one game where Buffalo had more shots on goal. Okay. Excuse me. More shots that were on goal or missed the net than the other team. And that was the Montreal game a few weeks ago where they ended up losing. Okay.
00:50:47
Speaker
We won't dive into that game too much, but I thought they outplayed Montreal and that was evident based on that stat. But still, they came up short. But that needs to change. I need to see more shots getting through. I'd like to see a bit more quantity at the sacrifice of maybe some quality.
00:51:07
Speaker
Again, not necessarily throwing away their chances by taking a very low percentage shot on goal. Get to the slot. Get those high quality shots, but also take some flyers. Put some shots on goal. See what happens. You're not going to score if you're not putting the puck on the net.
00:51:26
Speaker
I'd like to see that improve and then finally my last piece of what I'd like to see improve is the power play.
Analysis of Sabres' Power Play
00:51:32
Speaker
The power play has not looked good. They had a chance to close out the game in Carolina the other night. They got a power play with about three minutes left and credit to Carolina's penalty kill.
00:51:45
Speaker
stifling. I mean, they could barely get the puck into the zone, let alone get a shot on net. So I need to see the power play efficiency come up a little bit. I think I think is what you need to pronounce on this podcast. Thank you very much. Buffalo needs a better PP right now. Thank you very much. Their PP is as flaccid as it comes. The joke is just right there. We got it. We got it. Just capitalize, you know, like we just got it.
00:52:09
Speaker
Oh, 100 percent. No. Yeah, dude. All right. So question because I think that there's something in the water in Buffalo because there's injuries everywhere. Can you talk me quickly? I know we're kind of we're definitely a little lengthy here, but talk me quick through some injuries of what what are high concerns, what are low concerns on the injury wise, because both the bills and the sabers seem to have a whole infirmary ward for their players.
00:52:36
Speaker
They sure do, yeah. There's a couple of guys on IR. Obviously, the ones that we know about, Quinn, off-season injury, Comrie, the goalie, on IR, he's out for a couple of weeks. But then also recently, Brandon Byro, a call-up from Rochester, got injured in the Philly game, put on IR. Zach Benson, lower body injuries week to week, he's on IR. Oh no, the rook.
00:52:57
Speaker
the rook, the rooks on I.R. And then the two major ones I talked about in the Flyers game, Dylan Cousins, I picked a fight in the Philly game and it was his bad matchup. I love the fire, but I would like to see him pick his battles a little bit more carefully. Luckily, that's a big boy. He fought a big boy. I forgot the player's name, but yeah, he
00:53:18
Speaker
He got dusted and luckily not too much of a concern. He was back on the ice on Wednesday, so he should be in line to play this weekend. The other slightly more concerning one is Mattias Samuelson. He had a lower body injury. He's now on IR.
00:53:33
Speaker
It sounded like the bad news was avoided, so we should see him come back to the ice in the short to mid-term. But his injury history is a little bit of a concern, especially given the way that the team plays when he's injured. Last year, he was out for an eight-game stretch, I believe, and I think Buffalo lost all eight of those games or something like that. Oh, no. Okay.
00:53:57
Speaker
And so he's a major piece of Buffalo's defensive plan and it's important to have him on the ice. So we'll monitor that as we go. We'll see when he's able to come back and how Buffalo plays without him.
00:54:12
Speaker
So we'll see. Not a huge concern. I'm more interested in how the Savers play without him rather than concerned with his injury. But maybe that's a conversation for another time with Nigel too of how concerned we are about his injury-prone-ness.
00:54:30
Speaker
Uh, real quick, before we move on to the, the outlook for the next couple of games, American Thanksgiving is coming up. Turkey day, Tom, I don't know if you knew this, but typically if a team is in a playoff position at American Thanksgiving, they go on to make the playoffs at the end of the year at a 78% clip. Wow. That's quite the indicator.
00:54:58
Speaker
It's significant. Yeah, it's if you the points, the points in October matter just as much as they do in April. There's your there's your obvious take from the Let's Go Buffalo podcast. But it's significant if you if you're performing well or earlier in the year, you buy yourself some leeway later in the year and typically those teams are solid and can make it to the playoffs. So Tom, in the past 10 years,
00:55:24
Speaker
I went back and checked. How many of those 10 seasons do you think Buffalo was in a playoff spot at the American Thanksgiving mark? Well, considering the Sabres have the longest playoff drought, I'm going to say a big fat zero.
00:55:41
Speaker
And that's a good guess. And that is a good guess. You're pretty much correct. Nine of them, nine of them, they were not either not in a playoff spot or very not in a playoff spot by American Thanksgiving. Granted, there were some COVID seasons in there that get thrown off a little bit. But either way, in those COVID seasons, they weren't making the playoffs, they weren't in a playoff spot.
00:56:06
Speaker
There was one year 2018-2019 season where they were in a playoff spot at American Thanksgiving. And it was because in October and November, they went on a 10-game winning streak where they were putting up points.
00:56:21
Speaker
standings points. Those games were one goal games. They were riding a PDO bender, which is just another way of saying they were getting very lucky, basically. And so they made it to that America Thanksgiving mark and then just tanked the rest of the year. So it's been dismal so far in the past 10 years.
00:56:42
Speaker
So looking forward to this year, they are currently tied in points for a playoff spot. They've got about two weeks, three weeks, three weeks until American Thanksgiving. I need to see them put together some wins here and get to that point. Just don't make yourselves fight uphill in January and February and March when the games get tough, when teams start locking down. Put yourself in a position now
00:57:11
Speaker
be set up for success later in the season. So that's all I'll say. And that might be a good segue into some games I had here and where we see them going. Yeah, no, man, it would be great to see them. So so we're six, six and one. And Thanksgiving is coming up in two or three weeks or three weeks. Right. What record do you want to see them? I mean, is it a record number or is it just it's standings? Right. Oh, yes, it's standings. It's a playoff standing spot. So
00:57:39
Speaker
over these next couple, what do we have to do? Yeah, no particular record. I think that I'm hoping for just, yeah, keep pace. Stay afloat. Push and make up some ground against some of the teams. Win your divisional and conference games, because those are the teams you're fighting directly against. Yeah, that's big for me. No specific record.
00:58:05
Speaker
I have a request for a future podcast. Can we go over our divisional and conference opponents and who's like who are the contenders who are OK? These are ones we should be winning against and things like that. We should. I would love to kind of just have a just say, OK, what's the outlook of our conference and division?
00:58:23
Speaker
That sounds like a good Bill's bye week. We'll do it. Sabre's deep dive episode. Yeah, that sounds good. I like that. All right. Anyway, so what do we have coming up here, bud? What's happening this week? So Friday, November 10th, we are playing at home against Minnesota. Saturday, November 11th, we're playing in Pittsburgh.
00:58:41
Speaker
and then Tuesday, November 14th, playing at home against Boston. So some tough match ups in there. Minnesota's a decent team. They've got some good goaltending with Marc Andre Fleury and Philip Gustafson. So
00:58:57
Speaker
They got some great forwards on that team, too. That's going to be a tough matchup. I like Buffalo's chances. If they can get a little bit healthy before that game, I'd love to see Dylan Cousins come back and win a game at home. Last year, they struggled a ton at home. Let's put some home cooking on the slate here and win for the fans in Buffalo. Yeah.
00:59:20
Speaker
Saturday against Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh struggled this year so far. They have some elite but aging talent. So hammer that nail in the coffin. Put a statement game against Pittsburgh. Beat the teams that are down when they're down and push them down and continue climbing. And then finally, Tuesday against Boston. Boston's a phenomenal team. They have been for
00:59:49
Speaker
Fuck my entire life. But yeah, Austin's a tough team. That's going to be a very tough game. And we'll see how they fare in that one. But that is a divisional matchup. I don't love their odds against that one, but that's why you play the games, right? I think they put a decent effort together at home. I think they're perfectly willing, sorry, perfectly capable of coming out with a win in that one.
01:00:17
Speaker
But I think that will be a challenge.
Closing Remarks and Social Media Reminder
01:00:20
Speaker
Fuck Boston. Fuck Boston. So Tom, those guys sneak that in here. Those next three, those next three. Given what I just said, how are you feeling? What do we think of our record? We're talking just win-loss record. You're not going to make me do this stupid point thing, right? I don't have a calculator, an abacus to get that figured out. You don't have to give the points, but if you think there's an overtime loss in there, you should call it out.
01:00:45
Speaker
No, I'm going to go two and one. And I wish we get bonus points for this one over Boston. Ooh, I like it. I'll write the league and see what they say about that one. I'm going to say I. I'm going to say.
01:01:03
Speaker
I was gonna say 2-0 and 1, but I think that's what I predicted last time, so I'll switch it up. I will say... I'll say 2-1-0. I think they win one of those games in overtime against... I'll predict they go to overtime against Minnesota, but get the win. I'll say they beat Pittsburgh, and I don't have... I'm not feeling good about the Boston game. I'll chalk that one up as a loss.
01:01:28
Speaker
I'd love to see two and one there. And just, I know we're running over, but real quick, I want to shout out. So in the last five games that they've played as of today, last five games that they've played, they've accrued seven of their possible 10 points. And that's great. That's 70% of the total. If you earn 70% of the points the rest of the way through the season, that's a 109 point season, which is solidly in the playoffs. And that's a lot to ask. However, that's what I'm talking about.
01:01:58
Speaker
Bank some points now so you're not up against the wall later in the season when the games get tough. So trending in the right direction. I want to see him continue to do that, continue to push the pace in the division.
01:02:11
Speaker
Yeah, take her home. Let's let's do it. I like it. See where we go. Yeah, man. What a conversation. All right. Here we go. So hey, folks, man. Thank you so much for hanging out with us. We really do appreciate it. There's been a lot of new listeners. So any of you new listeners out there, come give us a like, come to us to follow. We really would appreciate that. And we we we honestly don't look past the fact that you guys spend some time with us. This is this is a fun little just thing that we do as buds.
01:02:39
Speaker
And it's pretty incredible that anybody would take time to listen to us. So that's, that's pretty cool. So honestly, thank you so, so much. Um, and you guys truly do mean quite a bit to us. It would mean even, um, even just as much. Um, if you could please share this episode, share it with, uh, with your friends, share it with your family, find somebody, if you see our social media posts and, um, and we share it, please share it on yours. So that way even more folks can go out and see it. Please follow us on Instagram and X at let's go buff pod.
01:03:09
Speaker
And yeah, that's where you can find us. This is my pal, Jake, and my name is Tom, and you're listening to the Let's Go Buffalo podcast. We are sending you love wherever you are. Go Bills, go Sabres, Let's Go Buffalo.