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Ep. 22 - New Years Resolutions
43 Plays1 year ago
The pals go into details of the Sabres past few games and what they need to do to work in playoff contention. Next, they discuss Bills v. Chargers, Josh Allen MVP hopes, and Bills v. Patriots.
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 Hosts
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 here listening to the let's go buffalo podcast your new favorite podcast for everything bills and sabers we got the pals tom and jake here today nodules on a holiday break so we'll give him his uh his time off as as
00:00:43
Speaker
Blessed by our HR department. We got episode 22 coming at you today. Quick reminder to you to go follow our social media accounts.
Social Media and Holiday Highlights
00:00:51
Speaker
They are both at Let's Go Buff Pod with two Fs on Instagram and X. Let's say hey to the fellas. Tom, how you doing today, pal? I'm great, dude. Good to see you. Good to be here. I'm good, man. I had just this kind of circumnavigational round, couple round trips around the globe last week and put the sleigh away and got the infreza out again.
00:01:12
Speaker
And we were feeling good, man. Back in storage till next December, yeah? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'll let the elves work on it for a little bit. Let their reindeer out to pasture, you know, do all that. Yeah, yeah. A little tune-ups. A little, good old Kris Kringle tune-ups for you. Well, I appreciate what you got me for Christmas this year, Tom. I mean, Santa, it was very nice. Very nice of you to do.
00:01:31
Speaker
You're welcome. You're welcome. I'm going to keep it appropriate, but we don't have to share with the class. No illicit activities or substances talked about on this podcast. Absolutely not. Not here. Honestly though, my favorite time of year is this little
00:01:51
Speaker
in-betweener lands between Christmas and New Year's where it feels like time doesn't exist and just become just a vegetable on the couch. It's wonderful.
Beer Talk: Preferences and Choices
00:01:59
Speaker
Oh my god, dude. I actually had to like, I started to morph into my couch. I had to really peel myself off of it after sitting there for too long. Yeah, it's good. It's a nice time doing it right, though. That's how you're supposed to do it this time of year, 100%. Exactly. I don't know what day it is. I've been eating nothing but cheese and cookies for three days.
00:02:20
Speaker
It's a straight checks mix. Exactly. I'm just going to take a blood sample, emerge from my cave in January and deal with deal with all the poor decisions that I made then. You know, blinky eyed, but hey, you know, that's what it's for. So that's that's what the time of year is about. Yeah. What do you say? Should we do a little a beer corner? Yeah. Let's pop one open. Give me a countdown. Get those fingers right. I'm ready. Three, two, one.
00:02:48
Speaker
Excellent. John, you go first. I see you got a nice, your beer is wrapped, wrapped up. It is. What are you protecting it from? It is. I thought this would be a fantastic way to use my new tailgating koozie that my wife got me. It is a, for those of you not privy to the audio, the video here, it's just audio only. It is a raincoat jacket around my beer.
00:03:12
Speaker
and it's going to be perfect for, I have worn this exact outfit for almost every builds game I've attended. And it's a, it's perfect. It's a little giant, little tiny, cute little rain jacket with little arms that have handles and it's hugging my beer. So I'm drinking a hazy, juicy newling and IPA called a mountain hazy IPA from shed brewery here in good old VT Stacey.
00:03:36
Speaker
It sounds delicious, and it looks like it's ready to go crab fishing on the Bering Sea. So I think you're ready. Or sit in section 300 at a Bill's game in Orchard Park. True, true. But both these are the same outfits, and yes, still fucking freezing and cold.
00:03:55
Speaker
Well, I got a tasty little beer from our friends at three heads brewing. And this is a, it's called the loopy. It's a, a red ale brewed with oats and it is, uh, it's delicious. Yeah. Shout out to them. I got some good beer there. It sounds good. It sounds really tasty. So practice safe drinking folks. Wrap your beer before you stick it in. Uh, let's move on. Let's move on. Oh no. Oh no.
Sabres: Performance and Challenges
00:04:19
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Keep moving with that one. Oh, what happened to this? What's going on with the saber's land here, pal? Fill me in.
00:04:26
Speaker
Well, over in Saverland, since we last spoke, Nigel and I had a nice long conversation about the Savers last week and the ups and mostly downs, and it's kind of been the same since then. We talked about the Savers after their horrific drubbing from the Columbus Blue Jackets where they lost nine to four on home ice.
00:04:47
Speaker
And then we were like what where's this team gonna go from here? Like are we gonna see a coaching change? They came out the following game against Toronto and blew past the Leafs 9 to 3 It was an emotional game for them at home When you're coming off a bad loss and they they turned up
00:05:08
Speaker
We'll get more on that in a moment. The two other games that happened since then, they lost in overtime to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. And then they came home after the holiday break to play the Boston Bruins. At home, around Christmas time, the Sabres typically play the Boston Bruins.
00:05:27
Speaker
They typically lose, and they typically don't do it in a fashion that you like to see from a loss. It's usually embarrassing. It's usually heartbreaking. Yeah, just pissing on the hats of everybody in the States that spent their holiday break, their money and time on going to a Sabres game.
00:05:50
Speaker
Not great. Those are the three games that happened since then. Win, overtime loss, and loss. Not what you want to see from a three-game stretch. Not what you want to see from a team that needs to get their bearings. So today, December 29th, as we record, the Sabres sit 14, 18, and 4. They're seventh in the division still. They're still seven points out of a playoff spot. They're down in the dumps at the moment still.
00:06:16
Speaker
So the issue that we've talked about a lot this season, that win against the Toronto team, it's their only win in the past two weeks.
00:06:28
Speaker
It was an emotional game. When Buffalo plays Toronto, a lot of Toronto fans make the short drive from Toronto down to Buffalo because tickets are massively cheaper in Buffalo than they are in Toronto. So they get to see their team play not that far away. And so the building gets flooded with blue and white Toronto fans.
00:06:50
Speaker
And I think that pisses the savers off a bit, as it should. If another team is filling your own barn, you should be pissed off about that. Absolutely. And so they typically play pretty well in those games. There's a chip on their shoulder. They come out ready to play. And they did. But that's something that we've talked about a lot on this podcast, is that this team seems able to get up and play well for games that have that emotional element to them.
00:07:18
Speaker
But they can't do it other times. And that's exactly what happened. They crushed the Leafs. Granted, Toronto did not play superbly. Their goal tender led in some some real squeaky goals and the team didn't play well in front of him. But but still, like there's still this continuing trend of if the team is is emotionally ready to play, they play well. But that emotional level has not been there for a lot, a lot, a lot of games. Yeah, that seems so wild.
00:07:47
Speaker
Yeah, that's it's tough. And then I just I want to talk about the Bruins lost a little bit too. It was they had no business losing that game. Boston was on a four game losing streak coming into that. They've shown cracks. They are a team that you can beat if you play the right way. And there's there's no there's there was no push from the Sabres. They had they had a four minute long power play early on in the first period when the game was still zero zero to
00:08:14
Speaker
go in score on the power play on one, you know, they had four minutes, they had four minutes to score a power play goal straight and they could not do it. They couldn't get shots in. I think the best opportunity
00:08:29
Speaker
scoring wise that came from that four minutes of play was when Brad Marchand finally came out of the box after four minutes, got sprung on a breakaway and nearly put a puck in the net, the Sabres net. It's just embarrassing to see for four straight minutes early in the game, no one's wiped, no one's tired, no one's banged up. The game just fucking started to not see them put together a meaningful scoring chance in that short stretch was abysmal.
00:08:57
Speaker
And look, that's what lost them the game. Boston scored three power play goals that game. Savers went 0 for 6 on the power play. We've talked about it all year. You're not winning games that way. You're not winning games that way. That's nothing. No, no. So I guess to pull the microscope back, I just want to talk about a couple of quotes that I've seen over the past week or two from Kyle Ocposo, the captain, and from Don Granado, the head coach.
00:09:23
Speaker
I don't have the exact quotes in front of me, but the gist of them was, I think like we need to go back to how we played last year. If we're going to go out of the playoff race, let's go down swinging, playing the way that we did last year. And so the fundamental question
00:09:39
Speaker
Why, why, why, why on this green arc did they radically change what they were doing from last year to this year? Oh, that's a great idea. Let's go do what worked, huh? Oh, my goodness. And look, they missed the playoffs last year. And that's obvious to everyone. But they missed by a single point. They were playing their best stretch of hockey into March and April.
00:10:06
Speaker
Look, carry that momentum. I know it's a long offseason, but carry that momentum into the year. Don't try to fix what isn't broke. What wasn't broke was the offense. So don't neuter the offense to try and play a defensive style hockey that clearly the roster is not made up to play.
00:10:26
Speaker
Why are we changing things that were working so well last year? I just don't get it and it's frustrating to see those quotes because it leaves me wanting more. It's like, why are we where we are right now? We know that there's cracks in the roster. But the coach's job is to come up with a game plan around the pieces that you have in the roster.
00:10:52
Speaker
So it blows my mind. I saw those quotes. I just wanted to bring them up here and just how frustrating those are to see. Especially because that's what you've been calling for all this time. And now that they've dug themselves a hole, now is the time we think we're going to go change something up. This would have been helpful 12 games ago, right? Yeah, at least. I think they played 36 games. It would have been helpful 36 games ago. Oh, yeah.
00:11:23
Speaker
Oh man, yeah, I don't know. I don't know what to do with that one. That's just something to monitor, I guess. And especially if they start playing a more improved, like how they did last year. If they go back to that and start playing a more exciting game and do well with it, then I'm going to be pissed at the end of the year if their playoff chances for the year got pissed away.
00:11:45
Speaker
during October, November, December when they're trying to big brain the system and change up the way they play and that burns them in the playoff race. Yeah, that'd be really frustrating.
00:11:56
Speaker
We'll see, we'll see. The other thing, the other comment I noted that Don Granado came out and said is that he's going to get more involved with the planning of the power play. In the NHL, that's typically something that's left to the assistant coaches. One of them usually takes the power play, the other one takes the penalty kill. And the head coach, the head coach is kind of there to monitor everything, but doesn't really get involved in the X's and O's, the nitty gritty of planning out a power play.
00:12:23
Speaker
So it is meaningful that Dong Rano came out and said, look, I'm getting more involved in the dirty areas of power play planning.
00:12:32
Speaker
Look, we'll see what happens there. But yeah, still abysmal there. There's nothing to hang your head on power play wise. So we'll see where that goes. Is that exciting? Like, does Granado have experience? Like, has he proven that he has some good ideas and can construct good power play ideas? Or is this like, oh, boy, what are we doing? Like, he's kind of now taken more into his hands.
00:12:55
Speaker
That's a good question. I don't I mean, I don't have specific stats on that of where he has specifically been responsible for power play running in the past or in his past coaching jobs, but.
00:13:07
Speaker
Uh, I think it's exciting in the sense that there's just a fresh set of eyes, uh, yeah. Okay. It involved in, in that cause something's got to change. So yeah. Yeah. It's exciting. Well, I don't think he's some power play guru by any means, but we've talked about it before on this podcast. There's such a, a glut of offensive scoring talent on the roster. You should be converting power play chances at a higher rate than you are. So if he can unlock something to get them back to where they should be, I think that'd be great. Yep.
00:13:38
Speaker
So a couple games coming up, something to pay attention to. Yeah, something to pay attention to, especially there's a couple, a couple of winnable games coming up for Buffalo to close out the 2023 calendar year. They're playing Columbus again, uh, Saturday night, December 30th.
00:13:55
Speaker
a team that beat them bad last time. So I hope they come out looking for some revenge there and get it. And then in a New Year's Eve special, they're playing Ottawa on the road. And then in the new year, a couple days off, but then on Thursday, January 4th, playing at Montreal. So all those teams, not phenomenal stacked teams.
00:14:17
Speaker
I, this might be drastic, but I three and oh, and that stretch is pretty much the only thing acceptable at this point in the season and where, where, where they're currently heading. They need to be, they need to be three and oh, if they, if we want to keep discussing playoff possibilities. So we will see, however, keep in mind, Tom, that they have not yet recorded a three game win streak since last season. So
00:14:42
Speaker
Yeah, so okay. Yeah, let's go. Let's go. Oh, yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah, pal. And before we move on to Bill's stuff, I did want to talk about some roster moves and roster construction because the team's a little bit in flux right now. So the big one against the Bruins game
00:15:02
Speaker
Sorry, excuse me. The big one in the Bruins game was Tage Thompson was a late scratch. He was held out for personal reasons against the Bruins. I believe his wife was pregnant, and so I'm assuming that the child came. So wish the best to him and his family. Hope everyone's healthy. He should be back on Saturday against Columbus, so that's good news.
00:15:25
Speaker
And then returning from injury, Zemgus Gergensen is rumored to be back for Saturday's game as well. And so because of that, Buffalo had to make a couple of roster moves to make some room. The first one, Tyson Jost was sent down to Rochester. He had to be put through waivers and he did officially clear waivers. So he'll be assigned to Rochester. And then the other one that is the more concerning one that I'm
00:15:53
Speaker
not happy about is uh ryan johnson being sent down to rochester ryan johnson's a young player he did not need waivers so that's likely why he went down first yep however ryan johnson has been one of the best four defensemen on buffalo's roster for some time now and to me personally i've not noticed any dip in his game uh so it's it's a it's a questionable decision from me
00:16:21
Speaker
We'll see how it works out, but he has every business being in the NHL. It's a little sickening to see him get sent down right now. Okay. Yeah. All right. But we'll see. So like I said, Tate Thompson back in Saturday, Zemgis Gergensen's back in Saturday. I don't think Zemgis Gergensen's missing has been the
00:16:42
Speaker
you know, the reason for the fall of the team, but I think he'll give a spark on the bottom line. Hopefully, Tay Thompson comes out and dominates like he can, but has not really showed this year and puts him back in.
00:16:56
Speaker
in some contention. But right now with those moves, the Sabres have nearly over $5 million of salary buried in the minors. Jost at $2 million, Jacob Bryson at $1.85 million, and Riley Stillman at $1.35 million. It's frustrating to see those players not performing to where they
00:17:17
Speaker
could or where they were that earned them that money. It's frustrating to see Buffalo needing to bury that money in the miners. They're not up against the salary cap. So it's not really a salary cap issue at the moment, but it's just it's just you don't see that kind of money buried in the miners very often. And there's there's a reason for it. Those players weren't playing great. But it's just it's it's yeah.
00:17:41
Speaker
It's tough to see that much money stashed away in your minor league system. That's some head scratching management things like, hey, what are we doing here kind of thing. Yeah. Why are we giving out $2 million to Tyson Jost in the off season if he's an expendable forward that we're going to stash the minors later on. And look, he hasn't played great. He's been a plug at best. So nothing against him. That's the game that he plays.
00:18:10
Speaker
Yeah, you'd like to see some smarter roster management throughout the season. Right. Anyways. OK. Well, buckle up, huh? Yeah. Buckle up. We'll see if the new year can bring anything better for the savers. But till then, we'll see. We'll sit and wait. Yeah. Not dead yet, but getting close to it. Not dead yet, but need to start proving that you're alive. Start showing me that you have a pulse. Yeah.
00:18:41
Speaker
All right, well, go Savers. Go Savers.
Bills: Game Recap and Playoff Hopes
00:18:45
Speaker
Anyways, we'll touch back on them in a little bit, but let's move on to Bill's Chargers. Yeah, what'd you think of that game on Saturday night? Well, let me paint you a little picture, and I want you to tell me what kind of game you thought this might be if this is the picture I'm painting. Ready? Get this. Bill's punted on their first three drives. Deonti Hardy fumbled the punts, setting up the Chargers for their first seven points. Not good.
00:19:09
Speaker
Josh Allen had a goofy decision. The guy just thinking he's a freaking action figure, which he is. However, it sometimes bites him in the ass. And he had a wild throw across his body from past the right hash, all the way across his body to the left side of the field, digs like, I don't know, probably 60 yards down the field, slightly too short, got picked off. Goofy throw.
00:19:36
Speaker
a variety, whole smorgasbord of penalties in a variety of different places and a variety of different inopportune moments. And James Cook fumbled the ball two times. Would you say knowing our Buffalo Bills, Jake, did they win the game?
00:19:51
Speaker
I would, I would say no, no shot. Exactly. Somehow we pulled it out. We pulled it out of our butts, won that game. And honestly, that's what good teams do. There's always these games where we've seen in the past of the Chiefs winning a stupid game where they should not have or the New England Patriots doing it literally all the time for the last 20 years of winning the games that man, they should not have. And they did. So we take it. Um,
00:20:15
Speaker
The, uh, bills eventually started coming back to life. Um, I think they eventually figured out like, Oh yeah, we can score points here. We can play this game. And, uh, Oh, on a single one play drive, Josh Allen scrambling to his right, making something out of nothing. Had an enormous 57 yard touchdown throw to Gabe Davis. Um, brought spark back to things. Kalir Shakir was excellence in a bunch of different places. He was a great little safety valve.
00:20:41
Speaker
I think that's, I'm trying to figure out a nickname for him around, around that, uh, that idea. But I think he's been great at that throughout the entire season. Um, and then Ed Oliver has proven that he has just become, he is the steel of the off season. Um, he has been so valuable. Um, I think I've heard in either interviews with that Oliver, I couldn't find the exact quote, so I was trying to find it, but I'm pretty sure that Oliver McDermott went to Ed Oliver at the end of the game and said, Ed, we need a sack here. He said, okay, coach, here I go.
00:21:10
Speaker
and he went and made it happen. Like, are you kidding me? Like, that's just, ah, just fires me up. So cool to hear. So yeah, the Bills came out on that one alive, won 24-22. We're able to kind of wither away the end of the clock there and get a game-winning field goal by Tyler Bass, which was great to see, because he's kind of been off and on this season, but it's good to see that he was able to win that, or get that kick when we needed it. So, more adventurous of a game than we wanted, but we did it.
00:21:41
Speaker
It's definitely more adventurous. I mean, I was just on the edge of my seat pretty much till the end of the game with the... What's it called when they're doing all the ladder ailing and stuff? Is there an official name for that?
00:21:55
Speaker
There is an official name of it. What is it? What is it? Just yeah. Yeah. Some, yeah. Some kind of crazy backyard football kind of play. Yeah. Just yeah. I like watching it, but it was, it was pretty happy when the, when the ball was dead. Yeah. Are you kidding me? Yeah. Yeah. Yes. That was.
00:22:11
Speaker
Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. No, no, no, go ahead. That was some cool coaching decisions being made there because Sean McDermott took a time out right there at the end there right before that play and took a bunch of the D tackles off the field, put nine defensive backs on the field and kind of anticipating this, you know, crazy, more athletic kind of play where he needed players in coverage that were able to kind of take that down. So I thought that was a great decision that was that ended up paying off.
00:22:39
Speaker
Good, yeah. Can we talk about Gabe Davis for a minute? Because this old peekaboo Gabe Davis? Yeah, now that he's back, clearly he was off the roster for three weeks, right? I must not be imagining that. Yeah, yeah, he was sent on vacation.
00:22:53
Speaker
But like what, so this dude came out and had a massive game. Why, why is he only able to do that once every fourth game, fifth game, whatever, whatever? Like, is it the defense that give him something? Like. He just gets to play. He gets to play one game a seat, one game a month and he's good.
00:23:10
Speaker
I mean, I don't know. I don't know. The fantasy football player and me also is frustrated because I also have him in fantasy football and have been just tortured by this man. Yeah. Man, I don't know. I don't know what it is because clearly he's involved in important. He has one of the highest snap percentages on the entire team. So he plays a large majority of the game, 90 percent plus every game because he's out there blocking. He's a very good, large human being in wide receiver world, at least.
00:23:37
Speaker
and is able to block really well. He sets things up. He clearly can have hands and make crazy catches and be really athletic. I don't know. I think, yes, I think sometimes it boils down to what the opposing team is planning for.
00:23:54
Speaker
And lately, they have really been putting the damper on Diggs. And that's kind of honestly been a little frustrating that Diggs hasn't been able to break through that. But they're paying a lot of attention to him, which then opens things up for other players like Gabe.
00:24:10
Speaker
I think Gabe's had some targets in the last few games. It's just, he hasn't connected on them. You know, he's had a bunch of drops or it's been a bad throw from Josh. Um, so I think there's a variety of different things kind of contributing to that. But man, I think it is nice to know that he can come alive occasionally, you know, and have a huge game. He had like 130 yards in a touchdown. Like it was, that was a, that's a real game. Yeah. And.
00:24:36
Speaker
Dude, I don't know. I actually don't know why he comes alive every so often. It must be like it feels like a werewolf kind of thing. You know, we're like this is the time once a month he's able to like, you know, go out there and be a monster. Yeah, it's crazy. But just wanted to ask.
00:24:53
Speaker
Anything else pop out to you from that game? Like anything else you saw? Um, no, other than hopefully they got their wiggles out with, uh, kind of playing some silly sloppy ball. And thankfully we're not bit in the butt and we're able to come home with a win. Um, uh, no, nothing else was really kind of too much. Um, nice to see the, uh, the D line be able to take over when needed. Um,
00:25:17
Speaker
Greg Russo had a bunch of great run stuffs. That guy is just so good at that. We talked about this one being a trap game and in a lot of ways it was. On paper the bills are much better than the Chargers with Justin Herbert not being their starter. It was a close game so they came out on the right side of it but still they had to overcome some
00:25:38
Speaker
Adversity to get there we talked about how the bills don't like traveling west and don't typically do well in those games They're coming off an emotional way and so it's good to see him put the business away But man, yeah, it was it's a little hairier than we were open for yeah Yeah, that was not necessary boys. We don't need a win like that. Please do not okay Avoid that but um
00:26:00
Speaker
Yeah, no, I think it was a good win to have, right? Those are the wins. That's what the win against should have been against the Patriots earlier. Should have been against the Broncos earlier this season. Should have been a variety of the Jets, right? Like these weird, kind of wacky, weird games. And we've kind of taken losses on those. So it's nice to see them come up and be like, okay, wait a second. We need to go home with this win. And they did. Yeah, exactly. So.
00:26:26
Speaker
Really good to see. Before we roll into this week's coverage, because I'm excited about that. However, I wanted to just open up a conversation about our prize possession, our stallion, Josh Allen being in the running for MVP. I know that we are a Buffalo-based podcast, so we are clearly homers and clearly biased. And yes, I even have money down on Josh Allen being MVP.
00:26:52
Speaker
So yeah, I want the guy to win MVP. However, I do think kind of the narratives around him have been awfully silly. He is still in the top five for Vegas odds for winning the MVP behind like Brock Purdy, Christian McCaffrey, Lamar Jackson, Tyreek Hill is in there and Josh is up in there. I can't remember the exact numbers. I don't have them in front of me. However, I don't think any of them are doing what he's doing. I just don't.
00:27:20
Speaker
And it's been pretty frustrating. So I want to kind of set the scene for my, excuse me, my argument for Josh to win MVP and just kind of open it up for a little bit of kind of conversation here. But the kind of so stats wise, oftentimes MVP has turned into a little bit of a quarterback award, right? Last few years, it's been forever since we've had a non quarterback win MVP.
00:27:46
Speaker
it has to be a 2000 yard season from a running back or just something ridiculous, um, for that to even be considered. So, um, sorry, I don't mean to put it on the spot, but who was the last player that wasn't a quarterback to win it? Like how often does that happen? Or is it kind of like a,
00:28:05
Speaker
It's a quarterback. So remember, can you go do some Googling? Because I want to pull it on my butt and say the wrong thing. So I got you on a little fact finding mission. OK, you do that while I do that. You wax poetic about our boy, Josh. Yeah. I'm going to start with a little stats compilation from our Buffalo sports writer, Sal Capaccio at Sal Sports on Twitter.
00:28:30
Speaker
Um, he put together a little bit of a compilation here in the past week of, uh, aggregate stats across the season for a bunch of different, uh, quarterbacks. Um, and Josh is currently fourth in total yards. So that combines rushing and passing for 4,191. He's first in total touchdowns by a lot. He has 40. We'll come back to that in a second. Um, and he also, um,
00:28:55
Speaker
No, I'm gonna save that stat for a second. So those are the two important ones. Josh Allen is the first player in NFL history to have 40 total touchdowns in four straight seasons. Never has happened. Not Peyton, not Tom Brady, not anybody.
00:29:10
Speaker
Um, he's extended his record of most games with one passing touchdown and one rushing touchdown to 11 so far. And he still got two more games this season. It could, it could arguably be 13 games where he, he has, and he could smash that record by like three or four different games. It's it's been insane.
00:29:28
Speaker
Um, he accounts for 83.3% of the bill's total team touchdowns. Most other quarterbacks are well below 60. So anytime that he is passing the ball to somebody scoring a touchdown, or if he is rushing it at himself, um,
00:29:43
Speaker
It's, it's him. The guy's just printing points at this point. The, um, and unfortunately the, the kind of the things that are going against Josh are the, uh, his, kind of his turnovers and the team record, which to me are kind of, well, the turnovers, he is third and total turnovers. He has 18. There are two other players with 19 Sam Howell and
00:30:04
Speaker
Trevor Lawrence both have 19 so he's not leading the league for all you Trolls out there and the bills are nine and six which is usually goes against a NMVP Winner however, I still think that's silly because it's not always his fault He has set up the team to go win. It's been goofy other things that really has has been in the way. So I
00:30:29
Speaker
Um, do you got the list, bud? I got you. Yeah. All right. So since 1957, when the award was first awarded, it's gone to 42 quarterbacks and only 18 players that are non-quarterbacks. 18 total. The last time a non-quarterback won the MVP was 2012. Can you name the player? I'll put you on the spot. Played for the Vikings.
00:30:59
Speaker
Was it Adrian Peterson? It was, good guess. And since the turn of the century, only four players that are not a quarterback have won the MVP.
00:31:09
Speaker
pretty impressive to do if you're not a quarterback, it seems. Yes, yes, it is. So, um, yeah, kind of turned into that, but man, I don't know. So I don't, I don't know. It just seems silly. Like he's, everybody's coming out with like Lamar, the Ravens are more dominant. They have a better team record, but he doesn't have his money touchdowns. He only has a couple more yards. He only has like three or four less turnovers than Josh, but Josh has like 15 more touchdowns, like,
00:31:36
Speaker
I don't know. It just seems silly. It seems that their people are taking into team record into account much more than they should. But I mean, I think it's just I think it's people not getting that out of their out of their heads of that team record does not necessarily mean who's most valuable to that team. I totally agree. I think it's easy to have your thoughts get clouded by how the team itself performs. But the the essence of the award is for the most valuable player, which player
00:32:06
Speaker
helps their team win or lose said games most. And I totally agree with you. I think Josh Allen plays a bigger part in the bills, wins, and losses than Lamar Jackson does in Baltimore, for example, and any of the weapons that are in San Francisco. I mean, that offense is stacked, right? How are you picking an MVP from that? Brock Purdy's throwing to all-star level athletes at all positions, skill-wise.
00:32:33
Speaker
So yeah, Josh has got my vote. That's all I'm saying. I'm going to put in, I'm going to send in my ballot and they'll probably reject it because I'm not, I'm not exactly part of the MVP, you know, voting promenade, but that's right.
00:32:49
Speaker
So I think you should send it in. I'm biased, but you've convinced me. Hey, I think we should. I agree. Let's do it. So if it was up to me, it would be him. But let's just have him go new here. And we went out and maybe we go get the number two seed and maybe he could still be part of it. So it's still there. The door is still open. It is. It's mind blowing that the number two seed is still in consideration, too. Right. And how dark some of the conversations were a couple of weeks ago, you know, it's.
00:33:16
Speaker
Yeah, we are string some good things. We're not dead yet. So I am kind of I think that's a nice little segue into this week because the bills have quite the opportunity in front of them. There are with a win against the New England Patriots this Sunday at one p.m. New Year's Eve. The bills have 14 different playoff clinching possibilities that could
00:33:41
Speaker
lock their place into at least a wild card spot in the playoffs. And that starts with the bills winning. If the Ravens knock off the Dolphins this week, and then the bills win next week, the division will be won. And that does still open up the number two seed that is still an option for how things can roll. So there's still a lot to be had here and lots of opportunities for the bills to punch their ticket, get in,
00:34:11
Speaker
and then go make some noise. So pretty exciting. This week, some kind of the headliner news. Mr. Daquan Jones will be active. Sean McDermott said on WMGR. WGR, excuse me, WGR, no M. There's an M in my neck of the woods, but not in the buffalo neck of the woods.
00:34:30
Speaker
said that Daquan Jones could be active this week, which is insane. The guy who he tore his pack in the Jacksonville week five game, crossed the pond in London. And that was just devastating because the guy was playing at all pro level, like just clearly just a dominant force. And honestly, he becomes back. I am.
00:34:52
Speaker
I am hoping that he's healthy. I'm hoping they're not rushing him back because the 21-day window was opened. He could have just rested this week. I hope we're not rushing this because we need him for the postseason. But man, if he's back to form, like him and Ed Oliver up the middle, he's going to ruin grown men's lives this weekend and I'm excited for him.
00:35:18
Speaker
I'm here for it. I see what's going to happen. So, yeah, big game. The the bills last time they played the Patriots earlier this season, they lost 25 to 29 in kind of that embarrassing win, gave up more points to the to the Patriots than anybody has has all season. They scored more than they have.
00:35:40
Speaker
Um, and then they proceeded to like it shut out the next couple of weeks and had scored three points. And, but we know we, we let them have 29. So that's good. Um, against Mac Jones. I miss that. That 29 is the most points they've scored in any game at all this season. Let's go double check that, but I am pretty sure Patriots. Um, that's, that's, that's crazy on a couple of levels. Yup. I mean, I'm not surprised Mac Jones wasn't able to score more than that, but.
00:36:12
Speaker
So that was at a time when the the bills defense was a bit more healthy than than they have been for that game I think I can't exactly remember when the injury stacked up but yeah, no exactly You think they'd be able to hold Mack Jones to less than that? But you don't think so you ready for the number of points the Patriots scored this season? Yeah 20 week to 17 week 315 and
00:36:36
Speaker
three, zero, 17, 29 against the bills, 17, 17, six, seven, zero, 21, 17, 26.
00:36:50
Speaker
And then us. Yep. Most points that we, we, we, we got allowed to the Patriots all season and it was the Buffalo Bills. So let's not do that this week. Um, and take care of business. Um, the defense last time was also the Patriots defense rather was able to kind of bamboozle Josh Allen.
00:37:07
Speaker
He's had their ticket for a while. And I mean, it's Bill Belichick, who's one of the smartest defensive vines to ever coach this game. So like it was a matter of time for him until he was going to be able to stifle Josh and a little bit. There was lots of stunts, really high blitz rate. So just a lot too much for Josh to handle and this Ken Dorsey's offense to handle at that time.
00:37:28
Speaker
So I'm really hoping that Joe Brady comes up with some better answers. Some answers that I would suggest if I were being pulled would include a lots of short, quick passing game answers, right? Let's get the ball out of Josh's hands, get some rhythm, get them kind of back on their heels, score early so that way
00:37:45
Speaker
They can't just be in pursuit mode. I think this is going to be a big Kincaid digs and cook game with a lot of shorts, completions, some screens, some across the middles, just really putting them into conflict. The Patriots linebackers are very, very good against the run, like some of the best in the league. However, there are larger athletes and less athletic
00:38:11
Speaker
And I think if we get Delton Kincaid one-on-one with those guys, just money all day long, just pepper them, you know, get James Cook, get Delton Kincaid against lined up on with these linebackers and just, just go to town. I think really stress them in ways that they're not wanting to be. And then you have, you have a solution here.
00:38:30
Speaker
Get them moving and getting the ball out quicker That's that's to counteract the the high blitz rate that you were talking about is that is that the right way to think of it? Right exactly and honestly, maybe even I mean because we we're gonna get into the run game here in a second You can't really run on the on the Patriots. They were very very good run defense. They're pretty much the best in the league but you can throw on them and
00:38:53
Speaker
I think this I think that would kind of kind of take their blitzing and their D line out of the game if we can get the ball out of the out of Josh's hands really quick and really get the ball moving. I think that'd be that's that's my my suggestion. And that's lots of play action. Right. So setting up play action. So we have short little
00:39:15
Speaker
smart uses of run game, smart uses of holding on to the ball and passing, setting up some deep shots, like really get this this this that Patriots defense guessing and let don't let them dictate. Take take the ball into our hands and play the game that we want to play and not play their game. Yeah. Particularly this this run defense for the Patriots is phenomenal. They are second in rushing yards allowed across the season.
00:39:43
Speaker
And first in yards per carried allowed at 3.2, which is nothing. A good solid yards per carry is like 4.5. Like that's, you are playing really well. Anything above that you're playing incredibly well. And below that starts to kind of wither away. And particularly to 3.2 is like nothing. So don't expect a huge run game from James Cook this week, but I think we can get 50, 60 yards of him in five or six receptions.
00:40:13
Speaker
in the passing game. So I think that's going to be a big deal. That's interesting. Yeah. I mean, the run game has been good kind of throughout the year, but recently, too, that they've kind of leaned on that for particularly in the Dallas game, but they've leaned on the run game lately. So let's see if Joe Brady can scheme up something to counteract a defense that excels in stopping that.
00:40:33
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I don't think we're gonna have much luck there. Um, but that's okay. Cause we have Josh Allen and other great ride receivers. So I think we can, it is going to be a much more past heavy game in my imagination.
00:40:43
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Any players on the defensive side over there to watch out for this week? Christian Barmore has just been a freaking bear in the middle of that D line. The guy is just phenomenal. He's really fun to watch. I hate saying that, but he is. He's a wrecking ball and just causing havoc, both in the run game and the pass game. Mitch Morris and Conor McGovern and Osiris Torrance are going to have their hands full with him up in the middle of that offensive line.
00:41:12
Speaker
Um, and like I said, those, those, uh, run stuffing, uh, linebackers are just, they mean business. They're no joke. Um, the, uh, the secondary, I think can be had. So again, leans into a passing game, right? I think their secondary can be had. I think they can, um, that's where we can make some hay, but we'll, we'll have to see, we'll have to see. Yeah. Hopefully digs breaks through. Cause he, like you mentioned earlier, but he's, he struggled a little bit. He's been kind of.
00:41:39
Speaker
targeted by other teams defenses. Hopefully, hopefully he can have a big game. And I just want that for him. I just want him to come out with, you know,
00:41:46
Speaker
6 for 120 and a touchdown. Let's remind everybody of who Stefan Diggs is. That would feel good. I don't know if it's going to happen this week. I really don't. I'm not worried about Diggs at all. He is still a top wide receiver. He is a big contributor. He's been a great leader in this locker room. I'm not worried about him. He's going to come to life when we need him in one particular game or a couple of games coming up here. But yeah, this would be a fun one, just to let loose and remind everybody. Yeah, let's not forget. But we'll find out.
00:42:16
Speaker
Um, and the big thing for me, kind of like my overarching thought here is that the bills are the ones with something to lose here. The Patriots are coming in with an excellent opportunity to go piss in our Cheerios and take something, you know, play, play game record and ruin some, um, postseason, uh, opportunities there. They're not in the postseason. Right. Um, so I think the bills need to be ready to, thankfully they're coming to Orchard park, right? Let's bring them home.
00:42:45
Speaker
Let's take care of business and send them packing. Let's remind, this is our opportunity to push for that division lead again. And I think it's a big deal. So I think it's time for the boys to go take care of business. Not a freebie though. Can't discount any opponents league. So hopefully, yeah, I agree with you. I hope they're ready to take care of business and you know, show why they're still in contention for that number two seed show why they should be a team. Nobody wants to play in January and don't,
00:43:13
Speaker
don't give up opportunities to a team that's down in the dirt, you know, push, push their, push their face into the mud kind of thing. So, right. Yeah. We'll see. Yep. Be the bully. That's what we need, but we'll find out the, uh, some rooting interests for this week of what's happening in the other games. Uh, clearly we want the bills to win over the Patriots. The other big one is that we want the Ravens to beat the dolphins. Uh, a dolphin's loss means that next week is, um, the division is up for grabs. So.
00:43:40
Speaker
That's a big deal. Go Ravens. Other just kind of playoff contention games. I'm not going to list all of them, but these are the important ones. We want the Raiders over the Colts. We want the Panthers over the Jaguars. We want the Titans over the Texans. We want the Seahawks over the Steelers, the Chargers over the Broncos, and the Chiefs over the Bengals.
00:44:07
Speaker
Those are the big meaningful playoff, uh, uh, resonating games that are happening here. We'll see what happens around the NFL this weekend. Good stuff. And the bills can clinch, right? You mentioned, so that's, uh, it could happen. Let's see. Clearest path of those 14 different opportunities is bills win over Patriots. Um, the, uh, Seahawks beat the Steelers and the chiefs beat the Bengals.
00:44:35
Speaker
Those three things happen. Excuse me. Yes, that locks us in Interesting.
New Year's Resolutions for Teams
00:44:40
Speaker
All right, that sounds that's exciting man. We'll see I'm hoping to see a little X next to their name soon But we'll see what happens as the year goes on Yes, sir, we'll find out so
00:44:53
Speaker
Tom, unless you had anything else on the bills specifically for next week. I do not. I'm excited for this next segment. Hit me. It's almost New Year's. And while I will do absolutely nothing to improve myself, I thought we could project a little bit onto others and get some New Year's resolutions for the savers and the bills. What do you think? Sounds good to me. Yeah, I like it. I like it. So as I said, I will continue to be wallowing in my despair.
00:45:23
Speaker
But the Sabres let's talk about what what needs to go better or right for them in January and into the new year For me, we've already talked about it on this podcast get back to their game that they were playing in this calendar year at the end of last season Free the offense let the offense be creative and not at the expense of defensive play and
00:45:47
Speaker
And I think that solves a lot of problems because you're getting similar goaltending to last year. You're getting similar defensive stats to last year. So why are we shoehorning in a system that has all those same things be true about the defense and goaltending and penalty killing and all of that, but without the offensive firepower that they had? So that's what I want to see. Get back to the roots that they established last year. Play a free, fun, exciting brand of hockey and
00:46:14
Speaker
Just just make it more exciting to watch again. That's that's all I can hope for. And then the second one I wrote down was fix the goddamn power play, please, please. That would that would contribute to point one. That would help them get get off the ground a little bit. That's that's all I want to see. I don't have anything specific on how to do that because I'm not a coach. But man, I got to get excited about the savers going on the power play again, because that has not been there. So.
00:46:42
Speaker
Anyway, those are my resolutions for the savers. But how about the bills, Tom? What are we thinking there for New Year's changes for them or things to aspire to? I got two whole team ones and one specific one. So number one, I want the bills to commit to running play action well, like well over 30% for the rest of the year throughout the playoffs. Magic happens. Why are we not doing it?
00:47:12
Speaker
And then my specific one is for Mr. Sean McDermott. I don't know what he's taking. I don't know if he's eating his breakfast differently, taking his coffee differently, whatever he's doing. He needs to ride this improved decision making streak. He's done better. And man, oh man, the super
00:47:30
Speaker
Dishes fan in me as the alarms are going off right now with these New Year's resolutions Jake I don't know if this is a good idea, but man that guy has like I need him to continue on his on his new Thought process because it's working and then lastly boys playoff start now This is your chance to make some noise play with your back against the wall. Nothing to lose. Go make a statement
00:47:56
Speaker
Right now, everybody's down on the bills. Nobody's ready. Everybody's ready to go be excited about Joe Flacco playing with the Browns. Let's remind them that the bills are part of this. So go make some noise. That's my third one, final one. And I think that we should write these down and mail them to the team. Mine's already drafted. I just got to drop it in the mail letter. Drop it in the mail later. I like it. Yeah, man. Play your balls off. It's that time. Make a statement. I like it.
00:48:28
Speaker
All right, Tom, before we get out of here, do we have time for a game? You want to play a game? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nigel sucked at the game last week, and I had the answer a while before he did, so I'm excited to beat them. Pants off of Nigel. Yeah, let's see. So I gave Nigel 10 guesses to name a specific Bills player, and I'm going to give you the same opportunity. Fair warning, it is a different player than last time. Lee Evans.
00:48:52
Speaker
All right, Tom, yeah, any question you wanna ask about this guy, you can. I have the answers at my fingertips. I'll give you 10 questions and then you need to make a guess. Okay, here we go. Offensive or defensive? Offensive. Are they currently on the team? No. Okay. What position do they play?
00:49:23
Speaker
Or is that an unfair question? No, no, no, not an unfair question. I will give you offensive lineman offensive lineman. Okay. Not currently on the team. offensive lineman is tough. Okay. Um, okay. Uh, what's a, what's going to be a question that will help narrow this down. Um, anything's in play. Any question you want. Do they play interior lineman or outside lineman? Like a tackle?
00:49:53
Speaker
Interior. Interior. Okay. Oh boy. Are they a center? They are. Okay. Have they played in the last 10 years? Yes.
00:50:17
Speaker
Okay, that was six, right? That was number six? That was six. Four to go. I'm feeling pretty good about it. That one's a very specific one about that one player, so I'm gonna wait. Were they not currently on the team? I only know a couple centers. So did his career end with a neck injury?
00:50:47
Speaker
Ooh, ooh. Bear with me. All right, then do you want me to just guess my player? I know two centers off the top of my head, and one of them plays for the right now. His career did end because of a neck injury. It's Eric Wood, isn't it? It's Eric Wood. All right. Tom won the prize. All right.
00:51:12
Speaker
Yeah. The Nigel sucks price. All right. I like it. I'm glad, I'm glad you came up with your own cause sorry, Nigel. I'm just very competitive. I apologize buddy. I love you. All right. Did you know he is currently still affiliated with the team, right? He does some.
00:51:30
Speaker
reporting and he does. Yeah. He's still affiliated. He's still around. I did not know that. No, that's, that's interesting. He was a, he was a good player, right? He was very good. Yes. He was a very good. And fortunately his career got cut short. Yeah. He had some kind of, I can't remember exactly specifics on the neck injury, but he's, yeah, his career ended. Um, cause he had some kind of scary neck injury and he's like, and he retired, um, rather young. And then I think we had somebody else. And then Mitch Morris, I think, or it could have been miss Morris right after it might've been, I can't remember.
00:52:00
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. Interact. Too bad his career was cut short. But yeah, great, great player for the bill. So nice guessing, Tom, you got there. Maybe we'll have to give you a handicap and give you like eight questions or something. I like that. I like that. I'll take that. I'll take that. But, um, Hey man, happy new year. Uh, happy new year to you and your wife. And, uh, yeah, here we go. This is, this is the thick of it for both. We're starting to get into thinking of both teams, honestly, you know, like.
00:52:27
Speaker
This is a meaningful place, meaningful plays, meaningful games for both the Sabres and the Bills. So all of you out there, stay tuned in and hang on and follow along. A big thing for us, though, is the best way for us to kind of spread our podcast is through you guys, through sharing. So please share this podcast. Please give us a like.
00:52:48
Speaker
Um, if you see our Instagram post or our Twitter posts and you can just hit that reshare button, like that would be awesome. Um, and we'll be really, really helpful. We definitely appreciate you guys. Um, thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts for spending some times with us. Um, it'd mean, like I said, I mean, quite a bit to us. If you share this episode, give us a like, give us a follow. Um, we're on Instagram and X at let's go Buffalo pods. Um, my name is Tom. That's my buddy, Jake, and you're listening to the let's go Buffalo podcast.
00:53:18
Speaker
Go Spills, go Sabres, let's go Buffalo.