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Ep. 17 - Don't Panic Romp
54 Plays1 year ago
Welcome in! The boys had a doozy here. LOTS to talk about. State of the Bills, the rollercoaster of the Sabres season... Buffalo sports fans are going through it. Please share!
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' Catch-up
00:00:02
Speaker
you
00:00:09
Speaker
You're listening to the Let's Go Buffalo Podcast, your new favorite podcast for everything bills and savers. What's going on, everybody? You're listening to the Let's Go Buffalo Podcast, your favorite podcast for all things bills and savers with the pals Nigel, Tom, and Jake.
00:00:34
Speaker
episode 17 coming at y'all quick reminder follow our social medias at let's go buff pod that's buff with two F's you can find us at that handle on instagram and x let's bounce it around and say hello to the fellows tom how we doing buddy dude i'm good good to see you boys um this is my favorite time of year because i'm cozied up i'm in my slippers and a nice sweatshirt and i get to hang out and hang out with my guys so i'm good how are you guys
00:01:04
Speaker
Jake, what's up going on, buddy?
Thanksgiving Holiday Stories
00:01:06
Speaker
I'm great. We took a little break for Thanksgiving. It's good to be back hanging with you guys. Let's say we get into it. Here we go. Yeah, man. It's I'm super stoked to be back, dude. I'm I'm good by the back. Yeah, Nigel's back. Couple couple couple week hiatus for me. A couple things came up and I just needed my attention. But we're all good now. Everything's good and fun and healthy and great. And there is a shit
00:01:30
Speaker
First off, I just want to get a quick second with you guys. How was everyone's, how was everyone's holiday? Tom, what can we start with you? How was your? It was really nice. Just really small. We, um, uh, my wife's family here is right in Vermont, just down the road. And, um, we had a nice little, uh, time together. Um, we have a young nephew who's a lot of fun and I don't know if you guys, um, growing up, I know everybody does the nucks, everybody does high fives, but did you guys do turkeys growing up with your, just like, you know, how somebody holds up a high five and then you put the fist up with the thumb up.
00:01:56
Speaker
So I do that with my students. Like when they go to give me a fist bump, I just real quick go, ah, turkey. Oh, I introduced my my my my nephew, my three year old nephew or four year old nephew. And he he and I did that for an hour straight. It was. Yeah, that sounds about right. It was so much fun. I was wind up and he and I were we're we're a goblin turkey goblin for like an hour. He thought it was the funniest fucking thing. A couple gobblers torpedo, buddy. I was I was your holiday man. So this is this is your is this your first Thanksgiving as a married man?
00:02:26
Speaker
No, no, no. Hold, hold on. The internet cut out for a second there. I actually wasn't thinking. I answered right away. Everybody just lagged a ton, so that was bad. It's crazy how shitty the internet can be sometimes. It's crazy, man. Yeah, it's crazy. It seems to be back now. My second Thanksgiving is a married man.
00:02:52
Speaker
It was best thing is that we're probably still married because our wives don't listen to this podcast. So we're good. You're safe buddy. We're good. 100%. Yeah, for sure. Jake, how was your holiday buddy? It was great. It was nice. It was back in Rochester for the week. So got some good time with the fam and yeah, yeah, no complaints. It was great. Nice dude. And I'll throw it back to you, but I know it was
00:03:13
Speaker
Yeah, mine was a little bleak. I was super sick the entire Thanksgiving week there, so I started to feel it. The Friday before, actually, I was at work, and I was like, oh boy, I can feel it a little bit. And then it escalated pretty quick, and no COVID, no flu. I went to urgent care, got tested for all that stuff. It was just a real shitty cold that turned into a real shitty sinus infection.
00:03:34
Speaker
Yeah, I was. I was out for a minute, dude, like a whole week. I was. Yeah, I'm glad you're back up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, me too, man. It's never fun, especially during holidays like that. Yeah, it's it sucked, man. It sucked doing Thanksgiving by yourself. You miss out. First of all, I got one slice of pie this year. What the fuck am I doing with that?
Holiday Food and Drink Tales
00:03:52
Speaker
and but you know my family was good to me my my sister brought me some leftovers from thanksgiving and then my lovely lovely honey came to visit me after thanksgiving and she brought me some more leftovers from her family so that was incredibly kind and very much appreciated two leftover drops and only one slice of pie was consumed
00:04:10
Speaker
Well, so I guess, yeah, I'm up. So I don't know about you guys, man. I would do sick, disgusting, illegal things for pecan pie. That's great. Yeah. So Olivia knew that's my younger baby sister. She, not a baby anymore. She actually just turned 26 on Monday. That's crazy, dude.
00:04:27
Speaker
Happy birthday. Happy belated to live. But she brought me she brought me a big fat slice of pecan pie. My honey, no pie. However, she did bring me she makes these like these like peanut butter ball type things. But they're not like they're not your average peanut butter ball. They fucking slapped, dude. They were so good. So I ate those in about three and a half seconds because I was so excited. And yeah, so yeah, but a little little bit of pecan pie this year, I might just have to try and make my own, which will
00:04:56
Speaker
definitely suck. But well, that's the thing, right? So my favorite thing, my favorite thing I've learned as an adult is that you can make all your favorite like holiday foods outside of a holiday.
00:05:07
Speaker
So Katie and I, my wife and I have started to like, we'll make a pie for ourselves. And I'll make extra stuffing that just stays at home and never leaves the house. And all the favorite things that I usually have, just like, you can make your own. You can just eat it whenever you want. It's the best. We're adults. Nobody can tell me otherwise. So simple, but so effective. I know. See, this is the best thing.
00:05:28
Speaker
I don't know about you guys, but I'm absolutely freaking parched. Can we fire up a beer here? Here we go. All right. Everybody got everybody geared up and ready to go. I'm going to snap here. Ready? Three, two.
00:05:44
Speaker
Cool. My excitement or skepticism, whichever term you want, can't be contained. Tom, what is that glass of milk-looking thing in front of your face? I almost mood. Oh, you nailed it. It's eggnog. Hey, welcome to the Christmas season. It's my favorite. Ooh. It's eggnog season. I also love that. And living in Vermont, I'm going to tell you right now, there's no better eggnog anywhere else. There's just not. There's just not. So my favorite mix is strafford creamer. It's eggnog from right down the road here in VT.
00:06:14
Speaker
But, uh, the, and then, um, it's a Kraken dark spice drum, dude. That's a good run to crack. It is nice. Jake, what do you got going on over there, buddy? Uh, well, the eggnog reminded me that over Thanksgiving, my dad had this like lethal looking bottle of what looked like milk too. That was homemade eggnog. And it was.
00:06:36
Speaker
Yeah, don't hold a lighter too close to it kind of thing. It was very good. There's some egg knocks out there that will put some hair on your chest, man. They're absolutely dense, man. But yeah, dude, I do love a good, like the Evan Williams, man. So every Christmas Eve, we have a little bit of a hang at my parents' place and my Uncle Dave.
00:07:00
Speaker
is usually really good about bringing like four bottles of Evan Williams eggnog. So the night's pretty chill for a while and then at some point it becomes me and him and my dad just absolutely slugging eggnog. Well, boys, I've never heard of this here. So reinvention brewing, don't know where that is. And this beer that I've got is called the Middle Finger Lakes IPA.
00:07:24
Speaker
American-style IPA, 7% ABV. I'm very excited. I'm going to take my first sip right now. One of you guys talk for a second, would you? That name just writes itself. Like that's perfect. Kevin, like pissed at myself that I didn't think of that first. Right. Like it's so smart. And it's got a picture of all the finger licks on here, which really do look like fingers. They're very absolutely named. Yeah. They're in Manchester, Manchester, New York. So like around the Canandaigua area. So Western New York.
00:08:15
Speaker
When I got... When I got... When I got... When I got... When I got... When I got... When I got... When I got... When I got... When I got... When I got...
00:08:15
Speaker
Absolutely. I think Candice Lake too is another tiny one that counts as a Finger Lake. It could. I don't know. I care about Canisius and that's it. Honey Oi too. Honey Oi is smaller than Canisius. It is. Yup. Yup. And that is also a Finger Lake. So basically, I'm just a fucking idiot. Tom Jaganizal's geography pie. Have you ever heard of latitude? Latitude is a latitude, baby.
00:08:40
Speaker
All right. I got to shout out my beer too. I was back in Rochester for the week. So I picked up a bunch of Rochester and Buffalo beers to, uh, to throw around on the pod, but I'm going with Nigel's favorite three heads brewing German style Colsh. And it is, it is delicious, light and crisp. Yeah. Well, cheers boys. Yeah. Cheers. Good to see you boys. Glad to be back.
00:09:02
Speaker
Yeah. Let's talk a little bit. And we need it because Buffalo sports, dude. Yeah. Well, I got to say, man, and we'll talk about the Sabres at some point here. But the the most recent Sabres game has has brought me back from the alleged good amount. I'll tell you what, Saturday and the Sunday and Monday, those were three very,
Buffalo Sports Team Challenges
00:09:21
Speaker
very bleak days. Let's talk about that football Sunday.
00:09:37
Speaker
All right, Pels, quick little technical difficulties there. Like we said, episode one, we don't know what we're doing ever. So Tom, I think we've said that every episode. Even at what we like our careers are, I would be hesitant. Not a professional.
00:09:54
Speaker
Yeah. But we were just about to start talking about some Eagles, Bills game. So like I said before, Bills fell to the Eagles 34, 37 in OT. It was a frustrating game for a huge multitude of reasons. There's three reasons. Yeah. You hit every bingo board. Anything you could have had, I was mad about something.
00:10:14
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, there was, there was, but there was also, I mean, and I can say this now because I'm not like sitting on the edge of the cliff. There was a lot to like in that game too. So let's, you guys want to do our typical and maybe try and find a positive out of the game. Yeah. Yeah. Let's do that. Jake, let's start with you, buddy. Can you, can you throw us a positive on that? Bill's Eagles game and put you on the spot.
00:10:34
Speaker
No, thank you for starting with me because I get the low hanging fruit. I mean, Josh Allen was a superhero all night. He looked fantastic. He had one interception. But if memory serves, it wasn't terror. It was like an interception that you're kind of OK with. But otherwise, he.
00:10:50
Speaker
It was incredible. He had four touchdowns, two passing, two rushing, 81 yards rushing for a quarterback. And yeah, it just was dominant. He's been the reason that we've lost a game or two this year, but that was not one of them at all. Yeah, not even a little bit. Tom, what do you got, buddy? It was so good. Yeah, it was awesome. It was so good.
00:11:12
Speaker
There was so, and I mean, and in that weather too, man, we've seen him play through weather enough times to make me really believe that that guy is weatherproof. Like I don't care. I don't care what kind of weather he's playing and he's going to still be able to do the things that he normally does.
00:11:27
Speaker
Yeah, it's always crazy for me to think about because like I think about throwing a football in the rain, excuse me, and like, okay, so I'm a whopping 5'8", dude, like my hands are not big. I can barely grip a football as it is when it's dry and 75 and sunny. I grip a football when it's wet, dude, and it just like immediately flies out of my hands. So when I see him, absolutely, and okay, Josh Allen's 6'5", and probably has slightly bigger hands than me.
00:11:52
Speaker
But like, dude, I watch him uncork a football in the rain. And it's it's it really is. It's incredible, dude. Get a couple throws that I think were bad because of the weather. I think I think there were a couple that slipped on him. But I mean, like, and I'm sure we'll talk about it. But like that end of the game touchdown throw to Gabe Davis, that wasn't a touchdown that should have been like that was it. That was a hell of a throw considering the weather, dude, like right. And the touchdown pass to Steph Diggs, like fucking crazy weather.
00:12:21
Speaker
So my big positive shout out is gonna be, and we'll talk about it more in detail, but Joe Brady in this offense, just how he's using and spreading out the ball.
Football Strategy Deep Dive
00:12:30
Speaker
It's not cookie cutter. I was really excited to see how he used all three running backs.
00:12:36
Speaker
Like all three, James Cook, Latavius Murray, our new guy, Ty Johnston. Well, newish guy, Ty Johnston. They all looked great. They had some moments where he was using them and using them in their skill sets in really appropriate ways. And I'm excited about that, because that just means that we're more multiple. But that was really cool. I like seeing that. For sure. Tom, I got to call you out for two seconds. Is that OK? There's no T in Johnston. It's just Johnston.
00:13:04
Speaker
Well, you know what? I like him to have a tee. John Stein. Is his first name Tarrant or something? Or is that a different what? No, it's a different guy. It's just Ty. Yeah, Tarrant Johnson is a defensive player. Another player. So he's got a tee. It's just in the first name. That's correct.
00:13:22
Speaker
As I said it, it came out of my mouth. I was like, that's probably wrong. But what else is new? Remember, we educate people, too. So I can't have people being like, well, I heard it on Let's Go Buffalo podcast. I hope most people start their conversations like that with their friends. You know what? I heard on the Late School Buffalo podcast. Super. You know what? Nobody starts their conversations that way. If people take what we say that seriously, then I have a bank account that they should wire some money to. Yeah. Straight up, dude. For sure.
00:13:52
Speaker
Um, man, my, my big positive shout out, man, I gotta go. I, and it could probably go both sides of the ball, but the offensive line, man, that's, um, yeah, that Philly front seven is no joke, man. You got Fletcher Cox. Um, what's, Oh God, I'm the massive guy.
00:14:09
Speaker
Hassan Radek is another one. Jalen Carter, who's the rookie this year, and the Jordan Davis. Yeah, that's the massive guy from Georgia I was talking about. Like, dude, you get a defensive tackle rotation of Fletcher Cox, Jalen Carter, and
00:14:24
Speaker
What's his name again? I just forgot. Just, just 10 seconds ago, buddy. We just did it. Just rewind just a little bit. It's right there. Um, but dude, not enough. Is there, is there.
00:14:39
Speaker
Is there a better defensive tackle trio in the NFL? I don't know. You don't get a break, right? You don't get a break from that. Josh Allen dropped back 51 times. He was sacked once. And I know PFF, we have to take everything PFF does for the great assault because most of their shit is
00:15:02
Speaker
Pretty stupid. Um, but currently that Bill's offensive line is ranked PFF number one in past blocking number four and run blocking. Wow. So, yeah, who knows if that's actually truly where they are, but like, absolutely improved from what we've seen in the past. Oh, this is the best offensive line that Josh has had since he's been drafted by this football team. For sure.
00:15:21
Speaker
So, yeah, that was that was the big one. But then, like, there was a lot there was some negatives, too, man. And I'll start this one, man. For me, the the biggest negative is the lack of retaliation in terms of halftime adjustments from Sean McDermott. Dude, the first the first half that defense that we were running
00:15:45
Speaker
Philly had no answer. They looked lost, man, and I was so stoked on it. And I texted the group chat in the second half when I was talking about they started utilizing that RPO a lot more, that Jaylen Hurts RPO, which for those that don't know,
00:16:02
Speaker
RPO stands for run pass option. So in a run pass option play, the quarterback is looking at a specific defensive player. It's usually the defensive end, not always, but they're identifying what a certain defensive player is doing. And depending on what that defensive player does, they decide to either A, hand the ball off or run themselves as the quarterback, so it turns out running play.
00:16:26
Speaker
or keep the ball from the running back and pass it. So if that defensive end crashes down and attacks the run, the quarterback will pull the ball away from the running back and look to throw. If that defensive end stays and has really good contain and is doing their job responsibly, usually what will happen is those runs will be designed to get more up the middle, like between the tackles, and kind of take that defensive end out of it. So once they started utilizing... Go ahead, Tom, sorry.
00:16:56
Speaker
Now, I'm sorry. Let's go down this rabbit hole just a little bit further. What's the difference between RPO and play action? Because in my mind, it feels very similar. It is very similar. So play action, the design and the play is never meant to actually go to the running back.
00:17:12
Speaker
they will fake the handoff to the running back to try and throw off the defense. So as a defensive player, and so I grew up my whole life playing as a linebacker on defense, right? As a linebacker, you are taught to play the run first.
00:17:27
Speaker
So if your goal is to freeze up the linebackers to maybe, or yeah, freeze the linebackers to maybe free up either the running back or the tight end. If you fake that handoff, ideally the linebackers are biting, they're stepping up a little bit. And by taking those one or two, maybe even three steps forward, they're putting themselves in a harder position to handle their coverage responsibilities. So play action.
00:17:51
Speaker
the play design is never actually going to go to the running back. It's just meant for the defense to think for a split second that it is. Whereas the RPO, it very well, it is designed to go either to the running back as a running play or for the quarterback to keep it. Right. OK, so OK, so I was thinking about the right way. It's just the intention, which is then I mean, looking back at like tape, that's probably hard to tell like what the actual intention is.
00:18:18
Speaker
Well, usually it's not really because like if you're talking about play action, right. So I'll turn the question back to you guys and maybe you guys know and maybe you don't. And if not, I'll tell you. But what's what's the secret to a really effective play action? Like, how do you how do you make that? How do you make the play action attempt that fake to the running back be really effective?
00:18:38
Speaker
You need to make it look like all the other running plays that you've done before. So it looks like what you, what, and they expecting, Hey, this is, we've seen this before. This, this is the same scheme. This is the same way that players are aligned that they're okay. This looks like the run and they're going to, this is another run.
00:18:52
Speaker
Right, and to take it one step further, you need to have a successful running game. You need to start off the game. Usually play action is more effective in the latter parts of the game. Teams will still run it early, but it becomes more effective if you've been successfully running the ball. If we're running the ball really well and James Cook is popping off for six, seven yards a carry,
00:19:15
Speaker
You do that eight times and then you run the play action. That's when everybody crashes towards James Cook and everything opens up on the fake tremendously. Right. And if it's a true RPO and they're like, OK, they're they're thinking no way that James Cook is running again, then and they play the pass, then James Cook just has another, you know,
00:19:36
Speaker
advantageous run look. Yeah. Yeah. It's a little bit different in the sense like the, it's the RPO you're just, it's just an attempt to catch the defense in whatever, um, let's see, how do I want to phrase this? The RPO you're, there's no, like, you don't have to set up the RPO like you do the play action. Play action needs a little bit of setup attempt, a little time to become effective.
00:20:00
Speaker
The play action, you're just exposing whatever that defensive end is doing, right? So you can be right no matter what. This doesn't take time to establish the run, doesn't take time to establish the pass. It's just based off of what that defensive end is doing.
00:20:15
Speaker
OK. Makes sense. Yeah. Well, hey. All right. Thanks, prof. Yeah. And I don't at all remember. You were talking about the bills were taking away the RPOs, and we're doing really well in the first half. Yeah. So well, that's the thing. There was very little RPO in the first half, right? Gotcha. And we talked about it in the group chat, Tom. We said, like, wow, the secondary is unreal. And it was actually you that you said, they're going to start running eventually, right? And it didn't happen the entire first half.
00:20:44
Speaker
And I think a big piece of that was the fact that they did not have Lane Johnson, their right tackle. So the splits with the Eagles winning and losing when they have Lane Johnson, it's like crazy. It's insane, dude. Their win percentage when he's not playing drops like 40%. It's some fucking crazy number. We didn't get to take advantage of that because apparently we don't know what we're doing.
00:21:09
Speaker
You get my point, right? So I think going into that game, they're like, okay, no Lane Johnson, we got to chuck the ball.
00:21:16
Speaker
which against this really, really, really well-coached defensive secondary, I say my well-coached and air quotes a little bit because we watched Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde give up an embarrassing touchdown, but that's for another
Game Criticism and Coaching Decisions
00:21:29
Speaker
day. It was, yeah, just so to fast to expedite, second half of the game, Philly starts running the ball more. They're trying to run to the outside, specifically with the RPO. And there's no adjustment from Sean McDermott. It's like he said, well,
00:21:42
Speaker
Don't know what to do for this. We'll just keep our fingers crossed. That to me was really frustrating because you watch Nick Sirianni make the correct adjustments and absolutely make us look stupid. And Sean McDermott had no answer. Yeah, man. That's it. That's the thing that just frustrates me so much because when he and when the bills are ready for it, like they do very well. This can't be a very well implemented defense.
00:22:09
Speaker
It's just then sometimes things change and then it looks like they look like high schoolers out there. That's the thing that's frustrating for me is like, I feel like they have the capacity to be consistently dominance, even with all these injuries that we've sustained this year, but it just doesn't happen in some of these big moments. I don't, I don't understand and it's so frustrating.
00:22:30
Speaker
Yeah, it is, man. And I mean, we're going to maybe a little bit today, but later this week, I think Tom and I are going to have a powwow and really get into some more in-depth build stuff. One of those conversations will probably be a little bit of Sean McDermott and our frustrations. And Tom and I, I can tell you folks right now, and like I said, we'll get into it in a little bit of time. Tom and I feel a little bit differently about Sean McDermott right now. Not like polar opposites, but I'm a little bit tougher on him right now than most people, I think.
00:22:59
Speaker
Yeah, I would agree with that. But I'm and I'm also trying to come up with my opinion because I don't want it to be just emotional. So and I think this is I'm actually excited for that conversation. It's going to be it's probably going to be a two glass of eggnog kind of conversation. And and we're going to dig into it. So be fun. Yeah. Do you have a negative to share with the class?
00:23:20
Speaker
Um, man, it's just these, we got to figure out how to play through these devastating, like just couple of collapses. Right.
00:23:31
Speaker
And what seems also like a whole bunch of, you always say, so Bruce Nolan, another really well-known podcaster in the Bill's Mafia landscape, one of his favorite phrases is that, in order to be successful, you have to be for as good as you can, for as long as you can, and as lucky as you can, for as long as you can.
00:23:52
Speaker
And I feel like we've been fairly good, right? Brandon Bien has crafted these beautiful championship caliber rosters multiple years in a row. We have Josh Allen, we have a franchise quarterback, we have strong players other places, like we have a good team. I just don't know where this luck goes. How does Jake Elliott kick a 59 yard field goal in the rain?
00:24:17
Speaker
I mean, I understand that we should have done X, Y, and Z to get there. But at some point, I don't know. I just don't get it. How does James Cook drop a dime of a pass for a touchdown early in the game? You know, at some point, the thing that I'm grappling with right now is how do we
00:24:39
Speaker
It feels like the universe has something to do with it. That's what it feels like. How does this officiating be so bad against the bills? How can you explain that? All of us are sitting on the couches and we're better referees than what we saw on the field on Sunday.
00:24:59
Speaker
Jason Kelsey's eyebrow moves and they call it for false start, right? And then they miss blatant, blatant calls, right?
00:25:10
Speaker
I, I, Jake, I know exactly what you're talking about, dude. I like, cause then like those, so Jason Kelsey had those like two, by the way, real quick side tangent on Jason Kelsey. I don't know what podcast he was most recently on, but he absolutely went in. I saw this Jordan Phillips absolutely running over that right guard for Philadelphia when the tape clearly shows now. Okay. Let me preface real quick and I'm calling out the tangent real quick.
00:25:38
Speaker
Jordan Phillips did not need to barrel over that guard the way that he does. There is a way to collect yourself when you're offsides. However, the tape clearly shows that Jason Kelsey flinched on that snap, dude. Like the tape doesn't lie. So Jason Kelsey, you're never going to hear this in your life. You're a fucking trillionaire. You don't give a shit about me at all. No, I have. Unfortunately, right, that's where we're at. Leading up to today,
00:26:07
Speaker
One of the players that, because I hate the Eagles for whatever reason. I think most of it's their fans. I think their fans are scumbags. But Jason Kelsey, a player that I'd never had anything but the utmost respect for, that was some bitch shit, dude. Because I bet you he knows that he flinched. And my god, I would love for a Philadelphia Eagle flam to hear this. And I said, Philadelphia Eagle flam.
00:26:30
Speaker
No desserts. Build up an Eagles fan to hear this and come at us, which would be just great content. They might. Shout out Sean if you're listening to this. He's an Eagles fan. I disagree with you. I love the Philly fans. Such degenerates in the most endearing way to me. I don't know.
00:26:49
Speaker
So much more. I like them so much more than like cowboys and Patriots fans and all that shit. But anyways, I digress. I don't know. But you know, like, I mean, but it just feel it felt insurmountable. It didn't matter how good Josh Allen was playing. It didn't. Well, OK, it did. I don't know. This is where I'm in like an emotional mess here. I don't know exactly what
00:27:13
Speaker
where to put the blame. I don't know what is the problem. I don't understand. And that's the thing that is hard to grapple with. I wish it was clear. I wish it was clearly Josh Allen's playing like booty, like whatever, you know, like I wish it was I wish we could put our finger on it. All right. Well, first of all, Tom, there's absolutely nothing wrong with booty. Okay, so take it easy with that.
00:27:36
Speaker
Um, before I, cause I would like to touch on that too. And I think that's going to kind of transition to at least the next thing that I want to say, Jake, did you want, did you have a negative? You wanted to toss out to the, to the class or. No, I think we've covered them already. Like the officiating just in the NFL in general makes me scratch my head and just think that.
00:27:56
Speaker
I'm not going to, I'm not going to say the, the R word, excuse me. I'm not going to say the rigged word. Let me, let me clarify. Good catch. I thought we'd get canceled after episode one, but we made it to 17. So it's been, it's been a good run guys. Um, yeah, no, just, just the officiating was, was, was head scratching to me, but, uh, which is tough because I hate, uh, I hate
00:28:20
Speaker
I hate to rag on officiating and be that fan, but this one left me no choice. It left me no choice but to be like, what the hell?
00:28:29
Speaker
This one was really bad, dude. And I do want to get to the officiating because it was there were a couple. There are several egregious things that took place due to the referees. However, despite all of that shit, we still had the opportunity multiple times to win this game. And once again, yes.
00:28:51
Speaker
It came back down to execution, right? And I can point to two things, and Tom, I think between the two of us, we've touched on both of them. But the easy James Cook touchdown that he just, I mean, like, dude, literally,
00:29:08
Speaker
Josh could not have hit the hit the freeze button, walked to down the field and placed the ball in a better spot. It was a perfect role. James Cook, I my God, brother, you just got to catch that ball. It's a walk in touchdown.
00:29:24
Speaker
That's number one. Number two is that mistouched down past Gabe Davis at the end of the game, dude. Now, I'd say this for the pod. I watched the film. I broke it down based on what I know about football, which is not nothing, but I'm obviously not an offensive coordinator in the NFL. Based on what I saw between the leverage of the safety and the cornerback and how they responded to both Gabe Davis and Stefan Diggs' routes,
00:29:52
Speaker
Gabe made the right call. It looked to me like it should have been a route that broke to the outside corner, and Josh, for whatever reason, decided to throw the post. Now, that being said,
00:30:05
Speaker
Gabe Davis was four to five steps in front of that guy. All he needed to do was turn his goddamn head around infinitely sooner than he did. And this is why it's on Gabe to me in a way, too. You have to recognize, you have to, whether you're a ride receiver, center, running back, quarterback, whoever, you have to recognize when that zero blitz is coming.
00:30:28
Speaker
And when that zero blitz is coming, you have to know as a wide receiver, you have got to get your head around quick because you know, you know that quarterback has to get the ball out fast. So if you're running a route and you know you're the deep guy and it's going to be single coverage, there's a chance that your quarterback is just going to toss it up and give you the opportunity to make a play.
00:30:51
Speaker
You've got to snap your head around Gabe snaps his head around when he's supposed to it doesn't matter where Josh throws that ball It's a touchdown because Gabe can adjust gave her I'm gonna get his head around so It's on both of them gave ran the right route Josh didn't anticipate that correctly However Gabe you have to recognize that the situation at hand get your fucking noggin around Yeah
00:31:15
Speaker
Yeah, and it's just crazy. I mean, there is that there was I can even keep going. It was the the end of the tag. I can't remember his game time, but that touchdown throw that one that Jordan Poirier and Michael Hyde both got cooked on by some nobody receiver. There was Tyler Bass missing a field goal, getting a field field goal blocked. There was Sean McDermott not giving Josh Allen the chance of the ball with 20 seconds left at the end of the fourth quarter once the Eagles did tie it up. Like what?
00:31:45
Speaker
It's all these execution errors that just piled up and you can't, they're insurmountable. You can't get over that. You can't, you know, you can't, at some point it's just, they add up and here we are. Burning a timeout to ice the kicker before that. So yeah, which I think, dude, that this mentality that coaches have of trying to ice the kicker, can we grow up, dude? Like,
00:32:11
Speaker
They're either gonna hit it or they're fucking not. Stop burning timeouts for stupid stuff like that, especially when you see, now, okay, here's where, oh, I'm gonna get so heated on Sean McDermott. You are the coach that is a victim of 13 seconds, right? You see that you have a potential to have 20 seconds with two timeouts, and your quarterback can throw the ball 70 yards.
00:32:42
Speaker
I mean, and he's playing like a guy and he's playing lights out. So it's not even a having a bad game. If he was having a rough game, I get it. Right. So it's twofold for me. One, show me different. You're a bitch. It's just it's just coward. It's a cowardly move. It's it's just it's just cowardice. Right. Like it's like, where's your spine? Right. And the second one to me is even bigger. What message does this send to your team?
00:33:09
Speaker
Right. How do you OK. So how do you say I don't believe in you guys without saying I don't believe in you guys. That's how you kneel out when you have a top three quarterback in the league with a bazooka for an arm with 20 seconds when you're a victim of 13 seconds. That is there's no better way for me. Like if I'm a player and my coach does that.
00:33:31
Speaker
I'm like, that's it for me. This guy doesn't think we can do it, period. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know. I can't picture a quick way to lose a locker room. And I recognize the chances for success on all of that are not high. I get it. And there is a potential risk. But holy fuck, dude. Look at the way your quarterback is playing. You got playmakers. Joe Brady's calling an awesome game.
00:33:59
Speaker
And the way that the Eagles just walked down and scored like Ford scoring drives in a row on your defense, right? So clearly your offense is playing better than your defense right now. Let them go win the game, man. Oh, dude, we're going to have a great conversation on Friday. I'm so this is going to be good. I'm telling you, it's going to be a, it's a two egg nogger. For sure. So anyway, let's hear we are six and six. Yeah. Let's make it a hair positive for one second. I Joe Brady.
00:34:26
Speaker
I mean, what's there not to love, dude? He is. He's calling a beautiful game. He's calling. He's calling motion with intent. Right. So for those that might not know, what's the point of motion? OK, so motion is a pre snap thing that teams will do. Right. And when I say motion.
00:34:42
Speaker
If we're talking about the bills, Josh Allen's getting ready to snap the ball and he will look over to either his left or his right and send a receiver or a tight end or somebody who's split out wide to move to a different spot on the field. What is the point of motion? The point of motion is to give you a clue as to what the defense is doing in terms of their coverage scheme. So the defense is either going to be running a zone
00:35:05
Speaker
or a man coverage scheme. There's hybrids in there involved, but if we try to make it as black as white as possible, it's coverage in zone, or excuse me, it's man coverage and zone coverage. If Stephon Diggs, if we're playing, let's see, Darius Slay, he plays for Philly, right? One of their cornerbacks, I think. So if Darius Slay is lined up over Stephon Diggs, and Josh Allen motions Stephon Diggs to a different part of the field, right? If Darius Slay follows him, right, moves with him,
00:35:33
Speaker
shadows him, that is your indicator that okay, Philly is playing man coverage, meaning each secondary player is responsible for one player that's out running a route on offense.
00:35:46
Speaker
If Stephon Diggs goes in motion and nobody moves, that is your indicator that it's zone coverage because in zone coverage, it's just like it sounds. Every defensive player in the secondary, not your defensive lineman usually, but your secondary players are responsible for a particular area or zone of the field.
00:36:06
Speaker
Right? So to bring it back to what I was saying, Joe Brady is running motion with really great intent. His pass concepts are married to his run concepts, meaning he's running different plays out of the same formations, right? So it's not like his run plays are only of this formation, and his pass plays are only of this formation. He runs a lot of five wide and three wide receivers, and neither of those are indicative of whether it's going to be a run or a pass.
00:36:36
Speaker
Yeah, he's he's absolutely calling an awesome game right now I know I just kind of took a lot of the Joe Brady positives, but Tom you have anything you want to touch on No, man, and I love the way that he's he's kind of been addressing the public I don't know if anybody's watched any of his pressures, but he comes out great comes out some excuse me comes across great He's wearing a Buffalo versus everybody hoodie. Let's go like he's a man of the people he's Taking leadership. He's he did not throw any of his players under the bus. He has the right answers and
00:37:03
Speaker
Um, and yeah, man, I'm excited. I, and I, I think the players are responding well. I think he's putting the players, um, and this is another kind of another just football trope of it's, it's players not plays. And I think he's, I think he's doing a good job of getting the ball to our playmakers, not just, okay, I'm running this concept because I know it'll work. No, get the ball to Stefan Diggs, get the ball to James Cook, get the ball to Dalton Kincaid. Like he's doing a good job of that. And I like that.
00:37:32
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. So Tom, I'm going to ask you a question. All right. And the rule is you can, you can only give me a yes or a no answer. Oh, okay. Okay. We have how many games left this season? Does anybody know at the top of their head? I don't actually know.
Bills' Playoff Prospects
00:37:49
Speaker
Five, five. Okay. We're six and six. Let's say, let's say the bills finish out the season three and two and miss the playoffs. Okay. Mm-hmm.
00:37:59
Speaker
At the beginning of next season, would you prefer that Joe Brady was the head coach over Sean McDermott if that's how the season ends? Yes or no? Right now, no. OK.
00:38:09
Speaker
You technically broke the rules, but just pick it up. Yeah. Okay. That's not a conversation on Friday, but like teaser teaser for Friday. Cause there's, I think there's, I think there's layers to that. There's layers. Yeah. But it's, I think it's always really interesting to make us cut, to boil everything down to a yes or no. I think that's because it's hard to do.
00:38:30
Speaker
Yeah. Where I am right now. No. Okay. But again, that's a very situational and yeah, I'm excited. Let's talk about that on Friday. Totally. So we, um, just looking ahead, we are six and six. The bills are out of the playoffs. We're the 10th seed looking outside, looking in, which is insane. If you told me this and what's even more frustrating, if you look at all these like silly mistakes, like we could be like,
00:38:54
Speaker
10 and two, like we could be, you know, like our nine and three, like we, there's not, it's a fine line between six and six and like the one seed. You, you get back the Jets game, the Broncos game, the Patriots game, you're suddenly nine and three. Nine and three, which is tied with the Ravens for another number one seed. Isn't that, that's absolutely mind boggling to me. It's so frustrating. It is frustrating. It's fucking frustrating. However, what that tells me is that
00:39:24
Speaker
The bills are lethal. I think if we can stay hot, if we can stay and play well, I did not, looking at this game against the Eagles, it did not feel like we lost it because we couldn't. I lost it because situationally, there was a lot that happens that was not the correct decision and it was mistakes were made, but it wasn't like, oh my God, we are outclassed. We could have won that game.
00:39:49
Speaker
which gives me hope, but man, we got to, we got to, we have some, some, some work to do. We're going to buy a week. So nobody can be hardworking this weekend, which is really nice. Um, but so looking ahead and kind of going into the rest of the season, I'm going to do a little bit of a Bill's rooting interest of how, who do we need to be rooting for in these other NFL games to help us get our way back into the playoff seed. And hopefully we can find our way or our way into a, um,
00:40:13
Speaker
a wild card seeding. So in case anybody doesn't know maybe we have some new people are new to following along how the playoffs work. Each conference the NFC and the AFC seed seven teams that go into the playoffs. The first seed is the well the first four seeds are the top division winners of that conference. So the AFC East, the AFC South, the AFC West, and the AFC North all send one team that are there
00:40:38
Speaker
division winners whoever has the best record of those is the number one seed they get a bye week so they don't have to play the first week of the playoffs the number two three and four seeds are all the other division winners the last few years the bills have been the afc east division winner so they've been one of those seeds
00:40:55
Speaker
Then there are three wildcard teams who are not division winners, but the next three best teams that work the best, um, records or, um, we like wins and advantages over those other teams. They get to make the AFC, um, uh, wildcard spots. So I think right now that's the best.
00:41:13
Speaker
Bill's route to the playoffs is a wild card spot. We are 6-6 in the 10 seed currently behind other wild card contenders of the Steelers 7-4, the Browns 7-4, the Colts 6-5, the Texans 6-5, and the Broncos 6-5. For the record, the Steelers, Browns, and Colts are all playing behind backup quarterbacks.
00:41:37
Speaker
Texans are playing well. I'm actually very excited for CJ Stroud. If they make the playoffs, I'd be happy for him. Fantasy-wise, I am a huge CJ Stroud fan. Yeah, you are. Yeah. Yeah. Nigel has all his chips in on CJ Stroud and tanked out. That's great. Which was a good call. Which was a good call, by the way. The best fantasy call I've made in years. Continue. Yeah, dude. And then the Broncos, who have just been the hottest team in football, they started one on five and they won the last five, beating the Chiefs, beating the Bills, beating the Browns. They've done really well the last couple of weeks. So who knows what's going to happen there.
00:42:07
Speaker
So anyway, those are the teams that we're behind and we're looking at the kind of nipping at their heels. So this weekend of the games that are happening, we want the, the Bills want the Falcons to win over the Jets just to keep the Jets down further down. We are ahead of them currently in the division, but let's keep them that way. Tom, can we, sorry, I don't mean to interrupt you. Can we do, can we do a quick two second prediction on each of these games? What you think Falcons over jets? What do you got? What do I want it to be? Or who do I think is, no, predictably, predictably.
00:42:36
Speaker
Predictably, I think it's the Falcons. I think strangely enough, Arthur Smith is kind of finding his groove, even though I think he's an idiot, but I think he's finding his groove there. Texans versus Broncos can go either way because they're both tied at six and five ahead of us. So it can kind of go either way. They're not in the division. So either team, it doesn't help or hurt us. Man, I think the way the Broncos are playing right now, I think the Broncos win that. I like the Texans in that game personally.
00:43:06
Speaker
Cardinals over Steelers. That's the next one, because we have the Steelers to get a loss. I don't know if that's going to happen, just the way the Steelers have been playing. And their defense is very good. So I'm picking Steelers over that. But we want the Cardinals to figure it out and beat the Steelers. The next game, Rams over the Browns. I think that is going to be a Browns win, just because of their defense. But the Rams looked hot last week. I don't know. They sure did. If they can score like that, the Browns can't. Don't forget the Browns have a backup quarterback right now, too.
00:43:35
Speaker
So it's, if that Brown's defense comes to play in stifles that Rams offense, they win, but otherwise I think it's the, um, the Rams, the Jaguars over the Bengals right now, the Jags are, um,
00:43:47
Speaker
like the two or three seed, they're doing really well. And we want them to win that division outright, not get down into this wildcard race. Cause they have a win over us and we don't want to touch that. Um, and we want to also keep the bangles who aren't, they are probably not going to do as well, but who knows they're behind us and could be, could come up and become a contention because they have a win over us. Then, um, we want the Titans over the Colts.
00:44:09
Speaker
Because the Colts are in that wild cards race. We want the who do you think wins there? But Titans and Colts. Yeah, I would go Colts personally. Yeah, I think so Zach Moss game What's his face is hurt now, so yes Zach Moss comes didn't have a pulse in Buffalo, but
00:44:33
Speaker
pats over chargers just because A, we want the chargers to stay down and B, we want the pats to get another win so that way they don't have quite as good of a pick coming up here this fall or this spring. And then commanders over dolphins to get the dolphins another loss. And then packers over the Chiefs because fuck the Chiefs.
00:44:55
Speaker
yep that's correct that is all correct cool yeah that's I don't know man a lot of those games look like in my opinion a lot of those games I think could go our way the bills way good yeah who knows yeah pets aren't gonna beat the Chargers commanders aren't gonna beat the Dolphins
00:45:15
Speaker
Packers could beat the Chiefs. They could play pretty well lately. I think the Jags are going to beat the shit out of the Bengals. They look like nothing without Joe Burrow. I'm sorry. I have no disrespect to the Bengals. They're a great football team. But it's no different if the Bills, if Josh Allen went down and I'm not going to know what, it'd be no different. The Bills would be dead. I think the Bengals are dead. So yeah, I don't know.
00:45:42
Speaker
Yeah, we'll see. I got to tell you, we, uh, we went into this podcast. Everybody's saying, Oh, let's go light on the bills. We're 45 minutes in on Bill's talk, but, uh, so that's great. Thanks for hanging out with us. Yeah. Um, no, no, no game to predict this week.
00:45:57
Speaker
Right. Thank God. Yeah. Yeah, I'm OK with that. So we'll just I want you to know your last pick. That was actually my pick. You do. I said that you called the Jets 4210. The bill is to win 4210 over
Sabres' Performance and Goaltending
00:46:10
Speaker
the Jets. You were the closest out of the three of us. Well, you know, I don't I regularly say you're very optimistic. You know, I regularly say that I I I picked the wrong career and I should be in the booth somewhere. I don't know, ma'am. All right. Well, should we get into a little a little little puck talk?
00:46:27
Speaker
Yeah, Jake, give us a little synopsis. How is, uh, how was the week been in, uh, Sabre's land? Very up and down over the past couple of weeks since we chatted last. So I won't go through every game because we need to keep it somewhat palatable for people to click on the link. But, uh, since we last spoke, they've played six games. Like I said, up and down loss against Winnipeg.
00:46:49
Speaker
Win against Chicago. Loss against Washington. Win against Pittsburgh. Loss in New Jersey. Win in New York against the Rangers. So very much up and down. There's been a couple of games in there that you've really wanted to see them win. The game in Winnipeg comes to mind. They had a great third period. Couldn't find the equalizer. The game in Washington comes to mind.
00:47:16
Speaker
Nigel, was that the game that Zach Benson scored the ridiculous between the legs goal? We got it. We got to say something about that. Oh, my God. I actually can't even. No, I actually feel like it was was it against New Jersey? Maybe not. No, no, no. You're right. You're right. You're right. It was Washington. It was Washington. So unfortunately, the night was spoiled after that incredible goal because Sabers couldn't hold on to the lead. Washington tied it up at the minute left and then won the game in overtime. A trend.
00:47:45
Speaker
that we're hoping to avoid the rest of the way out of not being able to close games out that you're in the lead in the third period with. But then they come back Friday night and pull off a third period, come back against Pittsburgh, down 2-0 going into the third, come back with three goals in the third period to win that game. And the following night against New Jersey, this was a game I got home from Rochester. I was all excited to watch a Sabres game. And bro, I couldn't watch past the first period. It was it.
00:48:14
Speaker
terrible, terrible game. They lost seven to two. I think probably the emotion of coming back the night before against Pittsburgh, they didn't look ready to play. I mean, I think they were still dreaming about what they did the night before and not ready to play against New Jersey.
00:48:32
Speaker
New Jersey was at home. They got their captain back for that game. Nico Hescher, Jack Hughes was heating up. I think there was just too much emotional highs going on for New Jersey and too much not ready to play for Buffalo. It was a, it was a horrible, horrible game. They had, I think they had nine scoring chances in the entire game, Buffalo. And that is compared to like 46 for New Jersey or something. I saw some stat like that. Just, just a, just a bloodbath blowout. Yeah.
00:49:00
Speaker
It was it was terrible that game dude was I can't stand when when We show like when I say we I mean the sabers like I play for the fucking team I can't say when we show up to games and we don't actually show up, right? You're just you're just warm bodies on the ice Yeah game was was so flat and lifeless right from the get-go. I was yeah same thing dude I think you and I were texting Jake I turned it off after off after the first period
00:49:27
Speaker
Yeah. And it's, it's becoming a bit of a trend and not one that I'm happy to see of me just not really being able to stomach watching the team. There's, there's the other games that pop into mind, the flyers game where they just got the wheels beat off of them and looked lifeless. The Pittsburgh game, not this past Pittsburgh game where they came back, but the other shutout for nothing against Pittsburgh. They just, they didn't look committed. They didn't look ready to play. Uh, there was no, there was no
00:49:54
Speaker
There's no jam. There's no fight from the team. And I didn't see that. I saw that no times last year. Maybe there was a couple that I just can't think of. But it's a troubling trend earlier this year. So you've got to hope they avoid that. Let's move on to a more positive subject, the game on Monday against the best team in the NHL at the time. I heard you made some friends in New York, bud. I have many friends in New York. I didn't make any new ones that night. Yeah.
00:50:24
Speaker
Yeah, I was at the game. It was a blast. I had a great time. Shout out to my friend Peter for bringing me. And yeah, it was a blast. It was a closer game than the score suggests. I mean, it was two to one in the third period. The Rangers are lethal. And yeah, Buffalo held on for a win.
00:50:44
Speaker
Hold on. I got to I got to stop you there. We didn't hold on, man. We played the shit out of the Rangers that whole game. I felt like there was there was no holding on there, man. And and I you're absolutely right. It was closer than the game or than the score suggests. That game to me was three to one. Right. Because the fourth goal was an empty netter. The fifth goal was just a garbage time, although great shot by Kyle Arposo. So you love seeing that from your captain. But I mean, dude, I personally and I don't mean to take over your role here, Jake.
00:51:15
Speaker
Um, I personally felt like we, we tell me to the Rangers that night for three periods. And the most exciting thing for me was, I think for me, dude, that was the first game that we've played this season where we played 60 full, awesome minutes. I mean, dude, that shout out equal. That game should have been for nothing at the end of the first period. I mean, Jeff Skinner had an unreal chance where he got absolutely robbed. Like.
00:51:43
Speaker
like two minutes into the game, something like that. So, I mean, let's, you know, I just want to give their give the flowers what they deserve because they play the hell of a game Monday night. Agreed. Yeah, it's it's rare for New York to leave Shasturkin out to dry like that, but they did. He kept them in the game and he still he's one of the best boys in the league. He still wasn't enough to
00:52:04
Speaker
calm the tide that Buffalo is throwing at him. Yeah. Now, Jay, can I ask you a quick question? Did you see anything? Because I know the answer for me. So I'm asking you, kind of, I'm putting you on the spot. What was the difference between that game and some of the shittier games that we've seen? Well, I think, yeah, like you said, you said it already, played a full 60 minutes. They structure their game for the full 60 minutes.
00:52:32
Speaker
I thought UPL looked outstanding. I thought he, and that that's a growing trend this year that I'm very happy with. Yeah. I thought he looked absolutely outstanding. So I think, I think that was a big difference maker. I want to, I want to get to that. And let me, I'm going to toss it in mine real quick. Just, I know I put you on the spot, but I've been thinking about this a bunch. It seems to me that this savers team, man, when they're super aggressive and fast on the four check.
00:52:57
Speaker
That is when we put together really, really, really good moments of hockey. And for me, that Monday night, that's 60 minutes. We four checked our balls off for 60 minutes. Now, when I say four check, for those that might not know, four check is your tenacity on the puck when you're playing defense. Right. So not not giving like when the other team has the puck in their end and they're trying to break out to get to their offensive end.
00:53:24
Speaker
Right? Taking away time and space, being very tenacious on the puck, being obnoxious and a pain in the ass to play against, right? There's nothing more frustrating in hockey when your opponent immediately takes away your time and space with the puck. It's like a blitz in football, right? Rush is the quarterback's decisions. When decisions are rushed, that's when shitty decisions get made. And for me, dude, we've forechecked the hell
00:53:51
Speaker
out of that Rangers team at no point when we were four checking, did we have less than two guys in our offensive end, their defensive end, hounding those guys for the park. That was the big difference for me. Sorry, Jake. I didn't mean to put you in a bind there and take over, but no, no, not at all. I totally agree. A lot of board battles that they won stripping pucks and.
00:54:14
Speaker
Yeah, they're a fast team. When they use their speed effectively to get through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone, good things happen. When they use that speed and tenacity in the corners in their own offensive zone, good things happen. It's a tough team to do that against, and they did a phenomenal job that night. Sure did. Talk to us about the record and where we're standing right now, Jake.
00:54:38
Speaker
So currently, they're 10-10 and two. They are sixth in the division. They're only three points out of a playoff spot currently. I didn't have to edit the document. They've kind of been in that spot for a while now. And look, they're playing up and down hockey, the win-loss, win-loss. That's not going to get you to the playoffs, but it's a good way to stay relevant in the conversation.
00:55:02
Speaker
Yep. And that, that to me is the positive at this point, right? Like we have not played our best hockey. We're more or less 500 and at 500. We're three points out of a playoff spot. That to me is truly a positive because of this team. If they can take anything from Monday and start to get hot and be like, look at what we can do against the best team to league right now. You know, you like to think that generates a little bit of momentum. And then there you go. You start to go on a run, but.
00:55:29
Speaker
Exactly. If they can string some wins together, if they can have, say they have a five game winning streak at some point in December, January, February, that sets them up really well. If they go on a five game winning streak and then continue this trend of win-loss, win-loss, that gets you in the playoffs. Yeah.
00:55:47
Speaker
You need the playoff line is typically around 94 to 98 points any given year. So you got to get there, but you put a couple of wins together and your job becomes so much easier where you're not clawing back into that spot every, every couple of nights. Absolutely.
00:56:05
Speaker
Yeah. Um, okay. So Jake, I'm gonna, I'm gonna jump in here again and, and we have a bunch of discussion points here for the savers, but I mentioned to you when we were having our board meeting, I have some, some stats that I want to throw at you. Okay. And our, our bottom bullet point right now, and it's, I tossed it in there at the very last second. We, I feel like we have to talk about UPL right now. So here's my big stat that I almost shit my pants when I read currently.
00:56:34
Speaker
Okay, let me ask Jake, if you had to guess, UPL safe percentage, where is he ranked amongst the top, or amongst the goalies in the league right now who have played a good chunk of games? If you had to guess.
00:56:47
Speaker
Give me a range. 15 to 20. 15 to 20. UPL is top, he's eighth in the league right now. His save percentage is currently 0.918. So to throw a couple more stats at you, right?
00:57:06
Speaker
So his safe, and I always, when I'm talking about goalies, and maybe you feel differently, Jake, I always lean towards safe percentage as opposed to goals against average. And the reason is, if you're a goalie and your team allows 20 shots and you give up two goals,
00:57:22
Speaker
Your GAA, your goals against average, is still two, right? If you're a goalie and you give and your team lets up 45 shots and the team only scores two, your GAA is still two. But your save percentage is drastically different. So I am someone, when I'm analyzing goaltender play, I'm a big save percentage guy because I think that tells the more accurate story. Agree or disagree on that one, Jake?
00:57:49
Speaker
To follow your one word rule, agree. Agree. Awesome. Love that. All right. So kiss ass. Just a couple numbers here to check out. Okay. UPL's last one, two, three, four starts. Okay. I'm going to read you his save percentages.
00:58:07
Speaker
Against the Rangers, .962. Against Pittsburgh, .939. Against Chicago, .923. Against Pittsburgh, .921. That's four games where his last four starts. His save percentage in those last four starts, .936 dude, that is, that's a borderline elite number.
00:58:31
Speaker
Like if we're talking about goaltenders. The first place, say, percentage right now in the NHL is .933. Now, goalies are voodoo, black magic, weird. Nobody knows how they operate. They're so hot and cold. They're so superstitious. Goalies are just fucking weird. No two ways about it. But if you take the last four games, and obviously there's 82 games in a season. So take a four game sample size for what you think it might be worth.
00:59:01
Speaker
You take the last four games. UPL is the best goaltender in the league right now. I mean, that for me to see him make that kind of a stride is absolutely monumental. Like how sick would it be if UPL all of a sudden just just went off? And and yeah, like that's those are my stats. Those are the ones I was excited to drop. Go ahead. I love it. No, I think they're they're worthy of excitement because
00:59:30
Speaker
He's, he's looked more confident too. I think he's a goalie that operates off confidence when, when he gets shaken, he can let in really leaky goals and he's playing really, really well right now. So, so hearing the stats back up, how he looks in the net, I think is phenomenal.
00:59:47
Speaker
I'm not quite ready to call him the best goalie in the league. I'll let you handle that one. No, me neither. I'm just saying, if you took the last four games, like, so for UPL, man, his issues always been consistency, no? He's like, he's always had the flashes. Four games of really great play for him, for my money, has got to be close to his best stretch of hockey ever. And I'm knocking on wood again. But, I mean, for him, a stretch of four really great games, you take that 10 times out of 10, no?
01:00:16
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Totally agree with you that he's looked the best that he has in a Sabres jersey thus far.
01:00:24
Speaker
I think that Comrie's looked better too. I think a big part of it that needs to be said is the team defensive play around him. So many goalie stats are team stats, really. Yes, you can determine how many saves a goalie made and how many they didn't, but it's about what's in front of them and how they're reacting to what's given to them by their team.
01:00:49
Speaker
I mean, it's been a concerted effort by the Sabres to not allow as many odd man rushes. It's clear when you watch the games that they don't do that as much anymore, and play a more sound defensive structure. And I think that you're seeing the results in those goalie stats that you're reading off. Yeah, it's a team game, and he's benefiting from it. And I think that's great. And I hope he continues to look solid. How about that save against the Rangers with the paddle of his stick? Holy fuck, dude.
01:01:18
Speaker
That was going in and he just got a little piece of it with the paddle of a stick and it redirected wide. Like that was that's save of the year candidate. That made me think of one name, dude. And that one name is Dominic Hasek. Yeah, that was that was Hasek right there, dude, the way he sprawled across, got a paddle on it. I think Marty Buran actually has a save that's like pretty much at the exact same as that and lives in infamy and in Sabrehood. But yeah, it was it was a real save.
01:01:46
Speaker
So while we're on goalies, uh, I think, I think this is a good transition into Devin Levi. Yes. He has struggled. He's been the third best goalie on the team this year. Comrie and UPL. Um, no, I can't say I'm terribly surprised. No, do you agree? I do. I think, I think it's a move that should have been made a couple of games ago. Now here's what people need to understand. Goalie.
01:02:09
Speaker
The way goalies develop is different than everybody else. It's typically slower, right? We've got Zach Benson who's 18 who made the NHL, made this team rightfully so, and he's on the team because he's one of the best 12 forwards in the organization. He's 18. It would be, like Devin Levi was given the keys to the city last year, basically, right? Already viewed as the savior.
01:02:36
Speaker
We all got excited. I know I was just as guilty as everybody else. I couldn't wait to see Devin Levi this year.
01:02:43
Speaker
It is not a bad thing that he got sent down to Rochester to do. This is the correct call. This is the typical way that goalies develop. Ryan Miller, who, aside from the Dominator, is viewed as the best Sabres goalie of all time, played three years in Rochester. First year he started 42 games. Second year he started like 60. The next year he started like 68. And then he went to the show.
01:03:09
Speaker
So people need to be careful to not panic and start to view Devin Levi as a failure already because the kid turns 22, okay? I'm gonna say that again. The kid turns 22. Tom, I think I was taking shots of bourbon out of your belly button at the age of 22. Okay? So like this kid has so much time to come into his own. Here's the other thing too. There's no NHL team that carries three goalies.
01:03:39
Speaker
Right? Like nobody does it. It's very, very, very, very, very few. If there might be a couple, but it's not becoming more common. Is it? That would be news to me, but yeah, it's so you go ahead. Go ahead. Say what you want to say.
01:03:55
Speaker
It's, it's becoming more common and I think it will continue to become more common in situations where it makes sense for a team like Buffalo, where we have three fairly young, fairly unproven goalies. It, it perhaps doesn't make as much sense, but look at an example, like I'll throw Tampa out there as an example, where you have one of the best boys in the league in Vasilevsky.
01:04:20
Speaker
If you carry three goalies, you have a situation where you can rest Vasilevsky. You don't have to have him because he's only going to play 55, 60 games in the season, right? That's how many games you want. You're starting goalie to be playing those other 20 games. Don't make him go through his, his game day routine, his game day warmups, sit on the bench in a baseball cap where he might come in. He might not. If you know that no matter what the score is.
01:04:48
Speaker
No matter what the score is, no matter how many goals the other team puts up, you know that you're leaving the backup out there because you need your racehorse goalie to rest. Put him in a suit. Put him up in the box. Don't even bring him to the game. Give him and his brain a rest from mentally preparing to play in the game. So I think that will...
01:05:14
Speaker
It's not going to happen tomorrow, but I do think over the next few years, you'll see more teams carrying three goalies to give their thoroughbred starting goalies arrest with Buffalo. You don't have that like bonafide number one goalie that you want to spell so effectively, but it, I think it does make sense for teams that have that elite net minder, give them a mental and physical break entirely for a night.
01:05:38
Speaker
I could buy that argument for sure. For Buffalo, what is the number one thing that Levi and UPL need? They need reps, right? So this is the other reason. This is kind of where I was going before. This is one of the main reasons I think that it's great that Devin Levi went down. When he's practicing with the Sabres, right? And now, I have to preface this a little bit by saying, Rochester, when he goes to done Rochester, they're also now going to have three goalways. We'll get to that in a second.
01:06:06
Speaker
When he's up practicing with Buffalo, you're in the net, you're taking some reps, you're getting some shots, and then you've got to sit off to the side for a minute while the other goalie gets their reps. That is not what Devin Levi needs. Excuse me, a little burpee from the beer.
01:06:24
Speaker
Devin Levi needs to be playing. He needs reps. He needs to be taking shots. He needs to learn how to acclimate to the professional game, which is why I think right now Rochester is the perfect place for him to be. He will, for my money, the way I think this organization is going to handle it, maybe not, okay? But I think they recognize that Dustin Tokarski and Devin Cooley down in Rochester are not the future.
01:06:51
Speaker
Okay, they are placeholders for a team. They both also have terrible numbers right now. Rochester's winning because Rochester can't help but put the puck in the net. They're sick.
01:07:04
Speaker
I think Devin Levi is going to go down to Rochester and he's automatically going to become the number one. I don't think there's going to be much hesitation there from Seth Aper. And that might not even be Seth Aper's call. Seth Aper is the Rochester-Americans coach, by the way. It might not even be Seth Aper's fault. Kevin Adams might just play the GM card and say, look, he's coming down. He's your number one.
01:07:26
Speaker
Which, and maybe I'm wrong on that. Maybe it's a more even split. But I think that the move sending Levi down to Rochester is so good because the amount of reps that he's going to get is going to triple. Even if it's just practice, AHL teams practice like three times more than the National Hockey League players. So even that, in and of itself, he's going to get more time being a goalie and not just sitting or standing.
01:07:55
Speaker
Which is why I think it's the right call. Game reps. I want him involved in games and in confidence. Yeah. I'm less high on practice time. I think that can be counterproductive for goalies overall, but for a young goalie like him, I think it's important. So yeah, practice peer Rochester, Buffalo, wherever, but games, I want him in games and getting that confidence with him. Um,
01:08:20
Speaker
For sure, dude. Yeah, we could deep dive more on goalies. But perhaps that's for next week when we deep dive. Yeah, Jake, it might be a good idea for you and I to have a savers pod, just you and I, and really get into the nitty-gritty, slutty stuff. I think next week, bills are on buy. So I think next week, we really deep dive on some savers stuff. But in the interest of brevity, let's move off the goal technique. Yeah, there's a lot of discussion points here that we should touch on. But we don't need to go in super depth. Go ahead, Jake.
01:08:50
Speaker
take us to the direction. Where do you want to have? Well, I think I think the biggest, one of the biggest and most awesome surprises, and we touched on it for two seconds earlier, Benson sticking with the team and it's not looking like a mistake. For my money, he was one of the best three players on the ice for either team against the Rangers Monday night. Did you see anything live? He's great. What I noticed about him watching him is
01:09:14
Speaker
We talked about it before the season, what he does well, board battles and being tenacious in the corners. This kid's 18 years old and he's going up against Jacob Trubo without second thought in the corner, trying to battle the puck away. And he does it regularly. Um, it's not a mistake. It's not luck. He's, he's a tenacious board battler and that's how you win, win games. So I've heard rumor that he's being asked about for the Canadian, uh, world junior team.
01:09:42
Speaker
I think, and I also heard in the same breath Kevin Adams saying, let's see, but probably not. So yeah, he should play as many games for Buffalo throughout the rest of the season as he can. There is nothing wrong with keeping an 18-year-old kid if he's playing like he can and should, and he certainly is right now. No, and at this point, dude, his first year of his entry-level contract is burnt now. So I don't think he's going anywhere. I think even if he goes, hits the rookie wall, I think he's staying in Buffalo this year.
01:10:12
Speaker
Yeah, agree. You already burnt the year, so you might as well keep them there. Keeping with the young guys, we had some debuts of some really, really, really some guys that I was super high on. However, they showed up and for my money were invisible. Right. Completely. Yeah. Cool got in one game against New Jersey.
01:10:33
Speaker
I mean, the whole team kind of burned the tape kind of game. Yeah, you move on from that. But he wasn't helping really at all. Tough, tough, tough to really gauge either of the young guys in that in that devil's game, I feel like is like you just said, everybody was dog shit in that game. Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. I was hoping Kulik would get in against the Rangers, but he didn't. He's back down in Rochester now.
01:10:56
Speaker
I think he should be given another chance if injury strikes again. But I'm personally not upset if he stays in Rochester for most of the year. He's young. He can score for sure. I think his game away from the puck is not where it needs to be to play in the NHL. He's got a howitzer of a shot. He's lethal on the power play. And that's what gives him a lot of buzz. But I just don't think he plays a complete enough game to make it in the NHL.
Player Development and Team Dynamics
01:11:26
Speaker
He's not going to do that in the NHL. It's not a development league. He's not going to develop by playing NHL games. He needs to learn some tendencies and habits away from the puck in the AHL and come up when he has a more complete game to me. Yeah, I can buy that a little bit. I guess at some point, Rick, because he's
01:11:45
Speaker
Him and Roseanne both, they're both lighting up the AHL. So at some point, I would push back a little bit in the sense that at some point the NHL is like a hair of a development league. You don't bring guys to the NHL specifically to develop. But when you're just ripping apart the AHL, eventually you just got to come up and you'll learn the game over a little bit there.
01:12:09
Speaker
You know what you're saying? They're both so fucking young like there's no rush I know you and I got it you guys I don't wanna say got into it We didn't like fight but like I was like love a god bring up cool. He can rose and you were like, I'm okay with it I just feel like that because like I see you guys like Victor Olufsen and I love him dude, but gurgens sends and and Jost and our post so God love him to death but like I
01:12:35
Speaker
I'm not dying to see those guys on this team anymore. And I know we need the leadership and the veteran presence and Okey and Gergensen's play a different game than Cooley and Roseanne. But when I'm watching the team, and prior to the Rangers game, when I'm watching us not put the puck in the net at all, and I'm watching Cooley and Roseanne bury the puck constantly in Rochester, that's when I'm like, oh my God, what are we doing here?
01:13:00
Speaker
I agree with you. We'll, we'll get into this more next week when we deep dive a little bit more. No, no, no, no, no, no, not at all. Sorry. But no, you're right. The older players, the veterans are kind of the boat anchors right now that are not really pulling the rope in the way that they should be. Um, I think the leadership qualities are there and are important to have, but they're not playing great. A lot of them, Eric Johnson, Clifton,
01:13:31
Speaker
Yeah, 100%. So, yeah, we'll see. But Roseanne was absolutely invisible all night in New York the other night. So, yeah.
01:13:42
Speaker
I think as Greenway gets healthy, I think he goes back to Rochester soon too. Yup. Yup. And I also saw today that Brandon Byro got called up too. So there's a chance he might play tomorrow night, Thursday. Yeah. But, um, Dave Thompson might be back a hair sooner than we thought. He got some imaging done today, uh, either today or yesterday. Everything looking good. I'm going to be out for December, but eyeing what looks like a similar return time to Mr. Jack Quinn.
01:14:10
Speaker
who if y'all remember, um, towards Achilles in the office or ruptured, or I don't know if it totally tore it. I don't totally remember Achilles injury. Um, looking like both of those guys, Jack Quinn and Tage Thompson might come back around the same time. You want to talk about a way to bolster your offense. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Any thoughts on that?
01:14:29
Speaker
throw two top six forwards back into the mix is certainly a way to do that. Yeah. I think, I think the team Smith's Jack went a little bit. I don't think the offense doesn't run through him by any means, but he's a, he's a very effective shooter and a very effective young player. Extremely excited to get him back.
01:14:50
Speaker
But we'll see. We'll see. Yeah. It'll be a huge bump around the New Year. For sure. Come back. Patrick Kane, not going to be a saber. He's a Detroit Red Ring. We play the Red Wing. Detroit. We'll see him in a couple of weeks.
01:15:05
Speaker
or sorry, next week, I think. Next week, next week. Next week, Tuesday. Next Tuesday. I would love to see somebody absolutely lay him out. It won't happen. But yep, he's not. He didn't pick us. I think the breaking point there was he's such a little whore for Alex to break it. He loves playing with to break it. So I think that was probably what handled most of that decision. And then, Jake, you and I are both super high on this R Johnson fellow. You want to touch on that for two seconds?
01:15:34
Speaker
Yeah, he's stuck with the team after he got called up earlier this year. He played well, and forced the team's hand to not send him back down. And I am here for that. I respect the decision to keep him despite another defenseman coming back from injury. Keep him on the roster because he's playing well. Reward that good play. And so I'm fine with carrying more defenseman and playing more defenseman if they are
01:16:03
Speaker
contributing to win. So yeah, I'm scrappy easier here. I also think it's just very admirable. Like when you're a young guy and you force the GM's hand to keep you up there because you're playing so well, that to me is really impressive because I don't think anybody planned on him staying. But yeah, pretty awesome, man. Good for him. And rightfully so. He's a top four defenseman in Buffalo right now. Rightfully so. He's where he should be.
01:16:29
Speaker
Yep. Yeah. I'm incredibly glad he signed and is here and wants to be here. Yeah. That's the name of the game for a lot of players on the team. Do they want to be here? Um, wasn't the case for a long time and I'm yeah. Long time.
01:16:44
Speaker
That's what I keep coming back to. I'm trending in the right direction because of that, getting players that want to play here. That's the deal breaker, especially in a place like Buffalo. It's cold. You get taxed out the wazoo. Like you have to care about this fan base and care about the guys around you in the room for this team to be successful because we're not going to attract the free agents that are typically lightning or a Florida Panther or any of the California teams, right? Like no one's going to pick Buffalo over San Jose if they've got the same option. So.
01:17:11
Speaker
I agree, but I don't know how many people are picking San Jose. Well, if they're smart, nobody right now. But all right. So, Jake, we got four games coming up here in the next couple of days. We'll probably pod once or maybe once before then. But let's do this. We're going to I'm going to rattle off the four games and the four dates. You give me a record prediction. Tom, you're going to give me a record prediction, too, because I just love it. And then I'm going to do it. And then Tom, you're going to take us out of here. Ready? Break. We on the same page.
01:17:37
Speaker
On the same page. All right. Thursday, 11 30 against St. Louis. That's tomorrow, Saturday, 12, two against Carolina, Sunday, 12, three against Nashville, Tuesday, 12, five against Detroit. Jake, your record prediction in those four games to one and one to one and one. Okay. Tom one, two and one. Ooh. Okay. Um, I'm going to say three and one.
01:18:09
Speaker
I'll say three and one there. Carolina's going to be the loss, I think. But I think we'll be a little bit. I think we're coming off a really great game. I think we'll be good against St. Louis. Their record's almost the same. Nashville, they're kind of in the same boat as us, like not terrible, but not great. Detroit, I think this team's going to be like, all right, Patrick, you don't want to come play with us. We'll show you what's up.
01:18:35
Speaker
I love it. If I can throw an asterisk next to my prediction, I think they win in Carolina. They still haven't won a game there since like 2016 in Carolina itself. I think they break that trend. I sure hope so. They'd be sick.
01:18:49
Speaker
Tommy, take us out of here, brother. I'm ready for bed.
Conclusion and Social Media Engagement
01:18:53
Speaker
Well, folks, this is maybe our heftiest pod to date. This is a big one, so thanks for sticking along. We appreciate you. It would mean a lot to us if you could please share this episode. Give us a like, give us a follow on Instagram and X at Let's Go Buff Pod. That is Buff with two Fs. These are my pals, Jake and Nigel. My name is Tom, and you're listening to the Let's Go Buffalo podcast.
01:19:16
Speaker
We're sending you love wherever you are. Go Bills. Go Sabres. Let's go Buffalo.