Sep 29, 2025
Offensive lulls and continued issues against the run headline problems for Bills in 31-19 win over Saints.Prime Time Sports USA#BillsMafia #BuffaloBills #NFL #BillsVsSaints #NFLHighlights #BillsWin #WhoDat #SaintsNation #GameDay #NFLLive
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00:00جان scott with vick carucci and jonathan acosta a far more tougher afternoon at work for the bills against the saints 31 19 ultimately the final here they were over two touchdown favorites in this one i don't know trap game or whatever you want to call here but vick it was tough like legitimately tough to nearly the end yeah and again i think first of all kudos for the bills to not fall so deeply into the trap that they end up blowing a game or losing a game
00:29that they had no business losing and ultimately it while it might not have been by the margin a lot of people especially the odds makers thought it would have been it still was comfortable enough because of a second half more solid second half performance i think on both sides of the ball but yes you could go through what they did from the time they came out hot and scored a touchdown after taking the opening kickoff between that time and then somewhere in the
00:59in the second half when they woke up again uh and then started to play like a team that oh yeah we're better than these guys but yeah i want to give the saints at least a decent amount of credit for not coming in completely uh you know surrendering uh they they they gave an effort uh but yes the bills for their part showed some some reasons to to look at them and say okay you're you're 4-0 but you know there are some things here and there you still got to work on
01:29that way because now it's easier didn't they say it's easier to coach a team that has issues than one that's doing everything right i think terrell bernard said it best in the postgame locker room they didn't play their best game but they did enough to win i think a lot of the talking points are similar to what we sort of spoke about on the same field last thursday night when they beat the dolphins a team that the bills were favored by double digits over and the game was maybe a lot closer when you're watching it than than what you thought you uh than what you expected
01:59Chris Olave although he had some drops in this game of Rashid Rashid Shahid Juwan Johnson right so it's a team that sort of like the dolphins were coming in here sort of trying to keep their season alive you can sense the same sort of playing with that same sense of urgency coming into this game the bills again to their credit good teams just find a way to win even when it's not always pretty right and it's the nfl any given sunday we saw it last week with the packers losing to the browns this week the chargers lose on the road at the winless giants right so i think i i heard you say this earlier today john that
02:29there's no style points in the nfl like there is in college football right just get the win move on to the next game and that's exactly what the bills have been doing i love the perspective you can provide because you're on the field for for these home games and most of the games on the road the miami game in this one what were you hearing what were you feeling what were you sensing from the response and conversations from this bills team here on the sidelines as they're not playing the best football they should and and really grinding it against an opponent that most think is below them it's interesting because
02:59because i never really sense or get a sense of this team sort of panicking right and something that they've talked about a lot with josh allen and sort of the calm that he provides the team from the coaching staff sean mcdermott his demeanor and everything so i'm a little bit frustrated with some of the calls we saw on the field obviously the bills flags something that needs to be addressed they had more penalties than than they would like but overall there's just always seemingly a sense of calm with this team and i remember asking taron johnson i forget if it was after the ravens game or after the dolphins game
03:29to expect this team to always make the play when it needs to be made especially defensively getting a turnover and he said it is realistic because it's something that we always find a way to do this team got it today with that cole bishop interception at the end of the first half whereas the saints would have gone into the break potentially with the lead on on this bills team right but they get that interception from cole bishop josh allen making the plays when they need him to has that first down run on third down in the fourth quarter
03:59and a sense of calm because this is a team that's been there done it proves that they will make that play to win the game yeah and you know for a coach who i think had been more tightly wound i think than maybe any coach in the league but right up there certainly uh in sean mcdermott listening to the way he handled this win uh afterward was was was kind of interesting and maybe even refreshing for him guys where he started talking about the beautiful day and the fans right you know
04:29having a win on this sun splash and it was gorgeous day for football perfect day in western new york i mean he really took uh took this the focus off of the fact that they had some struggles against a really bad football team one of the worst teams in the league that they were supposed to roll over and uh he he he takes that approach and and at the end of it i mean while touching on the penalties they had 11 of them while touching on uh some tackling issues you know defensively they had some
04:59problems problems there gap integrity brought that up he finishes off his thoughts by by saying you know it's still like a wonderful thing to have i'm paraphrasing but to get this win and and winning in the nfl and how important this is i mean just reminding i guess those who are out there and and many maybe some who lost money because they bet they bet the bills uh to cover uh but taking that approach that okay it's we're four and all as a team and that's what the most important thing is well sean
05:29it's our job to talk about both sides of the coin we're gonna do just that let's start some positives on the offensive side of things because it started off really well and once again for a third straight game the train was driven not by josh allen but by james cook and you find that really noteworthy
05:43yeah i do because it's now a trend that james cook that this running game is really the focal point of what this offense does and this starts with joe brady uh i don't think it's happening by accident i think that the way the bills are looking at opponents
05:59and the way they looked at the saints defense uh in this particular game is okay so much is going to be done to take away the best thing the bills have on not just on offense in any phase josh allen and his ability to throw the football
06:14find receivers uh you know confuse him give him something to think about and hesitate and oh by the way take advantage of the fact that there still isn't a receiver on this team and i don't think there's going to be
06:25that's going to take the top off of what you do defensively that's going to force you to change your coverage because there's such a speedy option that this team has it is mostly underneath stuff it is the subtle plays and yes there are big throws to like a dalton kincaid for a touchdown that cover a lot of ground that was what 28 yards but it'll happen in the flow of an offense that will build to that not a you know an explosive one-two punch type of offense i totally agree
06:54it feels like right now the bread and butter is the run game and then you sort of accentuate the accentuated with the big plays in the past game you'll get from josh allen
07:02it's felt like in years past josh allen was sort of the superman for this bills offense but now this year feels more of like a batman and a robin right where josh allen he's the mvp right he's still the the main guy for this team
07:13but james cook is really elevated i think what's the stat i think the fourth running back with 100 plus yards and a touchdown in each of the first four games of the season
07:21he he doesn't seem to think that he's taking his play to another level he just said this is his job he's getting paid to do it so he's going to do it to the best of his ability but i think for the rest of us
07:30we've seen him sort of elevate his game from as good as he was last year tied for the league lead and rushing touchdowns just the consistency and not just the scoring but the ability to
07:39get four five six seven yards consistently ground and pound move the chains i've noticed a different level to james cook's play
07:47this season and i think it's really benefited this bill's offense that has been susceptible especially these past couple weeks to sometimes get in a load that they need to find a way to break out
07:56have you noticed that uh both of you that almost every press conference where josh allen is is asked about
08:04james cook it's it's happening over like your thoughts on james cook now and i i almost think he's thinking
08:11geez haven't i said almost everything i can say he comes up with a great answer of some sort he gets better
08:16every game he shot out of a cannon i mean it's it's josh allen uh being asked to to he prays on an offensive
08:24teammate which i just find so interesting we have asked all the offensive teammates to do the
08:29same thing about josh for so many times and they say there's a few things coming out of that cook's
08:34workload is elevating and that was something that was in question when we were discussing certain
08:39dollar amounts when it comes to the new contract here 19 carries 22 which is i believe the third most
08:45he's ever had in a game in the regular season or the postseason in his career at 21 this was not a guy
08:50getting 20 plus rushing attempts pretty much even dating back to the college days at georgia
08:55that is elevating while his load is increasing ray davis is almost obsolete at this point in time
09:02i don't think it's i don't think it's problematic here it's just you're seeing a shift of they usually
09:07like to do the collective and and give kind of not even distribution it's not a committee anymore
09:13and from a wide receiver note curtis samuel elevated and active and actually involved at
09:19least early for the first time this season so the bill's running with six wide receivers here just
09:25one note brandon codrington a healthy inactive so the kick return and punt return duties kind of
09:31distributed elsewhere but just for some offensive kind of spinoffs to that conversation just interesting
09:37to see especially the cook's workload increasing something i'm going to be honest with you
09:41i didn't foresee or think needed to happen but you feed the beast and he's continuing to do more
09:49the more he gets the ball and you see the results when you don't feed the beast when the beast is
09:52going right because they had a possession where james cook has a good first down run and then the
09:56next three plays are a handoff to ray davis a handoff to ty johnson and then a fourth down uh carry
10:01by khalil shakir and you don't move the chains and if i think all of us in the stadium felt in that
10:05moment if you're going to run the ball three times why doesn't where's james cook he's been rolling
10:10all game rolling all season how do you not give the ball to him in this situation i think it's
10:14hard for ray davis or ty johnson when they were so used to being such a bigger part of the offense
10:19last year to now come in here they're coming in a little bit colder when when they're getting their
10:23opportunity so it just makes more sense to continue to feed cook if that's the philosophy that you want
10:27to have on offense just really quickly for the curtis samuel thing too yeah if i think it makes a lot
10:32more sense for this bill's team that if you can have curtis samuel return kicks the way he was doing
10:36today to have him as a game day active over brandon codrington who just gives you that return
10:41element curtis samuel being able to provide something in that and then obviously in the
10:45passing game as well yeah and i want to see more of of samuel if you're going to have him and have
10:50him active i'm still trying to wonder what the heck for three games that he is that he's a healthy
10:56scratch what that's all about what's the real deep thinking there we haven't gotten that answer but
11:01one more thing about this offense and how it's evolving i i still think there is a lot to be said
11:08for what joe brady in that laboratory right with the other offensive coaches is seeing and thinking
11:14about not only what the bills and i think they coach much more toward what they need to do to beat an
11:20opponent versus what they need to do to enhance themselves yes you you go back and you self you know
11:26you self-scout and do all those things but it's not training camp during the regular season you're not
11:31trying to come up with necessarily new and drastic methods of how to execute as a team it
11:37doesn't really work that way but it what is interesting to me is how they're looking at the
11:43opponents and i think the rest of the league and themselves and saying this is what we need to do
11:49to continue to be as effective as we are and hey through four games 30 plus points per game it's
11:55it's working it's working i will just wrap up the offensive side of things to me these lulls that
12:02happen in the middle of the game are directly related to questionable play calling and there are
12:08some execution issues as well but i don't know how you can go the first two series seemingly with
12:14zero resistance blowing down the field passes to keon coleman passes to kalil shakir running the ball
12:21with james cook i mean they were doing everything in the bag that they wanted to
12:24and then you just poof it goes away for four series in a row here i know the other team gets paid that's
12:31what oftentimes you will hear from guys in that room and they ultimately still score over 30 points again
12:37so it's hard to be overly critical but i'm again just looking down the line of like i'm not asking and
12:43expecting them to score all the time i just think that sometimes it's either getting too cute or not being
12:49aggressive enough and keeping their foot on the gas let's go to the defensive side of things and
12:53we'll start positively cole bishop has been a lightning rod of criticism throughout the entire
12:58offseason leading up into into the regular season in the baltimore game in particular the guy made an
13:05unbelievable play here that saved the game maybe i mean i don't want to go too too far here but it was
13:12quite a swing it was the it was a game changing play i i could argue is the biggest play of the game
13:19to happen uh right over where you know over there from where we're standing uh and for him to show uh
13:26the anticipation it was a gadget play right so you have you know a handoff to one receiver and then
13:31a handoff from that receiver to a second receiver chris alave who is making the throw it's a receiver
13:36make it a throw so okay there is the the possible glitch of a gadget play and he's going
13:42to throw it to who the quarterback spencer rattler who's an outstanding athlete on his own and as
13:47rattler is trying to make that effort to get behind the coverage and he's just a step or two behind
13:53cole bishop so he thinks cole has to do the only thing that was possible to be done to stop that ball
14:00from getting into rattler's hands and then in for a touchdown and that is leave his feet and i mean
14:06he skied right and then gets his left hand up in the air and grabs that football and athletically
14:13that was the scouting report right coming out of you know that utah he had that athletic ability what
14:19we weren't seeing was a guy who knew what he was doing with that or knew what to do with that
14:24athletic ability ability out here and it seemed to between injuries and everything else slow down
14:30his development was this a turning point for him i think so and here's where the vantage point of
14:35being on the sideline is very interesting because i when we're shooting with the camera
14:40we're shooting very tight it's not like a wide lens where you're seeing the whole play develop you're
14:44mostly focused on who has the ball so as i see chris olave get it and in the foreground i see spencer
14:50rattler running and i'm like oh my gosh they have this open and so i see chris olave throw it and i'm
14:54following the ball and then out of nowhere in my lens is when i see cole bishop sky up to come up with
14:59the interception it was sort of reminiscent of the way sort of twirl bernard just busted in in front of the
15:04ball to get the interception against miami and i think to your point we've seen the athleticism out
15:08of cole bishop it's sort of maybe almost the confidence in knowing what he's going to do that
15:14allows him to show off that athleticism i think it's something that we've heard bobby babbage talk
15:17about just in general this uh during the off season how when a player has the confidence and the
15:23knowledge in the playbook it really allows their athleticism to flourish i think that was a key
15:27example of that for cole bishop because he talked about it in the post-game locker room that he had two
15:31options right there to either go to rattler and sort of defend the pass right there or go make
15:36a play on the ball and i think it speaks to again the level of confidence that he's playing with that
15:40he said no i'm gonna go after the ball and go make this takeaway i also think it's something that has
15:46to do with takeaways are contagious and this bill's defense gets a lot of them and we've seen them make
15:51some big ones so far this season i think cole bishop saw uh terrell bernard do it before and he's
15:56he's like let me go make my own play it was a awesome play and a true illustration of the
16:01athleticism that drew them to make him a second round pick and why they're certainly we're never
16:07going to just give up on him but why they they're willing to be a little more patient because that's
16:11the type of guy that they need and want in that back end we'll go to the not so good on the bills
16:17defense and that was run defense and tackling and they kind of went hand in hand and unfortunately
16:24this is a conversation the three of us have had after bill's games even in victory
16:30multiple times this season it it feels like okay in a game like this it's not going to bite them as
16:38as hard as it could or will in other games now what are those games on the schedule i can't look
16:44at the schedule and tell you there's one that's gonna say oh yeah that could be the one where the
16:48run game will be a problem the fact that it came up as a potential issue and did its
16:53part to help keep a game that you wouldn't have thought would be as close as it was for
16:58as long as it was close um that's that was part of it they 189 rushing yards right by the saints
17:05uh inexcusable and it's and it isn't it's also the look of it all getting pushed off the ball looking
17:12like they're getting manhandled like they can't physically match up with a team with an offensive
17:16line and uh you know it's the saints and yes when healthy their line is pretty good but i don't know
17:22i mean it's not was it a whole a group of all pros there uh consistently i i don't necessarily
17:27see it i see this defensive front though as having issues when it comes to being technically sound uh
17:35and either you know the you heard sean talk about it he was asked about a gap integrity uh that isn't
17:42just a d-line thing that's a that's a linebacker issue no matt milano in this game is that something
17:48to think about no ed oliver uh is when you when you eliminate those two players does that factor
17:53into it we have to think to some degree it did but for the long haul um is this going to prove to be
18:00a problem as it has been in other games it's interesting jonathan because the theme of their
18:07upgrades and additions on the defensive front was size so you would think stopping the run maybe more
18:13so than the pass and getting to the quarterback would have been shored up more when you're adding
18:19the monster deon walker a still big man and tj sanders and you're really emphasizing that side of
18:27things and with those guys on the fields it's still not any better it almost feels like it's a microcosm
18:32of the whole defense right where they're not consistently good but you'll sometimes get some
18:36splash plays like deon walker again flashing uh today a couple times i think he's been excellent
18:40especially for a rookie fourth rounder i think they've gotten everything and more that they could
18:44have hoped out of him through these first four weeks but it's they have to be consistently better
18:49especially in run defense right because it's not like these teams are breaking off a 70 80 yard run
18:54and then being held to 40 50 yards the rest of the game no they're moving the chains consistently right
18:59third down defense has been an issue the saints 5 of 13 today better for the bills defense and it has
19:04been in other games but still too many of them you feel like to where bobby babbage shouldn't be
19:09comfortable and they caught a break with brandon cook's ball going through his arms that was
19:13third and 13 yeah so obviously again it's not just these teams converting third and one 32 no they're
19:19converting third and sevens third intense almost converting a third and 13 for a touchdown against
19:24spencer rattler who played fine in this game but he's no patrick mahomes he's no lamar jackson he's
19:30no joe burrow right so this is really an offense that this defense should have performed better against
19:34and i don't know if the answer is getting back the key pieces like ed oliver matt milano
19:38michael hoyt from suspension but something's going to have to change because now we have a month
19:42of a sample size to look at this defense and say it's not good and coverage is a part of this discussion
19:48and tradavious white i know for his part had some good moments but there are moments and there were
19:54moments that he was out of this game right and dorian strong was in this game so uh you're dealing with an
20:01an aging and a and a corner who is uh while his vast experience and anticipation all those things
20:08instincts are very good still physically is he the guy that you want in there play in and play out i
20:15think the bills know that that could be something that compromises their defense as a whole is their
20:20coverage good enough and while we can praise and talk about the great work that was done uh by cole bishop
20:27on that interception that's one outstanding play but as a whole is the is the coverage doing its
20:33part to complement the front and you leaded you're leading me into something where we got jackson samuel
20:38like three minutes on the card still left so we'll get through this here cornerback two
20:43sean mcdermott said after the game that dorian strong rotated in for tradavious white on a few series
20:49is something pre-planned not doing dealing with how tradavious was playing today because they want to get
20:55more reps for dorian strong max harrison even though i do not believe he will come back is
20:59eligible to return from injured reserve after this game so this coming week how do you see all of this
21:06playing out now if they want to get a look they're taking a concerted effort to see more of dorian strong
21:12and we haven't seen the best of tradavious no we you haven't yet and uh i i think max harrison factors
21:18into the at least not too distant future in my mind though it's got to be a subtle gradual thing
21:26i don't think you can push him out there fully and expect great results and it's gonna be interesting
21:30with the numbers thing because like we mentioned before you have michael hoyt and larry oak and joe
21:34be coming back from suspension you add in max harrison coming back from injury so there's gonna be a
21:38little bit of a roster dynamic here that brandon bean's gonna have to manage tyler bass also eligible to
21:42come off of injured reserve so we will see what his status is a lot of injury notes upcoming here
21:47with codrington being a healthy and active i think that really puts his roster status in doubt
21:53as some of these moves have to be made marcus ingram was also a healthy inactive for this one
21:57so as much as they like him and his versatility he with the harrison maybe corresponding move
22:03will potentially be someone that would be the odd man out in that situation as well we will
22:07continue to monitor things bills hosting the patriots sunday night football next weekend a game of course
22:13you'll see over on channel two and we'll drink lots of coffee or five-hour energies or whatever
22:19it is hopefully not as late as that ravens game whoo we were up real real real past our bedtimes
22:24with jonathan acosta vic cruci i'm john scott for channel two sports
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