Does DeMeco Have a Glitch with Games on Short Weeks?

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Seth and Sean dive into DeMeco Ryans' rather concerning track record in games on short weeks.

Transcript

00:00D'Amico Ryans, handsome fella, I would say.

00:02I think the ladies like D'Amico.

00:04He's no Brady Quinn, but yeah.

00:08When it comes to games like this one coming up,

00:11he was asked yesterday what it takes for his team to be prepared on a short week.

00:16With it being a short week, playing on a Thursday,

00:18it takes a lot of commitment from our coaches, players, our support staff.

00:24As I talked about after our game,

00:26we have to hit the recovery process going, man, as quickly as possible

00:30to get guys' bodies ready to go.

00:32And these guys are in the building.

00:33We have to cram our entire game plan in in a couple days.

00:37And so it takes some extra studying.

00:39It takes some extra work for coaches, longer hours, being here, players,

00:44longer hours, being out.

00:46Physically, they're tired.

00:48Their bodies haven't fully recovered, but we got to go out and we have to work.

00:52We don't pick when the games are,

00:53but we know we're exhausting all our resources,

00:56doing everything that we could possibly do to be prepared

00:59and ready to go on Thursday.

01:01Okay, and I think when we refer to a short week, you know,

01:03it's the Monday to Thursday, or in the case of last year,

01:06they went Saturday to, I should say Sunday to Thursday,

01:10or last year they went Saturday to Wednesday on Christmas week.

01:13We're not talking about when they play on a Monday night

01:16and then they play the following Sunday, not a six-day week.

01:18We're talking about the three-and-a-half-day week

01:20that you get on something like this.

01:22D'Amico Ryans has done that.

01:24He has been the head coach of teams that have done that twice,

01:26and it was both last season.

01:28They had a short week leading up to the Jets game.

01:31That was bad.

01:32They lost in the second half to the Jets real bad.

01:34Zach Wilson's best game ever.

01:35No, no, that was Aaron Rodgers.

01:36Oh, sorry, sorry, Aaron Rodgers, sorry.

01:37It was Aaron Rodgers' game last year on Halloween.

01:39And then the Christmas game last year.

01:40Aaron Rodgers' best game last year.

01:42It was his best game, no doubt.

01:43And then the Christmas game last year was the worst game of the D'Amico Ryans era.

01:49It was three at the end of 11 days.

01:51It was a weird thing for all four of those teams.

01:53But it was weird for Baltimore, too.

01:54It was weird for Baltimore, who was traveling.

01:56On Christmas.

01:57Uh-huh.

01:57Yeah.

01:57So, so this will, it's a big test for D'Amico when it comes to, and I would say the team

02:03operationally and how they put the week together.

02:05Yeah, and so that part of it, it's, it'd be interesting to see how maybe he's tweaked

02:09the schedule if he thought that there was something to it and how they had to change.

02:13You are, you were correct to point out that it was, the fact that when they got home on

02:18Sunday night after the Titans game, that the trainers and everybody, it sounded like they,

02:23they had it, everything up and running in the locker room and in the training room, like

02:28it would be after, like on a normal Monday or something, that they got a jumpstart on

02:32all that stuff.

02:33You were right to point that out.

02:35I kind of blew it off, but to have it be as organized as, and as regimented as that,

02:39yeah, that's kind of unique.

02:40Yeah.

02:40And, um, I like it.

02:43I like it too.

02:43Uh, the part where I kind of wondered is when he said, guys have to put in more hours and

02:47everything.

02:47You get into that tricky dynamic between do you prioritize rest or do you prioritize

02:52preparation?

02:53And it's always, it's hard to find that balance that I think D'Amico is probably what most

02:59coaches do on these Thursday night games.

03:01It's like, listen, guys, you get a nice break after this.

03:03Just stay focused, stay dialed in.

03:05But the tough part is getting in all that extra work in a short amount of time, but

03:09also being sure that guys are getting extra sleep and extra rest.

03:13Boy, and it's a good thing too, that they, they're going in with their backup quarterback

03:17again.

03:18Thank God Davis Mills has a couple weeks here where he's been the guy and he's been going

03:22through normal prep.

03:23You know, can you imagine if like, okay, now you got to start your backup quarterback and

03:29start potentially to walk through practices to get him ready for one of the better pass defenses.

03:33I think the fact that Davis has had these two games leading up to this, I think is going

03:37to be a real benefit.

03:38And this is something that was, I think a benefit, you know, or a silver lining to CJ

03:46having to miss all that time during OTAs was that Davis was getting all the reps with the

03:50ones during that time.

03:51So he had way more time and work with the ones than a backup quarterback normally would during

03:56the off season.

03:56Yep.

03:58Here's Josh Allen.

03:59Speaking of the game on Thursday, here's Josh Allen, Bill's quarterback.

04:03On last season, one of the worst games he's had as a pro was last year, week five at

04:09NRG stadium.

04:10What did that game feel like?

04:11I got beat up that game.

04:13Didn't, didn't play well at all.

04:16You know, it's watching that film.

04:18There's a lot of good stuff to watch from that film, but it's hard to watch.

04:21You know, I played pretty badly.

04:22So yeah, hopefully we can go out there and play a little bit better and move the ball

04:29a little bit better.

04:29But again, this, this defense is no easy task to go against.

04:32And it's going to take everything that we got from everybody on the field.

04:36Um, yeah, it was an awful, awful performance by Josh Allen.

04:40He didn't have any of his receivers, including Khalil Shakir or Stefan digs from, if you go

04:45back to the previous year, yeah, we had digs.

04:48That was a game where people were like, okay, maybe we shouldn't have just thrown stuff.

04:51Maybe it wasn't as simple as just getting rid of Stefan digs.

04:53That's what Buffalo was thinking.

04:55That's right.

04:55Well, and, but in this game, Shakir is going to play, right?

04:59No Dalton Kincaid is a big deal, which is, uh, it would be now, but it's also as this

05:05last week, it looked like a couple things, you know, at various times Keon Coleman or

05:12Ty Johnson or any of those guys aren't going to be your alpha dog wide receiver, but in

05:17the right matchups, they, they can be weapons and there's that, but then also getting their

05:23running backs more involved in the passing game is something that Bill's fans have been

05:27clamoring for.

05:28And they did last week.

05:29Um, and you know, relying on James cook, the running back to just keep doing what he's

05:34doing.

05:34Remember, go back to last year in the playoffs is the AFC championship game.

05:38James cook was having a really good game and then just disappeared in the second half.

05:42Yep.

05:42Not because of bad performance.

05:43They just stopped using him.

05:44Yeah.

05:45And that's where the question is, okay, is it, is it Joe Brady, the offensive coordinator?

05:49Is it Josh Allen?

05:50Like what's the issue with the consistency of the bill's offense this year, they may

05:54have over the last couple of weeks, despite having gotten blown out by the dolphins, they

05:59beat the, they beat the chiefs and they had a really impressive offensive performance last

06:03week versus the bucks.

06:04They might be starting to figure out the right balance.

06:06Boy, you you're not kidding.

06:07I'm looking at the box score from last year's game.

06:09He was very devoid of weapons in this game.

06:12James, James cook had 82 yards rushing in a touchdown.

06:15He had a couple of catches.

06:16Um, Keon Coleman, remember Keon Coleman had that long catch and run for their only passing

06:23touchdown in that game, 49 yards, but that was his only catch of the day.

06:27Dalton Kincaid, a couple of catches, Mack Hollins, a couple of catches.

06:30Josh Allen was nine of 30 for 131 yards and a touchdown.

06:34The big thing was he, he was able to escape a few, he had four, four rushes for 54 yards.

06:41Um, I might even sign up for that right now, but if you told me Josh Allen's going to have

06:45four rushes for 54 yards, I'm like, ah, you know, it's if he gets out of the pocket seven

06:51or eight times, sacked five times in last year's game, you know what the, they got to

06:56get him on the ground.

06:56They got to get him on the ground.

06:57And that's a key part about the running element to the dynamic is that this is the first time

07:01the Texans will face a genuinely run heavy quarterback.

07:04They face some quarterbacks who are, um, who run the ball effectively when they do run,

07:10but don't necessarily run a whole lot like Baker Mayfield and Bo Nix.

07:13Uh, but this is the first time they face a top 10 QB rushing yards quarterback.

07:18And if, if, if Josh Allen, I would rather have, what was the stat line you said?

07:23Four, four, four carries 54 yards.

07:25I like that better than I like 10 carries for 54 yards.

07:28Yeah.

07:29Because if it's 10 carries for 54 yards, he's probably running for a lot of first downs on

07:33like third and yeah, a lot of tush pushes and stuff.

07:35Yeah.

07:36Yeah.

07:36Um, or a touchdown here or there.

07:38Yeah.

07:38He's got, he leads the league in rushing touchdowns.

07:40That's a really good point.

07:41Four carries for 54 yards probably means he moved the chains from, you know, the 35 to

07:46the 45.

07:46He converted what couple of third and longs or something.

07:4910 carries means that it was a steady diet of Josh Allen, either on scrambles or designed

07:54runs.

07:55That's a, that's a really, that's a really interesting take.

07:58And I'm with you on that.

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