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00:00experience well you get a couple days back and then it's off to cleveland this week and we'll
00:04talk about that later on in the conversation i'm always curious sal for people's first impressions
00:11of the stadium now that wouldn't have been your first impression but it's the first game there
00:16what were a couple your thoughts about how it went yeah i thought the game presentation was
00:21great you know from a standpoint of it's a little different than what you get in the open practice
00:24obviously a couple weeks ago the return of the blue and red um you know a lot of the elements
00:29you get from the other stadium and the shout song and things like that but how would that resonate
00:32with people how would it look you know those kinds of things i was thinking about but maybe more so
00:37for the game on saturday mike was me thinking about some of the complaints that came out of last week
00:41and how maybe things would be perceived and you know what kind of reaction we get this time is
00:46there more that's coming and to be honest with you i really felt like there was much more of a
00:51conscious effort from people to say how good of an experience they had maybe because there was that
00:56you know negative negativity that was out there from some people and sure if you have a obstructed
01:02seat you have a legitimate complaint it should be addressed and it sounds like the bills are i think
01:06addressing some of those specifically but it felt like a lot of people wanted to make sure they
01:11you know showed and said that they had a great experience uh the grass very interesting i think it was
01:17chewed up a little bit by the end i don't i'm not somebody who's uh i'm not a horticulturalist i
01:23don't
01:23know that's plants but i i would think that because it's the first time playing on the grass
01:28maybe that has something to do with it and it hasn't been you know kind of beaten up a little
01:32bit so to speak uh but you could see afterwards they were you know filling the divots and things
01:36like that the stadium itself was perfect weather it's a great day in orthor park i thought the
01:40parking was um pretty smooth for me when i went in but i went very early in the day i
01:46had no issues
01:47getting in so i'm not sure how it worked for everybody but i thought logistically everything went
01:51pretty well the field will be an interesting one to monitor now now you have to know this stuff sal
01:57because we have grass now so yeah this is right this is a new learning new area that we need
02:02to be
02:02experts on like that'll be a story it was tim graham reported earlier in the day that they were
02:07there were complaints like that the field was chewed up a little bit before the game even started
02:12and you had that one i think it was a kyle allen slide by the sideline and a big chunk
02:17of the field
02:17came up i mean that's gonna happen sometimes but i wonder if that was like a surprise or even a
02:24shock to those um that helped put this thing up the stadium yeah i agree but i also will say
02:30that
02:30when dj moore got twisted up a bit and he had to get looked at i saw a few people
02:35online saying you
02:36know if this was turf maybe it results more negatively because there wasn't much give there
02:42wouldn't be much give on the turf but there was more on the grass so you know i don't know
02:46i mean
02:46that's speculation right um but all these things are a little bit different now to kind of think
02:51about and wonder about as we go forward here i i thought the stadium looked really good um it seemed
02:57like it was loud that's the other thing like it was loud it was really loud for a preseason game
03:00okay
03:00and you know we've talked a lot about the pitch of the stadium how people are right on top of
03:07you
03:07and how that's going to benefit you know keeping the noise in and this was just a preseason game
03:11obviously but i i could feel it i could hear it and one of the differences is if you go
03:16to a game
03:17and sit in the press box at all you know at at older old highmark stadium like most stadiums who
03:23are outdoors everything's glassed in they actually it is here but they have windows that actually open
03:28in the press box and we could hear what was happening like in the stadium which is not usual and
03:34normal for these types of stadiums did you get the sense or even did you notice people walking around
03:40a lot a couple times i peeked on at the game and there were a lot of empty seats i
03:44think if i had
03:44been there i would have wanted to do that it's just sort of experience the place for the first time
03:48not not be glued to my seat for a preseason game necessarily yeah you know actually 20 bring that
03:54up paul was sitting next to me in the press box and he said boy a lot of people left
04:00it was like the
04:00start of the half and i said paul i don't think they left i think they're walking around and
04:03like enjoying the stadium for the first time like they got into their seats to watch
04:07josh allen and now he's out you go to the second half and you're like hey i want to go
04:12meet my
04:13buddy who's over in another section and i can do that i can still watch the game and i want
04:17to see
04:17what this stadium is about i thought for most of the second half um and i actually went down
04:23into that area for a little while to kind of walk around i had not been in the bowels of
04:26the stadium
04:27yet because you know in the old one you have one tunnel in one tunnel out this one it's like
04:31a lot
04:31of the newer stadiums now where you have four different entry points you can walk the circumference i did
04:36that because i hadn't done it yet and as i did that i would go and i just kind of
04:40stand in the
04:40tunnel and look out and then when i went back up in the you know the corridor area i guess
04:45the um
04:46the concourse area you could see that there were definitely people hanging out taking selfies taking
04:50pictures and i think that was the case yes that'll be interesting to see going forward you and i didn't
04:57talk last week after the the practice but i think you know for a preseason game that's a perfect idea
05:03i do not expect if i'm the same fan in there for detroit in week two to be walking around
05:08like
05:08now it's a completely different dynamic when the regular season starts i guess if if the team were
05:13bad or late in the season when games are not as vitally important sure maybe i'll go meet my
05:18friends like you said but really that changes come the regular season yeah i would say this though mike
05:24you know that is true but i mean i've been enough enough games now you know covering the game
05:29covering the nfl that it it is a lot less busy to start the second half seat wise people seating
05:36in their seats than it is to start the game because people are at the concessions or at the
05:41bathrooms or in the lines they're not really realizing when the game is starting yet they
05:45are catching up with somebody it's not necessarily intentional but you're like oh i better get back to
05:49my seat which by the way is one of the reasons why teams do defer the opening kickoff you're getting
05:55the ball if you're on the road especially if you're on the road and you're getting the ball in the
05:58second half it's a little bit easier to hear to be quite honest with you because the seats aren't
06:03filled correct uh yeah ask the leafs about starting periods and what the crowd looks like with everybody
06:08out in the concourse uh sal capaccio on the western hotline i'm mike shope bulldog is off this week
06:15so how about uh alan here in this game sal i mean you said it in your write-up there
06:21were some close
06:22calls with him and he's he's taken hundreds of hits and the bills have been lucky that he's made it
06:28through all of that so far in his career the longest consecutive game streak of starts for
06:33any quarterback in the league but um still like in the preseason every time it was even close and
06:39he did get hit a couple times um i think you know like you'd sort of wow do we really
06:44need to do this
06:45but he got through it yeah too close for comfort for my liking i i would rather not see the
06:52starters
06:52out there at all from joe brady's perspective i do understand why though which is and josh i asked
06:58josh about this after the game which is how important is it to get a feel for where the
07:02play clock is and the game clock is and the sight lines into this to the to the sidelines and
07:07finding
07:07your coaches know where you are and he said yeah it's it's a new stadium any stadium you go to
07:12you
07:12do that and this is you know you don't want to do that the first time you play in this
07:15one so they
07:16want to get them acclimated there and of course they want to get a little chemistry between
07:19him and dj more but i think that was a big part of it like they wanted to get
07:23acclimated as i said to this stadium and they started josh allen and you know i thought a couple
07:28of times there you're you're kind of holding your breath like okay like that was a little too close is
07:32he okay and you'd rather not see that i mean he got grabbed he got pulled he got hit he
07:37got taken
07:37down i mean jalen phillips is right there and he's a guy that josh is familiar with playing
07:42with against the miami dolphins and i didn't like seeing it i understand why he played from joe
07:48brady's perspective but from here on out i mean i would much rather just see josh allen and the
07:53rest of the started starters pretty much you know with baseball caps on the sidelines and an earpiece
07:58in and you know seeing what's going on that jalen phillips one was just long enough for me to think
08:05uh-oh he could just throw him down like this this could be one there's a history and what's a
08:11penalty
08:11worth in the preseason game like he might have had an instinct to do that and he let up after
08:16the ball
08:16was released at least but i i had just enough time there to think something could happen here
08:21and you know phillips let him off easy yeah and when he got taken down one time you know he
08:29got
08:29sacked twice but once did one didn't count because it was a penalty and the penalty was because he got
08:33his face mask grabbed you know and and that's another one like all those little things you just
08:38you're getting pulled on and all it takes is you talked about the grass anything like just one
08:43little tweak and you know now we're dealing with is he going to play against houston and let's
08:48remember that's a team houston week one a place where he's been beaten up including last year so
08:53you'd like to see josh allen healthy and i think the only way to guarantee that is him not playing
08:57but
08:57we'll see we haven't heard from joe brady yet this week uh we'll see what he says about how much
09:02the
09:02starters will play this week in cleveland they have the joint practice on thursday they have the game on
09:06saturday allen did his thing on that penalty sack for lack of a better term where he called the pet
09:12the penalty for the official before the play was even over which is falling to the ground
09:17i hate that i hate that like if i'm an official you know what buddy i know you're josh allen
09:23but
09:23i'll do my job okay and that wasn't like the real referee they were do you know anything about this
09:28like
09:28it was said on the broadcast that the actual referee was not on the field were they just trying
09:33something i i know in the past i don't know there's the this was the case in this specific
09:38game it was the side judge who was the referee a side judge i should say who was a referee
09:44and in the past in preseason games the nfl has had side judges or line judges referee games because
09:52they want to get them experience in case they have to step into a situation okay they get the wheel
09:56for
09:56a quarter or something like that yeah very good so this week is this joint practice with the browns
10:02that starts is it thursday and friday wednesday is the travel day no they're only practicing
10:07thursday just thursday okay um these things can get pretty testy they don't always but you have
10:15not only the decision on starters in the game but even i mean they're going to practice i assume there's
10:21going to be yeah that's really where maybe you've maybe said this before that these practices tend
10:27to somewhat take the place of the game yeah and and i think they did that a lot last year
10:32in chicago
10:32to be honest with you um the bills and bears last year like their starters went against each other for
10:37quite a bit in the joint practice and that was you know really a good a good amount of reps
10:44to kind of
10:45get under their belt as opposed to a preseason game and if you're doing it that way you can actually
10:50put red jerseys on the quarterback you know you can control it's a controlled scrimmage environment
10:54basically so i prefer that and i think it's great work i i'm all for that you know you go
11:00out there
11:00and let's have dj moore go against their top corner let's see what that looks like have them do it
11:04a
11:04few times they do special teams drills and gunners against you know double teams and you know it does
11:08get physical there's no doubt about it and um it gets testy as you said guys are trying to make
11:12the
11:13team on both sides it's first it's a chance for a couple hours hit somebody on another team and not
11:18your own players and to be rooting for your players hitting the other team and um so i would be
11:23all for
11:23that and we've seen that happen before where you go to these practices and teams really take the
11:29time to make sure they're getting their starters the reps because they're not going to play them
11:33in the preseason game now a couple years ago the bills went to pittsburgh
11:37and that's what we're going to play they were going to play josh allen in the preseason
11:40but remember the rain came and then they didn't want him on the wet field that was after he had
11:44played in the joint practice the day before a couple of days before so you never know
11:48how these teams are going to do it i like to i like these joint practices too because
11:52mike you can put your team in situations like red zone goal line like
11:57it gives you good work you have a red zone period you have a two minute period you're not guaranteed
12:02to get that joint uh i mean sorry scrimmages uh controlled scrimmages for that very reason like
12:08hey let's come up with a plan where we can work on things we need to work on against a
12:11live opponent
12:12and both teams are on the same page as far as it getting testy i've talked with coaches and gms
12:17about this before and you know basically they all say the same thing which is neither side wants that
12:22to happen from an organizational standpoint you try to have it against teams and coaches that you
12:28respect and they're going to send the same message to their players you can't guarantee that players
12:32aren't going to get into it and see and then things start to happen two first time nfl head coaches
12:38in their first seasons joe brady and then todd monken is now the head coach of the browns uh dj
12:44more sal you've been impressed and he had a couple of moments there on saturday uh the one was just
12:51kind of wild where he's you know pointing at the db come come on come challenge me you did see
12:56him
12:57limp there it didn't look like a great ending to the one play uh and i know there was no
13:02access today
13:02do you think or do you know that he's like fine or is that something that will come up tomorrow
13:09we don't know for sure my best guess just based on how everything played out afterwards is there
13:16shouldn't be too much to worry about and that is only because he was getting looked at by athletic
13:21trainers on the sidelines josh actually came over sat down next to him he was listening in on those
13:26conversations and then the trainers vacated him and then he got up and he walked over to his
13:33teammates and stood on the sidelines the rest of the game so if there was anything that's really
13:37concerning you're generally going to go maybe into the locker room for sure but at least into the
13:43medical tent i would say that never even happened um so i would say things would look good from that
13:50front but you never know until you get a couple of days in i mean we may get out there
13:53tomorrow and
13:54he's not practicing and then we wonder what's happening we won't hear from joe brady tomorrow
13:58we'll only hear from jim leonard tomorrow morning so we're not going to get any update on him but we
14:02will see if he's at practice tomorrow uh yeah three catches for 61 yards and very limited work i mean
14:08that's a that's a full game for almost wide receivers in the nfl and he did in a couple of
14:12different series a couple of series start the game it was asked by matt bobe after to josh allen
14:19if there was a you know conscious effort to make sure that they got dj more involved
14:24early in the game and josh's response was i'm gonna what he said was i'm going to assume it's
14:31going to be important to get involved early in all games like basically yeah it was and we're
14:35going to do that every game and then he said and i said this to you guys it'll make defenses
14:39adjust
14:40and that's right because there's only a handful of receivers that you know defensive coordinators
14:46totally game plan for we got to double team him we got to roll coverage we got to know where
14:53he
14:53can do it dj more is you feed him early and you make a defensive coordinator have to adjust his
14:58game plan and that's what josh was basically saying about deon walker in this one sal he made your
15:03article the bills have not had the star power that some of the teams that they've been fighting with
15:13in the afc over the last several years have had like cincinnati or kansas city or baltimore like star
15:18players especially star players that they drafted you know brandon bean to me has done a very good
15:26job of drafting on the floor meaning guys who are fifth sixth seventh round picks will become good
15:31football players they've contributed they've had good careers they've been guys you can count on rely
15:35on but where it's been missing with the bills in his tenure is the top of the line players the
15:40guys
15:40who are the all pros yes you have josh allen of course you had a few along the way that's
15:45been the
15:45criticism i think deon walker might be one of those guys not only is he middle round pick
15:50deon walker could wind up being a you know one of the top defensive linemen the interior defensive
15:55linemen in the afc that's how good i think he can be and after last year's rookie he was he
16:00was first
16:00team all pro all rookie last year let's remember that that's high praise he goes out there he was
16:05dominant he was dominant against uh panthers first team offense and i just think that really this this
16:11guy can be a total disruptive force that can really help the defense yeah i mean i'm glad you
16:16mentioned about last year too because um it slips my mind sometimes like he played in every game
16:22for them last year and coming into the draft i think about him more for this than how he played
16:29it's just sort of a a guy that everybody kind of agreed had a ton of talent but ended up
16:34slipping
16:34into the fourth round as it happened in the 25 draft so last year um so yeah i can see
16:40why you'd
16:41say there's a pretty pretty high upside there and he's so big so you watch the game on saturday i
16:46mean
16:47six seven three twenty five maybe in that sort of yeah and mike he lost like 10 to 15 pounds
16:53this
16:53offseason intentionally and he had said he his goal was to do that the reason was he wanted to be
16:59more um
16:59he wanted to have more stamina he wanted to be be uh you know feel like he was able to
17:05kind of
17:05withstand the rigors of a full season through four quarters 17 games playoffs and i understand that
17:11when you're a rookie you come in the league you don't understand what kind of a grind it is you
17:14hit a rookie wall so to speak i'm not saying he did but obviously he felt like he needed a
17:17little
17:17bit more in that area and you know so far so good he's already he already moves really well for
17:21a big
17:22man you know shedding a little bit of weight it's only going to help that one more for you sal
17:26i think
17:26i'll have time for maybe just one uh tyler bass two for three on the grass so how secure is
17:34he i know
17:35mostly we've been talking about his injury status before saturday came around but no question about
17:41that once we got there no other kicker on the roster here as we've discussed just thinking about
17:46how just not i don't want to put it this way again but how easy field goals are anymore just
17:52how
17:52i mean from distance to and what kind of standard any kicker might have to achieve to be kind of
18:01like safe and i wonder like where you think bass falls on that scale well i think he needs to
18:09make
18:09a 44 yarder and he missed that one like that's one you have to make that's just outside of extra
18:13point range to be honest with you right after the game he said he rushed it a little bit i
18:17also think
18:18that maybe tommy doleman had um maybe been a little bit late on you know getting it down or
18:24getting set so you know there might that's a new operation right he's got a new holder there this
18:28year so there's some circumstances no doubt i'm sure that jeff rogers the special teams coach will
18:33take all that into consideration because he was very good on all the other kicks that he made and
18:40you know you want to see that now i would say that if from a span standpoint if tyler bass
18:46misses that
18:47kick it's it's late and he makes five in a row that misses that one i don't think it's as
18:51big of a
18:51story because you're like oh yeah he was really good and then he missed the one at the end but
18:54he
18:55missed it early and that became a story right away and i understand that and it's totally fair
18:59um security he's probably pretty secure right now he's the only kicker on the roster
19:04he goes over to cleveland next week and he misses another one then maybe you start to ask a couple
19:09questions and see uh but i think that they feel very comfortable with him they've shown a lot of faith
19:14up to this point they don't have another kicker on the roster so until i kind of see something like
19:19that i have to believe that he's pretty darn secure recent years it's really been somewhat of a musical
19:24chairs deal with kickers around the nfl i mean it doesn't hasn't taken much for guys to be to come
19:30free washington released its kicker today i mean like yeah i don't know if he missed one in their game
19:36or something but uh they they did that so teams are pretty short trigger when it comes to kickers
19:43generally the other thing i'll mention mike about that though it's not just kicking i thought he was
19:47good on his um kickoffs you know i mean putting it in the landing zone and i think maybe one
19:52or two
19:53weren't maybe all the way to the goal line or where you want it between the five and the goal
19:56line but
19:56i was watching for that like how does that look and you know so it seems like that went pretty
20:01well
20:01and that's got to be part of the equation now with with the new rules you mentioned just quickly on
20:06the one miss i thought i noticed on tv that the holder doman twice backed up when he was setting
20:12up
20:13like he was maybe two yards ahead and then one two times he had to sort of get back up
20:17from his
20:18position and move back to spot the ball so i don't know what was going on there because that should
20:23be
20:23pretty easy math but maybe there was confusion about where the the ball was spotted or something
20:27and he wasn't sure what to do um okay love to have landing zone back i forgot about the like
20:34some some
20:35things the game goes away from your mind you sort of take this take the spring and summer we're talking
20:40about it but we're not seeing it and then there it is they line up and there's that landing zone
20:44bam got got to get used to that again all right great day out there saturday uh thanks for
20:50your time today and glad to have you back thanks a lot mike talk to you later
20:55later so
20:56so
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