- 15 minutes ago
WGR Bills reporter Sal Capaccio joins the show to break down Buffalo and give ITL an inside look at what the Texans will be facing in Week 1.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00That's right, you're in the loop here on 95.7 The Fan.
00:02We're gearing up for Texans Bills Sunday afternoon here in the great city of Houston.
00:08In order to do that, every week of the season, we try and go behind enemy lines
00:11to get a little more insight from somebody that does a great job on that side of things.
00:16And today, we start with a great, great get here.
00:19He covers the Bills for WGR up in Buffalo, our sister station.
00:23His name is Sal Capaccio.
00:24Sal, what's happening, man?
00:26Hi, guys. How are you?
00:27Great to talk with you, and great to have football season here again.
00:31Oh, 100%.
00:32And, I mean, it's a de facto game of the week, even though it's not in prime time,
00:36so this is a really fun one to start with.
00:38I guess I have to start here.
00:40What is actually the on-the-ground-in-Buffalo feeling about the way that the Bills have fared
00:46over the last few times, handful of times, that Josh Allen and the team has had to play
00:50at Reliant Stadium here?
00:52I mean, house of horrors, right?
00:54I mean, that's what it's been, and fans know that.
00:57And it's just been a place where, other than obviously the rival with the Kansas City Chiefs
01:02and not being able to clear that hurdle in the playoffs, this place specifically, not
01:06the Texans, but this place in Houston has been really the toughest spot for the Buffalo
01:11Bills in the Josh Allen era.
01:13You go back all the way to the playoff game when Deshaun Watson was there in 2019 and the
01:17Bills losing.
01:18And then, obviously, the last couple of years where two years ago, Josh had one of his
01:22worst statistical performances ever.
01:24And then, last year, they sacked him, what, eight times?
01:26He had an injury his rookie year out there his first year in Houston.
01:29I mean, it just hasn't gone well.
01:31And the fans know that.
01:32And they're fearful of that because they know how great the Texans defense is and what they
01:35can do to them.
01:36You know, that said, you know, we had Mark Vandermeer, the Texans play-by-play guy on our
01:42podcast this week.
01:43And he said it the right way, I think, to me.
01:45Rip the Band-Aid off.
01:45Let's get this game on right now, right?
01:47Instead of waiting until November this time.
01:49And, you know, let these two teams go at it early in the season and see what each of
01:53them has.
01:54Well, the best thing about it is the implications, if you're to believe the hype.
01:59I mean, this is something that we could be talking about in January.
02:02And I'm sure that has not slipped anybody's minds out there.
02:07No, not at all.
02:08And, you know, I mean, that's right, guys.
02:09You think about it.
02:10You go back to that playoff game in 2019.
02:12That was in Houston, obviously.
02:13And obviously, that's a challenging road environment to play in.
02:16I've been there many times.
02:17It's very, very loud inside that stadium.
02:20But we know what we have here in Buffalo in a brand new stadium, by the way, which the
02:24Bills will open for the first time just five, four days later on Thursday Night Football
02:29here.
02:29And, you know, who doesn't want to have a team from down south in a dome coming to Buffalo
02:33in the playoffs, making it more challenging?
02:35And look what happened last year with Houston having to go on the road out to New England.
02:39And, you know, the way that that thing went down.
02:40So when you're talking about two teams matching up in the playoffs, where that game could
02:45be, a game early in the season could matter to that.
02:48Sal, we were getting along so well, you brought up New England.
02:50You know you didn't have to do that.
02:51You know damn well you didn't have to do that.
02:52But I do want to do this here, though, because I have been fascinated, and I imagine you guys
02:57have been fairly fascinated with the new defensive coordinator there in Jim Leonard.
03:01Have you been able to get a feel for what that defense actually looks like?
03:05Because I know that there's been a lot of speculation, but the last time that he's actually
03:08been in charge of the defense, it was in college.
03:10I know he was a part of the Denver defense.
03:11What are the big keys about what this defense actually has been able to do in training camp
03:16and preseason and what they're trying to do?
03:18Yeah, well, first of all, I'll say if there's one, you know, thing that I think those fans
03:22are kind of excited about for this game a little bit, it's let's see maybe if the Texans
03:26can handle a defense they haven't seen yet.
03:28Nobody really knows.
03:28This guy, like you said, you know, the last time he ran a defense was in college, right?
03:32What concepts did he bring in?
03:33Yeah, you can go back to a lot of times when you have a coordinator, you can kind of look
03:36at
03:36film from them on other stops.
03:38You really don't have that here, and even D'Amico Ryan said that, you know, earlier this
03:41week or last week.
03:42He's like, we kind of don't know what to expect from the Buffalo Bills defense.
03:44I'll tell you this.
03:46I've been saying on the radio for a while, everything we've learned about defense in
03:49Buffalo for the last nine years under Sean McDermott, take it, crumble it up, and throw
03:53it away.
03:53This is going to be completely different, guys.
03:54Sean McDermott's defense was 4-3, keep everything in front of you, be very coachable, fundamentally
03:59sound, don't get beat by the big play, make the offense really have to work.
04:03And really, by and large, they did a great job of that until the playoffs came and, you
04:07know, make some critical plays.
04:09So the Bills defense didn't really make a ton of big, big plays, but they also didn't
04:13give up any big plays.
04:14They were always very, very good in that department.
04:16This defense is going to be totally different.
04:18It's going to be more of a Rex Ryan type of 3-4 that, you know, Jim Leonard played under
04:22early in his career and coached under.
04:24Vance Joseph, obviously, in Denver, as you know.
04:27They're going to be a 3-4.
04:28They're going to be hybrid, though.
04:29You're going to see a lot of different fronts.
04:30You're going to see them coming from all different angles, lots of pressure from different
04:33places, aggression.
04:35We hear two things, two words all the time from the defenders when we talk to them.
04:39Aggressiveness and freedom.
04:41That's what they like about this defense.
04:42And I really don't know what to expect.
04:44I will say this, though.
04:46I think they're going to make far more big plays than what we've seen under Sean McDermott.
04:50But I think they might give up more big plays than we've seen under Sean McDermott.
04:53They're going to be a lot more risk-reward.
04:54Well, with that in mind, you know, the other big story outside of Josh Allen struggling here,
04:59I think it's a bigger story, is C.J. Stroud's first appearance in a game that matters since
05:04the back-to-back debacles in the postseason.
05:07The defense has to, I'll put it in a question here.
05:11Do you think the defense will really try to just limit the Texans' running game, which
05:14they hang their hat on, or do you think they're going to heat up and pressure and try to
05:17confuse C.J. Stroud to get in his head?
05:20Well, I think I'll turn it this way first, and you tell me if I'm wrong.
05:23I think the Texans, with their revamped running game and the guys they have there, I think
05:27they'll probably try to establish that early.
05:28The Bills, you know, you want to kind of make sure that the Bills haven't been great
05:31against stopping the run.
05:32I know it's a different defense, different coordinator, but if they can do that, then
05:36that will allow C.J. Stroud, obviously, to be able to throw a little bit better.
05:39And I know that there's some injuries at the wideout position, so if the Texans can't
05:42establish that run, they'll do that.
05:43So I think the Bills have to stop that first.
05:45They have to concentrate on stopping David Montgomery, stopping Woody Marks, you know, making
05:49sure that you don't allow the Texans to stay on schedule, because if they can do that,
05:53you just really open up so many possibilities to C.J. Stroud.
05:57And yeah, I think that's where it has to start for them, but if they can put the Texans
06:00into some tougher situations, second and long, third and medium, third and long, that's
06:06when I think they absolutely will try to heat up C.J. Stroud.
06:08We're talking to Sal Capaccio of WGR up in Buffalo as we get behind enemy lines here.
06:14And I want to come back to this offense, because a third of Josh Allen's dropbacks last year
06:20were pressured, and I'm wondering how much of that is just also the coverage sac element
06:25of not being able to get anybody open.
06:27And now there's a couple of guys that will play in this game that didn't play last year,
06:30whether it's obviously having Kinkade available in this game, but then D.J. Moore is here.
06:37How different does this offense look with those two guys in it versus, you know, in last year
06:43without having at least D.J. Moore on the team and then with Kinkade missing time?
06:47Yeah, I think it's pretty big. It's massive, actually, to have Dalton Kinkade available,
06:51a guy that we just talked with, Pete Carmichael Jr., the Bills' offensive coordinator.
06:54Now, he's not the play caller, but he is offensive coordinator in title, and we asked him about
06:59Dalton specifically. He said, I'm a big fan. They really like Dalton Kinkade here.
07:03And look, Dalton Kinkade, when he's on the field, when he's been on the field, has some
07:06of the best metric inside numbers of tight ends in all of the NFL. I think he led the league
07:10in yards per route run last year of all tight ends, but the problem was he wasn't available
07:14all the time. But when he is available, he is a difference maker. I think the Bills
07:17averaged, I think, six or seven points more a game when he played versus not, which is
07:21a pretty massive number, actually. And guys, I got to tell you, I think D.J. Moore has
07:26been everything even better than advertised. And Josh Allen, this is the best receiver he's
07:31played with to the Stephon Diggs. There's no doubt about it. And to be honest with you,
07:34he reminds me a lot of Stephon Diggs, who you guys saw, obviously, in Houston, which is
07:38they're not the fastest guy in the world. They're not the biggest guy in the world. But man,
07:42they do everything so good. He can win at every level, right off the line of scrimmage,
07:46intermediate. He can get deep. They have strong hands or good route runners. So Josh has needed
07:50a player like this. And really what it does reminds me a lot of a basketball team. And I
07:54always say, like, if you have a basketball team and you're kind of lacking a point guard
07:58and you move your best shooting guard there, now you're actually down two positions. This
08:01is what the receiving core gets in D.J. Moore, which is you allow Khalil Shakir now to be your
08:05number two, which he should be. He shouldn't be your number one, which is what he was last
08:09year. So yes, I think a lot of those sacks came because guys can't get open. And those
08:13were Josh Allen was trying to do Josh Allen things and extend plays. And that's when you
08:18can start to get hurt on a really fast, aggressive defense like Houston. But I think the other
08:22thing that happened last year was Joe Brady left his tackles out on an island and it didn't
08:26go well for Spencer Brown and Deion Dawkins. They can't do that this time around. I think
08:30you're going to expect a little bit more of a, you know, chipping here, mass protect,
08:34mass protection there, keeping a running back in here. I would expect a little more
08:37of that this time around. Yeah, we, you know, we've kind of talked around it, but never really
08:41mentioned specifically Will Anderson and Daniil Hunter. I mean, Josh Allen, we were talking
08:46earlier, it's just got to be nightmares that he's having. And that's where I was going to
08:50go beyond, you know, the chipping and the, maybe the double teaming here and there. Do
08:55you expect even Josh Allen to maybe just try to get rid of the ball a little more or run
09:00a little more or, you know, escaping the pocket, that kind of thing. Is that just going to
09:03be the way they have to go against these ends? Well, I always expect Josh to run the way he
09:10plays, right? No matter what, he'll find it. He'll find an opportunity to extend the play
09:14and run. And I think the Texans did a great job of making sure he couldn't extend those
09:17plays last year, you know, as much as he normally does. And that's where a couple of those sacks
09:21came from. You know, there, there's a big, there, there's a big name we're watching on
09:24the injury report this week for the bills. That's Ty Johnson, running back Ty Johnson. He has
09:27not practiced since August 8th. He did not practice yesterday. I'm about to walk out here
09:31in a minute to see if he's practicing today. My guess is, since he hasn't practiced in a
09:35month and not yesterday, that he's not going to play in this game. And the reason why Ty
09:38Johnson, not a household name is very important is he, the bills consider him the best third
09:43down back in football. He's a very good pass catching running back. He's very good in
09:46pass protection. They trust him. And if you don't have Ty Johnson, I think that allows
09:51those Texans defenders to maybe tee off a little bit more, depending on what set the bills
09:55are in. If you have Ty Johnson, you can't do that because you have to count for him as
09:59a, a pass receiver. He's gives you an outlet to Josh Allen, but I will go back to Kalil
10:03Shakir as well. And Dalton Kincaid, you guys mentioned it. I think having both those guys
10:07available will be, uh, it will be really key. And I say available for secure because he was
10:12out, but now he's back to practice. He's going to play this week. That's also key to getting
10:16rid of the ball very quickly. And maybe the bills finding a matchup. They might like in the
10:20middle of the field at linebacker off the line of scrimmage quickly for Josh to do that.
10:23We're talking to Sal Capaccio of WGR here in the loop on 95.7, the fan. And, uh, we're
10:29in Houston. Uh, there's a, there's another little crossover point that we have between
10:32these two teams. And his name is CJ Gardner Johnson, uh, from afar, you know, we've, we've
10:37obviously kept a little bit of an eye, but obviously it's a little bit different when
10:40you have him on the ground. What has been the initial reaction there in Buffalo? What
10:43has been the initial feel with a CJ Gardner Johnson making his way out there to Buffalo?
10:49So this guy is really interesting as you guys probably know, you didn't get the full, you
10:54might've got the full effect for, you know, for whatever the weeks he was there. And then
10:57it ultimately, you know, ended the way it ended, but you know, we've had an, we've had an introduction
11:03to him kind of throughout the off season here and into the season. And the one thing that
11:07was said when he was signed and as it went on was, you know, Sean McDermott wouldn't have
11:13a guy like this in the locker room that he didn't want these kinds of personalities
11:17because they can dominate and they can clash and all those things. The bills have intentionally
11:22this summer and this off season with the regime change, the bills have intentionally gone out
11:27and gotten guys that are more like CJ Gardner Johnson. They brought in a guy, a Caleb
11:33I mean, this guy's just a throwback linebacker football player, David Siddigman-Oson from Ohio
11:38state where everybody you talk to says he is just a dog competitor. And Brandon Bean has
11:42said, and he's used Houston as an example here. He said, when you go to a place like Houston
11:46in week one, you want guys who just don't give a crap. They're going to go out there
11:49and they're going to be dogs and they're going to compete. And it does not matter what
11:52the environment they're in. They've intentionally done that. So CJ Gardner Johnson fits right in
11:55right there. Right now going back to training camp. I know, I know how things ended in Houston
12:00and I asked him about that. And then suddenly it became a little bit more of a conversation.
12:04You guys might've heard the audio when we were talking to him about this and he was very disputing
12:09kind of how the team saw things, how he saw things, what happened after three weeks. He
12:14won't be about the communication, how everything went down there. And that became a bit of a
12:18story here for a while. Well, I'll tell you this. We just spoke with him yesterday after
12:22practice. And I specifically asked him, I said, Hey, in your time in Houston, what did
12:26you learn about CJ Stroud? He did a zip his mouth motion and said, next question. He does
12:31not want to give any bulletin board material this week to the Houston Texans.
12:35Yeah. Yeah. We appreciate you asking those questions because we have played that audio
12:39and yeah, it's been, it's been fascinating. So I'm very intrigued to see, I'll be honest.
12:42One of the things I'm curious about is exactly that dog nature that you're talking about and
12:46the aggressiveness with Jim Leonard's defense to see if that actually puts them out of place
12:50at times and helps this Texans offense. One more thing I want to ask you before we let
12:53you go and view Bill's practice today. Is there anything that you feel like people are
12:58missing about these bills this year from the outside looking in?
13:03Well, that's a good question. Um, you know, the big story here is the change to head coach
13:09and Joe Brady, right? And how, you know, is he up to this? He's a first year head coach.
13:14And how many times you've heard how many first year head coaches have ever really taken a
13:16team to the Superbowl? Well, look, most first year head coaches take over three or four win
13:20teams, not a Superbowl contender, right? So it's, it's a different element here. I think
13:24what people aren't realizing is kind of the vibe and how different is the mentality around
13:27here right now. And that's not something that you can see from the outside, but that is
13:30something you'd feel from the inside. That's the intrinsic part of all this, the bills.
13:34I'll compare it this way, guys. I think one of the reasons they moved on from Sean McDermott,
13:38who was very successful, one division championships and one playoff games.
13:42I think they needed to pop the balloon a little bit, if that makes sense. I think they need to
13:45release the valve a little bit, if that makes sense. That's Joe Brady. Joe Brady brings a much
13:49different energy and vibe where I really feel it. I think these guys are very energetic. They're
13:54buying into their head coach. It's not like walking on a very around a very intense coach.
14:00Who's always on top of everything and eggshells, if you will, or something like that. And I think
14:04that's going to be an interesting story that develops because look, all that's great. But
14:08if they go to Houston week one and lose, nobody cares about that. And you're like, Hey, you
14:12shouldn't have done that. But if they go to Houston in week one, I mean, I just think that propels
14:18everything I've just talked about to even a higher level for this head coach.
14:22Sal, one more. I want to ask you something real quick, but I want to make sure you have time.
14:26Do you have time for one more?
14:26I'm good. Go ahead.
14:27All right. Perfect. You brought up Highmark Stadium and we, the general public outside of
14:32Buffalo have seen some of the complaints with the new stadium and the, you know, the, the sight
14:36lines. How big of a thing is that actually both in obviously people's imaginations, but how
14:42actually, how tough are the sight lines from what you've been able to tell on the ground there?
14:46Sight lines are amazing. This is comes down to, in my perspective, I've been to this stadium
14:52in every step of the way through the construction process and at the opening ceremonies and all
14:56those kinds of things. And through a couple of preseason games. Now, I believe what this
14:59came down to guys was there are people here in this community. You might've gone through
15:03this in Houston when that stadium was built who feel like they're priced out of the new
15:07stadium, the PSLs and all that. They're upset about it. And they were looking for a reason
15:11to complain about something. And they get into the stadium the first time for the, you know,
15:15open practice and they're like, Hey, this railing is too high. I can't see over it. Look, I went
15:20through, I went through the stadium process of what they call the, uh, the same experience when
15:26they give you a virtual tour of where you will sit and what's going to look like. Everybody knew
15:30if you sat in a certain spot, you might have a railing to the way it's constructed and how high
15:33it
15:33is in the pitch of the stadium. I have a railing in front of you. And if, if it wasn't
15:37exactly what
15:38you thought, then you should bring the complaint to the bills and the bill should address it. And it
15:42sounds like that is what's happening in this situation. I think, as you know, in the day and
15:46age we live in, all it takes is a couple of tweets. Someone writes that and it becomes viral. And
15:51that's what happened a couple of weeks ago. But I also found a week later, lots and lots of people
15:56were telling everybody, no, no, no, no, no. This stadium is unbelievable. It's fabulous. But that
15:59doesn't get the play on social media, obviously, as the complaints, as you put it, which I, like I
16:03said, if you have a complaint, it should be brought to the bills. It's a new stadium. Anytime you build
16:07a new
16:07house, a new building, a new stadium, you're going to have things that, you know, you have to kind of
16:10improve. I, I, I'm telling you guys, this stadium, I've been to all but three in the NFL. It's
16:17unbelievable. It's incredible. There is not, there's not a bad seat in the house. If you have
16:21to see it over a railing, that should be addressed. You can walk around the entire circumference of the
16:26stadium to go visit your friend who's in one end zone to the other and watch the whole game.
16:29Like you're at a baseball game, kind of the stadium is, is pitched in a way, the old one's kind
16:35of like
16:35a V this one's like a U where you're high up, you're right on top of the field. 67%
16:39of the stadium
16:39is covered actually by the canopy, the sound, the video. I'm just, I can rave on and on about it.
16:44I think it's unbelievable. I think it's special. And I just don't think that those complaints that
16:50you saw represent actually what is the majority of people's experience here. Sal, we appreciate
16:55your time greatly. Uh, go watch the team practice. And, uh, if you're traveling to Houston, we'll see
16:59you in the press box. I will be there and I'll see you guys. Thank you.
17:02Very, very, very.
Comments