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00:00Watching that stadium be opened up tomorrow night, I don't know how you couldn't.
00:04Even as a player on the other side, I think it would be sort of just striking.
00:10Like, wow, we're in Buffalo and this is the building now?
00:13This is what Buffalo means now? This is crazy.
00:17I cannot tell you how excited I am to see the whole thing really get its moment in the sun.
00:24We heard Al Michaels on Monday talking about it with Mike and my old man.
00:28And I just think it's such a good story.
00:31I'm very excited about it.
00:33I am, however, fearful of what will happen to me if they win this game, Brad.
00:38What do you think is going to happen to you if they win the game?
00:39I think my head might fly off my shoulders.
00:42Were you planning on 1-1 to start the season and accepting slash expecting a loss in Houston and then
00:47you win here?
00:48Yeah, I was entirely—I hadn't thought about the first two games, but I was thinking about the first five.
00:54And I thought, I take 3-2.
00:57And if they start 2-0, I'm not taking 3-2.
01:01I'm taking—give me 5-0 is what I'm doing.
01:05Well, especially with the A.J. Brown thing.
01:08The Miles Garrett thing.
01:10The way that both of those teams looked in their opening game.
01:13Exactly.
01:13It's all going to settle down.
01:15Everybody overreacts to one week.
01:16But, yeah, 5-0 sounds way more reasonable than 3—or not reasonable, but more reasonable than it did.
01:22For sure.
01:22Before people started falling down.
01:26And those things you just mentioned, combined with the way this offense looked on Sunday against the Texans, what they
01:31did to that team.
01:33And knowing that the Saints threw for 400 yards against them with Tyler Shock.
01:37And you've got a secondary that is decimated by injury.
01:43And the thought of what they could do tomorrow night and how that will make me feel about the rest
01:48of their season, I don't know that I've ever been as optimistic about the team as I could be if
01:53they go in tomorrow night and win.
01:54All right.
01:55Are you picturing kind of the same game that we saw on Sunday where it's just offense, offense, offense, offense?
02:02Because to me, yeah, I feel like the Bills are going to score a bunch of points.
02:06Are they going to stop this high-powered Detroit offense?
02:10Like, what are you doing with Gibbs?
02:11What are you doing with St. Brown?
02:13What are you doing with Goff just getting the ball out as quickly as he tends to do?
02:17And it's almost always forward.
02:19Sometimes not.
02:20Sometimes there's another thing there.
02:22But that's the part I'm trying to picture is how defensively the Bills are going to react to this Lions
02:29team.
02:29And that's my thing that I think is really going to push me over the edge if I get it,
02:36if I see what I am expecting to see.
02:39And what I'm expecting to see is a team that makes less obvious, clear, mental mistakes on the back end.
02:46And I think if you do that, I think you're probably winning this game and you're probably doing it by
02:52a fair margin.
02:53And I think we're all going to come in here on Friday morning.
02:56You know, minus you, you're busy with UB stuff.
02:58But we're all going to come in here on Friday morning.
03:02They're the best team, period.
03:05And feel pretty confident about saying that.
03:07Because I think a lot of people are saying, hmm, it might be the best team right now.
03:11Like, just looking around the league, I don't know.
03:14I don't know.
03:15I am ready to, like, dive headfirst into they're a powerhouse.
03:20And it makes me scared to feel that way.
03:23But isn't that just falling back into what they've been for the past several years?
03:29Because this offseason felt weird.
03:32It was turbulent.
03:33And everything that happened from the stadium to the press conference and the Pagoula and Coleman and McDermott, all the
03:41stuff, kind of distracted from the fact that, like, no, if you just list the teams that matter in the
03:47NFL, the Bills are one of the five.
03:49Like, that's what they've been.
03:50And then Sunday we got sort of confirmation that they continue to live in that space.
03:56I haven't scoured the internet for power rankings everywhere.
03:59The only one that I saw was ESPN.
04:01The Bills went from three to one.
04:03So it's like, yeah, that you should win your home opener in your new stadium against a pretty good team.
04:11A team that I consider to be, you know, maybe not in that top five, but in the top, like,
04:16eight.
04:16You have to talk about, you have to put the Lions there.
04:18And I know they missed the playoffs last year.
04:20But so do the Chiefs.
04:22They belong there.
04:22So do the Ravens.
04:23They belong there.
04:24The Lions are one of those teams.
04:26So I would not be surprised to see them in the NFC Championship game or the Super Bowl.
04:30It wouldn't shock me at all.
04:32So that's your opponent.
04:35But power rankings, the first one I saw, I was like, you know, going into the season, the Bills are
04:40good.
04:40They're number three.
04:41And then after one week, like, Bills are the best team in the league.
04:44So the outside world is thinking it.
04:46I don't think we, as Western New Yorkers, should be afraid to think it or say it out loud.
04:50And that's what's, because of all that you mentioned, that chaos that I think this offseason sort of represented for
04:58so many of us about our expectations for the team kind of being thrown in a blender.
05:03What's it going to look like?
05:04Who is Joe Brady going to be for us?
05:06What is that going to represent?
05:09All of that, to me, gets washed away the second Josh Allen steps on the field and does what he
05:15did in Houston.
05:16And if he does it again in Buffalo, at the home opener, in a new building, with a new coach,
05:23in a league where, like, Patrick Mahomes is coming off a really bad injury and didn't look great, but the
05:28team looked okay.
05:29Like, there's just, it feels like it's all ramping into, like, yeah, you should feel like you're the best team.
05:37And I very rarely get to that place and feel comfortable with it because I'm scared that somebody's going to
05:43take it away from me because I think that's what Buffalo sports has always been.
05:48And so that's why I'm feeling sort of, like, sheepish about how good I feel right now.
05:53That's cool.
05:53I wish I felt more than I do because I watched the game.
06:02I was like, yep, here we go.
06:03Okay.
06:03Scored.
06:04Touchdown.
06:05Game over.
06:05Cool.
06:06And then I moved on.
06:06And I don't think my heart rate moved at all.
06:09Like, I've had conversations with a zillion people, not just on the air, but just my friends, my family, whatever.
06:15Like, whew, that was stressful.
06:17I don't feel stress because this is a team that's going to win somewhere between 11 and 13 games and
06:25is going to be in the playoffs and is going to win the division.
06:28And I just care about what happens in January.
06:31So it's like I've been told by ESPN and others how great Josh Allen was the other day.
06:37I didn't even see that as a great game by Josh Allen.
06:40I saw that as watching Josh Allen play football.
06:43This is the expectation now.
06:45So, yeah, I think he's the best player in the league and there will be days where he's not.
06:51But the numbers, the performance, there's not a single moment in that game that surprised me because that is how
06:59he plays all the time.
07:01So while you're like, oh, my God, can you imagine if they're 2-0?
07:04Like, yeah.
07:05That's how you get to 11 to 13, 14 wins in a season is by having this kind of team
07:12rolled out there.
07:12So I don't, I'm not downplaying at all.
07:14I'm just saying I'm in such a comfortable place where I expect, all right, they're down a little bit.
07:20Well, they get the ball back, right?
07:21All right, go sling it around and figure it out.
07:24Let's win this thing.
07:24Right.
07:25But I was excited to have the defense close it out the way that it did.
07:28I didn't want it to end on an incomplete pass or, you know, leave yourself open for a penalty to
07:33be called or whatever.
07:34Extending the time, like, you know, no time left, on time down.
07:40Yeah, like, he run around.
07:42I didn't need that.
07:44Sack him.
07:44Stop him.
07:45And they did.
07:45All right, there's still time on the clock.
07:46All right, do it again.
07:47Get the ball this time.
07:48Okay, it's over.
07:49That was awesome.
07:49I liked sealing the deal, like, on their own terms as opposed to a ball fluttering to the ground or
07:56whatever.
07:56They did it.
07:57They went and did it, and I love that.
07:59803-0550 is the number.
08:00It's WGR Middays, driven by Northtown Automotive.
08:03Portions of WGR Middays brought to you by Tim Hortons, the official coffee of the Jeremy and Joe Morning Show
08:08on WGR.
08:10Start your day strong with Tim Hortons and the Bills.
08:13Phones?
08:14Phones.
08:14Phones.
08:15Let's hear what the people have to say.
08:16Anthony's in Cortland.
08:17What's up, Anthony?
08:19Hey, I had this conversation about five minutes after the game ended on Sunday, should he have scored.
08:26And we agreed it would have been great if he hadn't.
08:30The comparable I haven't heard yet is Keon Coleman last year in the opener.
08:37Josh hits him as they're trying to get the field goal.
08:39There's a shoestring tackle.
08:41He fortunately goes down at the 15.
08:43We run out the clock and kick a field goal as time expires.
08:48That's the same thing, only, unfortunately, Palmer was at the five.
08:54You know, Keon didn't do it on purpose.
08:56Right.
08:57But if he'd had more time or somebody had just nipped him, he would have went down and we wouldn't
09:03have had to kick the ball off.
09:05Yeah, I think you're right that it's a better situation, but in the moment, I just don't think it was
09:11physically, I won't say physically possible, but any attempt to do what people are saying he should have done would
09:19have negatively impacted his ability to make the play that he made.
09:23So in a perfect world, he catches that ball, he's down at the two or the one or whatever, you
09:28run the clock.
09:29All of that sounds awesome, except it's a guy running full speed in a spot where he didn't expect to
09:33get the ball, and then he does get the ball, and then he can get in the end zone for
09:36the first time as a Buffalo Bill, and it gives you the lead in the season opener against a really
09:41good defense.
09:42How do you not do that?
09:44So you're right.
09:45It accidentally happened with Coleman.
09:47Never would have happened on purpose with Coleman.
09:49From what we've heard.
09:50Right.
09:50If it had worked out, it would have been great.
09:53If he did it, it would have been superhuman.
09:54I can't say Palmer screwed up, but it would have been nice.
09:58Holy cow.
09:59They would have been showing that play forever.
10:01Right.
10:01Can you imagine being Joshua Palmer, and you finally scored a touchdown, and it won the game against Houston on
10:06the road, and you tune in to WGR the last couple of days, and it's like, that guy sucks.
10:10What's up with this guy?
10:11Why did he score?
10:12I get it.
10:13All right.
10:13Thanks, Anthony.
10:14Appreciate the call.
10:14I appreciate Anthony's take there.
10:16That feels to me like the most measured version of this conversation that I've heard yet.
10:21Yeah.
10:22This came up on the morning show this morning with Jeremy and Joe as well.
10:25Oh, really?
10:25Oh, yeah.
10:26And so we've been going at this for over 24 hours now.
10:30Yeah.
10:30And so that might be my favorite play.
10:32It would have been great if it happened.
10:34I'm not mad that he didn't do it.
10:35We will for sure flip to game mode tomorrow.
10:38Absolutely.
10:39I promise.
10:39Yeah.
10:40We hit the air at 10 o'clock tomorrow.
10:42It's going to be Lions.
10:44It's not going to be Texans.
10:46Yes.
10:47But for now, hey, if that's what's on your mind, bring it.
10:50803-0550.
10:52We connect with the fans courtesy of Northtown Kia.
10:54Let's talk to Irwin in Youngstown.
10:56Irwin, you're on WGR.
10:57What's up?
10:58Hey, guys.
10:58Thanks for taking my call.
10:59Thanks for calling.
11:00So while I 100% agree with Ricky that Joshua Palmer should have went down
11:06and they should have ran the clock out and kicked the field goal,
11:11with it being a 99.8% chance of actually hitting that field goal that was a chip shot,
11:18with Bath-O-Matic in, that makes it more like a 99.9 with a three repeating.
11:24And that's just simpler than Steiner, Matt.
11:27But I wanted to test your guys' theory that his momentum was carrying him and it was physically
11:35impossible for him to stop.
11:36Right.
11:36Physically impossible is not the phrase.
11:38It was difficult and would have an impact on his ability to catch the ball if the first
11:44thing he's thinking is, I'd better not go into that.
11:46That's a moat.
11:47I've got to stay out of the moat, but I also have to catch the ball.
11:49Yeah.
11:49I think that would impact it.
11:50Go ahead.
11:50Test the theory.
11:51So it would have made him, made it difficult for him to catch it.
11:55So I tested the theory.
11:56My son and I, we went out to our local field and I had him throw me some balls.
12:02Now, while I'm slightly slower than Joshua Palmer, my momentum was going the same speed.
12:10I was a paratrooper in the army.
12:12I had 25 jumps.
12:13I had one jump where I twisted my risers all the way down to the ground.
12:17I wasn't able to jettison my rucksack or my equipment.
12:20I landed really hard, sprained my ankle, freaking had a ruck march after that where we were
12:26in the field for two weeks.
12:28So my knees and ankles are probably on par with what Palmer's are, if not worse.
12:34My original goal was to test the theory 20 times.
12:37I was only able to get six in before I was a little bit gassed.
12:42Out of those six times, I dropped the ball twice, tripped once.
12:46But the other three, I was able to get down.
12:49Okay.
12:49And I got down on the one-yard line.
12:52But as I learned in the army, we train like we fight.
12:55So I wanted to see, test the field goal theory.
12:58Like, hey, the clock's down, let's kick the field goal.
13:02And while I'm no Tyler Bass, I didn't hit the field goal at least once.
13:06But I feel like Bass, I feel like Bass, he's Bass.
13:10I call him Bass-o-matic.
13:11I don't know if you remember the old...
13:13Yes, yeah, yeah.
13:13Dan Aykroyd, yes.
13:15So, yeah, so I think Bass-o-matic, he would have hit that field goal.
13:19We would have won the game.
13:21Luckily, our defense came through.
13:24C.J. Stroud fumbled the ball.
13:25We recovered it.
13:26Now we're on to week two against the Detroit Lions.
13:30The Bills are the cream of the crop this year.
13:32I think they're going to go all the way, 2-0.
13:37Friday morning, we'll be talking about how the Bills crushed the Lions.
13:40Don't hang up.
13:41When they came into Highmark.
13:43Good.
13:43Don't hang up.
13:44Did you take video of this experiment that you ran?
13:48No.
13:49If I did, it would have been a little bit too embarrassing.
13:52You like the audio.
13:53Well, that's how I feel about being on YouTube.
13:55I'm ready to do a radio show.
13:56Like, here's the camera.
13:57Hey, how's it going?
13:58Oh, good.
14:00Sorry about that.
14:01Can you do me a favor?
14:02The next time something like this comes up, keep running experiments.
14:07Keep corresponding.
14:08I was going to suggest video, but if you don't want video, we don't need video.
14:11No.
14:11I just would like, whenever something comes up, you and your kid, go to the local field,
14:15do what you got to do, report back to us.
14:18All right.
14:19I love this.
14:19That's one of my favorite calls I've ever taken in my career in radio, which is three days old.
14:25Well, I've got that much more of that, and that's definitely my favorite call I've ever gotten.
14:31Yeah, that's awesome.
14:32It's perfect.
14:32Going to test the theory in a field with your son is the best.
14:37Back when I was doing the show here years ago at night, the Bills put in their new turf.
14:44I forget what the name of it was, but the field turf, whatever, there was this, you know.
14:48It wasn't AstroTurf or whatever.
14:50No, it was something field turf.
14:51It was a new technology.
14:52Sure.
14:53And we got a chunk of it, and I put it in a cardboard box, and I went to a
14:58pet store,
14:58and I borrowed mice, and I had mice running around on it to test the, it wasn't super scientific,
15:05but it felt like it.
15:05But did you know you could borrow mice?
15:07You could do anything.
15:08You could ask for mice.
15:10If you're on the radio, it seems, like, hi, I'm Brad from WGR, running an experiment about
15:16the Bills field turf.
15:18Can I borrow some mice?
15:19And they're like, how many?
15:22Like two?
15:22Just a Tuesday, you know?
15:23Two's fine.
15:24So, yeah, right next to where you're sitting, we had mice in a box with field turf.
15:28What was the hypothesis?
15:30I don't remember.
15:31I just remember having mice in turf, and then we borrowed them from a store on Niagara Falls
15:36Boulevard.
15:36Is it some kind of durability question?
15:38No, it was about, like, traction.
15:40It was like, how do they run on regular?
15:43How quick are these mice cutting up?
15:45Well, on cardboard versus the field turf.
15:47It was, look.
15:49Stopwatches were involved?
15:50I wasn't smarter when I was younger, and I'm only this now.
15:56So, subtract 20 years from this idiotic brain, and we were borrowing mice from PetSmart or
16:02something.
16:03I mean, it sounds like a good time to me.
16:04It was all right.
16:05803-0550.
16:06Rob and NT, what's up?
16:08Hey, guys.
16:09How you doing?
16:09Good.
16:09You?
16:10Yeah, good.
16:12How much of, like, say, Josh Palmer going down, depending on who the quarterback really
16:20is?
16:20I mean, you have, like, okay, what if he told them, hey, go down if Mahomes or Lamar or
16:27Joe Burrow was across the field, you know, then I would have said, yeah, go down.
16:32I mean, you saw, like, there was times that C.J. Stroud struggled in that game, especially
16:38when we got to him and fumbled on the opening drive, their drive, and I'm like, you know,
16:43and he wasn't that good last season.
16:45And so I'm like, maybe how much do you say, okay, Josh, go down when you get a chance
16:53if Mahomes gets the ball or if Lamar gets the ball.
16:56We don't want them to have the time.
16:58It's a much bigger factor, for sure.
17:00And that's why I keep saying about variables, and one of them is if the guy on the other
17:04sideline is my nemesis that keeps doing this to me, whether that's Mahomes the last eight
17:11years, Tom Brady for the 20 years before that, you have the opportunity to beat New England.
17:16You better be thinking about stuff like that.
17:18But also, we have to factor in that this was not, all right, we're in the huddle.
17:23What I'm about to do is throw a touchdown pass to Joshua Palmer.
17:26This is psycho Josh Allen going, I can make this throw and give us the lead right now,
17:32so I'm going to.
17:34And there's no way you would have discussed that when the play is supposed to go to the
17:38flat for DJ Moore.
17:39But then Josh Allen's like, why would I go to the flat when we can just win it now?
17:42I'll just do it, yeah.
17:43And yeah, now we've got to play defense.
17:45But that's showing trust in your defense.
17:47You need to be a full team.
17:49I don't want to be in panic mode.
17:50Like, oh no, the only way we can do this is if we catch the ball and then go down
17:54at
17:54the one and run the...
17:56Taking the lead is good.
17:57And also, a major factor in this, another one of the variables, is that gave you a six-point
18:02lead, or a five-point lead, excuse me, you went for two.
18:06If you get the two, which I know they're not great at doing, but if you get the two,
18:11you're up a full touchdown as opposed to maybe making a field goal with all these other factors.
18:18So again, I appreciate the concept and the idea, and I love thinking about stuff like
18:23this, but I just don't think in this moment we can say the Bills were wrong or Palmer was
18:29wrong or Allen was wrong.
18:31If you're mad at them scoring on that play, let's direct it at your quarterback, because
18:37your quarterback decided in the moment, oh crap, I can hit this guy for a touchdown right
18:41now.
18:41Split-second decision, tiny little seam, frozen rope nobody else can make, a throw that very
18:47few players in the NFL can make, and he does it, and they score, and I can't hold it against
18:53him, even though I understand the concept and understand the idea and have a ton of respect
18:58for managing the clock late in the game, because it's often your biggest enemy, it's not your
19:02opponent, it's the clock.
19:04So I get it, but I don't think that was the time to do it.
19:08Agreed.
19:08I think that the quarterback you're playing, maybe if you're playing one of those quarterbacks
19:14that the caller mentioned, a Mahomes, a Jackson, a Burrow, whoever, that topic of conversation
19:20comes up earlier, maybe even before the drive starts, of we've got to make sure not to leave
19:26too much time, whereas with Stroud it's not as front of mind.
19:29But it is a game full of lead changes, where you have to, I mean, you can't totally disregard
19:36the clock, that's a factor, but also, in the moment, I was talking to my wife and kids who
19:44don't care, I mean they care about the game, they don't want to listen to me, that's why
19:48it's good that I come here now, and talk to people who might be interested in the words
19:52that come out of my mouth, because it does not happen at my house.
19:55But I said in that moment, bleed the clock, take as much time off if you're kicking the
20:00field goal, but you can score a touchdown, you get to go for two, you can be up a full
20:05score, go for it.
20:07Now, if the Texans come down and put six on you, they've got the opportunity to go for
20:13two and beat you, if they want, but I bet they wouldn't at home, or maybe they would,
20:17because they're facing a Josh Helen-led team.
20:20Put them in that spot, let them figure it out.
20:23Get me in the end zone, get me my lead, with a minute and a half left.
20:26Put yourself in a spot to win.
20:28I wouldn't do that if I was playing against Josh Helen, which brings up the other point
20:34too, the Mahomes or Lamar or whatever.
20:36Quick timeout, we'll be right back.
20:38It is WGR Middays, driven by Northtown Automotive.
20:41That's Owen Parker, I'm Brad Ryder, it's WGR.
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