- 35 minutes ago
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:01Oh, I have to say it.
00:02I've thought it other times.
00:04I was not in the mood for this game until those tackle sound effects.
00:06You got the grunting, you're good now?
00:08That's what did it.
00:09The grunting gets you right.
00:10Welcome to Wings Flights of Hope, 4000 California Road for our pregame show today.
00:158.15 tonight, the Bills and Lions.
00:17Tonight's home opening broadcast is brought to you by Catholic Health, the right way to care.
00:24Be listening at 8.15 for the Buffalo Football Gamecast live on WGR and streaming live on YouTube.
00:32Follow the game along with Zach, Derek, and Nate as they break down tonight's game between the Bills and the
00:37Lions.
00:37As it happens, call, tweet, jump in the chat, join the conversation that way.
00:41Listen and watch the game with WGR, Buffalo Football Gamecast live, 8.15 on WGR and streaming live on YouTube.
00:51Joining us now from a Walmart parking lot, but he's on his way here, is Tyler Dunn.
00:58Hopefully with no wayward shopping carts.
01:00Well, I mean, let's leave it to Tyler to tell us, but you know he's looking.
01:05Very on brand, Tyler.
01:06Not only is he looking for those carts, he's looking for any trace of the people.
01:10He might be printing the cart handles to see if he can get ID on who did this capital offense.
01:18Tyler, so you're on your way?
01:20I mean, what better way to break in the new stadium than to chat with you fine fellows?
01:26You know, I'm not the multitasker I used to be.
01:29I can't drive and talk and think.
01:32And, you know, it's illegal, I guess, to hold your phone, too.
01:35You know, so you don't want to get caught doing that.
01:37You've got to be hands-free.
01:38So I figured, you know what, let's stop here at the Walmart parking lot.
01:40We've graduated from the shopping cart.
01:43We've handled that problem.
01:45They've been dealt with appropriately.
01:46Now we're on to the floss and tossers.
01:48I'm keeping an eye out for anybody that may be flossing their teeth and then haphazardly throwing it out of
01:54the parking lot.
01:55And I'm ready to just go full, you know, Terry Tate office linebacker on them here.
02:02That's what we need.
02:03That is exactly, the world needs a superhero who is out there chasing down the people, throwing those disposable flossier
02:12things around parking lots.
02:13Or just shaming them publicly and anonymously.
02:15That would be another way to do it.
02:17You know, maybe at the old stadium you'd see piles of those things.
02:20But I don't know, the new place, people might walk in there tonight, Tyler, with a new level of respect.
02:25I sure so hope so.
02:27I mean, you know, not only are they at the rubble, I think the human remains and the bones of
02:33those people should be in the rubble of the old stadium.
02:35I mean, that's where they should be, honestly.
02:37Things are taking a turn here, Tyler.
02:40We've got to get this point across.
02:43Right, right.
02:43Well, golongtd.com, I know we saw the piece today.
02:47You talked with the owner.
02:49Terry Pagula, of course, is, you know, so much behind all of this.
02:54You know, the Sabres' stability, and at least they're looking good again, heading into a new season after finally breaking
03:00their drought.
03:00And, of course, this stadium here that is opening officially with its first regular season game.
03:06And, I mean, Tyler, you grew up here.
03:08You, you know, been in and out a couple different times, but I think you know symbolically how much this
03:16stadium means.
03:17It's like the final piece that affirms that all of that angst did not result in the team ever leaving
03:26us.
03:27I mean, beautifully put, Bulldog.
03:29That's it.
03:30That's it.
03:31I think, you know, growing up in the Southern Tier, it was the dark cloud that was hanging over this
03:38entire organization.
03:39I mean, I know my whole childhood, it was like, yeah, these games are fun and great.
03:45You're tailgating in the mud lot, throwing the football around with Dad.
03:47You better enjoy these memories while you can because eventually Manifest Destiny will take the Buffalo Bills to a new
03:55frontier.
03:55I mean, they'll go to Toronto or L.A. or, you know, pick Austin, San Antonio were very real.
04:01I think the threat was – it was very real.
04:04I wrote it in the story.
04:05I actually brought it up when I sat down with Terry Pagula in his office.
04:08I think we all kind of remember where we were when that rumor went crazy.
04:13I mean, this is pre-Twitter, right, that Ralph Wilson had passed, I want to say the summer of 08.
04:18And in that moment, it went from, like, anger toward an owner for no estate plan and frustration to dread
04:27and doom.
04:28And holy hell, it's happening.
04:30Obviously, it was proven false.
04:32And three years later, Terry Pagula buys the Buffalo Sabres.
04:35And two years after that is when Ralph's health started to decline.
04:39And he just asked – he broke it all down in our story.
04:42He asked Kim, his wife, you know, do we want to own the lone sports team, professional sports team, major
04:48professional sports team, sorry, Bandit fans, in Western New York?
04:52Or do we want to have both of them?
04:53And then they decided to go all in on it and kind of takes everybody through the whole process.
04:57So, yeah, I think the context is big.
04:59I get it.
05:00There's people in the new stadium that, oh, is this really the rendering I saw virtually with the glass that's
05:07going to prevent me from dying if I fell from the 400s to the 300s?
05:10Or this or – I mean, really, I went up to the 400s.
05:14It's steep.
05:15It's good to have that protection for your health if you've got three or four beers in you.
05:19I get it.
05:20Like, there's some legitimate gripes out there.
05:23And I think the Bills are handling it best they can.
05:25Let's not remember that they're the Buffalo Bills, not the San Antonio or Austin Bills here.
05:31Tyler, just a short question, if not a simple one.
05:36Does this all happen without Josh Allen?
05:39Whew.
05:42Man, I've thought about that often because you wonder, where would the public support be if, say, you know, J
05:51.P. Lawson is this team's quarterback and you've got to get a stadium done?
05:54I did bring up Josh to Terry, and he kind of smiled and he said it helps.
05:59He helps.
05:59Or he helps.
06:00He helps.
06:01For sure.
06:02I mean, he's the main attraction.
06:03He's arguably the best player in football.
06:06There's a funny story Terry actually tells, where after they had the perfect game against New England, right, it's arctic
06:12conditions, seven degrees.
06:14They score on all seven possessions.
06:17And Josh Allen is talking to Brian Dable in the locker room.
06:21And he goes, man, I just effed up getting a dome, didn't I?
06:24And Dable goes, hey, look behind you.
06:26And Terry Pagula's right there.
06:27He goes, yep.
06:30And he explains why they wanted this outdoor venue.
06:33They wanted it to be Buffalo, right?
06:35It had to be Buffalo, and I think that was part of it.
06:37But, yeah, I mean, it is a great hypothetical.
06:40I do think, you know, this is anecdotal.
06:43Everybody listening, as family members and friends, I know I do, that are a lot of Bill fans.
06:49Because I feel like the public support is so strong and everybody understands the threat was so real that one
06:57way or another, even if the team was bad, I guess the Cleveland Browns, I mean, they're trotting whatever's left
07:03in Deshaun Watson out there right now.
07:05God knows why.
07:06And they're working on a stadium.
07:07I feel like they would have found a way to get it done.
07:09But, I mean, it took Kathy Hochul replacing Andrew Cuomo, as you guys have gotten into today at great length,
07:16obviously.
07:17It definitely took all these different pieces.
07:19And then the overages.
07:20I mean, originally it's going to be $1.4 billion and ends up being $2.2 billion.
07:25I get it.
07:27PSL's stink.
07:27I wish when we heard PSL we bought a pumpkin spice latte.
07:31Not the right to buy a ticket.
07:32It's crazy where the NFL is, but everybody pretty much does it.
07:37And even with all of that, Terry Pagula did pay over a billion dollars of his own money to this
07:42thing.
07:42So I think it's worth noting, too, is the price kept going up and up and up.
07:47It did kind of take all hands on debt to keep the Buffalo Bills in western New York.
07:52With Tyler Dunn, Tyler, I'm sure you've been to a number of NFL stadiums in your travels.
07:57How do you think this one will compare?
08:00I mean, this one is the newest, and there's something about that that puts anything like that on the top.
08:06When it opens, like tonight it will.
08:09Do you feel, is there any reason to think, I'm not loading this question, like is there any reason to
08:13think the stadium isn't on the level of,
08:17maybe not Dallas necessarily, but, you know, above par in the league?
08:23Yeah, I mean, I think we've got to be realistic.
08:25You drive through Buffalo, I mean, you've got one Fortune 500 company, right?
08:30It's different.
08:32You don't have the kind of money that's going to bankroll luxury suites and just, you know, not even the
08:37Green Bay Packers, the smallest market.
08:39I mean, you can print paper and raise money.
08:41It's just up to stockholders.
08:43So the Buffalo Bills are the smallest market next to the publicly owned Green Bay Packers.
08:47It was going to be tough to keep the team in Western New York, let alone build some kind of
08:54palace, you know, like Jerry Jones has or Stan Kroenke.
08:58I don't know, though.
08:58I mean, I've been to a lot of stadiums.
09:00It blew me away walking around.
09:02And I think it's a needle to thread, if you're the Buffalo Bills, to be modern and have everything that
09:08you need to have for your players and for your fans and all that stuff while still being Buffalo.
09:15You're right.
09:16I think that's where the Packers kind of nailed it with their renovation at the turn of the century.
09:19They leaned into their history, like you're at Lambeau Field, and you can feel the vibes of Curly Lambeau and
09:28Ray Nitschke and Bart Starr and Paul Horning.
09:30I mean, they feed into that history and the team, all that stuff.
09:33You know, I think that the Bills have done that to an extent, if you're with the history, but more
09:38so with the town and the area and all the stuff that we've been getting to for several months.
09:44You see it.
09:45You can feel it.
09:46I don't think they're done either.
09:47I think across the street where you've got 240 acres, the Bills are going to develop that area similar to
09:54how the Packers kind of developed across from Lambeau Field.
09:57It went from a Kmart and a Sickle gas station to Kohler Lodge and a Hinterland Brewing and a Snow
10:07Tubing Hill and a football field.
10:09So I think they're going to continue to build this area out.
10:12And I know that they have actually talked to Mark Murphy, the Packers president, about that all.
10:16That's the blueprint, maybe.
10:18Green Bay.
10:19Yep.
10:19Ten of them.
10:20Or New England.
10:20Foxborough's got a lot of development around, is it still Gillette Stadium?
10:27Tyler Dunn, GolongTD.com on the Western Hotline with us.
10:31Tyler, how much, if at all, will you be keeping an eye on the playing surface itself tonight?
10:39Yeah, it's fascinating.
10:41And I think, you know, if the Bills are being honest, I mean, nobody knows for sure, right?
10:47Like, how the field will respond to two professional football teams smashing into each other for three hours.
10:56So, they'll see.
10:57I think they were more so trying to be proactive.
10:59Like, my understanding is, you know, you put in this grass and it's going to be good for six to
11:06nine events.
11:07And you're going to flip it anyways.
11:09And they are saying, all right, you know, there's Divot.
11:12Like, clearly some players are unhappy and there's been two practices and two exhibition games.
11:18Let's do it now ahead of the three-game homestand.
11:21So, rather than cross your fingers and hope it can hold up so they're willing to spend the money to
11:27do it, they want to do it.
11:28It looks great.
11:30It looks fine.
11:31We'll see, right?
11:33Everything's new.
11:34Everything's new.
11:34You know, I think, you know, when the grass was put in several months ago and kind of went through
11:40the various conditions of western New York,
11:43you don't really know what's happening where now you've got a handle of it to an extent and you can
11:47go from there.
11:49Tyler, so it's a pretty good matchup tonight for any stadium.
11:54Detroit and Buffalo, not a lot of history.
11:57At least, you know, meaningful on field.
11:59There's some franchise connections, speaking of Pugula and the Lions, but how about week one?
12:06The Bills, a very impressive win in Houston.
12:09Detroit hangs on against New Orleans, a game they were favored in and at home for.
12:14Can you see, I think the answer is probably yes if I'm going to phrase it like this, but can
12:18you see the Lions hanging with the Bills?
12:22I mean, I don't know how either defense just outright stops anyone in this game.
12:29Granted, week one can be funky in Lydia, but with the Lions and the Bills and these two quarterbacks and
12:36these two offenses,
12:38they've been around the block.
12:39Like, they know what they're doing out there, and I think that both are rejuvenated with, you know, some change.
12:45Drew Petsing out there with the Detroit Lions, you know, getting Jameer Gibbs going with a complex running game,
12:51and Jared Goff has all the weapons around him.
12:54I don't know.
12:55I feel like the Bills obviously are going to put up points.
12:58You know, we know Brian Branch and we know Kirby Joseph, and they've got some issues defensively in Detroit.
13:04They almost lost that game to Tyler Shuck and the Saints.
13:08It's got to mean something, right?
13:10The first game in this stadium, all the emotion, the crowd, what's the noise going to be like with the
13:15verticality of how the stadium was built
13:18and everybody juiced up.
13:19I don't know how that manifests to the field.
13:22I feel like it's going to tilt the Bills' direction, though.
13:25At some point, somehow, with this Jim Leonard defense and everything that they want to do,
13:30disguise and deception and blitzing and pressure,
13:34I could see the Lions screwing up once or twice more than I could see the Bills screwed up once
13:38or twice.
13:38And they're the team that blinks, and the Bills figure out a way to win a shootout.
13:43What's your first Dan Campbell story, or what was your first interaction with him like?
13:48Oh, man, great question.
13:51You know, when you're out there in Detroit, and just the way he walks up to the podium,
13:55it's like every WWE gif that you have in your phone, it just, like, storms up to that thing.
14:02And you just have to expect him to just club the lectern right over on its side
14:08and just, you know, get down and select for you.
14:10There's nobody like Dan Campbell in the sport.
14:13And, you know, I think what's really good to remember with Detroit is where they were,
14:18like the Bills, obviously, in purgatory.
14:20Lost, dazed, confused, no direction.
14:23But Matt Patricia, man, I was around that team when they made that move,
14:26and every single player, oh, my gosh, you bring up Matt Patricia in there,
14:31it's like asking him to relive a ghost or a demon that they saw as a kid, a nightmare.
14:37It was hell.
14:38They hated playing for this guy.
14:40He just ran him into the ground.
14:42So that's what's impressive with Dan Campbell is they do practice hard, maybe too hard.
14:47Maybe that's why they've had some injuries.
14:49But guys love him.
14:50They want to run through a wall for him.
14:52His speeches are real.
14:53He was mocked and memed and laughed at for the kneecap biting and all of that.
14:58But that's who he is.
14:59He's authentic.
15:00And I think that's all players want.
15:03So, yeah, it's hard to figure out that balance.
15:07I think every coach tries to find it.
15:09Like, how hard do you push guys while still being yourself?
15:14All of that.
15:14I mean, my God, I just was around the Green Bay Packers,
15:17and I don't know where that team's going to go with Matt LaFleur.
15:20It's not pretty right now.
15:21I think Dan Campbell, more than he coached in the NFL, kind of thread that needle.
15:25Did things get sour with LaFleur?
15:28I know you were harsh toward him after that loss.
15:32Yeah, I mean, he's kind of a double-edged sword, right?
15:37Schematically, what he's done offensively is great.
15:41His receivers all open all over the field.
15:44The way he's developed, Jordan Love, three years as a backup,
15:47now his fourth year as a starter, threw for almost 400 yards against the Blue Ryan Forest defense.
15:52I was there.
15:53It was loud.
15:54You couldn't hear yourself think.
15:56And the fact that Love was avoiding pressure, making plays, that's a credit to Matt LaFleur.
16:01And, you know, when they moved from Rodgers to Love and they became the youngest team in the NFL in
16:05back-to-back years,
16:06I think he looked at it as an opportunity to put his imprint on the team, harden them, callous them
16:11best he could.
16:13Behind the scenes, what you hear isn't really that pretty, though.
16:16I mean, he's very hard on his assistant coaches.
16:19And I think that, you know, maybe the way he connects with the players leads a little bit to be
16:24desired, too.
16:24And there's just something missing.
16:26I mean, you're talking about a team.
16:28I want to say they lost five games last year when they led by nine-plus points.
16:33They lost three games and they didn't even punt.
16:36There's four games, if you look at individually, where the odds of them winning were over 90%.
16:41They lost all of them.
16:43The odds are like one in 2.5 million that anybody would do that.
16:47Something's missing from this team's DNA.
16:49And when the going gets tough, they just fold.
16:52And until otherwise, that's who they are as a football team.
16:54They lost three games last year where they didn't punt once, you said?
16:58I believe so, yeah.
17:00That's hard to do.
17:02You would think Bulldog, right?
17:04No punts equals a win.
17:06Unless you're turning it over like crazy.
17:08I mean, you know, then those take the place of punts.
17:10Or you just go on fourth and 11.
17:12I don't know.
17:13Tyler, on the subject of coaches, I mean, it's only one week.
17:15And Joe Brady had, you know, all spring and summer, if not some of the winter, too, to, you know,
17:23get ready for the test.
17:24But, boy, it's hard not to be impressed by the job they did all around on the offensive side of
17:30the ball in Houston, neutralizing the edge rushers.
17:35I mean, just well-timed chips and help there.
17:38I mean, I did see a stat that Dawkins was singled up 81% of the time.
17:43In a sense, it was not like he was getting loads and loads of help, but they did it just
17:47enough, I think, to throw Houston off.
17:49I saw a comment from Will Anderson, I think, saying they just weren't ready for, like, a pulling guard to
17:55come out and meet me at the point of attack instead of the tackle.
17:57Like, they had some interesting scheming things that they did, I think, that really, really messed Houston up.
18:03So, all aces so far for Brady as, you know, the new head coach.
18:10Oh, my God.
18:11I mean, you just put it perfect.
18:12I think that the Texans weren't sure what in the hell Joe Brady, Josh Allen, and the Buffalo Bills were
18:18going to do because, you know, you flashback to that Thursday night game.
18:22They went out there and they tried to run their stuff.
18:24I think that at the line of scrimmage, you had your quarterback identifying the mic, identifying the pressures.
18:31Okay, we got them.
18:31We're going to send five out, and I'll find my open man.
18:34Well, D'Amico Ryan's Matt Burke in the Houston Texans.
18:36They'll take those odds.
18:38They'll take their one-on-ones up front.
18:40They'll take their one-on-ones on the back end.
18:42And just from what I can tell, talking to people out in Houston, it's like, okay, is Buffalo going to
18:47do this again?
18:48Is that really the plan?
18:49And then when I sat down with Joe Brady over the offseason, my takeaway was, okay, philosophically, this team's going
18:56to be in a great place.
18:57That whole, they have to play us.
18:59You've got to deal with Josh Allen.
19:01You have to deal with the weather in Buffalo.
19:03We're not going to hyperanalyze paralysis by analysis, overthink everything.
19:07So, that was refreshing.
19:09I couldn't wait to see, you know, what they did in this game then because you've got to block Will
19:14Anderson.
19:15You've got to block Geneal Hunter.
19:16You have to have a different plan than what you did last time.
19:19But also, you've got this cosmic, you know, global belief that, okay, it's a new day in Buffalo.
19:25This is how we're going to think.
19:27And I talked to Joe Brady the week of the game, and he reiterated that he never talked about specific
19:32players to the whole team.
19:34He doesn't want to put up anybody on a pedestal at all.
19:37The only time he ever did was mention Miles Garrett in passing last year.
19:41If you remember schematically, they did way too much probably to try to take him out of the game at
19:46the detriment of the offense.
19:47So, I think you just nailed the middle ground.
19:49They were strategic and intelligent with how they chipped and used misdirection.
19:56And Josh Allen was still able to beat Josh Allen in full.
19:59It's got to be super encouraging if you're the Bills that you had that offensive output against the best defense
20:05in football.
20:06Tyler, get out of that Walmart parking lot.
20:09Leave the shopping carts.
20:10Leave the flossers.
20:11Leave all the rubber bands or Q-tips you might see strewn about the place.
20:16Get up here, in your case, right?
20:18Up?
20:19Yes.
20:20All right.
20:21Thanks for this.
20:21Enjoy the game tonight.
20:23Hey, thanks for having me, fellas.
20:25Anytime.
20:26And enjoy it.
20:26It should be a fun night.
20:28It should.
20:29Tyler Dunn, golongtd.com.
20:32Fun, if not special, no matter what.
20:35The fact that I can see it from where we're sitting that's really there is pretty good.
20:42It is, yes.
20:43I don't know what happens across the street.
20:45Like, is it meant to be sort of a retail, not hotbed, but destination?
20:53I mean, I feel like I like the idea of the sledding hill or whatever else, you know, just maybe
20:59make it more of a playground, but I don't know how much money you make off of that.
21:02No, I'm thinking there will be a hotel, a store, multiple stores.
21:09Like, it's, yeah, I think that's what you're looking for, foot traffic that isn't necessarily dependent on there being a
21:17game or Metallica or Kenny Chesney.
21:20But who stays there?
21:21Playing.
21:23Just anybody?
21:24People who want to soak in the bills.
21:28Really.
21:28I know that might sound a little insane, but I think that's, there are people that that will appeal to.
21:35And I'm not, I might even be, who knows, I might be one of them.
21:38I don't know.
21:39I love stadiums.
21:40I think if you want to, you know, embrace all that this, it depends really on what you end up
21:47with across the street.
21:48Like, how compelling is it?
21:50How much of a draw is it?
21:51Um, but I think if you get that right and it's, you know, quality stuff across the board, then, you
21:58know, you've got reason to go out here other than, you know, the eight or 10 Sundays a year.
22:05And then the, you know, whatever, half a dozen or more events.
22:09I mean, there's already a couple of big concerts booked.
22:11Um, and I'm sure more in the pipeline.
22:13I think that's probably good.
22:15I mean, you'd need more in the pipeline, as you put it.
22:19When Harbor Center went up, that to me was a super sexy idea for a place to stay because you're
22:24downtown.
22:25I mean, the stadium should be downtown, but it isn't politically, you know, that's, of course, it's not surprising.
22:31But that was kind of a fun idea, not just because you had ice rinks and you had the sabers,
22:37but you also had places.
22:40And, you know, that's not really the case here.
22:43So if you have shops that people are interested in, maybe that are unique to this spot, okay.
22:51All right.
22:52Where I live on the island, you know, we have Canada, you have like that, that Waterloo, not Waterloo, that's
23:00in Waterloo, whatever the one, what is it called?
23:03The Niagara outlets on the Canadian side.
23:06And like, we'll go there for different shopping places that the Galleria maybe, but it's almost just as close.
23:16And, I mean, this is only for people who live on the island or even the north end of the
23:20island, but, I don't know, you've got to get people to come here for other things.
23:24And that's never happened.
23:25I mean, the stadium has been what it has been for more than half a century.
23:29It's never been any sort of a draw beyond Bills games and the occasional concert in like the 80s, right?
23:37I mean, really, just never served that purpose.
23:39And I'm a skeptic about the new place with that.
23:44But I know they have plans, and there's lots of money involved, so they're definitely going to try.
23:51Bills and Lions tonight.
23:53Stay tuned following the game for the Buffalo football postgame show.
23:57Nate Geary live on WGR and streaming live on YouTube.
24:00Here's Sal Capaccio.
24:01Check in from the stadium, plus players and coaches' comments from the locker room.
24:05You can call, tweet, or jump in the chat room.
24:08Give Nate your feedback on the game.
24:09The Buffalo football postgame show live on WGR, streaming on YouTube.
24:15Mike Schopen, the Bulldog.
24:16We are at Wings Flights of Hope in Orchard Park.
24:19Our tailgate is still open.
24:2030 bucks to park and hang out, music, food, and more.
24:23This is WGR.
Comments