- 10 minutes ago
Joe DiBiase is joined by host of Locked on Bills and the Bills Squad Show Joe Marino for his weekly appearance with the show to break down what he saw against the Chargers in the Bills week 3 win. The guys start off by discussing what went wrong on the offensive side of the ball, and Marino highlights the Bills not committing to the run game as a major issue. Then they discuss the improvements on the defensive side of the ball before wrapping up with some Patriots talk.
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00:00We need to stop trying to choke the life out of every single play.
00:02So that ball that he's trying to throw to Chisholm in the end zone,
00:06he just believes that he's going to be able to...
00:10I don't know.
00:10You'd have to ask him what he believes.
00:12You know what I'm saying?
00:13You guys asked me a question about what he believes.
00:15I know.
00:15Okay, so...
00:16Well, then ask me what my assessment is.
00:17What's your assessment of it?
00:18That it's a terrible decision.
00:21Yeah.
00:22You know what I'm saying?
00:23Again, we want to throw touchdown passes.
00:28Mike Vrabel on WEEI.
00:31On some level, I can appreciate a coach not just giving you a coach-speak answer every time.
00:40Like, I like...
00:41That's a good interview.
00:43Also, I don't think it sounds great if you are the head coach of the team,
00:48if I'm a fan of the team, to hear you even saying that about the quarterback,
00:51even if you're right.
00:52But it's representative of how the first couple weeks are going.
00:55In New England.
00:57Good morning.
00:57It's Jeremy and Joe.
00:58Jeremy off today.
00:59Back tomorrow.
01:00You know what?
01:01He was in a Pittsburgh v. Buffalo golf match thing,
01:06where they meet in the middle.
01:08And then they tied.
01:10Right?
01:11That's what he said.
01:12They tied.
01:13You got to figure out a way to come up with a winner.
01:16Anything.
01:17Arm wrestle.
01:18Something.
01:18I know.
01:19That's a tough scene.
01:20Got to have a winner.
01:22Maybe they'll do something this morning.
01:23I don't know.
01:24So, to the Western Hotline, looking back a little bit on Bills Chargers
01:28and then ahead to New England.
01:30Coming up with Joe Marino from Locked on Bills.
01:32Good morning, Joe.
01:33You're coming up, right?
01:34You're here for an event on Friday?
01:36Yeah.
01:37We're excited to be in town this weekend.
01:38And River Works doing, be part of the TSE Big Show there.
01:42Friday night, big event.
01:45And then it continues on Saturday.
01:46So, like, Friday night is Sal Capaccio is doing a live pod.
01:49I'll be with him.
01:50And a lot of current players, Deion Dawkins, DJ Moore, Greg Rousseau,
01:56a little Shakir among them.
01:58And then Saturday, I'll be doing a live podcast at 11.30 a.m.
02:01And the Hall of Famers are there.
02:03Jim Kelly, Andre Reid, Thurman Thomas, James Lofton, Doug Flutie,
02:06and Steve Tasker as well.
02:08So, it's going to be an awesome event this weekend at River Works.
02:10We'd love to see as many people that can make it out.
02:13What a lineup.
02:13Are you sticking around to go to the hockey game?
02:16Or the home hockey game and a home football game this weekend?
02:19Yeah.
02:20I'm taking in the weekend.
02:21So, I'll be going to the Sabres game on Saturday night.
02:24And, Joe, it's my first ever NHL game.
02:28I'm excited to be part of that.
02:30Yeah.
02:30What an opportunity.
02:32I'm excited to be there.
02:33And then, of course, I'm going to stick around for Patriots bills on Sunday.
02:37So, a big Buffalo weekend for me.
02:39That's awesome.
02:39Yeah.
02:40I did not know you would not – I knew you'd been into the Sabres a little bit more,
02:42but had not been to a game.
02:43Not even like – well, you're not in Raleigh,
02:46so you wouldn't be going to Hurricanes games.
02:47No, I've never been.
02:49And everyone's hyping it up.
02:50I talked to Sal yesterday, and he's like, you know,
02:53hockey's the best sport live.
02:54And I hear that from so many people.
02:56And it's like my expectations are so high.
02:58But people are pretty confident.
03:00So, I'm excited to be part of that whole experience on Saturday night.
03:04Awesome.
03:04You're going to have a great time.
03:05Yeah, we talked to Austin Corbett yesterday,
03:07and he literally said that line, hockey's the best sport live.
03:11He's a current bill.
03:12And his son is very into the Hurricanes, I believe.
03:16So, let's get to it on the Chargers game first, Joe,
03:19before we get to New England a little bit and what's going wrong there.
03:24Obviously, an ugly game.
03:25You know, you've recapped it.
03:27You looked at the All-22.
03:30I kind of want to start with, you know, some of these turnovers
03:32and, like, how hard the Chargers had to work for some of them
03:37and, you know, how much credit they should get for forcing them.
03:40Really, that first Allen pick is the one that I'm still wondering about.
03:44Like, is that just a brain fart from Josh, like, where he didn't see something?
03:48Or is there something about the route there?
03:50Because it's so, you know, rare that I feel like we'll see a pick like that
03:55from the Bills and from Allen where it's just, oh, there was a guy there
03:59and, you know, it's only a short pass.
04:01More often, I feel like his picks are like the other one,
04:03which are more down the field.
04:05Yeah, that was an interesting play because if you watch Josh,
04:09he's completely in rhythm.
04:10There's no pressure.
04:11Like, he's – it looks like – visually, it looks like Josh is ripping a heater
04:15over in the middle of the field to somebody that's wide open.
04:17And I believe that's what he thought.
04:19I think the pre-snap presentation showed quarters coverage
04:24and I think he was maybe expecting there to be a rotation there
04:28that got him out of that pre-snap look and it didn't.
04:32They just played quarters.
04:33They showed quarters.
04:33They played quarters.
04:35And so when Josh takes that snap and he opens to his left,
04:38I think he's believing that he's going to move that safety to the left
04:42and come back and there's going to be a wide open DJ Moore available to him
04:46on an in-breaker and it's not.
04:48There's a quarters, right, that 25% is covered by Jenison Smith
04:53and he just drives on the ball and picks off Josh Allen.
04:56So to me that was just – I think he was expecting the coverage rotation
04:59to look different because he played that so within rhythm.
05:02It didn't look like he was flustered at all.
05:06He was playing within rhythm and through a pick.
05:10I wonder how often it happens, not even to say that this happened here,
05:14but there's a Bills interception in the playoffs against Miami.
05:18I don't remember who it was, but I remember the explanation being
05:22that I was in the wrong position, which is why I was there to make the pick
05:26and that's probably what the quarterback thought at the time.
05:29I wonder if, like you say, maybe Josh thought he was going to move the safety
05:33if the safety should have moved, but he's a fourth-round rookie
05:37who hasn't played in the league yet, so he's maybe in a position
05:40that a veteran wouldn't be in, if that makes sense.
05:45I think they played quarters coverage, I really do, based on all the other players.
05:50You looked at the two corners, the two safeties.
05:53They looked like they were all playing 25% of the field deep.
05:57Gotcha.
05:58I thought that – you know, Jenison Smith, he's a lower pedigree guy,
06:01but the one thing he did in college is he's that center fielder.
06:04He's the ball hawk in the middle of the field, and I think he was smart
06:09to not just drift in coverage, right?
06:11Like, I hate that.
06:12Some guys just keep drifting and drifting and drifting
06:14because they want to make sure nothing gets behind them.
06:16Well, there was no threat behind him.
06:18He had an in-breaker to his zone, and he just broke on it,
06:20and Josh Allen threw it to him.
06:22So I think it was Josh Allen expecting a coverage rotation that didn't happen.
06:26How did you feel about the Bills offensively overall in this game?
06:30We got a lot of D.J. Moore, James Cook really got going.
06:33It was interesting to me that Allen wasn't scrambling a lot,
06:35and that's even before, you know, this – whether he has a knee injury
06:38or not play from the second half.
06:41But it was obviously sloppy.
06:43Did it look like the first two games otherwise to you?
06:47Well, I think the Bills played this game wrong on offense.
06:51You had a Chargers defense that was focused on a couple of things.
06:56First of all, keeping Josh Allen in the pocket.
06:58They played with two very, very wide edge rushers, wide nines, like extremely wide.
07:04And then they would have three down linemen,
07:06and usually one of them would be a spy player.
07:09In fact, a lot of times it was their middle linebacker, Diane Henley,
07:11who would line up on the line of scrimmage and then just be a spy player.
07:16So they had, you know, somebody over top of Josh in the pocket
07:18and really being deliberate about a lot of width from their outside rushers.
07:21And then they just flooded the middle of the field with coverage defenders.
07:26Like they played cover 2, 3, 4, 6, 85% of the time.
07:32So you just had split safeties or split DBs all over the field that are capping everything,
07:37keeping a lid on this defense.
07:38And really what they're saying is we're daring you to run the ball
07:41and we're daring you to be patient.
07:43And guess what?
07:43The Bills didn't do those things.
07:45You had Josh Allen with an average depth of target about 10 yards.
07:48This was a game for the quick passing game and they still search for big plays on the field.
07:52This was a run the ball game.
07:54Like this was a James Cook should have had 30 carries and Ray Davis probably should have pushed 10.
07:58This should have been a Carolina game like last year that they went 40 to 10
08:02and run the ball for almost 300 yards.
08:04Like we've seen against Pittsburgh, the Dallas game from a few years ago,
08:07that was the recipe for this game.
08:09And instead you saw an offense that was chasing big plays down the field.
08:12And I do wonder how much the early portions of the game affected the Bills
08:18because you couldn't blink and you got a James Cook fumble.
08:22You got a bad roughing the passer call on Bradley Chubb, just a selfish play by him.
08:27You have a dropped interception by Max Harrison.
08:29And then Deion Walker misses a tackle for loss that they score a touchdown on.
08:33You're wondering, is anything going to go right for the Bills?
08:35And I do feel like from that moment, they just chased it
08:38and they didn't play offense the way that that defense was presenting.
08:41Like you've got to take what the defense gives you.
08:43The Bills didn't.
08:44They played right into the bait that the Chargers gave them.
08:47And this game wound up being unnecessarily close.
08:50I truly believe if they play this game the way they're supposed to,
08:54that's a 40 to 10 Bills win with probably close to 300 rushing yards.
08:57And what happened at the end?
08:58They got back to the run game and they closed it out.
09:01I was just going to bring that up.
09:02I was looking at those two drives while you were talking.
09:04Because in my mind, I'm like, I think they did start doing that.
09:06But at the end, and it does look like there's a lot of James Cook
09:10on those last two touchdown drives.
09:12Yeah, it needed to be a let James Cook run game.
09:16And then really, Joe Brady said it unsolicited after the game.
09:19He's like, yeah, I need to get Ray Davis going.
09:22Nobody even asked him about it.
09:23He just started talking about it.
09:24Because he's right.
09:25This was a game where you needed to hand the ball off over 30 times.
09:29How about the Bills' defense in this game?
09:32All the turnovers, they only allow the one touchdown.
09:35If Max Hairston hangs on to a pick on the first drive,
09:37maybe they don't allow a touchdown the whole game.
09:39How much was it important to see them have that performance?
09:44And also, we talked about the Chargers last week with you
09:47and McDaniel and that offense.
09:49It just doesn't look right.
09:51I mean, for them, it's a tough look to have that many short fields
09:55and only come away with that many points.
09:57Oh, huge.
09:57I mean, the Bills gave up, what, like six points on drives
10:01that didn't start in their own territory defensively.
10:03I mean, the offense put them in bad positions.
10:05Defense got them out of it time and time again.
10:07And so I think you can acknowledge a couple of things here.
10:10First of all, that's a disjointed Chargers offense
10:12that has a goofy coordinator and a quarterback
10:14that just doesn't fit for what they're asking him to do.
10:17And then you also have a Bills defense that played a lot better, right, obviously.
10:22And, you know, one of the big things that I tried to hammer home last week
10:25is that the Bills played two week one games.
10:27They didn't have a huge opportunity to self-correct Sunday to Thursday.
10:30They just couldn't, you know, they couldn't game plan
10:32and self-correct at the same time.
10:34And now with this extended runway between weeks two and week three,
10:37we wanted to see improvements from the defense.
10:39We absolutely did, especially with pass coverage.
10:42And they're competing at the catch point.
10:44They had forced eight incompletions, eight pass breakups in this game.
10:47They had eight in the two games combined.
10:49So your DBs were in better positions.
10:51They're breaking on the ball.
10:52They're more competitive.
10:53You didn't have the coverage breakdowns that you saw the first couple weeks.
10:56And I thought the pass rush was actually very effective.
10:59I know that there was only two sacks,
11:01but I thought the pressure was very consistent on Justin Herbert for the most part.
11:05And just collectively, I thought the defense really answered the call.
11:09And I get it that it's a disjointed Chargers offense, their first road game.
11:14I get all that.
11:15But all you can do is accept the data point for what it is.
11:18You know, that was their next opportunity to show growth.
11:21They did.
11:21And now they got a new opportunity.
11:23You better not let Drake May suddenly look like the MVP candidate that he was, right?
11:27You get the Rams after that.
11:28So, you know, that's the NFL.
11:30You've got to keep proving it every single week.
11:32And I think that the – it's just like offensively.
11:35It didn't matter that the Bills keep showing up and doing it.
11:37The same with the defense.
11:39You had a really good bounce-back game.
11:41You've got to keep stacking them and tell us that you're a defense that can be relied upon.
11:44We talked about that Allen read on the first interception.
11:47On Herbert's interception, what do you think he saw there?
11:51I mean, he's 13-10 and he's kind of going for the kill shot there to MVS, by the way,
11:56of all people.
11:58Yeah.
11:58Because it kind of looked like it wasn't that difficult of a pick for Garner Johnson.
12:02He just read it right and was in the right spot.
12:04I don't know what Herbert was really going for there.
12:07He's trying to score a touchdown, right?
12:09But I think C.J. Garner Johnson – and look, I know Tom Brady called it.
12:12He threw him a meatball sub.
12:13He did, right?
12:14But I think there's a lot of credit that we should give to C.J. Garner Johnson
12:17because he's that middle-of-the-field safety.
12:19And, you know, he didn't drift, right?
12:21He wasn't – he was leveraged where he was supposed to be.
12:24And he quickly – if you watch that play on All-22, he is breaking on that ball immediately
12:30when Justin Herbert's hands break.
12:33Like, he is driving on the ball.
12:34It's not even out of his hands until, you know, C.J. Garner Johnson's driving on that ball
12:39before it's out of Justin Herbert's hands.
12:41And so I think for as much as that was maybe a bad decision, C.J. read that thing perfectly.
12:45He didn't drift.
12:47He was tight in coverage.
12:47He squeezed.
12:48And he confidently drove on a ball and made a play when the Bills absolutely needed it.
12:53That was an absolute game-changing play and needed it.
12:57I think that's cool to see a couple times now late in the game.
13:00I mean, really, I think you could look at all three games.
13:02And while the defense has had its shaky moments, you know, you go to the Greg Russo forced fumble
13:07against the Texans to clinch it.
13:09That game – the drive against Detroit backed up when they get, like, two pass breakups from
13:14Deion Walker and a big tackle from Cole Bishop to force a three and out and preserve that
13:18win against Detroit.
13:19And then, of course, you know, that play for C.J. Garner-Johnson to ice it against the Chargers
13:25in week three.
13:25Joe Marino, thejoemarino.com, Locked on Bills, Heard Mentality, Substack.
13:30All right, let's get to New England a bit here, Joe.
13:32And I think the first thing that's on everybody's mind is what's wrong with their offense and
13:36what's wrong with Drake May.
13:38When you're watching them so far through this season, how much of it looks like the offense
13:43around him, how much of it is his decision-making?
13:45And then there's obviously this, I think, kind of smoke out there that maybe he has a shoulder
13:50injury and some people feel like they might and others, Greg Bedard yesterday was like,
13:54I don't know why people are talking about this.
13:57What do you see from May so far, especially?
14:00See, continuation of the player that we saw in the last year.
14:04And it's concerning because, I mean, for as much as he struggled really after that Jets
14:09game where they chased a bunch of numbers to get him in that MVP conversation, you know,
14:13firmly, after that, I think the wheels completely fell off and that has continued into this season.
14:18Now, two things can be true.
14:19The wheels fell off and he was also rightfully number two in MVP voting.
14:23He had a great year, but there's, there's, we've seen this journey with a lot of young
14:28players where you, you ascend and you reach this status of play where, you know, it looks
14:33like you've arrived, but, you know, then other teams get more exposure to your skillset, more
14:40exposure to your role in that offense.
14:42And there's counter punches and you got to be able to handle the counter punches.
14:46You know, you got to be able to do it again, sustain that high level play.
14:50And so far, Drake may has not been able to do that.
14:52And a lot of his zone coverages to cover six, right?
14:54The splits against that particular coverage that Sean McDermott probably gets a lot of credit
14:59for, for how he game planned.
15:01And that's, that's, that's a, that big comeback win for, for the bills in new England, that
15:05second half where the wheels fell off.
15:07It was really, that was the point in time where, where everything really changed for,
15:11for that, that Patriots team.
15:13And, and, you know, the common denominator for every high performing athlete in any
15:18sport is that they're confident, confident athletes play their best.
15:22And obviously Drake may just doesn't have that right now.
15:24And I'm sure, you know, from him to have the struggles that he did late in the season
15:28to lose the Superbowl, I'm sure that's draining in, in some ways, right?
15:32You're a franchise savior.
15:33You have this great year and then you really kind of poop your pants there late in the season.
15:37And you, you have that game against Seattle and then, you know, you get into this next
15:41season ready for the renewed opportunity.
15:43And there's that Seattle defense and you throw three fourth quarter interceptions.
15:47The guy has no confidence and you, you watch him play.
15:50And like, there's still some good, right?
15:51It's not like every play is an absolute train wreck.
15:54There's times where it looks really good, but then in some of those higher leverage moments
15:58that, you know, there's pressure on him, red zone, this, the, he kind of crumbles,
16:03right?
16:03Whenever he has to, in those high pressure moments, is that's where you're going to kind
16:06of resort to your worst tendencies.
16:09And you see that come out of Drake may.
16:11And so obviously they're, they're looking for answers at the, the commentary this week
16:15with Drake may and how he answered questions about the shoulder.
16:17And then, you know, Mike Vrabel and being very, very direct about his concerns and kind
16:22of getting chippy with the media a little bit, you know, you could tell there's a lot
16:26of frustrations and maybe on one hand, if you're the Patriots, the best thing for you
16:31is a road game in Buffalo, right?
16:33Like where, Hey, quiet, the noise it's all out in front of us.
16:35Last year, this game, the bills are four and Oh, Patriots were two and two.
16:39We're talking, geez, beat the Patriots in this game.
16:42You're going to be three up with a head to head win over New England.
16:44You're going to cruise the division.
16:45The bills lost the game at home.
16:47Then they lost the Falcons.
16:48And we know how the season season played out.
16:50And so I think if you're Mike Vrabel and company, that's your message.
16:52Like, Hey, we were kind of in this spot.
16:54Let's like, get it together, focus in, go on the road.
16:57I'm sure that's their messaging.
16:58And obviously it's on the bills to make sure that doesn't happen.
17:01Yeah.
17:01On their defense, by the way, so far, like I know they're, they're top 10 in the league
17:06in EPA per, per pass defensively so far this year, even though last week it's Jacksonville
17:10didn't look great at times.
17:13What challenges do you see that side of the ball presenting?
17:16And you know, you mentioned how like you would have liked to see the bills play offense against
17:19the chargers.
17:20How would you, what would you think the best way of approach would be for them this week
17:23for new England, for new England to play defensively against the bill for the bill?
17:28Sorry.
17:28The bill's still going up against this new England defense.
17:31Yeah.
17:32So what's interesting about this matchup against the Patriots is that stylistically, this defense
17:37is very different than anything the bills have seen so far.
17:40They're going to play man coverage, right?
17:42The Patriots are one of the highest percentage of man coverage teams in the league.
17:46And you know, they're, they're daring you to go after their press man corners on the outside
17:51and Carlton Davis and Christian Gonzalez.
17:54And you know, where you have to play this team is you, you, you got to work the ball
17:57to the middle of the field, like tight end slots, middle of the field type throws are
18:02going to be where it's at against this team.
18:04But I also think the run game and, and watching Jackson, but watching that game actually yesterday,
18:10Jacksonville ran the ball well against them.
18:13And I think the bills have a more dynamic running back situation and a bigger, more physical,
18:17better run blocking offensive line.
18:18Um, and so I think this is a game where you lean into your run game.
18:21This is a middle of the field play action pass type game.
18:25And, um, you know, obviously they got a couple of good interior rushers and Milton Williams
18:29and Christian Barmore.
18:30I think you got to focus your efforts there to make sure they don't wreck things.
18:33Uh, but I think you got to avoid really trying to test those corners and, and, and work
18:40to the middle of the field.
18:41And it's a different type of recipe, but, um, high expectations for the bills to be able
18:46to get this done on Sunday and if they win, they'll go up three games in the division.
18:50So it would definitely feel like a chokehold on the AFC East.
18:53If they can figure out a way to win on Sunday, the Joe Marino.com locked on bills, herd mentality
18:58sub stack coming up Friday at Riverworks.
19:00Thanks Joe for joining and, uh, safe travels.
19:03All right.
19:04Thanks a lot.
19:04Joe appreciate you and enjoy the hockey game too, which I'll be at on Saturday.
19:09Can't wait for that.