Bills cruise to big win over Lions behind Josh Allen magic

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1:41Robert Mays: Welcome to The Athletic Football Show, presented by the U.S. Bank Smartly Visa Signature Card. I'm Robert Mays. Bills-Lions, a banger of a Thursday night game headed into week two, and the Bills gave us a banger. My God, is the Bills offense humming right now. Phenomenal performance from Josh Allen and more of the same from Dalton Kincaid. The run game really got going. And on the flip side, some worrying stuff from the Detroit Lions. The state of the defense is concerning. You can explain some of it away by injury, but not all of it. Then the offensive line just got completely manhandled tonight in their current state.

2:16Robert Mays: We dug into all of that with me, Derek and Dave. Let's get to it right now.

2:32Robert Mays: I think I can speak for all of us and say that we're all aligned with Josh Allen. Asked after the game by Haley Hartown, what was it like to open a new stadium with that sort of performance? And he said, pretty cool. Pretty cool game from the Buffalo Bills and their offense and their quarterback tonight.

2:47Dave Helman: Got away with words, that guy. He just said pretty cool, and then he kind of paused. He was like, that was kind of all he thought about. He's just like pretty cool, man. And then he had to like actually take a beat and be like, wait, I need to give her more than this.

2:59Robert Mays: Lions defense. We'll talk about it. Obviously, it's a flawed group to say the least. But for the second week in a row, Dave, we have just an insane performance from the Buffalo Bills offense. Just to put a little bit of context on it before we start digging into some of the specifics. I was looking this up before we started. The Bills had a 57 % rushing success rate and a 60 % drop back success rate in this game per next gen. That happened seven times all of last season. Seven times, including one Bills game against the Jets in Week 18. There were two Week 18 games in there, so we can potentially even just throw those out.

3:34Robert Mays: So other than Week 18, it happened five times all of last year, and the Bills did it tonight against the Lions. It just...

3:42Derrik Klassen: I know it's easy to be a prisoner of the moment in these island games when you see something like this. And Josh Allen's won MVP, and he's been in the conversation before, but he's as dialed in right now as I've ever seen him. He's absolutely incredible. Like the stuff he's doing, the way he's seeing things. And my other big takeaway from this game, I know it can be frustrating when you don't hit on the decisions you make with the skill players. And we've had so much angst about the Bills receivers over the years. And ironically, DJ Moore left pretty early in this game. It is so obviously the right way to do this, just making that offensive line as strong as you possibly can.

4:22Derrik Klassen: And even in a year where you lose David Edwards, you keep Connor McGovern. They've spent so much money on those guys up front. The tight ends have all been heavily invested in. I know Jackson Hawes was a day three pick, but Knox is making a lot of money. Dalton Kincaid is a first round pick and is finally playing up to that level of potential. And the front of this team on offense, not to take any credit away from Josh, but it was just devastating to watch what they were doing to the Lions all night long in terms of giving him time and just owning the line of scrimmage.

4:55Robert Mays: I was so excited about what the offense looked like last week, not just in terms of the quality or the production, but what they wanted to be. This version of the offense with Joe Brady as the head coach, how is it going to be different than what we had seen previously when Sean McDermott was there, even if Brady was the play caller? How were they going to approach this? Who did they want to be in terms of their identity on offense? And what they're leaning into right now with all of this multi-tight end stuff, how much they're pushing the ball down the field. I don't know. He finished with a fairly forgettable average at the target.

5:29Robert Mays: I think it was like eight yards. It was at nine last time I looked. It was at like eight by the end of the game. But like through most of the first half, it was up over 10 again. Just how often they're pushing the ball down the field. And, you know, the 13 personnel stuff coming into the season, I think there were going to be a lot of teams who chased it and were disappointed with the results, where it's not just some magic wand that you can wave and it instantly makes your offense better. This offense, it makes them better, Derek. Like what they can do out of that stuff, it works on so many different levels.

5:58Robert Mays: I think it's the way that it unlocks Kincaid, but also, and we saw this over the course of last season, when they were in some of those 12 personnel, like YY looks, when you're creating more gaps for the defense to worry about with this offensive line and with this running game, you just become such a problem to deal with. And so when they're in these looks, when all the tight ends are on the same side, there was even a play today. It was in the drive where Cook had those two monster runs to start the drive. He had the 35-yarder and then the 20-yarder. Oh, where they went 65 yards in three plays?

6:31Robert Mays: In three plays. The first run on that play, it was 12 personnel, but DJ Moore was essentially where you would line up a tight end. And so now you're not just accounting for the A gap, the B gap, the C gap, and the D gap. We're talking about E and F gaps in the run game against this Bills team. And they're already a problem to deal with, let alone when you're really, really stressing them in that way. And it's funny because that was originally why the Rams started doing this. It was to create more gaps to worry about in short yardage. And then it kind of exploded from there. And so to see the Bills enjoy those benefits of it in the ways that they have, plus all of the passing game benefits of it, we've never seen this version of the offense with Josh Allen.

7:15Robert Mays: When the run game has been good, the passing game has not been as dynamic as it looks right now. And so there is just so much to get really, really excited about with this group.

7:23Dave Helman: Well, and I think like the plays that you mentioned where it was DJ Moore or they were plays where it was Keon Coleman, There were even a couple of plays where they got into those five-man surfaces, like the stuff that they had been doing with their three tight ends, but they were doing it out of 11. They were doing it out of 12. They were doing it at which, when you watch them play last week against Houston, it was pretty exclusively from 13 personnel, which is what I thought the core of this thing was going to be. And so the fact that on a short week, in week two, they're already adding wrinkles using all these other personnel and unlocking 12 personnel in a way that I think is really interesting for them, I thought that that was sweet.

7:57Dave Helman: And I think what's so kind of mesmerizing to me about the offense right now, one, like Dave mentioned, Josh is just dialed in and anytime he's dialed in, the offense is going to look insane. I think what they're doing, kind of the beauty of it is it's not a complicated run game. I've said this before. They're getting three man surfaces to one side. They're running weak zone away from it, or they're running duo or sometimes this like zone opposite play where they wash everything down and just let it hit to that side. But it's like two plays. But the problem is when they run it weak zone and they run away from all these three tight end sides, if one guy gets into the backfield, the running back can just cut back behind them and he still has like two blockers in front of him.

8:36Dave Helman: Whereas if you think about it, if you're running it with only maybe one tight end to that backside and someone gets in your face and then you cut it back, well, now you're just in open space. But that's not the way that they're blocking it. It just makes for such a unique problem that I'm curious if any defense starts to figure it out over the course of the season. because it seems like it's very, it's given teams trouble.

8:55Robert Mays: I like that you framing it that way, where the multi-tight end stuff is creating unique problems and because that's exactly what's happening. And I think that they're tapping into it in such a cool way. The drive that ends with the knockdown, right? Where they, if you watch those plays, the formation was a little bit different, but the action is the same. Where you have knocks and kind of like a fullback type alignment and then you have a tight end going in motion. On one play, they're doing that and then Knox is kind of starting to the left and then coming back across. And there was a chunk play earlier on that drive where they use that in order to steal back bodies and pass protection, which that's one of the quiet benefits of playing this way.

9:35Robert Mays: If you're a heavy person, heavy tight end team, the amount of ways that you can steal back angles and bodies and protection just gives you an opportunity to really hunt those explosive plays. Well, they did that once on the drive. And then on the next time they use this action, they just snuck Knox out into the flat. And that's how we scored the touchdown. And so the layers that you can create within the offense with these similar sorts of actions and start building on them all, there's just so many different benefits that you can get from playing this way. And to see them so dialed in and finding those benefits this early in the season, it's a real just clear vision for what they want the offense to be very early in the season.

10:15Robert Mays: And there is, you can argue, well, he's been there. Like, shouldn't they have this sort of momentum and have this sort of continuity? But it looks different enough that I think that they deserve a lot of credit for hitting the ground so fast and so smoothly with a slightly different approach than what we have seen from them over the last couple of years.

10:34Derrik Klassen: I mean, we talked about it in August of what this could potentially look like in a bad way between changing things. I mean, there was turnover on the offensive line between coaching and personnel. Joe Brady stepping in and having more on his plate. I'm I keep reliving the conversation we had about Dalton Kincaid and what this might look like if if he's not better and more productive than he has been up to this point in his career. I didn't I did not envision this happening so seamlessly where I think you said it on a previous show where he is the Terrence Ferguson role in 13 personnel except just supernova where you're actually, you know, he's getting five, six targets a game and coming up with explosives every other time he's targeted.

11:17Derrik Klassen: I mean, it's incredibly fun. I wasn't willing to bank on it going into the season as something you could count on. But my God, this is everything you dreamed of when he was drafted where he was three or whatever it was three, four years ago.

11:31Robert Mays: Him being this sort of player just unlocks a completely different level for the offense and the ways that they're using him. You look at it, so he played 47 snaps in this game of 69 total. So we're talking about two-thirds of the plays overall, which is a really, really good snap rate for Dalton Kincaid considering how limited he was last year, not only with injury, but just how often they were willing to use him in the ways that they were willing to use him. On those 47 snaps in this game, we have six plays in the backfield, 17 plays where he's in line, 15 plays where he's in the slot, and nine plays where he's lined up out wide.

12:04Robert Mays: He's the most important player in the passing game. And that was always, I think, a good approach for this team to take. When you look at the rate stats from last year, he was so dynamic when they used him. It was just a matter of health and viability. And so for him to be so central to their plans, I think that is a necessary component of them reaching the level that they want to as a passing game, and they're already doing it.

12:28Dave Helman: They really are. It's the combination of, like you mentioned, he's healthier. Like he had a catch on, they threw like a little quick RPO to the left-hand side and it was like kind of high and out in front of him. And just the way that he went and snagged it, I was like, I don't know, man, he just looks a little bit snappier than he did last year. But I really liked the point that you mentioned of just how well they're using him. Like I thought one is the touchdown where there have trips to the right side. And he's like that inside receiver and they run two little five yard and in routes from the one and two receiver.

13:00Dave Helman: Usually when you get that, You're getting number three. He's going to run a corner over the top of them. And so the safety, you can see him like scooching over. He's like, dude, he's going to run the corner. He's going to run the corner. He's going to run the corner. Kincaid bends it to a post and it's a touchdown because Josh Allen throws it. And then there was another one. They get an empty. They push James Cook out to number one and he runs this little like X shallow route. It holds the flat corner down and Kincaid just runs like up the sideline and he's free into that cover to honey hole. Like they just so many ways of finding ways to access him that is really impressive.

13:31Dave Helman: And so, like you mentioned, they've always wanted him to be the best player, but now he's healthy so he can do it. And there's enough threat with DJ Moore when he was healthy, had looked good for this team. Keon Coleman had one of the best games that he's had in a long time. He looked great. And then the other tight end. He looked great. He was really good on that play against Yassine.

13:47Robert Mays: It's just like, man, if we're going to be doing this shit on top of everything else, my God.

13:52Dave Helman: That was truly the best that he's looked since week one of last year. Which, you know, maybe he's just really good early in the season. I don't know. but I even looked it up during this game. He had like 100 yards in week one of last year and never hit 50 yards after that. So the fact that he did it in this game and it just looked like, it was just like the stuff that you wanted to do. Can you just go win like an eight yard curl for us? Can you just go like do some of this like bully ball one-on-one stuff when we need it? And he could. And so the fact that he can do that and hopefully DJ Moore gets better and he doesn't have to be the number one receiver.

14:24Dave Helman: It's hard not to be like exceptionally excited about where this thing's going.

14:28Derrik Klassen: I mean this really respectfully. He's a fantastic football player, but it's so refreshing the number of targets downfield and targets in general that are going to people other than Khalil Shakir. And like what they're doing, cool, clear Khalil Shakir shit with him. Like, you know, they did like they motioned him behind the quarterback and like threw a little swing off the motion where he had blockers out in front of him. Yeah, but I want that to be 5 % of the offense, not 25. That's my point. Yeah. Let's do that three times a game instead of feeling like everything has to funnel through Khalil Shakir.

14:59Derrik Klassen: year that's how you don't have a good time and now you have I'm gonna wait and see on Keon Coleman hopefully DJ Moore's injury is not super serious and you know the fact that they were blowing the Lions out contributed to him not coming back but between Kincaid you get a good key on night I'm hoping DJ Moore is still going to be a part of this moving forward it's it's very refreshing

15:20Robert Mays: and very exciting there's one play I want to talk about that I think can transition us to the Detroit defense part of this conversation. When it was 14-0 early in the game, they had that 25-yard seam rip to Kincaid running up the left side. And that's another example. We talked about this on Sunday, Derek, where the work that Josh Allen is doing with his eyes against some of these zone looks is just more advanced and more refined than I can remember him doing. And on that specific play, he's keeping his eyes to the left and kind of holding Thomas Harper in the hook there as Kincaid is running up the seam, hits him.

15:51Robert Mays: It's a 25-yard gain. DJ Wanham is dropping on like a simulated pressure on that play. He doesn't get enough depth. And so that brings me to just what it was like to watch the Lions defense in this game where the safeties are all over the place, just completely all over the place. And there's more at play here than their injuries in the secondary. But when we were trying to build an optimistic case for the Lions defense coming into the season, it sounded like this where they were banged up last year in the secondary and they were still an acceptable average defense for the most part for a good majority of the season.

16:25Robert Mays: I don't think I really appreciated the fact that not having Brian Branch as part of this, because he played most of the year last year, would be the tipping point part of this. We're not having either of the starting safeties. That play to Kincaid is an example of it, but the best example is the Palmer touchdown. Like, what are we doing? Like, what? It's cover three. Like, why are you taking the cheese on that underneath route? It just makes absolutely no sense. on third and 11.

16:52Dave Helman: Like, play deepest of the deep, man. Like, you got to make sure you're not giving up the big plays there. So that part extremely frustrated me. But I think, too, like, safety is always such a position where you want one guy to be like, can he be a fixer for us? Like, we can use him in this way and it'll solve this problem. It's why Kyle Hamilton is as good as he is. Brian Branch, at his best, is kind of that for Detroit. And so the fact that he is not out there, it makes it really tough. And then, obviously, Avante Maddox, who is already a backup, technically, and not really a safety because he's been playing nickel the last handful of years for a number of different teams.

17:25Dave Helman: He gets hurt and goes down and that's why Harper has to play. Like it's just, it's kind of one thing after another for a secondary that was already like the oldest and just not a lot of like starting quality guys going in.

17:36Robert Mays: All right, before we move on, let's take a quick break. Football season has arrived and with the U.S. Bank's Smartly Visa signature card, you earn an unlimited 2 % cash back on every purchase, including at the stadium or at home, watching on a brand new TV. Score big with unlimited 2 % cash back on every purchase. Visit usbank.com slash smartlycard to learn more. The creditor and issuer of this card is U.S. Bank National Association, pursuant to a license from Visa USA Inc. Some restrictions may apply. I know I'm lucky because I get to talk about, think about, live inside football for my job. But even with that, there are certain things about it that may be not exactly my favorite thing.

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19:41Robert Mays: The secondary, I think we can excuse how this looks with how banged up they are, especially at safety. Not excuse, but understand. I get why we've landed in this place. Perfect sense. When you look at what happened in the front seven in this game, Derek, and them getting pushed around the way that you did, do you leave this a little bit worried about what the Lions defense is going to look like over the course of the year? Or is this a scenario where it's a short week, you're playing the Bills on their turf, I can excuse this a little bit?

20:07Dave Helman: I do think the front will look better than it did this game. I do think that this was a combination of, you obviously catch a team that, I mean, The Bills at this rate are going to be the best offense in the NFL, and so I think they're just going to be able to do this to a lot of teams. You say that now.

20:21Robert Mays: I refuse to accept that after watching the Jags, the Bears, and the Ravens last week. It's going to be a robust conversation.

20:29Dave Helman: I have them in the wind spool, so I need to say this about the Bills. So maybe they can just do this. I do think, though, a team that can just smash mouth you in the run game is kind of a bad matchup specifically for Aiden Hutchinson because I think that you can just run at him and this was just not a good thing. I also think it's too kind of like I mentioned earlier. I just don't know if defenses have like a good answer for this like five-man surface thing that the Bills are doing. And so we'll see how defenses kind of adjust to it. And maybe the Lions are just at a point where like it's so early in the season, nobody really knows what they're doing against it.

21:01Dave Helman: So I think that they'll be better. I think more than the run defense, I'm a little bit worried that the pass rush outside of Aiden Hutchinson in this game really did not give them a whole lot. And, you know, credit to the Bills, like some of their pass protection plans. And obviously being in all the downs and distances they are is a big part of that. But I think that you would hope that someone other than Hutchinson can really step up in that department at some point.

21:21Derrik Klassen: It's kind of ironic. Hutchinson almost turned this game on its side really quickly. Like the second or third snap of the game, he strip sacked Josh, just bull rushed Spencer Brown right back into the pocket. And you're like, all right, we're cooking with something. And then the rest of the way, I think last time I looked before garbage time got out of control, without, when they weren't blitzing, the Lions had a 13.5 % pressure rate. Just abysmal. Nothing doing. And the other thing I wanted to say about the run defense, so yards before contact, the best teams in the league typically over a large enough sample size, you're talking about north of two yards before contact per carry.

22:00Derrik Klassen: The Bills were north of five yards. Jesus. 5.15 yards before contact per rush. So I am worried about it. And that's that we were talking about it right before we came in here. The secondary really doesn't concern me that much because we talked about it all summer. And I do think there's a psychological thing where you can brace yourself for it to look like this all you want. And then when you're watching it on an island game where there's nothing else to look at, it just has an impact on you. Even like we've known Kirby Joseph and Brian Branch, we're going to be here for months. but watching that happen is still just really striking.

22:38Derrik Klassen: I think over a long enough timeline, I think that'll be fine, but there's nothing meaningfully wrong with the front that should have it looking this poor, and that part is really concerning to me.

22:50Robert Mays: There was a moment in the summer where I was thinking about the Lions. I think we could say this about most of the teams in the NFC North outside of Minnesota where the offense has a ceiling that's in the top five and the top three. Are they going to have to win all of these shootouts because of the quality of the defense? and because they were able to hang on a little bit last year, even they were banged up, I was open to the idea that the Lions wouldn't have to score 35 points in all of these games in order to be a good team. After watching that tonight and after watching what it looked like in the second half against the Saints, I think your worst fears might be realized with that, that the defense might just be one of the bottom eight unit over the course of the year and you're going to need the offense to be hyper elite for you to be the sort of team you want to be.

23:31Robert Mays: And the problem is with how banged up the offense is, that's just not going to be possible right now.

23:38Dave Helman: It's not going to be possible. I'm worried about the offensive line, obviously, with Detroit. I don't know if you guys felt this. There was a point in this game where I was like, man, if it's going to look this rough, and I do think the offensive line and run game will be better, but if it's going to look this rough and Gibbs is going to get hit this hard this many times, I kind of worry about how that's going to hold up over the course of the year. Like, I think that this needs to be look a little bit because I I was watching I was watching the game with someone and they were like through the first quarter.

24:07Dave Helman: It was like, has Amon Ross St. Brown seen the football? And like, obviously he did as the game went on, but just it doesn't feel like the offense should have stretches like that, where it's if Jameer Gibbs does not get us five yards here, we are completely screwed.

24:20Derrik Klassen: the Lions at their best look so dynamic because I mean the the skill players are amazing and Jameer Gibbs is incredibly fast but like the offensive line makes them look dynamic and it was really striking watching what the Bills offensive line was doing and then flipping over and seeing Larry Borum incur flag after flag and the line just collapsing and getting pushed around Jared Goff, not comfortable, moved off his spot. If Jared Goff's running for his life, and I know you've made the correct point that he's been better with pressure over the last few years and he gets credit for it. But he still can't do anything outside of like,

24:59Robert Mays: I was gonna say outside of structure. He can't move.

25:01Derrik Klassen: If he's running for his life on any sort of regular basis, it's over.

25:06Robert Mays: I'm sorry. His pocket movement is really nice. But when he has to do anything where he's making guys miss consistently or having to deal with a lot of traffic, plays that's just never going to happen like it's he's a player that has very real limitations and you have to put him in a circumstance where he's well protected and that there are enough things that's why jared goff isn't a hyper elite quarterback i think jared goff is a very good player but the things around him need to be a certain level of quality in order for you to see the best version of jared goff it's a gap between him and the guys that we're watching like the one in buffalo tonight and right now that situation is about as bad as it can be i mean the offensive line and its current state is not functional.

25:47Robert Mays: It's just not a functional group. And there's a lot of contributing factors to that. You have a backup center from week one, a backup center that had a bad staff tonight. Like it just, that's, you're already dealing with a backup at center. You have a backup left guard in there in this game that had a couple really important L's. You have a backup right tackle in this game. And he may figure it out over the course of the season. Penesul is not Penesul right now on the left side. That is not happening.

26:12Derrik Klassen: That was tough to see him just, I mean, Chubb schooled him on that. I think it was the third down to the sack.

26:19Robert Mays: Yeah, I mean, Barch lost quicker than he still did on that play. It's still striking to see Penae schooled moves like that. He does not look like an all-pro player right now at left tackle, even if he is still a good player. And so if that's the current situation where you've got three backups, a decent right guard, and a left tackle that is fine but is not a needle mover in the way that he is at his best, That's a really rough place to be. And that's exactly where the Lions offensive line is right now. They had a 33 % rushing success rate in this game. They allowed a 42 % pressure rate in the first half.

26:53Robert Mays: Like if that's going to be how you're, if that's going to be what your foundation, the foundation of your offense is built on, that's a complete non-starter with this quarterback and with the type of offense that you need to play.

27:05Dave Helman: Yeah, that's the perfect way to put it. With the type of offense that you need to be, this is not going to be good enough. I think once Blake Miller gets back and Penesul gets enough reps at left tackle, I do think that they'll they will be fine. I mean, they looked excellent in week one. And obviously the Saints defense, I don't think is super special, but they did look better when they were a little bit healthier. And I think the flip side of that, I think maybe there's a chance the Bills D line is just nasty. Like Greg Rousseau looks like the defensive player of the year already.

27:32Robert Mays: And Walker, Greg, Greg Rousseau and Dan Walker look really good. And I actually, I mean, Walker is worth pointing out because, I mean, obviously he had the batted passes, but his, is there a player in the league like him? Like him and Rousseau together, the fact that you have these two trees that have some juices, pass rushers, like they are kind of unique players in the way that they operate just with the body type and the frame that they're bringing to the table. It's really cool to watch.

28:04Dave Helman: And how crazy does this sound? If at any other point over the last like five years, if you said Ed Oliver was about what got hurt an hour before the game, I would be like D-line can't play. Game's over. They've got nothing. And the fact that their D-line without Ed Oliver an hour before the game absolutely shredded the Lions. I was like, that is a very different feeling, Bill's defense, than we've had in a long, long time.

28:28Derrik Klassen: I hadn't thought about it because it was such an afterthought. but they cut to Ed Oliver on the broadcast often in the early going. And then, I don't know, midway through the second quarter, it was like, okay, not having Ed Oliver is probably going to be fine for the Bills tonight.

28:42Robert Mays: My favorite play of the whole game, it was the Brousseau sack at about eight minutes in the first quarter. If you go back and you watch that game, I'm really curious whether it was actually called this way or if it just unfolded this way. And they did this a couple times in the game where they were in a four-man front, and they were overloaded to one side. And on this play, if you watch it happen, Walker is lined up as the second for this guy outside. So Michael Hoyt is over. I was watching it from the side view, so I don't know which gap exactly it was. But Michael Hoyt's like in the A gap. Walker's one player over.

29:16Robert Mays: And then the defensive end, who I can't remember who it was. I think it was Chubb, was lined up as the defensive end. So Walker picks the center and Hoyt kind of folds around. and then there's another stunt where then Walker becomes the looper because Chubb picked the guard. And so I don't know if they were doing that on purpose, but if you watch it happen in sequence, it's really cool. And so if that's actually a called thing and they pulled that off, like those are the layers to the pass rush plan that I was excited to see with Jim Leonard. And we've seen a lot of that show up so far already for the Bills.

29:54Dave Helman: They've done so much impressive stuff. And that's the other, it's, it's, It's the fact that now they've brought in a guy like Leonard who was willing to try and like throw all these. And again, I don't know if that's exactly called that way. Yeah, exactly. He does. And the talent, it's all the best versions of themselves. Like Deion Walker was good last year. He was not this. Greg Russo has been good before. He was not this. I think I think Chubb, he's not like a star anymore, but I think he looks like the best version of what they could have possibly hoped for when he signed. I think TJ Parker has looked fine when he's had to come off the bench for them.

30:27Dave Helman: Like this was a unit that we've complained like, man, I don't know if they have enough juice for three or four years now. And now between both the plan and the talent, they look like they've got it. It's only been two weeks. And I don't know if we know how good either of these offensive lines are in their state. But the fact that they're like manhandling some of these spots is really impressive.

30:45Derrik Klassen: I was going to I mean, they they were incredible, but I'm going to keep the state of the Lions offensive line in the back of my mind.

30:52Robert Mays: I think it's more about again, similar to the conversation about the offense. It's the plan. I just like the plan. I like what they're trying to do. And this is, you can be a team that, I mean, it's similar to offensive lines where you can carry over most of the same talent from one year to the other. And the way that you deploy those guys and the structure of the offense or defense can make them feel like a different sort of group. The Bills were not a dynamic pass rush playing team. They're a four down team. We're going to let those guys go. And that's what it's going to look like. It looks like the opposite of that right now.

31:25Robert Mays: It's just so much more creative in the ways that they're trying to unleash these players. And they're going to play better offensive lines in the current state of the Detroit Lions. But at the very least, I like what they're trying to do. And that extends to both sides of the ball. This is a new staff with a new version of Joe Brady and a new defensive play caller. And I think through two weeks, you have to be pretty happy about the returns that you have seen so far from this group. All right. That is all we've got for Bills Lions. We will be back here on Sunday night. If you are listening to this in the podcast feed on Friday morning, our week two preview is available right now, dug into a bunch of games on the week two slate.

32:08Robert Mays: Encourage you guys to check that out. If you're watching this on YouTube, encourage you to like and subscribe, especially if you are new to the channel. We've got tons of great stuff coming to the YouTube channel this week, along with all of the podcast episodes. All three of us have bespoke video first series that we're doing over the course of the year. My first Did You Notice comes out, I think, today on Friday about the Niners run game, which looked awesome in week one and the shit they're doing with use check. Like that's where we're into the caution and nonsense one week into the year. Derek, what is your how it happened this week?

32:45Dave Helman: I mean, speaking of run games, I think the Baltimore Ravens run game is back. and so I did a little video about Derek Henry is somehow doing this at 32 years old and they might be activating Lamar Jackson once again.

32:55Robert Mays: We gave a sliver of daylight to Derek to talk about Derek Henry and he took it immediately. Just like Derek Henry.

33:03Derrik Klassen: Just like Derek Henry.

33:04Robert Mays: That is all we've got. We will be back here on Sunday night breaking down all things week two. Appreciate it. Talk to you guys soon. Thanks for tuning in. Make sure to hit that subscribe or follow button so you never miss an episode. If you enjoyed what you heard, Please like, comment, and leave a rating. We'll see you next time.

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