Josh Allen hurdles the Bills over the Cardinals -- but at what cost?

what is up everybody from inside High Mark Stadium after the Buffalo Bills just got out to a one and0 start in the regular season not without some drama Ryan talbet I'm Matt Pino this is shout a Buffalo Bills football podcast brought to you by Topps Friendly Markets who's back in the game back in the shout game and right now it is the rush to this to the tops Red Zone get game day ready with tops score big savings winning recipes and everything you need for the ultimate game day experience head to the tops Red Zone in store for all your game day Essentials and more then there's the tops quarterback Blitz watch your quarters pile up shop over 25 of your favorite brands with your bonus plus and earn a quarterback for each participating product that you purchase uh Brands like bargs coca colola Tim Hortons Tostitos Douro craft Mountain Dew Bounty and so much more head over to Tops Friendly Markets right now and get in the game Ryan talbat we watched a heck of a game today how are you yeah I am doing great I think uh the bills Mafia out there you're probably still catching your breath after that one a very slow start for the bills but uh as we know it's not necessarily how you start it's how you finish in this league and buffalo made some great second half adjustments to come back and move to one and0 on the year yeah we have so much to get to on both sides of the ball and of course there can't be a Buffalo Bills game without some special teams drama big returned uh touchdown for the Cardinals today thank you so much for watching if you're on YouTube hit that like button subscribe to the channel as well we really appreciate it we'll try to get some of our YouTube um specific uh subscribers uh into the show as well I'm a little bit far away from the keyboard but I think I can I can manage both things here but I want to start with Josh Allen because he comes out in this game and what we spent our offseason talking about is this new look offense and you know because of the uncertainty of The Playmakers around him or maybe the level at which they are at it's almost like if you're a Bills fan it's about limiting mistakes and he comes out on the first drive four plays into the game and has an absolute horrible mistake you know putting the ball in the turf uh doesn't read the backside pressure tries Waits too long in the pocket gets out ball comes out after the hit the Cardinals go down and score a touchdown and that to me is going to be a big storyline to watch there's a lot of good to talk about from Josh Allen today we'll we'll get into that but as they go through this early Gauntlet of the schedule Ryan those little mistakes and there was a couple other plays over the course of the game that maybe didn't end up happening but you know he's out on the run a lot he's hurdling guys I there's a there's a lot of fun stuff to talk about but in a game against like the Miami Dolphins who played tough against the Jacksonville Jaguars today even the patriots who come out one and0 to start there's gonna be some really tough games on the schedule and Josh Allen I think has to be really cognizant of those kind of mistakes and how they could potentially changed the course of the game like the way the defense was playing early 73 173 to uh lead and they scored one of those touchdowns off a turnover you're putting the team in a bad spot putting the team in a really bad spot Matt and that you know first fumble was inexcusable that's 100% on Josh Allen holding the ball too long I understand that a lot of the times he can create and make good things happen but he did not know that there was someone coming behind him they stripped him of the ball uh and that was a major early shift in the game M because the bills are trailing at that point uh after going down seven nothing Brandon codrington comes in gets the first kickoff of the game and takes it for a a great return sets up the bills with tremendous field position that the bills squander now as we know there's a lot of good that we're going to talk about with Josh Allen and how he bounced back from that but you know in a game that went down to the wire those points that were left on the field could have been costly so let's get to the good stuff with Josh Allen because there was so much good stuff to get into today and I got to bring up the screen here bring up the stats Josh Allen finishes this day 18 of 23 78% completion percentage 232 yards in the air uh 39 on the ground 137.5 quarterback rating four total touchdowns two passing two rushing it was just a full Josh Allen experience I mean you take the turnover early puts that aside and proves to the entire football world oh you think I'm overrated let me show you this I mean if if the bills don't have Josh Allen today they don't win this game and we're on a day where if you look across the league some really just subpar quarterback performances I mean you see DeShaun Watson struggling right now with Cleveland you saw Kirk Cousins in his debut a absolutely stink Trevor Lawrence after a hot start really cool off in the second half Josh Allen as he tends to do puts the team on his back makes a ton of huge plays in The Run game and the passing game and you know there's a lot of performances to talk about you know amongst his weapons but I thought Josh Allen really leaned into the Joe Brady motto which is Everybody Eats right and they truly did that I mean the dist distribution across this offense was off the charts I think it was uh let me see here one two three four five six seven eight nine 10 different targeted players caught a pass today unbelievable use of of spreading the ball around you know they were a very balanced team I think there were some times in the first half where we were looking at each other in the Press Box wondering what this team was doing as they were still sticking with the Run game down 17 to three uh and lo and behold it worked out nicely the bills put together touchdown Drive rate before half they double dip in the second half to to Really you know make this game a Level Playing Field as well so it was the balance overall but it was also Josh Allen using all of his weapons you know at the end of the day would you like to see guys like d concade more involved absolutely it felt like he did did not have his number called nearly enough but he was hitting his guys he had ma Hollands early in the game for Touchdown you saw khil Shakir once again prove uh how he can keep his balance and bounce off of wouldbe tacklers to make big plays Keon Coleman makes a huge catch late in this game and the list went on and on so Josh alen wasn't zeroed in on one target he was looking to move the ball in any means necessary and he did a great job of that both with his arm and his legs you know I I mentioned in the in the headline here about Allen hurtling the bills to a touchdown because it was the hurdle touchdown that ended up being the game winner um but not without potential Devastation I mean we we gota wait and see here right I'm not trying to scare anybody or you know you know the unknown generally puts a lot of trepidation in in in fans uh as a big time player gets hurt uh but he got his left hand wrapped during the game his non-throwing hand uh after the game he was specifically asked about it and you kind of mentioned it was kind of like a ominous kind of response to the question where he said listen I'm not a doctor got it wrapped up we're gonna go check it out and then obviously Shawn mcder said that he didn't have a definitive update on it and he was going to get more information so it'll be tomorrow where we get the full update because the bills practice tomorrow it's a short week that we're not gonna have to wait very long um but I think the fact that he returned to the game played in the game is a really good sign and it's his non-throwing hand so if it ends up being like um even like a broken bone or something like that if they can like wrap it in some different way he could probably play through it you know it's Josh Allen like I mean the dude is just a gladiator and I say that because he's in the Pepsi commercial and I guess that's fitting but he really is the way that his attitude I never thought for a second he was gonna he wasn't going to be out there on that next dve no I agree with you there but there's the whole adrenaline aspect of it where you know you don't necessarily feel it if it swells up tomorrow if there's a bigger issue then there could be a problem it is not his throwing hand as you also noted but he's goingon to have to take snaps potentially under Center he's going to have to catch the ball uh if he's in the shotgun and if it's wrapped if there's something wrong with his hand that could lead to some turnovers some fumbles some problems uh you'd like to think that Josh Allen can go but usually in these situations he is I'll be all right I'll be fine uh and this time it was well I'm not a doctor we kind of have to wait and see so there should be some level of concern because of the fact that this game is on Thursday night in week two against the Miami Dolphins there's not that full week for him to um get better there so it's definitely something to Monitor and like you said when we talked to sha mcder tomorrow we should have a better idea of the injury itself and how that'll affect alen going forward um we're gonna get into Dalton con we're gonna get into khil Shakir we're g to talk about the usage a little bit in this game which I thought was really interesting I asked Sean mcder specifically about that end of the first half situation because in the Press Box both you and I were looking at each other like what are they doing like why are they wasting so much time it ended up working out they ended up scoring I felt like that was the kind of Turning Point and then um just looking at a comment gota love Facebook yeah you gotta love Facebook we're going to get to all that in in a few minutes but if you're watching on YouTube thank you so much hit that like button subscribe to the channel as well we need a uh we need our new producer uh Evan I'm gonna train him up on the on this this week and we can we can put some people in timeout which I think will be sometimes you gotta put people in timeout I see you Patrick talk with the swear words big tough guy over on Facebook calm down buddy calm down all right it's week one we're just getting started here all right so let's move on to the defensive side of the ball quickly because to me if I'm looking across what's up Johnny one of our YouTube subscribers we appreciate you brother um that to me is where a lot of the concerns were coming into the season because you still have Josh Allen and I think for the most part the offense felt like even if things didn't go well at times it was you were G to find a way to get things going the defense however they struggled against stopping the Run they struggled with generating a pass rush for good chunks of this game now the pass rush ended up taking over we're going to get to Greg rouso in a minute but this is a really poor pass blocking unit for the Arizona Cardinals it's going to get harder over the C next couple weeks weaken incrementally Miami's not great but it's an upgrade over Arizona then you have Jacksonville then you have Baltimore it's gonna get tougher and tougher and tougher Houston who has a really good offensive line then it's the New York Jets there's if they're healthy that's a pretty solid line too so from a pass protection point of view I don't think the bills were necessary neily great today they had spurts of really good and just so happens that Mr Greg rouso had a superstar likee performance yeah Superstar L performance from rouso which we'll get into here in one minute but you're right in the first half uh the bills defensive line were playing on their heels they were struggling to stop James Conor in this run game uh every third down conversion for the Cardinal team seemed far too easy whether it was Kyler Murray finding wideopen players using his legs to keep plays alive a little bit before throwing down field they're just simply running uh the bills defense had no answers for it was 191 net yards of offense for the Cardinals in their first three drives which is just inexcusable yes Kyler Murray is dynamic he can hurt you with his arms and his legs not every quarterback is that type of threat there's the Murrs the Lamar Jackson obviously the Josh Allens of the world uh and the bills won't necessarily see that with Tua next week with with some of these other quarterbacks um that they play this season but it was still concerning to see and you know in the second half though whatever adjustments were made at halftime you saw a much different performance from this defensive line and this defense in general mat the bills had one sack in the first half which it you and I have talked this might get changed Greg rouso runs Kyler Murray out of bounds uh no gain on the play so they credit him with a sack but in the second half he was a force and probably helps the Cardinals lost Jonah Williams at one point in this game uh they were down one of their starting offensive lineman in that point on you know Greg rouso makes two more sacks finishes is a day with three has the force fumble on the day Von Miller gets his sack along the way defensive tackle though that was a bit concerning for me I felt like they uh were not an active unit for the most part on Sunday I feel like it was a very underwhelming performance from Ed Oliver after a monster season last year uh so the whole line as a whole there's definitely a lot of work to be done couple points there that I want to dive into number one check out this stat Ryan the bills surrendered 190 yards to the Arizona Cardinal in the first half and we were talking about it man they're just they're racking up the yards they're moving down the field and obviously they had the two touchdowns uh stopping them for the field goal maybe they don't score that first touchdown if that Jamarcus Ingram uh penalty which was very borderline doesn't get called but whatever they they end up scoring the touchdown 190 yards in the first half in the second half 80 yards of total offense for the Arizona Cardinals and if you look at their Playmakers I mean Marvin Harrison Jr three targets ends up with one catch for four yards had the drop uh I I did see we did see the uh the play where he was apparently wide open on one one one play and maybe Kyler didn't see it but Kyler runs five for 57 but generally none that really changed the course of the game only 162 yards uh and the one touchdown passing so I feel like from an overall defensive perspective the bills did a great job the other thing about Greg rouso that's important to notice to to mention those two sacks they weren't just like your average sack variety they were uh Drive stopping sacks on third down the first one forced a punt the second one was a strip sack ended up getting the bills to turn the ball over which was one of my keys of the game those changed the complete cour like the momentum of the game because to that point it didn't feel like the bills could really contain the Cardinals and from that moment on everything switched we gotta get into it in a little while we will cam Lewis Jamarcus Ingram coming in after Taran Johnson left the game I saw pops Mafia asked about that like where the bill is able to adjust after Taran Johnson and I and I feel like they really did yeah cam Lewis was flying around the field uh you know there's a lot of bills fans and not necessarily our shout insiders or shout listeners that still can't let the one play from cam Lewis go from a few seasons ago against Minnesota but this is a solid player that has the versatility to play cornerback and safety and when needed today in this matchup he came in and his nose was around the ball at all times he made play after play after play great in run defense in this matchup uh the game could have had a completely different outcome had he not played the way that he did so kudos to him being that next man up there were certainly some concerns about the defensive back room going into this game the way that they limited Marvin Harrison Jr though and and the weapons in this passing offense you know Trey McBride made some plays as well but this is another guy that looks like he was in line to have this monster type season in Arizona and the bills kept him in check so you know kudos to both of those guys both former UB players in the way that they stepped up when the bills needed them um you know I thought cam cam Lewis was the role he was going in to play I don't think you can overstate how important that is to the bills defense because Taran Johnson is a guy that they rely upon to be physical and actually it was interesting that cam Lewis revealed that he spent all week practicing as the dime safety which was going to be you know the um iteration of their defense that they they leaned into last year with Taylor w in that third safety role well rap's now a starter so the idea was to have Lewis play in the dime spot when he had to move in slot Corner that meant Jamarcus Ingram got it a big opportunity and it was also interesting to hear sha mcder that it was even a borderline decision on Friday with the whole Dewan smooth situation if Ingram was even gonna be active which if Ingram's not active like what's what's the math there because I don't know if Smoot not playing it would be the guy that I would I would then just think that they wouldn't have brought up Cameron Klein you would think you so it was a little baffling that he made that comment maybe he can get H further into I don't know if he'll ever Circle back to that yeah the math doesn't add up there uh Ingram has proven this Summer that he can be a valuable contributor to this team the way that he's played so I'm not sure where that uh the numbers game would have fallen on that but there were some questionable inactives today which we're not going to spend too much time because there's too much with this game to discuss you know Ryan vandemar in my opinion is the top swing tackle on this team probably better at left tackle than right tackle but it was a little bit of a surprise to see him inactive in the rookie tyan gyel on this roster and a few other moves as well they they did go light at linebacker nothing that ended up hurting them in this matchup but these are some of the decisions that the bills are gonna have to make on a weekly basis especially as you know unfortunately the game goes a lot of these guys get banged up yeah I thought that the the play of Von Miller was something en encouraging I thought it wasn't just that one play where he got the quote unquote sack where he just touched him when he was down it was a good pass rush but he was in the back field today he looked like this was a continuation of what we saw in Kansas City last year I thought that one of the first really good pressures of the day was on a play where Kyler Murray just ended up running up the middle and getting a big game but it was he was pushed out of the pocket by Miller who won his one-on-one pass rush I think when we look at the Pro Football Focus report and again we got to watch the game back I'm just you know taking a couple of I would not be surprised if Von Miller graded out pretty well as a pass rusher in this game the on that specific play was he has a good Rush he delivers the pressure and then there's nobody at the second level to pick up Kyler Murray and make the play and you know it kind of brings me to Dorian Williams in that spot like I don't know about you I wasn't overly impressed with his first game I felt like this was a tough matchup a lot going on it's gonna be different next week because Kyler Murray is this dual threat having to worry about him in the Run game next week you're going to go up against Tua who it's going to be about being on schedule and dealing with their speed and away those initial reads yes and and being really effective in coverage so it's almost like different ends of the pool for Dorian Williams and in the first game I don't know I came away just like so so on him and that's a a perfect assessment for his game on on Sunday you know he did have the fumble recovery on Russo's sack and the bills ended up scoring and taking the lead at that in that point of the game so a nice play there to be in the right spot at the time but overall there was a lot of ups and downs there's some Mis tackles there uh or some issues in terms of containing Kyler Murray so definitely an uneven first performance but like you said this upcoming game against Miami I don't want to use the word easier but definitely a lot different in terms of what the bills are going to expect him to do what he needs to be able to do in terms of clogging up those passing Lanes uh because Tua is someone that's very on schedule he the offensive line might not be great but he doesn't take a ton of sacks because usually it's just within a few seconds he has that ball out so if he can do a good job that being Dorian Williams of taking away some of those initial reads if their passes over the middle for instance uh that can help him bounce back in a big time way so I want to read a quote from uh sha mcdermit here uh he was asked in the postgame press conference um by me uh what went into the decision to not go for it on fourth down so two minutes to go Arizona still has three timeouts left the bills kick the field goal Tyler bass makes the field goal so one piece of that is Tyler bass having the confidence to send him out there to kick to make that field goal because if he misses it then you're still only up by three they have the three timeouts and a field goal sends it to overtime right so here's his full quote on it uh I will read it to you if I could find it here we go what are the analytics people saying out there he joked to start off with that's a tough one that's a loaded situation we'd love to put the game away but going for it if we got it wouldn't necessarily put the game away as they H held three timeouts fourth and two is going to be uh we're going for it fourth and three and it's a longer three so I debated over going for it or not but I felt like I wanted to give our defense a chance to defend a touchdown here as it turn which by the way I I'll say The Narrative of this game and the way that they flipped the script in the second half I think that there was a little bit of you can have some understanding about why he would have some faith in his defense in that spot now if that's a touchdown at the end there and then they have to turn around right that's going to be really tough but he gets to that in a second as it turned out it worked if you look at it where the last line of scrimmage was for them it was the 25 yard line and they were probably kicking a field goal and we're going to overtime more than likely or we're trying to save those timeouts their own timeouts to have a Counterattack so there's a lot that goes on that goes into that one glad it worked out and I thought hard about it so if you go for it there and you don't get it you have your own timeouts you have to defend against the touchdown both ways but either way you're keeping your own timeouts with the idea that you're going to counter with whatever 's left to try to get a field goal to win it right so the decision that Shawn mcder had to make today I think at the end of the day was the right one and you know fourth and a long three you usually feel good about Josh Allen in that situation but people need to remember that on that third and three play that was probably Josh Allen's worst pass of the game to TI Johnson down at his uh ankles he had him open he probably could have moved the chains and the game could have ended on that uh at that point or they could have drawn a lot of time off the clock so by kicking the field goal there going up six you're at least forcing them to go the length of the field to score a touchdown did it help that Tyler bass kicks the kickoff out of bounds and they start their own 40 absolutely not that wasn't part of the game plan you wanted to start them buried deep or at least a little bit deeper than the 40 but at the end of the day it worked out for Buffalo they were going to force them to have to move the length of the entire field buffalo's defense held up there were definitely some physical plays on that drive where I think a lot of people were waiting to see if a flag was going to get thrown and uh it didn't so mcder can feel pretty happy about that at the end of the day and the way that the responded defensively where he most likely felt the most confident in regards to uh forcing them to try to go for the touchdown to win let's play a guessing game Ryan talbat right now on YouTube we have I think close to seven or 800 watching live just on YouTube which is awesome thank you so much for watching we always appreciate it of all of those people how many have liked this video go 41 41 likes on the live show let's see what we got here can you hear that in the background we're VI right now dude I like it we got 75 likes but as I'm saying that the likes are shooting up they're like wait a second I didn't hit that like button yet I got to do it now thank you so much we appreciate you liking the show subscribing to the channel really cool moment for us in the stadium today before kickoff taking a picture together this is our seventh year covering this team together and I want to return the favor because a couple days ago you were on a podcast and you said how great it's been our friendship building this over the last couple of years the coverage the podcast and I wanted to S shoot it right back at you man it's it's every day never feels like work and it's cool getting a chance to work next to one of your best friends yeah 100% thank you for that and you know it's funny because if if we're going through so we call each other we text each other we bounce ideas off of one another headlines you name it and uh that's such a cool part of this but just getting to work with you on a daily basis whether I'm here whether I'm at home doesn't really matter this is doesn't feel like a job uh working with you over these last seven years so one of the things you got to do is supporting the podcast we appreciate you if you're in here and you're uh uh in the uh what is it the YouTube subscribers we have subscribers there as well thank you so much but you got to become an Insider because we've been active on there all day today uh put out a couple things from the locker room the Insiders always get it first when we go into the locker room and um to become an Insider 716 528 6727 all right Caitlyn she goes ug are you guys going to tickle pickles or what wow inappropriate inappropriate we're not we're not that's inappropriate just a little brol love watching the game after she's G about to yell at me for saying that oh 100% but it was kind of funny so I thought but we're not so don't worry about that anyway uh 716 528 6727 become a shout Insider two we free trial 399 a month after that you uh can ride with uh the shout guys and anytime that you have a question you want to talk about something bills related you can hit us up on the text line which is brought to you by Carrie C buer attorney with the law offices of Fran M lro located at 237 Main Street in Buffalo New York if you were someone you know is seriously injured give him a call 716 85212 34 or check out lola.com anyway um what do you want to go next you know let's go next to see in the comments here about Tyler bass and I know we've touched upon it I'm goingon to say a few things about Tyler bass today he converted on every field goal attempt he converted on his extra points as well I think it's to note though that he didn't come out unless it was less than 40 yards mat and he made the kicks that mattered he helped the Bills win this game uh but it's still something where special teams today including bass did not have the finest day the kick out of bounds the touchdown return which that's not just on bass um SM uh Matthew Smiley I felt coming into the season was on the hot seat and I'm not sure despite a really good return early in the game by codrington that that unit did any to make me feel better going into this next week against Miami and as the season goes on that's another unit that really needs to step up because you know Josh Yen this offense put up 34 points today and that almost was not enough I I feel like the league is gonna have a little bit of a problem on their hands because I think as the weeks go along and more of these returns uh are are huge and some go for touchdowns you're going to see teams that are just going to say you know what heck with this we're just going to kick it out of the end zone because you you start at the 30 yard line and take your chances I was talking to Reggie Gilliam after the game today and I asked him about all right what happened on that play and he said it's just different before you can kind of come down and uh diagnose a little bit see what's going on and then decide what you're going to do once you shed your block now it's almost like you got to like cloudy everything up at the point of where the Run starts because if you don't they just need any kind of open grass and it's going to be over and it's he he said he went to the sideline afterwards and the and the ma Mantra was don't sit in your chair don't wait get to your Gap fill your Gap and it he almost said too this which I thought was interesting get through your block and get to the other side and then diagnose what you have to do from there because if you don't get to that spot it's going to be quote unquote Thea yeah so this is something where this unit has to work diligently going forward or the bills just simply have to kick that ball into the end zone uh and let the defense kind of you know Step Up do their job where we saw in the second half they made the right adjustments they made the correct moves and now they're going against a very familiar team in Miami so the the fewer mistakes they can make in the Special Teams game the better and the more well this bodess for buffalo in week two all right let's get back to the offensive side of the ball and Dal concade was surprisingly quiet today two Targets in the game one catch for I think it ended up being for 11 yards um you know Sean mcder mentioned that he thought it was a better job of trying to get him involved in the second half but he also said when teams are going to try to take him away you got to go and make plays to other people and that's what the bills try to do they try to get the ball around I thought it was interesting you know the thing for me is it's not so much about when conca's out there if he doesn't end up getting the ball because you're right if he's bracketed if teams are trying to take him away you don't want to force it to any one guy the problem was like the usage like I'm very interested to see what the snap Count's going to be because there was two too many times when I looked out there where I was like why isn't DT c not on the field what is this Personnel package why are these the players that are on the field at the time yeah you know I I've been someone that have said that has said D Cade's gonna have a monst season in this offense and the opportunities were limited and I'm sure there were some times where the defense deserves credit for that in Arizona but there were far too many times where he just simply wasn't on the field and this isn't a knock on Dawson Knox but Knox was out there getting some more opportunities there were times where uh they had mvs on the field and the wide receiver running back uh just the overall personel packages were a little bit baffling at times you thought okay this player should only be limited to x amount of snaps and instead there they were mixing and matching and almost getting too cute at times and and I say that and once again they scored 34 points they were a turnover you know away from at least 37 points because the bills were already in field goal range at that point too minimally so it's hard to criticize the offense too much in that case but at times I just feel like you just need to put your best players on the field and say here's our best guys you need your best guys to try to stop us we're just going to go at it and see who ends up being better at the end of the day speaking of best guys I think it's safe to say that one of the best guys out there today was khil Shakir and it just it continues to be a story of a guy that just wants to fight for the extra stuff right like bouncing off would be tacklers racking up all of this yards after the catch it's like you know that's so important to what they're trying to do I mean that touchdown you think about it last year when some drives stalled in the red zone right like you never can take your arrival into the red zone for granted and I feel like that play is a perfect example of khil Shakir saying okay I could probably go down two yards into that route or getting hit for the first time but I'm G to bounce off that I'm gonna bounce off another one I'm gonna try to like reach my arm out to get the ball into the end zone that's just huge for what the bills are trying to accomplish when you go five or six straight drives and you score on five of them four of them being touchdowns you know you can't unell the importance of a play like that by Shakir and then the other play where he bounced off two or three and end up with a 19 yard gain that should have went for like three right so after the game Josh Allen mentioned that Shakir is really good at like dropping his hip at the right time to avoid going down to bounce off of these Defenders keep his balance because his balance is off the charts and you know the touchdown play itself was so impressive to me because he bounced off of one or two Defenders on his way and then when it looked like he was probably going to end just short of the endzone he contorts his body and kind of flips back and just does enough to get it over the goal line so he's always thinking about how to carve out a few extra yards and like you said the one that should have gone for three that went for a lot more this is starting to become routine for K Shakir and while no one had Gody Stats today in the receiving room he made huge plays when called upon which is what we expected you know it wasn't a banner day necessarily for James Cook but I do think he had some really important runs throughout this game he finishes with 70 plus on the ground 3.7 per per carry and it almost felt like with the approach that Arizona took in this game was like all right we're g to make sure that we're you know um consistent in trying to defend the Run not letting the bills get out run and it felt like in the first half the bills wanted to run the ball so I think it was almost to a degree a little bit easier for them to pre- diagnose knows things but cook ends up having just a you know a solid day but I thought it was a really nice first day for Ray Davis who ends up getting I think it was a 14 yard catch then it ended up being a 13 yard run on the next play those are two straight plays where it's a perfect microcosm of what we said Ray Davis could be for this for this offense making an impact in the pass game and in the Run game yeah so first of all you know James Cook ended up with over 100 total yards in this game 32 uh receiving in addition to the 70 plus yards that he had rushing and at one point he was averaging somewhere around 4.8 yards per clip I feel like late in the game where the Cardinals knew the bills were trying to run out the clock uh it probably helped them kind of pin their ears back on the run plays stop him for some losses overall though really nice game for for James Cook we saw him create something out of nothing multiple times in this game which maybe that'll be our next conversation the play of the offensive line which I thought left something to be desired today uh Ray Davis came in made two really good plays one as a receiver one as a runner so started to make his impact fell and you know Ty Johnson not much of an impact and he did come back to the game but at one point he was in the blue medical tent and it goes back to what you were talking about what did I say when he was in the blue a lot this summer he's always injured he's always banged up and uh that that's a tough part of it we've talked about the the Tai Johnson's the bail and specters of this team not that anything happened to Spectre today but there're just certain guys that struggle to stay healthy and sure enough week one we already see those little you know dings happening to some of these players all right um thank you so much for watching everybody we are talking about the Buffalo Bills 3428 win over the Arizon Arizona Cardinals over 2,000 watching across all platforms right now we appreciate it hit that like button wherever you are even if you're on Facebook like the like the Tweet whatever on X I guess it's called and then right here on YouTube um so the offensive line yeah across the board probably wasn't great I thought that the the penalties on the offensive line were absolutely killers and this is the kind of stuff that like you put on the head coach like you put on you know the getting your team ready to play being dialed in I'll tell you right now the next stretch of three games the they're going to be tight games these kinds of plays these kinds of penalties where you shoot yourself in the foot time and time again I don't know what the bills have to do to rectify that situation but it feels like this story line pops up every season and to have it be so prevalent right off the Jump first of all you wonder well did The Starters play enough and I know that the offensive line actually played more than some of the other starters I mean they were in for a couple of drives against the Steelers and a couple drives against the um Panthers I believe or no who was the first team the Colts no um they played against we're here for the Bears the Bears so I thought that they actually had a lot of uh reps but maybe it's you know more emphasis on it in practice because it just was a little bit too much sloppiness yeah I mean sloppiness it at least in three positions Deon Dawkins at this point should not be getting penalized uh the way that he was in this game I thought Spencer Brown had at least one penalty as well to you know the one guy that I had really high expectations for and I still have high expectations for is Osiris torren and I will go back and rewatch this game but watching him that first watch mat I thought that he left a lot to be desired on the field he had a few costly penalties I thought he had some misses along the way so was not the the best performance you saw Allen have to elude a lot of pressure at times um where he was able to to make something out of nothing create those plays he had that W play where uh he threw a pass to James Cook where it looked like he was you know dead to rights with the Blitzer coming at him at one point gets around that runs he's going toward the sideline and he gets that off for another first down so you know Allen can mask a lot of the issues with this offensive line but the Hope was that this unit was going to take another step forward this year uh despite losing Mitch Morris and and when they had to cut him and you know help Josh Yen be able to hold the ball a little bit back there without that pressure constantly in his face what do you make of the Taran Johnson injury because that's one thing that I think if we're going into this week on a short week against that team knowing the kind of weapons that they have this is going to be the storyline of the week because you know obviously after you know the update on Josh Allen whatever that ends up being uh probably takes precedent but without Taran Johnson you're looking at another week with you know cam Lewis who I thought played super well today and I and I think getting another opportunity would be interesting to see how he plays in that role but if Taran Johnson can't go on Thursday night how big of a deal is that for a buffalo defense already without Matt Milano and I feel like Matt Milano's like missing Matt Milano tonight felt you felt it you felt it so much more than you did last year I feel like they met they missed Tyrell doson tonight I think I I think part of the reason that he probably wanted to go to Seattle I think he's on their their depth chart as a starting middle linebacker he wasn't going to have that opportunity here with Terrell Bernard so maybe even the bills were interested in maybe giving him similar money to what he got I think it was around four and a half million uh per year in in Seattle he was GNA move on and and I'm not closing the door necessarily on Dorian Williams but it felt like there was a drop off at that spot in this game compared to what they got for the majority of last season it was it was very weird this summer mat to at training camp whenever Dorian Williams was brought up you know they they said a few nice things but they never over you know they weren't gushing about the guy there's still things for him to work on he's still a young guy uh he's still learning getting better and there were some issues there today for sure so you know going back to the original question if Taran Johnson can't go especially against Miami uh that would be a huge loss because this is a passing attack first I know they have a lot of speed in the back field too that they can hurt you with but the way that they can spread the ball around with those weapons in the passing game you need a guy like Taran Johnson to be back there to kind of settle that defense down at times make sure they're aligned in the right spots and also we've seen him make so many countless plays in his career that if you don't have that on the field it would really hurt Buffalo's chances on Thursday Night Football you have a lot of chances to listen to shout regular season Buffalo Bills regular season is underway start out one and0 today getting a win over the Arizona Cardinals uh it's going to be a it's gonna be a dog fight in AFC man youan Miami Dolphins down today looked like they were in big trouble against Jacksonville they pull one out New England gets the win although I will say it would be kind of funny if we're talking on Tuesday and the Jets are the lone Team without a win in week one after all the hype all offseason long um like we mentioned at the top of the show Topps is back as the official title sponsor shot of Buffalo Bills football podcast and right now with Topps you can win a trip to see the Bills play in Los Angeles I can't wait for that trip winner and three guests will get roundtrip flights from Buffalo to La Buffalo at La game it's uh fornite hotel stay in Santa Monica a party pack with a VIP pregame and more see laat display in store or enter and learn more over at topsmarkets.com the home of the best deals in town all right Ryan talbet final thought final thought you know bills Mafia insiders uh stay with us this is a short week There's a practice tomorrow we'll have a live podcast before that Thursday night game and then we'll have you covered with tons of coverage on this pivotal week two match between the bills and the dolphins all right I'm Mato he's Ryan tabot we'll see you very soon might be back as early as tomorrow if not one big show on Tuesday enjoy the rest of your weekend get the the new week started off great on Monday we'll see you soon take care everybody