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00:00Did you know that the Buffalo Bills have scored more points than any other team in the National Football League?
00:06I guess I did know that.
00:08They have scored 77 points.
00:12Next closest, Carolina Panthers at 71.
00:16I bet you wouldn't have guessed that.
00:17No.
00:18Because you would have been like, well, let's see, Chicago had 59.
00:22And then the Kansas City Chiefs are in third at 64 points.
00:26Hmm.
00:29But only two teams have given up more points than the Buffalo Bills.
00:33The Indianapolis Colts and the Detroit Lions.
00:37Ooh.
00:40Hmm.
00:40I'm playing a little hurt today.
00:42That's all right.
00:43We've got help today, don't we?
00:46Thankfully.
00:46We have Sal Capaccio joining us.
00:48By the way, this is WGR Middays, driven by Northtown Auto with Brad Tim and Owen.
00:52No Brad again today.
00:53It's Tim and Owen here for the first couple hours.
00:55And we are so driven by Northtown Auto that Sal Capaccio is down in the service bays right now.
01:03He's got his overalls on.
01:05He's got the patch that says Salvatore on it.
01:07He's all greased up.
01:08He's underneath there.
01:09He's checking oil today.
01:10Live from Northtown Volkswagen from 10 to 12.
01:143,800 Sheridan Drive in Amherst.
01:17Sal, what do you make of the Bills being the highest scoring team in the NFL, but also No. 3
01:22in points allowed?
01:23No, I guess I should say we have to phrase that properly because you'd be like, oh, they've given up
01:28the third fewest point?
01:29No, no.
01:30They've given up the third most points in the NFL.
01:33How do you balance it?
01:34How can you balance that like a set of tires?
01:37Well, first of all, I will tell you, I can come to a car dealership, an auto shop, and this
01:44is what I do.
01:44I will talk on a microphone because I always joke when I was younger, I couldn't do it now because
01:50we get older and we lose track of things.
01:53But there was a time where I could name like literally 25 straight Heisman Trophy winners, Stanley Cup champion, Super
01:58Bowl winners, and I always say, but you know what I know about a car?
02:00Where to stick a key?
02:01But that's okay.
02:02I can tell you how great the cars look here and you come down to Northtown Auto here on Sheridan
02:07Drive.
02:07We are at Northtown VW today, by the way.
02:11Okay, so stat of the day for you, Tim Graham, all right, on the heels of what you're talking about.
02:17The Buffalo Bills of 2026 are only the fifth team since the merger to score at least 77 points and
02:27give up at least 62 over their first two games.
02:31The first team to ever do that since the merger was the 1991 Buffalo Bills.
02:35They scored 87 and gave up 65.
02:39No team has won a Super Bowl who's done it.
02:42The Bills of 91 are the only team to actually go to a Super Bowl.
02:45The other teams that did it, the 99 Washington then Redskins, the 2000 St. Louis Rams, and the 2018 Kansas
02:55City Chiefs.
02:56The Bills are one of five teams to score 77 and give up 62 in their first two games in
03:02the Super Bowl era.
03:03And two of those teams aren't even called what those were anymore.
03:05It's the St. Louis Rams and now the Washington Commanders.
03:09So, hey, I got a stat for you, and I know that it was spoken about earlier, but I want
03:14to get into it.
03:15Speaking of names that you don't hear anymore, the L.A. Chargers, the Bills' upcoming opponent,
03:22only the second team in NFL history to lose back-to-back home games by double digits to teams with
03:28sub-200 winning percentages from the year before.
03:32Going back to the 1926 Racine Tornadoes, who all their season, they played, I think, four games, lost by a
03:40composite score of 92-8.
03:42They played one more game after this so-called back-to-back, and then they just folded.
03:47They're back-to-backs.
03:48Of course, Sal, they lost 13-2 to the Milwaukee Badgers.
03:52Oh, my gosh.
03:53And then followed that up by getting blanked 21-0 by the, Owen, you did your homework last night.
03:59There was a team that was set on the show, the Duluth Eskimos.
04:03Oh, no.
04:04With Ernie Nevers, the last player to score nine touchdowns in five days until Josh Allen did it.
04:08I don't have a good pun for this one this time, Tim.
04:10I'm sorry.
04:11I would have guessed the Canton Bulldogs, but, you know, just because that would have been a team I would
04:15have known from back then.
04:16Right.
04:16The Duluth Eskimos.
04:17Now, I just want to, again, I'm going to go on a little thing here, because this is how long
04:20it's been for the Chargers to have done this thing and Josh Allen to have done this thing.
04:25The Duluth Eskimos, with Ernie Nevers, who scored the nine touchdowns in five days.
04:29Of course, he did that for the Chicago Cardinals, another thing that doesn't exist.
04:33But the Duluth Eskimos had guys on their team.
04:35They had two Docs, Doc Williams and Doc Kelly.
04:40Red Quam.
04:42Oak Carlson, O-K-E.
04:44Wow.
04:45Cobb Rooney, that's Cobb with two B's.
04:48Hugh, H-E-W Sullivan, not even H-U-G-H.
04:52Dewey Scanlon, of course, and Porky Runquist.
04:56Jock Murray.
04:57When was the last time you heard of a Jock?
04:59Not like Jock O'Connor, but Jock Murray.
05:01And then, of course, Hall of Famer Johnny Blood was on that team.
05:05Wow.
05:05Johnny Blood and Ernie Nevers in the same backfield.
05:08Anywho, I mean, that's how old that is.
05:10You can say 1926, and okay, you can do the math.
05:13Yeah, that's old.
05:14A hundred years, based on my math.
05:17That's incredible.
05:18And Jacques isn't the French Jacques, like Jacques Lemaire, you know what I mean?
05:22It's not.
05:23It's J-O-C-K.
05:24It's Jacques.
05:25He was a good athlete growing up.
05:26They called him Jacques.
05:27Wow.
05:29Okay, that is amazing.
05:30The Chargers are a story today.
05:32I think when you wake up today and you go to all your NFL analysis, week number two and
05:38everything, the Chargers are certainly a story today, I think, on all the talking head programs.
05:43Because, A, some of the numbers like you're talking about, Tim, and the fact that these
05:49kinds of stats are existing.
05:51But, B, here is a team that a lot of people over the last several years have said, okay,
05:55watch out for that team.
05:56Watch out for that team.
05:57Watch out for that quarterback.
05:58They're very good.
05:58Look at this talent.
05:59Jim Harbaugh comes to town.
06:00Oh, my God.
06:00They got the best offensive coordinator on the market, Mike McDaniel.
06:03And here they are after two weeks.
06:04And they just look like a very below-average football team.
06:09They can't get out of their own way.
06:11And now you look at their schedule coming up.
06:14I'm not kidding.
06:14They might not be favored in their next nine games.
06:16They're the Racine Tornadoes.
06:20They could be.
06:21I don't think they'll go 0-9.
06:23But they are going to be probably underdogs in their next seven games, which would be 0-2
06:29and then seven games straight.
06:30They are going to be fighting for their season, though, coming to Buffalo on Sunday.
06:35That is always dangerous.
06:36I mean, they're fighting for their season.
06:38The Bills are riding high at 2-0.
06:40And, of course, every game is important.
06:42But, man, this is a really, really big game for the L.A. Chargers.
06:47But they have circumstantial things going against them.
06:50They have to travel from west to east to play a 1 o'clock game.
06:56They have the Bills coming off 10 days rest.
06:58Now Derwin James, I read today, is going to be wearing a cast on his pinky, on his hand.
07:05They got Ladd McConkie wearing a flak jacket during a game that, you know, he's banged up.
07:10And then you have the Bills.
07:11And I want to go back to that stat a little while ago, Tim.
07:12You asked me how I wash those two things, the points scored and the points against.
07:17Well, you have to clean it up on defense.
07:19There's no doubt.
07:20I mean, you can't sustain that throughout the year and expect to win a Super Bowl.
07:23I don't believe that.
07:24I will say, though, versus the 91 Bills and the other teams that I mentioned in that grouping, the game
07:32has changed.
07:33This is the way you win more in the NFL now than just playing really good defense and buckling down.
07:39If you can just outscore your opponent, you have a chance to win a Super Bowl.
07:43It's just as simple as that.
07:43Sure, you've got to play some defense along the way.
07:45I get it.
07:46I'm not discounting that.
07:47But the game has changed.
07:48And I would much rather be a team that has scored 77 and allowed 62 than I would be the
07:55first team to ever only allow 8 but only score 25 and still be 2-0, if that makes sense.
08:00No, it does make sense.
08:01And I think there's also, although I'm sure, especially based on his words on Friday, Jim Leonard,
08:08I don't think it matters if it's garbage time or first quarter, how much you're up by.
08:14I mean, he wants to throttle the other side.
08:16He wants to win every rep.
08:19And you are playing situational football, particularly against the Detroit Lions.
08:23The Bills were up 21-0 early.
08:26This is pretty much what Sean McDermott would refer to, and people would roll their eyes and maybe not totally
08:33understand, complimentary football.
08:35You play for the situation.
08:37And so, yes, there was some breathing room.
08:39And it got a little tight towards the end of the game where you're thinking, well, geez, I guess maybe
08:44even by the second quarter, you're like, could this be a game?
08:47I don't know.
08:49But the Bills were always clearly two steps ahead of the Detroit Lions.
08:53So I do get that Jim Leonard leaves this game thinking we should have been a lot better.
09:00But they were playing comfortably ahead.
09:02Go ahead and do the bend but don't break.
09:05Give them the underneath.
09:07Let's let the clock run.
09:10And, yes, big plays here or there.
09:12But the Bills won the game.
09:13And so that's where I agree with you, Sal, is that the points being given up, it's not just the
09:19raw number.
09:20It's how they were given up.
09:21Given up late and different than week one.
09:27But I think especially against the Detroit Lions, a lot of it just didn't feel like the Bills were threatened
09:32very much.
09:33Yeah, I think game script matters here.
09:35Score effect matters.
09:37There's no doubt about it.
09:38It's 21-0 in the blink of an eye.
09:40The Bills score four touchdowns in their first four possessions.
09:42And you're right.
09:43At that point, they didn't have to abandon the run because they did make it a 10-point game early
09:48in the second half.
09:49They didn't have to abandon the run for sure.
09:51But they're still playing from behind and they know they have to keep up with Josh Allen.
09:54That's a big part of this, guys, which is this is by design for the Bills, too.
10:00We've said it going back months.
10:02I've called it high-event football.
10:03I've been saying that even before the season started.
10:04It certainly is high-event football.
10:06But I think there were a lot of context clues that told us that although maybe Sean McDermott wasn't telling
10:14Joe Brady what plays to call,
10:16I think you could understand when Joe Brady would talk that there was a sense of,
10:19look, when we're playing the higher offenses, the better offenses, there was always a philosophy from Sean McDermott of don't
10:25lose the game before you can win it.
10:26Don't give them extra opportunities.
10:28Let's make sure that we're kind of doing everything we need to do to give us a chance to win.
10:33I kind of don't think Joe Brady cares about that, to be honest with you.
10:35He says, I have Josh Allen.
10:36You know what?
10:37Jim Leonard, go do your thing.
10:39And if you give up points, then I'll take my quarterback and go outscore you.
10:43You don't want that to happen.
10:44They want to be aggressive.
10:45Go get the ball back.
10:46Go get it for Josh Allen.
10:47But be aggressive, be risk-reward, and if that risk results in something on the back end happening against us,
10:53I'm not going to care about it because I'm going to have Josh Allen not care in a sense of,
10:57hey, I'm still confident I can win this game.
10:59That's how I think this team is going to approach pretty much the entire season.
11:02Yeah, I'm curious as the season progresses, Sal, like how much does that,
11:08how much does the style and the philosophy of Jim Leonard shift?
11:12Does he need some time here early to almost figure out who can do what,
11:18who is going to be effective at being those sort of chess pieces on the board for me?
11:23And I'm optimistic about Leonard's ability to identify that stuff, teach what he needs to be taught,
11:32and improve this defense as they go because he's, you know, Tim wrote a wonderful story about how highly so
11:39many people around the NFL think of Jim Leonard.
11:42And that, to me, is giving me so much optimism about this defense's ability to sort of morph and adapt
11:51and get to a place that, like, are they going to look like a Brian Flores, like, 80% blitz
11:57team by the end of the year
11:58when Leonard has a handle on who can do the jobs that he wants them to do?
12:03Or is it, where does it take him?
12:05And I like to think, I like to hope at least, that my coaches are adaptable and recognize what players
12:12are effective at
12:13and build a system around that rather than trying to jam a sort of a square peg into a round
12:20hole
12:20and find a way to make it work.
12:24So, I think the conventional wisdom going into the season was, boy, they have a pretty good secondary.
12:31What's the front seven going to be?
12:32Can they kind of hold up, stop the run better than they have been?
12:37Where's the pass rush coming from?
12:38It's been basically a flip.
12:39I know for me it has been, guys.
12:40Like, the front seven has been very good.
12:42And I think they're doing really a lot of really nice things up front that Jim Leonard and his coaching
12:48staff
12:48has helped them and put them in position.
12:51The issues have been on the back end.
12:52The issues have been guys running free, man-to-man defense.
12:56It's not Christian Benford's strength, but he's had to go against Nico Collins and Amon Ross St. Brown in the
13:00first two weeks.
13:01I mean, that's tough.
13:02I think the time on task, because of the injuries, has hurt in that regard.
13:07Now, as much as I say, Joe Brady might be like, hey, I don't care, I have Josh Allen.
13:12Come on, you bet your butt Jim Leonard cares.
13:14I mean, this is his career.
13:15It's his life.
13:15He doesn't want to go out there and give 31 points up in two straight games.
13:18So, yeah, he's going to do whatever he can to try and fix it.
13:21But I do think there's a difference between not only the 3-4-4-3 thing we talk about all
13:25the time with Leonard and McDermott.
13:26Sean McDermott's defense was 111th.
13:28Do your 111th.
13:29Everything is a product of what we're doing systematic-wise.
13:33Jim Leonard has made no bones about it that his defense is about players.
13:37Like, yes, you've got to be a part of a team, but I'm going to put players in position.
13:41I had a really good conversation with Michael Hoyt about this a couple of weeks ago, where I said,
13:46what is the difference between, like, how do you balance the aggressiveness with still kind of not, you know,
13:52being too risky and doing something that you shouldn't do?
13:54And he basically said, well, some guys have a longer leash.
13:57I just think that's fascinating to hear compared to what we've kind of heard under the last coach.
14:02Yeah, that is really interesting philosophically to remove that sort of blanket, we are all in this together.
14:10Not that they're not now, but in the, you pull your weight and it's all the same.
14:15We all pull the same amount.
14:17That transition to, well, maybe there are guys that need to be doing a little more than others.
14:23Realistically, when we talk about all this, that sounds great to have a team that everybody does the same amount
14:28of stuff,
14:29everybody does the same work, and it all matters the same.
14:31We all, sitting here talking about the sports, all of it, we know that that is not true.
14:37We know that Christian Benford has to be a more important, critical piece of the defense than IGB does right
14:44now.
14:44Because Christian Benford is a veteran who's paid a bunch of money and he travels with No. 1 receivers.
14:50And IGB does not do that.
14:52And inherently, there is more value in what Benford is doing for the defense than what IGB is right now.
14:59Or the same goes for up front, where Gregory Rousseau is playing a bigger role in that defense than Landon
15:05Jackson is on the defensive line.
15:07And those things should, I think, these players are all adults.
15:12They're big boys.
15:13They can handle, like, listen, my role might not be the same as this guy, and it might not matter
15:19as much.
15:19But that doesn't mean that it doesn't, and that I don't have a responsibility to do it at the best
15:24of my ability.
15:24And if you have that conversation honestly, I wonder if that doesn't get through better to players.
15:30Because if I'm sitting there trying to say to a guy that plays five snaps a game, you matter just
15:36as much as our quarterback who controls everything.
15:40That guy knows that's not true.
15:42He has to.
15:43It's the reality of the sport.
15:45There's also that, and you referenced the story I did on Jim Leonard, in which I interviewed a bunch of
15:51different people about his time, not only as a player, but as an assistant and then a coordinator at Wisconsin
15:57and all those others, and the different people that he's learned from.
16:01And one of the key lessons that he took away from playing for Rex Ryan, when Rex was the defensive
16:08coordinator in Baltimore, with all those elite players, and how Jim Leonard became a crucial player while surrounded by Ed
16:16Reed and Ray Lewis and Haloti Nada and Terrell Suggs and all these great players, was the amount of thinking
16:28that they would give to Jim Leonard.
16:29They had what's called thinking buddies, and the concept is give the most amount of thinking to the fewest number
16:37of people.
16:38And what that does, it allows everybody else to go just play.
16:42And it's a crucial aspect of a Rex Ryan or a Mike Pettin or any of these defenses.
16:48Jim O'Neill, who was also interviewed.
16:51And I'm sure what Jim Leonard is implementing on this Bills defense is guys who are going to think for
17:00everybody else, and you just go out there and rip.
17:04And maybe that's not happening yet.
17:06Maybe there's just too much computing, processing before the snap, and they're still learning how to think for other people,
17:14not just themselves.
17:15I love that you brought up the Rex Ryan point, because I remember a couple things after Sean had taken
17:22over for Rex.
17:24And one thing that really stood out to me between Sean and Rex, and this is not, this is a,
17:29to me, a positive for Sean McDermott versus Rex in this regard, which is Sean really believed in his philosophy
17:36was you coach the whole roster.
17:37Everybody has to be ready to play all the time and do their job, where Rex certainly took the approach
17:42of your star players are your star players, and those guys need to show up.
17:45And I always, I felt like going from Rex to Sean and seeing the difference was, okay, like it makes
17:51more sense now.
17:52Everybody's got to be involved here.
17:54I think the difference was Rex just was also a pretty unorganized coach, as we all kind of know, right?
17:58And even though he had that philosophy, it just seemed like things were just a little bit discombobulated when they
18:03need to be a little bit more buttoned up.
18:04I think Rex got to a point by the time he was at Buffalo that he was so successful and
18:10had been that he thought it could run itself, and he was wrong.
18:14Yes, that's right.
18:15I remember a quote, though.
18:16This is funny, because it's exactly what, I don't know what we were doing.
18:20We were just hanging around one day and in the field house or something, and Rex made a comment that
18:25always kind of stuck with me.
18:26I'm like, okay, well, it's a funny comment, but it is insight into how he thinks.
18:31It was, he said, he was talking about being on time for something.
18:34And he goes, the bus will wait for no one.
18:36And then he stopped and he goes, unless you're really freaking good.
18:39That's what he said.
18:40And I'm like, okay, that's insight into Rex Ryan.
18:43Yeah.
18:43Yeah, it's, you know, be who you can afford to be, to a point, right?
18:47Like, there are some guys that will allow that to slide because of who the guy that's doing it is.
18:54And that's always, to me, a fascinating and, you know, interesting factor in all of these conversations about what's going
19:02on, whether it's on the field or off the field and how sort of consequences are doled out.
19:07That's always been fascinating.
19:09Well, listen, I mean, I've read a couple of Bobby Knight books and one of them, he said, you know,
19:13he talked about his philosophy that his players, something happened to one player and he kind of adjudicated punishment a
19:20little bit different.
19:20And he said, well, look it, I had to tell my players because this is true.
19:23He said, I will treat all of you fairly.
19:26I certainly won't treat you the same.
19:28Yes.
19:29Yeah.
19:29Well, John Wooden used to do it the opposite and he would find a petty reason to bench Lou Alcindor
19:36or Bill Walton for a meaningless game against, you know, Portland State early in the season.
19:45He would invent some, well, hey, you were, you missed curfew last night.
19:48No, I didn't.
19:49In fact, I was asleep a half hour, but no, you missed curfew last night.
19:53And so everybody would see Lou Alcindor sitting on the bench for a game and they'd be like, well, I'm
19:58not going to screw up.
19:59And so, yeah, that was, that was, that was a little bit of Belichick with Brady, wasn't it?
20:03That was, it was, yes.
20:04Belichick would get into Brady in meeting rooms to sort of set the tone for the room of nobody's escaping
20:11this.
20:11We are all in this.
20:12It's similar to the McDermott 111th.
20:15That was a, that was a patriotism all the way through.
20:17Right.
20:18That's right.
20:18And so that, that I think is, is always interesting to see the, the different approaches to that.
20:23To bring this back around though, to, to the Bill's defense.
20:25I do think, I mean, we're seeing something here that is true to the point here, which is, I mean,
20:30Greg Rousseau has kind of been a little bit unlocked.
20:32Now he, he, he's got guys, DM Walker is really helping that.
20:36There's no doubt about it.
20:37But I do think that like what we heard from Jim Leonard is we're going to highlight certain players who
20:41do certain things.
20:42Well, Greg Rousseau has always been a really good three down player, good against the run.
20:47He can offer you some pass rush.
20:48They paid him 20 million.
20:50That is not elite, elite pass rush money.
20:52That's very good money for a defensive end in the NFL.
20:55Well, but in this defense, I think he is being highlighted to do the things that Brandon Bean envisioned him
21:05to do when they drafted him.
21:07But in Sean McDermott's system, it's, yeah, he's really good.
21:09He's going to fit in exactly where we need him.
21:11In this defense, it's, hey, we want you to go use your length and come off the edge and scream
21:17off the edge.
21:17And I just think that it is a bit of a different change in how you approach these individuals and
21:22not just the 111th.
21:24Yeah, let's hit a break here, Sal.
21:25I know that you have, what do you do there during the break?
21:28Do you go schmooze?
21:29Do you walk around?
21:31Are you walking around like backpack and a single mic or are you set up at a station?
21:35What are we doing there?
21:35I got this, I got this mic.
21:37Look it, this is literally from home, the home office.
21:39You can see it on the stream here.
21:40I literally brought my mic in.
21:42I attached it to the table right here.
21:44We have Paula's Donuts behind me.
21:47They have what I was told is the cheesy chick food truck coming by later.
21:51I'll be walking around saying hi to people.
21:54I'll tell you this, here at Northtown VW, people are in their Victory Monday gear here for the Buffalo Bills.
22:00You know about Fridays, people wear all their Bills gear.
22:02They definitely got it on here today.
22:03So come on in and they have model year-end Volkswagen incentives, Atlas up to $5,000 in rebates.
22:09All right?
22:09Come on by, check it out.
22:10And I'm going to be walking around and saying hi to people, schmoozing as you say, and checking out some
22:14of these vehicles.
22:15How mobile are you while you're on the air?
22:17Can you get up and walk around?
22:19I mean, maybe we can just start walking up to people and just seeing what they're up to.
22:24You know, like, hey, what is it?
22:25I could.
22:25I have a mobile mic with me to do that, yes.
22:28Right.
22:28What do you do here?
22:29Can you tell us what you do here at Northtown Volkswagen?
22:32And what do you think of the Bills?
22:35You know, what's your number one?
22:36Man on the street kind of thing.
22:37Yeah, give us your top three concerns and your top three, you know, tell us why you think Dalton Kincaid's
22:43been unlocked.
22:44All that stuff.
22:45Let's get some real analysis.
22:48We could do that.
22:48We could try that.
22:49That'd be fun.
22:50All right, and hey, Letterman used to be able to pull it off.
22:53Why can't we?
22:54Right.
22:55We're just as good as him.
22:56And now portions of Buffalo Football Monday, by the way, are brought to you by Tim Hortons,
23:00the official coffee of the Jeremy and Joe Morning Show on WGR.
23:04Start your day strong with Tim Hortons and the Bills.
23:07So I just wanted to fit that in there while we were still talking.
23:11And you do the, like, the Truman Show.
23:14Oh, yes.
23:15And then, yeah, just the.
23:16Logo facing the camera and all.
23:18All right.
23:19Hey, I got mine, too.
23:20There you go.
23:21There we go.
23:21We have so much to get to today.
23:23Thankfully, I have some radio people here helping out the print guy to get all these ads read.
23:28All right.
23:29When we come back, we'll have more Sal Capaccio and more of you at 803-0550.
23:33We'll get connected with the fans and talk some Bills.
23:37The Sabres have a game tonight.
23:39We haven't even broached that yet.
23:41We'll talk about the roster that there's.
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