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00:00To the West Her Hotline, excited to have Mike Florio now.
00:14Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk, joining us now.
00:16It's Jeremy and Joe.
00:17Jeremy is off today, and Mike, appreciate you again taking some time out for us.
00:23Well, hey, it's great to be with you, and I'm glad that I can provide you a little balance.
00:27I know what it's like to have to carry the whole load.
00:31It can be tedious after a while.
00:34It's nice to get a little chance to take a sip of water or something stronger than that.
00:39It's nice to have a chance to cough, blow your nose, whatever the case may be.
00:43So I'm here for you.
00:45Perfect time to sip a coffee, ready to go.
00:47It's also a lot easier when it's football season versus July or June when we're talking OTAs
00:54and we have to dive in on those sorts of things.
00:56It's a lot easier when we've had games to actually talk about.
00:59So there is that.
01:01And you had a great game last Thursday night.
01:03Folks in Buffalo, this is one of those seasons where between opening the new stadium and having
01:07a team that is still pretty damn good and coming out of the gates 2-0 and just rolling
01:11over the Lions.
01:12I know the final score was only 10 points, and it felt like it was going to be one of
01:17those 53-10 nights early on, but it was just a great way to open the stadium.
01:21It was fun to watch.
01:22I can only imagine what it would have been like to be there.
01:24Oh, it was the noise in that place and, I mean, the wristband lights, the fireworks.
01:30Like, there was every little thing that they did was just a home run.
01:33And, yeah, it was a game, too.
01:35I think it was perfect, Mike, in that it wasn't like a doormat opponent.
01:38Like, the Lions are, you know, I know they've got their injuries right now, but they're a
01:43contender.
01:43And I don't, it just never, from a Bills standpoint, it never really felt stressful.
01:49Like, even when the Lions would pull to, like, within 10, Allen was looking so good that I
01:54don't, I never had any anxiety about them kind of losing that game.
01:59It actually reminded me of a playoff game years ago when the Chiefs were playing the Colts
02:04in Peyton Manning's heyday.
02:07And I believe at some point after the Chiefs scored, they just did an onside kick because
02:11they knew they weren't going to stop Peyton Manning anyway.
02:14Like, even as the Lions were finally waking up, driving the ball, scoring touchdowns, it
02:20didn't matter because at some point Josh Allen and company are getting the ball back and
02:25they'll respond and the Lions can't stop them.
02:28That's the biggest problem with this year's Lions on offense.
02:31They have superstars wall to wall.
02:33On defense, they do have Aiden Hutchinson and they've got players who are good enough
02:36to play at a high level in the NFL.
02:38But there is a clear weakness there in the back end and the Bills took advantage of it.
02:43And it wasn't quite Harlem Globetrotters against Washington Generals, but it kind of felt
02:48that way.
02:48It felt inevitable.
02:49It felt like the celebration was not going to be ruined by the Detroit Lions.
02:56There was never, there was maybe one point where I thought, man, are they going to, are
02:59they actually going to blow this?
03:00But it was like fleeting.
03:02There was never a serious thought that the Bills were going to lose that game.
03:05Right.
03:06Do you feel like the Bills have over the last four or five years, they've gotten off to
03:11a lot of hot starts, like almost every single year.
03:13And Allen obviously has been doing that too, the first couple of weeks, like September
03:19numbers are through the roof.
03:20Does this year feel any different for you that fans should treat this as, okay, I know
03:26they, you know, last year they were 4-0, other years they've been 3-0, that through two games,
03:31the way the offense looks, that this should feel different to Bills fans?
03:37I think the one thing that feels different is the fact that the scheduling gods sent them
03:41to Houston to start the season and they put up 36 points and Josh Allen finally got a win
03:47over the Texans in Houston.
03:49He had been 0-4.
03:50I think that's what makes it feel different.
03:52It feels validated right out of the gates.
03:55It was a test that kind of felt like a playoff game, kind of.
03:59And that's important because we know that's when the pressure is going to go from 1 to
04:05100, when the calendar flips from December to January and it's single elimination time.
04:11We know that's what this season's all about.
04:13And you've still got to win enough games to put yourself in the best possible position
04:18come January.
04:19And you would prefer to not have to go back to Denver.
04:23You'd prefer the road to the Super Bowl to go through that awesome new stadium where
04:28it's so loud that I don't know that you can interview coaches during the game.
04:34They tried to interview Joe Brady after halftime.
04:36I could not hear the questions or the answers.
04:40That's how loud it is.
04:41That's what you'll want when it's playoff time.
04:44You want the home games.
04:45You want the opposing teams to have to deal with that environment in January with that noise.
04:52Good luck beating the Bills under those circumstances.
04:55So all these wins now are money in the bank toward that final playoff tree where the Bills
05:02need to be number one and hope that maybe the Chiefs don't come to town.
05:08That's what you need.
05:09Yeah.
05:10Kansas City 2-0 also.
05:12I think, you know, we don't need to get tiebreakers.
05:14Only two games of the season.
05:16Mike Floria with us, creator, editor-in-chief of Pro Football Talk.
05:19Going around the league a little bit, but, you know, still relating to the Bills because
05:22that's this week's opponent.
05:24The Chargers, Mike, we talked a little bit about them with you last week.
05:28They played the same game.
05:31I mean, it was the same score against another team that they were heavily favored against.
05:36I don't know really what is going wrong there that has had them have these two results,
05:42but their schedule coming up is very difficult.
05:45And this week against the Bills, we're already hearing a lot of, you might not want to play
05:50them at this time because they might be desperate already feeling like their season is on the
05:54line coming to Buffalo on Sunday.
05:57Yeah, one of the realities as you lose early season games, 0-1, all right, we got to get
06:04the win.
06:050-2, collars are getting a little tight.
06:08Other areas of the body are getting a little tight.
06:10We got to get a win.
06:12And we always see a correction Sunday where the early season trends that we begin to develop
06:19and embrace as narratives, as people who are creating content all the time, we like
06:24to have our narratives and they give us comfort.
06:26We know, okay, this team's going to win, this team's going to lose, but we know any given
06:31Sunday applies in the NFL and the Bills cannot afford to have a letdown.
06:34They can't put a whole lot of stock in what happened to the Chargers week one.
06:39Week 2 against two of the worst teams.
06:41There was a stat yesterday.
06:42This is the first time that a team has lost both games at home to opponents who were below
06:51200 winning percentage.
06:52Crazy.
06:53The prior year since the Racine Tornadoes of 1926, who played one more game and folded
06:58after they lost those two straight home games against teams that had been so bad the year
07:02before.
07:03But that can make the Chargers dangerous.
07:05We get to the point where they take on an us against the world mentality.
07:11They want to prove.
07:13They dig deep.
07:14They're spending all the extra time.
07:15And the things that manifest themselves on Sunday, they happen Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
07:19Friday, putting in all the time to study the film, making sure you get your sleep right,
07:25you're working out, you're getting hydrated, you're doing everything you can when no one's
07:31watching.
07:31I think football games are won as much when no one's watching as they're won when everyone's
07:36watching because that's when you build the house that you eventually roll out onto the
07:40field and you're either ready or you're not.
07:43Now, it may just be that there are some deeper problems with the Chargers that they're not
07:46going to resolve in one week and the Bills have a few extra days which help them.
07:49But this one's dangerous because all these teams are in the NFL.
07:53They're not dipping into a CFL schedule for this week.
07:57And the Chargers are capable, if they could figure it out, they're capable of stunning
08:02the Bills.
08:02And the worst thing the Bills can do is just look at this and say, oh, this is essentially
08:05a bye week for us.
08:07All we have to do is show up and win.
08:09We see that happen.
08:10That's how a good team can lose to a bad team.
08:14On Herbert, by the way, there were years there where Joe Flacco elite was a meme at
08:21one point, was a quarterback debate, Kirk Cousins at times.
08:25We've always had our quarterback debates where half people are on one side and half are on
08:31the other.
08:32Do you feel like Herbert is now going to be the most hotly debated quarterback in football
08:37because, I don't know, there definitely are pretty throws.
08:41There are stats there.
08:43The record isn't bad, but there's no playoff wins.
08:45And I feel like every time the Chargers have a couple-a-week slide like we're seeing right
08:51now, everybody just breaks out and starts fighting about Justin Herbert.
08:57There's a disconnect between what fans think of Justin Herbert and what people in the football
09:02ecosystem think of him because they see what he can do when it's all operating at a high
09:09level.
09:10But it doesn't operate at a high level often enough to get the fans on board with it.
09:16We've seen some spectacular games from him.
09:18Remember, there was a final game of the regular season.
09:21It was Chargers against Raiders, and I think he converted 37 fourth down in that game.
09:28I may be exaggerating a little bit, but it felt like that.
09:30It felt like every drive, every time they moved the sticks, it got the fourth down, and
09:37he converted it.
09:38And so we've seen flashes of a guy who can be great.
09:41It does not help him that his head coach, Jim Harbaugh, has been on this kick where he
09:46says, and he told Michael Irvin on his podcast before the season, that when it's all said
09:51and done, Justin Herbert will be regarded as the greatest quarterback of all time, which
09:55is just ridiculous, and it doesn't do Herbert any favors.
09:57And it looks even more ridiculous after the first two weeks because the greatest quarterback
10:01of all time, I'd like to think, would have found a way to outscore the Cardinals and the
10:05Raiders in back-to-back weeks at home.
10:07I'd like to think that would have happened.
10:09So yes, Herbert is going to become this polarizing figure, this lightning rod where people in
10:15football think he's great, but those of us who see him play and see the team play are
10:21wondering what's missing because a great quarterback also elevates those around him.
10:26And the argument, well, Herbert's great, but everyone else around him isn't good enough.
10:32At some point, it's on the quarterback to inspire the guys around him to do enough to help him
10:41lead the team to a victory.
10:42Mike Flory, lastly for you, Mike, the Bills look like the hottest team in football.
10:47Power rankings today, I know a lot of those, they'll come out number one, I would think
10:51at least number one or number two on most.
10:54Who else?
10:55Who's the next team that we should be thinking about here in the AFC that's looked the best
11:01through two weeks?
11:01Does it have to be Kansas City or could it be someone else?
11:05I'm glad you say that.
11:06Tuesday mornings after we finish PFT Live, after I finish my visit with the fine folks
11:12at WGR, I finalize.
11:15They get locked in and they're very important.
11:16They are the product of a very carefully constructed algorithm where many factors are put into the
11:24AI machinery that ultimately spits out the power rankings, which is a gross exaggeration.
11:29I have the Seahawks still at number one because they're the defending champions.
11:33And I have this thing where if you're the Super Bowl champion, you're the king of the
11:36hill until somebody beats you the next year.
11:38And I was impressed with what they did to the Cardinals without their starting quarterback.
11:41I got the Bills at number two.
11:43I got the Bengals up to number three.
11:46The Bengals are impressive because, hey, they went to Houston and they were even more impressive
11:51against the Texans than the Bills were, especially as it relates to shutting down the offense.
11:5755 passes were thrown by C.J. Stroud and they scored six total points.
12:01So the Bengals, I think, are for real.
12:03And I joked earlier about not wanting the Chiefs to come to town.
12:07We all remember what happened when the Bengals came to town on a snowy day in the divisional
12:10round a few years ago.
12:11I don't think you want the Bengals coming to the new stadium either with Joe Burrow because
12:15Joe Burrow accesses a higher level of performance when the playoffs roll around.
12:19So I got the Bengals at three, then the Chiefs.
12:22And then I dropped the Broncos down a few spots or I'm not, I didn't drop them down a few
12:27spots.
12:27They have dropped a few spots.
12:28They're up a few spots after beating the Jaguars.
12:31So I still think it's, it's Bengals, Chiefs and Broncos as the other high end contenders
12:36in the AFC that the Bills are going to have to contend with at some point.
12:39And I guess the, the best news so far for the Bills after two weeks, there's something
12:43wrong with the Patriots offense.
12:45There is something wrong.
12:46And even though they beat the Steelers, that offense does not look good.
12:49And I'm sure the Bills are very much looking forward.
12:52It's another reason to not sleep on the Chargers because the Patriots are coming to town the
12:56following weekend.
12:57Yep.
12:58Bills at home against New England next week.
13:00That's the next two matchups.
13:01Mike Florio with us, Pro Football Talk.
13:03Check, look out for those power rankings.
13:05Got a nice preview there as well.
13:06Thanks, Mike.
13:07And we'll chat next week.
13:09All right.
13:09Have a great week.
13:11Pro Football Talk.
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