The BILLS are “on to CINCINNATI”: Practice Report, INJURIES & Shaq’s POWERPOINT message

The BILLS are “on to CINCINNATI”: Practice Report, INJURIES & Shaq’s POWERPOINT message

I was usually surprised. I was really surprised because we asked Shaq about him talking to the team and he said he did that and all. And Dan, how did he say he did it? With a PowerPoint presentation. Welcome back to the Buffalo Plus channel. Mike Catalana, Dan Fates. I am Jenna Catro. Please be sure to like, comment, subscribe, and share. We’re going to talk about today. We’re in the facility where the Bills are at. Some injury stuff in the building. In the building this afternoon. Been together since before Thanksgiving. I know. I was just thinking of that. It always wow. Feels good when the whole team is together. The gang’s back together. All right. The Bills, the calendar now turns to December. Dan, the Bills are very good in the month of December. And we heard a lot of talk this week of questions from the media about the Bills dominance this month. Yeah, it’s been really good in December. 18 and3 in the month of December since 2020, including winning 12 out of their last 13 games in the month of December. So, all of that is good because a lot of this has also been talked about is the inconsistency that the Bills have had. 4-0 start this season. 4-0 start, eight and four since. So, they have been four and four mathwise guy since the last two months. And that kind of needs to change. So, I was kind of joking around. Maybe the calendar is turning over at the exact right time. Not only are they four and four, but a couple of the losses were brutal. Yep. Like the way they played in Miami, the way they played in Houston. That was not like, hey, we played okay, lost a tough one. They look lost in both of those games. Made some comebacks and all at least a little bit, but look that way. And I think that you you can’t have that now, right? You got to win games and then at some point it’s January and it’s a playoff game so you can’t be inconist or consistently inconsistent as you say. Yeah. And I asked Shawn McDermott about that because they always talk about staying Shawn has been asked about it over the last few weeks even after games and after wins. How do you stay consistent with your level of play? And Shawn has said well you got to keep your preparation consistent. Well, when your preparation at times feels like it’s not getting the results that you want, do you have to tweak that preparation? Yeah, I don’t think we can afford to be inconsistent. Not now. Um, not that you can ever be, don’t get me wrong, but um, you know, our backs are against the wall. That’s that’s the way it is. And and, uh, that’s our mindset. So, um, you know, I think we’re all aware of, you know, some of that what you that you discussed. Uh but there’s no time for that right now. So we got to go. Yeah, I do feel like that was kind of the tone overall from today at practice is just asking like the sense of urgency where that needs to be for this team. And that was kind of a theme throughout the day. Yeah, it has to be right. I mean look, the focus is on, as they’ll always say, each game each game. But they recognize where they are in this. And it’s easy to look at the New York Times playoff predictor and say you’re at a certain number. go lose a game and you see how quickly it can change. And it’s going to be wild with the way the whole playoffs figure out anyhow because so many of these teams are playing each other. So I always think about that, too. It’s like you just got to win. You win, it’ll take care of everything. And with who you’re rooting for this week, in two weeks, if it didn’t go that way, you might say, “Oh, this worked out better for the Bills.” So their focus has to just be better and it has to be just on taking care of business. Because that’s funny, Jenna. Like we joked around, I think we when we did the video before Thanksgiving leading into the Pittsburgh game, I said it was a must-win, but not really a must-win, but kind of a must-win. Like that’s kind of how this Cincinnati game feels. Like this is another game that you cannot drop. I know it’s Joe Burrow. I know it’s the Bengals. You’re still a better team than them at home and to go out there and prove it. Yeah, but this is the point in the season where it’s like these games are imperative because you’re right for the Bills to get to do what they need to do. They just need to win. It’s really simple. We don’t need to worry about rooting for other teams. Just win. Continue to win. And that will put the Bills where they want to be. Is that in terms of the division? Probably not. But either way, you want to get into the postseason. So, you know what’s wild? The Bengals are four and eight. They’re four and eight. Yes. If the Bills were to meet them in the playoffs, the Bills would be on the road for that game. Correct. Because they would win the division. That’s their only chance. That’s not I mean, isn’t it? It’s it’s kind of crazy because they they’re not going to be a wild card, the Bengals, but they could definitely if they win Yeah. they’re going to be the division champ. I think that’s the way it’s going to come out. So, that’s when you just have to focus the Ravens, the Bills, and then the Ravens again. Yeah. So, so it’s going to decide it all. Yeah. Important stuff. Um, we got to talk also to Shaq Thompson today, and I thought, what a guy. Like, what a dude that you want to have. Sean’s called him a dog and somebody that he’s known for a long time. The first question I asked him was kind of like, “Hey, you knew Shawn as defensive coordinator Shawn in Carolina.” And now you see head coach Shawn in Buffalo and what what’s that been like? And he said he’s more relaxed now. He goes, “He really is a players coach. He wants leaders and the guys in the locker room to lead the team.” And he goes, “Teams only go as far as the players do.” And and the the leaders that are on the team. That was interesting. Well, I was going to say I don’t think Sean gets enough credit on the outside for that. I agree. It’s a it’s an ego thing to be a head coach, I would think, like in any one of them. But he does do that. And I think sometimes there’s a thought of a players coach being a weakness if you depending on how you look at it. He does want to empower his players. He wants them That’s exactly what he said to sort of run it. And that’s coming from Shaq. Shaq is like no nonsense. He’s been around for a lot of stuff and he knows him. But I I listened to that and I thought I don’t know if people give Shawn the credit he deserves for that because his teams usually have been especially when it’s, you know, it’s going well or even when it’s going poorly. It has been player driven. It’s it’s one of those things sometimes where I feel like it’s it’s all of the blame, none of the credit situation. And that is how it is in the NFL, especially for head coaches. I think that’s what you sign up for going into things. But I do think having a veteran like Shaq Thompson talk about leadership from the players, what that can do for the team and specifically what he did. Yeah, absolutely. One, his play on the field has been great. Mike, you kind of asked him like, “Hey, you have you’re a vocal guy. We heard about his talk on Friday before the team. We’ll get to that in a second. But it’s also his play on the field, which makes his words carry more weight and volume.” And Jack said, “I’m really kind of a quiet guy.” and he goes, “It’s taken years for me to kind of have this presence and feeling comfortable with stepping up.” I was asking him about the fact of this inconsistent consistency of this win- loss, win loss. And you know, the old adage is, well, you win, you learn more in a loss than you do in a win. And I said like, how do you make sure that you’re still learning things and getting better after a win so you don’t have to go through a loss? Shaq talked about how after Thanksgiving, the season starts and had a unique way to describe the way the Bills need to have an attitude after a win like they did in Pittsburgh. You just got to be hungry, right? Like you can’t be you can’t be full off of that win, right? You got to basically throw that food up and be hungry again. Get back to your ribs, your diet, whatever it is, and go out there and be hungry, right? So every week we’re going to have to go out there, play hard, play physical, eat, you know what I mean? Win, throw it up, go out there, eat, do it again, throw it up, and go out. You know what I mean? Until we see the result that we want to see. Just got to throw it up. Yeah. Throw up, eat, and go back and eat again. Snap, snip, snap. No. Um, I do think you mentioned the point earlier of it means more when a guy is playing well. And if you’ve played on any team, that is absolutely the place the the case. You’re right. it means more. And also, I don’t think he would have he didn’t he also said he wouldn’t have felt right saying it, let alone having impact. He’s like, when you’re hurt or you’re not playing, it’s hard to be that guy. Yeah. But it makes total sense to me of, you know, when you’re what? Oh, I was saying what Sean said on Monday about Shaq Thompson. Like there has been a lot of hey this defense the splits between when Terrell Bernard’s out there and Shaq Thompson like there’s quite a bit of numbers and analytics that say they’re a better defense with Shaq Thompson out there. Now again he’s been filling in for Terrell Bernard who has been injured. Shawn was asked about his play again on Monday and he said quote when he plays he makes a difference in terms of playing time. We’ll see where that goes. Trell Bernard is a captain. Thompson even said that when we were talking to him. He goes he’s he’s our cap. like he’s the guy that we lead and follow, but it’s Thompson’s energy, aggressiveness we’ve seen over these last few weeks that have really made a difference. Decisiveness as well, the physicality, the physicality, all that. No, I mean, I think it’s been someone that’s kind of cool to see what they’ve done for this team. I mean, when the Bills sign him, it’s like, we’ll see what he has left in the tank and coming off some big injuries, but to see the way he is making impact both on the field, but then also in being able to kind of rally this team and this defense, I mean, that’s impressive for a guy that this is I know he’s an older player, but this is his first season here. He’s got the wisdom of a Lorenzo Alexander, which if you don’t know the media, we loved Lorenzo because he always brought such great perspective. And even if you miss Jack Thompson at the press conference, he’s nice enough to come over to the side. We didn’t miss him, Dan. We were over there. Correct. We were working. Somebody was supposed to film the press conference of Shaq Thompson and that person was standing next to us. So, but then I let And then you guys got a one-on-one with them though, so that’s way better. Well, Shaq was like, “Oh, where were you guys?” And we just pointed right to Jedha. We was like, “Thank you so much.” Scrolls today where I was like, “I’ll do the story. Jedha will do the press conferences.” about. In my defense, they haven’t been having a second person come to the podium in some time. But that being said, you just checked out. Well, no, I just thought it was over. In our interview that we got after Jenna failed to get the interview for us, um, it was way better. It was way better. Usually surprised. I was really surprised because we asked Shaq about him talking to the team and he said he did that and all. And Dan, how did he say he did it? With a PowerPoint presentation. I asked him first like did that something that you felt like you needed to do and he said no I was asked to do it and he said I was leaving the facility and that he thought of a dog story and that he then compiled he said he’s a visual learner and compiled slides and had a very nice presentation. If I was making a list of players that I thought was gonna were gonna present a PowerPoint presentation, I don’t know how high up on the list. I don’t think I would have any players. I don’t think I don’t think there’s a lot of players making. He did say he had help putting it together, but he said, “I have too much respect for these guys to not put the effort in to do it properly.” Yeah, it’s a leader. That is Dawson Knox. I could see that. Dawson would have When was the last time you used Microsoft like PowerPoint? Yeah. It had to be college. I would imagine it was college. I would love to see those. It’s going to be fascinating. They had spellch check back then. Be spell check’s like, I don’t know, man. That’s the worst. I don’t know where you’re going there, Dan. That’s the worst. No, I love that because I think it it is both. He he thought that would be the right way to do it. He figures if I’m going to target connected with the players, but he’s got all of that going. He’s got the respect. He’s playing. And I said when you watch the games, when somebody’s going backwards on a tackle, 45 is usually around. Yeah. I think he’s been playing great. So So he’s he’s doing it all. I’ll put that full answer up on our social media, on Instagram, on Tik Tok. It’ll be on a YouTube short cuz it’s a it’s funny to hear Shaq just and I was like, “So you just had homework?” And it was like it was more of a passion project. And you know, he said, “This is a special group of guys. They they needed and deserved that type of effort to put into it.” and he goes, “The guys responded and they need to continue to do that.” I mean, we have seen this defense play better in these last couple of weeks. And so, I do think that having a veteran leader step up in a moment like that. I think for this team, you’ve talked about so much this season about how the defense needs to kind of pull it together. They did a nice job of that in Pittsburgh, but then pulling it like I agree. I feel like from the second half of honestly, I would say Atlanta from then on they have done a good job. There’s been moments of lapsing, but at the same point, they’ve done enough. And that’s at the beginning of the season, it was obviously worrisome. It’s crazy because I know and when you like and you comment, you subscribe and we see all the comments and social medias of that of Fire Mcder and he’s lost like he is piecing him and Bobby Babage together have been piecing this defense together that has been guys dropping all over the place and he has been able to hold this defense together and honestly now they’re starting to excel and play well going back to the second half against Houston allowing 61 yards. Now again, the Steelers offense isn’t explosive by any means, but still to do what they were doing in that game, that’s what good defenses do. They figure it out. Yeah. You mentioned, shout out to Bobby Babage, how he’s whatever the circumstances are, how much Shawn is involved, they work together. But to your point, too, like Shaq’s in there because Bernard has been hurt and then Shaq has played well. Also, sometimes you almost forget like they played the whole year without Ed. Yeah. And and then Hoy goes out and then and they get him for a brief bit, right? And then he’s out. Bosa is now out. Well, Bosa is week to week. Week to week. Yes. Or at least that, you know, and Sean’s saying they’re hoping it’s the one to two, not more than that to get him back. I mean, these are prominent players on your defense. Your first round pick was out for six weeks, right? TJ Sanders. TJ Sanders has been out. Dorian Strong was a guy who played early, hasn’t been back. Like, they have lost a lot of guys. They deserve some a big amount of credit for weathering this storm. Sunday’s a little different. Why? Why? What do you mean? What? What do you What do you mean? What do you mean? What do you mean? They’ve only played I mean Burrow three times really and the one time obviously everybody knows was the Demar game. So that game was stopped two other times and he’s been really good in those two games. We were saying this at the car ride coming up. The playoff game I think looks worse than it actually was because in that game the Bills were just depleted. like that was coming off the Demar the Demar incident. I think this team was exhausted and understandably so because of the roller coaster that they had been on. So I do think that that it’s not going to show in the stat sheet, but I do think that was a huge piece of that team kind of at one moment it felt like they kind of not to say gave up, but it was like they were exhausted. They didn’t have that other gear to kick into. Yeah, there’s no asterisk on Pro Football reference of that game, but it should be Bill’s exhausted after one of their teammates nearly died on the field. said in only a way Dan Camp. But yes, I’m just saying like we were in that locker room. They were like I mean in lack of more words or less like they were gassed. Well, I know during the week we’re going to talk more about the game, but the thing about Burrow is even in that game, he drove them down the field and scored. In the other game that they beat the Bills, he threw for over 300 yards. Like, and you know, Shawn talks about they talk about he’s smart. He kind of knows what you’re doing before you do it. And then he has the physical ability. Like Aaron Rogers knows what the defense is doing. He just doesn’t have the ability to do it anymore. Joe Burrow does. He’s not maybe a 100% but it’s just different. It’ll be a different type of game, but not having Bosa out there is because they haven’t gotten a great pass rush and now he’s something that has struggled for sure. And it’s not who you play, it’s when you play them. New England plays them with Tinsley and no T. Higgins and no Jamar Chase and Joe and Joe Blackco and the Bills get you know a Bengals team coming off a really nice win against the Ravens 10 days off. It will be a big test in the in Park on Sunday. I just want to note more so on the injuries. So Deion Dawkins as well as Spencer Brown and Daltton Concade were listed as limited today. It was a walkthrough, but I do think that’s an encouraging sign. Uh Deion Dawkins is still in the concussion protocol, but we’ll see how he progresses throughout the week. I would expect him with having limited practice today listed as that he will be trending in the right direction. When they get to that part limited that then they progress to a point they get out on the field. You have to do a padded practice right before you can be cleared. And the bad news is the guys that did not practice we already kind of knew that it’d be Trell Bernard Joey Bosu who we said week to week. And then the other one was Josh Palmer, which was a surprise because he was limited last week, was questioned for the game, and now didn’t even participate in the walkthrough. Sean said he’s just not in a good place with his body and the injuries right now. They’re kind of re-evaluating that as it goes on. The other guy’s Dalton Concaid. I think that seems to be trending in the right direction. Yeah, we had him as limited, right? Yeah, in limited. So, in terms of that, because this Cincinnati team has struggled on defense, they were better against the Ravens. They’re not good at covering tight ends, not good at covering backs out of the back field. They’re not good at anything defensively. They did better. They’ve been they fact that they’ve been playing better doesn’t erase entirely all the I I hear like 40 to the Jets. Well, they were they were I think they are 30th against the run, 32nd against the pass or the other way around. Like it’s it’s that it’s not good. But none of that matters up to this thing. That’s why I was saying is it’s like you can look at their other numbers for the year. It doesn’t matter because Burrow wasn’t playing. They don’t have Trey Hendrickson. He’s not going to play which is at least the Bills get that break against them. But um yeah, so we’ll see. We’ll see who ends up going. Uh we want to tell them about Hooligans coming up. Yes. One week from Thursday, depending on when you’re watching this. One week from Thursday, December 11th. Yeah. You guys know Webster, you too. Yes. Two. Yes. My parents have already reserved a 10erson table. My in-laws have already reserved a table. Wow. Get there quick. Our parents are gobbling up seats. So that is next Thursday. Gobling up. We’re just taking them up. So that is the Thursday before the Patriots game. I just You’re right. But we’re doing the podcast live and then a week after that, Riverworks. We’ll be in Buffalo. Yeah, we’ll be here in Buffalo. Tons of content. If you want to hear what they’re saying in Nashville, Michael might have mislabeled something. Made one mistake. Whoa. Did you talk about the backpack? I did not talk about the backpack. Yeah, you guys are piling on about me. But Mike forgot his backpack on the drive to Pittsburgh station. Now it sounds just Oh, we forgot your backpack in my backpack or the lap laptop to edit all the other stuff we need, the small camera we used, and the credentials for the game. We were like an hour 15 outside of Rochester, and Dan sent the text. Credit to Dan. Thank you, Dan. Yes. Uh Dan drove to, if you know the area, Dan drove to Betavia. Um we drove back. Well, excuse me. I drove. Jenna is not driving. Okay. You made the drive an hour and a half longer. It was very funny to come into the station and be like, “Oh, Mike must have got a new backpack.” And transferred everything into his new backpack. And I was like, “Laptop, camera, credential, like everything was in there. Hey guys, you miss it?” And they called me back. Yeah, that’s it. We’ll be right back. Yeah. Got you some some a little snack for you. That’s it. I got a stack. And then you did a great conversation with Dan Horde. Yes. And it’s about what they’re saying in Nashville. Yeah. I wrote na I wrote Nashville. I don’t know why I was thinking Nashville. It’s okay. It is. Nashville and Cincinnati are very close. They are not that far apart. Um he um is the play-by-play voice. He grew up a Bills fan. Grew up going to the games here. Loves Van Miller. Says some of his calls you’re just it’s Van Miller in his head when he’s calling. great dude. Went to Syracuse, born in James Town. Um, of course he did. And it’s where all the great goss both for the University of Cincinnati and he calls for the Bengals. He’s great. So he talks a lot about, you know, what we can expect for this game. Yeah. So we’ll have plenty more coverage this week. Also check out the video that Mike was talking about Thursday live pod. Yeah. This Thursday live will be in the Connors and Ferris podcast studio. It’s the next Thursday. We’re in the home of Jenna. She’s taken it over as the home of where life is worth living. That is literally the catchphrase. Where life is worth living. All right, that’ll do it for us for Dan and Mike. I’m Jenna. Please be sure to like, comment, subscribe, and share. We will catch you next time here on the Buffalo Plus channel.

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Mike, Dan and Jenna break down the Bills practice and preparations as the Bills prepare for the Bengals on Sunday.

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