Bills-Dolphins RECAP!

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The Buffalo Bills are a team that entered the season with somewhat lowered expectations, but after two weeks, they certainly do appear to be once again the top dogs in their division.

31-10 over the Miami Dolphins in South Beach, a game in which Buffalo turned three Miami turnovers into 17 points,

and in general, just outplayed the Dolphins in every way imaginable.

And those Miami Dolphins have some major, major issues to deal with moving forward.

Dan Hans is here with Mark Sessler, heating that call.

Sestog,

we're going to get to the Bills because they are the story out of this game in terms of the team that looks like a Super Bowl contender through two weeks.

But the Dolphins,

and

more specifically, to Otunga Vailoa, is the real story here.

He exits the game in the third quarter with another concussion on a scramble, on a third-down scramble in the red zone.

Immediately, everyone knew what had happened.

And now they enter a period once again with this quarterback after giving him a huge contract of uncertainty connected to these brain injuries that have haunted his NFL career.

Well, yeah, because it's one of these NFL games where the story was his performance, one of the worst performances he's had against a team that he's struggled against mightily.

And then it turns into the story of his health, his future, this season, beyond this season, wherever you want to take it.

I mean, this was about as big of a disaster for the Dolphins organization and their fans after signing him to a massive contract that you could conjure up because you also lost Teron Armstead to a shoulder injury.

We don't know what's going on there, but I mean, right now, the minute you put Skylar Thompson into the game, you know it's over.

This is not a functioning second string quarterback.

Everything that the Dolphins are about, you could see it on the face of Mike McDaniel.

You could see it.

He was extremely emotional after, because I think Mike McDaniel is obviously sort of a new age coach who feels extreme emotion for Tua and his players.

And he knew right away that something was absolutely wrong.

We did watching it.

And it's one of these games, you cover all these games, and it's one of these games that, like, we're talking about the performance on the field.

We're talking about the Bills and the fact that they shut down Kyler Murray as a vertical passer a week ago.

They were doing it tonight.

Their defense has completely stepped up through two weeks when it mattered most in the second half of last week and tonight early.

And then it turns into something completely else, else, like a completely different type of sports story where you're watching the second half in a daze because it really doesn't make any it hasn't the impact of the game and the play-by-play impact is gone.

It's completely about the health of the quarterback, it's about the season for the Dolphins that has been turned completely on its completely on its axis, Dan.

Like, I just think it's like a complete.

You know, the other time when he got a concussion against the Bengals was also on Thursday Night Football.

This is the second time this has happened, and it is just the darkest timeline for the Miami Dolphins.

Yeah, it was an absolute catastrophe of

a game for Miami.

There was a report

from Kaylee Hartong on the sideline in the fourth quarter where she said, you know, left tackle Terran Armstead, one of the best in the game, who had been in and out of the game battling an injury throughout.

She reported on his way into the x-ray room in the fourth quarter,

he gave a hug to Tua's brother, who was outside the locker room, waiting for his brother to emerge.

And then Hartung also had a follow-up right as the game was coming to a close that

Tua was still in the Miami locker room or in the training area or wherever they do their medical testing.

And the fact that they obviously immediately announced that it was a concussion,

we all know that.

They said that he was alert and responsive and you could see that as he walked off the field.

So this one, we're not going to do the Twitter doctor move and tell you this one wasn't as bad as the other ones, but it wasn't because there was the really scary ones where you could tell he, you know, he had to be mobilized, taken off the field.

He at least, the good news on this, is that he walked off under his own power.

But at the same time, the Dolphins now they exist in a world that's a little different than other teams exist with their quarterback

because they have to.

And the NFL, it's very important to the NFL that the way Tua is handled is with extreme caution because of his history of concussion.

So you wonder when you see him again.

And that is now the story around this Dolphins team that had big aspirations going into 2024.

And yeah, Skylar Thompson is, to me,

at best, untested, at worst, overmatched.

I said it before the season started.

I was surprised that they chose Thompson over Mike White.

It seemed like it was a

salary-related move more than anything else.

I think White would have potentially kept them in good shape.

I don't know if that's going to be the case if Tua ends up missing an extended amount of time.

So we're going to have to keep an eye on that as well.

So the Bills side of it.

I mean, as bad as things are, Mark, for the Dolphins right now, the Bills are feeling completely the opposite because they get three touchdowns from James Cook in this game.

You get Josh Allen, who seemed mostly unbothered by the left hand injury.

He was wearing a giant pad,

a padded glove that seemed to give him some issues at times with a 1-1 shotgun snap on a third down that botched a dry, but we don't know if that's directly tied to the glove.

But in general, he got out of the game in good shape.

They were able to rest their players in the fourth quarter, and they come out of this with a big division win.

And like I said at the top, Mark, the Bills, they're humming right now.

If you take out the first two quarters against the Cardinals, the last six quarters has been no more impressive team in the league.

So a lot to be excited about on the Buffalo side.

Yeah, because they've gone through a soft reload of the roster.

And, you know, post-Stefon Diggs,

you've got Khalil Shakir, who is a big factor two weeks in a row.

They really, this was the kind of game, though, because it turns so quickly on the interceptions, the three interceptions by Tua, and the three touchdown by James Cook.

And I think James Cook is a, he was great last season.

He really grew as the season went along.

And tonight, you know, his 49-yard rushing touchdown showed off his athleticism, his speed, and that was a game ender.

And it's like they are built a little differently.

And you didn't need Josh Allen this evening to go save the world.

It wasn't that kind of a game.

He only threw 19 passes.

It's to me the kind of team that the offense is doing enough.

But I kind of liked it.

I go back to what Connor said on our Wednesday show where we talked about the fact that, look, this is Sean McDermott's team right now in the sense that it's his defense.

And his defense tonight did what they did last week.

After that first half against Kyler Murray, where they shut him down, he was completely nullified on vertical passes.

And tonight, you're waiting for the Dolphins to do what they did, what saved them a week ago against the Jaguars.

They should have lost that game to the Jaguars.

You get the fumble, and then everything, y'all, hell breaks loose with Tyreek Hill and the rest of the cast.

That didn't happen tonight.

Buffalo's secondary, Buffalo's defense confused Tua.

The first interception was a sort of bizarre ricochet.

I get that, but the others were just flat-out.

intercepted passes and Buffalo's secondary and Buffalo in general has stymied Tua his entire career and they've not found an answer to beat Buffalo.

And this is a game where it's like everyone, and I'm one of the people that thought Buffalo is going to struggle.

They don't seem as powerful as they did before.

There's sort of a team in the AFC that I think has dropped down a level, an echelon.

And they, you know, game, two games in, you have to say, well, forget all that because they just beat their biggest division opponent.

They look to me reloaded and good.

Yeah, I think they are in great shape, and I'll take a look at their upcoming schedule in just a moment.

But yeah,

I want to also say, like, before the Tua injury,

they had flustered this Miami attack.

And I don't know, listen, like, you mentioned Mike McDaniel was emotional after the Tua injury, and I'm sure he was.

I thought McDaniel looked like a guy in a stupor in this game.

Every time they showed him on the sideline, he just looked lethargic.

And I know that's kind of his resting face a little bit.

He's just a chill-looking dude.

But right down to the way they called the game, you you know, this is before Tua got hurt.

I thought it was way too run-heavy and maybe almost self-consciously reflecting what you're starting to hear now pop up amongst the football cognicenti

about this.

You know, everybody's playing the two high safeties now and daring teams to run the football more, and you're seeing the ball being run more.

And it's almost like McDaniel, McDermott got McDaniel to play into his hands because, like, I love HN.

He's a great young running back, but he was getting fed the ball over and over and over.

And you could hear the crowd was like, what are we doing here?

And it was, I thought it was most like the best example was at the end of the first half when the Dolphins had obviously fallen behind 24-7.

And they take over three minutes to play and they have three timeouts.

And they run the ball so much and they play with such a lack of urgency that they run out of timeouts about, I don't know, around the 30-yard line and then don't really get any real shots at the end zone and have to settle for a field goal that cut it to 24-10, which ended up being as close as they could get.

I just thought McDaniel did not impress me in this game.

He didn't seem ready to handle the way Sean McDermott went at him.

And if we're going to bury Will Levis for the throw that he made, and I'm not going to get on Tua too hard today for obvious reasons, but like his toss that led to the pick six by Jamarcus Ingram was as bad as it gets.

And so he played a bad game before he went out of the game.

So the Dolphins have a lot of concerns and a lot of things to be worried about.

And I'm looking at the Buffalo schedule now, Mark.

Now that they are off to this 2-0 start, they get the Jaguars at home.

They're at the Ravens

on Sunday night football, then at the Texans, then at the Jets.

So very interesting.

This team, we're going to see if it's just more getting out of the gate fast and then taking advantage of Miami having a bad night, or whether they're going to be dogs in the conference.

And I would not be surprised if it's the latter.

Yeah, I really agree with you about that drive before the half.

It was a 13-play, 54-yard drive.

And they speculated on the broadcast, are they just trying to get out of this second quarter here and go back to the line?

Right, which

makes no sense because obviously it's just a two-score game and a touchdown makes it a touch.

So you're not just like, let's go regroup.

You have the ball near midfield, but it was so strange, some of the play calling there and the way they chewed up the clock.

It was just such a bad night for this team.

And they also lost a starting left guard in this.

So you lose the guard, the tackle, the quarterback.

And, you know, one more thing about McDaniel.

Buddy, it's 31.10.

There's four minutes to play.

Your quarterback is back in the trainer's room after suffering a concussion.

How is A-chan getting touches in that game at that point?

You have Waddle and Tyreek's sulking on the bench, and you have...

A-chan getting the ball like six times on their penultimate drive there, a drive for nothing when he came into the game.

Questionable.

Like, just a weird, weird Dolphins game.

And listeners that know I'm a Jets fan are going to think I'm piling on.

I am not.

I'm just saying, like, I'm calling a spade a spade, and it was a bad night for the Dolphins in every which way.

Yeah, and I don't think you're being tough on the Dolphins.

I think that's fair.

They were out of sync tonight.

What we've seen about them, they've been aggressive.

Mike McDaniel is aggressive.

He's innovative.

None of that seemed to show up tonight.

And, you know,

I'd be very concerned about them in general.

They've got three decent defenses coming up in Seattle, Tennessee, and New England.

I like this.

We've got to bring Gravedigger in for a second here, if we can, because he mentioned a player that vanished for the Buffalo a while back.

I thought he did show up tonight, and he's been back this season, Gravedigger.

Yes, Von Miller was absolutely eating Austin Jackson's lunch at the right tackle.

Hook'em?

Was he?

I don't know.

No.

Was he?

No, no.

No, Hookum.

Oh, AM.

He was an Aggie.

Ooh, sorry, buddy.

The opposite of him awkward.

You guys don't like each other.

No.

Messed that one.

No, and now we're back together in the SEC.

Anyway, back to NFL.

Von Miller generated four pressures.

That was some classic Zeuser college football

breakdowns, the type of stuff that the nugs that the people look for.

All right, Grace.

Some people.

Von Miller, four pressures in a sack tonight on just 14 pass rush matchups against Dolphins right tackle Austin Jackson.

This is from Next Gen Stats.

Every single one of those four pressures was under 2.5 seconds time to the quarterback.

2.1 second average time to pressure is his fastest in a game since 2021.

Von Miller is back, and if he's back like this, and look, Austin Jackson has struggled a bit as the starting tackle for the Dolphins, so it's not like Von Miller is going up against Tristan Wurfs or, you know, one of the best tackles in the game here, but a lot of teams have bad tackles because offensive line play is an epidemic right now across the league.

So Von Miller can give the Bills this.

It's really going to help offset, I think, some of their other losses, both due to injury and free agency and this new Bills defense.

If you got this guy playing like he did in his prime, it's going to be a tough season.

And you pair him with Greg Rousseau.

They've got players on that line that can change games.

It happened tonight.

And we should note not to make light of it at all, but it's like it is sort of bizarre how this works out that it was DeMar Hamlin that hit Tua, too.

I noticed that too.

That is an odd, like, I don't know.

Like, there's not, there's no way to put some of this together, but it's,

I don't know.

The one thing I'd add to what you said, Dan, about the end of that, again, that drive at the end of the half, it's like, this came against a division opponent.

You've got to go for blood.

You've got to go for it.

And I just thought it was a bad look at home.

And again, like I called it steamy Miami.

It is.

And it's like, this is when you should be stealing games against division opponents in your home stadium.

And that was your look.

That was your tempo.

That was your pace.

That was your decision making.

You had Al and Kirk in the booth.

They were like, man, listen, are they trying to just get to the half to regroup?

Uh, do they realize that, you know, the Bills get the ball at the half as well?

That was a critical juncture in the game, uh, but it really I thought just spoke to overall the haze the Dolphins were in this game, and conversely, how locked in the Bills were and how locked in they really have been since they fell behind 17-3 in the opener and the Cardinals, and they've been rolling ever since.

So,

there you go.

AFC East Showdown doesn't go exactly to script, but at the same time, the bigger question now is less about what the standings are and what is going on with Tunga Vailoa and what his status is going forward.

We shall see.

And this is when Justin will probably jump in with some Ryan Tannehill take, and we'll be able to see through it for what it really is.

But he did start his career in Miami.

So go ahead, Justin.

Try to get ahead of that hot take.

It's out there on Twitter right now.

And the Titans right now are set to play.

Can you please, like right now,

send the same tweet you did last week?

Start it with a first and foremost, I hope that Tua is okay.

I feel like that would be a good way.

I'm not going to do that.

I will say the Titans in week three, they get the Green Bay Packers, who are probably going to be starting Malik Willis.

And then week four, they play the Dolphins.

If they do call Ryan Tannehill, that'd be pretty funny for the Titans to play Willis and Tannehill in back-to-back weeks.

Yeah, when you boil it down, the whole season really is about the Tennessee Titans.

If you want to look at it through a certain lens, all that sports, sports in general, and you can look across all sports, the Olympics, men's sports, women's sports, it's really just about the Tennessee Titans.

Yes.

I agree.

I agree.

And

I think Justin does as well.

I think that Justin agrees.

I think the other Justin agrees.

I think the whole world agrees.

And in all seriousness, yes, best wishes to Tua.

That was very, very scary.

And that team is fun when he's on the field.

And he seems by all accounts to be a good dude and a stand-up dude.

And you just hope.

You were hoping he was past this.

And last year, he was past it, or it felt like he was past it.

You remember the preseason stories of going into 23 about the, what was it, Jiu-Jitsu or

different ways to

protect himself.

But ultimately, I mean, he's got to learn.

I understand in that game, and it's a credit to him as a competitor.

They need a score in that spot, and he has to get to the sticks, but he leads with his head, and he takes that shot viciously against the torso

of DeMar Hamlin, and now he's back in this unfortunate place.

So hopefully Tua gets back out there soon, and most importantly, he is in a good place physically.

One last thing before we sign out.

At a certain point,

you started to drift with this game.

And I want to pull up one thing that I saw during one of the numerous commercial breaks.

This is Amazon product, man.

It's not totally for me, I gotta say.

Just one thing here.

It's not totally for me.

I can't, like, we were just giving some flowers to the YouTube.

Um, yeah, uh, yeah, how easy.

I love the toggling.

Like, for instance, you were catching up, Graver.

I was doing that too at one point.

It's very hard to scroll properly without jumping ahead too far or going too far back.

And I just feel like every time I blink, there's another commercial break, which I don't think is quite accurate, but I feel like I'm just in this like Amazon wormhole.

I can't escape.

Then they got that halftime show doesn't do much for me either.

I don't know.

Sestog, you into the product on the TNF or what?

No, I

like when I back a product, first of all,

we cover a sport where it feels like there's a, on a Sunday, there's about six hours of commercials.

And I generally don't watch commercials.

I don't find them entertaining.

I don't know, they're not for me.

Don't sell the product to me.

But then, so, like, yes, I'm not into this thing because I'm with you.

It feels to be very ad heavy.

And I think what you were about to show us is relevant.

Yeah, let's pull up one of the commercials.

You know, I'm trying desperately to scroll, and I get stuck on yet another commercial.

And I don't even know what it is, and it doesn't matter.

But Darren Waller's in the commercial.

And then in the, what do you call it in the industry there, Gravedigger?

Just the...

The lower third.

The lower third.

I was going to say the crion.

Is that it?

The Chiron?

The Cryon is like the ticker that runs at the bottom of the NNFL.

So the lower third graphic, it's a shot of Darren Waller sitting on a bench press in a gym, looking at the camera, saying something about something.

And it says Darren Waller, and then underneath it, NFL legend.

It's a little shocking.

I mean, this is the most shocking thing that came out of Thursday Night Football.

I mean,

Jesus Christ.

Well, okay,

can I offer one theory?

I mean, obviously, we know that's an, like, I think Darren Waller would push back on some level against against that description, like just for the fact that we're talking about it right now.

But like, we know how these things get made.

You've got someone somewhere adding, you know, titles to this or that, and

they thought he was an NFL legend.

How about like NFL Pro Bowlers?

I don't know.

Well, that would be, like, yes, let's get more.

I'd say number one, whenever you don't know what's happening, and this is a direction to myself sometimes, like, just stick to the facts.

Don't start to create facts.

And I think that's someone creating facts.

No, it's too strong.

I'm going to read the dictionary definition of legend.

Okay.

Yeah.

An extremely famous or notorious person, especially in a particular field.

Okay, that's not too bad.

That's also not a great definition.

That's not a great definition.

That's a failure by

this particular Google search.

But, you know, this, that's like legends are icons of the game.

And, you know, I'm sorry, Darren.

Like, I can't go there with you.

But maybe you'll become a hip-hop legend.

I think he put out an album recently or a single one.

Still time.

Yeah, still time.

Anything else?

One thing.

Yeah.

I just looked up Chiron while we were talking there, and actually, you were right.

Chiron is any text-based graphic that is superimposed on video.

So you nailed it.

Thank you.

Nailed it.

The way the gravedigger jumped in there was just seamless.

It just was like

seamless broadcasting right there.

All right, let's get out of here.

Just a reminder: number one, if you

want to watch us draft our games that we'll be watching on Sunday, patreon.com slash

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Every Friday, we will be having the draft with me, Mark, Gravedigger, and Connor Orr.

And no, it's not a rehash of the preview show that we do with Mike.

Obviously, and Jordan.

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We do the draft.

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So check that out.

Also, announcement, Gravedigger.

Effective immediately or soon?

This will be effective for the Sunday night flagship show.

Okay, effective Sunday night for our very important week two flagship program.

The YouTube page, we have been, our shows have been in the underdog NFL feed.

We are going to have our own feed going forward.

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