Albert Breer on Bills' Win Over Lions, Desperate 0-1 Teams and Chiefs' Offensive Success

All right.

Welcome in to report for Friday, September 18th.

Week two is now officially underway.

Thursday Night Football just wraps.

The Buffalo Bills defeating the Detroit Lions, 41 to 31 in the first game at the new Highmark Stadium, and man, the Buffalo Bills look like a very real contender.

Now, they have been for some time, so this isn't a surprise, but there is a different look to this Bills team than I think we've seen in the last few years.

I mean, I think this is what Joe Brady has been looking to build.

And look, this isn't a new play caller.

Joe Brady has been there the last couple of years, um, and he has been the play caller for Buffalo the last couple of years, so this isn't completely new, but I do think there's an effect to making somebody like that you.

coach versus your coordinator.

And we've been over this over the last couple of months, how it could lead to a more aggressive team, how it could lead to a team that attacks more consistently on offense.

And I've used Sean Payton as sort of the example there.

And Sean Payton, of course, was Joe Brady's mentor in New Orleans.

Sean Payton came up as a play caller in New York under Jim Fossil and then in Dallas under Bill Parcells.

In New York, he was actually stripped of play calling responsibilities two years after helping the Giants get to a Super Bowl.

In Dallas, he was seen as the guy with all these crazy ideas, the young guy who was cooking up all kinds of wild crap.

So much so that Bill Parcells used to call him Dennis the Menace.

Then he gets his own show to run in New Orleans and we all know what happened from there.

Could that be the case in Buffalo?

Could we be seeing the sort of full Joe Brady?

And it's interesting cause when I talked to Josh Allen about it over the summer, he brought up the 2019 LSU Tigers, probably the last time that Joe Brady had this sort of open canvas to draw what he wanted to draw.

We saw what became of that LSU team, of course, they were wildly talented.

They also had this aggressive attacking.

Like, never take your foot off their throat type of mentality, and I think we've seen that the first couple of weeks this season from Buffalo at 77 points in their first two games, and Josh Allen's numbers tonight, I mean, I, I don't even know if they do justice to how dominant he was at the beginning of this game.

It didn't last at the same pace at least all four quarters, but he goes 20 to 31 for 248 yards, 3 touchdowns, a 121.

4 quarterback rating.

He was able to rush for 72 yards and 2 touchdowns on 11 carries, I believe that's before the kneeldowns.

The Bills rushed for 205 yards total.

James Cook with 135 yards and 21 carries.

He scored a touchdown as well.

Um.

The receivers, I mean , uh, you know, you look at Dalton Kincaid and what he's done the first couple of weeks.

Keyon Coleman looks like he's coming on.

DJ Moore, we'll get to him in a minute, but really good in week one.

Khalil Shakir looks, I think, more dangerous when you put him in the context of having all of this around him.

They don't have a single weapon like they did when Stefon Diggs was in his prime, but collectively, I think this might be as balanced a group as Josh Allen has had around him.

And again, I think that makes them scary.

And you look at the defense, and yes, the defense has some work to do, and they have allowed over 30 points to .

Weeks in a row to the Texans last week to the Lions this week.

Um, those are two really good teams, um, the Texans and Lions.

Both those teams have been in the playoffs multiple times over the last few years.

So they're good experienced teams with real, um, with, with, with real pelts on the wall, um, you know, and the Bills have looked like a dominant team against those two teams, and so, Um, I think there's a ton of reason to be optimistic that this Bills team might be a little bit different than the past few.

The question now becomes, how serious are the injuries.

So Ed Oliver, he winds up injuring himself in warm-ups, winds up with a hip injury.

We'll see what the prognosis is for him, and then DJ Moore goes down during the game.

Keyon Coleman also went down, he winds up coming back into the game.

So Moore and Oliver, the two big injuries to monitor, and those are a very big deal.

You know, when you're talking about how stacked the AFC looks now and it looks again coming out of week one like you've got a real, you got, I got real depth and all the reasons that we thought the AFC was gonna be so strong last year, those have all come back to life.

In the first couple of weeks of this season, where we're seeing the strength of the Ravens, we're seeing the potential of the Bengals, you know, we're seeing what the Bills can be again, you know, we're seeing the Baltimore Ravens, like I, the depth and balance of the AFC.

Um, looks to be where we thought it would be a year ago, and we felt like the conference was sort of at an all-time spot for strength last year at this point.

So the Bills are gonna need all hands on deck, and that means getting more healthy, and that means getting Oliver healthy.

But man does Josh Allen look good.

He looks like the best player in the league again.

Their run game was effective with Allen as part of that.

And even the defense again, um, there's stuff you can shore up.

They look like they're capable of getting after the passer.

Greg Rousseau has a couple of big plays for the 2nd week in a row.

If you can get Oliver back in there, now all of a sudden you've got, you've really got something up front.

I thought Bradley Chubb showed some spark tonight.

all the way around, again, this Bills team looks like a very, very real contender.

All right, our second topic.

I , I, I hate, I hate, hate, hate when people talk about must-win in week two.

So I'm not gonna call any game in week two a must-win for anyone, but I think there are a few teams that are in some critical spots, and I want to go over 4 of them, and it's for a couple of different reasons, but all 4 of these teams are all in 1, all 4 of these teams.

are expected to contend, have been in a position to contend, and now I think are in a little bit of a spot where another loss could really put them behind the eight ball.

And so, these first two teams, I think a loss just from an optics standpoint, week two would be pretty tough.

The first is the Packers.

Now the Packers looked pretty good for 3 quarters in Minnesota on Sunday.

I thought Jordan Love looked like, looked like he was taking another step as a quarterback.

It looked like the defense was going to be able to survive without Micah Parsons in there, albeit they were doing it against the Vikings' backup quarterback Carson Wentz.

And then legitimately the whole thing came crashing down.

They failed to pick up a 4th and 1.

Then with some help from the referees, W and the Vikings' offense, they drive the field.

So now instead of kicking that field goal and then going up 25-17, they're down 25-22.

Um, and then some critical turnovers at the end of the game that were generated by Bri Brian Flores's defense.

The Packers come out of that rivalry game in a, in a tough spot, and now, they're going to New York and they've got a tricky matchup with the Jets.

And again, from an optics standpoint, if you're to lose to the Jets after the collapse that happened in Minnesota, and now you're still a few weeks off from getting Micah Parsons, I think that's a tough spot to be in.

Another one that's just like that, the Buccaneers and the Browns, and the Buccaneers weren't a train wreck in week one.

They went to Cincinnati, played a really good Bengals team, they lost.

They turned the ball over 4 times.

That's the reason for something like that to happen.

Uh, they certainly weren't at their best in a number of different areas.

They play the Browns at home this week.

And if Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers are to lose to Baker's old team in Cleveland to fall to 0 and 2, now the context of week one, just like the context of week one for the Packers would change with the loss to the Jets, would change .

And so those two teams, because of who they're playing, because of how those first, those week one losses came, the Packers and the Buccaneers, I think it's critical for them to get wins this week.

Then I got another couple of teams where I look at the rest, I look at the schedule ahead, and I think to myself, they could be in a hole quickly.

One is New England , 0 and 1, AJ Brown's now down, and where do the Patriots go from here?

Well, they play the Steelers at home this week.

After that, At Jacksonville, at Buffalo.

And we saw how the Jags looked in week one.

The Jags look really strong through the bulk of the end of last year, and we now know what the Bills look like.

That Jacksonville game, it's gonna be in a million-degree heat down in North Florida.

And again, I think the Bills are gonna have a raucous environment at home.

Those are gonna be two tough places to win.

Um, and so there's the Patriots game this week against the Steelers is more winnable than those two, at least as I see it.

And so if they can come out of this week at 1 and 1.

And you're looking at it and you're saying, even if it goes sideways, we're 1 and 3.

Best case, we steal one of those 2 and now we're 2 and 2, you got a chance to get back on your feet.

I know there's a feeling that it was a blown opportunity to win in Seattle, given that the the the Seahawks lost their starting quarterback in the first series of the game.

Um, you can't blow another opportunity.

And so the Steelers were good, not great, in week one against the Falcons.

Patriots have to get the one.

And the other one, and you might be a little surprised to hear this, is the Broncos, and I don't think the Broncos are going away.

But after they play the Jaguars this week, and that is not an easy out.

Again, you know, you guys can hear how much respect I have for the Jaguars.

You're looking at the Rams, the Niners, the Chargers, and the Seahawks.

That I'm not saying that would be 0 and 6.

But I think it'll also be tough to get to 3 and 3 based on the way that schedule sets up.

So the Jacksonville Jaguars visiting Denver, 4:05 on Sunday, Eastern time, 2:05 local time, a very, very important game for Denver, a very, very important game for the new play caller Davis-Webb.

That's one I've got circled as well.

So those be the 4 games that I think are the closest to must-win for all in one team.

It'd be the Bucks hosting the Browns, it'd be the Packers going to the Jets, it'd be the Patriots hosting the Steelers, and it'd be the Broncos hosting the Jaguars.

Finally, our third topic, man, do the Chiefs look good on Monday night.

I wanted to touch on this because we really haven't had a chance to dive in.

But I think what's most impressive about what the Chiefs did on Monday night.

If they did it without Patrick Mahomes.

I'm not saying he didn't have to do much of anything, but he certainly didn't have to be Superman, and this is the way the Chiefs built this team.

They invested back in the defense, they lose Trent McDuffie, but they bring in Mansour Delane, who's hurt now, but played a major role in that way.

Noel Williams looks really good, you know, opposite him at the other corner spot.

Um, you know, and then they've got a talented young core of players, um, and, you know, guys like George Car Loftus and Nick Bolton.

And so, you look at that defense, you know, what they're able to do in the running game and being able to, to, to bring in Kenneth Walker, they rushed for 220 yards on the Denver Broncos.

They doubled the Broncos up in total yardage, 392 to 176, and The schedule from here cooperates.

The schedule from here for the for the Chiefs, if you look at at who they've got, they, they go, they have the Colts at home on Sunday night, they go to Miami, they go to Vegas.

And then they've got the Chargers in week 5.

It's easy to see them going into that Chargers game 4-0, and then the schedule stiffens with a trip to Seattle after that and a trip to Denver after that.

But because of the running game, because of the defense, the Chiefs have given Patrick Mahomes a chance here to get his feet back underneath them as he comes back from the ACL tear.

I thought he looked pretty comfortable, pretty confident, in good shape.

Um, in that Monday night game, again, he wasn't Superman because he didn't need to be Superman because they have Kenneth Walker now, because the offensive line looks stable even without Josh Simmons in there, because Steve Spagnola's defense looked as aggressive and intimidating as ever.

Um, so I really like where the Chiefs are coming out of week one.

Because now you're getting to a point with the rest of the team where you can say, OK, Patrick Mahomes has time to develop.

They got time to figure it out at receiver with Rasheed Rice and Tyquan Thornton and Xavier Worthy, and Cyrus Allen, a rookie that they drafted in the 5th round that they really like, who's drawn some internal comparisons to Stefon Diggs.

That part of the game can develop for them because they've got so many other things working.

Appreciate you guys coming out as always.

You can leave your comments and questions down below here on the YouTube page or you get to me on my social media at Albert Breer on Twitter, at Albert R Breer on Facebook, at Albert_Breer on Instagram.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

Enjoy week two and we will see you on Monday.