Bucs Venture Into Undefeated Territory, Face Chiefs in Primetime

What do you call two guys that were there win this hample.

Back to return at Spurlock.

Michael Spurlock of the cham He's to the twenty, He's to the twenty five.

Parlo thirty to the forty yard line. We could see history. Fifty forty come the thirty yard light.

Michael run, Michael Luck, Michael run, touchdown, Tampa Bay.

There you go in.

That shot gun sends we receivers left. Here's the staff of the glitzer has picked up Brady Unity.

Caught ball ups.

He has the record at the eleven yard line.

Mike Evans becomes.

The first NFL player in lead history to record a thousand yards of more in this first seventh seasons.

That want to throw by Brady.

Congratulations Mike Evans, who can forget looking gas up the hats the other side.

Derek Bucks thirty touchdown, Tampa Bay. Derek Brooks the.

Most pariable player in the National Football League.

There it is Dot Daggers in We're gonna win the Super Bowl.

Here's the snap.

Mahomes running to his right. Lookout he may run Mahome director Now battle in sev picked up the Inzon. I gotta beat the Chiefs. We're the chapters of the world and we still have I'm in a thirty three Togo Davin White, what a great second season.

That's it with Casey Box are the super Bowl champs.

They can't stop the clock. We call them the Salty Dogs.

Welcome everybody to the Salty Dogs Podcast and Week nine of the Buccaneers season. I'm Scott Smith.

Jeff Ryant is of Week nine already, it's all righty Week nine.

We are the Salty Dogs.

Very salty this week. Yeah.

So we talk about Buccaner's football for the most part, sometimes the cars we see in the parking.

Lot out there, who knows what it's gonna come out. Yeah, that's what keeps it fun.

So this week we get to talk about a disappointing game.

You know what, more disappointed than the Ravens game for sure, Yeah.

For sure, and much more destructive to our playoff chase. Yeah, because losing to an AFC opponent, well, you don't want to lose any games and they matter in the standings. Losing to is not as bad as losing to a division opponent, especially when it gives them the season sweep. So we are essentially two games out of first, correct have to finish. Probably lets you end up in some kind of three way tie, you probably have to finish. You definitely have to finish a game ahead of the.

Falcons so to win the division.

And I would say the Bucks upcoming schedule the next couple weeks is harder than the Falcons much.

But before we get into that, however, they are playing the Cowboys.

Yeah, but the Cowboys have been very up and down.

I know it's really kind of hard. It's gonna be hard to root for the Cowboys, but I am this. I'll find a way. Yeah, we found a way to root for Sean Payton. Well there's oh wow, remember we did if we can climb that wall.

Yeah, So before we get to all that, two things, Uh, if we're gonna have questions from fans at the end, We've gotten a lot of nice questions this season. Good not as many this week, but that's fine, that's fine. If you don't love us, so thats gotten very very happy, don't stop it and tell him how to Yeah, that's where I was getting to. So if you want to send us questions or comments, I think like one of these this week is as as something picking a bone with me on a headline that I wrote, not in

You be or whatever, or you know, we're here if you think what a burger's better than in and out? That kind of help us.

Help you if you have comments on my driving habits, because that hasn't gone over very well for me.

I noticed you haven't really brought very many of those. Well I did it two weeks in a row. Anyway.

The other thing is we do have a player guest this week. We got with Zion McCollum. We'll be listening to that in just a little bit. Yeah, he's a great guy, and he'll talk to us about the state of the Bucks secondary and his confidence in his own play and think and the Chiefs things like that.

Yeah, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, all right.

So we're talking about the Bucks thirty one twenty six lost to the Falcons on Sunday at Raymond James Stadium, which uh the final play Kim Jared actually caught a hail Mary from baker Manyfleet, but he was already about a yard behind.

The and he also took out unfortunately a state trooper did. Yeah, it's really uh. The state trooper has a broken ankles. I've seeing it online. He was not facing the field because job his job too, and he was at the very he was watching the crowd, making sure he was watching the crowd, which is what he's supposed to do, correct, And they caught the ball and then they plowed into him and he never saw it coming. The trooper never

So you just told me, well, maybe end up with some paid time off for him?

Well I would think so, well, yeah, well maybe not, because I don't know if they're actually are they Are they on duty at that time or are they just I don't know.

Oh yeah, that would it's probably over time. You would think, yeah, are you wondering about workers comp.

Yeah, yeah, I guess so fall under that. But that was a crazy place.

In a TV show or a movie. Then that guy would be bummed out that he had to, you.

Know, missus desk guy. Yeah, he probably is for a couple of months, probably still.

Yeah, but that does look like the least part fun part of being a policeman is the paperwork.

Yeah it is, yes, but it's very important stuff.

I know it's important, but I doubt it's the part they enjoy the most.

Yeah, yes, other than.

Will Ferrell and the other guys.

I think that's a good movie. Have you seen a movie.

It's the name of it, The other guys with Will Ferrell and.

No, but I think going to Kansas City, Going to Kansas City, I think I'm gonna watch The Fall Guy under your recommendation, so good unless we have live TV, and then I'm gonna be watching.

Football, yes, because we'll be traveling on Sunday, yes, for the Monday night game. All right, So, how did we get to the point where we're Kim Jarrett's being out of bounds by a yard mint the Bucks had to take the loss.

Well here I want to show you this just because.

Yeah, this is a good podcasting show a video.

I just want you to see that. I just want you to see oh gosh, poor guy. Yeah, Yeah, that's the truth.

He really did not even have any He didn't even hear it or anything. He didn't move a muscle until they hit him.

Yeah, so I detected your train of thought.

The Buccaneers playing the Falcons and Kirk Cousins again, they really needed He didn't go for five hundred yards this time. It was more like two hundred and seventy five. But they really needed to get pressure on him, and there wasn't a ton of it. There wasn't a lot of pressure, and when he was pressured, he was getting off throws at the last second they were on target. It was very frustrating because I don't think of Kirk Cousins as that type of quarterback. But he did a great job of it.

Unfortunately. Yeah. I just got done saying to someone who's here that was in my office before you came in, that, you know, we make Kirk Cussins like he's just a world beater, and I think once he got like eight touchdowns against us and maybe two against all the other games. It's it's minimal. It's actually you mean this season? Yeah, you're kind it right, Yeah, it's it. I'm not really well, you know, I don't know it's you're frustrating. No, I am.

Eight touchdowns against us this season and six against everybody else. Okay, he's well behind Baker Mayfield, who leads the NFL with twenty one touchdown passes. And by the way, not that you care, he's the second highest scoring quarterback in fantasy football.

Lamar Jackson, wells see that I can get behind because you're willing to hear that, because it's yes.

So the main story for the Buccaneers on offense was that they had to figure out a way to continue to move the ball in the absence of Chris Godwin for the rest of the regular season, at least. He's been saying that maybe he could make it back for the playoffs, said that at his charity event yesterday yesterday, and then Mike Evans, we expected to be out until after the week eleven by, So how do you take

How do you do that? It was pretty interesting. It was very interesting. I mean it was fun to watch.

It was fun to watch Liam Cohen, the offensive coordinator, putting another big star on his resume, which is I hope nobody's looking.

At well, it's like I said, yeah, if he can still rack up points. Losing to the stop to pretty.

Impressive in yards. We had four and twenty three we lost four and twenty three yards. We lost some scoring opportunities with Baker's two interceptions inside the ten yard line and then the unsuccessful fake punt, but we moved the ball nine or fourteen third down conversions nine of fourteen.

That's crazy. Do you know what?

We lead the league with the fifty two point third down conversion rate, which would easily be a Buccaneers record if they keep it up. But fit more than half I and so, yes, there were answers, and it was it was basically this. It was, we are going to rely on those three running backs. We're going to throw them some passes. You need somebody to do the yact plays that Chris Godwin was given us and the underneath

Everybody helped. Yes, and then uh kotten a lot more Cad. Yeah, and two touchdowns on tight end day. Yeah.

Yeah, what a great game for Cad. He even was like doing athletic things, a hurdling over defenders and stuff like that. You don't think of that as kid's game, but every now and then he was surprised you with.

Yeah, we're kind of teasing him on Buck's Total Access. He was Monday's guest, and he's pretty funny about his jumping abilities. It's pretty good.

So Caid last two games has had something like sixteen catches for like one hundred and seventy yards.

And certainly coming certainly coming into his own as a tight.

End well as a as a pass catching guy, because he only had a few catches in the first few games. But he's by necessity, he's a thrown to him now and he's making it work. And he's on the has been the case throughout his career. He's on the field like practically every play.

Yeah, and he's getting better at blocking. Yeah, he's a cad.

Mean.

I was told by Casey I guess or maybe you that cam Brat was talking about Kid on the show and saying that there just aren't many tidends in the league who are legitimately good at both parts of the job, right, And he compared it a little bit to a George

Well. The one thing I noticed when you talk about the plays, there are a couple of throws that I thought Baker made that were a little high, and I just I think if it was Chris or Mike, they probably would have been caught. So I was curious to, you know, say to Baker, how much of an adjustment you know, do you have to make.

On that well there, he clearly does not yet have the same level, of course, not of chemistry with like a Jalen McMillan as he would have had with Mike and Chris. And you saw that a couple of times, a couple of big plays left out there, the deep.

One to Jalen. I don't know.

The way Baker talked about it sounded like there was a little bit of a difference between where he thought Jalen would be and where he was, so Mike he would have known exactly, they would have been on the same page. And so it ended up being a little overthrown. And then the other one, which was down the scene on the third long and Jalen was open and if he catches that ball, he's gone, it's a touchdown. But he didn't get his head around and the ball ended

The tab and it takes a little bit of type sterling. Shepherd had a pretty good game.

Yeah, you know who he was actually really impressed with, Probably the most among those receivers was rock Kim Jarrett.

He considering he hadn't played in a while.

He basically didn't get to He didn't he didn't get most of trading camp for the preseason. His knee was hurt badly enough that he had knee surgery, which we didn't even realize until a couple of weeks ago when

It's a you know, that was two days before the game. Yeah, and then he came in. He was real.

He was real presence. In the fourth quarter when they knew we were thrown and we had to get something done, he had a twenty yard catch, two nineteen yard catches. I just I didn't expect that level of production from him right away. You know, last year he had four catches right for sixty yards and ten games. He nearly matched that in one game.

He was doing his homework when he was rehabby. Yeah.

I mean, I honestly did figured he'd be the fifth option, which maybe he was because he didn't get his catches till.

Late in the game.

But I didn't think you'd I didn't think he'd be the one to come up with the big play. So I was kind of impressed with him. I thought he looked pretty good.

Yeah, I think that. I like how the start of the game went. Unfortunately, fumbled the ball, but I like that the fact that you have a mishap like that and you think, oh, oh, here we go, Atlanta scores. Now you're down seven, get the ball back and march all the way down the field and score a touchdown. I thought it was like, okay, all right, this is going to be a good offense. Today, so this was going to work.

Yeah, the previous four games we had scored a touchdown on our first drive, and obviously this time we didn't because of the fumble in the second play, but those two were shod whites to start the runs. To start the game, had gotten a first.

Down, and we're very you know, so it's almost.

Like the drive you talked about. The second one was kind of like our opening drive is the first one.

You know.

We didn't have to punt on the first one. We just so we still had the script working. Well, what I would like to know what I'm kind of impressed by and want to know how it's possible. It was a lot of short game stuff, right, Atlanta had to know that's where we're gonna go with it, right, How did we make it work? I mean that must be some creative play design. Because they knew we had to

We were gonna have to do some screens.

We're gonna have to throw some short stuff decaid and the fact that they were still able to do that to the tune of four hundred and twenty three yards is pretty impressive.

Right.

Everybody listenings now, if they're upset, is probably yelling at us saying, you guys are talking awfully positively about a terrible loss. But we're starting with the good stuff. And the good stuff was the offense being able to move the ball.

Yeah, we're kind of breaking down. The game is where it was at. And if you remember, going into this game, the theme was, oh, wos me offensively? What are we going to do? We lost Mike and Chris, right, So this is props to the oh Hartford two. That was the good development. That was a good development.

I heard somebody say that, you know, they still believed that this was a playoff team, because teams that can score twenty nine points a game, no matter what else is going on, usually make the playoffs.

The highs of the highs and the lows of the lows in the NFL are week to week the week. As you and I both know, I am always amazed, and I don't know why. I'm always surprised that you have a game like that and everybody's off the bandwagon immediately. And I get it, you're a fan. I understand that, but gosh, there's eight games left.

We're not talking there's nine games, and we're not talking about everybody. No listen, probably nobody that's listening. We're not saying you were giving up from jumping to the bandwagon.

I mean, is there reason for concern? Yeah, you're down to four and.

You're a game out of first place in Atlanta has the sweep, and the bucks next two games just happened to be against the two reigning conference champions, right, so it's easy to look at them and go, wow, there's a chance to.

Step But even after that, you still have a chance. Oh yeah, man, it's not it's not an and you all. And the funny part is you just assume that the other teams are just going to keep doing what they're doing, so you don't know who's bounced and left. Baltimore just lost to Cleveland. I just had that conversation because someone said, are you ready for Monday? I go, yeah, because you just don't know, you know, I mean, can't believe Baltimore lost the Cleveland. Well, it was kind of kind of crazy.

They should have won. James should have been easily intercepted to seal the game.

A play that should have happened. So it's execution.

If a great player Tookyle Hamilton is a great player that drops the easiest interception you'll ever see.

That's what I That's why I really love this game is That's why, Well, I love it because you just don't know, and and.

I'd kind of like to know that we're going to win every game.

Well, we would like that, but that ain't happening, I know.

But if you were working for many the two thousand and seven Patriots, it would be kind of cool, Yeah, to pretty much know you're gonna win every time you go out.

Except didn't they lose the Super Bowl? They lost the super Bowl. Yeah, so I'd rather lose during the season and win the super Bowl. Yes, of course, of course, But.

There's only so much you can lose during the regular season, and I still have a chance.

Yeah.

If you told the Patriots they were gonna lose one game season, would be the last one?

Yeah, which one you would? You know?

Well, it couldn't be any of the last three.

No, But that's what I was talking about the reason why I love this game is because of one play somewhere makes the difference. But what's amazing, what's the average offensive place? What sixty how many plays in a game? Yeah, it just depends on the game. That seventy okay, all right, So.

Then you had seventy three in this last game.

And then you break it down to and then people go, well, it was this play, it was that play. But that's just it. You've got to execute for seventy plays to make things right, or at least like sixty five of them hopefully right. You're not gonna wait everyplay. How what was the what the Buccaneers did they have a was it a ninety three yard driver? In ninety two yard? Ninety seven? Ninety seven? Okay, so they were on the

It's hard to get a ninety seven yard drive without some big ass chunk plays, and we were not getting a lot of those.

The longest play we had in the game was twenty Now, how much time that take? That took a long time? Seven minutes and nine seconds. Wow. The the seventy yard drive right before.

That, the one you just mentioned, our first drive and Caid's first touchdown took eight and a half minutes.

Yeah, that first quarter. I think we got all of like two commercial breaks, so we were running behind. That's my world. Yeah, got world. I forgot what I was gonna say. I am easy for you to get distracted.

I know you're very good at it too, causing that to happen. To look at my notes, my heads. You know what, I'm just gonna go with this. I may have to change my mind. Maybe maybe I don't really love flea Flickers anymore.

Oh, I you know what, this is crazy. When they were doing it, I was thinking, flea Flickers, Scott is going to be so happy. Maybe not so much anymore. I don't know. I like the call. I liked it. It's one of those plays that if it works, is like, oh that is so cool. I don't know. It hasn't done much for us this year, so you say, let's put it away from it.

Come up with something else. I love trick plays. I don't want them to go away. Trick plays were not our friend in this game. The fake punt. When was the last time we tried a fake punt. I'm thrilled that we had, you know that we had that in the game plan and had the i'mption to do it, but it just did not.

Work at all from my understanding, And maybe I'm wrong, but I thought after the game it was alluded to that it should have been called off and it didn't get caught. That's probably true. So you get out I think that was coming out of the press conference, so it wasn't rumor wise. I think it was.

One of the coaches was, yeah, that's probably the case because the play when you watch it is like how that had no chance of succeeding. So you get out there, you see how they're lined up, uh huh. You're expecting a certain look that this is going to work against and then you if it's not, if they give you something else, then you call it off and you just want the ball. That's probably the case, But there was lack of communication and it didn't happen.

Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, And it was Yeah, that was and that was the only score the Falcons had in the second half. Yeah.

Yeah, the defense was way better. They did some nice adjustment in the second half. They came right out, so it was to what it is, twenty four to seventeen, twenty one, seventeen and a half right, twenty four to seventeen right at half.

So fourteen of those points were short field scores for the Falcon.

Their first drive was only forty three yards after the fumble HU and then you're talking about.

The fake punt. I think that was that in the second half. That's in the second half.

Okay, that was off of a thirty six yard drive.

Okay, so half the field less than yeah.

Yeah, So they had two scoring drives that started on our side of the field.

Yep. Starting to feel better about our defense just listening to that.

Well, they did just well. And so it's twenty four to seventeen. You're coming out of half. The downside to taking the ball to start the game, which we've been doing this year, is that the other team gets to start the second half. And so Atlanta, which kicked a field goal in the first half, had a chance to go up by two scores.

Oh, we got to stop big one.

And come right out and immediately get a stop. Two big plays by Levante and Izzian and a nice holding call helped out as well, and you got the stop you needed.

And then.

We had the first interception on the flee flicker yep, and then you're like, damn, we didn't because.

You don't want to fall down.

Two scores there, and so then they get the ball back and we stopped them again, but we couldn't capitalize and tie the game. And so after our next three and out, then they scored on a on the thirty six yard drive after the fake punt didn't work. And so really, had that fake punt worked, the game would have looked a lot different.

Oh.

Yes, we were moving the ball, yes, pretty much throughout the game, so it's reasonable. I think that possibly could have been a touchdown drive. Instead, they get a short touchdown drive. They are two scores.

I had.

We try to fight back, but just can't get all the way there.

No ran out of time very much, so, and I think I think what's really frustrating is just listening the way you just laid all that out defensively. I think to me, all of a sudden, I'm like, oh, you know what, I guess they played better than I thought. I but the salty parts coming out now, the big gashing passes.

Right, do they have three touchdong passes more than thirty yards?

That? It's been our main problem this year, that is, and Todd bows, how how is that guy running free?

Todd tends to chalk those things up to communication, and we just have to take their word for it. I mean, you do have some young guys playing, and we did see Tyreek Thunderberg get replaced by in the second half.

And in fairness, you know you're asking guys to step in who played pretty good, so you're you've got a somewhat confidence.

But yeah, I just the main it's is it fixable? Because that needs to be fixed for this team to make the playoffs. We can't we can't be so susceptible to those big holes in the zone and big, big splash plays, right.

Uh huh? And you know you just you can't catch up. We couldn't catch up.

As Todd said after the game, twenty six points should be enough to win, yes, and so the offense did what it Now two of those points were our safety, but still the offense did what it needed to do. It left some points in the field because of those turnovers, But the offense played well enough to win, and we just we're having a hard time getting a full team effort in recent weeks.

Well, yeah, because you had a breakdown if plays and special teams.

Think about the Detroit game that was I mean, you can hang that on the defense for all. They got three stops in the fourth quarter.

That win that game. Our defense has not been the same since that game. That was probably and I don't know, I guess because everybody was healthy at that stage. That helps. That really does well. We didn't, right, it was the only thing we didn't have. And so but again, you know, we're having the issue of a pass rush trying to get up in there too much time.

Yeah, but the previous okay, we only got to the twice, but we did get some good pressure on him.

He's just hard to get down.

The three games before that, we were getting tons of sacks and we you know, we won two of those and should have won all of them. I think we had fifteen sacks over those three games. So it's kind of coming and going, yeah, right, and now we have everybody, there's nobody that's out in the defensive front. We have what we have, and yeah, the lack of pressure, I mean, we had to get we had to get some hits on Kirk because we see if we if he can just sit back there, he's going to pick you up

What has to happen?

I said, Well, on offense, we need to get some hits on on Kirk Cousins. We can't just sit back there. And and in an offense, we need to be able to run the ball, and we did. We were able to run the ball. So really it was you could probably say the most clearing issue was just we had to hit Kirk more.

I think, you know, again, I think there is kind of like, okay, there is hope offensively, and I thought that game proved it. And so for sure, now you got to figure out how we're going to shore all of this up because there's still time. But you gotta you gotta start clicking. And and it's just not it's not like it's kind of like the Yankees right now, they're they're h and three right now, right and everybody's going, wow, we're gonna click. It's it's hard to just click.

I think I saw that the last like nine World Series that somebody went up three to oh they they finished the sweep. Yeah, I can vouch for two thousand and four because that was right that Red Sox of Carr and I was at Game four. That's not the best World Series game to go for your favorite team? Was game four of a four game?

Yeah?

See weeks Yeah, not overly exciting.

It wasn't the best.

At least I can say I was there there you go. You know, it was funny.

I have I have a note here on not the Rashad Whites film was funny. But you know, he gets like eight yards and first down, five yards and second round then fumbles and the outside PA guy apparently wasn't aware that he had fumbled because he's like first down and I'm like, yeah, not so much.

When he said that, I was like, oh, I guess I missed it. Wait a minute, speaking of things that were missed, things that happened, we.

Probably shouldn't have gone this far into this podcast because everybody out there is going to talk about this.

Here's my theory. This way, we know where I'm going. Yeah, we're not gonna get fined because we're twenty seven minutes in it, and no one's gonna won't officials only only our die diehard listeners or do this far into it. So now though, now we get to the juicy.

So Antoine Winfield, who amazing made I mean, you would never expect anybody to be able to do this twice in one season last year. Twice in one season, including once against the Falcons. He turned what was a sure touchdown for the opposition into a touch back by a hustle play and causing a fumble right before that player across the goal line against Atlanta against Carolina. Still lost the Atlanta game with the Carolina one. That was an

Antoine just do it again? That's impossible?

Okay, So if you don't, you know, but just just to describe it, sure, please cal Pits on a crossing route, catches a pass, eludes several tacklers and he's he's gone, he's.

He does the thing.

I've always said this, this has nothing to do with showboating, celebrating, taunting.

I'm not.

Having trouble with any of that. I don't understand why guys do the thing where they slow down and hold and put the ball down.

Yeah you can. You can strut around and as soon as you cross the goal line strut around. Well, why would you ever even risk this? You're I don't know why you're strudying. You haven't done anything yet until you get across the goal line. So it's not a character flaw. A lot of guys have done it. I'm not saying anything like that.

I just feel like I would be so sure that I had that ball secured until I was in the NFL, and then you know, throw it into the crowd, get a fine, whatever you want to do, have some fun. But wait till the play's over. So Antoine catches up to him, gets his arm in there. Now they review the play.

Well, it as a touchdown, Yeah, right, very important. They review the play.

They choose not to overturn it, to our amazing, to our amazement, because I thought we've had that one for sure, and Basically it comes out that they just didn't have a good enough angle because they didn't have a pylon cam, and the pilon cam is dependent upon which.

Broadcast team, what what broadcast team if we'd had the Tom Brady broadcast tea pilon cam correct. Now, I believe the NFL is working to get them in all stadiums. It's on the street that one's being installed at all stadiums, rumor on the street, the street very soon as we It's kind of that whole thing.

It has to It's like the when the Saints got robbed against the Rams in the NFC Championship game, so they changed the rule. Something bad has to happen to a team, and then they suddenly quickly changed changed the rule, changed the procedure.

Like, that's not helping us very much, thanks a lot. That's manual rule.

Yeah, well that was you know that one. They didn't even change the rule. No, they just emphasized and made sure that everybody knew what the rule was. But this isn't a rule, of course, but it just makes sense that if if this happened in front of Tom Brady, we'd had another angle and we might.

Have got the call right.

But because it was a different broadcast team, and not.

Because Tom Brady was our quarterback. It's because Tom Brady's in the booth. Well they're the number one.

Yeah, they're the number one team, and the number one team has a pylon cams, so that I think the NFL, that's what we're hearing. They're going to make that standard at every stadium. So it's not based on the broadcast team. It's the NFL implementing that.

Yeah, it is. It was a tough one to watch, and you know, in the stadium, of course, they were showing it, you know a little little behind the scenes when you're at home and they're showing it on the boards a lot. That means they feel pretty confident it's the real thing. Those whoever, whoever's in charge of that. Do you have any idea who it is that that would be Mike Dousnaps, but him specifically, because which one. I mean there is like twenty five people in that There was.

Like four times and this is just what I noticed in that game where they were doing a replay over and over again to point something out right, and I was like, this is pretty dang impressive. They are getting this up there quick like there was one where you look like it should have been a flag for an illegal helmet to helmet. Yet there's obviously this antwe which which was pretty you know, it's interesting. It's just because you don't get flagged doesn't mean you're not going to

Did you make the checkout to Roger Goodell or do you make it out to NFL.

I'm not saying I'm right, I'm saying what it looks. They had those those crack that Crack crew up there in the jumble chron room had buck Vision had one replay where they start they stopped it and Kyle Pitts

To me, that looked definitive, right, But that was a camera that was not on the goal line. It was behind So I guess.

Would be like, we don't know for sure because this angle that that what we're seeing is accurate.

They said the plane the play doesn't necessarily mean we got it right. It just means they didn't think they conclusive prove right. I'm saying.

I maybe I wouldn't be very good at that job because that I know that you can use two different or three different angles and piece together the information. But that one looks sure looked like feet weren't in ball was behind feet, so ball can't be an end zone and then ball is loose. But I admit there were some angles where it definitely was hard to tell.

I just let that one. That's just me. That's what it looked like to me.

Apparently I'm wrong, But the bigger issue was the lack of a pylon cam, which will be rectified, but who knows if it will ever matter again?

Right, Well, what you get with the pylon cam is for those who are trying to figure what we're talking about, is right on the goal line and it shoots straight across, so you're at the level of not so long ago, right right where the line is, so you perfect and that I think because the game has become so fast, you almost have to embrace the technology. I wasn't a big fan of replays and stuff, but now I'm to

I mean, yeah, if technology can, right, it hasn't in many ways already, and so it's always it's always advancing, right right.

What about Bucky in his moves? Man, Wow, he has so much for boy my toe hurts.

Yeah, Bucky was dealing with the toe injury that kept him out of practice, which was interesting.

Coach made a comment that he had that issue in college, so this is something that he's used.

Must occasionally habit could cross the definitely wasn't bothering him. And I mean some of those moves. I made a big mistake a night or two ago in texting with some of my friends who used to work here, and I was talking about how good I thought Bucky was, and I'm like, some of his moves reminded me of Barry Sanders, and to which point they got all over my case, thought I was on drugs and I was not. I was not saying that he is Barry Sanders in

His field vision is unreal well, and then just the.

Instant jump cut and on that one yard run he literally jumped back and had four defenders running into each other.

That's what I mean.

Barry Sanders would do stuff like that. He disappeared in a pile and then he and then all of a sudden, hot file pops out over here. He like Bucky did on that one like fifteen yard run, and he just his moves are electric.

Man. No, I'm with you on that.

He did you know that he leads the NFL in NFL running backs in forced missed tackle percentage forty five, something like forty five percent of the attempted tackles on him he forces a mistackler and that's number one in the league. Okay, so it's the evidence. The numbers back up what you're seeing with your eyes. This guy makes people miss on a consistent basis.

Yeah, I really like our running back group. Oh yeah, I think each guy brings something a little bit different, but very solid across the board. But I understand why you would say that that. If you said that to me, I would take it as he's not Barry Sanders, He's.

I should have prefaced the statement, I'm not saying this guy. Look if that's coming from me, I think Barry Sanders is a great FRONA.

First of all, I know who you're texting, So no matter what you said, they're gonna jump ahind for you. So it doesn't I got her, Yeah they can't.

They got me riled up.

Yeah, you can't wait on that one.

They got me really led up.

Yeah.

So I mean, I personally think Barry Sanders is the greatest running back of all time, definitely the most entertaining running back of all time, and there has not been a guy that he's even approached him since. And to suggest that any running back, let alone in a third round rookie, is going to be anything like Barry Sanders is lun lunatic behavior. But you can say I watched Barry Sanders playing boy. That move that Bucky just made really reminds me, and they both were kind of they

At some point he can process very quickly. You see, some guys just have that ability to like I doubt they even think about it. It's just like it's kind of like when you're a kid playing with the other kids, you're not thinking about where to go, You're just trying to go. So but very few kids have that kind of kind of movement. I like that.

I do think it appears that you know the Baltimore game, you said this one was worse than Baltimore on Yeah, and I agreed. But then when I think about it, the fact that we lost Mike and Chris in that game.

Okay, whenever I say that, you need to take out the fact I understand what everybody feels.

About that just this one could have been bad in the same way. When we see Levante go down and stay down for a while, and I what I did not like was when he was still lying down, he was talking to the trainers and he made this hand gesture that you could tell was him showing that my foot bend this.

Way and I don't think it's supposed to go down.

Yeah, and so it was kind of had his hands together like as like in the prayer position, and then it was bending it this way.

We both have colds. If you haven't noticed, Scott gave it to me last week.

I had last week. I'm almost over it. You are, You're kind of still in the throes. Oh yeah, I'm like in the middle.

It's really going around. Yeah, Well, that's just it. I always having that discussion that it just seems to be. And then of course I was talking to some people who have little kids and they go, oh yeah, the kids are sick, and I'm like, now I know where it came from, which I'm not blieving people that have kids. I'm just saying where it comes from their little Petri dishes. You know, look at the germs I got. It's not I don't think eun of us has the flu. No,

I'm not anti no fact, I'm very much pro vaccines, right, but I'm also phobically afraid of needles. Yes, you are, so I will do anything to avoid it. I would rather have the flu than get a shot. It comes down to, and I'm not even kidding. I'm literally phobic about it.

Yeah. I don't think you're supposed to get that if you're not feeling well either. Well, okay, so I'm not a doctor, but I'm just saying, Oh.

I have the number here, Bucky's uh mistackle force percentages forty four point seven, number one in the NFL.

Wow, it's pretty great. Huh, it's very great. It's very great. Go ahead, what else you got on this game? Well, we could there's a lot we could talk about. Well, let's do it. Well, you know you're starting. You're starting to make me feel better about this game. I was really feeling a little salted. Well, we haven't even go ahead, got no I was feeling. But but now that breaking it down and processing it, I'm seeing some you know, there's some good things.

The good news is that the offense is still working. It's a viable offense that can that is still going to be capable of scoring thirty points without Mike and Chris. It's not I miss having those guys out there. It's so much fun to watch those two guys play, but you have to move on, right They keep playing the games and to be able to find a way that's the good thing. There's I don't know if there's a

And is it the same five or six breakdowns? I doubt it. I doubt it.

So they're talking about communication needing to be better, and that's always well. I'm not saying it's a vague issue. I know they know exactly what they're talking about in what plays where it was a problem. But for us we don't get to play by play details of where the communication broke down. But I suppose what it must be is when you start in one thing and then oh no, we need to switch. Everybody needs to get the message. And I'll give you an example of a

Enough communication, not everyone's picking up on it, and so.

We're leaving these coach will sometimes say somebody needed to drop. So like, if you're playing a zone defense in the secondary, maybe this corner was supposed to drop into this zone after this happened, and he didn't, and so that's why the guy's wide open. And Kirk not being pressured a whole lot gave him time to find those So that does make it sound like that something needs to be fixed. But it's hard to feel good about it until you

And you and again after that Detroit game, you really thought, Okay, this is this is going to because Detroit is really really good. I think all that this week, and then when you're looking at Buccaneer wins, all of a sudden, the Commanders, that wasn't such an easy win, right, Right, We've beaten Washington, we beate in Detroit, we've beaten Phillis, and all of a sudden, Philly's playing. Yeah, back to got quality wins, correct.

Right, Look, you can't say anything about the Denver game. They flat out beat us.

YEP, I would all of a sudden become. I didn't think they were going to be a good team. They're decent, Yes, they have a good they're winning.

But anyway, so sometimes you look back and go, ah, we should be six and two. But the Denver game is a lost. You lost, and the Baltimore game you lost, you lost.

I'm with you. It's the two Atlanta games. Yeah, that are painful and doublely painful because they're in your division.

They can't like to I feel like, so you're four down. I just feel like we could have easily won both of those games. So those are going to sting for a while.

But but if you're the Atlanta Falcons right now, you're saying that you're feeling good because you you you got those two games you desperately needed. You know that the team, the team that was that looked like it was gonna do something was us. Because Carolina, I don't think they're going to get it all together. And right now New Orleans is really they're two and six.

They are getting Derek carrback probably this week. That will help them.

But yeah, they play they played Leah, No, they and Atlanta.

Plays dllas I think New Orleans plays Carolina.

Yes, they do. So, come on, man, maybe Carolina rooting for Carolina this week.

You know we were talking about that. Here's here's a note that will kind of give you an idea how all the offense has been working. I remember after Liam Cohen was hired and he was asked various questions about offense and what he was going to try to accomplish, and he talked a lot about getting the run game going and having offensive balance. But we've heard that from other coordinators, including Dave Canals, who tried the same thing. He wanted to have balance and more effective rushing attack,

All right, you did good. Just take your time, take your time. He's turning bright. Ride just chill out.

So Liam said those things. Now, in the last three games, the Buccaneers have surpassed three hundred passing yards and one hundred rushing yards in each game. That's balance, right, at least three hundred passing yards and at least one hunderd rushing yards each of the last three games. The last team to do that four games in a row is Peyton Manning's Denver Broncos in twenty thirteen, and that was

Little salty here, Tristan worse all of a sudden getting called on penalties. I'm you're not believing that there's a lot of places you could call fou but you don't call it on seventy eight. I'm just not allowed to. You can call it on anybody else, but would you call on seventy eight? I'm like looking, going, what are you seeing?

It's like you can't call Michael Jordan for traveling?

There you go?

Yeah, I didn't see this one, but I agreed with you on the one that erased the Chris Godwin touchdo agains bump on replay that did not look like holding or.

At least considering considering the hell Mary the Commanders had against the Bears and the guy almost took the bears jersey off. So I mean, did you see that did you see that play where the Bears defender Tyrek Stevenson.

Did you see that?

Yeah? Where he goes? I watched the get where he's before the hell Mary, you mean where he's during the hill, Mary, Yeah, he's waving to everybody's already been snapped.

Yeah, like he had time to get over there, to get into the play. Because because they only rushed three, Jade and Daniels didn't throw that ball until almost twelve seconds after the snap, which since NFL Next Gen stat started in twenty sixteen, that's like the longest time between a snap and a.

Throat holding balls. Well, they were only.

Rushing three, that probably wasn't holding. Are you saying you saw hold?

Yes? I did, okay in my opinion, in my humble opinion, you know my eyes. Yes, Well, and that was and that was out put another disclaimer on it. That was after watching replays.

And meanwhile, Tyreek Stevenson, Bears defensive back yep, while the ball, while the ball is in play, is sandering down the field, jabbering at the fans. And then he realizes what's going on and he runs over and he's the one who actually tips the ball into the end zone.

Warts caught. Yeah, it's beautiful poet called.

Karma right there, and he knows that he has apologizedmates today.

Not only that, but yeah, he has said in an interview that you have to play to the last play, and so there's a lesson learned. Again, it's like you're about to cross the goal line. Put the ball out there behind your back. See what happens. Yeah.

Gee, we haven't even talked about the fact that that was the creamsicle game. And I heard some people grumbling afterwards and creams Yeah, the one was in two thousand and nine was five in a row.

But come on, that's not the reason why. And they look good. But you do have to understand, though, there was a period of time in Tampa Bay true that people actually thought it was the uniforms. The orange was synonymous with losing all. And now in ninety seven when they switched uniforms, they went to the playoffs for the first time in years.

Yeah.

So I don't know if that has any buried it or not, but that's fact. Yeah, yeah, it did look the stadium looked good. I love the helmet. You probably are digging the the music game. It was mostly seventies seventies. Yeah, little ladies. See, I wish that they would have consulted me a little bit. There's some seventies songs seventy nine. You know, you would have gone, you know, you should

You know.

What I remember about that song Boom boom? Is that it as you remember?

What I remember about it is that Casey Caseon was still doing top four then, yes, And I remember.

I was we were a letter from Scott right now.

We were driving. I can remember that we were driving to six Flags in Saint Louis. I can remember this vividly. And he had his little note was it's the first song with a stutter in it that's reached the top ten since blah blah.

Because they.

I'm like that stuck with me. I was probably what was that you said?

That was seventy nine? I think so I was ten years old and I still remember that for some reason. Oh my god, you're making me laugh. Uh, that's very funny. But yeah, no it was Uh who was my Shrona the knack? Then? Yeah, that's a good name. They had one hit wonder Oh that was their only Yeah that's early because Anie show. So no, I'm serious, I did. And that's how you were. It's funny how you how about the clash? They could have played some of that.

They played sugar Hill Game.

You know what that is?

Rappers Delight?

Yes, you know the song I'm talking about. I can sing about it. I go ahead. I want to hear this. I want can you really hear? You? Just be hip hop hivvy to the hibby to the hip hip hop.

You don't stop rocking to the Bang Bang boogie. Say up, jump the boogie to the rhythm of the Boogiety beat. Now what you hear is not a test. I'm rapping to the beat and me the groove and my friends are going to try to move.

Your feet and try to move your feet. Dude.

I was like, didn't that come out in like seventy nine that? So you know, of course I was listening to that that It is the song, as you memborized earlier.

When that is thatded a song that stutters? Yeah, and again, so.

They were also they also honored the nineteen seventy nineteen and just the Bucks fourth year of existence, not only made the playoffs, but won their first playoff game and therefore made it to the NFC Championship Game YEP, which was here yep, one game away from the Super Bowl, but lost to the Rams nine to nothing.

I think, uh huh.

So you know, there was guys like Jimmy Giles. I liked when they would show a couple of the guys, guys sitting I guess they're in luxury, Yeah, in the box. They showed one at one point it was Batman and Mark Cottney. Richard Richard Batman would and Mark Cottney, two of the stars of the first grade Bucks defense in the late seventies and early eighties. And it's funny because that week somebody desked Tod in the Prescotvers Todd Bulls

Yeah, he's from the same to the same high school. Well, Todd, you know he said that, he said that, but I know he said that.

But I looked it up and maybe they changed the name of the high school, but didn't look like it was the same high school. But they definitely are from the same hometown.

How would you know it wouldn't be the same high school?

Okay, if you go to don't make the Wikipedia joke. Okay, Now, if you go to the Wikipedia pages for Todd Bowles and Richard Wood, it has early early life and it says the high school that each one went to, and it's not the same name.

So it's about ten years there had maybe they changed the name. Yeah, they had to be at least ten year difference, right, it was almost exactly ten years. Okay, So I'm curious now whether they did change the name, because Batman would have been let's see, if he was in the NFL, and what's seventy nine or whatever, what did he graduate from seventy two seventy three? Yeah, I'm just figuring he went to school for four years and so yeah, interesting, it.

Was more like late sixties and late seventies, Okay in any case, Yeah, so you know, coach brings up Batman.

There he is.

He's a he's a really nice guy.

He's a great guy.

I've in the contact I've had with him.

He was one of the one of the first players that did cool things that he drew the Batman silver. He would tape his hands on the back of his hand. Yeap, very very he just really liked Batman, right, Yeah, and that type of stuff was like, you know, they didn't have decals and things like that. You had to create your own stuff. You know. That was magic marker basically.

Well, and then it looks do you know what else to throwback was did you see Will Golston's face mask? You got to get a look at that thing because they were showing him on the during warm ups and then he was up there on the board. I'm like, what in the world it looked like bane he did it just for this game. Well, you know, it's a different helmet. I don't remember him wearing that face mask before.

It had like five bars.

And the vertical bars and it was like really tall the bars were it looked like I said, first off, I'm like, that looks like a Hannibal Lecter, and then somebody else, a younger person, because Hannibal Lecter is Silence.

Of the Lamps, which is like the early nineties, right.

Said it reminded him of Bane, which was the villain in one of those one or more of those Batman movies.

Right.

Both of them had face masks that involved a grill of your mouth.

So that was pretty crazy. Yeah, they did it. They did a really nice job with all of the orange and all of the the songs and everything and fun and the players enjoyed it. And you know, big props to Baker Mayfield walking in Yeah, cream sickle, Chris Godwin, a lot.

Of guess you see, Oh Godwin, did you see the Kate Aten pre game picture?

You know who did that? His wife? She dressed him. She she dressed him and had him, uh squared away. I was seeing if what are you looking for?

What I want to know is, what's the name of that font that everybody uses to make it look like seventies kind of a bubbly looking.

What's the name of it? What's the name? Just just open the door. I don't think she's right, Well, don't just open the door and there's there's there's Dan.

Hey, Steve, what what's the name of the font that we were using for all the seventies stuff?

H Gooper Goober with a P G O P Gooper.

All right, thank you our podcast audiences.

Yeah, thank you. Well, that's that's very fast information. Cooper Cooper with a G Gooper, like like a mini Cooper. Yeah with the Cooper yeah Gooper goop. Wow.

I wondered that during the game, but there was no. We're right right outside Jeff's door, which is where we're in his office to record.

Are all the graphic designers right? So obviously they because we're too lazy to walk downstairs to the new studios. Who needs it? Don't tell if we're not on camera. I know. Yeah, that's the next step they want to do, but that may wait till next year.

As several of our listeners have reminded me. The next step is merchandise.

Oh but there's that too, right, we should just you and I get like ten of ten. Yeah, make a profit. I'm not trying to make a profit. Yes, so uh it was really good too, uh, and I think the fans got into it and it's fun. And you know, of course, you know, people are bum because it is you know, it was a loss, but you know you gotta kind of take it in the spirit of you know, you go to the game. It's another entertainment value that's there.

I think that also over the years they've done, they've developed and done a better job of all the surrounding merchandise. There's a lot of cool looking yeah throwback stream yeah merchandise these days, not just you know, one pole here or T shirt there. There's a lot of really cool looking stuff.

Yeah. I I wasn't feeling it this year. I did. I did wear one of my UH logo athletic Yeah. I saw that jackets which fit very nicely, and it was what I liked about it was being down in the locker room the players like, oh that is that's the real deal. That is so you know, they're always Yeah, they're in that's yeah. Yeah, I've got all the all the really cool stuff the companies that're not in business anymore. Yeah, I wore I wore my polo from the early nineties.

It is.

It's a very weird. But it has my uh name is my name embroidered into it. I swear to I maybe next year I'm going to wear by what are they Zoomba Pansubas. I'm gonna wear I've got I've got a brand new pair in package you've never opened, never opened. I am going to why didn't you do it this year? I think you said the same thing. I know, but you got to be inspired to do it. But I'm going to top it off with I'm gonna wear that.

If I ever had that one.

I don't have any idea where it is. Yeah, yep, white terry cloth as a matter of fact. So next up is the Kansas City Chiefs. Kansas City, Kansas City, here we.

Come, and they are the last undefeated team in the league.

Do you remember any games where we beat a seven and o team? Yeah?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

I remember we beat like, was that the Minnesota Vikings. I didn't they go like fifteen and one that year.

Nineteen ninety eight. Okay, they were seven and oh we were three and four. We beat them twenty seven to twenty four. And that was the only regular season game they lost. That was an interesting season. In their kicker, I think it was Gary Anderson. It was Gary, not Morton Anderson, right, I think I think it was Gary Anderson didn't miss a kick the entire regular season, which was a bigger deal.

In ninety eight.

It wouldn't surprise me if a guy did that this year.

I don't. I mean, I know what you're gonna say. That was when that was where I missed in uh.

In the NFC Championship game against Atlanta, he miss missed right the indoors. I think would have been a clinching field and so he missed. That was his first miss of the whole season. And it wasn't even that long, so it can happen.

Yes, Was that the year the Atlanta Falcons went to they went to the Super Bowl? Yeah? They we was in Miami. I was there the charge. I was against the Chargers. Now I think it was Denver? Was it ninety eight?

I was working up in the in the video in the booth control on the boards with Rick Odioso, and we we have a bunch of prepared notes that we would put up to like, sure, that's the first three SAT game in the Super Bowl stuff.

Right right, right right, you had it all researched out, ready to go, which is which is good? That's good stuff. Oops. You're looking to see who was there that year? I'm pretty sure it was Denver? Are you looking at Well?

I think it was the second of the two Super Bowls that John Elway won at the very end of his nineteen ninety eight postseason.

Well, no, I thought that, Well maybe because the first one was in thirty four to nineteen. Okay, the first one was yeah, okay, but I know that.

Yeah, Yeah, they beat the Packers at the end of the ninety seven season. That was John Elway was there first. Yes, San Diego. That was Generalway's first.

Super Bowl super Bowl. This one for Johnny, this one's for Joe's That what they said, Yeah, that's what the owner said. Yeah.

Okay, So anyway, why why were we talking about that?

We were talking because, uh Gary Anderson mystic field.

Okay, So it also happened in two thousand in Minnesota came here and they were seven and zero. We were three and four again because we'd lost four games in a row after winning the first three, and we beat the crap out of them that game, forty one to thirteen. Those are the two times that's happened. So we're trying to go to Kansas City and beat a seven and

Yeah, so it's a it's a tall tesk.

But in two thousand, after you know, we're three and four and then we beat the breaks off the Vikings and then after that we won seven of our last nine games, So maybe we can get the same sort of boost.

If we can get this, that would be can we can we beat the streak? Also of Taylor Swift, she has not lost since she's gone there, or anytime she goes to Arrowhead stage. She hasn't witnessed a defeat, witnessed a defeat.

Speaking of Taylor Swift, her bow, Travis Kelcey her bow. All of last year it was this hole, is Travis Kelcey finally washed up because he didn't have the big numbers. He didn't he didn't get to a thousand yards for the first time in like eight years. He only averaged like ten point eight yards per catch, which is not terrible for a tight end, but was his career low. And then in the playoffs he went nuts. It was like there was a Travis Kelcey of old and he

Touch on something like that. Was it was interesting. Kate Oten was talking about him and Caid was saying, as a person, he's very black and white in techniques and things like that. And when he watches Travis, he goes he does all these things that you can't do that, that's not you're not allowed, you're not supposed to do that,

I could see that frustrating kid because he's absolutely by the book.

Oh and that's what the coaches love him.

Yeah, he knows exactly where he's supposed to do on every play and he does it.

And so it just makes you laugh that, hey, there's two ways to get it done, as long as you get it done.

Right, and everybody has the innate talents.

Though it's a get it done business. Also, we didn't mention Gronk was at the game. Okay, no, he was at the Baltimore A game. That's probably why we did That's why we didn't mention. I was just thinking of that. Jimmy Giles was the crew guy. Tight end, tight end, tight end, it's a theme right now. Well it was tight end Sunday.

So Travis kelcey part of it is because early in the year she Rice, their second year receiver, had become Patrick Mahomes go to guy for all the underneath stuff and the quick hitters that you want yak on and finding the holes in zones. That's long been a Travis kelce thing. Uh And you know Travis Kelsey is like a safety blanket for Mahomes. Well, Rashi Rice got hurt and is out I think for the year, and so now there's Mahomes thrown to Kelsey in all those situations.

Are they scoring a lot of points? No, they're not. Their offense is not. I don't want to, I don't from my just quick look at them. Defensively, they do really really well. They're not great against the run defensively, no, they are. They are great against them. They're good just all around. Okay, defensively, so that's keeping him in games. You have Patrick Mahomes, So there's the difference maker there. But they haven't been the explosive offense that they have in the past.

Mahomes only has he has eight touchdown passes and nine interceptions. Really, that doesn't sound very Mahomes the end doesn't know.

You know a lot of it. You can crack it up to.

They tried, like last year, they didn't have good answers at wide receiver, but they still won the Super Bowl. Right this year, it seemed like they didn't want to be in that situation again, so they drafted Xavier Worthy in the first round speedstra out of Texas at a record at the common for forty yard dash, and then they signed former Cardinal and Raven Marquise Hollywood Brown. Well, Hollywood Brown got hurt on the very first play of the first preseason game and.

Is out for the year. Uh, the savior Worthy is there, but he's you know, he's he's a rookie.

He's he's he's very very fast, but I think he's having some trouble with physical cornerback player.

So he does He's not giving you a ton, He's giving you some big plays.

He's great on end rounds. Then they resigned Juju Smith Schuster in August after he's cut by the Patriots of Ball teams, but he's kind of a one trick poney, straight line speed guy. Kelsey was slow out of the gates. So again they're back in this situation where like who's who's Mahome's throwing to. But they traded for Deandrew Hopkins last week, so that should help, right, So they're trying to piece it all together. Losing Rashid Rice was big for them, and uh, the run game has been not

So well, it's a test and a half, no question, weather wise, And if you're just curious about that type of thing, which I am, because I like to know what I'm getting into right now for Monday, This Monday Monday high of seventy one, which is nice. It's a night game though, low of fifty seven, so we're talking high fifties, seventy seven percent chance of rate, right, And you know as well as I do. In the Midwest, when the rain rolls in it just stayed. In Florida,

In Saint Louis, if you if it was raining at your house, you knew it was raining.

At your budd's house, yes, yeah, yeah, here.

That was an adjustment coming here, going uh, you know, and maybe I got a softball game five miles away, right, and it's poor in here. I'm like, oh, we're gonna get rained out, and we don't get rained out because it didn't rain there at all.

Right, now, see this, this this is not good. This is not good. They're looking at it. Winds are going to be ten to twenty miles an hour. Rainfall may reach nearly one inch, so it's going to be a mutter. I don't want. I don't want that. Unfortunately, on Sunday when we fly in eight chance of range uh and potential for heavy rain. So I guess if you just say rain, it's steady. When they say heavy rain, that's when you know you're getting so uh it's in fact it's raining all weekend in Kansas City.

Well maybe they'll all be depressed and they won't play.

With it's cloudy there all the time, doesn't matter. I like that city. That's a good are you Are you planning on anything special in Kansas City?

We'll see if Pat's available. That's Patrick Brazil. I used to work here and it has been for a while.

Their top football director of video. There three super Bowl rings. It's doing well. Yeah, and he he helps run the combine now yeah, like Dave Dad Yeah yeah, Pat's good guy. Barbecue Yeah, that's I like.

I like Kansas City barbecue. Yeah, get some burnt ins.

Yeah, see look at you. Yeah, high pro file. I can't think of the names of the big places. There's a lot of them. I'm thinking there's there's a lot of there's a lot of big name places that you always see, like when you know, when they do the features on the Kansas City coaches and stuff of that. Nature. But I also think I want to say Mahomes opened up a.

Restaurant really, yeah, a barbecue place.

I don't know if it was barbecue or not. I want to say that they did open up a place, so, yeah, it'll be uh so it'll be a mutter game. It looks like I don't know if that bows well for us or not.

Well, yeah, I don't know either. Is cant say barbecue your favorite type of barbecue? You know what I think is isn't even close.

I like them fits barbecue.

Yeah, I don't care for Carolina barbecue.

I don't like the yellow sauce, yeah, or the white sauce. Yeah.

Gates, that's one of the famous places I've eaten at Gates.

Was Yeah, last time we were there, wherever we went to eat, they had a barbecue platter and I went, yeah, that sounds good. I thought, I I thought I had. I ended up in a meat comatose. I'm not eating. I ate a year's worth of meat that night. Have you ever been to a Brazilian steakhouse? No, because I know I'm not. Yes, it's a bad idea, Yeah, just for me, it is. I've never been to one. Yeah, A lot of a lot of beat. I don't eat a lot of red meat, so I mean, I love

Gates is the one I was trying to think of.

Yeah, so that'll be that'll be fun. I'm sad that it's it's going to rain because I like to when we have night games during the day, I like to go walk around on the city, just kind of you know, well we're killing time, right, get out of the hotel, walk around. Maybe you'll get lucky. Yeah, maybe it'll pass through you mean, yeah, not holding my breath. Usually, maybe there'll be a couple hours where you can sneak in and sneak out. It'd be worth it. What else do

No?

I want to get the Zion.

Oh yeah, that's right, let's do the Zion part. I forgot all about Zion.

Sorry Zion. The Salty Dogs.

And We're back here on the Salty Dogs Podcast for our favorite part of the show, it's when we have a special guest, and today that guest is cornerback Zion McCollum.

Thanks for your time to day and Zion, of course, thank you guys for having me.

Happy to be here, I hope, He says that after this interview's over with, So to me, it kind of seemed like that from the day one this season, you jumped into this full time starting job, and it just seems like you've had total confidence from day one.

Is that accurate? Yeah, for sure.

I knew the step that I had to take and the shoes that I had to fill, and I was pumped for and I trained all off season for it, and I was mentally prepared, and so first game happened and I was ready to go for.

You were ten passes defense, It's type for third in the league. A couple of interceptions leads the team. So it seems like, in addition to being confident, it's going well for you.

Would you agree with that?

Yeah, I'd say I'm starting to find some success. You know, of course, I've always looking to improve. I'm always looking to put my best foot forward and continue to be the best person that I can be. But you know, I'm not satisfied, but I'm allowing myself to be comfortable with how I'm playing and continue to look for improvement.

What attribute do you make to improving as much as you had? What have you done to get there?

I think just mentally, the approach that I've taken to the game and understanding my athleticism and how it matches up with the rest of the league. And the more I understand that and what I can get away with, things that I can do to take advantage of some of the athleticism I have, It's making me turn into the type of player that I myself.

Are you Are you thinking as much on the field or you're reacting?

Definitely more reacting.

You know.

I tried to do all my thinking during the week, so I'm watching a ton of film, I'm talking with teammates and stuff and getting all my thinking out of the way so that on game day I don't have to do any of that.

I can just react and go off of my muscle memory.

That play against I think it was against Baltimore, right the fumble recovery. So were you just along for the ride or what were you doing in the middle of that pack? Because it was like a thirty yard push to the end zone.

The only thing that was going through my mind was legs, keep pumping, legs, keepump me. And I was looking down at the lines and I'm seeing like twenty fifteen to ten. I start to see the pain of the end zone and I'm like, there's nothing that's going to stop me from getting into the en zone.

I know a couple of teammates helped push.

Me a lot. Yeah, it was definitely like they had they not pushed, you were going to get there.

Oh I was gonna get there.

But that's your story.

You speaking of plays that didn't that were amazing but didn't eventually account And I'm not going to ask you your opinion on the call because I don't want to get you fined by the league. But the Antoine winfield play, he did it again. What was the reaction like on the sideline when that play was not overturned?

It was unfortunate for sure.

I mean, we have to have short term memory, so you know, I always got to look and just be like, live in the moment, get to the next play. But Antoine, he makes plays like that all and it's it's wild that it almost happened again compared to everything that happened last year in Carolina and so, but that's just the player is. He never gives up on the play, and it didn't go that way. But you know, if you keep making an effort like that, you know he's going to have more calls go as.

Well than not. I don't know if you can answer this question or not. You know, we hear coach talk about communications how much you know, you know, people go, well, what do you mean if I say, Scott, don't do that anymore? Or whatever? That's what we think of communication. What is communicating when you're in the middle of a game.

Yeah, I'd say it's just making sure everybody's on the same page, because you know, we speak about things and how we want to handle stuff during the week and Coach Bills does a really good job of putting us in all these different situations that we'll get in the game, and you know, having a plan and then when you get out there into the field and the heat of battle, you have to be able to execute that plan. And

And you're doing this in a very short span of time. It's not like you have really a lot of time to talk about it, and you have eleven people trying to get it done. So what is your thoughts right now? Is it just we're almost there? Coach said five or six place? That seems to be the difference. Do you feel the same way?

One hundred percent? I feel the same way.

I mean, I think it comes down to just focus, and you know, we do have a lot of young guys that are in there.

And it's a speaking from an old time at that Yeah.

Yeah, And there's you know, play calls in the game plan is going to change week to week, and so we have to be able to take in information, erase what happened previously, and focus only on what's in front of us. And lack of confusion has to be handled in the meeting rooms, and we have to ask more questions as players, and you know, we have to reach out to our coaches more when.

We are feeling like things are confusing.

But I mean it's just five to six plays, you know, it's not a lot and so if we can just focus for four quarters completely strong and talk to each other in and out of every place.

Have you watched film on the last game already? Yes? And did you just shake your head one.

Because I mean it's just things that we see in the film room, you know, and you go out there and they don't have enough happen in your way.

And you know, I know a lot of guys and.

You know, including myself for a couple of players is out there like come on, Yeah.

Next up is the Chiefs And maybe it's not the most dynamic offense that they've had since Patrick Mahomes is there, but still Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelcey. And so what's the big challenge facing the Chiefs offense?

Yeah, they just know how to win. I mean, they can play in any type of way, you know. I think they have really good chemistry on the offensive side of the ball. They has been playing with a lot of those guys for for a while, and some of those receivers are doing a good job of stepping up in that scheme. But I think they're just so multiple and they can do so many different things. They're not too focused on necessarily, you know, putting forty points up

And yeah, what do you know about Arrowhead?

Uh? Well, my co Kevin ROSSI yeah, Jersey retired there.

He played there for a long time and he's always told us it's the most electric home field advantage in the NFL. And you know, I've heard we went to Lombardi ear Ta Green Bay year and that was a cool experience in old school stadium and I saw, I'm excited to see what Arrowhead is about.

See. I like that the players get excited as much as we do when we go to the Scott you know, Scott got his start in Kansas City with the Chiefs last one.

Because I know you got some other things to get to, but how exciting was it for your family that you and your brother got to play in a game against each other earlier this season?

Oh, that's like everything, It's a dream, Like our mom is gonna cherish that moment for the rest of your life. And all the family that was able to make it down, you know, and just seeing their faces light up after the game when we're all together and what we just experienced.

It's definitely a special family.

It's pretty rare. Well, thank you for your time.

I know you've got other things to do, but we appreciate you stopping mine, of.

Course, no problem.

Thanks the Salty Dogs.

And we're back here on the Salty Dogs Podcast. I'm still Scott, I am still Jeff and Zion, thank you for Yeah. Good stuff from Zion, yep, very very quality guy.

What you know. I like when I like when he says helping the young guys, yeah, it's not great. Seriously.

I like his answer where he's you were asking him how he's become confident, and he's like he's kind of realized how his athletics I'm compared to most players.

How he can use that to his advantage.

And now he is because when we drafted him, that was the story. The guy was off the charts, measurables in terms of athletics, the best athletics score ever combined athletics, whatever they do, index thing for a cornerback at the combine.

Do you think he like all of a sudden realized like, holy smokes, I am fast.

No, I think he realized that early on just being fast wasn't good enough but now that he knows what he's doing and that speed and the size and the jumping ability like on the interception in New Orleans.

And it's good to hear that. All the work's done during the week, so all he has to do is react to what he sees. Good stuff.

So now we have questions from fans. Okay, first one is Mike in Connecticut. All right, he says, Hey, dogs, is it just me or is it a little salty in here? I feel like I've been at the beach for a week after the last two games. Oh salty, I'll be honest. I'm just writing to complain this week good. I clicked on the app last night and the postgame report headline was turnovers stop the Bucks.

I wrote, do you write the headlines? I do, Scott? What are you being so salty for?

You know that's not the problem here for Mike, Scott. I know you do this for a living and are very good at your job.

Right there. That's the I really like you but coming But.

But I think a more accurate headline would be defense stops the bucks. Okay, I'm gonna stop right here because there's a lot to go in this email. But this is this is not a fair criticism, And not that I mind getting criticism, as we said, write in with whatever you want, but I do not agree that this is fair criticism because he didn't read the full title.

Let me read you the full title, full title, full disclosure, full title, if I can find it. You don't know it off the top of your head.

Well, I think I do, but I want to make sure. He said the title is turnovers stopped the Bucks. The title is turnovers stop Bucks from keeping pace in shutout lost to Falcons. That's absolutely correct. That are It was a shootout and the defense couldn't stop them enough, so we as an offense had to keep pace, and they moved the ball four under twenty three yards, but didn't only score twenty six points to their thirty one because of the lost opportunities by the field goals. The defense

So no, you know what, Mike, I don't agree. If you have.

A rebuttal right in next week, we are permitted. I do not agree with your criticism on this one.

We are permitted to agree to disagree. He says.

We all know you usually won't win games if you don't when the turnover battle. I think the first drive fumble was just careless and the picks were definitely bad throws being forced in a tight spot. But I can't help but think if they aren't playing from behind, the picks aren't.

Going to happen.

The run game, well, we wouldn't have been playing from behind. We would have probably scored on the first drive, but we had a turnover.

Right.

Run game is improved, but it's impossible to run and grind when you're playing when you're playing from behind. And this is something a conversation was having with somebody, Uh maybe it was you, about how we didn't run much in the second half.

I'm like, what does it matter? They still moved the ball. It was me because I made a comment to you. I said I felt like we got away from the run and you looked at me and you said, Dan, we were three hundred yards in the air. What are you complaining about it? And I stopped for Zaan and I went, you know when you say that way, it was working.

So you were making to move the ball running and we moved the way passing and as long as would you get when you get mad at a team for a quote unquote unbattening the run for half, right, it's when the offense doesn't work at all, right, or not very well? You stopped running the ball, yeah, but we were moving the ball. I mean, we got some runs in there, but we also had some nice passes in there. And then of course towards the end, and this is kind of what he's sure. You had to throw the ball.

No more flee flickers for you.

The defense has allowed two hundred and thirteen points this year, which is almost two thirds of the way to all of last year's regular season total. I know you'll tell me why I'm wrong.

I'm not.

I'm not, but the middle of the field looked wide open all day long against Denver, Baltimore and both the Landing games.

I agree, we said that constantly.

I mean, how do you lose a guy as big as Kyle Pitts twice yesterday. Defense has always been a strength, and especially now with fifty percent of your offense out for a while, they need to lock it to help win some games. If the offense wants to be balanced and grind out some clock, then the defense needs to keep them on the field. It's going to be hard to win if you have to put up at least thirty points every week just to stay ahead. Okay, that's all my bitching for now. I will say I'm really

You're welcoming a week.

It's one of the things that you like call and invent. And I don't I mean write in I don't disagree with the bulk of this email and the fact that the defense is a problem. It would be ridiculous to say otherwise. All I'm arguing is the title made sense, and just because the defense has been problem doesn't mean you have to make every title Bucks lose because defense had trouble.

Right, Yeah.

My thought on the game was the defense couldn't keep us out of a shootout, so we had to hold our own in the shootout, and the reason we were unable to despite moving the ball is because we turned the ball over yep, and they got a couple of short field touchdowns because of it.

I think that was a really good debate, right.

It's hard for hard for micing a debate when he can't answer back.

I mean, he can't. But you know, you're taking what he is saying and you're responding to.

But I don't mind criticism. I learned that the hard way in my career.

Yep.

Oh yeah, just well, early on, I wasn't really good at taking criticism until it took me some years to realize that these people are trying.

To help you.

Oh if they see if they see a type of in your story, yeah, or a factual err or something, and they tell you there's no reason to get mad. It's not their fault. They're trying to help you point it out so you can fix it.

Yeah, they're not.

It's not it's not coming from a bad place. It's coming from a good place.

Yeah. But I think isn't that kind of what youth does? You kind of have to learn that. Yeah.

Yeah, and I was a bit of a hothead back then. All Right, this is from Colton. You recall he's from Idaho.

The sound guy.

Yeah, I think there's something about that and the sound Okay, from last week's show, I would have never guessed that Scott Love's nineties.

Rap oh wait till he here's this podcast.

It was your tough arts, I would say it's nineties rap and hip hop. Well, sugar game, it's.

Not nineties, no, but the fact that you actually were doing that, ye's got to totally enjoy.

I don't know if favorite artist, but my favorite album is The Chronic by Doctor Dre Okay that came out like in ninety one, the.

Actor.

Yeah, uh, that would be that. That would be my favorite one.

But I get you.

Put me on a nineties hip hop channel on Sirius XM, and you're fine for.

You're fine for keep you. I remember when you're cranky, I'm gonna I always think.

I would say nineties music in general, the nineties to me are by far the best decade from music. And it's not just hip hop and rap. It's you know, all the stuff from Seattle. There's some good rock in there. There's just a lot of good music from the period. Okay from last week's show, Okay, Jeff definitely is onto something with yacht rock radio. If you ever get a chance to see the band Yachtlee Crue, that's cute.

That's that's cute.

You better go amazing cover band that does all the yacht rock hits.

Oh wow, I like yacht rock. It's just different.

It's funny because he spells yacht yacht except when he's except when he writes the name of the band, which is correctly spelled yahd. I work at a marketing firm and do all the audio visual, so I use a lot of similar gear to you guys. So sorry for born Scott with all the tech questions. One last topic from last week's show, and I don't think we're gonn be able to answer this week because I bet you didn't check. Well, who does the cyber truck belong to?

I have no opinion his permission. The more I thought about it, the more I was like, I'm glad I didn't say because because that is a very recognizable vehicle. So I don't, you know, I don't know if he wants right, but we will, we will speak with him.

Colton says his guest is co Keief, which is not accurate.

That is not accurate. No, Finally, you can guess all you want, but in this case you were wrong.

Finally, can the NFL please just have Pilon cams running for every game, every play, Both in zones. So we talked about that already. I think that is the goal that they're getting to. Yep, such a shame that Winfield got another strip taken away from him. Would it have been the first time in team history that the same player had back to back seasons with they force fumbled into a touchback?

Yeah? I can't look that up. Yeah, I don't know how you would. That is such a freak play. Yeah, I don't know.

There's not really four fumble slash touchback categories on any of the search engines that I can use.

So sorry, sorry by that. Colton.

All right, Colton says, that's it.

Colton Phipps Official Idaho Buccaneers in basket. Cool. Thanks. Next is Dan.

From Palm Harbor, Hoy JEFFN.

Scott.

What a crazy last two games it has been. Despite our chances of winning the NFC South has been shattered. I wouldn't say shattered, but it's definitely gonna be a lot harder. We could still get in as a wildcard team, just need to get on a winning streak.

See now, we can still win the division. We can still win the division because you're assuming that the division's not changing, that everybody's gonna stay the same the rest of the year, and it could go you could get further behind, or you could go above.

So we need to win two more games than the Falcons. Doo, correct, So we could maybe go let's see, there's nine games left.

Huh.

We could go six and three and they go four and five.

U Uh, you just don't know. Have to wait and see.

Okay, says after the Chiefs and forty nine Ers and our bye week, we have a much easier schedule.

I'm gonna stack here.

First thing. By the way, do you realize that the forty nine ers have their buy this week?

Yeah, and we're playing on Monday nights, so they're coming off ten days of rest and we're you fourteen days? Yeah? Are fourteen days of rest?

They have an eight day advantage in rest.

That's crazy? Yeah. Yeah.

And Christian McCaffrey is apparently returning to practice this week.

Why not pi? Al right, why not pile?

Uh?

They got two weeks to get them ready, and we're running a short week, and.

We're running on a short weekday. You get a road Monday night game, so now you got to travel back. You're not back here till Tuesday morning.

Just got better. Yeah, we don't. We're not gonna get We're not landing until after four in the morning.

So I'm positive we will turn it around. Being been a Bucks fan for my entire life, good, I remember when we went to and fourteen, that one season and many other rough rounds. My question is not Bucks related. Since Halloween is Thursday. What's your favorite candy? Since I know how much you love Halloween, Jeff, you can direct

Okay, I I'm I'm not a really big, big candy person, but if I'm gonna, if I'm gonna indulge in candy, there's I like Eminem's yeah, and I like and I like three Musketeers. Come on, do you.

Gotta be kidding me? All the all the candy bars in the world that you can have, and you choose three Musketeers. Absolutely, have you ever gotten a bag of a mixture of like three Musketeers and Milky Way?

And Snickers and maybe something and three musket If it's not you, you know what's left at the end.

All the Three Musketeers because nobody likes them. That's not that's the last put all those put put put five different types of candy bars.

This Thursday night, and see what's left at the end. Wow. Great, I can't and not believe you said milk, three Musketeers.

Okay, right in, right in for us next week people, and tell me if you agree with me that that's a ridiculous choice.

Like I said, I don't eat much candy, but if I was, that would be it. If you don't eat much candy, then you should definitely eat good candy when you Well I did when I was a kid, but as an adult.

I'm mostly more If I'm gonna eat any Halloween I.

Mean, if you're talking about some chocolates, I mean I liked, uh, you know, a dark chocolate, that type of thing, But.

I'm just notn't you sophisticated? Have you ever had a Milky Way Midnight? No, that's dark chocolate is really good. Yeah, I would say I'm more happy to see the fruity candy on Halloween. If there's any leftover. But if I if I wanted to a candy fruity just you know, like a Sara.

Patch Kis or something like that.

As opposed to chocolate, I'm not gonna eat a lot of it. But if I'm going to have a couple, and then I really like Mike and Ikes. But but in terms of chocolate, if there's one candy bar, it's another for candy called.

Mike and Ike. Yeah. See, I don't like Freddy candy.

If there's one candy bar, I'd hope to find it would be one. Okay, that's the best candy bar in my opinion.

When I when I was a kid, I used to like pay day are good. But what we did with payday is we would put it in the freezer and then you would like have it liked for a long time, because you.

Know, I've done candy bars in the freezer, most notably Charleston Chew.

But I don't see how that works with the you know, I will say this, I will say this, I will break all my rules for a butterfinger. Okay, that's a much better right now that you now that you you know got me remember on the airplane when we were on Team travel when we used to get candy on the plane with like full size candy before they had nutritionness on the aircraft where you had all types of stuff, and they used to have the jumbo size. The butter

I've I'm not a big butterfinger fan. Uh huh, But I think that's a much better answer.

You do like that one better. I had to think for a little bit. But but my go to is, I mean usually this, Okay, you know what a mini size eminem bag looks like. Yeah, okay, I can open one of those up, take two or three Eminem's, seal it up, package it and not eat those for the next few days. And then I can't because a crazy old No, it's just not big. Borings are boring? How can you say that they bore me? Great candy.

Another one that would be big on my list would be like toffee candy bars like heath Bar, although score is superior.

To heath not had a score, but I've had heath Bar. I like I wouldn't get cat bar. Yeah.

The best thing about Halloween candy bars is I'm ever want a full candy bar like I wouldn't eat a full Snickers.

That's just too much. But give me that little one bite that's perfect.

Kats are good, Kats are good.

Twigs is good Milky Way Midnight. As I mentioned, right, are you a left or right? Twigs? All right?

Next one is from our friend in Brazil, Alexander. All right, Holy salty ones. Hope to find you both well, I mean, we're kind. Let's begin by explaining my movie for reference that was not understood last week. I wrote Mike, and he writes Mike the way Mike does with the M one K three Mike Evans will return in reference to the earlier James Bonds movies that ended with James Bond

My bad.

No, But I mean, I don't think James Bond is very popular in the United States. I mean, I know he's a British character, but those are big movies here. I've never been a Hue James Bond guy, so I haven't seen most of the movies. So I definitely didn't get the reference. I've definitely got the terminator reference. I love the creamsickles. Hope they stick with one game a season and do not give it up because some think that's bad luck. Mister Smith. Maybe you can help me

Am I correct? Is it easy to get this data?

No, it's not, since you did, thanks for they. I mean in a three and a Todd Bowles type three four defense with two outside linebackers standing up, it's always been a part of it's always going to be a part of that offense, that defense that sometimes those oilb's drop into into coverage and if they're good at it, like I think Chris Braswell is kind of good at it.

Joe's not bad.

That's just that'll gives you different wrinkles because generally those guys are rushing the passer, but sometimes you have what's called the simulator pressure and maybe maybe Levante, David Blitzes and Joe Tryon Cherenko drops back into coverage and you're not asking a guy to follow a tight end fifty years down the league. It's basically, it's usually gonna be

Okay, very good.

One more, Oh good, this is Alexander again.

Oh and one more thing you can't well, but wait, there's more.

When we won both of our super bowls, we were swept by a divisional opponent. So maybe last Sunday was a good thing. No that it was New Orleans the other two.

Yeah, that's nice. See that.

Maybe it'll be like twenty twenty one, we'll we'll play Atlanta in the playoffs.

Yeah, like we do with New Orleans. Yeah yeah, and win the one game and then say the one that matters, we got you. Yes, that would be that would be very rewarding. Well, there's a lot of football left. I actually feel better about things after this, after this, after this session. Yes I do. However, I'm I'm really just would be really super if super if they if we could just figure out a little Okay, I'm not greedy, So let's just break down three miss defensive plays. Let's