Speaker 1: Welcome to two Bucks Insider Live presented by Verizon. Casey
Speaker 1: Phillips here with senior writer and editor Scott Smith, and
Speaker 1: we have a playoff game to talk about our favorite
Speaker 1: time of year. We know you probably have plenty of
Speaker 1: questions for us. If you want to send those in,
Speaker 1: do it underneath our live video on Facebook in the
Speaker 1: comments section. For now, let's dive a little bit into
Speaker 1: last week's game, which feels kind of obsolete at this
Speaker 1: point in some ways of where it almost felt like
Speaker 1: a preseason game of a lot our starters, get a
Speaker 1: little work, pull them out, try not to get her
Speaker 1: go into the playoffs. So, um, what do you feel
Speaker 1: like the takeaways are that you can glean from a
Speaker 1: game like that that is a little unconventional. Not much, yes,
Speaker 1: not much, but I think you can take away that.
Speaker 1: I think what coach Bowles wanted to do by playing
Speaker 1: the starters for most or all of the first half,
Speaker 1: depending on who they were, was to keep them sort
Speaker 1: of in the momentum. Like the week seventeen game had
Speaker 1: been pretty good, especially on offense, and so I think
Speaker 1: he didn't want them to rest for two weeks and
Speaker 1: just not you know, staying sort of game mode, but
Speaker 1: he also wanted to reduce the injury of risk as much,
Speaker 1: the risk of injury as much as possible, and so
Speaker 1: in that regard it was kind of success. I know
Speaker 1: the team wouldn't call it a success because they lost,
Speaker 1: but they did get a fast start on offense, a
Speaker 1: fast start on defense, and they got out of the
Speaker 1: game in pretty good health. Several guys have said this week,
Speaker 1: including coach UH, coach left Which and Tom Brady on
Speaker 1: his podcast, that they are as healthy now as they've
Speaker 1: been since like the O T A. S. That's pretty
Speaker 1: incredible and how rare in terms of typically you think
Speaker 1: you're you're least healthy most of the time at the
Speaker 1: end of the season, and how nice to be in
Speaker 1: that position. You know, that week a team game helped
Speaker 1: us get there. We we didn't play nine guys because
Speaker 1: seven and actors that were injured in two more Tristan
Speaker 1: and Mike Ems didn't play. We didn't play nine guys
Speaker 1: that had some issue, you know, Tristan as an ankle, etcetera,
Speaker 1: Vita Bay with his calf. Actually Mike Ems was just sick.
Speaker 1: But um, all those guys had a chance to get
Speaker 1: better and they may all return this week, Yeah, which
Speaker 1: would be incredible. Um, And I know that one of
Speaker 1: the guys that we just keep talking about on the show,
Speaker 1: we talked about it might just need to be a
Speaker 1: recurring segment is the Chris god Went updated the Godwin
Speaker 1: segment to tell me what the Godwin segment is about
Speaker 1: this week? Well, Chris came out of the game at
Speaker 1: the same time that Tom did, after five five drives,
Speaker 1: a little bit before halftime. But even even so, he
Speaker 1: still caught six passes, and I was kind of hoping
Speaker 1: that he would stay in the game a little bit longer.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of glad he didn't now, so he didn't
Speaker 1: risk injury. But he just needed three more catches to
Speaker 1: break the Keyshaw Johnson's two thousand one single season record
Speaker 1: of a hundred and six. He ended up the season
Speaker 1: at a hundred four. But there's another record he could
Speaker 1: still get if you add the regular season and the
Speaker 1: playoffs together. Keishaw's record is a hundred nine from two
Speaker 1: thousand and one, and Chris would only need six catches,
Speaker 1: and he generally gets six catches in the game, So
Speaker 1: there's a very very good chance by the end of
Speaker 1: this game and hopefully it's not his last game this
Speaker 1: season that he'll have the record if you count playoffs
Speaker 1: as well. That's awesome. I love that. So happy for him,
Speaker 1: and just what a cool story. We say this every time,
Speaker 1: but I mean this is this would be great no
Speaker 1: matter why. We love Chris, no matter what. But to
Speaker 1: just remember where he was at with his injury last
Speaker 1: year and how hard he worked to get to this
Speaker 1: point and to be not just back, but back at
Speaker 1: this elite level is incredible. Yeah, he and he did
Speaker 1: that in about fourteen and a half games too. That
Speaker 1: is crazy. That is so impressive. All right, So now
Speaker 1: let's look ahead to this Cowboys game. Um, it just
Speaker 1: is so funny how we keep having these playoff games
Speaker 1: that are rematches from the regular season. And I don't
Speaker 1: know if that's a good thing or a bad things.
Speaker 1: So far, it seems like it's worked fairly well for
Speaker 1: the Buccaneer except for the Rams. Except for the Rains game,
Speaker 1: we don't have to think about that. So we thought
Speaker 1: we'd do a little tale to tape here and most
Speaker 1: of these what I did is I paired things together
Speaker 1: that our strength on strength, So the Cowboys are the
Speaker 1: second best team in the league behind the Eagles in
Speaker 1: terms of getting sacks, but the Buccaneers are the best
Speaker 1: in preventing them. Uh, the Cowboys have the fifth best
Speaker 1: third down percentage something like, but the Buccaneers have the
Speaker 1: sixth best defense. Interceptions have been They've thrown a lot
Speaker 1: of them. We we don't we don't throw a lot
Speaker 1: of them, but they get a lot of them. Uh,
Speaker 1: they're they're good at wrecking a passing yards, but we're
Speaker 1: to stopping it. But then there's this one right here,
Speaker 1: that five down that I point out. The Cowboys have
Speaker 1: the best red zone offense in the in the league
Speaker 1: in terms of touchdown efficiency. It's something like and that's
Speaker 1: been a real struggle for the Buccaneers this year. So
Speaker 1: that's an area where it's not strength on strength, And
Speaker 1: I just wanted to bring it up to say this
Speaker 1: is gonna be a critical part of the ballgame. When
Speaker 1: we beat them nineteen to three in Week one, they
Speaker 1: didn't get into the red zone. So that would be
Speaker 1: a good way to take care of that problem. But
Speaker 1: I don't think that you can count on that happening
Speaker 1: since they've the highest scoring team in the league over
Speaker 1: the last eight weeks. So if it's a bit of
Speaker 1: a shootout or it's it's tied at the end, how
Speaker 1: well the Buccaneers defense can can hold off the Cowboys
Speaker 1: in the red zone could be key. And part of
Speaker 1: that is Ezekiel Elliett is fantastic around the goal line. Yep,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be so big, and I know that we've
Speaker 1: seen thankfully. In terms of that health. We talked about
Speaker 1: the difference in having both Vita Via and a Cheam
Speaker 1: Hicks out there together and what that means to this
Speaker 1: rush defense. Talk about good timing to have both of
Speaker 1: them hopefully being a little bit healthier and playing alongside
Speaker 1: each other, because we have just seen what that means
Speaker 1: and we know that's what the Cowboys are gonna want
Speaker 1: to do, especially when you've seen Dak throwing interceptions in
Speaker 1: what seven strade games? Yeah, any type of league lead
Speaker 1: of fifteen, which is crazy, you got one on him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know that they're going to want to be able
Speaker 1: to run the ball and not force him to have
Speaker 1: to be doing that. So that's going to be important.
Speaker 1: When a Kim and Vita were last on the field
Speaker 1: together was Week seventeen against the Panthers, who the previous
Speaker 1: week had run for three yards and the Bucks held
Speaker 1: him to seventy one. That ended up being very important. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a big deal. So I know also, as we
Speaker 1: talk about these strengths on strengths, the linebacker positions for
Speaker 1: both groups pretty dangn good. So tell us what you
Speaker 1: see about those different position groups and where you think
Speaker 1: maybe there's an advantage or what these offenses are each
Speaker 1: going to try to do a combat that well, no
Speaker 1: offense to Dak Prescott. But when you talk about the
Speaker 1: Cowboys this year, the last couple of years, the first
Speaker 1: name you always mentioned as Michael Parsons. He was second
Speaker 1: in the voting for defensive Player not Rookie of the
Speaker 1: Year last year when he was a rookie, and he's
Speaker 1: doing it again this year. But the Buccaneers kind of
Speaker 1: a sneaky good off ball linebacker as well. He doesn't
Speaker 1: line up as an edge rusher like Michael Parsons does
Speaker 1: on some of his snaps, but he does do a
Speaker 1: very good job of rushing the passer on blitz is
Speaker 1: usually up the a gap and as you can see
Speaker 1: in the two games of the Bucks and Plates. Since
Speaker 1: Michael Parsons joined the Cowboys. They've both done a lot,
Speaker 1: look at lots of tackles. Both of them have two sacks,
Speaker 1: both of the tackles for losses Corbett hits. They both
Speaker 1: broken up a path. So I think Parsons gets a
Speaker 1: lot more attention than Devin White. But both of these
Speaker 1: defenses have a guy in the middle that can affect
Speaker 1: the game in a lot of ways, including rushing the passer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be so interesting to see. And so now
Speaker 1: looking at that, uh, this are one question we got,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you will not be surprised. Is any update
Speaker 1: on Ryan Jensen's availability. We know that the Bucks offensive
Speaker 1: line is going to have their work cut out for
Speaker 1: them against that Cowboys defensive front. So, first of all,
Speaker 1: what is the overall health situation? As we saw Robert
Speaker 1: Hainsey left, but Donovan Smith didn't play, Tristan just kind
Speaker 1: of sat out. How how does everybody look, how does
Speaker 1: everybody feel? What our thoughts on is talking about all
Speaker 1: those guys. I think Donovan and Tristan are considered to be,
Speaker 1: you know, definitely training in the right direction. They're they're
Speaker 1: probably that group that they were talking about everybody possibly
Speaker 1: practicing today. They had to walk through yesterday because the
Speaker 1: schedules pushed for word by a day, so they didn't
Speaker 1: the Bucks didn't have to put out an injury port.
Speaker 1: So we don't officially know if those guys would be
Speaker 1: full goal or limited or what. But I can just
Speaker 1: tell you the viber on the building is very good
Speaker 1: about all the guys who have been working through injuries.
Speaker 1: So you're probably going to be fine on the tackles.
Speaker 1: But Robert Haynes he left that game with a hamstring injury,
Speaker 1: and Coach Bulls said on Monday that it was sore
Speaker 1: that they didn't yet know the severity of it. So
Speaker 1: what a story would be if Robert Haynes he can't go?
Speaker 1: But oh look who's bad? It happens to be, you know,
Speaker 1: the the NFC's Pro Bowl Center. Just do you not
Speaker 1: always have Pro Bowls as as the backup to come in? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that ridiculous. There has been no indication by by Coach
Speaker 1: Bowls every time he's asked about obviously that this is
Speaker 1: definitely gonna happen, and I wouldn't bet on it, to
Speaker 1: be quite honest with you, but it's not been dismissed
Speaker 1: as a possibility. And then you wonder boy. He hasn't
Speaker 1: played a game in a year. You know, he hasn't practice.
Speaker 1: He's practiced the last couple of weeks, but he didn't
Speaker 1: do anything else season. Is he gonna be able to
Speaker 1: step in there and be full range in Pro Bowl form?
Speaker 1: I mean maybe maybe it's hard to be It's hard
Speaker 1: to bank on that. Absolutely, he does not have to
Speaker 1: be activated this week, but if the playoffs continue, if
Speaker 1: he's going to play, you'd have to be activated in
Speaker 1: the first couple of days of next week because after
Speaker 1: that the window closes and he just reverts to I R,
Speaker 1: which theoretically either means they just figured there's no harm
Speaker 1: in activating him give it a shot, or as we've seen,
Speaker 1: it means that they had an idea that maybe he
Speaker 1: would be ready to go by the end of that
Speaker 1: twenty one day window. That's always the interesting thing is
Speaker 1: maybe they just were like, whatever, it's playoffs, just activate them,
Speaker 1: because otherwise you're just anyway, so you can get him
Speaker 1: out there. They said when this first started that they
Speaker 1: consider this part of his rehab process. So it's possible
Speaker 1: that that's all that this becomes, but you never know,
Speaker 1: and either way that's going to be good to be
Speaker 1: getting him back on the right track. So for you,
Speaker 1: we talked a little bit about these linebackers and some
Speaker 1: of those stats that you showed up there, but what
Speaker 1: would you say, are going to be some of just
Speaker 1: the biggest keys in this game. And the way these
Speaker 1: teams match up is this is we looked at who
Speaker 1: they might get a chance to play. Are we happy
Speaker 1: about the match up? Are we worried about this matchup?
Speaker 1: What do you see about these two teams and where
Speaker 1: their strengths and weaknesses matchup. Well, it's the playoffs, so
Speaker 1: you're gonna be playing somebody good. You know. Honestly, I'd
Speaker 1: rather be playing the Cowboys right now than for instance,
Speaker 1: especially considering how that went for us the first time around.
Speaker 1: You can have a little bit of confidence knowing what
Speaker 1: you did, but it was against the Cowboys the last time,
Speaker 1: but it was way back in week one, so you
Speaker 1: don't know how much you can pull from that. But
Speaker 1: in terms of the formula for winning the Buckneers, that
Speaker 1: was one of the best running days of the whole season,
Speaker 1: and Leonard Fournett ran for a hunter twenty seven yards.
Speaker 1: Bucks had a hundred fifty seven UM they struggled in
Speaker 1: the red zone. Otherwise that would have been even more
Speaker 1: lopside of a victory. It was after that week that
Speaker 1: the Bucks were feeling really good about themselves, Like Glavante said,
Speaker 1: we thought we were hot stuff at that point. They
Speaker 1: end up with a better record. You probably need to
Speaker 1: get and Coach Bull said this, you probably need to
Speaker 1: get off to a fast start like we did with
Speaker 1: the starters in Atlanta, because you don't want to get
Speaker 1: behind against a team that can rush the password this. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: and or they can run the ball as well as
Speaker 1: they can stopping that would be helpful too. But just
Speaker 1: getting off to a fast start, getting some early momentum,
Speaker 1: and just keeping it a tight game. I mean, sure,
Speaker 1: if the Bucks ran away with it, that'd be wonderful,
Speaker 1: but I'm not predicting that. So keeping it a tight
Speaker 1: game until the fourth quarter, and then you know you
Speaker 1: have Tom Brady and that's been a winning formula for
Speaker 1: the Buccaneers. So just starting fast and not falling behind,
Speaker 1: I think would be Mikey, all right, well that's going
Speaker 1: to do it for us on this edition of Bucks
Speaker 1: Inside Are Live presented by Verizon. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining us. And we'll see it here next week,
Speaker 1: hopefully talking about another round of the playoffs.