Speaker 1: Welcome to Bucks Insider, presented by Verizon Casey Phillips. Here
Speaker 1: a senior writer and editor Scott Smith, and we have
Speaker 1: some fun stuff to talk about.
Speaker 2: This is the best.
Speaker 1: We are both very excited to be here talking about
Speaker 1: this this morning.
Speaker 3: It just keeps getting better, it does.
Speaker 1: And I mean, man, I had so much fun being
Speaker 1: at that game, and this is my ninth season. Now,
Speaker 1: I know you have many more on me than that,
Speaker 1: just a few, but it was one of the most
Speaker 1: fun experiences I've had at a Bucks game.
Speaker 2: In a while.
Speaker 3: I feel like it was great. The crowd was hyped,
Speaker 3: it was dramatic, and you know, even with some of
Speaker 3: the things that didn't go well for the Bucks, like
Speaker 3: drop passes, it still was kind of exciting. The whole
Speaker 3: way and the back and forth and then the Bucks
Speaker 3: pulling away. It was kind of an emotional experience.
Speaker 2: I agree. I think that there's so much into these Bucks.
Speaker 1: Fans are so invested in this and especially with this
Speaker 1: whole underdog mentality, people counting us out at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the year. It's just and I love guys are
Speaker 1: now starting to talk about the idea of a revenge
Speaker 1: tour being able to take on these teams they too
Speaker 1: earlier on in the season, right the ship.
Speaker 2: As we say, compared to that.
Speaker 1: So it's just been so fun, and especially I feel
Speaker 1: like offensively after a couple of games to end the
Speaker 1: regular season that hadn't been as big of a production
Speaker 1: offensively as you know, the Packers and Jaguars games had been,
Speaker 1: to see them get off to a bit of a
Speaker 1: faster start, even though still that first drive touchdown is
Speaker 1: a bit a bit elusive, but to get off to
Speaker 1: a much faster start offensively and some chunk plays was
Speaker 1: really exciting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they scored on the first four offensive drives. Unfortunately,
Speaker 3: three of those were field goals and more of those
Speaker 3: have to turn into touchdowns because for that reason, even
Speaker 3: though you felt like you were dominating the game, it
Speaker 3: was still close into the third quarter, and so obviously
Speaker 3: the Bucks want to get that ball on the inZone more.
Speaker 3: But I think scoring first, getting in a groove early
Speaker 3: allowed for you know, Dave Canalis to open up the
Speaker 3: playbook a little bit more and and and you know,
Speaker 3: the defense could do some different things because Philadelphia got
Speaker 3: away from the run. So it was a really nice
Speaker 3: offensive start, and of course Baker Mayfield was incredible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it was so great to see him. It
Speaker 1: just looked like he felt so much better. For one thing,
Speaker 1: the poor guy had been pretty beat up these last
Speaker 1: three weeks, and to me, I was not quite as
Speaker 1: terrified watching him scramble as I had been the couple
Speaker 1: of weeks before. He just looked so much more like
Speaker 1: himself as you see in this clip. He was feeling it. Yes,
Speaker 1: he was Bacon and I just felt like he was
Speaker 1: in a groove. The offense was in a groove. Everybody
Speaker 1: seemed to be on the same page.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And Baker, really I thought he was sharpe. I
Speaker 3: thought he did the things that Dave Canalos has been
Speaker 3: saying all season that he wants him to do, which
Speaker 3: was take take the easy stuff, take the stuff that
Speaker 3: schemed up and works like something like that, this little
Speaker 3: that's you know, take that. But when there's times when
Speaker 3: it's the right time, you take the deep shot. And
Speaker 3: he did that as well. It's just we couldn't really
Speaker 3: hold on to it. So we got a lot of
Speaker 3: our big plays off of Yak, which we'll talk about
Speaker 3: in a bit. But Baker really his first playoff game
Speaker 3: for the Buccaneers kind of like his first playoff game
Speaker 3: for the Browns was a really really good one. In fact,
Speaker 3: it was one of the best games the Buccaneer quarterback
Speaker 3: has had in the playoffs. I think it was I
Speaker 3: think we have a great for it, but I think
Speaker 3: he was maybe, oh there it is. Well, first of all,
Speaker 3: he's the first Bucks quarterback and this is kind of
Speaker 3: surprising to throw for three hundred yards and three touchdowns
Speaker 3: in the same playoff game. He would have thought at
Speaker 3: some point Tom did that, but it was never. He
Speaker 3: did have three hundred games, he did have three touchdown games,
Speaker 3: but not at the same time. So you see third
Speaker 3: best in passing yards, tied for the most passing touchdowns,
Speaker 3: and second in pass rating only to Tom Brady in
Speaker 3: the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2: Incredible.
Speaker 3: If you're just second behind Tom Brady, you've done a
Speaker 3: good game.
Speaker 1: You've done pretty dang well, that's for sure. And you know,
Speaker 1: with a great offensive game like that, typically you would
Speaker 1: imagine the stats are Mike Evans hundred yards, Chris Godwin
Speaker 1: maybe eighty something or more, and that those are your
Speaker 1: main guys putting up numbers that let you have those
Speaker 1: kind of big games. That wasn't necessarily how it worked
Speaker 1: out this game. In other word, like we talked about
Speaker 1: a drop or two for Mike that I'm sure he
Speaker 1: would like to have back, or just passes that were
Speaker 1: just so close and almost there.
Speaker 2: But you had incredible production.
Speaker 1: From guys like Palmer and Moore and Aughten that isn't
Speaker 1: necessarily what you imagine is the go to for this offense.
Speaker 1: And I feel like that's so encouraging in the playoffs
Speaker 1: to know how many options you have.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and before this game, I was making the point
Speaker 3: that because of what Philly's defense has given up and
Speaker 3: not given up, I felt like for us to win
Speaker 3: that game, either Mike or Chris or both of them
Speaker 3: would have to have a big game. And I think
Speaker 3: the Eagles thought the same thing, because their defensive game
Speaker 3: plan obviously spend a lot of time trying to double
Speaker 3: those guys as much as possible, and when that happens,
Speaker 3: you're obviously going to open up parts of the field
Speaker 3: for the other guys that are on the field. And
Speaker 3: so you need your Trey Palmers and your Kate Ottens
Speaker 3: who had a great game, and even David Moore, who's
Speaker 3: basically your fifth receiver. You need those guys to produce
Speaker 3: because you know they're making a point of taking Mike
Speaker 3: and Chris out, and they certainly did, and they all had.
Speaker 3: All those guys had big plays. One of the big
Speaker 3: things about that though, was the yak They had two
Speaker 3: hundred and ten yards after the catch like this Kate Otten.
Speaker 3: And that's partially because Baker Mayfield was so on point
Speaker 3: and getting it to these guys in positions where they
Speaker 3: could catch it in stride and run like that one. Now,
Speaker 3: Trey Palmer kind of did all of his on his own.
Speaker 3: He broke a tackle and then was shot out of
Speaker 3: a cannon between all those defenders. But just real nice
Speaker 3: production from the offense as the hole and Baker going
Speaker 3: to the open man even if it's not Mike and Chris.
Speaker 1: And of course to do all that, Baker needed some time.
Speaker 1: Baker needed to be protected, and we knew that that
Speaker 1: front can do some damage if you let them. And
Speaker 1: it felt like even though he was sacked a few times,
Speaker 1: sometimes it was more of a coverage thing or it
Speaker 1: wasn't directly just guys getting absolutely burned, and it felt like,
Speaker 1: especially on the edges, they were able to keep him
Speaker 1: pretty clear.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you think about those four sacks, the most
Speaker 3: damaging one was the one on third and one when
Speaker 3: you were in field goal range and then you're out,
Speaker 3: and that came right up the middle. So there was
Speaker 3: some times where they got pressure up the middle. But
Speaker 3: they have two very good edge rushers and Hassan Reddick
Speaker 3: who is going to the Pro Bowl and Josh Sweat,
Speaker 3: and Hassan Reddick was mostly on Luke Getticky did not
Speaker 3: have a single pressure in that entire game, and Josh
Speaker 3: Sweat was mostly on Tristan Wurf's like twenty five snaps
Speaker 3: i think pass rush snaps and only had one pressure.
Speaker 3: So those two guys to one pressure was a huge
Speaker 3: part of that game that you don't really see in
Speaker 3: the stat.
Speaker 1: Book and will be very important this next week as well,
Speaker 1: I'm sure. So we talked a lot about the offense,
Speaker 1: but of course the defense. What an incredible game from them,
Speaker 1: and I felt like this was as much as you
Speaker 1: talked about some of the the creativity from Dave Kanalis
Speaker 1: and some of the things he was pulling out. Same
Speaker 1: thing with Coach Bulls calling the defense, that this was
Speaker 1: a unique game even by ball standards, which we are
Speaker 1: used to talking about the fact that he can bring
Speaker 1: some unique blitz packages, do a lot of different things.
Speaker 1: To see the ways he was using different defensive fronts,
Speaker 1: different guys in different roles in the secondary. That to
Speaker 1: be surprised in our position this late in the season
Speaker 1: is kind of fun.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. You said this game was fun, and
Speaker 3: it started right at the beginning because we went out
Speaker 3: there on defense and you're looking at this front going
Speaker 3: what is this. It's always fun when your coaches break
Speaker 3: out something you have never seen before, or at least
Speaker 3: haven't seen in a very long time. And we started
Speaker 3: the game and ended up playing about twelve or fourteen
Speaker 3: snaps in a six man front. So usually if it's base,
Speaker 3: you have three downlinemen like can't see in Hall and
Speaker 3: Vita and two edgreshers, or if you're in sub packages
Speaker 3: there's only two downline and we had four four on
Speaker 3: the field because woll Golstma was on there too, And
Speaker 3: that was because in this game, more than any other
Speaker 3: we've played a long time, it was we have to
Speaker 3: stop the run first. They ran for two hundred one
Speaker 3: yards on us in the first game, and that was
Speaker 3: the said, yeah, we're gonna make them throw the ball
Speaker 3: to beat us and uh and it worked.
Speaker 1: And especially when you know Jalen Hurt's finger is a
Speaker 1: little bit even more. It's like you know that they
Speaker 1: were going to try to be like all right, fine,
Speaker 1: like we're not having this happen again, that you're going
Speaker 1: to do something else.
Speaker 3: You're going to beat us a different way if're gonna
Speaker 3: beat us again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And then even seeing guys like Zion mccalm, I
Speaker 1: mean he's playing safety and nickel and corner and all
Speaker 1: over the place, which is which.
Speaker 3: Is really cool. Yeah. So right when when we were
Speaker 3: started in that six month man front, there was only
Speaker 3: one safety and that was Antonine Field. So I mean,
Speaker 3: if you only have one safety on the field, it's
Speaker 3: good that he's the best one in football. But when
Speaker 3: we did do a second safety, a lot of times
Speaker 3: it was Zion and then sometimes he was in the slot,
Speaker 3: sometimes he was playing corner. And Coach Bull said on
Speaker 3: Monday that having that guy and using him in different
Speaker 3: roles is confusing for the offense. They don't know what
Speaker 3: you're doing because they haven't seen all these different looks before.
Speaker 3: So and the fact that getting him on the field,
Speaker 3: as Coach Bull said, means with Carlton and Jamil Healthy.
Speaker 3: Now you have your three best cover guys on the
Speaker 3: field at the same time.
Speaker 1: And speaking of safety, books got their first safety y transition.
Speaker 2: How I did that there?
Speaker 1: So Anthony Nelson helped contribute to a safety. It may
Speaker 1: not show up quite as much on his sack. No,
Speaker 1: I hate that because it was technically.
Speaker 3: Penalty you should count as a sack.
Speaker 1: We're just going to give it to him. We're going
Speaker 1: to decide that this was an Anthony Nelson.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because he just tossed us away at the end,
Speaker 3: it doesn't count as a sack, and said it's intentional
Speaker 3: grounding in the end zone, which is a safety. And
Speaker 3: that's the first safety in Bucks postseason history. And it happened,
Speaker 3: as you saw, that was kind of a late developing
Speaker 3: play that ball was. That's the best part about safeties
Speaker 3: is getting due to that sign over your head. Look
Speaker 3: how long was the play took to develop? And that's
Speaker 3: because the coverage was really good even right there at
Speaker 3: the end. He just had nowhere to throw it to.
Speaker 3: So give the coverage a lot of credit on that one.
Speaker 3: And then a guy like Anthony Nelson just playing through
Speaker 3: the whistle, you know, and.
Speaker 1: Another outside linebacker that had a great game, Shaq Barrett.
Speaker 1: I feel like he's a guy that you know, he
Speaker 1: hasn't necessarily gotten the stats that he has in years past,
Speaker 1: but he is still really producing in a lot of
Speaker 1: ways and playing a really important role on that team.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's kind of like that play we just saw
Speaker 3: where Klijahkansy didn't get credit for anything on that play,
Speaker 3: but he's the one that flush Hi out of the pocket. Well,
Speaker 3: Shaq was doing that a lot too. He had six
Speaker 3: quarterback pressures on twenty eight rushes in that game, and
Speaker 3: so that doesn't show up in the main stat page,
Speaker 3: but it really made a difference in terms of getting
Speaker 3: Jalen Hurts off his spot and disrupting the passing game.
Speaker 3: And so that's a thirty one point six pass rating.
Speaker 3: There was a lot of good pass rushers in the
Speaker 3: Super wild Card Weekend over those six games, and as
Speaker 3: you could see, Shaq was third best in pressure percentage
Speaker 3: of among guys that had at least ten pass rush snaps.
Speaker 3: And you see Aiden Hutchinsons.
Speaker 1: Is gonna say, how perfect of a transition. Now see
Speaker 1: Aiden Hutchinson's name on there, that's going to be a
Speaker 1: very important person to keep an eye on. And these Lions,
Speaker 1: they've got some really impressive young guys, particularly on that defense.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Aiden Hutchinson was the second overall pick in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty two, and he had a really nice rookie season
Speaker 3: and this year even better eleven sacks and he's going
Speaker 3: to the Pro Bowl. And then this year the Lions
Speaker 3: really had a great draft class. And we could talk
Speaker 3: about a lot of those guys, but on defense, Brian
Speaker 3: Branch kind of a surprise that he lasted into the
Speaker 3: second round. He was a safety at Alabama, but they
Speaker 3: basically turned him into their nickel corner and he's been
Speaker 3: a really really good nickel corner for them, a couple
Speaker 3: of interceptions and a bunch of passes defense.
Speaker 1: And then how about other guys on their defense that
Speaker 1: stand out to you.
Speaker 3: Well, they did get a couple guys back from injury.
Speaker 3: I sorry, got stuck them.
Speaker 2: No, it's right, you're good.
Speaker 3: Their defense has been okay, not awesome, not nearly as
Speaker 3: good and in a lot of the categories statistically as
Speaker 3: their offense. But they did get CJ. Gardner Johnson, who's
Speaker 3: a big time instigator. As we've already seen, this week
Speaker 3: and that was really good. And then Alan McNeil, they're
Speaker 3: starting defensive lineman. He's back. They both came back from
Speaker 3: Injoy reserve very recently, so they're a bit closer to
Speaker 3: the full strength now.
Speaker 1: And then I know their offense, that man, that's been
Speaker 1: their bread and butter this year, and they have so
Speaker 1: many different ways they can attack you and beat you.
Speaker 1: And again even other young guys, as you talked about
Speaker 1: with them having a great draft class, I mean, Samba
Speaker 1: Porter is just doing incredible things and Jared Goff has
Speaker 1: been a bit of a Bucks killer in some other matchups.
Speaker 1: And I think it's just going to be really interesting
Speaker 1: to see knowing how well the Bucks defense played in
Speaker 1: this last game and seeing how they're able to do
Speaker 1: so many things at this point the season with having
Speaker 1: that firm grasp of Bowls system. This is a fun
Speaker 1: kind of strength on sege.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it really is going to be they If you
Speaker 3: look at that Detroit Lions offense, they're top five in
Speaker 3: just about every category, rushing and passing and the second
Speaker 3: most passing yards. They're top five and scoring in total
Speaker 3: yards sacks allowed because their offensive line is fantastic. Interception
Speaker 3: percentage is low. Red zone. They're fantastic in the red
Speaker 3: zone and they have and we talked about this in
Speaker 3: our preview of this game. I find I didn't even
Speaker 3: realize until I started looking at the stats, and it's
Speaker 3: rather amazing. They have four guys with ten or more
Speaker 3: touchdowns score. I don't know if I've seen them. It's
Speaker 3: amazing or I just don't remember seeing that before. So
Speaker 3: you got obviously a mon ross Saint Brown. I think
Speaker 3: he's probably the most dangerous guy. And then you mentioned
Speaker 3: Sam Laporta, who did things that rookie titands almost never do,
Speaker 3: including ten touchdowns. And then both of the running backs
Speaker 3: Montgomery and Gibbs are over ten touchdowns. So it's not like, hey, okay,
Speaker 3: we're going to play this team. We're going to take
Speaker 3: away their one guy, and then what are they got
Speaker 3: to do? How do you defend all those guys? It's
Speaker 3: not easy. And Jared Goff, as you noted, is playing
Speaker 3: probably the best football of his career right now. And
Speaker 3: if I wasn't, if we weren't going into Detroit to
Speaker 3: play them, I'd be kind of happy about that because
Speaker 3: it's kind of cool to see that team getting some
Speaker 3: success and Jared Goff, who basically was a throwing in
Speaker 3: the Stafford trade and is now doing so well for Detroit.
Speaker 3: So it's a really difficult offense to face.
Speaker 1: The Bucks have their hall cut out for them, for sure,
Speaker 1: And then you know what the good news is, though,
Speaker 1: this is the eighth Street rematch of a regular season
Speaker 1: game for a playoff game. It's crazy, and we have
Speaker 1: seen that when you give especially Coachable and his defense
Speaker 1: a second shot at people, how well that seems to go.
Speaker 1: And so how it's just so interesting to me to
Speaker 1: think about the fact that this has been such a
Speaker 1: consistent thing and where there's been a lot of success
Speaker 1: for the Bucks in playing someone they already played.
Speaker 3: This it's just a weird coincidence. And if if we
Speaker 3: win this game, the next one will be against the
Speaker 3: team we already played this season. But I mean the
Speaker 3: eight straight playoff games against the team you faced in
Speaker 3: the regular season, and those are in chronological order. Now,
Speaker 3: a couple of them we had won, like we beat
Speaker 3: Green Bay pretty handily and then beat him again in
Speaker 3: the NFC Championship game. But a lot of these, you
Speaker 3: see the Saints the Chiefs is a big one that
Speaker 3: you know how Todd Bowles changed his defensive game plan
Speaker 3: between those two games was a big part of the story.
Speaker 3: And then of course this past week we got the win.
Speaker 3: I guess the team that beat us pretty handley early
Speaker 3: in the year, so that's the same thing we're facing
Speaker 3: against Detroit. Twenty to six isn't exactly a blowout, but
Speaker 3: the Bucks couldn't do much on offense, couldn't run the ball,
Speaker 3: and I feel like, as the coaches and players have
Speaker 3: been saying all week and last week as well, this
Speaker 3: is a different team than it was Timber in October.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that Rams game is the only one you see
Speaker 1: where that was a loss both times, and it just
Speaker 1: goes to show how much in this league it is
Speaker 1: really hard to beat a team twice.
Speaker 2: True that you just learn a lot about people.
Speaker 1: So I think it's a great sign that, hey, you
Speaker 1: know what, we may have lost that first game this
Speaker 1: regular season, but now we get a second.
Speaker 3: Clout at it.
Speaker 2: All right, that's going to do it for us.
Speaker 1: On this edition of Bucks Insider presented by Verizon, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for being with us, and we hope
Speaker 1: you have a blast watching this next playoff game and
Speaker 1: stay tuned for all the coverage here on Buccaneers dot com.
Speaker 3: Mmmm