Speaker 1: Welcome into Bucks Insider. Casey Phillips here, Scott Smith Bredix,
Speaker 1: coming to you from the Buck Studio presented by Ticketmaster.
Speaker 1: We have a lot of storylines again to get to.
Speaker 2: Here this week.
Speaker 1: Of course, we have our previous game, not the outcome
Speaker 1: we wanted, but then a big one back at home
Speaker 1: this next week to talk about as well. Let's dive
Speaker 1: into that Chiefs game first of all, and Scott, let's
Speaker 1: start with you, because I feel like sometimes the quarterback,
Speaker 1: it's like it's so obvious that we don't always talk
Speaker 1: about it as much. But we felt like Baker has
Speaker 1: earned us really diving into his performance a little bit
Speaker 1: more and what we've seen from him, even though again
Speaker 1: the outcome wasn't what we wanted, his performance and especially
Speaker 1: in recent weeks without his top couple weapons, has been
Speaker 1: pretty incredible.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know, Mike Evans and Chris Godwin went
Speaker 3: down and there was a lot of worry, understandably so,
Speaker 3: about how this offense was going to continue moving the ball,
Speaker 3: and Liam Cohen deservedly has received a lot of credit
Speaker 3: for making that happen. Over the last two weeks, seven
Speaker 3: hundred and seven yards offense and fifty points. I mean,
Speaker 3: that's generally enough, good enough to win. The Bucks didn't
Speaker 3: win those two games for a variety of reasons. But
Speaker 3: the offense has continued to move and Liam Cohn deserves credit.
Speaker 3: But you still have to have a quarterback that can
Speaker 3: make that work, and for him to adapt the way
Speaker 3: that he's adapted, and to make use of these new
Speaker 3: weapons and run a lot of different types of plays
Speaker 3: to figure out how to make kay Otten the number
Speaker 3: one receiver with Mike and Chris out, I mean, Baker's
Speaker 3: just moved right along like nothing happened, essentially, and we
Speaker 3: really need to give him a lot of credit for that.
Speaker 3: I mean, he continues to lead the NFL in touchdown
Speaker 3: passes with twenty three. He's had at least two in
Speaker 3: six straight games, which only Tom Brady has done otherwise
Speaker 3: in team history. And it's the longest not only the
Speaker 3: longest active streak in the NFL right now, but the
Speaker 3: longestreak by any quarterback so far with six right games
Speaker 3: of multiple touchdon passes. I mean, Josh Allen hasn't done it,
Speaker 3: and Patrick Mahomes hasn't done it, and Lamar Jackson hasn't
Speaker 3: done it. I mean they might. They might, but they
Speaker 3: haven't as to this point. And you know, he's also
Speaker 3: second in league in passing yards. He's pretty much top
Speaker 3: five in most passing categories, and he's doing it with
Speaker 3: a receiving core that you would not have expected to
Speaker 3: see in Week nine at the beginning of the year.
Speaker 3: If you said that the Bucks five active receivers in
Speaker 3: a game they took to overtime in Kansas City against
Speaker 3: the undefeated Chiefs would be Ryan Miller or Kim Jarrett,
Speaker 3: Trey Palmer, Starling Sharp, and Marquez Callaway. Those were the
Speaker 3: five receivers. And obviously Kate Otton is still there and
Speaker 3: doing a lot of good work, and the running backs
Speaker 3: are are still being very much involved. I would say
Speaker 3: the one thing, and Baker himself brought it up, that
Speaker 3: probably needs to develop down the road. I mean, we're
Speaker 3: gonna get Mike Evans back at some point, but then
Speaker 3: that'll help. But the one thing that's been a little
Speaker 3: bit missing is the explosive plays. There were no passes
Speaker 3: of twenty or more yards in last game, and the
Speaker 3: two games before Mike and Chris got hurt or including
Speaker 3: one where they got hurt, we had like twenty four
Speaker 3: explosive plays if you call that twenty yard plus passing
Speaker 3: and ten plus yards rushing, and in the last two
Speaker 3: games we've had something like eight of them, and we
Speaker 3: didn't have any explosive passing plays against the Chiefs. Still
Speaker 3: moved the ball quite well though, and especially at crutch
Speaker 3: time at the end. So just you said it, we're
Speaker 3: almost to the point where we're taking Baker for credit,
Speaker 3: and we just thought we got a really shun the
Speaker 3: spotlight on how incredible he's been last year.
Speaker 1: Right, and for him to do that without Mike and
Speaker 1: Chris especially lately, it means there have been a bunch
Speaker 1: of other guys that have stepped up. You mentioned that,
Speaker 1: you know, the five wide receivers that were in the
Speaker 1: game are not who you would have anticipated necessarily at
Speaker 1: the beginning of the season. So Breed, tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit more about these guys, especially this last week,
Speaker 1: that had to step up and who they were and
Speaker 1: how much that has meant to the offense to have
Speaker 1: that kind of depth at weapons right.
Speaker 4: Well, Kate Awton has certainly stepped up as kind of
Speaker 4: the most impactful weapon on offense for the Bucks. With
Speaker 4: Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, being out and I typically don't
Speaker 4: do stats, but for Kate Aughton, okay, he ranks top
Speaker 4: two among titands and targets, receptions, receiving yards per game,
Speaker 4: and receiving touchdowns. Since Week seven, he's kind of taken
Speaker 4: advantage of the underneath intermediate area of the field and
Speaker 4: really has shown his ability to put coverage on.
Speaker 2: Notice at all three levels.
Speaker 4: But I think you're just starting to see and Todd
Speaker 4: Bowles has talked about this, but his improvement as a
Speaker 4: route runner. I mean he's running routes that Chris Godwin
Speaker 4: traditionally runs. He scored on the wheel route against the Chiefs,
Speaker 4: but has really shown his ability to not only get
Speaker 4: open against man, but also to kind of his understanding
Speaker 4: of those soft spots and zones and how to maximize that.
Speaker 4: So I think we're seeing kind of the best that
Speaker 4: we've seen of kiton which is really exciting.
Speaker 2: But then also Scott alluded to this, but.
Speaker 4: Sterling Shepherd, I mean just the game he had his
Speaker 4: best game as Buck and whether it was the Jet sweeps,
Speaker 4: the outbreaker is kind of stepping in with Jalen McMillan out,
Speaker 4: and then Ryan Miller I did not have that on
Speaker 4: my bingo card as to tie it up late drive
Speaker 4: scores that touchdown and I mean, this is a guy
Speaker 4: that transitioned from tight end to receiver at Furman, but
Speaker 4: also just spent primarily last year on the practice squad
Speaker 4: and really just absorbed information, took things from Mike Evans,
Speaker 4: from Chris Godwin, and you're starting to see the fruition
Speaker 4: of that. But, like Scott said, just can't say enough
Speaker 4: about this office and staff how they've been able to
Speaker 4: supplement that production of Mike Evans and Chris Godwin that
Speaker 4: this offense has been primarily based on.
Speaker 3: You know, it's funny that you say that Ryan Miller
Speaker 3: was a tight end at first in college because that
Speaker 3: touchdown play essentially is one that you run with a
Speaker 3: tight end a lot. They had him at the end
Speaker 3: of the line and the other team knows that he's
Speaker 3: good at blocking, and they run play action and he
Speaker 3: you know, starts to block them releases, which is usually
Speaker 3: a tight end play.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so interesting.
Speaker 1: And they've also said recently they've been having Kate out
Speaker 1: and run with traditional a little bit more wide receiver role.
Speaker 2: So I love that. Liam's just like, well, you're going
Speaker 2: to do lead.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Kate. You said Kate has improved as a route runner,
Speaker 3: and I think that's true. But I also think that
Speaker 3: he actually had a lot of these latent capabilities that
Speaker 3: we just didn't use them in the first couple of years.
Speaker 3: Now you have him running every route in the book,
Speaker 3: you know, and some of them like you said that
Speaker 3: Chris Godwin would normally run. So it's not just that
Speaker 3: he's improving, it's that he had these abilities and now
Speaker 3: we need them and he.
Speaker 1: Is taking big hits, hanging out of the ball, yes,
Speaker 1: without gloves. I just feel the need to every point
Speaker 1: this out of like how amazing that combination of things is.
Speaker 1: Where he is getting absolutely smoked at times, still comes
Speaker 1: up with the grab, pops up like it's nothing. Scares
Speaker 1: me half to death every time, and then it's just fine,
Speaker 1: He's good. Yeah, And I'm like, I love that well,
Speaker 1: you know, and rightfully so we have yet there's one
Speaker 1: of them. I'm pretty sure at that point I made
Speaker 1: a noise that was a little friend.
Speaker 2: Yep, and I love.
Speaker 1: We had him on the show recently and he talked
Speaker 1: about how not this game, but the one I think
Speaker 1: before where he took multiple hit in a row. He
Speaker 1: had a bunch of friends and family that he saw
Speaker 1: after the game. He looked in the text like are
Speaker 1: you okay?
Speaker 2: Are you okay?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 2: He's like, I didn't realize that I'm going to look
Speaker 2: that bad until everyone was like, are you alive? Are
Speaker 2: you know?
Speaker 1: The offense, of course, definitely has deserved its flowers. We
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about all of that, but I did
Speaker 1: want to point out one thing on the defense's last game,
Speaker 1: there were definitely moments the defense would like to have back.
Speaker 2: Not a perfect performance, however.
Speaker 1: I think you have got to be so encouraged by
Speaker 1: this interior of your defensive line that you see Vita
Speaker 1: Vea Elijah Cansi each getting two sacks in a game.
Speaker 1: That was incredible to see. And on a team that man,
Speaker 1: I mean, Patrick Mahomes is not an easy to sack,
Speaker 1: and I felt like that was a really great thing
Speaker 1: to see. And Vita now has double the sacks of
Speaker 1: any other nose tackle in the league and is leading
Speaker 1: the team with five on the season. I just felt
Speaker 1: like we needed to highlight how insane that is from
Speaker 1: his position to be This has happened multiple times in
Speaker 1: recent years. Oh Vida's leading the team in sacks, leading
Speaker 1: the team in sacks and from his position, that is
Speaker 1: truly incredible. And I had defensive line coach Casey Rogers
Speaker 1: on the radio show earlier this week, and I just
Speaker 1: wanted to play a quick clip when I talked to
Speaker 1: him about how I basically asked him tell people how
Speaker 1: amazing it is that Vita does this from that position.
Speaker 2: So let's take a look.
Speaker 5: Well, the thing is going into my twenty second year
Speaker 5: in this league, and if you look back through the
Speaker 5: history of the league, somebody Vita size, as usually in
Speaker 5: the NFL is very down to pacific. You know, you
Speaker 5: usually have guys that play first and second down run
Speaker 5: off the field on third, and guys that don't play
Speaker 5: first and second they run on the field. But Vita
Speaker 5: is the unique talent that he has the ability to
Speaker 5: play first, second, and third down. And if you go
Speaker 5: back through the history of the league, how many players
Speaker 5: over three hundred and forty pounds played third down? So
Speaker 5: that's just in the history of the league. You know,
Speaker 5: you have some three tens, but no three forty plus
Speaker 5: guys over So that's a credit to him and conditioning
Speaker 5: because rushing the passages, you know, is one of the
Speaker 5: most tiring, excretiating things you can do, because you want
Speaker 5: the physical exertion that you're putting out each now, it's
Speaker 5: just tremendous. Then to be as heavy as he is,
Speaker 5: it's just a credit to him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I feel like coach Casey and I
Speaker 1: talked about we could have talked about Vita the whole show,
Speaker 1: and he said that he felt like this game was
Speaker 1: probably Vida's most complete game since Casey Rogers can remember.
Speaker 1: And he also had ten tackles, three quarterback hits in
Speaker 1: addition to those sacks.
Speaker 2: I mean, he was just everywhere.
Speaker 1: And in that clip, you know, he mentioned the conditioning
Speaker 1: aspect and the fact that you know a lot of
Speaker 1: defensive linemen they either play first and second down or
Speaker 1: third down for the most part, that there are just
Speaker 1: so few guys, especially at his size, who you can
Speaker 1: leave in there all the downs. And I mean, he's
Speaker 1: just been playing an insane amount of the snaps. I
Speaker 1: think he played with sixty sixty snaps in this game.
Speaker 2: It's position.
Speaker 1: This is what we talked about in the off season
Speaker 1: when he did lose some weight, did all that work
Speaker 1: in the off season, with ndamakan Su and Coach Rogers
Speaker 1: has said that that's what we've seen is that now
Speaker 1: his conditioning is such that he can pass rush at
Speaker 1: such an elite level and he can stay on the
Speaker 1: field for so long. And think how helpful, even from
Speaker 1: a defensive coordinator perspective, that is of not having to
Speaker 1: worry so much about all this subbing and if another team,
Speaker 1: you know, goes into some hurry up like you're not
Speaker 1: trying to run guys on and off. It's just the
Speaker 1: flexibility that it gives you is really incredible. Klijah Cantsy
Speaker 1: also wanted to highlight again him. I talked to him
Speaker 1: yesterday and he just mentioned how much the game has
Speaker 1: been slowing down for him from year one to year two,
Speaker 1: which is really great. And then also I just wanted
Speaker 1: to quickly highlight Logan Hall a little bit. Not a
Speaker 1: guy that gets as much attention or praise as Calijah
Speaker 1: and Vita, but I asked Coach Rogers about him and
Speaker 1: he mentioned that, you know, a lot of that is
Speaker 1: because when we go into nickel or specific pass rush situations,
Speaker 1: he's just not on the field as often.
Speaker 2: He's not getting the number of snaps.
Speaker 1: But he said that he really stepped up earlier this
Speaker 1: year when those guys were injured, played a lot bigger
Speaker 1: role and even also Logan was a little bit banged up,
Speaker 1: but he pushed through it and really was able to
Speaker 1: play at a high level. Yeah, that it was one
Speaker 1: of those injured verse hurt things like everybody is during
Speaker 1: the NFL. That he was saying, he really pushed through,
Speaker 1: stepped up in a big way. And he said, this
Speaker 1: is a quote I loved. He said, he's a catalyst
Speaker 1: for a lot of what we do. Maybe you see
Speaker 1: Calidja get a sack, but Logan forced the guy to
Speaker 1: him that gets lost in the shuffle. Because not a
Speaker 1: lot of stories are written about the guy who forced
Speaker 1: the guy. The stories are written about the guy that finished.
Speaker 1: And I thought that was great to hear that a
Speaker 1: guy that we did draft pretty high. We don't always
Speaker 1: hear his name, but Coach Rodgers was saying, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: he really has stepped up in some big moments, forced
Speaker 1: some plays towards Vita and Kelija to help them out.
Speaker 1: Maybe they were the ones that finished it, but Logan
Speaker 1: played a.
Speaker 2: Big part in it. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So with that interview with Coach Rodgers. How many times
Speaker 3: was the word case?
Speaker 2: He said, many times? Many times. Let me tell you,
Speaker 2: I can't tell you how.
Speaker 1: Often I'm at practice and I hear someone, usually a
Speaker 1: very big person, and then it's never made.
Speaker 3: You forgot to give them coaching.
Speaker 2: I know you're right, I should have I should have
Speaker 2: done better with that.
Speaker 3: I liked on that clip of the first Vita sack.
Speaker 3: How maybe in the past he might have fallen on
Speaker 3: Patrick in that and he kind of deposit him on
Speaker 3: the ground but didn't follow him, and he knows he
Speaker 3: can't get that penalty.
Speaker 1: And especially when you're as big as Vita, I imagine
Speaker 1: that it's harder to not like you are roughing the passer,
Speaker 1: even if you're doing everything right.
Speaker 2: Then you're so big, powerful, like he had to just gently.
Speaker 3: And you know gravity's working extra hard on him.
Speaker 1: So that's true. It's also very true, all right, So
Speaker 1: let's dive into the injuries at this point, what we
Speaker 1: know and what we don't know on this short week
Speaker 1: about who might be available next week.
Speaker 4: Yes, So the Bucks conducted a walkthrough on Wednesday, and
Speaker 4: Baker Mayfield popped up on the injury report with a
Speaker 4: toe injury and Jordan Whitehead with a quad, so those
Speaker 4: will definitely be too that everyone will be monitoring this week.
Speaker 4: Mike Evans obviously didn't practice with the hamstring he's not
Speaker 4: expected to be back into off by week, and then
Speaker 4: Sterling Shepherd with the hamstring and hip, and then Jalen
Speaker 4: McMillan with the hamstring also did not practice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and Baker did say after the walkthrough that he
Speaker 3: would be fine. And it's worth noting that they had
Speaker 3: already planned on doing a walkthrough on Wednesday, which is
Speaker 3: normal after a Monday game, but this Thursday today was
Speaker 3: going to be a practice and they changed it last
Speaker 3: night to a walkthrough, And I think that's a reflection
Speaker 3: of how banged up the right Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: It makes a lot of sense. Right.
Speaker 1: This is also where we give our fans a trivia
Speaker 1: question to be thinking about for the end of the show.
Speaker 2: So what do we got this week?
Speaker 4: When the Buccaneers demolished the forty nine Ers in the
Speaker 4: Divisional round of the two thousand and two Playoffs thirty
Speaker 4: one to six, Mike Alstots scored the home team's first and.
Speaker 2: Last touchdown of the game.
Speaker 4: The first one was a two yard run on third
Speaker 4: and one who delivered a huge block to help set
Speaker 4: the edge for all sime.
Speaker 3: Interesting and it's not like the left tackle.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say.
Speaker 1: That feels too easy, So it's got to be you're
Speaker 1: doing trickeration and here. Uh so, now I gotta think
Speaker 1: about this.
Speaker 2: This will be an interesting one.
Speaker 3: So you didn't look it up, all right?
Speaker 1: I'm a rule follower, and as evidenced by the fact
Speaker 1: that I get it wrong, everybody that I do read
Speaker 1: the answer, but I still would not have guessed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love that, all right, So how about some milestones
Speaker 1: we're looking at this week, Scott. I know that we
Speaker 1: talked a lot about Caydtton and the fact that he
Speaker 1: has just been absolutely crushing it recently, and it looks
Speaker 1: like maybe there's some stats and milestones to be.
Speaker 2: Looking at for him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, kid's got at least eight catches in each of
Speaker 3: the last three games, which if that sounds unusual, it
Speaker 3: is because he's the first tight end in Buck's history
Speaker 3: to do that. Jimmy Giles or or Kellen Winslow or
Speaker 3: Alex Smith, Ken Dilger, Cambrad uh Rob, you almost forgot
Speaker 3: that one. So he's that's already tied for the second longest. Oh,
Speaker 3: he's got He has a streak of three games with
Speaker 3: eight plus catches and seventy five plus yards and that's
Speaker 3: already tied for the second longest by a tight end
Speaker 3: in NFL history.
Speaker 2: That's incredible. I can't. It just doesn't.
Speaker 1: I'm like, really, yeah, But then I'm like, how incredible
Speaker 1: for Kad Like we've known he's been playing well, But yeah,
Speaker 1: that that puts it into perspective.
Speaker 2: But not even just in franchise history, but league history.
Speaker 3: Is not terribly surprising that the person with that longest
Speaker 3: streak up six is Travis Kelcey, right, who just had
Speaker 3: fourteen kids.
Speaker 2: That is outrageous either.
Speaker 1: Fourteen targets is a lot, right, all right, So now
Speaker 1: let's get into the fantasy watch a little bit. Tell
Speaker 1: me what stands out to you about some of these
Speaker 1: guys on office. As we've mentioned, I imagine that people trying
Speaker 1: to figure out who from the bucks to start and
Speaker 1: use has been a bit of a conundrum, as it's
Speaker 1: like this week it's you, this week it's you, and
Speaker 1: how this offense is working.
Speaker 3: I don't think anybody really can start any of the
Speaker 3: receivers because you just don't know who's going to get
Speaker 3: get the ball right. You can't start Ryan Miller right,
Speaker 3: and then he's the one with the touchdown. Excuse me.
Speaker 3: I think the big question fantasy a lot of the
Speaker 3: things are obviously, if you have Baker Mayfield, you're starting
Speaker 3: him because he throws at least two touchdown passes every week.
Speaker 3: I think the big question for the bucks of Rashod White.
Speaker 3: You know, last year, Rashad White was one of the
Speaker 3: best running backs in fantasy and it was mainly because
Speaker 3: of volume, because he was the only guy running the
Speaker 3: ball and catching the ball out of that backfield. And
Speaker 3: now with Becky Irving and a little bit of Sean Tucker,
Speaker 3: that's not the case anymore. And you saw in this
Speaker 3: last game, I thought Rashad White played well, and you
Speaker 3: look at the stats at the end and he has
Speaker 3: a total of thirty five yards and that's not going
Speaker 3: to get it done in fantasy football. Now, he scored
Speaker 3: a touchdown, so if you started him, you've came out okay.
Speaker 3: But his fantasy stats have become really dependent on touchdowns
Speaker 3: and catches, and it's just it's a little bit of
Speaker 3: a roller coaster. You may have a team where you
Speaker 3: have to start Rashod White, but if you have some
Speaker 3: other options, it's a little bit tricky there, yeah, I think.
Speaker 3: And then Baker Mayfield just want to point out that
Speaker 3: obviously he's still second in fantasy scoring among quarterbacks to
Speaker 3: Lamar Jackson, and he's pretty far ahead of Joe Burrow
Speaker 3: and third. So but then you're playing Sam Franz, and
Speaker 3: you think of Sam frantis this great defensive team. But
Speaker 3: I think you can feel safe starting him. They are
Speaker 3: sixteenth in the NFL and scoring defense, fourteenth and passing
Speaker 3: and twenty fifth on third downs, and that's where the
Speaker 3: Bucks have really shined on offense, so you can see
Speaker 3: them getting extended drives and scoring opportunities. So I think
Speaker 3: you're safe to start Baker against that defense.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: So now this is also where we like to highlight
Speaker 1: the off the deal human interest side of some of
Speaker 1: the guys on the team. And we felt like, especially
Speaker 1: because recently we talked about Chris Godwin's gala and donating
Speaker 1: to his foundation as ages, wishing him well, thanking him
Speaker 1: all of that, we had to do the same for
Speaker 1: Mike Evans of course, right, So his gala is this Friday,
Speaker 1: and we just felt like we wanted Bucks fans to
Speaker 1: really show up big for him in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: And so even though I don't believe that there are
Speaker 1: still tickets for the gala itself left, you can donate
Speaker 1: to it and you also can participate in the Silent auction,
Speaker 1: So even if you are not going to the event,
Speaker 1: you can still see all the items that are up.
Speaker 1: You know, there's going to be tons of great Bucks
Speaker 1: stuff as well, so you can check out. The website
Speaker 1: is Mike Evans Familyfoundation dot org. That's for everything with
Speaker 1: his foundation, and then specifically, if you add on the
Speaker 1: slash Annual Gala, that'll take you to all of the
Speaker 1: things about this gala. But in case you're like, dang it,
Speaker 1: I didn't realize I missed my chance to get the
Speaker 1: tickets to the gallap well, now we are basically at
Speaker 1: a month out from his bowling event as well, and
Speaker 1: that still has lanes available. So again Mike Evans Familyfoundation
Speaker 1: dot org will give you all the information about both
Speaker 1: of these events. There's still lanes available. That is December sixth,
Speaker 1: So we definitely wanted to tell everyone please show Mike
Speaker 1: and his foundation some love and then also, of course,
Speaker 1: stay tuned for all of our coverage of it. I
Speaker 1: know I'm am seeing it, and so I believe, Bri
Speaker 1: you are going to be there writing a story about
Speaker 1: it as well.
Speaker 2: I think we're gonna have some video stuff.
Speaker 1: So if you are sad you can't go, we're gonna
Speaker 1: try to make sure we covered enough that you can
Speaker 1: feel like you were there. So again, show Mike some love.
Speaker 1: We've been missing him on the field lately. Show him
Speaker 1: that by donating to his foundation. All right, so now
Speaker 1: let's get into next week's preview. Forty nine ers on
Speaker 1: a man a short week is not who This is
Speaker 1: not who I want to face on a short week
Speaker 1: because they're they're complicated, They're just that's I feel like
Speaker 1: the word that I kept hearing is multi faceted, multidimensional. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and just the fact that the different ways they can
Speaker 1: use guys is so unique in this league of how
Speaker 1: many different people they have that they can throw everywhere
Speaker 1: on offense. I of course asked Casey Rodgers about having
Speaker 1: to face this group. He said, this is a quote
Speaker 1: from him. They are such a multifaceted team. Deebo can
Speaker 1: be anywhere he can be in the backfield, the slot
Speaker 1: out at number one, he can be in motion, he
Speaker 1: can be in jet. Then maybe getting McCaffrey back plus
Speaker 1: And I thought this was interesting, he said, the mentality
Speaker 1: of the team. They are a run first team and
Speaker 1: very hard headed about it. They don't care what you're in.
Speaker 1: They believe they can run against any front, which then
Speaker 1: opens up their play action pass, which party does a
Speaker 1: great job of executing. They are one of the most
Speaker 1: difficult teams we have to prepare for, is what Casey
Speaker 1: Rodgers said.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I thank goodness for forty nine ers
Speaker 3: fans that they're getting McCaffrey back, because without him, their
Speaker 3: running game is sunk all the way to second in
Speaker 3: the league.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so tragic. I don't think they've been.
Speaker 3: A real rough road for getting one hundred and fifty
Speaker 3: nine yards a game.
Speaker 1: Isn't that insane of just a guy like Christian McCaffrey,
Speaker 1: Which also I bet every day near fantasy owner out
Speaker 1: there trying to draft first overall that they have still
Speaker 1: had kind of production and bend that way on offense
Speaker 1: without him, And then of course how fortunate for us.
Speaker 2: That there's a chance he comes back.
Speaker 1: Real good timing now, we of course don't know how
Speaker 1: much he will play. Is he on a quote unquote
Speaker 1: pitch count? What is that gonna look like? So I
Speaker 1: think that's also really tough sledding of not only are
Speaker 1: you trying to prepare for them, but you don't really
Speaker 1: know exactly in what ways or how much you're gonna
Speaker 1: use him. You don't have a lot of footage from
Speaker 1: this year on what they've been.
Speaker 2: Trying to do.
Speaker 1: So for me, the question is can the interior get
Speaker 1: the kind of push they did this last week? Can
Speaker 1: you see from Vida and Klija getting that kind of
Speaker 1: push up the middle, and then of course, therefore, once
Speaker 1: they do that, are you able to set the edge.
Speaker 1: Are those guys being disciplined in their run game? We
Speaker 1: saw I love the play of Yah Yah chasing down
Speaker 1: Xavier Worthy. I'm like, can you use that athleticism? Can
Speaker 1: you use those strengths to if you guys get that
Speaker 1: push up the middle to not then let it escape
Speaker 1: to the outside. With all those guys and just being disciplined,
Speaker 1: the mental side, I think is going to be so
Speaker 1: important when they do a bunch of different things. Can
Speaker 1: you stay in your lanes? Can you fill your runs
Speaker 1: the right way? Are you not miss fitting things because
Speaker 1: they can just so quickly take advantage and gash you.
Speaker 1: So I just think it's a really interesting matchup against
Speaker 1: their against their offense. And then of course there's another
Speaker 1: offensive weapon that we didn't even mention there that just
Speaker 1: throws another ech to it.
Speaker 4: George Kittle, who which you mentioned the run game, and
Speaker 4: he is one of the biggest pieces in their run game.
Speaker 4: He's one of the best blocking tight ends, and not
Speaker 4: only just in the NFL now, but in league history
Speaker 4: and again stats he's averaging seventy one point nine receiving
Speaker 4: yards per game in twenty twenty four, which is first
Speaker 4: among titands. And then the Bucks have allowed six hundred
Speaker 4: and twenty seven yards an average of sixty nine point
Speaker 4: seven per game two tight ends this year, which is
Speaker 4: thirty first.
Speaker 2: In the league. Only the Chiefs have allowed more.
Speaker 4: And Kittle's a guy that I mean, He's not just
Speaker 4: chipping linebackers and safeties. I mean if he gets his
Speaker 4: hands inside like he is pancaking a defensive end, and
Speaker 4: he that ability, I mean he blocks like an offensive lineman.
Speaker 4: He turns into a running back after the catch, but
Speaker 4: then he runs routes like a receiver, and I mean
Speaker 4: he has this speed to win down the seam. He
Speaker 4: can run a deep deep over and be to safety.
Speaker 4: Like there's so many different ways that they use him,
Speaker 4: and that he can just take over a game. So
Speaker 4: for the Bucks defense, George Kuitt is certainly going to
Speaker 4: be a huge person that they're gonna have to key
Speaker 4: in because he plays such a major role in all
Speaker 4: facets of their offense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and brock Party's done a great job of getting
Speaker 1: it to him, and I think early on, you know,
Speaker 1: people talked about brock Party just kind of being a
Speaker 1: system guy, which is so funny that that's become somehow
Speaker 1: this like insult, which I don't understand.
Speaker 3: That's what they tried to use against Rhynde.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a whole different like debate we can have.
Speaker 1: But I mean, brock Party in the two games versus
Speaker 1: the Bucks five hundred and eighteen yards, five touchdowns, zero interceptions,
Speaker 1: one hundred and forty nine point eight passer rating.
Speaker 3: So I kind of like the stats we were using
Speaker 3: earlier in this dal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, these haven't been as good, don't we should We
Speaker 1: should ignore these stats, But yeah, it's interesting the Brock Party.
Speaker 1: And I remember, I think Tom Brady even earlier when
Speaker 1: he was commentating on a forty nine Ers game, remembered
Speaker 1: our first matchup against them that he was thinking, like,
Speaker 1: how are we letting.
Speaker 2: This mister irrelevant?
Speaker 1: And I mean, I think we first start, that was
Speaker 1: his first start, and I think we've all seen he
Speaker 1: is not mister irrelevant. He is really able to take
Speaker 1: that offense. And we focus on Deebo, we focus on
Speaker 1: Christian McCaffrey for good reasons, but he can get it
Speaker 1: to George Hill. He can do a lot more than
Speaker 1: just be a quote system quarterback.
Speaker 3: Yeah. When I remember that game vividly and when we
Speaker 3: were getting ready to face them, the whole storyline was
Speaker 3: this could actually work because Brock Party is going to
Speaker 3: do exactly what Kyle Shanahan tells him to do, and
Speaker 3: that's what Kyle wants out.
Speaker 2: Of his quarterbacks. And so my favorite coach.
Speaker 3: Was, but I mean, like, you need to do this exactly,
Speaker 3: And you thought mister irrelevant getting his chance, he's not
Speaker 3: going to stray from anything. And then we got there
Speaker 3: and he's bombing it away and running around and throwing
Speaker 3: on the run, and like, this is not what I
Speaker 3: thought was going to ask this and this, and he's
Speaker 3: bombing away and so he's been much more than a
Speaker 3: system quarter for sure.
Speaker 1: And then let's talk a little bit about on their
Speaker 1: defensive side. There's a lot of ways we could go
Speaker 1: with this. I mean, you have their incredible edge rushers,
Speaker 1: they They've got a lot going on the defense. But
Speaker 1: I feel like Fred Warner is the guy that we
Speaker 1: most need to talk about because of their whole defense.
Speaker 1: I feel like this is a guy that we talked
Speaker 1: about is maybe one of the best linebackers in the
Speaker 1: league over a very extended period, and it seems like
Speaker 1: he gets talked about similarly to how we have talked
Speaker 1: about Levonte David of just such admiration, such respect for
Speaker 1: the way he plays the game. What do you feel
Speaker 1: like he means to their defense and how it could
Speaker 1: affect what we try to do on offense.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that same game we were just talking about a
Speaker 3: couple of years ago. Years ago, I remember going into
Speaker 3: it thinking this isn't fair because they have all these
Speaker 3: weapons on offense, and they also had like the league's
Speaker 3: top ranked or top two or something. Defense. They're not
Speaker 3: there anymore. They don't have that same completely oppressive defense
Speaker 3: in every way. As I mentioned earlier, I think they're
Speaker 3: sixteenth in the points allowed something like that. But Fred
Speaker 3: Warner remains the heart and soul of that defense as
Speaker 3: good as ever, even if maybe they're not quite as
Speaker 3: strong in some other areas. Fred Warner continues to be
Speaker 3: the best off ball linebacker in the NFL, and particularly
Speaker 3: in terms of pass coverage and controlling the middle of
Speaker 3: the field. There's just no other linebacker in the league
Speaker 3: whos anymore close in terms of shutting down the middle
Speaker 3: of the field to opposing quarterbacks. And he has two
Speaker 3: interceptions already, He's got i think six passes defense. He's
Speaker 3: just unparalleled in that regard, and he can really change
Speaker 3: the way an opposing offense has to operate. I think
Speaker 3: he's really the key to their whole defense. I know,
Speaker 3: Nick Bose is amazing. They have some nice corners, uh
Speaker 3: in Diamador Lador and Tarvarius Ward a lot of letters too.
Speaker 3: I mean those guys have the longest names, Dim and Tarvarius.
Speaker 2: Yeah that's pretty great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but then you have Fred Warner in the middle
Speaker 3: like normal name ye, incredible player.
Speaker 1: Yes, all right, So let's do our answer to the
Speaker 1: trivia question now, as everyone has been waiting to hear
Speaker 1: this trick oration.
Speaker 3: So he's he came into the game to be He
Speaker 3: sometimes played full back. This year he came into the
Speaker 3: game in this case he lined up as a tight
Speaker 3: end and it was a Hall of Fame defensive tackle warrants.
Speaker 1: App Yeah, that was a beyond trick trivia question.
Speaker 2: Who sat in the block for this?
Speaker 3: I guess well, he came in and defensive well, and
Speaker 3: you see it's a little hard to see in all
Speaker 3: in all the trash there, but he had a key
Speaker 3: block and then he gets to celebrate with him at
Speaker 3: the end, and.
Speaker 2: It was just the size of the shoulder. Don't jump
Speaker 2: on me.
Speaker 3: I'd be like, no, no, thank you.
Speaker 1: Also, that may show even more how strong Michael was
Speaker 1: than any other play he made, is he didn't crumple
Speaker 1: when a chumped on.
Speaker 3: There were times we even threw the bald. Warn said
Speaker 3: he had a touchdown her too. He's very famous for
Speaker 3: having this weird happy little dance when he scored a
Speaker 3: touchd on against Atlanta.
Speaker 1: And I will forever be sad we have not stuck
Speaker 1: with throwing to Vita Vea for similar reasons.
Speaker 2: I love a good person getting to.
Speaker 1: Be involved that you don't. I love a big man
Speaker 1: touchdown more than anything. Now, do I want Vita to
Speaker 1: get hurt.
Speaker 2: Playing off no idea?
Speaker 1: However, I'm like, it's pretty fun and I enjoy that.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: Well, that is going to do it for us on
Speaker 1: this edition of Bucks Insider. Thank you so much, as
Speaker 1: always for joining us. We'll see you next week.