Speaker 1: Welcome two Bucks Insider, presented by ticketmaster Casey Phillips here
Speaker 1: with senior writer and editor Scott Smith. And we got
Speaker 1: a game to recap, a game to look forward to,
Speaker 1: and unfortunately the one to recap was not how we
Speaker 1: hoped it would go. But the Cream School part.
Speaker 2: Of it was pretty great.
Speaker 1: I feel like we got to separate the two things
Speaker 1: of We can talk about what happened on the field,
Speaker 1: but I want to first talk about the fact that
Speaker 1: this was our long awaited Cream School game. Stadium looked amazing,
Speaker 1: jerseys looked amazing, fans looked amazing. It was incredible. I
Speaker 1: loved it. I mean, look at some of these posts
Speaker 1: we have, I mean just everything looked beautiful and shout out,
Speaker 1: of course to our amazing photographers. And it was a beautiful,
Speaker 1: beautiful day, perfect weather, and the stadium. Just at the graphics,
Speaker 1: the whole digital team, the cheerleaders, I mean it was
Speaker 1: That's what I loved is we didn't just do the jerseys.
Speaker 1: We also did the whole thing, the stadium. This is funny.
Speaker 1: People haven't seen this clip that this is Tristan Ware
Speaker 1: was talking to Seool about Sewell was saying, hey, let
Speaker 1: me get that jersey and for people to know. A
Speaker 1: lot of times players will trade jerseys with each other
Speaker 1: at the end of the game. You know, they have
Speaker 1: a bunch of different people. And Tristan's like, no, man, like,
Speaker 1: I'm keeping this. There's no way.
Speaker 3: I guess a story about it. Did you hear Levonte
Speaker 3: when he was talking before the game. No, so he's
Speaker 3: the only one who had played in oh A Creamsicle
Speaker 3: before on the team because he twenty twelve is the
Speaker 3: last game and he's the only one that was on
Speaker 3: the team then.
Speaker 2: And he they asked him if.
Speaker 3: He kept his jerseys, Like, I was young then I
Speaker 3: didn't realize you were allowed to keep your jerseys, and
Speaker 3: so he didn't. And then a couple of years later
Speaker 3: he asked for it. He said they'd already given him away.
Speaker 3: So I said, this time, I'm definitely.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm so glad you got a chance to be
Speaker 1: here for that. That would have been so sad. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so that all just looked incredible. We love seeing everybody
Speaker 1: out on their creamsicle stuff. So now let's get to
Speaker 1: the less fun part of the what happened on the field. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we know that, man, the Lions are a great team,
Speaker 1: but we also know that there was a lot that
Speaker 1: the Bucks knew they could have done differently or better
Speaker 1: in that game. It just it did feel like there
Speaker 1: were so many missed opportunities that and I'm sure you
Speaker 1: can say this about a lot of games, but in
Speaker 1: this way, it just felt like it just this had
Speaker 1: gone a little differently, or you know, I think especially
Speaker 1: about the Baker play, and you know the fact.
Speaker 3: That Mike was, well, we're seeing these missed ones to
Speaker 3: Trey here. There were two of them, and I know
Speaker 3: Baker felt disappointed, frustrated by these. After the game, he
Speaker 3: said so several times. The the one that really turned
Speaker 3: things was the tip pass where Mike Evans was seven
Speaker 3: yards behind the defense and the last defender was looking
Speaker 3: in the wrong direction. So yeah, yeah, so and it
Speaker 3: ends up being an interception and three points the other way.
Speaker 3: It might have been seven points the other way. You
Speaker 3: can do this obviously after every loss, and it's cliche,
Speaker 3: but the long and the short of it is that
Speaker 3: the Buccaneers had their worst offensive performance of the season,
Speaker 3: felt frustrated and mad about it afterwards, but also felt
Speaker 3: like they know what was there and what could have
Speaker 3: been and what can be fixed and what this offense
Speaker 3: is capable of doing. So it always you always feel
Speaker 3: like a certain way after one game, after the New
Speaker 3: oronce Saints game where he scored more than twenty points
Speaker 3: of them for the first time that anyone had in
Speaker 3: more than a year, you felt, Wow, this thing's really clicking.
Speaker 3: We're doing all kinds of different things. There's a lot
Speaker 3: of riding in this offense. And then after this one
Speaker 3: you're like, Wow, what's wrong with the offense? Are we
Speaker 3: doing too much?
Speaker 2: Did we simplify?
Speaker 3: And Baker said this week yesterday said no, it's not
Speaker 3: a matter of simplifying.
Speaker 2: It's just execution. The play calling's fine.
Speaker 3: Had we hit a few of those plays, nobody would
Speaker 3: be talking about the play calling right now.
Speaker 1: Right. Yeah, that's a very good point. And we saw
Speaker 1: again a couple of those were to Trey Palmer. What
Speaker 1: do we see about the role because I mean, we've
Speaker 1: always know Mike Evans, Chris Scotlin, those are your guys.
Speaker 1: But we've seen Trey Palmer's gotten some touchdowns, you know,
Speaker 1: preseason and regular season, He's made some big plays. So
Speaker 1: what are we thinking that his role could be in
Speaker 1: this offense?
Speaker 3: I think you're seeing him become more and more the
Speaker 3: number the primary third receiver, and you can see that
Speaker 3: in the snap counts and the targets. From the last game,
Speaker 3: he had thirty seven offensive snaps and there weren't a
Speaker 3: ton because the time of possession was so lopsided, so
Speaker 3: thirty seven was a lot. I think Devin Tompkins had fourteen.
Speaker 3: Trey Palmer had seven targets to two for Devin Tompkins.
Speaker 3: And this is nothing about Devin Tompkins. I'm just saying
Speaker 3: it appears to be like Trey Palmer is becoming your
Speaker 3: obvious third receiver and getting a lot of looks, and
Speaker 3: it didn't go great as we saw some of the
Speaker 3: missed ones. He was targeted seven times and only caught
Speaker 3: two of them, but those two were two of the
Speaker 3: Bucks three plays and went for over twenty yards. So
Speaker 3: he's a guy that the volume hasn't been huge yet
Speaker 3: in terms of how many catches he gets per game,
Speaker 3: but a lot of his plays have been big plays.
Speaker 3: And as he gets more and more time on the
Speaker 3: field and more and more looks, we should see more.
Speaker 1: Of that great and someone else, of course, we saw
Speaker 1: more of Klijah Caanci a guy that man. I was
Speaker 1: so excited to see what he was going to look
Speaker 1: like because he'd already shown us once this year that
Speaker 1: he could be injured for a while and come back
Speaker 1: looking great. That he did that in his eleven snaps
Speaker 1: against Minnesota after missing a lot of training camp, So
Speaker 1: then they have to pull him out again, he missed
Speaker 1: more time, and I was like, is he going to
Speaker 1: be able to do this again where he comes back
Speaker 1: and gets a sack in his first career game that
Speaker 1: he plays the whole time, and I just feel like
Speaker 1: he looks like he was ready to hit the ground running,
Speaker 1: you know, especially considering he's a rookie. In his MISSI
Speaker 1: much time.
Speaker 3: I mean, you say that, but he said he was rusty,
Speaker 3: Coach Bowles him. That's my point. Coach Bowles says the
Speaker 3: same thing. He's got some rust to shake off, he's
Speaker 3: got some detailed.
Speaker 2: Techniques to iron out.
Speaker 3: But in the time that he's played, and this includes
Speaker 3: those eleven snaps, nine of which were pass rush snaps
Speaker 3: in that Minnesota game, in the time that he's played,
Speaker 3: of all the defensive tackles or interior defensive lignement in
Speaker 3: the league, this is there the top guys in terms
Speaker 3: of pressure rate. That's how many times they've caught a
Speaker 3: pressure of the quarterback on among their pass rush snaps.
Speaker 2: That's a really high percentage.
Speaker 3: I mean, Jalen Carter, everybody's raving about him this year
Speaker 3: and Collijea's it's a smaller sample, don't. Don't get me wrong,
Speaker 3: Jalen Carter has about four times as many snaps as
Speaker 3: Klija does.
Speaker 2: But the pressure rate is very promising right right off
Speaker 2: the bat.
Speaker 1: Especially coming off injury. Being a rookie, I think that
Speaker 1: that's very fair, even if it is for less snaps.
Speaker 3: No, it's an impressive start and it makes us, you know,
Speaker 3: kind of optimistic about what's going to happen there with
Speaker 3: him next to Vitavea. At some point, defenses are gonna
Speaker 3: have to choose, you know, pick your poison. Who you're
Speaker 3: gonna double team. Yeah, probably most times, can't double team them.
Speaker 1: Both, yep. And so talking about him bringing pressure, how
Speaker 1: about Baker Mayfield under pressure and what have we seen
Speaker 1: from him in this area and just in general, I mean,
Speaker 1: I already feel like our offensive line has done a
Speaker 1: really great job in terms of past protection with him.
Speaker 1: But we've seen that in the times that he is
Speaker 1: under pressure, he's really made some impressive place.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and to be more specific to tackles, Trisan Warris
Speaker 3: and Luke Getticky have really done a great job in
Speaker 3: pass protection. When there's been breakdowns, they've mostly been up
Speaker 3: the middle, and that's usually the hardest thing for a
Speaker 3: quarterback to deal with, is that quick pressure right in
Speaker 3: his face. Baker Mayfield's numbers under pressure this year are
Speaker 3: kind of insane and they probably can't last because league wide,
Speaker 3: if you get pressure on the quarterback, it's usually a
Speaker 3: negative play. Okay, this is look at this thing EPA.
Speaker 3: Do you know an EPA is expected point out. It's
Speaker 3: kind of like war and baseball. It's a difficult stat
Speaker 3: to explain, but basically, positive numbers for a quarter back
Speaker 3: are good if you produce a play that makes it
Speaker 3: more likely your team will score points. This is total
Speaker 3: EPA on plays when the quarterback is under pressure. Every
Speaker 3: quarterback in the league has started at least two games
Speaker 3: Baker's nine plus nine point four. To put that in context,
Speaker 3: Josh Allen is second at three point four, and they're
Speaker 3: the only two guys over in positive territory. Tua Tongel
Speaker 3: is having a great season, but even he under pressure
Speaker 3: is a little bit worse than normal. Right, that's numbers,
Speaker 3: I say, I honestly don't think that can last.
Speaker 2: That's that's out of bounds.
Speaker 3: But so far Baker's been incredible.
Speaker 1: Were five games, that's pretty incredible. That's amazing, all right.
Speaker 1: And then now I know it's easy after a loss
Speaker 1: to sometimes have a bit of the everything is everything
Speaker 1: is terrible, Oh my gosh, this guy is probably in
Speaker 1: chicken little situation. But it is really great to still
Speaker 1: put into perspective where the Bucks are in the division
Speaker 1: standings at this point. I know that again they know
Speaker 1: they're capable of more than what they've done. But when
Speaker 1: you look at these division standings here, thankfully everybody else
Speaker 1: in the division also didn't have a great day on Sunday.
Speaker 1: That was very handy of everybody. We appreciate it. And
Speaker 1: so look at where your Bucks sit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you came out of the New Orleans game feeling awesome,
Speaker 3: three and one in first place, had your bye week,
Speaker 3: came back and unfortunately had that luss, and then you
Speaker 3: look around and go, hey, we still through that whole time,
Speaker 3: we remained in first place. So there's a big battle
Speaker 3: coming up this coming Sunday. As you can see the
Speaker 3: New Orleans Place tonight, So we'll know, and the Falcons
Speaker 3: will know whether we're trying to stay ahead of them
Speaker 3: or whether they've dropped back a little bit. They play
Speaker 3: the Jaguars, so that game on Sunday could be for
Speaker 3: sole possession of first place.
Speaker 2: It will be if the Bucks went obviously.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's going to be really interesting. So looking at
Speaker 1: this Falcons team, you know, it's always interesting to me
Speaker 1: how a division team is the one you're supposed to
Speaker 1: be familiar with, You're supposed to kind of know what
Speaker 1: they do because of how often you play them. It's
Speaker 1: been different to shared knowing. I mean even just the
Speaker 1: fact that every team in the division has a new quarterback.
Speaker 1: But then you look at the Falcons. Not only do
Speaker 1: they have a new quarterback, but they have Bjon Robinson,
Speaker 1: I'm running back. They've got all these new guys on defense,
Speaker 1: new defensive coordinator. I mean, they just have all this
Speaker 1: new stuff. So tell us a little bit about what
Speaker 1: stands out to you about this Falcons team that will
Speaker 1: be facing.
Speaker 3: Well, they and coach Bowls and a couple of guys
Speaker 3: were talking about this yesterday. They've added some guys like
Speaker 3: you were mentioning on offense, like Bijon Robinson obviously obviously,
Speaker 3: Jonas Smith the tight end, Hollins the receiver, Scottie Miller,
Speaker 3: the former buccaneer. So they can do a lot more
Speaker 3: stuff than last year when they were basically the most
Speaker 3: run heavy team in the league among teams that didn't
Speaker 3: have a running quarterback. And this year they still they
Speaker 3: could do a lot more, but they still run the
Speaker 3: ball and present heavy sets a lot more often than
Speaker 3: every other team in the league. And to explain this,
Speaker 3: you know, but if maybe every listener out there doesn't
Speaker 3: know what eleven and twelve and twenty one means, that
Speaker 3: formula is the first number is the number of running backs,
Speaker 3: and the second number is the number of tight ends.
Speaker 3: And then that's out of five because you have five
Speaker 3: eligibles on every place. So the number you don't display
Speaker 3: in the middle would be the receiver, So eleven would
Speaker 3: be one three to one. Okay, So one eleven personnel
Speaker 3: means three receivers, which has become the dominant pack in
Speaker 3: the NFL. Almost every team runs the majority of their
Speaker 3: plays out of eleven personnel. The Falcons are by far
Speaker 3: the lowest, and that the next team on the list
Speaker 3: is thirty seven percent. So they don't show a lot
Speaker 3: of three wides. What they do show a lot of
Speaker 3: is twelve would be two tight ends, twenty one would
Speaker 3: be two running backs, and twenty two would be really
Speaker 3: heavy two tight ends and two running backs and just
Speaker 3: one receiver. If you look at that, that's what about
Speaker 3: eighty seventy something percent of their plays or out of
Speaker 3: these heavier packages, and they tend to run most of
Speaker 3: their run plays to the outside of the tackles. So
Speaker 3: I was talking to Levante about this shameless plug on
Speaker 3: Salty Dogs. Please take a listen for shameless plug. We
Speaker 3: felt it was quite a get. That islet is a get.
Speaker 3: In fact, it was with no warning either. We just
Speaker 3: found them in the lunch room and we're like, would you.
Speaker 1: Say Lavante is just like the Good Guy Award every year.
Speaker 2: It was a great interview.
Speaker 3: If you don't care about the rest of Salty Dogs,
Speaker 3: listen to it just to hear Levante talking.
Speaker 2: But he was talking.
Speaker 3: I asked him, who's the key who are the key defenders?
Speaker 3: When you're talking about a team that runs almost all
Speaker 3: of their running plays outside the tackles, and he said,
Speaker 3: us meet the linebackers because they have to diagnose quickly
Speaker 3: and take the right angles and get to the edge.
Speaker 3: And as I told him in this interview, I'm like,
Speaker 3: when I picture a Levante David highlight in my head,
Speaker 3: I picture him in the Falcon Stadium making those plays
Speaker 3: where they're diagonaled to the outsides of the plays and
Speaker 3: getting to the guy knifing through the defense and dropping
Speaker 3: that guy two yards deep. So hopefully we'll have a
Speaker 3: vintage Levante performance because it's going to be important against
Speaker 3: this rushing attemp.
Speaker 1: And man, what a game he had against the Lions.
Speaker 1: As we talked about some of the things that were
Speaker 1: the struggles in that game, Levante stacked that stat sheet.
Speaker 2: He sure it did.
Speaker 1: He was everywhere and it was we had again, if
Speaker 1: we want to do another shameless plug. We had Antoin
Speaker 1: wine Field Junior on our show this week and we
Speaker 1: were asking him about Levante and he was like, he's
Speaker 1: so consistent, and he said, and for him to be
Speaker 1: the kind of consistent he is at this point in
Speaker 1: his career, because we talked about the fact that typically
Speaker 1: with players you either have like the youth on your
Speaker 1: side for your physical abilities, your speed, your hip up, mobility,
Speaker 1: all that stuff, or you've got the savviness of a
Speaker 1: vent and knowing the game. And he was like, Lavante
Speaker 1: is one of the few people that just somehow seems
Speaker 1: to have both at the same time.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to spoil it because I wanted people
Speaker 3: to go listen to it. But he talks about all that.
Speaker 1: I love that. It was amazing fun shouted it out
Speaker 1: and Leavonta gets to explain it.
Speaker 3: I want to hear a player talk about that prop
Speaker 3: to do that and how he's still playing so well
Speaker 3: in his twelfth season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, please go listen to that interview. It's really good.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. I love that, all right, and then we'll
Speaker 1: close with this. Our rookies went to Moffitt. I just
Speaker 1: always love highlighting this stuff, all the different community efforts
Speaker 1: that everybody does. And they visited with a lot of
Speaker 1: the patients over there, which is just so great. And
Speaker 1: you know, after recent years, there was a lot of
Speaker 1: times with COVID that they couldn't actually visit patients very well,
Speaker 1: and it is so nice to see them back over
Speaker 1: there at moffit getting a chance to say hi to
Speaker 1: all these people, and our rookies are such a great
Speaker 1: group and just had so much fun with everybody, and
Speaker 1: they're playing games with all the kids. And I just
Speaker 1: love that it's always good to keep in perspective after
Speaker 1: a loss that there is still so much that this
Speaker 1: team is doing in the community and how much joy
Speaker 1: they're bringing a lot of these people, and so I
Speaker 1: just think that's a lovely thing to keep in mind.
Speaker 1: And look how fun I know, right, I was like,
Speaker 1: I think we need to throw him out there with
Speaker 1: a We should have thrown him out there with the
Speaker 1: Swashbucklers last game. Put on some moves. Now we know
Speaker 1: why he's a good pass rusher. You know he's got moves,
Speaker 1: all right. That's going to do it for us. On
Speaker 1: this edition of Bucks Insider presented by Ticketmaster, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for being with us. We'll see you next time.