Stephen A. QUESTIONS if the Bills are what we thought they were... 🤔 | First Take

Last night on Monday Night Football. Look, it wasn't pretty, really, from either of the two teams. But nonetheless, the Bears come away with a victory. The Commanders turn the ball over three times at costly moments. The defense could not stop the Bears' run game at all. The Bears let a double-digit lead slip away in the fourth quarter,

but they capitalized on those Commanders' mistakes late in the game to kick the game-winning field goal. So here is Caleb Williams who now has the Bears at 3-2.

That's who we are. We fight. That's what coach said. You know, we went 0-2 the first two games. We tied it back up, went 2-2 and now we're 3-2 because of our fight. Because of how we face adversity and

how we come through and come together. I think it says a lot about our locker room right now. They're really, they're not just believing but now they're starting to Understand that man that this thing's close in the fourth quarter. Then someone's gonna step up and make a play for us

Again there was some sloppy football from both teams here, but can't he do you at this point now trust Caleb Williams and the Bears.

Yeah I trust Caleb Williams and I trust the version of him that we saw last night because I trust how the play caller Ben Johnson wants to utilize him. And rule number one for

quarterback should be do no And it's clear that that's gotten through to Caleb Williams. You're starting to see him avoid the negative plays avoid the sacks avoid the negative plays. Avoid the sacks. Avoid the turnovers. You still

want to see him improve on accuracy. You still want to see him improve on third downs. You still want to see him improve in the red area. But I thought last night he did a really good job of being able to manage the game and in situational football in key moments. He thrived, right? You're talking about the Washington. Is bringing that Blitz on third down in that fourth quarter and he beats the Blitz by getting it out of his hands

to Deandre Swift. Deandre Swift breaks a tackle Marshawn Lattimore shame on yourself because that was a loaf but it ended up leading to a 55-yard touchdown and an opportunity to take the lead. So those are the types of things that Kayla Williams is doing now. And I think the message has been loud and clear from Ben Johnson. Don't rely on your ability to create the splash plays rely

on the offense and let the skill position players around you do the heavy lifting and it seems to have gotten through to him. And that's why this Bears team has gotten a little momentum

winning three in a row. I can tell you this to you. I think that you know what definitely I would answer. Yes to this question in terms of trusting Caleb because Caleb is trusting others. And that's really the key here. He's not trying to play hero ball and not trying to rely on

his talent and looking at a Jade and Daniels saying this is what this brother's brought to the Let me let me match that. Let me one up that and go out We'll find yourself making

pivotal mistakes. Johnson has reeled him into some such a degree in terms of I know what talent you have. I believe in your talent. But this is what it's going to take to win football games on

the National Football League

Make sure you don't do that. Don't hurt yourself.

Don't hurt the team.

Prioritize making sure you protect the football doing what Then I look at them going out to I bring something like that up because you got a situation where right now every single team in the NFC North is the only division Where every single team's got a winning record right now, right? So you're looking at the NFC North and reason I bring that up is because rather than looking at yourself as a team That's there. You're looking at yourselves on the come up. You're scratching and you're chlorine and you're saying to yourself

You know what? We not here yet But we intend yourself, you know what? We not here yet, but we intend to be. You're playing that way. And in a sense, that's almost like playing with house money because the pressure's on Green Bay. The pressure's on Detroit. To a lesser degree, the pressure's on Minnesota,

more so than it is on Chicago. Chicago's here on the come up. You're Minnesota, you gotta make sense out of JJ McCarthy being the guy that you decided to invest in. You're the Green Bay Packers. You just traded for Michael Parsons. Yep. And we were talking about you as a potential Super Bowl championship caliber team.

You're the Detroit Lions. Everybody looked at your team last year and thought that you could have been in the Super Bowl after week one. Throw that out in terms of your performance against Green Bay.

What have you done since then? you just lost to Kansas City. The fact is your offenses looked explosive. So you look at all of those teams with expectations. Chicago saying we're building, we're building, we're building. And then you look at Ben Johnson last but not least, and not to bring this up, but when you see what's transpiring in Miami with Mike McDaniels, when you see what's transpiring in New York with Aaron Glenn, then you see Ben Johnson and you see his behavior in terms of being a head coach, how demanding he can be, but still relatable to a cat where you got cats knowing, you know what?

We can trust him because he knows what he's doing, but we also don't mind answering to him either because he's clearly the boss. You see what's going on in Chicago. I like what I'm seeing.

I'm so I fully agree with this and I'll say this is so much more about just Caleb Williams, you know Do you trust him you do but to your point like Ben Johnson picked the Bears, right? Like he knew he knew the warts going in there in the same division. He knew who Caleb Williams was He knew what this what this roster looked like and he took on the job knowing he's gonna go face the teams Not only did he coach with that? He had coached against for so many years. But I think about like what you said Kansi, the third and five that they complete on the last drive

to get the second down run, he hands to Swift and they have great angles for the offensive line, the Swift in motion on the touchdown when he out leverages and then runs up the sideline. I think Ben Johnson has done a fantastic job of setting up his players to be successful, and they're very efficient, and they're following what they should be doing.

And to his point, you're down eight points. You can't get it all back, right? So it's the first time I've seen Kayla Williams go, hey, I'm gonna make a play. I'm gonna throw this ball out to Swift. Swift makes an a play. I'm gonna throw this ball out to Swift. Swift makes an incredible play. They don't convert on the two-point conversion.

Looks frustrating. Guess what? Our defense is gonna give us another chance. We're gonna go down and do these things. I think it's that trust that you see being built. And if you were a Bears fan coming into the season,

all you would have asked for is progress. Just let me see progress from Caleb Williams, right? 100%. And you are seeing progress between Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams. He's changed his, you know he can make the highlight plays. Can he make the simple plays? I am.

And he's doing it. I am shocked at the words that just came out of your mouth. This man was complimentary about Ben Johnson. He was complimentary about Caleb Williams. And he brought up nothing about Chicago's blocking. Oh my Lord, what is this world coming to?

I mean, you know, don't sell. I mean, it never stops. Yeah, it does. Yes, it does. Especially coming from you. I can't believe you missed that.

The way he was running the football, gotta give it up to no question. He lit it up. Their pass blocking, their run blocking. More effectively, their defense has three turnovers each in the last three games. You gotta look at it from that standpoint,

they're like a plus 10 in the turnover margin right now. So you look at Dennis Allen and the way he's got their defense being opportunistic. All of those things are coming together right now and elevating their confidence.

I appreciate all the compliments. Let me tell you guys, this is progress from this Bear Squad. And listen, look no further than a year ago in that same building, against the Commanders, the Fail Mary, as we called it, in Chicago, right? It really transpired the rest of it, added to what was the demise of the season last year. So the Bears typically lose games like last year.

Week one against the Vikings, they found now a way to win. Was it all pretty? No, though. giving up too many explosive plays on the defensive side of the ball. I really could do without all the penalties, letting go of a double-digit lead, etc., etc. But there's something to believe in now in Chicago, and I think that's the main point here.

But I think the other part of that is from a guy who played offense, right? Like when you don't have your – like Williams missed, right? He missed some open throws that he should have made the a dunes a touchdown to get called back real ticky-tack. Like is the tackle really at that?

You know, he wasn't on the line. Come on now. He wasn't on

That's trash call but listen that throw like I do so you think they didn't even have their fastball and they went so I think To your point if you're Caleb Williams and that offense you go back and go fellas We ain't playing nearly to Williams and that often should go back and go fellas, we need playing nearly to the level that we should be playing. Think about what we do. If we really do it right and make this thing happen. So I think you're almost excited. I know from an

offensive guy. We always came away with we didn't have to have our best and we still won. That's a that's a that's a big

come up and when when by one second with your cut.

Exactly as complimentary as we are the Chicago Bears. We do have to acknowledge that is a bad loss. You got a chance to tie the reigning defending Super Bowl champs for the division lead. Yes with the win there.

You got the ball less than four minutes to go and

territory.

Exactly.

Yeah.

That's bad.

That's bad weather.

But you still got to protect the

football. I get that. But let's also pump the brakes

in this regard.

You're Jaden Daniels.

There's no Noah Brown.

There's no Terry McLaurin.

You got a heel injury. The Devo Samuels that World Receptions for 15 yards. Three of your primary weapons, two of them are out and one of them might as well have been. So we do have to take that into consideration in terms of just all right, Chicago props to you because you did something you

don't normally do in recent memory. We get that part, but we also recognize it wasn't like Washington was fully loaded.

No, no, and Daniels didn't play great. He didn't. He was late on that scene. Throw the deebo, get picked. Exactly.

He didn't play great.

And the fumbles.

Yeah.

Go, the handoff.

It was cold, slippery. Whatever. I know, I'm not making excuses. Let's move on to the other game, though, that happened last night on Monday Night Football, right? The Falcons. Michael Penix was good. Drake London was good, but Bijan Robinson was great. 238 scrimmage yards for him.

The Falcons are now three and two. They have not had a winning record or made the playoff since 2017. On the other side, the Bills have now lost back to back games after starting the season for no.

In their last two games, they have averaged 17 points per game after averaging over 33 points in their first four. So two-game losing streak for Buffalo. Obviously, that's not great news. They'll face Carolina next then they have a date with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. But Josh Allen and this offense, maybe they're in need of some help. Do you agree with that?

I do agree with that. Listen, when I looked at last night, you saw Jeff Ulbricht, the defensive coordinator for the Falcons. They were pressure happy. They were going to bring pressure. You know they're going to bring pressure. And it was like, there was no plan in place.

And when you, so what I mean by bringing pressure is when they're going to bring five or six rush, people who are rushing the quarterback, that means they're playing man on the backside of that. There has to be a receiver who wins against man. You have two concepts in offensive football. You can either block up for protection and make sure your quarterback doesn't get touched

and allow a couple receivers, or you can burn them deep. You make people pay for the blitz. The Bills have not done that. They have been very sloppy. The really the last three games, they got away with it with the Saints.

They lose to the Patriots, and now they lose to the Falcons. You can't you Josh Allen feels like his brain has sped up the interception over the middle at the end of the first half. I was a he was forcing it. He fought and he was forced to back goes out of the backfield. The the linebacker blitz peels. He jumps down the gap. You think

he's going to come he ends up rolling out to cover the back Josh Allen looks and you can tell all of a sudden the clock in his head speeds up. He tries to whiz that thing down in the middle of the field, gets undercut, and then you saw like the fourth down. They bring, they overload the pressure, zone blitz this side, and he tries to pitch it out. Right now, I know you see him make those plays, but again, you gotta know they're bringing pressure right there. Like, that can't be be that ain't your one. But that's not your fastball to run away from the pressure and pray that you throw it.

I did not think they were armed with their best plan. They have been sloppy. You can't turn it over and against a team like Atlanta who is playing as well as they were on offense against you. You got to try to take it away. Your best player is James Cook Coleman doesn't win Shakir doesn't win. Like there's a problem for me.

You to me, you can play like let's spread it around.

But at some point you need a dog.

the pressure from the Atlanta Falcons, but also they don't have guys that can consistently win in man coverage, which is why Jeff Ulbricht had no problem blitzing the hell out of Josh Allen, right? He blitzed them on 71% of the drop backs in the second half. You know why? He ain't scared that somebody's going to burn him deep on the back end. He ain't worried about it. He's not saying and that front was allowed to tee off on Josh Allen. As far as pass rush goes, that might have been the group to get after Josh Allen the most through the first three six weeks of this.

Right? Yeah.

They were absolutely phenomenal last night. So we should give credit where credit is due. James Pierce July Walker, all of those guys that the Falcons have up front. Yeah, them dogs was hunting. They got the return on investment with that draft capital

last night. But as far as the Buffalo Bills are concerned, Jeff, they don't have those guys there. And what compounds the issue for Josh Allen is that he knows that the defense that he's coming to the party with is going to make every other offense. Every other quarterback look like an MVP. Yeah, their defense is giving up the third most explosive plays in the NFL. Yeah, and to use one of your things

turnovers. It's not turnovers. It's explosive play.

The explosive plays is an issue that Buffalo Bills.

This is just speculation on my part. I don't mind being educated about this at all. But my thinking is your management. We got Josh and we got to pay this brother. Take here. This superstar that we got at the quarterback position

and feed the offense and we we going to sacrifice some stuff on the defensive side of the ball. Not quite Cincinnati, not quite Cincinnati in terms of Burrow, Jamar Chase, T Higgins, but damn it is something similar along those lines. And why do I bring that up? Because like you said, they've got nobody that's going to beat you deep. So you can blitz them all day.

You can blitz them 71% of the time in the second half, right? Well, I'm looking at this turnovers here. Buffalo had a league low eight turnovers last year. Yeah, the entire year. They've had six over the last three games.

Yeah, Josh has had Josh had

guys have bored him. Okay. He's got five of the last six. Actually, he's got five of them. So you're looking at a Josh Allen right now. And all of a sudden he's turned the football over. He threw a couple of inceptions. You're looking at him. And this is the kind of stuff that was happening years ago. Remember, we were applauding him last year because of how much he protected the football. Yeah. Now, it seems like there's a

regression that's taking place and it could be because of what you just said. He's bereft of weapons. He's trying to play hero ball again because he knows he if he can't if he doesn't do something they ain't gonna win. So you don't have a defense that's gonna help you know, you don't have enough weapons. I'm talking about individuals that are game-changers right on the offensive side of the ball outside of him.

So now you're looking at it and all of a sudden it prompts the question are the Buffalo Bills what we thought they were because right now I'm looking at them last night and I'm looking at some of the questions that you just brought up about their defense. All right. I'm looking at the New England Patriots the way Drake May and the boys. I'm like this.

They got they they got a shot to win this division.

Oh yeah.

It's becoming very interesting now.

So to Stephen A's point Josh Allen it was the first game with multiple interception since week 10 of last year against the Colts. not something we're accustomed to seeing. But with the trade deadline looming, right? November 4th is the deadline. Sounds like you think they should take someone on offense. They need to go find someone on defense, according to Canty. What would you say, Steven A? It don't matter?

I'm rolling with Josh Allen. I need a weapon on offense. I need a weapon on offense. I need somebody that's what they were relying upon. When they made this investment. They understand what it comes with it. You got to go out there and you have to get an additional weapon

for Josh. And the thing was like Brandon beam before the season kind of mocked about because people were like, don't you need receiver help? And he was like, yeah, we scored the most points in the league last year and everybody's talking about, you know, wide receivers and this kind of thing. You also played bad. I mean, you didn't have a winning team in your division last year, right? You had the Dolphins who were eight and nine.

You had the Patriots who were bad. You had the Jets who were bad. So you're going to score a lot of points against those teams. I think my issue is to, and can't you, you You're in trouble. And so like I think about the Indianapolis Colts. They don't have what you would say, like just a true one, right? Like some guy who you throw it to but Pittman can be that dude. Tyler Warren can be that dude. Warren is that dude, right? Downs can be that guy on

a certain occasion. The problem when you look at the bills is who scares you and it's Jeff Olbrich said, no one scares me. I'm gonna put Terrell on Coleman. I'm gonna run the rest is I'm gonna zone, blitz. I'm gonna make the ball come out fast. That has been what people are showing you. If that's the formula for the bills, their defense has to step up. It is this to me was a much, you know, we talk about bad sign, bad game, you know, sometimes I get it was a bad sign. All right. Well, question for both of y'all because I don't know Samuel Kincaid Palmer all out.

How much does that matter?

It matters. Yeah, just like the guys on the defensive side being out matters. They Kwan Jones Matt Malone or Toronto. Terrell Bernard got hurt last night. Maxwell Harrison hadn't played this year. He'd been hurt TJ Sanders their second round pick.

You tackle he played like so and Oliver just came back. Got a bunch of guys that are out. They'll get some help for sure, but they were light on that defense, particularly on the back end to start out with. Right. And so that's why I would lean toward the defensive side of the ball. Because if you can't stop them, you can't beat them. At some point. You got a lot of to be able to stop somebody. But if we're being

honest about it,

they probably need to matter of right. And defense when you say this though, I would trust the bills to me have always been a team like defensively. They always kind of start out a little shaky and then as the Sean McDermott for whatever it is as the season progresses. I feel like their defense gets better. I would tend to trust that as I look at you. You're still going to have to outscore

people like the bills are still their defense. Is it going to be a only give up 18 points a game type D like you're going to have to score points. I got to go get a guy who can get up the last night man to me. I look the game. I was like this is this is painful. Like if you're Josh on this is painful. No one's winning and you're expected to make miracles. that's that gets old fast. All right, November 4th is a trade deadline. I don't know a lot of Ravens. Maybe could be available a couple bangles if you need

some people.

A lot of Miami Dolphins who maybe my a lot of my they got some passwords. People gonna be calling South Beach.

There you go.

I'm saying there's some talent out there to go grab and I'm saying there's some talent out there to go grab and you only got a couple weeks to do it.