Reflections on NFL Week Seven: Insights and Outcomes

We're entering into week eight of the National Football League season and Ed Cleese joins me once again to make our big bold predictions for the upcoming week and tell about the results from week seven.

Ed's up in just a moment to tell us all about it.

This is the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch, a podcast that covers the anniversaries of American football events throughout history.

Your host, Darren Hayes is podcasting from America's North Shore to bring you the memories of the gridiron one day at a time.

Hello, my football friends.

This is Darren Hayes of pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal to positive football history.

And welcome to another Wednesday where we have our big bold predictions.

Not productions, it is a production, but we have our predictions during that production.

Of course, Ed Cleese joins me every Wednesday to go into week eight.

This week, Ed, welcome back to the Pig Pen.

Hey Darren.

I am always a production.

So there you go.

Yeah, you are quite the production here.

That's not for sure.

You're very high maintenance.

No.

Yes, yes, yes.

Just kidding.

So we had, you know, a great week of football again.

I mean, when can you ever have a bad week of football, you know?

Oh, I can.

I had a really bad one actually.

Well, I did too, but it's still better than a weekend without football, you know, at least get some enjoyment, you know.

So, yeah, our teams both lost this week, but you know, there's some brighter days ahead, I think.

Yeah, well, let me explain my day real quick if I can because we, you know, we live in Oklahoma City, which is about a 3 1/2 ish hour drive to Dallas.

So we went to the game yesterday.

It's fairly annual, the Dallas game for us usually, if it works out.

But we weren't going to make a big production out of it.

The Cotton bowl this year, Is that what it is?

No, no, no, Jerry World.

Oh, I'm talking about the.

I'm talking.

You're thinking of.

You're thinking about Texas.

Okay, okay.

I'm talking about the Commander's Cowboys game.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

I got.

So you had the hat three off.

No, so we went down yesterday and it was my two oldest kids and myself.

And so what we do is we just drive down and back, same day.

So we leave at about 6:45 in the morning.

We get there, we kind of hang out.

There's this thing called Texas Live where you kind of hang out, watch the early games, you go into the stadium, you get in the car afterwards and we're home at about 11pm so it is a long, long day.

And we've been to.

My kids have now been to Jerry world three or four times and I've been, I think a dozen for the games over the years.

And so there's nothing new or unique about this particular experience.

And we're driving down and back.

So it's very, the game itself is very, very important to make the day kind of worth it or not.

And yesterday was so rotten.

It was terrible from the start.

It was bad.

And it's just so, you know, midway through the first quarter, early second quarter, I'm already thinking, oh man, I got a three and a half, four hour drive back, gonna work in the morning.

So.

So he's like, so you're already like stripping away the enjoyment of the day.

So that's why I say it wasn't the greatest football weekend, but it's still, the drive down this time was much better than the drive back.

Yeah, I'll bet.

I guess the game wasn't very much fun either for you.

And it just kept getting worse as people were dropping like flies for the commanders.

It was rough.

Pretty ugly watching it.

We'll get to that here in a minute.

But yeah.

So I guess I can't totally agree that, you know, every football day is a good football day because I'm not sure yesterday really was.

Well, okay, think about it in the middle of like March when you don't have NFL football and tell me if it's a better day to have your team play and lose.

So you're watching them or nothing at all.

See, if I'm in the middle of March, one of these days I'll be thinking, you know what?

I really wish I was walking back to my car, getting harassed by all of the Dallas fans pointing me to, in the direction of the exit.

I didn't tell you.

I really will miss that in March.

All right.

Okay, well let's.

Why don't you tell me?

Okay.

We did know about one aspect of the weekend of football.

What you think, what do you think about the rest of the NFL week?

So I'd say we're hit the point where, you know, we talk about some cross off teams and we kind of know the teams that are legit.

And we've also talked about the yo yo effect and the week to week nature.

But I would say this, this is the time of the year.

It's really amazing to me how fat like you were just saying how you spend all off season longing for the start of Football season.

I am a year round sports fan.

I'm a big baseball and basketball fan too, so that, that helps.

But for sure, at least by mid to late July, I start to really get the pangs of wanting the routine of football season and starting to look forward to the fall, right?

And then it gets there and it feels like opening day will never arrive.

You know, like you're kind of slogging through the preseason.

Oh, is it going to get here?

Is it going to get here?

And then that first day arrives, the opening Thursday, and everybody's, it's all anew and everybody's got some hope.

And it's amazing how fast it goes and how quickly, like you're depending on who you root for.

That excitement could last literally just a few weeks.

I always say my favorite time of the year is from Labor Day through Thanksgiving.

It's just, there's a lot of personal reasons for it.

We got birthdays and I just like the weather, but it has a lot to do with football.

And that Labor Day to Thanksgiving time is like my favorite 2ish.

What are that, 10 weeks, whatever it is part of the year.

And you know, I was sitting there yesterday, I'm thinking, man, we're over halfway through my favorite part of the year already.

And it's just like in a flash, like, oh my gosh, I cannot believe we're almost at Halloween and this is the time of the year now where I think we know some, some things, you know, you.

We know.

And I kind of thought of three teams that I was like, okay, we know now.

And I doubted one of them pretty much up until this point.

But the Colts are for real, you know, that's, that's real now.

Okay, they're, they've, they've repeated the action over and over again, right?

The offense has been good from the, from day one.

Yes, their schedule's been pretty soft, but they can't control who they play.

All they can do is dominate the teams that they do play.

And the one game that they lost, they, I don't know if should have won, but certainly could have won that game against the Rams where Adani Mitchell, you know, celebrated too early and dropped the ball out of the end zone.

So the Colts were definitely one and the other one is the Patriots for sure at this point.

That's three straight road wins again.

I know we kind of talk about, sometimes we touch on the wagering aspect and there's an old saying from the gamblers that says good teams win and great teams cover.

And I think The Patriots, not only did they win all three of those games, they covered the spread in all three of those games.

And now while that doesn't necessarily matter, what does?

It gives a bit of an indication of they are not only winning, but they're sort of exceeding the expectations of even the experts and they're not falling into the, the pitfalls that sometimes happen to teams that are kind of coming out of nowhere.

You know, okay, they came out of nowhere, but then they laid an egg or they really struggle here.

But so they are just ascending and they're just continue to ascend.

You know, I think the Patriots were sort of the, the preseason darlings of the league, I think, going into the year.

And I think the Colts that you mentioned earlier, I think they've sort of taken over that because I don't think anybody had the expectation, unless you're a Colts fan, that they were going to be at the point that they're at and winning the way they are with a high powered offense and, you know, everything going right from Jonathan Taylor, you know, running through everybody, you know, nobody can tackle that guy.

And the Patriots have sort of fallen off and I think maybe their early season fumbles, you know, against the Steelers, losing that game on, you know, five turnovers, was Stevenson coughing up the ball every time he touched it, I think.

And they sort of lost a little bit of their luster and the Colts sort of gained some of that.

But yeah, the Patriots are for real.

Yeah.

And at this point, I think you hit the point where you start to say, I think it's okay to doubt them earlier.

Let's see more.

And they still haven't proven anything.

You know, we're still early enough to where anybody could still collapse or fall back.

It's that, that's all possible.

But at this point where we are, the Patriots and Colts are absolutely afc, they're super bowl contenders.

I mean, it's, it might be a little bit of a long shot still, but we're far enough in now and we've seen enough to where.

Yeah, of course, yeah, they're, they're contenders, you know, like a little bit like we saw with the Commanders last year about this time of the year.

Like, okay, I guess they're, I guess they're for real.

I guess they're good.

And so, yeah, those were the, the two that I saw kind of the ascending.

And unfortunately, again, firsthand, I think we see some reality set in for my team.

The opposite.

Whereas maybe early in the year you could have brushed off some of their struggles or they're just not looking right as okay.

They're kind of getting.

Getting right and then.

But now we're seven games in.

We haven't stopped any.

The defense has been awful, an F minus so far this year.

It's been terrible.

And the offense has been good, but not quite smooth like they were last year.

Maybe some injuries coming into play there.

So I'm just kind of sitting there watching them, and you're like, oh, you know, they're just not the team they were last year.

And we're at reality now.

You know, their.

Their season's not over.

They're not cooked.

They're done.

So that reality has set in to where now they're scrambling to salvage the season.

And it's just.

So the theme I was thinking of is, like, how quickly things like that can get decided in the league.

And, you know, heck, it's October 20th and, you know, we've got teams that have flipped the script in.

In multiple directions.

Yeah, that's definitely true.

I have a question to ask you.

Okay.

You have, you know, we know the results of the Commanders against the Cowboys that didn't feel.

Well, I'm sure, as a commander's fan, but would you rather have that have a beat down by one of your rivals, or would you rather be in the Giants position to give up 33 points in the fourth quarter and lose a game that you.

The Giants position.

Yeah, I always want.

I always want to compete now.

Yes, that.

No doubt.

The Giants fans walking out of that stadium at Denver yesterday had to have felt worse than I felt walking out.

Of Dallas end of the third quarter.

If you're a Giants fan, you have to be feeling really good about where you're at.

Not just good.

It's in the bag.

It's over.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Put a four in them, you know.

Yeah, I know.

I'm not usually.

I'm pretty superstitious and, you know, I've seen enough where I'm not a yapper during the game.

I wait till it's over, but I probably would have been spitting out some loudmouth soup if I was a Giants fan in Denver in the fourth quarter.

Probably.

So, yes, I think that that's a more painful walkout for the Giants fans than for Commanders Fans, however, I think Giants fans have a layer of hope wrapped in that heartbreak.

Okay.

Of what they saw.

Whereas commanders fans are walking out of the stadium feeling some level of despair and disappointment and like, again, the reality of like, wow, they just, it's not.

So we're not really worried about the game at this point.

We're not really worried about, oh, we lost to Dallas.

It's more, wow, we're just not as good as I thought we would be.

But I'm sitting here thinking, if you look at all the circumstances involved, Commanders, you go in with your top three receivers, they're not playing, your quarterback gets hurt, you know what, third quarter or end of the beginning of the fourth quarter, see that?

So you lost your four top weapons on offense, basically, you have no chance of scoring probably at that point.

You know, it's a.

Hurts, it's, it's a crapshoot anyway.

You know, it's not the guaranteed with the offense the way they played last year.

But the Giants, you know, they're going full strength.

I believe, I don't believe anybody got injured in that game.

And you know, they competed and they weren't expected to do much against Denver, but they did.

They had Denver, you know, they had them on the ropes and were, you know, sucker punching them and they just lost all that and really has to take your wind out of your sails.

I think, I think a Giants fan, ulta, I think 24 hours later, 48 hours later, I think ultimately you feel pretty good.

I think you feel good about.

You don't feel good about the outcome of the game, but I think you feel good about where you're at and you certainly feel good about your young quarterback and that's the most, that's the most important thing.

So, yes, that's a historic gut punch loss and it probably whatever hopes the Giants may have had of like legitimately entering the playoff race this year, that probably was killed in, in Denver, but I still would say I would rather my team go out like that than just be non competitive the way mine was and kind of leave you thinking, well, maybe they just stink.

Yeah, I'll tell you what, some of my feelings for the week have been like reconfirmed.

There are a few teams that I just don't trust anymore because I don't really know who they are because I don't think they know who they are.

And that's teams like the Vikings.

You know, I don't know who the Vikings are.

I thought they were pretty good team coming in based on what they did last year in the beginning of the season of the pretty sharp.

I don't know really who know who they are right now.

I.

Because I'm uncomfortable with them.

And then you got the Chargers.

You know, Chargers have some vast injuries, and there's some reasons for it, but I don't really know who the Chargers are anymore.

I don't know if they're a good team.

I don't know if they're a bad team.

You know, I'm not.

I'm not sure what they are.

I'm not sure if they're a playoff team.

And that last little bit of trust in a couple of those teams, I think I've got.

I've got an answer for both of them.

The.

The Chargers, I would say I agree with you.

I'm a little.

It's a little confused.

And really it's.

It's sort of kind of Herbert, you know, it's sort of.

I can't ever quite figure, you know, where.

Where I think he's really good, but why don't they win more?

And it's kind of.

It's.

It's a little confusing.

And I'm kind of with you on that.

I do think the injuries are hurting, but also they give up 38 points yesterday.

So, you know, you're at home and you.

And you get.

You get run over, so it really wouldn't matter.

And Herbert's taking a beating.

I mean, I'm surprised the guy's still standing.

You know, he is getting killed the last couple weeks.

Yeah.

So I kind of agree with you about the Chargers and the.

I think it's a great term is lack of trust.

I think I do know who the Vikings are.

The Vikings are a really good team with a black hole at quarterback that it's kind of the reverse of some other teams.

Maybe they're almost like the reverse of the Chargers.

You know, Wentz, I was watching that game at the little area before we went into the stadium.

Obviously, rooting for the Vikings to beat the Eagles wins is terrible.

Like, he is so bad.

Like, maybe on paper those numbers weren't that bad, but there were so many plays to be made in that game.

They kicked five field goals, and they were like red zone field goals.

So they were moving the ball pretty well.

They were getting down.

He could not make the big play or the big throw.

And then.

And they turned ahead to huge.

At least two huge turnovers, too.

Well, two times in red zone.

They're inside the 10 on the one, and they lost like 30 yards on that snap over his head and had the guy had to kick a 50 some yard field goal when it should have been a chip shot.

Or maybe they score a touchdown on the play if they.

He's, he's frantic.

He's.

He's frantic.

You know, he, like.

I don't think, I don't know if he doesn't see it or panic sets in or.

I don't know.

Or was that 17, I can't remember 17 or 18.

They.

All of his stops, you know, they've given up on him very quickly and really.

And at this point, you know, the Vikings, they've got some answering to do because this is their choice.

They drafted McCarthy, they had Darnold and they let him walk.

I actually approved of that, I guess you could say.

They let Daniel Jones walk.

They let Daniel Jones walk and now they've got this Wentz thing maybe with this weird soft benching of McCarthy with this like never ending ankle sprain.

That's odd.

So yeah, I think, I think I do know who the Vikings are and that's, that's a good team with a good defense, a lot of offensive weapons, not a great offensive line and then a really, really lot of trouble at quarterback there.

So obviously you're, you're just totally limited and whatever the ceiling there, unless McCarthy turns or turns around when he comes.

Back, I think Wentz can operate in space.

I mean he was definitely moving the team down the field.

I mean, I think every drive I can't think of, maybe they have one or two, three announcements me watching it, but he was continually moving him down into the red zone.

It's when he got in those tight spaces, you know, the defense is, you know, in his face a little bit more.

They're not giving him 30 yard cushions.

He has trouble fitting a ball inside a small, small target.

And that's where he panics, I think a little bit.

Yeah, it was, it was frustrating to watch as someone who was pulling for the Vikings and I'm sure for their fans, it was tough.

Good job by Hertz.

Also he made some really big throws.

Oh my gosh.

And A.J.

brown, I mean all, all the Eagles, they played really well and came defense came up big plays when they needed to and got him out of that game.

So all Right.

So there's our thoughts from last week.

So what do you got to say about our.

What we.

How we did last week?

All right, so we've got.

It was not good.

It was not good.

Now, first of all, we have a.

We have to come clean.

We are.

We are recording this a day earlier than usual.

So we usually record on Tuesdays, but due to a personal conflict, I was not able to this week, so we had to record early on Monday.

So we're actually recording it during this first Monday night game.

So two of your pit one of my picks and two of your picks are not going to get graded on this podcast.

We will add them to the total.

I'll take that as a victory for me.

There you go.

We will add them ultimately to the total.

So if you get.

You will get your points.

If you get them.

We just aren't going to talk about them.

So we'll start, I guess, with.

With me.

Let's start with the one that I got right.

And it was a big right.

It was a big right.

And.

And you'll.

You'll know exactly which one I'm talking about, and that is the Bengals not only playing well against the Steelers, but winning the game outright.

Now, I did say it was going to be kind of ugly and low scoring, and that that was the opposite.

That I will say that's easily, easily top five most entertaining games of the NFL season so far.

The.

The two old men going at it was really fun and it was great.

It was really good theater.

The.

The.

The end of the game was fantastic.

That throw, man, Rogers can still spin.

It 70 yards in the air.

My God, I didn't think he had it in him.

It's incredible, man, the way that guy can.

Can throw the football.

So I was.

I was almost thinking maybe they should put Mason Rudolph in to try to get because, you know, he's got a live arm just to get down there.

But, I mean, Rogers exceeded my expectation with that throw.

And you know, what I told you last week is I said there's got to be a reason that the Ravens are still not that far behind in the Vegas odds to win the division.

Something's going to happen, and I think that's what happened because now the Steelers schedule gets really tough.

They drop a game against the team that was really struggling.

So it.

They.

They are still in control, but it definitely cracks the door for not only the Bengals, but the Ravens as well.

And, yeah, maybe even the Browns.

You know, Browns play like, you know, their defenses played well all year.

They have no offense.

Breaks Darren on the front.

Hey, hey.

I'm just saying.

No, they're actually ahead of the Ravens right now.

They have twice as many wins as the Ravens right now.

They are.

Anybody out there.

Anybody out there that wants that?

We're talking about Vegas.

Anybody wants some Browns to win the division action?

Just.

Just send them my email.

Okay, well, we'll set that.

We'll set that up.

I'd be happy to apply.

So that was the good one for me.

But the, the, the.

The.

The three zeros.

Gosh.

And they were kind of big zero.

Oh, I'll say this.

I'm going to get a zero.

Speaking of the Browns, on Mike McDaniel getting fired, I said the losing coach of the Browns Dolphins game would get fired.

And as that game unfolded, I was like, I am going to nail this.

Because not only are the Dolphins losing this game, they are getting destroyed.

It's raining.

Two is throwing the ball all over the place to the other team.

The Dolphins are not.

They're not even competing.

Okay.

This is horrible.

They're not going to let him on the plane back to Miami.

And they did.

And he was in his press conference today talking about how two is still the starter and the Dolphins, I guess, kind of announced that they're not making any changes.

And it leads me to an interesting thought or conversation because it's something similar happening in our team.

Everybody wants our defensive coordinator, Joe Whitt to be fired, including a good friend of mine named Eric.

And Eric is all over me in the texts about how we have to fire Wit.

I don't even know if I can watch this defense anymore.

This is.

This is absurd.

And I'm a little.

I'm a little pushed back on it and.

Because I think the thing is, I'm not a big fan of the, of the sacrifice firing, you know, and maybe going back to Miami.

Maybe they just don't think that there's anybody in house that's going to do any better or help them turn the season around.

Or maybe they don't really want to turn the season around at this point.

Maybe they've just decided, okay, we're one in six.

This is miserable.

Do we really.

We don't have anybody on staff that we think is going to replace McDaniel long term.

Right.

And.

And we'll also assume that McDaniel isn't a total disaster behind the scenes where he's like, you know, undermining the development of young players and yada, yada, yada.

So maybe they don't want to.

Maybe they just say, you know what, this is going to stink.

We got eight more, ten more games left.

Just get it over with.

We'll fire him at the end of the year, you know, and, and be done with it.

And I think the same thing for, you know, like the commanders and their defensive coordinator that there's so many pitchforks online because they, you know, we want to sacrifice, we need, we are the bloodlust to, you know, get our frustrations out for this lousy start.

And part of me thinks, well, okay, but what if there's nobody else on staff that's really going to do anything differently?

Our head coach is a defensive minded head coach.

Hopefully he's already sharing his input.

You know, if anybody had any answers, I'd like to think they'd step up and answer it for him.

So I'm not a big fan necessarily of the in season firing unless you have some super duper, you know, insubordination or something where like somebody's just destroying things behind the scenes or like you.

Say you have an heir apparent that can be an interim coach on staff.

And I don't know that the Dolphins do.

I don't know who their, I don't know either coordinators are, but I don't think they have anybody that I know of.

And you think what, didn't Dennis Allen get fired in the season last year for the Saints and Rizzy there?

And so what did that accomplish, right?

Did the Saints advance anything?

Did we learn anything from that?

No, it didn't hurt either.

You know, it's fine, but it's, you know, this, this fist pounding the table of the fist.

If we got to do it in the season, they're done.

They're done, they're done.

And you know, yes, I think everybody wants accountability, right?

Mike McDaniel is going to get fired at the end of this year.

Okay.

I mean, it's, it's going to happen.

And maybe you think, all right, if we know we're going to do it, let's just do it.

But sometimes, you know what, we're stuck in the middle of the season.

Somebody's got to suffer through it.

We're paying him to do it, so let's just let him do it.

You know, I think that's kind of the, the kind of the thing.

And so, so while I have been predicting the Mike McDaniel will get fired for the last like three weeks, I guess I should stop because it appears, it appears he will not.

And maybe the Dolphins are actually, you know, Better for it.

Okay.

Yeah.

So that's a zero.

As well as I had the Broncos winning, however, I'm going to get a fat zero for that because I said their defense would dominate, they'd win the game by seven plus, and they'd hold the Giants to 17 or less.

None of those things happened.

It was the most wild game in the history of, like, the league in some ways.

The most crazy fourth quarter.

I completely swung and missed on it.

I was completely off.

So that's a zero.

Even though I could have maybe shaved a point there for myself because the Broncos did win.

But you probably.

Probably could have.

But no, it's fun watching those young guys for the Giants of Scatter Boo.

And he's just amazing.

He's a horse.

No doubt about it.

And then.

So another zero would be the Chargers beating the Colts.

Well, they didn't.

And it wasn't particularly close either.

So with one pending, I. I racked up a grand total of two points this week, and that's going to tie you going into these.

These Monday night games because you are definitely going to get your two points for the Browns finally scoring 20 or more points.

And they did it in the.

In the rain and the muck and so a pat on the back to you there for getting that.

The running game.

Yep.

Well, we didn't put any qualifiers on it, so you got that one.

And then, you know, hopefully you've learned your jets lesson at this point.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think I'll cross them off with you.

What a disaster.

That is so bad.

I don't know how it gets any better.

It's just terrible.

It's.

It's sad.

I think that's what makes McDaniels down in Miami feel better.

Just thinks about Aaron Glenn's position he's in.

At least.

At least I'm not Aaron Glenn.

Yeah, at least.

And I'm in Miami with Micah 3 pants.

So zero for you on that one.

And also zero.

You had another really big mess, I guess, is over overseas there.

You had the Jags over the Rams.

Oh, my God.

And I just.

Gosh, it just makes me.

I love the boy genius.

I love Sean McVeigh.

He's my favorite coach in the league.

He's.

He's just so smart, and the team is so well put together.

They're.

That's just a lot.

I'm a little jealous sometimes watching the Rams.

That.

That.

That's a.

That's a really easy team to root for.

They.

They maximize everything they have.

But I. I figured knowing Puka was hurt last week, I figured going in and he didn't play, but oh, my God, they didn't miss a beat.

They, they were on fire with, you know, the guys that they had out there on the field and just looked fantastic.

Adam, they're contender.

Great job.

Yeah, they were great.

They were great.

So you also got two points this week.

So we stay.

I stay one point ahead in the total.

However, again, I have one pick pending for Monday, you have two.

So it's possible still that you would round chase me down.

Oh, I'm confident.

I'm confident in my two picks for Monday.

So we'll see by next by this time.

We can start next week by doing a quick update on where we stand in the standings.

But I am ready to move on to our, our bold predictions for, for this week, if you are.

I am ready.

And I think you have the first choice this week.

Believe.

All right, so I'm gonna.

I've got a bit of a theme going in all of my picks except one.

So I'll start with the one that kind of sticks out as being a little bit different.

I hesitated on this one, but I'm gonna go with the Ravens coming off of the buy and getting back on track, hosting the Bears and winning that game by 10 or more points.

That smile tells me that maybe we're aligned here possibly.

I think you're, you're looking over my shoulder here because I also pick the Ravens by 10.

Plus I said it's going to be a big embarrassment in Baltimore.

Oh, boy.

Baltimore's back on track.

Lamar's coming into play.

I believe they're going to have, you know, getting some people back.

Had the bye week to rest up and I do think it's a 10 point game.

All right, well, we're.

This, this is dangerous.

This is extra dangerous then now that we're both thinking this, thinking alike on that one.

I also think we talked about, you know, in past weeks that they're catching Chicago at the right time.

Theirs have won four in a row.

They're facing a desperate and rested Ravens team.

It's just, it's a little bit of a bad mix here and obviously if the game goes the other way then now maybe we kind of add the Bears to that category of the Colts and the Patriots as a real team.

I'm not ready yet with the Bears to say this is a real team.

But.

But if they go into Baltimore and win, then we're gonna talk about.

I will gladly give up my two points if the Chicago wins.

That Game.

Oh, there you go.

I'm sure you will.

You sure you will.

So.

Oh, guys, I guess right back to me because we've already both picked one.

So now I'm going to start with my little bit of a theme here and maybe NFL fans at large are going to hope I'm wrong because all of my picks are focused around lower scoring defensive efforts.

So we're going to start in Philly where the Giants and the Eagles play again after that game from Thursday from two weeks ago.

And because of the familiarity and I think the defense is settling in, I think those two teams are going to combine for 40 or fewer points.

I do think Philly wins this time.

I the Giants sweeping the Eagles and over the course of three weeks the second one on the road seems like a little bit too of a dream scenario.

So I'll say the Eagles win but that it's a low scoring game and the teams combined for 40 or fewer.

Okay, interesting pick.

I think, you know, I didn't pick on this game but I think the Eagles are starting to click.

The passing game look did fantastic.

I think yesterday, you know those receivers they got Hertz is putting balls in buckets and I think Saquon Barkley has been awfully quiet the last couple weeks.

He's about ready to explode.

He's too talented to be kept bottled up by too many teams.

And I think that offense is one of these weeks we're going to walk out and they're going to put like a 40 or 50 burger on somebody and it could be this week.

Well, hopefully not.

Hopefully not.

Hopefully we stay 40 or under.

Maybe they'll wait for the commanders who know.

There you go.

All right, so what do you got?

All right.

Well, I told you I don't trust the Vikings or the Chargers and they play each other this week.

So I don't know that I even want to pick a winner in this and as much as I do because I fear that Herbert's going to get hit so much and but I am going to pick a win.

I'm going to take the Vikings are going to take a W on the road and win this.

But I really fear for Herbert they got to do something to do a little bit more chipping.

Both their tackles are on their second third stringers on there and they're getting no help out there and they're going to get bombarded by the Chargers pass rush unless they are sorry by the Vikings pass rush unless they do something.

I think the Vikings are going to win this one on the Road.

You should have predicted a tie.

That would have been very bold.

Yeah, that would have been real bold, but not that bold.

All right, well, I'm going to move on to Houston where the 49ers and their sort of gritty, gutty weekly traveling party are.

They're gonna struggle in Houston.

The, the.

That Texas defense is really good and the Texans are going to beat the 49ers on Sunday and they're going to hold San Francisco to 17 or fewer.

Okay, well, I, I picked in this game to similar pick.

I think the Texans are going to shut down the McAffrey Express that we saw, you know, just the past couple days here and they're going to win in a close one at home over the Niners.

I think it's going to be a close game, but yeah, I think the Texans are going to hold out and take this one.

Okay, then you get the Texans and I've got them specifically on a number.

All right, so now we're going to go back to the Browns.

Let's talk about the Browns some more.

They're in New England this week taking on the again red hot Patriots.

And I do think that we are going to get our first small little speed bump for the Patriots.

They're going to find a way to win it.

They're going to win the game, but it's going to be very close and they will not score more than 20 points on that Cleveland defense.

It's going to be a good day for the Cleveland defense.

They're going to frustrate.

Maybe their Cleveland offense will not have enough to get it done.

But we're going to say a close win for the Patriots over the Browns, but they will not score more than 20.

Well, I went into this game too and I agree with you.

It's going to be a close one.

But I'm going to go a little bit further.

I'm going to put the boldness into this one.

I'm going to say the Browns are going to produce four turnovers against the Patriots, but they're going to lose the game.

Late May is going to figure out a way to win this, but they're going to have give up the ball four times.

Four times.

Well, that's okay.

We'll see whose explanation of the close win is better.

I guess that's what we're, what we're basically predicting.

So my last one, we're going to end back in your neck of the woods and you better hope that I'm not, you know, reading the.

Reading the tea leaves Very well here because I am predicting that the packers on Sunday night in Pittsburgh, they're going to.

I'm going to throw three, two things at you.

The packers are going to win the game.

They're going to sack Rogers four or more times and they're going to hold the Steelers to 20 or less.

So in other words, it's going to be a rough day for the Steelers offense.

I think I've seen a few.

The one thing about the.

Rogers looks great throwing the ball, but he definitely does not move the way he used to.

And, and the packers have a good defense.

They have a very good pass rush.

Parsons kind of went off on Sunday and I think maybe he's going to get his groove.

And I think that is a bad matchup for Rogers, specifically when teams can really come off the edge.

So I think the Steelers might be entering a time of struggle, at least for a few weeks.

And I think they're going to.

They're going to lose Sunday night.

They're going to get sacked four more times and they're not going to score more than 20.

I can see all those things happening and I did not pick this one, but I really thought about this long and hard and I even had it jotted down as maybe being my extra.

I was going to pick one.

You know, I thought about changing one of mine and bringing this in.

I was going to say that, you know, Micah is going to have a better game than T.J. watt and that Love is going to have a better game than Rodgers.

But the Steelers are going to win the game.

Okay, but I don't, I don't trust.

I don't trust picking my own team because I'm.

I'm too close.

Too close.

Too close.

Too close.

That's right.

I don't want to pick disaster either, but that's an interesting pick.

I can see what you're saying.

I am sometimes a believer in the reverse jinx.

Yeah, I, I was hoping it would happen last week, too.

It almost did.

Almost doing.

They just scored too fast.

The Friar fell down at the five yard line or something, so.

Not at the end there.

All right.

Well, my final pick is I'm going to go with a team that I do trust and a team we talk quite a bit about, and that's the Colts.

I. I'm going to go.

Not so much that they're going to beat the Titans because I think they're going to beat the Titans.

I don't think anybody's going to pick the Titans in this game, but I'm going to go with some bold predictions.

I'm going to say Jonathan Taylor goes 150 yards plus in rushing, scores two TDs, and I'm going to even cap that off a little bit more and say to Daniel Jones, throw for at least three TDs and 225 yards plus.

So basically you're predicting that the Colts dominate the Titans.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

That's really.

I could say it like that and it doesn't sound so great, but I had to put something in there.

So that was.

You can beat me down a little bit.

Yes, you do.

Yes, you do.

Have you have some specific numbers to back it up, so I think we can count.

So I was soft on my first three picks and just picked W's, but my last two, I really tried to get more specific and, you know, give those four turnovers the Brownies and Taylor and Daniel Jones with their numbers.

There you go.

There you go.

Well, I am.

We are actually hitting the road again next week.

It just so happens that the team closest to us to the north is where the commanders play next.

So for better or worse, we're headed to Arrowhead next Monday night, which will be a new experience for my kids.

So I'm looking forward to at least the experience.

It's, it's not shaping up to be the greatest setup for our team, but, but we'll be there.

Hey, you never know what could happen.

You know, I've seen a lot of times where teams go in injured and, you know, not playing at their best, full strength and go against somebody full strength Cincinnati last week, you have, you're missing your starting quarterback, you're missing your best pass rusher, and you beat the team that's two or three games ahead of you.

So you never know.

Any given Sunday, Monday, Thursday, whatever.

Well, it's the way.

It's, it's the way the emotional roller coaster of fandom works.

Walking out of one stadium on Sunday evening, basically convincing myself that our season is over, we'll never win another game, and I should probably find a new hobby.

And then by the time I'm walking into the stadium on Monday night, I probably will have convinced myself that we're going to find a way to win and maybe go all the way to the Super Bowl.

So that is, that is the emotional ascension and dissension from descending from one week to the next.

So that, that's.

And I'm passing this along to my kids so they can all hate me for it later.

Okay.

In that case, I will not say anything to you about how good the Chiefs look with getting all their receivers healthy as you have no receivers and how bad your secondary look.

I won't mention any of that.

So.

Yeah, we won't mention the fact that they had as many points as the they had what the Raiders had.

Like what, three?

I. I read somewhere that somebody said they watched the all 22 of the Raiders offense and every play and it took them four minutes and three seconds to get through the entire game.

So.

Yeah.

So yeah.

So can't wait.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hey, you can't get.

Can't get any lower than yesterday, right?

You're at least you're not playing your arch rival.

That's true.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There you go.

All right, Ed, well, that's another great week of picks.

We'll finish up, I guess week six or week seven next week with the results.

Get our week eight results and pick week nine back next Wednesday.

So Ed, can't wait to talk to you again and enjoy your week and enjoy your trip.

Thanks, Darren.

Have a great week.

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