Analyzing NFL Week 11: Predictions and Insights

Ed Cleese joins me to make our big, bold predictions right after this.

This is the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch.

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Hello, my football friends.

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

And welcome to another week where we go into the NFL season making big, bold predictions.

And as always this year, my sidekick is Ed Cleese, who's coming in and bringing all the commentary, some great insight, and some great predictions.

Ed, welcome back to the Pig Pen.

Hey, Darren.

I think I feel honored.

I think this is the first time you've referred to me as your sidekick.

I think.

I think.

I think.

Have I graduated from guest to sidekick?

Yeah, well, you're on every week, so you gotta be.

You gotta move up in classification, I think.

All right, well, I'll be interested to know what's next.

What's my.

What's the next step?

That'll be good.

Yeah.

Now you have to go get your.

Own beverage and everything.

I'm not serving you.

Okay.

You're not a guest.

All right.

So there aren't necessarily any perks associated with being a sidekick.

No, no.

You lose, you lose.

Okay, got it.

I got you.

All right.

The hospitality's over, you know.

Okay, got it.

Well, so, Ed, what did you think about Week 10 in the NFL?

Yeah, so a couple.

I had two kind of separate thoughts.

So the.

The first one was, you know, we talk about the teams that we've cut so far.

We've kind of poked fun at a lot of them.

These are all the teams that are having poor seasons for any number of reasons.

And now that we sit here, you know, at the midway point or a little bit past the midway point, you know, none of these teams look like they're going to be involved in the playoff race in any fashion at all.

And one thing I.

That kind of showed me, that I.

That I observed this week, and I'm guilty of it, too, is a lot of times when we have these bad teams, these teams that are struggling, a lot of times when we're analyzing games, we'll use the words, well, this team is playing a lousy team, and that team has nothing to play for.

They've quit.

They're Going through the motions.

They're already on vacation.

And the truth is, that is not reality.

These teams, these are pros.

I don't.

I think the only exceptions to this are maybe in week 18, when it's literally we're on vacation in a few hours Sometimes.

I do think teams check out on that last week, or perhaps if you have a situation where the regime, whether it's the owner, the general manager, coach, whatever, they're clearly lame ducks.

Everybody's gone and everybody knows it.

And I do think in that situation, sometimes you do get some teams that check out a little early.

But in general, I think these teams give it their all and play hard and remain dangerous.

So just this week we had teams that we've cut.

The Raiders, Giants, Dolphins and Saints, all either upset teams they were playing this week or played them down to the wire.

Very tough performances.

The Browns and Jets played each other, and that game was competitive.

And you could tell both teams were going 100% and trying to get that win.

And I think that's something that we just all need to keep in mind.

That I need to remind myself is that these, these are pros.

These are guys that are trying to get things on tape.

A lot of them have young quarterbacks or young players that are trying to prove themselves or veterans that are trying to hang on.

And so I think once the ball's kicked, they are playing football.

And.

And if you're on the field in the NFL, you're dangerous.

Now, the flip side of that, I do think where it gets, where I think maybe things unravel, is you had like the Cardinals and the commanders who happen to be in the late window, and they're inferior teams, they're playing superior teams, and things went so poorly so quickly in both of those games that I do think there's a tendency for some of those bad teams to unravel in games really quickly and maybe looks like they've quit or given in, but I think it's more the team is struggling, they've got injuries.

Before you know it, it's 14 to nothing with 10 minutes left to go in the first quarter, and the confidence dips.

The other team probably plays with more confidence and it just kind of gets ugly.

I don't necessarily think it means it.

It's.

They've quit.

So I think when these games, if these teams that I've.

All these teams I've mentioned, if they can get something good to happen to them early in the games, they can make it through the first quarter, then a lot of Times, what we see is these teams really hang around and get after it.

It's just something to keep in mind when we're.

When we're thinking about the rest of the season.

Yeah, I think you make some really good points there.

You know, you.

You can see, like, high school teams quit.

College teams quit when their season's over.

You know, there's nothing really to play for.

They don't.

Can't make a bowl game, can't make the postseason in high school.

But professionals, they are in it for business.

They're making a livelihood at.

And making really good money more than you and I are.

The worst guys on the team are.

And, you know, it is a very bad business decision if you decide to hang it up in the middle of a game, middle of a season.

You know, I don't care if there's five minutes left in the last game.

You better be playing your hurt off, because that is your audition to either stay with the team you're on or to get on another team next year.

And you don't want to miss that ride.

And I think these guys appreciate that, and they try to keep business going.

Yeah.

And what we don't know, what we don't see.

And I do wonder about this sometimes.

I've always wondered.

I don't think that there's really ever very rarely, if ever, a lack of physical effort in these games because you're going to get yourself run over in the NFL if you're going, you know, less than 100%.

Sometimes I do wonder if there could be a little bit of a lack of focus during the week.

Like, you know, if A team is 3 and 11 and their season's winding down.

Well, are they completely locked into that game plan meeting on Thursday afternoon in the.

In the meeting room, as opposed to an 11 and 3 team?

You know, those.

Those are things that I sometimes wonder about, and it's probably hard to quantify, but, yeah, I think, you know, I look at the Saints, you know, this past week, that's a.

Whatever they want in seven going into the game, or, I'm sorry, one in eight, you know, whatever.

They were one win, and they were playing a team that was really hot, and the Saints kind of bullied the Panthers a little bit, because I think those teams, they, you know, and there's also pride at stake.

But like you said, mainly it's, I want to stay in the NFL.

And it's not just.

I'm not just playing for my.

For my team.

Even right now.

I'm playing for me and, you know, trying to get things on tape because I'm going to be a free agent after the year or whatever it might be.

So I do it.

I'm guilty of it.

Sometimes I'll look at a game and I'll be like, oh, they're playing this team.

That team's, you know, throwing it in for the year.

That's not really the way it works.

And that's where we get into these, you know, tread lightly on some of these games or we think the lousy team is just going to roll over.

Yeah, you bring up an interesting point.

And not to go down a deep rabbit hole here, but maybe just an overview of what your thoughts are on this.

You know, a few weeks ago, the, the Baltimore Ravens were really in the doldrums.

You know, really had a poor record.

They were like 2 and 5 or something like that, which is unraven, like.

And the team had a meeting and decided to get rid of the distractions in the locker room.

They got rid of the ping pong tables, the video games or whatever else they had in there.

And it was just the locker room stuff for getting ready for practice or, you know, studying game film or whatever.

What are your thoughts on that and do you think that that's part of the Ravens turnaround?

Well, I don't know if it's specifically part of the Ravens turnaround because we do hear about the, oh, you know, that team got rid of the pool table, so watch out for them on Sunday.

I don't know, but I think what, what probably does matter is that it sort of shows that people care and they've sort of maybe run out of answers and they're frustrated that they are where they are.

So we've done everything else we can do.

So let's get rid of the damn ping pong table.

You know, we haven't tried that yet, you know, and let's, you know, let's, let's make this feel like it's all business.

So, gosh, I don't know.

You know, if the, the Titans got rid of all of their fancy things that are in their locker room right now, would they, you know, win games down the stretch?

You know, probably not.

But I do think that symbolically those things might have an impact sort of like on the mentality of the team a little bit.

You know, it's like, hey, we're going to wake ourselves up here a little bit and sort of send a message that, you know, it, it's desperation and it's time to.

For everybody on Board or you're out.

Yeah.

Almost a signal of, hey, let's roll up our sleeves and.

And get to work here.

Let's dig ourselves out of this hole.

Right.

Yeah, it's.

Yeah.

And I think sometimes we forget that football, you know, it's a bunker mentality deal.

Right.

It's a lot locker rooms are different than your regular workplace.

Right.

It's very fraternal.

You know, it's.

It's.

It's.

That's.

The locker room is a sacred place and there's only.

You're not supposed to be in there unless you're part of the group.

Right.

And if there's anything that's fracturing that, then I think there's sometimes, you know, time for somebody to speak up.

But, yes, I do make fun of the players only meeting a lot, but at least it shows in those instances that they're trying.

They're trying whatever they can.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, I guess that segues into our next segment that we usually do here, and that's making cuts of teams that you don't think have any chance of going to the postseason.

I think we have 10 already on our list.

Of the 32, are you adding any this week?

I'm not.

I think what we have done, we've probably taken out the majority that it might be a while before we add another one.

Because if you look at it, all the teams that are alive, it's hard to see them fading anytime completely.

There's only two that I think are teetering right now.

The Falcons.

I considered cutting them after their loss to the Colts.

Their schedule is not terribly difficult the rest of the way.

Atlanta.

So, you know, they play Carolina this week.

They might be able to still claw their way back in.

I do think there's some talent there.

So they're teetering.

And the Cowboys are teetering, too.

They didn't play.

But just the.

Just the math of the NFC playoffs is very much working against Dallas now in Atlanta.

So, you know, they're on the edge.

Dallas is probably one more bad loss away from being added.

Atlanta probably as well.

On the flip side.

Go ahead.

I'm sorry.

No, no, go ahead.

You can say.

Okay.

So on the flip side of that, I had one more observation.

And, you know, I am not a fan of power rankings in general because I think all they really do is regurgitate the standings that we can all look at.

You know, usually it's just like the standings in 1 through 32 format.

To me, a real power ranking should be not necessarily who's Earned a number one spot.

But who do I think just with my eyeballs is the best team?

And I just, just as an exercise, I just kind of did like the top 10 in the league just because I wanted to see where I was.

And I'm going to ask you.

This is going to, this is going to come down as like I'm really throwing some shade at the afc.

I'm going to.

I'll tell you right now that there's a few NFC teams.

Before I get to an AFC team at all, how far down the list do you think I got?

What number is the first AFC team?

I'm going to guess maybe five.

Exactly.

That's exactly.

So this is a real turn.

So my top four right now, in order, would be the Seahawks, number one.

I had the Rams at number two.

That's a game this week.

And then I had the Eagles, out of respect, at number three.

Then I actually had the Lions at number four.

And now here's where I'm going to throw some real shade at the afc.

You have any guess who I have is number one in the AFC or number five overall?

I'm going to.

I mean, the logical thing is if you look at the standings, you'd say the Colts, but I don't know that you would pick the Colts.

I would probably say maybe Kansas City or Buffalo.

It's Kansas City, a team that is right now not even in the playoffs.

They are five and four.

They have losses to Jacksonville, they have a loss to Buffalo, they have a loss to the Chargers.

But I still rank the Chiefs as the number one team in my power rankings in the AFC because I just do not trust any of these other AFC teams yet.

And maybe it's just that, you know, I got to see it.

And when I look at the Chiefs, even through their losses, I just still see it with them.

And I think that was just a really interesting exercise.

And if I can go off on a little Chief's tangent right now of why they're so nagging and annoying in a lot of ways.

So let me tell you a little story about my neighbor.

My neighbor is a great guy.

His name is Josh.

We've lived in the same neighborhood with him for several years now.

And Josh is a big Chiefs fan, as is his son and their whole family.

And you know, you look at like the Eagles fans, they're so easy to detest and dislike because they're just so gross.

And I feel that way about several other fan bases.

The Boston fans, the New England fans, they're so Insanely arrogant.

It was so bad.

But you know what I've decided?

I've decided that maybe the Chiefs fans are the worst of all because they're so polite and so self deprecating that I'm not sure I believe it.

So earlier this year, Josh and I were talking after week one and the first thing he said to me is like, oh, it's not happening for us this year.

You know, it's not our year.

We're not looking good.

The Chiefs, you know, finally.

It's finally going to end.

He was being very, you know, gracious in a lot of ways that, hey, our time is up, you know, maybe we'll regroup in a few years with Mahomes.

And when I went to Kansas City a few weeks ago, that's the exact same vibe I got from all of the people I talked to.

They were the friendliest, nicest group of opposing fans I've ever seen that I've been to Lambo and that's the only one that rivals it would be packers fans.

The Chiefs fans were so nice.

They were talking about how they could be in big trouble tonight against the commanders.

And you know, as I pulled up today, I saw Josh and he just looked at me and he said, you know, the Chiefs have the best odds to win the super bowl right now.

You know that, right?

And it's almost like it's just simmering inside all of them and they know it.

And that I think I've decided that maybe they're the worst of all.

I think is what I've.

Maybe that's the conclusion I've come to.

And I think that I have perhaps been infiltrated by their mind voodoo because I am sitting here thinking, I think the Chiefs are going to win the super bowl.

And they're five and four, not even in the playoffs.

So they have reverse engineered this.

They've Jedi mind tricked everything.

So I've got my eye on my neighbor and all the other Chiefs fans at this point, because I just do not.

They're doing something that's.

That.

That's.

That's making me all messed up.

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

That's.

They've got that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

See, the Eagles fans aren't.

They're just not smart enough to do anything like that.

They just, you know, that everything's out in the open.

But maybe that's.

Maybe that's better.

Maybe that's better.

Maybe that's.

They're.

Maybe in a way they're less threatening.

You could be onto something.

You could be.

But yeah, I think you're definitely looking at the past seven years or so.

You definitely have to fear Kansas City in the playoffs because they do, they play their best ball.

They peak at the right time.

You know, Andy Reid has his team well oiled to perform starting in December and in January and February, it's, it's usually lights out and they're balling and they really haven't fallen off except maybe week one or week two.

You know, those first couple losses, maybe they, they didn't look at their best.

But even in the losses they've had recently, they still could have won.

They still looked like a good team.

They're just lurking.

Like my neighbor.

They're just lurking there.

They're just, they're just there.

And Josh is a great guy, by the way.

Yeah, but where.

If you invite you over for, you know, barbecue or something this weekend.

Yes.

Yes.

Have the dog taste the food first or something.

Yes.

Yeah.

But.

Yeah.

Let me just ask you a question.

So fast forward in your mind.

Let's picture it right.

It's the divisional playoffs and it's Chiefs at Colts.

And I say, Darren, you got to put your house on it.

Who you got?

Oh, we talked about this last week.

I think, you know, I don't trust the Colts, even if it's in Indianapolis against some of these bigger teams, you know, I wouldn't trust me.

It's Kansas City.

I wouldn't trust them against Buffalo, probably not against, you know, like the Chargers even, you know, maybe, maybe a Denver or Pittsburgh or somebody like that.

Well, but I don't know about the other ones.

I'm just telling you, you can, you can insert any other team in place of the Colts against the Chiefs and my answer would be Chiefs.

That, that would be.

That would be my answer.

So somebody's going to have to prove it to me before I move them down.

Now, we can get into it in a minute when we talk about our games, but Denver will have a very good chance this week to put a major dent in that because if the Chiefs wind up at 5 and 5, well, now you start having some, again, some, like, math reality where that, that could really catch up to him.

But if you listen to any words I've said so far, you probably know who I'm picking a night.

Yeah, I'll bet.

I have some ideas.

I have some ideas.

All right.

Well, before we get into our picks, why don't you tell us what the results of our week 10 predictions were?

Well, I would be happy to.

I'm sure you would.

We'll start with yours.

We'll start with yours.

So I did give you, you know, the whole point of this exercise has always been to.

I'm a big spirit of the rule guy.

Right.

The whole point is who is reading these games the best?

That sort of the thing.

So even if you wind up a little bit off, I like to give some points.

So you predicted the Raiders to beat the Broncos, which was extremely bold.

That was the worst game I think I have seen in years.

That was so bad, it was gross.

If you like, defensive was good, but not offensive.

That was one of those games where I didn't think anything was good.

It was just bad, bad, bad.

You know, that was 10 to seven final, right?

And then the Monday night game was a 10 to 7 final.

But those games contrasted to me because when I watched Monday night, I actually felt that that game was somewhat compelling and interesting, whereas the Thursday night game was just terrible.

But I'm going to give you a point for that.

Even though the Raiders lost, they were so close.

You know that that game came down to the wire.

They missed a field goal at the end to tie it.

So I think you kind of had that game.

You had a pretty good read on that game.

So I did give you a point for that one.

You're going to get a zero for predicting the Buccaneers to beat the Patriots and for Mayfield to outperform May.

That wasn't.

You weren't way off there.

That was.

That was a pretty good close game, but it was actually just slightly the other way.

You know, Patriots look pretty good.

Patriots looked a little bit better and May looked a little bit better.

So you get a zero there.

I was not so kind to you.

I did not give you any points for the Giants.

You predicted the Giants to beat the Bears.

I did not give myself any points a couple weeks ago when the Raiders lost to the Jags on the last play.

So you can blame the concussion on Jackson Dart, probably, because I do think the Giants likely hold on to win that game if you didn't.

It was like almost like a switch got turned off when Russell Wilson came in.

I mean, it was like the Giants just like lost their composure and everything went bad for him.

Where when Dart was in there, they look pretty good.

So maybe they have had the right guy in there the whole time.

Well, the switch is this.

The switch is this.

Here we have it on.

Good, competent, exciting, energetic quarterback.

And when we switch the switch down we go.

Old, slow, disinterested, noodle, armed quarterback.

So that's the switch that.

That.

That's the switch that they flipped, and it was a bad one.

And that allowed.

And credit to the Bears, second week in a row that they have managed a nice comeback.

And Caleb had a nice Dr. Drive there at the end, but that was probably more of the.

The dark concussion.

So that cost you points.

You're gonna get one point for your Eagles prediction, because you picked the Eagles to win.

But you said Barkley would have a big game, and he did not.

He hasn't had.

He's had one all year.

He's had one game, like, over 80 yards all year.

So they were shutting them down.

Green Bay was.

That was.

Yeah.

And it's so weird.

Phillies, you know, perfectly fine in the standings, but you've got A.J.

brown flapping his gums like, he is so upset and he is so frustrated and he's letting everybody know it.

Barkley can't gain any yards.

Here we are to give him a new book to read on the sideline.

Maybe they'll come.

Yes.

So you are going to get two points.

We both are going to get two points for the Seattle win.

Win over the Cardinals.

We basically both said they'd win easily.

They did.

I attached a 17 or fewer points for the Cardinals to that.

They.

They went over that at the very end.

But I think in again, the spirit of the pick, the Seahawks defense totally dominated.

They scored two touchdowns.

That game was over in, I don't know, three minutes.

You know, that thing was toast.

You have one guy, Lawrence, right, scoring two touchdowns for the Seahawks defense in the first half was 38 to seven and a half.

That's 31 to seven.

Last week, the Seahawks had a lead a half 38 to seven.

This week, that is.

They're doing impressive things.

So that gave you four points for the week total and gets you to 45 overall.

On the other side, you know, I had the two for the Seahawks.

I'm going to get a zero because I predicted the Vikings to upset the Ravens.

They had a bunch of chances.

McCarthy was bad, though.

Like, bad bad.

Like, oh, not.

Not necessarily.

Like, oh, his career's over, or we put the wrong quarterback.

But, like, oh, he's not close and he's really all we got.

So we just got to suffer through this.

We kind of have a team that's ready to compete, but our quarterback is not.

So.

And there's no way to bridge the gap.

So we just got to live with it now, I guess.

That's like a broken record for the Vikings, it seems like, except with the exception of last year, but every year for the last seven, eight years, they're competitive team without a quarterback, and they have a bunch of injuries, and they have.

They're starting, you know, a handful of quarterbacks, and you just can't find the right guy to get them over the edge.

And that's kind of.

Kind of sad.

They are.

They are one of the most consistently competitive and good franchises that just never gets it all together at the exact same time.

I would say the Tarkington years, those were pretty good.

And, you know, they've had some other, you know, quarterbacks come through there that, you know, shed some light on and had some good seasons.

You know, even when Favre was.

Was there, you know, they, they were really good team.

They had a couple bad breaks in the playoffs, and, you know, you're out.

But that's sort of what.

When they have good quarterbacks, you know, they play well.

When they have quarterbacks, a good quarterback that gets hurt, and then they go into this death spiral.

It's just not, not too much fun.

Yep.

So moving on to the.

I had the rams.

I get two for that.

I said the Rams beat the 49ers and that Stafford would have a big game.

Both of those things happened.

It was easy.

It was.

It was an easy win for them.

There was a very brief window where it looked like the 49ers had some life, but the Rams shut that door real fast.

And then I got.

I'm giving myself definitely two points.

I said the Dolphins would keep it real close in Buffalo.

Gosh, they did more than that.

It really wasn't a close game, though, so I don't know.

Yeah, that's true.

So.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Really?

So, yeah, that was impressive.

And, you know, going back to the original talking point was, you know, the Dolphins are a team, and I mentioned this to you last week, that the reason I picked the Dolphins in that game is because looking through some of the even poor results, the Dolphins were feisty.

They're.

They're.

They're playing hard.

They're, they're, they're.

They're working.

They just weren't having good results because they were shooting themselves in the foot this week.

They didn't.

The Bills maybe looked at a little bit of a Kansas City hangover.

The Dolphins took advantage, and that was.

Well, that was pretty shocking result.

But I'm getting my two there.

I'm going to give myself.

I'm going to split the difference.

I'm Going to give myself one point on my very abstract choice of the Browns and Jets playing an entertaining football game.

I don't know.

It was.

It was close.

It wasn't low scoring.

There were two kick returns for a touchdown.

There was some drama there at the end, a little bit.

The Browns had the ball down.

You know, there was some.

So it was okay.

It was, you know, there wasn't anything offensive that happened in the game, but it also wasn't exactly, you know, riveting.

So I just kind of split the difference there.

Gave myself one point.

That gives me seven for the week, which now gives me 46 points for the year.

That's one more than 45.

So we have a lead, a new leader in the clubhouse, but this thing is probably going to go down to the wire, it appears.

Yeah.

Great week for you.

You had some.

Some brilliant picks, and you deserve that.

So good week for you.

Thank you.

Brilliant is a word that's associated with me quite often.

Okay, we'll take your word for that.

Brilliant comeback on your part.

That's right.

There you go.

All right, well, I think that takes us into the picks for this week, and you're up first this week.

Okay.

Well, I've gone back and forth on both of these teams a lot.

These teams have showed up a lot.

I. I'm going with another outright upset.

This is what I like to call a schedule upset.

I've got the Jags beating the Chargers in Jacksonville on Sunday, a Chargers team that, if you recall, I've been on most of the time this year.

I've liked them.

I predicted on our very first podcast that they would win the AFC west, but I don't love this spot for them.

They've been kind of rolling.

They're looking at the bye week after this.

They're going to be getting a Jacksonville team that's coming off a horrible loss and is maybe a little desperate.

Now.

Jacksonville is not good enough for me to just think, oh, if they're desperate, they'll get a win.

You know, it's not.

They don't have that kind of control, but I don't know.

There's just.

Just a gut feeling in this game that the Jags kind of find a way to win.

They get at it, they.

They get back on track a little bit and somewhat mild, but an upset in Jacksonville.

All right, I think that's an interesting pick.

I. I looked at that game real close, and I just couldn't get a warm fuzzy for either.

Either team.

I.

You know, I think it's sort of a pick them game and it should be a pretty good contest with, you know, probably would lean towards the Chargers a little bit more after seeing what they did to my team last week because they look pretty good on, on Sunday night.

But you never know.

A lot of teams would look good.

Green Bay looked good against the Steelers too and didn't look too good to the following two weeks.

So who knows.

But I, I'm going in a little bit different direction and I'm going to go to the game you talked about earlier, the Panthers and the Falcons and this is another one that I sort of, I struggle with, I went back and forth with and I sort of settled in on this.

You know, the first meeting was a Panthers 30 to nothing spanking of the Falcons and I think the Falcons are going to take a little bit of offense that they're going to have a memory of that and probably doesn't sit too well with them with your, you know, interdivisional rival just, you know, spanking you that and blanking you like that.

Especially when you're supposed to be known for having some pretty good offense and some great weapons on there.

But I don't think that the Falcons have enough to overcome the Panthers and I think the Panthers are going to when when the sweep by 10 points in a low scoring affair and I think that Dowdle rushes for over 100 yards and scores twice.

So Panthers win by 10 plus.

Yes.

I don't have that game on my list.

I think that's a really bold pick because I would, I wouldn't agree with that.

I would lean more towards Atlanta.

I don't trust them enough to pick them probably especially to by any sort of margin.

But I would be really surprised if Carolina goes in there and beats him handily again.

I would, I would anticipate maybe a little bit of revenge.

But it's definitely a bold pick.

It's definitely a bold pick.

I'm going to go to New York where everybody's favorite comedian is starting a quarterback for the Giants this week.

Jerry Seinfeld.

Yeah.

Jamis James.

I don't know if you saw his press conference today, but he was singing, he was singing Hamilton songs in his press conference.

He is hilarious.

He is a real hoot and his specialty is capturing lightning in a bottle whenever he first enters season or enters the game.

I don't think over the long haul Jameis is the guy that as his career has proven that he's not a guy that you're going to be able to turn over the keys to for an extended period of time and get super great results.

But he is a spark plug.

He has always been that.

He's very good in these situations.

So I think Jameis starts for the Giants this week.

I think he gives them a real jolt.

And there's also the coaching change that we've talked about earlier in the year.

They kind of got two things going here.

They're playing a Packers team that's definitely desperate.

That's probably a little afraid right now based on their last two horrible offensive showings.

And I will say I'm going to pick the packers to win it, but I think it's very close.

The Giants cover the spread.

They keep it very close, within about three or four points.

The packers win it at the very end.

And Jameis kind of does some Jameis things to make that game really fun and interesting.

Yeah, be.

Be very frightened if you're playing against Jameis Winston and he's relaxed.

I remember a Thursday night game last year in the snow in Cleveland where he did my team and coming out relaxed before the game, they were interviewing him and he's joking around and everything.

And yeah, wasn't.

Wasn't good the rest of the way for.

That was one of my favorite games of the year last year.

That was such a fun Jamis game.

Yeah.

Yeah, that was a hoot.

Yeah, really.

But, yeah, I'm not going to go into that game because I. I just have a feeling.

I think I agree with you that the packers are going to win, but I think maybe they're going to flex their muscles a little bit.

They're a little bit better team than what they've shown the last two weeks.

And I think they're going to get back in this race because, you know, Detroit and Chicago are, you know, really starting to come on, you know, and who knows what the Vikings will do.

So they got it.

They got to stay competitive in their own division just.

And let alone the wild cards that are going on in there because we talked about, you know, the NFC is a wild west of the wild card right now, but I'm going to stay in the north of the nfc.

I'm going to go to the Bears and Vikings game and I'm going to say that Swift is going to have a brilliant game for the Bears.

He's going to score twice and have over 100 yards of total offense in the Chicago win.

Oh, great.

This is perfect because we are totally head to head because I'm the opposite.

So I've got the Vikings winning this game and holding the Bears to 20 or fewer points.

Oh, okay.

The Bears are.

The Bears have been getting it done.

Something and there's.

They don't need to apologize for that at all.

That's a huge part of growth for any NFL team is finding ways to win games late.

They've been doing the opposite for many years.

So if I'm a Bears fan right now, I'm thrilled.

But I kind of think their luck runs out this week.

Facing a.

In the dome, it's a tough place to play.

If you watch that Vikings Ravens game last week, gosh, it sort of felt like the Vikings were better and they just, you know, the court again.

The quarterback kept making mistakes, and if he keeps making mistakes, then this will happen again.

But I'm gonna say he's wearing a.

Band aid on his.

On his throwing hand this week.

Oh, a bandaid.

Yeah, he's gonna have a wrap on.

On his throwing hand, so I don't know how that.

Well, maybe he should start throwing with his other hand.

Maybe he should start throwing with his other hand.

His counterpart, Wentz was almost doing that.

Oh, my gosh.

Shoulders broken or whatever the hell he had.

Serious, serious, serious PTSD for Vikings fans and quarterbacks this year, but I think the Vikings are going to get this done.

Division game at home rivalry.

The Vikings do have a very good defense.

I'm still a little distrustful in the Bears offense.

It still feels like it's tenuous.

It's teetering every game, and I think that they get held down.

The Vikings find a way to win and kind of jam up that NFC north race a little bit more.

Okay, good, good.

I love the head to head, so.

Yep.

Maybe help me catch up to you.

So.

All right.

So my.

My next pick, it's my selection, right?

Because you just took that one.

Yep, you got it.

All right.

I'm gonna go one of the premier games.

I'm going to touch on a couple of these.

You know, the Bills and the Buccaneers.

I think this one has got so much excitement to built around it.

This is really a cool matchup that you don't really think about beginning of the season, but when you have, you know, a pretty good team from the AFC playing a pretty good team from the nfc and they're in the same time zone and, you know, the weather's not a big factor in and you know, they're playing in Buffalo, but it's supposed to be a little bit milder this weekend, not like it has earlier in the week.

So it won't be snow on the field for the Buccaneers to worry about.

But you know, you don't know what you're getting with these two teams other than you know they're going to be gritty and if you look at last week, they're both coming off of a loss.

There's just so much intrigue on it.

But I'm going to have Buffalo pulling this one out.

I'm going to have Josh Allen combining for four touchdowns with his arm and his legs.

I don't know what the, I don't know what the count is going to be between 24 total session.

Got it.

You know, I didn't my gut on that.

I don't have this game on my list.

It is an awesome game.

It's an awesome week actually.

We've had some, we've had some down weeks of matchups lately.

This one is not, this one is fantastic.

Probably the best week of the year so far in terms of intriguing, important matchups and this is one of them.

So I'm with you on that.

I just, I couldn't kind of get a grip on it.

My, my gut tells me the Bills bounce back and get the home win, but there also could be a little something amiss with them.

And like you said, the Bucks are coming off of a loss too.

So it's not really one team catching a good and good spot.

So just a good head to head game.

Yeah.

So I actually, I would pick the Bills but I'm sort of agnostic on this game.

I really don't really know quite what to expect.

So I have nothing more to offer on that.

But I do have something to offer on one of the other big games of the week and sort of hinted at it earlier.

I literally think we were seeing the two best teams in the NFL play on Sunday and it's kind of weird that it's in that, that, you know, that Non double header 305 Central or 405 Eastern start time that kind of like that buried start time there.

But it is the Seahawks and the Rams.

It's a fabulous game, a great matchup.

I think the Seahawks are going to win it.

I think they're going to go in there and they're going to beat the Rams.

There isn't a great home field advantage for the Rams as we know.

But I, that's, that's, that's a small factor for me.

The bigger factor is I just think the Seahawks are the best team in the NFL.

Okay, you know what, this is another one.

We're going head to head on this.

Oh, look at it.

I pick an opposite.

I agree with you.

I've been on Seattle all year long, been on their bandwagon saying yeah, they're great defense, everything.

But I think this might be where they meet their match.

They have your, your coach that you build up as the offensive genius, you know, all year long.

Yeah, he, he's, he's a clever guy and he knows how to find holes.

You have a quarterback that's red hot right now and you know Stafford will find his receivers.

They're getting healthier on offense.

You know, the running back is, you know, astounding right now.

He's, he's having great weeks.

Thank God he's on my fantasy team.

He's really keeping me afloat here.

But, but they, they are clicking right now, but I think the biggest factor with them is their defense who is sneaky good.

They are a turnover machine and I think that they are going to have pounce on three Seattle turnovers.

That's really going to turn the tide of this game and give LA, you know, the advantage as Stafford puts up 275 plus plus against that really stringent Seahawks defense.

Well, I love the head to head and I will say as someone who's picking Seattle to win this game, what does linger are the two performances from Darnold at the end of last year for the Vikings and probably why he's not in Minnesota anymore.

Those linger, you know, they had the massive, massive number one seed game in the last game of the year in Detroit and then of course the wild card game against the Rams and he was horrible in both of those games after having a pretty brilliant season.

And so that lingers a little bit.

You know, hey, when this, when, when it gets dialed up to, you know, we're talking about the Seahawks as being the best team in the league and they're playing maybe this, the other best team in the league.

You know, is he going to be able to get it done?

And I think there's still questions there, but for now I'm going to stick with Seattle and that they get it done.

And the other good news about that game being at the 405 slot for you, Darren, is you're going to have, you know, in between the, the Commanders Dolphins game in Madrid in the morning and that game that kicks off at, you know, 405, you will have time to come down from your high from watching the Madrid game and you know, gathering yourself for the late game.

Oh, okay.

Well, you want to know one of the biggest reasons I'm Picking LA over that.

Let's hear it.

I'm, I'm going to a top 25 college game in Pittsburgh this weekend.

Notre Dame at Pitt, you know, the number nine Irish against the number 23 pit panthers and they were retiring Aaron Donald's number 97 during the ceremony.

And I don't want this man coming up, you know, make me making this picking against his former team that he won a Super bowl with hunting me down in the audience just to embarrass me and drag me around the field.

You know his one of those famous ragdolling a quarterback.

So I'm staying with the Rams just to keep me and my family safe.

Okay, well I'm sorry to go down to the story time hole again but I have to now that you've talked about pick because my brother in law who I have mentioned on here probably before, he is, first of all he's a New York Giants fan.

He grew up in Pittston in the area there in central Pennsylvania, but he grew up in New York Giants fan.

And he's been sort of insufferable with the Giants for me over the years because you know, up until recently the Giants were significantly better than the Redskins slash commanders.

So anyway, I digress.

So I've had to listen to him over the years and all of his hot takes about the Giants and kind of giving me grief.

He is also a pit grad.

Okay, so he's a huge pit fan.

As a matter of fact, we recently got him Daryl Revis jersey for his birthday or something like that.

But because I am vengeful and spiteful brother in law, I have naturally just.

I root against Pitt all the time because I want him, because I want to return the favors that he sends my way.

So I want him to be miserable because I know it hurts him in his heart a little bit if Pitt when, when Pitt struggles.

So I was actually with him during the West Virginia game earlier this year and while I kept my mouth shut, I was having like a little, you know, there was a little like carnival going on inside of me.

Just kind of like enjoying his writhing and cussing and like oh yeah, I'm just kind of standing over there kind of giggling.

So you know what Darren, I would, I would like to say that I'll be thinking about you Sunday and rooting for the Panthers, but I would just.

Be lying so that's, that's good because I'm a Notre Dame fan.

Oh, that's right.

You're the Notre Dame guy.

I, I bought the mini package so I could see Notre Dame at Pitt because it is a sellout and if I hadn't done that, I wouldn't have got tickets.

That's really funny.

I went, I enjoyed Pitt.

I mean, I, I root for them when they're not playing my team, but yeah, I, I'm, I'm hoping they get squashed this weekend.

Okay, well, so.

All right, so we're both, we are both rooting for, for my brother in law's hopes and dreams to be painfully dashed.

Don't tell Aaron Donald this because I don't want angry about the college game.

Tell Aaron Donald.

Okay, got it, got it, got it.

All right, well, like I said, I digress.

So my last pick, we're going to go to Monday night and I'm going to pick the Cowboys are in Vegas, which is basically going to be a home game for the Cowboys, I can promise you that.

And I, I'm picking the Cowboys to win that game by seven or more points and have a big offensive night.

I think there's some things playing in that.

First of all, I do not think the Raiders are very good at all.

I've been a little surprised by that.

I thought they'd be more competitive.

I don't like what I see when I watch them 2.

The Cowboys offense is really good and they had a terrible outing on Monday night against the Cardinals two weeks ago.

They've had two weeks to get ready for the game.

They had their bye week.

And then of course, sadly, unfortunately, they lost one of their teammates.

This, you know, this past week, the tragic, the suicide of Nyland.

That's awful.

And I do think that does sometimes galvanize a team a little bit.

You kind of almost don't know what else to do.

So you just, you know, you play ball and you kind of rally around each other a little bit.

And I think all those factors I think will lead to a pretty big kind of explosive Cowboys win.

And they have two big additions that they got from the trade deadline that they haven't played as a.

With the star on their helmet yet, so.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So I think they got a lot of.

There's a lot of things pointing to that game that probably spells good news for the Cowboys and bad news for the Raiders.

Yeah, I, I think you're probably right on that one.

I did not touch that game though, because like I told you, I'M I keeping the big boy pants on and I'm taking the other marquee game, I believe it's a Sunday night game, is the Lions and the Eagles.

Gotcha.

These are some really, some brilliant, great games.

I've used the word brilliant too many times in this episode, but.

Well, you're looking at me, so.

Yeah, yeah, that must be it, you know, but I'm looking at this bright ring light that's shining on me, so.

It's a brilliant light.

But no, I, I like this, this game and I like picking these games because they're so tricky to pick because these teams are, you know, they're right on the cusp of both, you know, really busting out here and, you know, they've had some down earlier this season, but I think they're both getting primed and getting ready as the good teams do.

Like we talked about Kansas City, but it's in Philly, but I don't think Philly's going to win this game.

And I think you're going to enjoy this game because I think Goff is going to have his pinpoint passing.

And, you know, now that Campbell is calling a plays, he looked like, you know who to guess that he was such an offensive coordinator, you know, picking the plays last week.

I interject on that he's a, he's a very smart man, Darren, because he waited until they played the commanders who may very well have.

Have the worst defense I've ever seen.

And.

Which is saying a ton.

And he's like, you know, what have.

You watched, have you watched Cincinnati play this year?

I think we're worse.

We provide somehow, I don't know, we somehow we provide less resistance than even the Bengals.

At least the Bengals miss tackles.

We're not in the picture.

There's, you know, the Bengals, like, you see a guy and you're like, oh, he's got him.

And he doesn't tackle him and he bounces off of him.

There's nobody to bounce.

There was a play on Sunday where Amran Ross St. Brown caught the ball and it looked like he stopped because they think he thought the whistle had blown because there was no one around him.

So.

So it was very convenient for Dan Campbell to grab the play sheet in this week.

I think it would be funny if he goes to Philly and hands it back to Morton now.

And it's like, here, I showed you how it's done.

Now you do it again.

Who knows he could do that.

He's, you know, here's a one that the Media likes to follow here, but I think, you know, golf is going to be more than the Eagles defense can handle.

They've really not played horrible defense this year.

They played pretty, pretty sound even with some of the changes in the back end that they've had from their super bowl team last year.

But I think Goff's going to go over 300 yards against them in passing and the Lions are going to win this game and start reclaiming, you know, getting near that top, climbing that mountain to be the top of the NFC again.

I definitely feel the same, actually.

I, I had a, I, I had the Lions kind of jotted down that, not to the level of the Chiefs, but the Eagles do have a little bit of that voodoo mind trick on me as well.

A little bit to where I'm like, man, I don't know.

You know, it just, it just doesn't.

They're gonna figure something out, you know, they just kind of do so.

But I, I watched the two teams play and Detroit looks like the better team to me.

Their defense is, is good and, and we know their offense is explosive.

So.

Yeah, I, I would think, I actually think the Lions are gonna, are gonna beat the Eagles as well on Sunday.

I just didn't have quite the guts to, to pull the trigger on it or.

I liked other games more, but.

All right, there you go.

Yeah, we have nothing alike.

So we're gonna be, we're head to head and you know, we could, it could be a big swing this week one way or the other.

Yeah, it might be just like last week or who knows?

Or hopefully the other way this week.

Yeah, or we could split right down the middle.

Who knows?

Let's see.

So.

All right, well, that's what makes it exciting.

And you know, we're be back on next week midweek before the Thursday games to give you results of these week 11 picks and pick week 12 and add.

You know, can't wait to talk to you again next week and see how we did.

All right.

Go Irish.

That's right.

Thanks, Darren.

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