NFL Midseason Analysis: Predictions for Week 10 Games

If your team is maybe in the doldrums, didn't get to what you wanted at the trade deadline, well, have no fear, because we are making some big, bold predictions for week number 10, and maybe your team is up on the winning streak that we're going to predict.

Ed Cleese joins us in just a moment to tell about the week 10 predictions and the results of week 9.

It's all coming up in just a moment.

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

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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 it is time for.

For the big, bold predictions for week number 10 coming up.

And go over the results of week nine.

And as we have every week this season, Ed Cleese joins us once again.

Ed, welcome back to the Pig Pen.

Hello, Darren.

How are you?

I am doing great.

I had a much better weekend in NFL football as my team beat the number one team in the NFL, best record at home, and looked pretty good doing it.

So I'm pretty happy about that.

I know you're probably not as happy, but maybe my joy will spill over to you.

Well, that's unlikely because I'm joyless right now.

However, we'll get to that a little bit later in the pod.

I've got a little bit of a rant to go on.

Okay.

As.

As opposed to every week that you have a rant?

Exactly.

Yes.

Okay.

A very.

A very special rant.

Okay.

All right.

It's part of the programming now for this episode.

That's right.

What is Ed gonna yap about this week?

Hey, that's what people tune in for, I guess.

First of all, what they do tune in for is to see what you felt about week nine.

Well, for week nine, the thing that we touched on it just very briefly last week, but what really stuck out to me in week nine was that, I believe, was the first week that all of these six drafted quarterbacks from last year started in the same week.

Now, unfortunately, again, we'll get into it later.

It appears to be the last time this year that that might happen, but for last week, they all Six of them started.

And I've got a little bit of a categorizing those six quarterbacks and I'll see what you think as well.

So go ahead.

Yeah, I'm going to start with the two that I am positive.

I am sold on that five years from now, we'll be talking about these two guys as top five quarterbacks in the NFL, and that's Drake May and Jaden Daniels.

Now, yes, Daniels has had a little bit of a step back this year for a lot of different reasons, mostly because he's gotten dinged up and hasn't been able to be on the field.

But based on what he did last year and even what we've shown this year and basically his just general skill set and then what May is doing both in their second year, I just see no world in which, you know, if we're just still doing this podcast five years from now that we're not talking about those two guys as perennial excellent quarterbacks.

So those are the two I'm just totally sold on.

And then we go down a couple rungs and then I've got Bo Nix in his own little category where I don't have him.

I'm not quite as sold on Knicks as I am the two I mentioned first.

But he's got this little special thing about him where he can look really lousy and rotten and, you know, you're like, oh, sophomore slump, here comes.

And then he kind of comes out of nowhere at the end of these games and is making huge plays.

He's got a lot of moxie about him, so I wouldn't say I'm quite sold yet on Knicks, but the signs point to him also being another quarterback that we're going to be talking about several years from now.

Then I think we go down a couple more rungs and we go to.

I'm going to put JJ McCarthy and Caleb Williams, like, on their own level.

JJ's still very young, has only a few starts under his belt.

We haven't seen a lot, but, you know, kind of a little, little preview last week.

That's good stuff on the road in Detroit when your team comes into the game really down and the quarterback, the young quarterback shows up and Kind of lifts them up.

So that's a big, that's a big thing in the NFL.

And I was pretty tough on Caleb last week and I had a couple Bears people kind of contact me and kind of, you know, disagree well with my take and it may have been a little harsh.

Again, there's a lot of ups and downs with him, but two years in, he's no.

Or a year and a half in.

I'm sorry, he's nowhere close to being like a bust level or anything like that at all.

So he's.

I think Bears fans are at least content with maybe his progress so far.

And then the last wrong and it's not a bad place to be is, you know, Penix looks pretty good.

I don't think he possesses the talent of the other five.

He doesn't.

All the other five do things that make me kind of go, whoa, that's impressive.

And Penix is, doesn't really do that.

He doesn't have the athleticism.

He's not making any of the wow plays.

But again, he doesn't have a ton of starts under his belt and he's, he looks fine, you know, he looks, he looks like they should keep starting him at least.

And usually in a draft class, if you had six guys taken in the first round, you're gonna have maybe one that's a star, two, two that are okay and like three that are out of the league in three years.

And none of these guys appear to be on that track at all.

Okay, I, you know, if you would have said something, you know, the same question about these six quarterbacks a year ago, would you necessarily have them in that order?

Because not necessarily in that world.

I guess Penix, if you had this question a year ago, McCarthy wouldn't have played at all.

And Penix hadn't started yet.

So you really only had four.

And you may have had May behind Knicks.

You know, if you're basing it just on last year, but now that we've seen more and honestly, as.

Even as a Washington fan, if I had to rank a one, I would probably put maybe number one now.

Yeah, probably.

You know, there's a couple, there's a few of them I'm concerned about.

And I'm not saying that they're accident prone, but sometimes the best ability is availability.

And you've got three of them of those six, and include Pennix, McCarthy, Jaden Daniels, who are.

Seem to be prone, maybe not.

Maybe they're too slight a build.

Maybe they take too many chances.

They.

Maybe their style Play is a little bit dangerous for an NFL quarterback and they do get their oft injured.

So, you know, if I had to choose right now and a year ago, Jaden Daniels was by far the cream of the crop of that class.

There was nobody even close to him of these six.

But I think May has surpassed him.

I think you have him equally, but I think the availability.

May, to my knowledge, hasn't missed a second of his.

His two years.

I don't think he's been injured.

He is very consistent, which I, you know, this is good for a quarterback.

You.

You want that.

You know, Jaden Daniels is uber talented, but, you know, he misses a lot of games and it hurts the team, you know.

And, you know, Monday night was an exception.

That was just a horrific looking injury and I'm glad they didn't show a replay of it.

But yeah, that was just, that was just ugly all the way around.

And, you know, there's a chance he might be back this year, which is a modern miracle, I think, if that's the case.

But it just, he just worries me because of his style of play.

He's kind of a thin guy, doesn't have a lot of meat on the bones, as my grandmother would always say.

And maybe he needs some, some more beef stew and mashed potatoes like grandma would feed him.

But, you know, he just, he just scares me a little bit because he wants to run, wants to go, you know, go in with the big boys and, and you know, he gets hit and it can be harmful to his career.

And J.J. mcCarthy similar, Pennock similar.

But I think, you know, you have.

Caleb is coming on strong.

I mean, we talked last week, you know, he was only doing good.

The first couple series that were scripted well, they must have had a much bigger script, but of course they were playing the Bengals defense.

So I guess that's the script.

When you open the script, it just said, it just said snap the ball because you're playing the Bengals, you can go off.

That's all you have to do this week.

Right?

Everybody looks like Joe Montana out there when they're playing against the Bengals defense, that's for sure.

But I think he played a much better game.

He was more even across the whole game instead of the big up and down from the beginning game to the end.

And I think that maybe that's a maturity thing too.

We'll see how it goes when he plays a different defense, maybe.

But you know, I, I agree with you with the other ones, but I think, you know, Bo Nix is.

I haven't figured him out yet.

I would, I would love to say he's consistent, but I almost put him in a class of like what Baker Mayfield is.

Like you said earlier, he's gritty.

And I think, you know, Mayfield wasn't like a superstar his first couple years either, but he was, he was dangerous.

You know, he would, he could be a spark to the team.

And I think Nix is like that.

And I, I have a lot more.

I got to know a little bit more about Knicks with the Eli Manning had his program on and they had Bo Nix and his father on.

I think it was one from earlier this season.

And you got to know a little bit more about the guy and, and who he is and who his family is and how they are.

And I have a little bit more confidence in him than I would have last year.

But, you know, I think, I think you're right.

I think there's going to be three or four of these guys that are going to be.

You're going to be talking about five years from now.

But if I had to rank them right now, I would put Drake May high above anybody else because he's available every game.

Well, a couple things, I think May did miss some time last year.

I think he got concussed and I think he may have even had two in the season last year.

And Jayden Daniels last year, including the playoffs, he started 20 out of 20 games, so he didn't miss.

You know, he got hurt in one game last year and came out, but he didn't miss a start.

So, you know, he was 20 for 20 last year and then this year he's been in and out.

And I do think that he's going to have to protect himself a little bit.

There's going to have, for example, on the play, he got hurt the other night.

That's a rpo.

And, and it sounds like kind of reading between the lines that he's either supposed to hand it off or throw it.

And the past, the receiver wasn't open.

So rather than just dirt in the ball or throwing it out the back of the end zone, I think his instinct is to try to make something happen when it's not there.

That is something that he's going to have to probably learn over time that he's so valuable he shouldn't have been in the game.

First of all.

We can get to that later.

But.

But I'm not terribly worried about that.

None of these injuries, the elbow things just kind of a freak, weird fall and then the other injuries he's had are.

Are not.

Are terribly significant.

You know, I don't.

I don't.

Anybody can get hurt.

Any quarterback can get hurt.

And I guess if a quarterback runs more, you might just naturally assume they get hurt.

But actually on his.

The four little injuries he's had in his career so far, only one has come on a designed run.

And you know, you got guys like Burrow that have missed time, who's a pocket passer.

We've had plenty, you know, so I think it's just kind of a crapshoot on the injury front.

So I'm not terribly worried about that, or at least not any more worried about one of those guys over any another.

And then the other thing I'll say is that what's interesting to me and the reason this class sticks out to me is that we see so many of these quarterbacks that are coming on later in their career, the high draft picks that are on their second or third team.

Darnold, Daniel, Jones, Baker.

There's a lot, not so much now, but for a few years they're Gino, you know, guys that are having success in their second and third stop.

And if you compare this class to where those guys were in their second year, all of these guys are ahead pretty much because by in their second year, those guys I mentioned just a minute ago, we're all like, oh, this looks like it might be a bust.

He's struggling.

You know, it's.

They're already thinking about have to draft another quarterback, and that's not happening with any of these guys.

So if these six make that sort of natural progression from where they are now, they're already pretty good.

So that's kind of what's intriguing to me is that in their second year, all of these guys are already at least competent, if not good quarterbacks, and they should only get better.

So that's.

That's sort of what's intriguing to me about this class.

And it's very rare.

Oh, yeah, yeah, I agree.

But I guess what I'm saying about Jayden Daniels is maybe he can gain a little bit of the wisdom and maturity, like Dak Prescott.

You know, Dak took a.

It was.

Taken too many chances.

He paid for it last year.

And I think this year he's a lot more careful.

I think his coordinator is designing things a little bit different for him so he can still be effective as a player and play his game, but be a little bit safer in it too.

You know, getting rid of the ball a little quicker and, you know, having some, some Better hot routes to get things and not so many RPOs.

And maybe that's some things that will help the maturity of the quarterback and the coordinator can help them and keep their players safe too, hopefully.

Yeah.

All right, so we usually at this point in time and during the podcast we go into any cuts that you may have of eliminating teams from playoff possibility.

Do you have anybody coming up this week?

I do.

We have two.

So we're going to go from eight to 10 now.

So we're dwindling weekly.

The first one is the Bengals and I feel bad for Flacco because my goodness, what an impressive stretch of games has this guy been on and what an interesting career.

But you can't lose to the jets and then, you know, have that do what they did.

Now there's no shame in losing to the Bears, but to lose in that fashion when you really, you know, you can't score 40 points in back to back weeks and lose both games, you know, you just, you just can't do that.

And now their record is such.

They're three and six.

And that defense, I mean, obviously they're not getting better.

So there's no, there's no magic elixir that's going to fix the Bengals defense to.

And then also looking at the standings, so the Bengals are done.

I don't think that means that they can't beat somebody or upset somebody or have a big moment from here on out.

But they're not in the playoff mix in my mind anymore.

Yeah, Joe Flacco, I mean, I didn't realize as injured as he was, but they had Dr. Chow on moving the chains on Sirius Radio yesterday saying he played with an AC joint sprain through for 470 and all those touchdowns.

That's amazing to be 40 something years old, have an AC joint sprain and play at a really high level.

So hats off to Joe Flacco.

He maybe doesn't get the respect that he should because that's a guy, that's a gamer.

He came to play.

No doubt.

No doubt.

He was awesome.

He really was.

And that's kind of a fun story.

Unfortunately, the rest of that, not the rest of the team, but that defense is just letting him down.

Yeah.

How do you feel if you're the Browns right now, seeing what this guy's doing with the team across state and putting up all these points, giving them offense.

When you have absolutely no offense going on and you're.

It's damning.

It's damning to Stefanski, I think, you know if, you know, you can't move the ball with him at all.

And then he goes to Cincinnati and within five days, he's lighting it up.

You know, it's.

It's damning to the.

To the Cleveland coaching staff.

I think.

It's not a good look.

Yeah, most definitely.

Okay, so there's one team.

You said you had two.

So who's our other?

Yeah.

And this one is going to be really, really painful, but I'm going to have to cut the commanders this week.

Record circumstance.

But this is where I kind of want to go on a rant, and it's a little bit of a soapbox more than anything negative is, yeah, we're going to cut him for this year.

You know, it's been kind of the year from hell for Washington.

You can't.

You should.

They cannot and should not blame it all on injuries because that would gloss over some of the actual issues that they have, and those issues are real.

However, the injuries have probably made it such that there's kind of no way to rebound from some of those issues at one point to be, you know, really.

It's really about a month where things have just gone south because they were 3 and 2 after beating the Chargers by 17, and things looked fine.

They didn't look amazing, but they're three and two.

Daniels was back.

They look good, and everything's fine.

And since then, it's been four weeks, four losses, each one way worse than the one before, like a slippery slope.

And every week they're having guys drop.

Monday night was an unacceptable, ugly performance.

But here's the rant kind of is that.

One of the reasons I don't talk about this very often is because it's probably a little bit boring to go big picture all the time.

When we're doing a weekly podcast, we're trying to talk about the games themselves, but nothing matters to me more as a fan than the strength of the organization as a whole, because nothing.

As somebody that rooted for a team.

Washington, that for Almost well over 25 years was run into the ground by a horrendous owner that lost a generation of fans and had no hope.

I. I've got my mind on much, much bigger things than a.

If you look around the league, it starts with the owner and.

And that's.

Again, people don't want.

It was like quarterback that.

Of course that matters.

It starts with ownership.

You have to have that owner to general manager, slash president to coach to quarterback.

That is the structure that works and wins in the NFL.

And if you look at teams like the Bengals, the Cardinals, the Cowboys, several others that cannot get out of their own way because they do not grasp that structure and that chain of command.

And they may have, they may luck into a good player or a good coach, they might have a good season or two, they'll make, they'll make the playoffs or whatever, but they cannot sustain success at all.

And for so long, I'd given up hope that my organization would ever join the ones like the Chiefs, the Steelers and the Patriots who get that.

And if they're down, they don't stay down long and they don't panic.

They.

You generally have the Ravens, long tenured coaches, general managers that stay in place, owners that are patient and believe in a culture.

The the witch is gone and we have new ownership.

And that was such a breath of fresh air.

And their task is daunting because they aren't just rebuilding a roster, they are rebuilding a franchise from the ground up, literally, with the name change as well.

That was another challenge for the new owners to have to deal with, too.

So I believe in Josh Harris as an owner and he hired Adam Peters to be the general manager.

Adam Peters hired Dan Quinn to be the head coach for the first time in 25 years.

They're doing it the right way.

They got things right in year one.

And it just so happened to work in this unbelievably magical way where everything went right.

It was like a gift from the football gods to Washington fans, like, you've suffered enough.

They had a lot of good luck, a lot of good fortune.

Daniels was sensational.

Everything went their way and it was a season from heaven.

And maybe they got a little ahead of themselves and tried to cash in too much going into year two.

Maybe they made a few mistakes that masked some of the issues that they have on the roster, but no Washington fan should be.

While it's probably fair to give up on this season, nobody, we should not, nobody should be panicked.

There should be no major changes taking place.

They should stay the course with this group, build around Daniels.

They put a lot into the O line this offseason.

The O lines actually been pretty good.

They need to focus on other areas, stay the course, keep the culture, try to be competitive these last eight games or so for this, for the, the good of the culture.

And so I While I have changed my expectations for the remainder of the year, for the first time in a long time, in a bad season, I retain hope in my team because I believe we're doing it the right way.

Okay.

That, I mean, I, I think you have a very good coach.

I mean, I think Quinn is like, you know, he's.

I'm surprised he lost his other job because I thought he did a pretty good job there.

But like you said, that franchise was not as patient as others would be.

You're allowed to have a losing season and still retain your job.

You know, they've gone through a lot this year.

When you have your top three receiving targets down in one game, it's hard for.

I don't care who the quarterback Tom Brady could be the quarterback you're going to.

You've got a deficiency, you've got a handicap going into that game that it's hard to overcome, especially the talent of those three gentlemen that were down.

And then when your quarterback, your leader, who's really the spark plug of that team, when he goes down for any period of time, it's really detrimental.

But it's not too shabby to have a Marcus Mariota who plays a very similar game to Jaden Daniels, so the offense doesn't have to totally change.

Like it, like in Baltimore when Rush took over for Lamar, it was like night and day and they couldn't do anything until they brought Hundley in, who was back to very similar to Lamar's game and the offense could run again.

But, yeah, you're right, it starts at the top.

Consistency is always a good thing.

Even when you're having bad times, you just stay the course and be patient and usually things come out good the other end.

And I don't, and I don't want to absolve them or anoint this group yet because they haven't really done anything yet.

What I'm, you know, I'm not putting Josh Harris and Peters and our contingent on the same level as those, those really good organizations.

What I'm saying is that they deserve the chance to get there, is that, you know, this is, this is a four or five year kind of thing.

Now.

If, you know, four years in, you're three and 14, then you kind of go, hmm, we need to reexamine what we're doing here.

But I've seen, let me put it this way, I've seen, as bad as this season has been, I've seen nothing that deters my faith in that group of people making the decisions they have to make some changes.

They can't just chalk this all up to injuries.

They.

They have a.

They have a very flawed defense, perhaps both on the coaching side and the roster side.

They got to do a lot of work there.

That is not just.

Just hopefully gets better next year, get a few guys back.

They got to make big changes there.

That.

That's something they got to do.

But I retain a faith in the guys that are doing it.

And our fans that are maybe panicking a little bit too much based off of the success of last year need to chill.

Agreed.

That everybody needs a little bit of patience on there, that's for sure.

Yes, sir.

All right, well, why don't we look back at the rest of week nine and look at our bold predictions for week nine and how we did.

Well, okay, we'll start with the one, I guess, that we were probably on the same page with, and we both kind of halfed it.

We both had the Bills beating the Chiefs.

You just said it would be a close game, and I was very specific and said Allen would win it with less than, you know, a minute left.

So I'm going to give us each one point because the Bills did win the game, but it really wasn't that close.

I mean, yes, the Chiefs did get the ball at the end there, but I never.

Personally, I felt like the Buffalo was in control that game for the majority of the game.

And it never got to the point where I thought it would, where, like, Alan had to put his cape on and be Superman.

Buffalo was just better on Sunday.

Yeah, they were.

I think it was.

I think we hit it, you know, pretty much on the head that Buffalo would dominate at home.

Just our other exterior predictions on that, that didn't come out to true.

So I think one point each is fair on that.

And then you're going to get a point for your Bears pick because you said the Bears would.

You thought they'd win that game fairly easily and that.

But Jamar Chase would score two touchdowns for the Bengals.

So Jamar didn't score any, but.

And the Bears did win.

So I'm giving you a point there.

And they really should have won by about the two touchdowns.

That was kind of a joke that they allowed the Bengals to.

To take the lead, you know, with less than a minute left.

You don't think that that touchdown at the end was drawn up that way for him to catch it and, you know, double coverage and escape two tackles and run for touchdown?

Well, again, again, it may have.

May very well have been drawn up that way because it's the Bengals defense.

So like I said, all you got to do, Caleb, is snap the ball.

Just snap it.

Everything else will take care of itself against the Bengals.

So I'm giving you a point there.

You're going to get another one point because you said the 49ers would win late in New York on a field goal.

They won, but they didn't need the last second field goal.

So I'm going to give you a point there.

You're going to get two for your guys.

I really, really, you know, last week I kind of gave you a little bit of a hard time because you said they would hold Jonathan Taylor to 120 or less, which really, really made me laugh.

So I was really hoping that like Taylor would go for like 118, so.

And like with three touchdowns so that you could still claim you were, you were right.

But they actually did shut him down.

I think it was under 50.

Yeah, 48 yards.

Yeah, the, the, the, the Steelers defense totally dominated the game, forced all kinds of turnovers.

Jones looked bad.

I realize his yardage total at the end was good, but that was not sort of legitimate.

So you're going to get two points there.

You nailed that game pretty well.

The Lions game, you're going to get zero.

You had the lion beating the Vikings and Jameer Gibbs having a huge game.

Neither of those things happened.

So that leaves you with five points for the week and gives you 41 overall for the season.

Compared to me.

I also got the one point for the Bills.

This was a bummer.

I'm gonna get zero for my pick of the Raiders over the Jags.

And I didn't attach anything else to it.

I just said the Raiders would win.

And it came down to literally the final play of the game on a two point conversion in overtime.

And so they didn't win.

It came up short.

The guy was wide open, by the way, on the batted pass there on the conversion.

That was gonna be a one point win for the Raiders, but alas, that did not happen.

So I get zero there.

I'm also going to get zero for my Cowboys and Cardinals combining for 60 plus.

Wow.

The Dallas offense could not get going last night on Monday night at all.

That was, that was shocking to me.

It was not shocking to me that the Cardinals were scoring and moving the ball against that lousy Dallas defense, but boy, that was odd to see Dallas's offense struggle like that at home.

Yeah, that was weird.

You know, I heard some, an interesting theory about that game.

You know, after the game was over.

And that's because Jerry Jones was going all day long saying, hey, we got some big, you know, trades coming off set and guys are going to come in, we're going to fix our problems.

And the Cowboys players before the game are sitting there thinking, God, are they getting rid of me?

You know, why do I want to go play for this guy?

I'm getting traded tomorrow.

You know, they were all thinking that.

And that might be part of what was a downfall to, you know, Jerry shooting his mouth off hurts his, his team's chance of beating a team that they probably should have won against.

Even though the Cardinals have been, you know, playing pretty good football lately.

Even though they haven't been winning every game.

But, you know, that's kind of an interesting facet that you don't hear very often.

Yeah, well, rew.

Rewind the pod about eight minutes and listen to my rant on ownership because I think that is, that's.

Yeah, talk about, talk about a guy that doesn't get the proper structure and talks way too much.

Yeah.

So, yes, he does this team no favors.

I'm also going to get a real.

You know, I teased you a few weeks ago for getting one so wrong that you should get negative.

Well, I said the packers were going to beat the Panthers by 17 or more and they didn't even win the game.

So very impressive by Carolina.

Actually.

I will give them a lot of credit.

I kind of, I haven't added them.

I never added them to the list, but they were inching close, but they've been good.

You know, they look like a tough, well coached football team.

I kind of don't see it happen in this year, you know, in terms of playoffs.

But, but if I'm a Panthers fan, I'm, I'm very pleased right now.

You know, I tried to talk you in and out of that because I said you were so high on the Panthers all last year, if you remember last week.

And yeah, back off that.

But yeah, I, I wasn't doubting you because the way Green Bay looked the way week before against Pittsburgh, who would have thought that, you know, that would have happened?

I think that.

And the Vikings games were very surprising endings and that's what makes the NFL so fun.

You don't know who's going to be who from one week to the other.

The packers might be the play to the level of the competition team this year a little bit.

That seems to be what they're doing kind of week in and week out.

I will end with the one I got right.

I said the Titans would be within seven points of the Chargers.

They were exactly within seven.

And that game was close in the fourth quarter.

It wasn't just garbage.

At one point, you know, the Titans were looked like they were kind of trying to win the game.

So that was probably one of the better efforts from Tennessee so far this year.

And they kept it reasonably close.

So I do get myself two points there.

That gives me a total of three for the week, which leaves me at 39, which if you are a math whiz would tell you that, Darren, you are now two points ahead of me for the year.

41 to 39.

All right, well, I'm sorry I have to look at your rear view mirror the rest of the way because I'm not relinquishing the way it's building because I feel confident this week.

I've got some good picks, I think.

All right, well, I think there's going to be one of the race to 10.

One of us is going to get 10 points one week.

Five out of five.

Let's see.

It's going to be me first.

All right, so do I start this week?

Yeah, you are up first this week.

All right, so we're going to start with the.

I've got an upset right off the bat.

The.

The Vikings at home are underdogs to the Ravens, but they're going to win that game.

The Vikings are going to beat the Ravens outright.

I watched that game pretty closely on Thursday night.

I was interested to see Lamar come back in Miami.

Lamar looked fine overall.

Not impressed with the Ravens.

I think there's problems there.

I think there are problems that run deeper than just missing Lamar for those games.

Miami, gosh, they shot themselves in the foot over and over and over again in that game.

It was absurd.

The Ravens did what they needed to do.

It was fine.

They don't need to apologize for it.

But I think there are cracks there.

The Minnesota defense is nasty and, you know, we don't really know about McCarthy, but he does look like he's going to be able to move that offense better than Winston.

It's in the dome.

I think Minnesota wins that game.

Wow, that is a big pick.

I would love to see that happen.

And I, I stayed away from that game because I told you last week, I don't know that I, I trust the Vikings and they're a little bit scary to me how picking on them.

And I agree with you.

I think the Ravens do have some deeper problems other than their injury problems because it doesn't seem they're as cohesive as a.

As an offense and a defense as they were last year.

Looks like some cracks in the armor on both sides of the ball.

And that would.

That'd be a fun one to watch.

I'm looking forward to that one.

Yeah.

Well, I'm gonna go with the Thursday night game this week.

I'm gonna first, you know, right out of the gate, I'm gonna pick an upset.

I'm gonna say that the Raiders.

Real quick.

Can I stop you real quick?

Yeah.

Are you going to predict that the Raiders score less than 57 points in Denver?

Well, I could add that on if you'd like.

All right.

That's the last time I'm going to tease you about that.

All right.

I am going to say Pete Carroll taking chances because it, you know, it almost paid off this week.

Like you said, he did have a big fourth downplay that he took a chance on.

It helped him on that drive.

But I'm going to say the Raiders are going to pull off an upset of the Broncos this week by Pete Carroll taking that chance and coming through on it.

And it's going to be a close one, but it's going to be a gamble at the end that puts Las Vegas over the top.

Well, it's ironic that you made that pick when I was teasing you about not being very bold, because honestly, I think that might be the most bold prediction that either of us have made yet so far this year.

That is real.

They are nine point underdog or eight and a half on a short week going to Denver, who's got the best record in the afc?

I do not see it, Darren, but that is very bold.

So.

Yeah, I mean, you're all in on that one.

Yeah, I'm a believer in it.

I think silver and black have it this week.

Okay.

Now I'm gonna go to a game that no one should watch.

Okay.

But if you do, then you might have a good time because now this is gonna be the most abstract pick we've ever had.

I'm just gonna say that the Jets Browns game, if you were an alien that knew football but didn't know anything about the NFL and you just watch this game, you're going to have fun watching it.

Something fun is going to happen in this game.

It's going to be.

It's not just going to be close because, you know, it could be close and it could be 9 to 7 in an A gross mess.

I think that is going to wind up being an entertaining and fun game.

We'll know it when we see it.

No one will see it.

So I can probably make up whatever I want to, whatever I want to say.

But my prediction is that the jets and the Browns have a really fun game where if, if you, if you didn't know any better, you think it was a pretty good couple decent football teams.

That would be an amazing thing.

But like you said, nobody's going to be very interested in it.

And I did not pick on this game, but I thought about it long and hard, especially after the trade deadline because the jets sort of gave away their marquee players on defense and I think they might be in trouble and, and trying to collect themselves.

And this might be a week where the Browns offense might be able to put up a point or two and the Browns defense, we know how stifling they could be because the Browns weren't moving off of trading Garrett at all.

So they kept their defense intact.

I think that might spell trouble for the Jets.

Yeah.

And like you said, this could be the chance for the Browns offense, you know, the, the decimated jets defense.

The self inflicted decimated jets defense.

So yeah, I think it could actually be mildly entertaining.

Yeah, it could be.

Could be, should it?

You know, a week ago it could have been a really very good defensive game to two defenses just beating a snot out of the offenses they're playing against.

But I'm not so sure that's going to happen now.

Both sides anyway.

All right, well, I'm going to go to one of the bigger games of the week and that is the Buccaneers and the Patriots.

And I think you got Mayfield against May.

You know, you got these guys that are sort of different paths.

You know, the organizations are, have been, you know, pretty, pretty stellar here.

The, the last few years had some Super Bowls.

I, I believe I heard from, from both of them in recent years.

And I think that the Buccaneers are going to pull this game out and Mayfield is going to slightly outplay May in this game, but they're both going to throw over 250.

But Mayfield is going to have one fewer turnovers or than, than the May led offense of the Patriots.

And that's going to be the difference for the Bucks.

I didn't pick the game, but if I did I almost would have mirrored exactly what you said because I also like Tampa to win a pretty close game where Mayfield maybe shines a little bit brighter than May.

I like that pick.

I would be with you on it, but I'm not now.

I'm frightened.

I want to change my Pick now.

So I've got another.

We talked about the dog.

I actually.

Maybe it's this.

Like I'm being a little morbid or something, but there's something about the Dolphins that they are.

They.

As.

They lost 28 to 6, so it's weird to say that, but they do kind of look like they're sort of kind.

They're a mess, but they're also kind of fighting at the same time, like they're.

They're.

They're not quitting.

And so I think this week, with the Bills coming off of their very emotional, huge win going on the road to Miami, Miami getting a little extra rest.

I think Buffalo wins the game, but Miami's going to play it tight.

They're going to keep that game within seven.

Oh, that might be a big prediction there because I. I don't see that.

I see Miami maybe being a little bit of trouble down there in south beach because I think the Bills are rolling and they're starting to find themselves a little bit.

They're.

They're a little bit susceptible to the running game right now because I think they've got some interior defensive line problems, which I don't think they fixed at the trade deadline, but I don't think Miami has the fortitude to run up the middle on them.

They're not the right team to knock the Bills off that way.

So I did not pick on that game.

But I don't know if I agree with you.

Well, we'll find out.

Yeah, I guess so.

Now, this is one.

I know you're going to absolutely agree with me, and I'm going to say not after that because this might be a bolder prediction than my Raiders pick because I'm going to have the Giants taken out the Bears this week.

Jackson Dart is going to have the best game of his young career and lead the G Men to victory.

I love it.

It was on my list, too.

So sorry, Darren.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It actually is not one of my five, but that was one I strongly considered.

I like that as well.

I think there.

I think there's a real strong possibility that the Giants defense looks kind of bad.

Pretty bad.

So that.

That gives me a little bit of pause there.

But I could definitely see an upset in Chicago this week for sure.

But I will go out west for my last two picks.

I'm going to say that the.

The Rams get a little revenge in San Francisco from their Thursday night home loss.

They're going to go into San Francisco.

They're going to win this game.

And Matthew Stafford is going to have 300 or more yards passing on the 49ers, whose defense is really hurting with the.

With the people they're missing.

That's an interesting pick, too.

I guess it's up in the air a little bit of puka is going to play this game.

He had that sort of sternum injury by falling on the ball.

Kind of a weird injury, you know, for.

For him, but, you know, but Stafford, yeah, he looked like a gold norm the last couple weeks, especially last week.

And I. I wouldn't doubt what you're saying would come true.

Looks great.

Yeah, well, I'm.

I'm going to also be out west on my next pick, but I'm going to have the Seahawks and the Cardinals game.

I think the Seahawks, they just got stronger at the trade deadline.

You know, they picked up Jacoby Meyer, I believe.

Believe the ones that got him or.

No, I'm sorry, that was the.

That was Jacksonville.

Seattle trade for somebody, they get stronger.

I forget who it was at the moment, but I think that they were strong enough even before the trade deadline that Cardinals are probably wisely starting Jacoby Brissette, by all indications.

I think that's a smart move on their part, but I don't think they have the firepower to go against the Seattle defense, who's really flying high.

And I think Darnold's having a great season.

He's really grooving with his new offensive teammates, and I think Seattle is going to be a tough, tough win.

This isn't a big, bold prediction.

I'm just saying it's a prediction.

See Seahawks over the Cardinals by 10 points or more.

Seahawks over Cardinals, 10 more.

That's kind of funny because that is my last pick of the game, and it's really, really funny because I only added one little extra element to it.

Darren, as I said, you said 11 points or more.

No, I said 10 or more.

But that they'll also hold the cardinals to 17 or less.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, I can see that happening, too.

Yeah, I like that.

Just.

Just to add.

Just to add a little something to that.

You know, I'm not a huge analytics guy when it comes to the NFL because I think it's a small sample size game.

However, DVOA does seem to be a metric that's pretty predictive.

This is a really good, balanced Seattle team that got better at the trade deadline.

They got a burner at receiver to go with maybe the best receiver in the NFL right now.

And Seattle is a legit super bowl threat and I think they flex on Sunday against the Cardinals.

Yeah, I agree with you totally.

Agreement.

I love, I love the added pick with the defense shutting down the Cardinals offense too.

Great pick there.

All right, well, I'm going to be one.

Another one is not so surprising.

Not a big upset.

But I'm going to take the team that you loathe and that's the Philadelphia Eagles.

I think they're going to run over, run through the packers in this marquee game of the week and put up a gaudy rushing yardage against the packers because I think the packers are, are so weak since that Minka trade they gave up.

They meet Easley to who's their best run stuffer on their line and they're very susceptible and I think Carolina really exposed that last week with the running game.

Okay.

Yeah, I looked at that one hard just because it is such a big game.

I got no feel for it.

I think, yeah, my, my go to would be when in doubt, pick the Eagles.

But what I said earlier is that the packers have been a play to your level of competition team.

This is also a little bit of a man up game for Green Bay coming off that loss.

And it's like, hey, do you guys want to be a real contender in the nfc?

Well, here's a chance to show it.

You know, you lose at home to the Panthers, come back and lose it home to the Eagles.

You're a pretender at that point.

You know, it's going to be very hard to claim that.

You know, we're right there with Philly in the NFC or Seattle or whoever else you think is a real contender.

So I just don't have a good feel for it.

But I don't, I don't disagree with your default to go with the team that we know can get it done in that situation.

Yeah, it's going to be interesting.

The game is itself and you know, they, I think maybe a topic for one of our future broadcasts here is that NFC north because what an interesting race that is really shaping up to be, especially if this comes to fruition.

If Green Bay loses, you've got, you know, and Minnesota wins, as you suggest.

You know, Detroit has got to be battling just to stay with those guys and Chicago is not too far behind.

This can be a very interesting race right down to the end, I think, like it was last year.

Well, speaking of the North, I'm just very disappointed that you didn't pick Marcus Mariota to lead the upset of the week this week with Washington, you know, dragging Washington across the finish line against Detroit.

Oh, I thought you were gonna say upset stomachs or something with Washington.

But yes, that wouldn't be very predictable because.

Yes, yes, yes.

The whole.

And that then that's the, you know, FOX game of the week this week, too.

So.

Yeah, yeah, they're gonna have some bad ratings, I think, this week.

Yeah, that's.

Yes.

All right.

Yeah, well, I'll be there to watch it.

All right.

Well, I, you know, thank you again for joining us here.

I think we got some, some interesting picks to follow and it's been fun doing this and, you know, checking our checklist as the games are going on on Thursday through Monday night.

And once again, I think we'll have some fun this week.

Enjoying that.

So I, I appreciate the space to rant.

Well, you, you got to had that soapbox this week and hopefully that does your team.

Maybe some, some of them are listening and it'll help them to ease some of the pain and maybe get that victory that you're.

You're so searching for here this week.

I've been inspiring people for a long time, so hopefully that hopefully they're listening.

All right.

All right, Ed.

Well, we appreciate you coming on and we will talk to you again next week before the big game start for week 11.

Thanks, Darren.

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