NFL Week 7 Preview: Bold Predictions and Insights

And we're moving on to week number seven.

Our big bold predictions with Ed Cleese is coming up right after this.

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

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

Hello, my football friends.

This is Darren.

He's a pigskind.

Dispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal to positive football history.

And as we've done every week this season, Ed Cleese joins me to make some big bold predictions.

Ed, welcome back to the Pig Pen.

Hey, Darren, how was your weekend?

My weekend was fantastic.

Had a big Notre Dame win, Pitt one and Steelers won.

Of course, Penn State, not so much a winning weekend.

There you go.

Yeah, right.

Can't beat those.

Great.

Yeah.

How about yourself?

Great.

Great.

Yeah.

So it was a good weekend all around.

Yes.

A good football weekend that, like I said, we'll talk about in a minute.

Those, those Europe, those Europe games really make Sundays so much longer.

Yeah, but, and, but yeah, they're great.

The, the start to finish Sundays.

I love it.

Yeah, it, you know, there's, there's a few themes that came from this past weekend in the National Football League.

And before I get into them, why don't we get what your view is on the weekend's game?

Sure.

Yeah.

So we talked a lot about in the past, like, you know, we've cut some teams off the list and we say who's real, who's not.

And this week and last week we talked about how some of these outcomes in these games have really started to matter.

And, you know, we'll, we're going to really get into game, you know.

Well, things are happening now that in week 17 and 18 are going to matter in the standings.

And so now there's a couple things that I'm not sure if they matter or not, but my antenna is kind of up on four different things that I saw from this weekend.

So we're going to start, sadly, unfortunately, over in London, where that might be the worst thing that America has done to Great Britain since the Griswolds brought their whiny little teenage kids over in European vacation and kind of made a mess and a mockery of everything.

Who did the casting for that movie by the way.

Because those kids, that was the worst thing.

I think.

They had different kids every single movie, I think.

Yes.

And the kids aged, you know, like 15 years.

They got, like, adults to play teenagers that were nothing like the kids before.

Shouldn't these kids be older or younger or something?

So, yeah, the European one was.

Especially the Europe.

The people in London must have been thinking, what.

Who in the.

Who are these people?

And they must have been saying something like, look, kids, Big Ben, Parliament.

There you go.

And.

And I think once again on this past Sunday, the people in London must have been like, who are these people?

Like, what was that?

That was awful.

And it was one of the worst games I've ever seen.

And I would say that at this point, my antenna is definitely up.

We talked about Disco Inferno last week.

Aaron Glenn.

That being their highlight of their season.

I am now very concerned for them that he might be a one and done.

Because this is.

Now, I know everybody says, hey, it's six games.

It's the Jets.

They haven't given him much to work with, which is legitimate.

But this is so bad.

Like, this is.

That's not NFL football that they played on Sunday.

Fields had got sacked nine times and had nine completions for net negative 10, 10 yards passing and 82 yards for the game.

That is like South Carolina Upstate against Alabama kind of stuff.

You know, that is not.

That should never, ever happen in the NFL.

And they did score somehow, miraculously.

The only thing that was exciting about that game was the final score is 13 to 11, Broncos.

And I thought that maybe it was going to be a score of me.

So when I looked it up, it was the third time it's happened.

So we didn't even get that.

I did the exact same thing.

I thought it was origami, too.

I'm like, yeah, nobody's ever scored this before.

Yeah, we didn't.

We didn't even get something cool like that out of that game.

So The jets scored 11 points, and their defense, and really the Broncos defense only yielded three of them because the jets got six of their points, two field goals, without generating a first down on the drive.

One from a fumble, one from a long kick return.

They never got a first down.

They kicked.

They kicked a field goal, and then they had the safety in the end zone.

So that is eight.

I'm see.

Good at math.

There you go.

That is eight of their 11 points.

They had one drive where they actually generated points.

And I think Denver is just as culpable in this game as the jets were.

The Denver Defense was fine, but the Denver offense was awful.

I don't know what, what, what were they calling?

They were like crazy conservative.

And then we're doing goofy things on third and six.

They were running reverses and just, you know, it's like.

It's almost like they were playing around.

They almost blew it.

That was a terrible, terrible game.

And that's like the fourth week in a row the jets have looked dreadful and unprepared.

And at this point, I think you got to be wondering, you know, are if it, if it continues down this road, are they going to be able to keep Glenn next year?

Because it's horrendous.

Yeah, I don't know if they're gonna be able to keep Glenn this year because that's pretty.

That's pretty bad.

Right.

And then another observation I had would have been what happened in Indy?

You know, I have been very hard on Kyler Mur Murray over the years.

I'm not a huge fan.

And, you know, kind of in life, what happens in your absence might tell a lot about your story.

And, you know, you watch the Cardinals on Sunday with a journeyman Jacoby Brissette quarterback, and not only did they not look like they were missing Murray, the offense actually seemed to operate better that, you know, and then they lost Marvin Harrison during the game, and then they still moved the ball probably better than they have at any other time this year.

Took the Colts right down to the wire.

And, you know, it's.

That just at this point for me is just my intent is up on, you know, is Kyler, Is he kind of done?

Is he done in Arizona at least?

Have we.

Have we seen the end of this road for Kyler Murray as a Cardinal?

Because it doesn't seem like they even miss him.

Yeah, that was one of the more hard hitting games of the weekend, I think, because both those teams came out and hit me.

Brissette was getting pounded and somehow he was miraculously finding open receivers downfield and, you know, throwing the seam passes and everything.

But, yeah, he's got to be sore today.

Yeah, there was.

That was kind of like a theme of the early games.

There weren't any necessarily great matchups.

Like, you know, there wasn't.

There weren't too many games where it was pitting two good teams against each other.

But there were a lot of close games in that early window that were kind of exciting, and that was probably number one.

That game really went down to the wire.

Another observation would be.

And there's part of me that hopes not because this fan base would be so spoiled.

But I wonder if Drake May is his arrival this year because he was awesome in New Orleans.

They should have scored way more points than they did.

They had some weird calls.

They had a couple touchdowns come back.

He was, he was launching balls down the field.

Guys, guys were running, he was throwing guys open, making plays, converting third downs coming off of the win at Buffalo.

So now, now I'm starting to wonder, okay, is Drake Mays time, is he going to take this team to the playoffs like they look?

I don't think it's a very good team.

I think it's well coached and.

But as we've seen a lot in the NFL, if you have a pretty good coach and our special kind of quarterback, you can win 10 games and go to the playoffs.

And I'm kind of wondering right now, I'm not ready to call it yet, but I'm wondering if maybe the Drake May time has arrived.

I think it definitely arrived.

I noticed him quite a bit when the Steelers beat the Patriots and I was glad that the Steelers escaped that game with a win because May was all over it in that game and the Patriots very easily could have won that.

And you know the Buffalo game, that was a perfect example.

And again, you know, this past weekend, what a great game.

He is, he is for real.

He's going to be a top notch quarterback in this league.

Yeah, he looks at that draft class looks better and better every week.

So that, that, that's, that's big.

And then my last one would be, you know, in the words of Chris Berman, you know, Panthers, you know, the Panther like okay, they're three and oh at home now and they can run the hell out of the ball.

They have a real like Dowdle has been great but they can just really, they control the clock.

They move the ball.

They couldn't stop Dallas at all on Sunday.

Dak and Daxman sensational all year and Pickens killed him.

But it almost didn't matter because the Panthers had an answer for everything and they just methodically move the ball downfield.

Chunk plays too, you know, eight yard gains, nine yard gains, 14 yard runs.

And then I don't know what to think about Bryce Young.

I've kind of thrown dirt on him several times already and I'm not sure but I mean he does seem to made a huge fourth down conversion and like hey you're, you're six Weeks to the season, you're undefeated at home.

You're three and three.

There's they're playing the jets this week, so there's really no reason for Panthers fans not to at least be like little playoff, you know, thought bubbles at least bubbling up over them right now.

So those are my four.

Like, not sure yet, but heavy trends in those directions were my number one observations from Sunday.

Yeah, I agree with you.

You know, I think Young is really coming on.

You know, two years ago, you know, we were still having the conflict, you know, Young or C.J.

stroud, and C.J.

stroud was by, you know, head and shoulders above the pack, and it looked like the Texans made the right pick.

Now, I think these guys have sort of, they've sort of leveled out.

They're very, very close in their competitiveness as an NFL quarterback.

And I think Young's really came on and CJ Stroud, you know, maybe regressed a little bit from his rookie year.

It's probably a step too far for me to start talking about Young in any other terms than.

We'll see.

Still, you know, he's so small and not very athletic back there.

You know, he doesn't scramble much, doesn't run much.

And I still wonder, you know, about him quite a bit.

I think he has a lot to make up.

But I think also as a Panthers fan, probably a year ago at this time, you were getting close to saying, hey, look, this, this was just a bust pick.

And now you're not.

Now you're at least, okay, let's see more.

Let's.

And that's always a.

For a young quarterback.

If you're still in the let's see more mode, that's fine.

That, that, that's better than let's move on.

So I think, I think I'm still in the let's see more with Bryce Young, but at least we're there.

Well, they're going to have to make a decision in about six months because fifth year option time is going to be coming up for him.

So I think you're going to have to pull the trigger on that unless things get really bad.

But, yeah, that's what I got.

Yeah.

Well, I think those are great observations and I think there's been sort of a resurgence of the tight end this past weekend.

I mean, I think, you know, Warren for the Colts was unbelievable.

He looked like he was at Penn State again, and Penn State's definitely missing him this year.

That's one big factor that doesn't happen.

He was unbelievable.

I think Kelsey on Sunday Night Football was unbelievable.

Had a great game.

Darnell Washington, the Steelers had a spectacular game.

First play of the game, 36 yards.

And tight ends were just popping up all over the place and having some great weekends and as good or in many cases better than some of the wide receivers on their team.

And I think that might be the year of the tight end coming up.

Yeah, it might be.

And, you know, sometimes I think, don't overthink it.

You know, a guy like Warren was so productive in college and you sometimes, you know, you kind of overthink because Loveland actually went ahead of him in the draft, right?

Yeah, I think so.

Yeah.

Right.

So sometimes you wonder maybe let's just take the guy that was awesome and not overthink this too much.

Yeah, he's.

He looks like a special, special player to me.

He's on our fantasy team.

So we were.

That was, That's a.

Our fantasy has been terrible, but that was a, that was, that was a very good draft pick for us.

He's.

He's carrying us right now and.

But a huge weapon.

A huge weapon for sure.

Yeah, most definitely.

All right, I want the page past few weeks, you've been coming up and cutting some teams, and so do we have any of those coming up this week?

I'm being very nice.

I have a soft heart.

So of the six teams we've cut so far, Titans, Saints, Jets, Browns, Raiders, Dolphins, certainly no regrets across the board there.

Nobody's inching their way back.

And I found there was two that I probably could have added this week, but I'm going to give them each a reprieve and I'm going to explain one of them why the Bengals are on hot watch right now, like, big time for being on the cut list.

I am going to hold off on that and I'll tell you why in just a minute.

The other team that I've already kind of talked about a little bit was the Cardinals, now at, you know, 2 and 4, I believe, floundering.

They have lost their quarterback.

It may or may not matter.

They've lost James Conner, and they had the worst loss of that you could possibly have ever to the Titans two weeks ago.

And they're very much on watch.

I'm going to give them one more game.

They.

And this is more of like, I should put them out of their misery now, but I'll just let the packers do it on Sunday.

If the, if the, if the, if the Cardinals can come up with a miraculous win and, and beat Green Bay, then they Live to fight another week.

If not, they're probably going to find themselves because if you wind up 2 and 5 in the NFC west with the Rams And Seahawks and 49ers, you are toast.

Done.

Forget about it.

There's no coming back from that.

Even at 3 and 4, it'd probably be iffy, but they would stay alive.

So this is a do or die game against a very good team.

And the Cardinals are not playing well.

Are.

They're playing hard, but they're not particularly good.

So they're on hot watch.

But no cuts.

No, no.

We're still just at six.

No, no cuts, but we got a couple on life support is what you're saying.

So.

Yes, we'll have to keep an eye on that coming up this weekend.

Yes.

All right.

Well, I think we'll probably just want to skip over last week then, right?

No, of course you don't want to skip over.

We have some big news.

We have some.

We have some big news from last week.

So we'll start with my picks from last week.

And actually, I think, you know, we had the one that was the same.

Let me make sure I've got.

Yeah.

So we'll start at the end.

I guess we'll start on Sunday night.

We both had the Chiefs bouncing back to take out the Lions, and we both easily, I'd say, got the two points on that one.

Chiefs, Lions had some chances there in the first half, I thought to create some distance and they didn't.

And it kind of felt like a few little missed, missed opportunities.

And the Chiefs sort of kind of dominated the second half of that game.

They really were in control.

I never, in the second half, I never felt like Detroit had a great chance.

And that was sort of a workman like, we got to win this one.

The Lions, they'll never admit it, of course, you know, they're four and one road game against an AFC team.

Kind of an easy loss to take.

I will say one thing I love, as my friends and I call him Coach Me.

I love.

I love Dan Campbell.

He's.

He's, he's great.

There's.

There's almost nothing not to like about him.

Sometimes he gets too cute for me.

You know, it's almost like they're so.

That play to golf on the.

You know, so it's a clever play and I guess you could say in a way it worked.

But if you've got Montgomery behind that offensive line and you need half a yard and instead you choose to throw the ball to your quarterback on fourth Down.

That is where we start to get a little cutesy and a little bit.

Just do your thing.

Just, just play the.

He almost coughed that ball up to the defender.

Yes.

So that was.

It was.

It was lucky that it worked.

And then I guess a little bit unlucky that they got called for the illegal.

By the way, did you happen to see this as an aside that there was a.

And some people thought that this could have something to do with it.

The conspiracy theorists out there.

A guy put a $5,000 bet on DraftKings that Jared Goff would score the first touchdown in that game.

And the payoff was $450,000 if he got it right.

Oh, my God, he had to be sick to his stomach.

So.

And the great thing about that was, you know, they didn't throw the flag immediately.

There was like a.

So it wasn't like he saw him go in the end zone, but oh, no, there's a flag.

You know, a little yellow thing comes up.

So you kind of.

All football fans, I think now are trained, as soon as something good happens to your team, you pause.

No flags.

No flags.

Then you celebrate.

Right?

So there was.

There was like a 60 second pause on this one.

They had trouted out the extra point team.

So for probably 60 to 90 seconds, some dude out there thought he just won $450,000 and instead he loses 5,000.

So insane.

Insane.

Speaking of that.

This.

Maybe this sort of broke his heart because this has got me so many times this year.

I think there's more than one station doing it in between the scores.

They have like, the little banner will say first and 10 or whatever on there.

And.

And when they go to change the down, it like flashes yellow for a second.

It's like usually like.

Yes.

And that's where they put up a yellow flag that catches me out of the corner of my eye so many times are again, like, what?

There's a flag down, you know, because you see that, you think they're going to pop up the flag, you know, emblem on there or whatever, you know.

So don't do that to us.

Network.

Yeah.

Choose a different color other than yellow.

Yes, yes.

So that I had to.

I had to point that out.

That was something.

That poor guy, he had a much worse week than either of us, I.

Can tell you that.

Yeah, I'm sure he did, but I got a zero for myself.

I said the 49ers would win the game in Tampa and they would really give Baker trouble and they would hold him to 21 or less.

Well, That's a big fat zero because that didn't come close to happening.

Mac Jones was pretty game in that game, and they really hung.

That was real.

That was a really good game.

Kind of like until it wasn't that, you know, it's 20 to 19 in the third quarter.

It's third and 14, and Baker has that just awesome, ridiculous Baker play.

He dodges the sack, he makes a juke, he fights for the yard, he stands up and flexes and, you know, he does the Baker thing and he's the MVP of the league right now.

It's like, it's not close to me.

There's no argument there.

It's.

He's the mvp.

Long way to go.

But if we had to give it out after week six, it's an.

It's a.

It should be a landslide for Baker.

And, you know, losing Fred Warner, the Niners in the middle of that game doesn't help the defensive effort for sure.

But even before that, the Bucs offense is moving the ball without their top three receivers and Bucky Irving.

So this is just the Baker show.

And they look great.

And I was wrong on that all the way around.

Yeah, that was a tremendous game.

It was so fun to watch.

I got a little nervous for you when.

When Mac did throw that intercept early interception and it set the Buccaneers up for that early score.

Yes.

But they bounced back from that.

Yeah, yeah.

They recovered quite well for it and made it a great game.

But McCaffrey was like, insane.

I was thinking, oh, my God, he's touching the ball way too much.

This guy's going to get broke in half.

And then the whole Warner thing, I'm like, oh, this is not boating.

Well for the 49ers.

Yeah.

Bucks are much.

Bucs are must watch right now.

They are that.

That's.

That.

That offense and that really.

That guy is really.

Is really what's carrying them.

It's.

It's pretty awesome.

And they're ready to get healthy, I think.

I think they got some receivers coming back and the Calvary's coming.

Yep.

They'll only get better.

They'll only get better.

I was right in your neck of the woods.

I told you, Darren, that your defense was going to pummel Dylan Gabriel.

He's not good.

I mean, and I'm not saying this, I didn't think he was good coming out of college.

I was not a fan.

I didn't think it was a good pick.

I thought he went way too high.

I just don't think he's particularly talented.

I Don't know what.

The skill that Dylan Gabriel has that sets him apart from your average college quarterback, much less an NFL quarterback.

So I don't see it there.

And.

And then he's a rookie with not a lot of weapons.

So it's a bad setup.

The Browns offense is a joke.

It's terrible.

The Steelers had the bye week coming in.

They took care of business easily.

If the Steelers offense would have been a little more productive in the red zone, that game would have been, you know, 45 to nothing.

Or for the DBs and linebackers could keep their hands on interceptions.

They had.

I think they dropped, like, right.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, so he.

He had a terrible game, and it probably should have been worse.

Gabriel.

So, yeah, it was.

That was just a very easy win.

I guess the score kind of at one point, it stayed semi respectable, but not really.

That was.

That was an easy win.

I'm definitely giving myself two points there.

Yeah, definitely.

Definitely should.

But, you know, I don't think Gabriel is as bad as what you say, but when you have, you know, open doors on your tackles and you're.

You're playing a team that has some pretty good pass rushers, you might be in trouble.

It's a bad.

It's a bad mix there.

It's.

It's bad all around.

It's.

It's not good.

So then I'm also.

I'm gonna get zero because I said that the Chargers would win by seven or more and Mike McDaniel will get fired after the game.

And so I will give the Dolphins a little bit of credit in that.

They did.

They certainly fought in that game.

They didn't lay down.

Now.

They did kind of start throwing each other under the bus after the game.

Both Tua and Achan kind of talking, pointing out that certain players aren't showing up for meetings and people are late.

And that, of course, is also a veiled shot at the coaching staff, I think, for sure, you know, so the frustrations are mounting there.

But on Sunday, they did play hard.

They didn't give up when it looked kind of bad.

They were down by 13 there in the fourth, and they fought back, took the lead.

Herbert just making an insanely clutch, amazing play to McConkey there to get them at field goal range.

But even though the Chargers won that game, I was kind of.

I wasn't.

That wasn't the way I thought it would go.

So I'm gonna give myself a zero there, but I will give myself two very big points for saying that the Eagles offense would Continue to struggle.

And it did a lot.

Now they had that very brief window in that game and in the second quarter where the offense looked good and they, they kind of got going.

I was like, oh, maybe they're unlocked something.

But then they come out in the second half and don't score and also throw, you know, the.

Not, not quite a pick six, but it was what, an interception and a 80 yard return or whatever it was that set up a giant score.

So, yes, the Eagles offense has problems.

If you have problems through six weeks, you have problems that are, that aren't just this isn't just that.

Oh, the Eagles will figure it out.

They're the champs.

They're going to flip the switch at some point.

There's no switch now.

Six weeks into the season and last year doesn't matter anymore now do I think they could get better?

Yes, certainly.

I don't think this is just like, oh, well, that's it.

They're just a bad offense.

But this isn't a matter of just like hunkering down or, you know, focus.

There are problems there and, and they've been very evident all year.

Yeah, I think you were all over that one.

And it was exactly the opposite what I said on my pick, because I said that the Eagles would win by 17 and here they.

The Giants.

Speaking of that, you know, because I've all.

I've deemed myself the judge, jury and executioner of our contest here, I contemplated whether or not I should.

If you predict the team's going to win by 17 and then they lose by exactly 17, I'm wondering if maybe we should go negative two points for that or, or something.

But I will, I will.

I digress.

And I will just give you a zero for that.

So I wound up with six points for the week, giving me 28 total on the season.

So we already.

On your picks, we already went over those two.

The Eagles and then the Chiefs game.

You also had the Ravens with Derrick Henry going over 100 and the Ravens beating the Rams.

That could be another negative too, if, if we were, if we were gonna go that route, Darren, because they scored three points and, and Henry had like negative 100.

Yes.

He didn't do much of anything.

And now I still don't understand.

You know, I like to look at the odds.

I still don't understand how the Steelers aren't bigger favorites to win the north still.

Because now you just start doing the math right.

You got the 4 and 1 Steelers and the 1 in 5 Ravens.

Let's eliminate the Bengals and The Browns.

Okay, so that's kind of, let's say, the divisions between the Ravens and the Steelers.

Well, even if you think the Ravens are going to turn it around, I mean, the math is so against them at this point.

You got to look at the Steelers after the.

They play the Bengals this Thursday and after that, it is like a gauntlet.

They have the Colts and they have Detroit and they have Buffalo and I mean, it's.

They could go.

They could lose five games in a row in a heartbeat.

They got some really stiff competition after this week seven game.

That's true.

But then, but.

But the Ravens, where are they going to get to?

I mean, they're going to have to get to.

At least not.

I mean, I think the Steelers feel pretty comfortable getting to nine.

Right.

And.

And now that how the Ravens going to win eight more games?

You know, I mean, maybe if everybody comes back healthy after their buy and they just go on a run, I guess I can't discount that.

But it's shaking.

I mean, yeah, they can't.

The Ravens can't lose this week.

There you go.

They can't.

They cannot.

They can only get better from here.

So.

So you.

You are gonna.

You are gonna get.

Well, we'll go to another negative one for you.

You had the Titans over the Raiders.

That also did not happen.

Now, I. Darren, I hope you got what you were hoping for, because last week you said that you were looking forward to watching that game.

So while that game was going on in the farthest corner of my TV that I could get it to, I was wondering if maybe somewhere Darren is suffering through this, like, because you talked about how much you were looking forward to that game, and it was not.

That was not fun.

That was not fun.

That might have been my worst of the Eagles was pretty bad and the Ravens is pretty bad.

So, yeah, they're pretty.

It wasn't even so much that you picked the Titans to win and they lost, but you seem to be sort of excited to watch that game and now hopefully you've learned your Titans lesson.

And I think I learned my.

My Raiders lesson too, because they weren't exciting even in the world.

They weren't.

And then.

Oh, speaking of the Titans, farewell, Tommy boy.

So, you know, wow, the first one to go, so 4 and 19 over a season in less than a half.

So, you know, the Titans have made a lot of firings and hirings over the last three or four years, but I will give them a little bit of credit sometimes when you know it's wrong, when you Know you messed up.

Sometimes you just gotta pull the plug.

And it was pretty clear that Tommy boy was not working out.

Unlike the real Tommy Boy, this Tommy boy was unable to save the company in the end.

Well, maybe they can call James Franklin because I hear he's might be available.

Oh my gosh, that would be something.

There you go.

No, thank you.

But we'll end on a high note for you because you did have the Seahawks winning over the Jags and not only did they win, but they were the.

They're actually.

They are the better team.

They're better than Jacksonville and I thought that was pretty evident.

Seattle's defense is really good.

Seattle's one be like the most balanced team in the league.

Maybe they are.

They're really good on D and their offenses can really move the ball.

I've got a. I saw some lingering questions about Darnold when they play games against other elite quarterbacks, but Smith and jig was great.

Their offense is good enough and their defense is good and that's.

That's a good team.

So you wound up with four points, I wound up with six.

That gives me 28 for the year, Darren.

And you are now at 27.

So we have a change at the top.

Oh, boy.

It was.

It was a good run.

I had for good run five weeks.

Because something you should know about me, once I take the lead, I never look back.

So.

So here we go.

Okay, well, we'll see about that because I've got some.

I'm pretty confident this week.

All right, who starts this week?

I can.

I can never remember.

I think.

I think it is me this week that starts here.

Let's do it.

Well, I got to get my notes up here.

Okay.

Oh, shoot.

Some technical difficulties here.

Okay, we'll do it this way.

All right, well, I'm going to go back and look at our Jaguars.

You know Jaguars, I didn't think too highly of them last week.

I didn't think they would handle against Seattle like we just talked about.

But this week I think they're going to get the better of the Rams in this pretty marquee matchup of two very good teams in the National Football League.

It's a game in Europe and it's going to be a close one, but it's going to be a very close W. And the Jaguars hold for it against Rams.

Got it.

I looked at that one and that's one I just have no feel for.

And I think at this point I. I might be done trying to predict what happens over in the Overseas games, they all just, they never look quite right.

It's been a while since I've seen a game over there where I thought this is really good football.

Something.

It's such a break in routine that there has to be some, some element to that being legit.

But that's a, that's, that's a much better matchup than all of the other overseas games.

They've gotten so far over there that, that, that's, that's two pretty good teams that should be pretty good.

Whether or not Nakua is healthy is probably a big, a big factor in that.

But yeah, how boring to be on a podcast and say I'm indifferent.

But that's, I really don't have a feel for that one either way.

So I'll move on to my first pick and I'm going to start with you guys again.

Except this time it's going to be really bold and because one of the reasons that I didn't cut the Bengals is because I actually think they're going to win on Thursday night against the Steelers to keep a glimmer of hope alive.

And this is a little bit something we've talked about a couple weeks ago.

This is more of a law of averages pick than it is to do anything overly negative with the Steelers or positive with the Bengals.

The Bengals showed a little bit of life in Green Bay.

They weren't close, but they seem to be fighting a little harder.

I do think Flacco will be less problematic for their offense than Browning was.

He's not going to make the mistakes.

He'll at least get them to punt or instead of turn the ball over.

Their defense isn't very good at all.

But I kind of like a short week.

We've got two 40 plus year old quarterbacks in a division game on a short week.

I could see them both being a little off, a little rusty and I just could see an ugly game where, you know, it's close.

I was gonna just pick the Steelers to win a close one, but that's not particularly bold.

So I'm gonna go all the way.

I'm gonna say in kind of an ugly game, we're all surprised.

Late in the game, the Bengals figure out a way to break their winning street, break their losing streak and subsequently give the Steelers their second loss.

And maybe we start to see why the Ravens are still in the odds, not that far behind the Steelers because maybe there's something that's about to happen to shift it a little bit.

That's an interesting pick.

You know The Steelers have a very poor record under Mike Tomlin on Thursday night.

Interdivisional games last year, if you remember, they had that snowfest that they lost to the Browns and Jameis Winston, it was like 24 to 19.

They lost that.

They've lost to the Ravens multiple times on Thursday Night Football.

They've lost to the Bengals on Thursday Night Football.

But I think it's interesting when you bring up the 241 year old quarterbacks.

One, I mean they're both playing on three days rest, but one of them traveled from London, moved from one city to another, had to learn a new playbook and going on three days and that might be interesting.

And has no offense offensive line really blocking for him very well.

So that might be a factor that might come into play on on Thursday, but it'd be an interesting one to watch.

It's a risky pick.

It could be one of those.

Midway through the first quarter I'm like, oh my gosh, what have I done?

But, but yeah, that I wanted to be bold on that one.

Yeah, that's.

That is bold.

Well, I'm gonna out trump your bold and I'm gonna go to one where you're not gonna be very happy with it because it's a team that you cut.

I think the jets, jets are going to get their first win of the season this week over the Panthers in the Meadowlands at home and maybe give, give the, the gang Green a little bit of something to cheer for, but I think they're going to win one in a close one over Carolina.

It's not on my list, but I actually agree, I actually agree with you on that one because at some point you say, okay, they're bad.

Are they going to go oh and 17?

And then so you find out, okay, probably not.

So where are the wins?

You know, home against Carolina.

If you're going to pick the jets to win at any point this year, this is probably as good as it's going to get.

You know, maybe against Miami later in the year or a couple other games.

But if they're going to find those two, three wins that they're probably going to get, you got to come from somewhere.

So I kind of, I, I think it's, I think it's actually kind of a wise pick.

Oh, okay.

All right.

So last week I predicted a coach would be fired.

I'm going back to the well.

So I am not predicting anything specific in that lovely Dolphins Browns game this weekend other than the losing coach will be fired on Monday or if not Sunday night because at that point I do not know how either survives losing to the other.

So that is going to be my pick.

Either Stefanski or McDaniel is bye bye.

After the game, the losing coach and the Dolphins Browns game gets fired next time.

By the time we speak next week.

Do either of them have a bye week after that?

They won.

I think the Browns.

No, wait, I don't think either of them do.

I did look that up.

I'm not.

So I did look that up just because that would have made me feel a little bit better about it.

But yeah, that'd be a real confidence.

Booster because I guess at this, if it's gonna happen during the season, if you lose to the Dolphins or you lose to the Browns, that's probably the walk the plank moment if it's gonna happen.

So that, that's my pick there.

Okay, that's not a bad pick at all.

I am also going to go into that game, but I'm gonna go into the gameplay because I'm going to predict that the Browns finally score more than 20 points in a game as they defeat the Dolphins.

And you know that their defense is going to, you know, probably shut down the Dolphins offense because they're pretty, they're pretty stingy and.

But they're going to score more than 20 this week.

Yeah, I just.

The Dolphins defense isn't good at all.

So you might be right.

But I just, I can't, I can't bear to even process that because I don't think they can do it.

If the Browns do that when they very well may, I think it'll be because of their defense.

Maybe they, you know, they get some short fields or whatever.

I just can't see the Browns offense generating legitimate NFL drives right now, even against the lousy defense like Miami.

So you might be right.

But I think it's going to be generated by their defense.

If I saw it.

So my next one, I've kind of been on this train for a little bit now of, I won't say doubting the Colts, but maybe doubting the Colts a little bit.

And I think they showed a little, some, some flaws on Sunday and I'm gonna pick them to lose out in Los Angeles to the Chargers.

It's a little bit of weird travel because if you remember, the Colts were out in Los Angeles a few weeks ago to play the Rams.

They got to go back.

You know, that's, that's a little strange.

Again, they're kind of riding high.

The Chargers are very beat up.

They didn't look overly impressive on on Sunday, but I just, I'm a Harbaugh guy.

I think they kind of figure things out.

Herbert looks good.

That win may have kind of gotten them back on track and I think they kind of figure out a way to do it again on Sunday against the Colts.

Okay, that's an interesting one.

Definitely.

Now, I didn't go go too close to that game, but I'm going to go to one.

That's another marquee matchup.

We have the Detroit Lions, we have the Buccaneers playing each other this week.

Two teams that are really showing something in the the NFC this year.

But I'm going to say that Detroit playing their what, four string cornerbacks is going to play against Baker Mayfield.

Doesn't sound like a great setup, but I think Detroit is going to, they're going to score points and they're going to outscore the Bucks in Detroit.

But the main thing of this pick is that the teams, they're going to go over 55.

I think the spread is like 52 and a half.

I looked it up today when I was figuring this out over the weekend.

I said 55.

So I think they're going to bet, bet the over on this one because I think female fans are going to be in for a treat with some.

Great offense and remind me who you're picking to win.

I'm going to take the Lions on this.

Okay, well, we're going to be similar on this.

I'm not being anything specific with the score, but I'm going to say that the Lions win by two or more scores in that game and that they bounce back big against the Bucks.

I, I would, I would think Baker will play well.

Again, I have no reason to not think that, but I.

The Bucks defense actually hasn't been particularly good and I think the Lions will be a little frustrated coming off that game where they left a lot on the table in Kansas City.

They're so good at home.

And again it's that.

That human nature of the bucks are 5 and 1 and you know, it just is.

It's a slightly less important game for Tampa than it is Detroit and it's on the road.

I know nobody thinks about it like that.

Nobody's consciously going about it like that, but I just kind of think that's what's going to happen.

I think you're going to see a two score win for the Lions on Monday.

That would be an interesting one.

Most definitely.

All right.

I am going to go with my last pick being the Seahawks and the Texans game.

I'm going to say that there's going to be less than 35 points scored in this game.

And I think the under is like there's more than that.

So I'm going under the under and I think that the Seahawks are going to use the 12th man to defeat the Texans in the game.

Okay.

Yeah, I was, I was very close to picking an upset in that game, the Texans to win in Seattle, because I really do like that Texans defense, but I really like Seattle's defense too.

And then I guess you split the difference there and say, well, I think Seattle's offense is just better.

So I would probably lean towards a close Seattle win as well, but kind of lean your way as well.

The low scoring there.

It's kind of hard to see a whole lot of points in that game, but 35 or less, that's, that's, that's not a lot.

So that's your five, maybe another 13 to 11 game.

Who knows?

Oh my gosh, please.

It won't be a square Gami.

Oh gosh, goodness gracious.

Please don't remind me of that game.

So I'm gonna end where a team that I've had some success with picking both against and then for the last couple of weeks the, the red hot New York Giants.

And just like we have seen in the NFL so many times, it's going to go back the other way.

When they travel out to Denver on Sunday.

That Broncos defense is going to get a hold of the Giants and their two very interesting, sensational, maybe even rookies and give them a really hard time.

And the Broncos are going to hold the Giants to 17 or fewer points in a Broncos decisive victory.

The Giants offense was good the other night.

I'm not sure why it was so good.

They are kind of one dimensional.

They don't really have any receivers.

Dart does a great job running around, but I think when you're going to get on the road against a ball hawking defense that really gets after the quarterback big time.

Nobody gets after the quarterback like the Broncos do.

They're going to be able to hone in on the running game a little bit.

They're going to give Dart a really hard time.

They're gonna hold the Giants down and the, the anointing of the, the, I don't recall them, the frat boys, whatever they're calling scatter boo.

I kind of, I will say this.

If I was a Jersey salesman, boy, I'd love to be a, a scatter Boo jersey salesman like on the Jersey shore right now because that would be quite.

I'm sure they're very popular for all kinds of reasons, but it's not going to be a great day for them out in Denver.

Well, that would sort of hold pattern for the Giants this year because aren't they having like they have an explosive offensive big win and a big depressing loss and they've been like that.

So maybe the roller coaster ride continues with the rookies.

I bet you that happens for them pretty much the rest of the year.

And my other guess would be that they might be one of those teams that's significantly better at home than they are.

They have.

They might have a hard time going on the road, but you know, you're young.

They're the, you know, you have the home, the home crowd and the comforts of being home kind of fuels you a little bit.

And then you get a little flummoxed on the road.

Like we saw them in New Orleans turn the ball over five times in a row.

So I wouldn't be surprised if we see something like that again.

All right, well, got some interesting picks coming up, some interesting games, a lot of marquee games and might be some things that decide later on in the season how things are going to go, who's going to be on the bubble, who's going to be in the playoffs.

We might look back to this Week 7 coming up because there's some.

That's right, Darren.

Look, Big Ben, Parliament.

Yeah, right, right.

Most definitely.

So Ed, I hope you have a great weekend, enjoy the games this weekend and we will talk to you again next Wednesday and review our picks and pick for week eight of the midway point almost of the National Football League season.

Thanks, Darren.

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