First Things First - Falcons beat Packers, Chiefs ‘will blowout’ Dolphins, BUD List, Upset Alert & Nick’s Picks

Episode Date: September 25, 2026

(0:00) Falcons beat Packers, Will the Chiefs blowout the Dolphins? (23:53) BUD List (41:48) Rather have Trevor Lawrence or Drake Maye? (50:05) Upset Alert & Nick’s Picks (01:10:42) Matt Leinart joins (01:19:53) Win means more for Ravens or Cowboys? (01:25:53) Parkins’ Picks (01:46:46) Faith in Chargers restored if they pull off the upset? (01:58:19) Chips on the Table (02:07:23) Week 3 Storylines Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hear that? It's your money calling. It wants a promotion. Elevate your savings with the Scotia high-interest savings account. Always earn high regular interest rates that grow the more you save and invest. Conditions apply. Visit scotiabank.com slash h-I-SA to learn more. Scotia Bank. You're richer than you think. Live from New York. It's the show that's excited about the John Madden movie with Nicholas Cage. We are making some headway on.

Are we? Yes. I'm not sure, but you got to put it in the universe. No, we're going to get Nick Cage on the show. That's first of all. It does look great. Making fun of the trailer. The trailer is awesome in the exact way it should be.

That movie's supposed to be. You know, you watch the trailer, and it's kind of clear what they're making fun of, but I think it's what David O. Russell was going for. Also, speaking of movies during our day off, I watched the Deshaun Jackson. I did it, too. Did he really? It was excellent. I loved it.

Excellent. It was excellent. Great job. Deshawn and Byron his brother. His brother, it was, 95% of the movie is up until drafted. Right.

So like it's really, it's not much at all about his NFL career. It's really good. It's really interesting. I was rewatching the show trying to get better. First hour, first things first. Today, Chargers, Bills, Prince versus Drake, full slate of games, who needs some motivation? A special Friday edition of the Bud List

because we were off yet. yesterday watching the Justin Jackson movie. Meanwhile, Ohio State trying to get back to number one. Indiana Hoosiers trying to get back to number one. They play tonight, both games on Fox. Matt Leiner joins us to discuss. And finally, it's the hottest segment in all sports

upset alert and a resurgent Nick's picks after a rough week one, like the Patriots. Rough week one. Don't think there are week two. Not a lot of positives take away. Boom, bounce back week two, week three. Even better. You don't agree?

Week three even better. I would say more like the Seahawks this season. Rough week one, underwhelming, and then a dominant week too. One. Yeah, but they were the quarterback out here. They weren't great about it. Chris Broussard, Kevin Wilde, Nick Wright, Power Pack Friday show. We're starting in Green Bay where the Packers had won 13 straight home openers.

That streak's done. Packers were booed throughout the game as they gave up 35 points. Offense sputtered their way to two touchdowns. Here's Tucker Kraft. I'm getting booed at Lambo. I don't picture booze. I picture my home stadium. That's tough.

It's pretty disappointing. Especially for a home opener. Especially for home opener. It's pretty disappointing. It's not going to help us win. I don't know what people think that's going to rally us or something like that. But, you know, that's, we're growing men. We're mentally strong enough, capable enough to get back on the field.

and play ball. But probably be much easier with the 70,000 people behind us rather than opposing us. Oh. Your reaction to the sound before we talk pack. Well, just what you say, he's naive. I think he doesn't understand what he just said. And working in New York, I, you know, you get it. I can understand how an athlete, a young athlete thinks that.

Like, they're booing us. That's not going to help. It's true. And a lot feel that way, but you can't say it. All right, because his main thing was it was pretty disappointing. Well, I would say the fans would say your performance was pretty disappointing. And the relationship of fan to player or team is unconditional because the fans are going to like the Packers no matter what. But it's also conditional in that if you play back,

better, they won't boo. Yeah. The last thing those fans want to do is boo. So play better, put a better product on the field, and we won't boo you. That's what he has to understand. I get where he's coming from, but it's just naive. Before, yeah, before we get to the, I want to the main question. I want to address that as well.

I think we in the media have gotten a little, God, I'm such a granddad, uh, soft on what's expected of fans. it is a fan's right to boo. It is not uncouth to boo. It's not improper to boo. It's not rude to boo. Listen, sports as a whole are a little, when you really like think about it, it's absurd. It's like these, you know, what we're doing is kind of, we're all creating a make-believe seriousness.

Like these things don't actually matter, but in the context of the games, they matter massively. And so, yes, in regular life, you would never booed. someone when they're at work because they did a bad job. I have done that. Right, exactly. I have done that. But in the context of sports, in the context of sports, it's totally fine, at times appropriate. And fair or not, the athletes answer when being questioned about home fans booing them. And again, I'm talking about about anything beyond the pale. There's one answer only. There's one answer and one answer only. I'd have booed us too. We got to play better. Like, you know what I mean?

Like, it's our job to give them a reason to cheer. The only thing. I just did it. Right. And so, you guys think that's helping? Yeah. I mean, so it's just part of the deal here. And fans are allowed to boo.

Like, it's one of the things they're allowed to do. And I will throw this, like, I agree with you. I will throw this in, too. At the end of the day, the fans are actually paying your salary. At the end of the day. Yeah. If they turn on the game, like, like, they're like, I'm done with, football. I'm done with the Packers. I'm done with the NBA.

You're not getting any money. Yeah. And so that's another thing. They are paying your bills. So is it panic time for these Packers fans who are booing? Yes. They're done. Done. Done. I mean, look, I didn't pick them to make the playoffs. I don't think any of us picked them to make the playoffs. No, Greg was furious. Yeah. I don't know. They're done because

they are one. This is supposed to be the soft part of their schedule. They have played Carson Wentz. Gino Smith. Who's having a little bit of a research, I guess, relatively. And Michael Pinnick's in his first start in 10, 11 months. He looked great. Yeah, it's slow start, but he looked good. But we don't know what he is yet.

And you are still one and two with two blowouts. I mean, what is going to happen when you really start playing the good team? And the Jets game, the Jets had full control over for a long time. Very fortunate to win. And the problem is, look, when Mike again, gets back, sure, they'll be better. The defense isn't good, but it's the least of their worries. And along with Jordan Love, I think Jordan is, you know, he's not going to make any pro

bowls at this rate, but he is not, he's under incredible duress. They got the worst offensive line in the league, some of its injuries, some of it's just bad. They're doing max protections and still getting beat, all right? They got no run game. They ran for 17 yards. yesterday. That doesn't work.

I almost ran for 17 yards. Yeah. I mean, really, like I was close to running for 17. And so that means every time Jordan Love is under center, shotgun, whatever, we know you're throwing the football because you can't run it. And so he's a sitting duck back there. He threw 53 times, Nick. And so they're bad, period.

And the floor is in trouble, I think. So, yeah, I mean, they're bad everywhere is one of the points I was going. going to make. I'm not going to absolve Jordan Love fully. Listen, I am not a completion percentage guy. But there is a minimum threshold. Caleb was beneath the minimum last year, which I thought mattered. Jordan Love's about 10 points beneath where Caleb was right. Right around 50. Is the worst. Right around 50, which is, you know, unless you're Daryl Lomonica's era, that's not going to work in the NFL. They, the offensive line, to your point, has obviously been awful. and they can't run the ball at all.

We can show you their rushing stats. It wasn't just last night. And this shouldn't catch, listen, they're the worst running team in the league. Now, part of that is because their star running back is on the commissioner's exemplist. And part of me feels like, yeah, that's kind of how that should go.

Yeah. Like, you know what I mean? Like you had a major investment in a player who is alleged to have done something reprehensible. He is now, being kind of in limbo punishment wise. And it hurts your team. Like that part, I don't, there's not, go ahead.

But yes, so he might not play this whole series. Correct. I might not. I don't know. I'll put that over there. But teams running backs are absent. All the time. All the time.

They don't have an answer. You don't go from like, you know, we would have a great rushing attack down to 17 yards. Someone's on the practice squad. There's a guy in college. Right. No, but so it's, I think they didn't have running back. plus the offensive line, plus the fact that this team can't win games without Micah.

And this now, like the Jets game they won, I get it. But that was a game that I think the Jets mismanaged at the end and it still went to overtime. But since that Micah Parsons game, they're 1 in 7. They score 19 a game.

They allow almost 30. And can I ask you a question about this? Just sit on this for a second. I know it lines up nicely. Do we actually think that Micah is that impactful with all the problems that we've seen? Oh, I think he's that impactful defensively. I do.

I think we saw it in Dallas. I think we're still seeing it in Dallas. I also do want 30 points is a lot. The reason I wanted to admit, but do you remember the- They were looking like one of the best teams in the league? Yeah, and we referenced this, you know, fact a lot that when Micah got traded, Barnwell pointing out that with him on the field, the Cowboys had a top three defense in the NFL, and with him off the field, when he was a cowboy, they had a bottom three defense.

So, like, at least in Dallas, he seemed to make that type of difference. But the reason that's relevant here as well as KW, and this is where the LaFleur stuff gets interesting, they don't have their pick next year. Yeah. By the way, the Cowboys don't either. The Cowboys don't have that Packers pick. The Jets have it. Because if you remember, the Cowboys traded the better of their pick and Green Bay's pick for Quina Williams.

So the Jets right now are staring at their own pick, the cult, the cults pick, the cult who haven't won a game yet, and Green Bay's pick. They can get a quarterback and a rookie. Right. The Jets could have three, in theory, top 12 picks next year. Wow. But, you know, sidebar that. LeFleur, I believe, you know, coach contract reporting is always a little shaky, but supposedly he got his extension after last year.

If he hadn't, I would think that seat would all of a sudden be quite warm because despite the fact he's only had one losing season, eight and nine in the bridge year or the final year of Rogers, post Rogers, post Rogers playing at an MVP level, the Packers have been, as the kids would say, decidedly mid. They have been eight and nine and then three straight seven seeds, and then whatever they are this year. They seem to never overachieve their preseason expectations

with or without Aaron Rogers, but certainly post Aaron Rogers under the floor. So they're at Tampa Bay next week. Look, if they went in Tampa Bay, they're two and two all of a sudden. I'm like, oh, okay. Yeah, two and two, but I agree with Brew. They just haven't looked good at all, but then Mike is going to get back. I'm not ready to give up. On the other side of the ball, the Falcons are wide awake from being deep sleepers.

Pennix was sharp in his season debut. Bejohn was unstoppable. Looked like the best player in the field. Drake London had almost 200 yards receiving. New look for ATL, the first two games. Remember, they didn't have a, they didn't run a play in the red zone. Last night, they looked fantastic, 35 points up from 8. Nick is fast asleep, but Nick, very deep, deep asleep.

It doesn't, why does this make sense now? Because there should be deep sleepers. They looked good, they're wide awake. I don't think he's going to participate in this segment. He's just going to sleep. Guess who's on? Oh, my! Guess who has awoken?

The deep sleeper. You guys all made fun of me. God forbid. My long shot pick have to go to their third string quarterback for two weeks and and fourth string quarterback and struggle a bit. Do you see the vision now? They look unbelievable. Listen, Bijan is quite simply one of the best players in the entire league at any

spot. Yes. And has a real game-breaking impact every time he touches the ball. Drake London, despite, like, he's probably the slowest, excellent receiver. No, he, he, he's graded everything, but his, but speed, but that part doesn't matter. I mean, they don't. That cornerback ran him down. I know.

And he's so big. He's got great technique. And I'm not saying Pinnock is, Pinnock looked really good yesterday once he got a couple drives. I'm not saying he's going to be a great player. I don't know what he'll be. I know that he, at the end of his college career, looked like a great player, but he was much older. The injury concerns were there.

But I did not feel like they needed great quarterback play in order to be a frisky team. They just needed not god-awful quarterback play last night. And we can show you what they got at the quarterback position last night compared to what they were getting with Russian Strand. It's night and day. It's almost double the passing yards. It's almost double the yards per pass.

It's one touchdown to one turnover versus one touchdown to seven turnovers. It's triple the pass. Everyone's laying up the Packers defense at the same time. What asked if they could play to Packers every week. No, I get that. But still, the last week, who the Falcons play and lose to last week? The Panthers, whose defense in week one allowed 59 points. Like, and so I, again, one and two is no time for a victory lap.

However, their final, the December of their schedule is, I just felt like the Panthers needed to be five and five through 10. And then they could finish strong because they have like the Panthers. The Falcons, I'm sorry. Sneaky Panthers. No, no, no, I apologize. They just need to be five and five-ish through 10 because the end of their schedule is where it gets really soft. and I do think Brew, they potentially have a good coaching step. I know they have a great running back.

They have a really good number one receiver and we'll see what Pinnix is. And again, not necessarily rooting for this player, but they will get their best pass rusher James Pierce back at midseason from his half season long suspension. So that should buttress the defense. And their defense is good against the run. Sure. I mean, last night of course.

But even before last night, they were holding teams to about three yards of carry. So they, all that you said about the offense is true as far as the talent. Pinnix, I don't know what he's going to be either. I have concerns. You just, injuries have daugged him his whole college and pro career. So we'll see about that. Hopefully he does stay healthy because they do have a ton of talent. Just get the ball to Bejohn and Drake London.

I mean, Kyle Pitts, everybody keeps waiting on Kyle Pitts to pop. It's been years. Okay. What I saw last night was a team that in the woe-be-gone NFC South can compete. Thank you. I mean, you got the Saints who, yeah, okay, they beat the Ravens. We'll have to see. Was that the Ravens giving them that game or was that the Saints taking it?

We'll see as time goes on. But I think they're pretty good. The Carolina's pretty good. Tampa Bay, I would imagine, can bounce back to be pretty good. And that's what they are. Last year, it was three, eight, nine teams, and this year I think it's going to be right around there. So can this team win eight, nine games? Sure.

Thank you. So they got a shot just like the rest of that. And I will say if Pinnix were to get banged up, not another ACL, God forbid, but have to miss a game or two, they wouldn't be going back to Rush. Like Tua, I mean, Tua was supposed to be their starter, and then him or Pinnock's, and he got hurt his back. So I do, you know, Tool will be much more. Two would be, no disrespect.

But like they were just, they were not playing an NFL caliber quarterback for the first two weeks of the year. All right. Head to Miami. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs are set to play the windless dolphins. Now, Miami were 14-point underdogs against the 49ers last week. They lost by 22. Chiefs favored by more than 10. And it doesn't look like Patrick Mahomes has any interest in taking his foot off the gas.

Take a listen. All off season we heard about how bad we were and guys were super hungry and came in with that mentality. And I think that's why we've had the success that we've had these first two weeks. And it's like, how can you keep that hunger? You know, like now everybody's saying we're amazing and that we're great. And it's like we got to keep the hunger that we have of this entire off season. Okay. Speaking of the hunger and not, you know, overlooking any teams.

Are you willing to guarantee a chief's blowout? You guys remember the last time I guarantee, it's not retirement? historical. It's been a very long time since I would guarantee a chief's blowout. Because if you remember, like last year was coming off a year where they didn't really blow anybody out, and they started last year off O and 2, so I don't even know if we would have been asking the question. The year before last year was the year they won every game, but they were all by one score. I think the year before that might have been their practicing year. It's been quite some time. Probably that. You said better than a buy.

Better than a buy is a long. We were in boxes and folks wearing masks. Which is why I'm so thrilled to answer this question. The answer to this question is yes. Now, you might say, so Nick, definitely the Chiefs minus 10 and a half is in Nick's picks. It oddly is not.

Why not? Really? Because I think... Is it the lock? No, no, no. I... Because I do think there's this... There are some scenarios where... No, where the final score is the Chiefs by 10, where they're up 17 throughout where we feel like the game's a blow out the whole way.

Miami gets a touchdown with a minute left or so and the Chiefs win by 10. But am I guaranteeing a start to finish never in doubt Chief's dominant performance? I am. Because, first of all, you know where it's really hot? Kansas City in the summertime.

And that's how the chiefs do training camp. So the whole Miami weather, and Andy said it after week two in the locker room, when he said he goes, we play a really good Miami team. Okay, but he also was like, this is why we did all those tough training camp practices outside. Like sometimes teams go to Miami in September, they melt in the sun. That won't happen to Kansas City. I think the chiefs have multiple running backs that can, do damage against Miami.

And I actually think this is likely a big Emmett Johnson game, not Kenneth Walker. I think this is a game where you throttle down Kenneth Walker's uses a little bit. I also think Patrick's, the chip on Patrick's shoulder has not lessened at all. He is not, he

says very few interesting things at press conferences. That was about as interesting as he gets when he says, like, we heard how much everybody was saying how bad we were going to be. And I also think, while Patrick as I have said, is, in my mind, post stats. I think he's got a little devil on his shoulder that might tell him stats are fun too.

And so for all those reasons and the fact that I think the past rush will be able to get to Malik Willis and I think the Chief's offense will be able to operate in space. I think the Chiefs for the third straight game this year score 30 plus. And I don't know, you know, what Miami is going to be able to do against Casey's defense. So, yeah, I think the Chiefs win in dominant fashion. I'll give you those are true, but I'll give you what's above both of those. Wow. The Chiefs are good and the dolphins are terrible.

That was nice. That was cute. You showed your knowledge, all right? But it really boils down to that. The dolphins are terrible and are they even trying to win? Do they believe they can win? Well, they certainly don't believe they can win. No.

I think they're trying. They're a horrible football team this year. And I feel for Malik Willis, because I think he's actually pretty good. I just hope their brain trust is like not judging him by what they see. Although, look, if they get the top pick or something, they're probably going to take a quarterback. You almost have to. But, yeah, and I think, Nick, if I were the chiefs, I would let Kenneth Walker cook. Now, you know, to assert, if they're blowing him out in the third quarter and he's got his hundred,

40 yards or whatever. Sure, then let's get Emmett in there and let Kenneth rest. But Kenneth Walker, Jr. is somewhere he has, now remember, coming out of Michigan State, he was the top rusher in the nation, he was supposed to be this great running back on the

level of the bejons and guys like that. Now he's finally getting to experience that if I'm, look, I'm just keeping it real. He wants it, and I don't blame him. Just like Mahomes wants to put up the great numbers. Kenneth Walker is having a phenomenal year so far.

Let him go ahead and do his thing. And I think that would be great. And then Emmett will get his chance. Because I think they're going to, I don't think it's going to be, I get what you're saying about a 10 point blowout. I think it's just going to be a route. It's going to be like that. It's going to be like that.

It's similar to what we saw last week with San Francisco. So maybe. Your point on Kenneth Walker, his college profile. Emmett Johnson, you know, won the big 10 rushing title last year at Nebraska. I do think this is a game where. I would like, you know, the rookie receiver that has only been on the field for a couple snaps, Cyrus Allen, I would like to see if they can work him in a bit. You saw a flash from the second year receiver, Jalen Royals, last week. I would see what more from him there is.

Like, there's different things. Yeah, practice. I'm not saying practicing. Basically a practice game. They're not the defending Super Bowl champions. They're not even the defending AFC West champions. they have not earned the right this year to call professional football games practices. But I would like them to be, you know, get some live bullets for some guys who otherwise wouldn't. That's all I'm saying.

And I, joint practice. And while typically for the sports betters out there, typically this is a terrible thing to do and many people do it. But adding the chiefs on the money line to any other bet you're making is just a little way to juice the odds a bit. bit. I'm not telling you what to do. I'm just saying that's what I'll be doing. Special Friday edition of the butler. Wow. Who's under duress? Weekend motivation. On FS1 of the Fox Sports Channel on Sirius XM. In Toronto, every arrival is a statement and nothing says it better than this. Cadillac Optic

was the number one selling luxury EV in Canada for 2025. Find your rhythm across a seamless 33-inch display and an immersive 19 speaker AKG surround audio system. This City demands agility and optic delivers with precision to make every drive extraordinary. Let's take the Cadillac. Find out more at Cadillac Canada.ca. Luxury sales claim based on S&P Global Mobility Canadian New Vehicle Total Registrations for calendar year 2025 for the Cadillac definition of luxury. Check out the podcast. We're flying up the charts. Gianna says we're number one, but when I looked at it, there's other podcasts there, John.

I don't know if it's a quirk in my phone or something. Also, we're on YouTube. Gianna got the new iPhone. Really? Yes. She says the camera is so much better. Did you charge a box? I might be in the market for a new. You're going to get a new phone.

Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. Yeah. Write it off on your taxes. Maybe. Brue's going to get a new iPhone too.

Yeah. Yeah, that one's got a lot of cracks in the screen. I'm now for the most motivational segment in all sports. Real letter from a real viewer of the show. Got it today. Dear Wilds love the show. How is Brew going to handle the outcome of First Things First Bowl 6 featuring Brew versus Brew, two of the teams that you really rock with? Cheers, Ryan and Brian.

Well, Ryan and Brian, thanks again for another letter. So creatively, we're in a bit of a spot here because the singers are for the Cowboys. The letter grade is for the Cowboys. The box is for the Ravens. The robe is for the Ravens, Chip Sandwich, and of course. And that's kind of, we got to bring the chip sandwich and soda pop back. We haven't really done it. Well, last year, I didn't get a chance.

That kind has been replaced by the box, sadly. Yeah, the box doesn't have a lot of personality. Yeah, it just sits there. I know. Breakdance, yes, sir. The break dancers. And then maybe Jackson Blade. We haven't seen Jackson Blade in a long time.

He can make an appearance. Wow. Jackson. He did. He does like Rio. He does. He does. He does.

He does. He likes. Rio. I didn't know. Jackson Blade. Learn more about Chris, Bruce. Yeah, we have Jackson Blake. I just realized, do you think Jackson Blade and Iceman hang out?

No, I don't. What do you mean? I think I got part of the same cinematic. Try. No, yeah. Jackson wasn't feeling. He's like, oh, man. Really?

Yeah. We got to, we got to get them together. We got to set up a play date. That play date. All right. Speaking of play dates, I want to see. a play date for Lamar in Rio against the

Cowboys. This is also known Wilde as the Super Bowl preview. I told you guys a couple weeks ago, it's Cowboys versus Ravens in the Super Bowl, what is it? 61. Whatever it is. No way to tell. I don't know. It sounds like. But anyway, yeah, it's Cowboys

versus Ravens coming up. All right, look, Lamar, you play it fine. 10 yards per attempt that's first in the league among quarterbacks that play both games. 105 passer rating, only two touchdowns, one pick. But your player's been fine, but Nick likes to you. I think I like this actually.

Nick threw out about Mahomes being post stats. Lamar's kind of post stats for a different reason. Like his numbers are always phenomenal pretty much. But it's about winning. You've got to win. I won't even get to Super Bowl and S. Bob and all that stuff. but it's just about winning games for you at this point. And you guys, I think blew a game last week.

We'll see if the Saints ended up being great. But I think you guys blew a game and you blew a game for reasons we've seen before. You know, just letting the lead slip away and not getting it done in the fourth quarter. So you have to come out and put your foot down and say that's the old Ravens. Because here's the deal. Harbaugh, John Harbaugh, is gone. the one common denominator, I have to admit it, in these blown leads is Lamar.

Not Derek Henry, who only got there a few years ago. Most of the players haven't been there as long as Lamar. So you are the kind of, I'm not blaming you and saying it's you because your numbers are still great, but you are the guy that's been there throughout these blown leads. So make sure it put it to rest.

It ended last week and get the team back on track. Here's another thing. Oh, yeah. We know, remember the narrative about Lamar just dominating the NFC? Yes, I like that. We got a graphic. He was 20 and 23 and 1, I believe, in his first 24 games. Last five, two and three.

Now, his numbers, again, are incredible in those last five games. They're actually better than they were in the first 24, but it's the L's. All right. So here you go. You lost last week to an NFC team. Here you go against another NFC team that coincidentally. You blew out two years ago, but let the lead shrink to the point it got in question. So I obviously believe in you, Lamar, put these narratives, these negative narratives about the team and not being able to hold leads to rest this weekend.

All right. At number two, we go into the coaches, the rare coach on the bud list from my standpoint. Jim Harbaugh. Here's the question. Is it deja vu all over again? I'm to cancel my gym members. That's really good. I like that a lot.

Well, here, you guys, I don't know if this is at top of mind for you or even most people. The last time Harbaugh left college and went to the NFL, Stanford to San Francisco Niners. He took the Niners had not had a winning season in eight years. Yeah. They had won six games the year. before he got there. He immediately takes him to 13 wins, then 11 wins, then 12 wins, three straight conference championship appearances, one Super Bowl appearance,

and then his fourth season falls off 8-Nate. And then he's gone. Yes. Gets to the, this time he leaves college, won the national championship in Michigan, with some raised eyebrows, some things happen there. He can't go back to college for like 20 years or whatever. So we'll give you the championship, but it was a little shaky. And you go to the Chargers, who won five games a year before he gets there.

He takes them immediately to 11 wins, immediately to a second 11 win season. And now the third year, they look like they're in danger of having a losing season. And here's the thing, Jim, if you lose this game, you'll be 0 and 3. and I think, Nick, a losing season will be more than on the table. It'll be likely when you look at what the schedule is going ahead. Because I think right now the team, I believe them when they say they still believe. Obviously they're shaking, but you're 0 and 2, you still believe. If they lose this game, even though it's a great team you're playing in Buffalo,

O and 3 is hard to believe you're a very good team. You lost the two bad teams. You got great, a tough schedule coming up. So they got to win this game. Now look, Jim, I actually do believe in you. I think you're a good coach, but not this week. I think you're in trouble against Buffalo. All right.

Number one, Baker Mayfield. Yeah. Kind of obvious, all right? Look, Nick said it earlier in the week. It's a great, it's a good thing you got your money. And it's kind of an insult because, you know, you're not playing well. It's just as simple as that. but at least you got paid.

And I got to be honest, there's this school of thought out there, which I think has a little bit of credence to it. If Baker had not gotten his contract. Now, look, at the end of the day, it's good that he got it. If he had not gotten it, do you think he'd be playing this poorly? It would be really, I get what you're saying.

His history is when he has something to prove Chip on his shoulder plays his best. But it's hard for me to believe that him, if he hadn't gotten his, him getting paid is what made him be that reckless, but maybe? It would be a subconscious thing. I'm certainly not implying he's let go with a rope or anything. But yeah, I don't know.

I mean, but he looks bad. And here it is, but it's not just this year. It's the end of last year. Your last nine games last year. So last 11, you're two and nine. Your numbers are just, yeah, not good at all. You're playing an MVP level before that. He went to the Super Bowl.

Yeah. Yeah, so you have to turn it around. And here's the thing is I was putting this together. I'd already chosen my butt list. I kind of feel like I probably should have waited a week before putting Baker on. And here's why. They have Minnesota coming up, which we know the Great Brian Forest defense. All right.

So it's a good chance that they stifle Baker. Yeah. But after that, you've got it's a green. Bay. Oh, that looks. Dallas, which the defense isn't good. Pittsburgh, which is defense good, but not a great team. Carolina back got 59 put on them.

Atlanta. And then you got Detroit Carolina. Yeah, you got some bad defense. Yeah. So they got, that's the thing. So maybe he won't cook, you won't cook this weekend, but you cook next week. I don't know, but it'd be good to get it going now, Baker. Yeah.

I'm throwing some motivation your way. You don't want to fall to 0 and 3, even though, again, you're in a very forgiving division, so you won't be out of it. But go ahead and get it done now and get back on the track. Might miss Liam Cohen. We talk, like, I mean, Liam's obviously done a great job in Jacksonville. Well, he started out great in Tampa or last year. He started last year great.

Without Liam. Without Liam. And then fell off. So I believe in, you know, Bank. So Dave Canales was his first OC. Yeah. Canales left. Then Liam took over.

And he started hot. Yeah. And then Liam left. Baker started off first six weeks last year, amazing, and then fell off. Okay. It's 337 on a Friday, which means it's time for the sports media ombudsman. A lot out there to ombuds. You were almost like a guy at a restaurant.

You had too many goods. Too many options. The old cheesecake factory menu problem, too many options. Huge upset that I'm not going with what Monday morning I thought I was going to go with. I'm just going to, you know what? Bonus take. Bonus. Sports media ombudsman bonus take.

Listen, Rex Ryan, you're not allowed to do. I don't like it. I love it. That's Bruce thing. He's trademarked it. America's fall in love with it. Follow the Twitter account for it. The other guy can do it, though.

The video game guy. He's got to work on it is, though. The video game guy? Yeah, the guy from the, it was like a streaming video game thing. We sent it on the group chat. Oh, that guy, that kid. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, you're right.

That was a homage. That was a lot. ladder, yeah. Work on it. Yeah. You're not going to be as, addendum to the bonus tape.

But work on it. If you're in a different form of broadcasting, yes. You can do it as an homage to brew. The kid doing the video game commentary. Someone reading the news. A cooking show. A cooking show.

All of those things fine. But the weather. If you're on a sports. Financial show. Right. If you're on, don't do a lifestyle show. If you're on a sports opinion show,

Particularly if you are a former Jets head coach on a sports opinion show. Renovation show, you're redoing a house. I was trying to do a mangeny joke. You just let me. I didn't understand it. Whatever. Point is this. Don't do that.

That's Bruce thing. Now the real sportsman on Buddwin. To everyone in the media, we got to decide. Do quarterbacks actually matter or not? I like this one already. Oh. Because here's what I'm not a huge fan of. We spend all the time talking about

the quarterbacks. Team wins. We can throw it up on the bar, dust whenever you want. When the team wins, we're happy with it. We give the quarterback all the flowers, all the glory.

When the team loses, we're like, that damn left guard's got to get his act together. I'm not even necessarily saying that's incorrect. Maybe we are overrating the importance of quarterbacks over the course of our general

conversation. But if that's true, then there is a flip side to that coin. We need to be far. more critical about these quarterback contracts. If these guys are just passengers to the fate of the team, of which they can have very little impact on, then when my guy Baker gets a contract,

somebody has come on and be like, disaster! Oh, what are you thinking? Do you know how many D-tackles you could have gotten with $55 million when we're doing our pre-season picks? We need to be like, hey, you know what team I like? The team with the super cheap quarterback, because it's got all the talent around them. Again, that might be correct.

History might actually back that up. Donald won the Super Bowl there. We've seen guys on rookie contracts. Mahomes has been underpaid. Right. And Mahomes, I think it's the only quarterback or was when he won his second Super Bowl was the first one to win a Super Bowl

making more than 15% of the salary cap that year because Brady always had, you know, kind of more team-friendlyish deals. So I just, here's what I'm not a huge fan of. I'm not a huge fan of hearing how a guy is a franchise carrier or force multiplier, deserves all the money, and then when the team loses, it's like, man, the offensive coordinator just got to get his act together. Again, if quarterbacks are the icing on the cake rather than the cake themselves,

then we've got to fix the financial part of it. And if they're not, then there needs to be a little more culpability when the team is no good. So are you more so talking about Herbert right now? No, I saw a little bit of it this morning, like, don't you dare blame Jordan Love for where the Packers are. Again, I think their offensive lines bad. I don't think they have a running game. But I also think that if the team looks that bad in those circumstances, then maybe the $55 million a year could be better allocated.

My actual take is this. I think there's like four quarterbacks maybe that are truly as impervious to their surroundings as one can be. and even those guys can be brought down by it. But mostly are, you know what I mean, just tide raisers. And the other guys all have their pros and cons, you know, that can drag you down if the team's not good enough around them. And the fact that all of those, the top 15 all make within 10% of each other is a mistake.

This feels like a cousin of an NBA max contract. Yes. So you're a max guy. Good. We're going to the playoffs, right? No. Then you're not a max guy. Like, no, I'm a max guy.

We won 15 games. No. And you're not a max guy. You can be very well compensated. But if you're a max guy, I can't pay you any more without breaking the law. You got to win. Sorry, you only get 20 games. Hey.

But quickly, look, just quickly, I've said for years, I agree that the gap between quarterbacks and everybody else is too big. I get it. It is the most important position. I think it's the most difficult. But it's too big. Especially for your just good quarter. For everyone other than Mahomes, Josh and Lamar.

They shouldn't automatically be, yeah. I mean, you got the Josh Allen's and Lamar. I think those three. But it should be, yeah, the gap should be lessened a bit. I'm trying to think. I think it's those three. Yeah, probably. Special edition.

You know how you have your own little carve out. Yeah. I invented my own carve out. Special edition of, hey, what's going on? Okay, good. I like today's subject. Travis Hunter. Oh, man.

Travis Hunter, hey, what's going on? Number two pick. Blast. One, two, three, or whatever. David Bailey, Travis Hunter, Jaden, C.J. Stroud, Aidan Hutchinson, Zach Wilson, Chase Young, Nick Bosen, Sequin. So you got some superstars. You got some waiting to see.

Some guys are not panning out at all. But the one commonality between all those guys is we did get to see them actually play football. Yeah. Maybe Zach Wilson wasn't great. great, but he was on the field. The Panthers, excuse me, the Jags traded up for, to get Travis. And we thought he was going to be basically the Otani of the NFL. The quote from the GM, there are very few players who have the capacity to alter the trajectory of the sport, bro.

It's just Otani style. I'm sorry. And the conversation was like, ah, I don't know. I think you had the accurate take of if you, you know, chase two rabbits, you catch none. You're not going to be. My take was he ain't Dionne Sanders. Right. Dionne Sanders didn't do what they thought he was going to do.

He's not going to do it. So now it feels like that's coming to fruition because he's not really doing much on either side of the ball. This season on offense, he's played 11 snaps, which is 9% of the snaps on offense. And on defense, he's only at 58%. And he's in a platoon with guys. That part's, the defensive part is a disaster. He needs to, number one corners are on the field every snap of the game. But that might be just out the window at this point.

Well, then it's a disaster. Yeah. Well, look, they need to forget about the two-way stuff. Just put him on one side of the ball, I would say defense. Yes. And make him your number one corner. But Liam Cohen says we're going to try to work him in more and off. Forget that.

He needs to focus on one. New from Nespresso. Blend wellness into your coffee routine with the coffee plus range, infused with functional benefits. Choose the coffee you love with added B vitamins, like coffee plus B12 to help support immune function, and coffee plus B6 to keep your day moving. Or go with the flow and choose ginseng delight. Our new double espresso with ginseng extract. Whatever lies ahead, don't change your morning.

Let your morning change you. Discover Coffee Plus. Plus on Espresso.com. I actually have a funny story about the 40-40 club. I don't know if we have time. We probably don't. Sure, but go ahead. I mean, how long is it?

Go ahead. So I guess it was the Chris Paul draft with Darren Williams, Chris Paul. And I had done a big story on Darren Williams entering the draft, him and Bracey Wright, his teammate at Indiana. And so we were going after the draft, they were having this big party at the 40-40 club. And me and my wife were going and all this stuff. So I'm covering the draft. So my wife goes early to the party with one of her good friends.

And when I get there, my wife and her best friend had been in another at the wrong party in the 4040 club. So they're hanging out in this one room for an hour or two before I get. It's not Darren Williams party. It's the wrong party. So maybe it wasn't as funny as I thought. That's the end. That's it. I get there and I'm like coming to the party we're supposed to be it.

It was hilarious. I don't even know if that reached. She's in the wrong party. Prime performance brought to you by Subaru. You don't get it? I get it. I get it. They got rules.

She was in the wrong room. Just a misunderstanding. I'm glad it happened. Brought to you by Subaru. You're right. I'm about that story. It's what makes. Subaru a Subaru Dusty like clear it out and everything like yeah we got time. Patriots in

Jacksonville Sunday afternoon both QBs one and one and in a stat near and dear to my heart get this both are completing exactly 67.3% of their passes wow that amazing having identical seasons Trevor looked perfect in week one rough in week two Drake lost the opening game with three fourth quarters interceptions by himself and was at best fine in week two which quarterback would you rather have for this game. Now, caveat, they're not actually going to switch teams. You know, it's true. I mean, I'd rather have Trevor Lawrence for this game

or really any game the rest of the year. But I am very interested in how Drake looks this week. Because if he looks like he has looked thus far this season, I will keep it to this season.

Sure. I won't go back to the playoff run. I will start to wonder if there's something really wrong. Injury? No. No, no, no, no. I thought, I thought, thank you.

I don't, again, I don't claim to, you know, be able to analyze football film the way some can as far as what defenses are playing. I know there was a, you know, a circle of belief that Sean McDermott, in their second regular season game against the Patriots, exposed some flaws in the second half. half and what Drake May struggled against that other teams no more so than Seattle exploited along the playoff run. I don't know if that's what's been, they played one of their games was against Seattle, you know what I mean, if that's what's been going on.

I don't know if it's that. I know some people that, you know, our pal Bill Simmons, you know, who watches the Patriots very closely, I think a similar football eye to me, but is very convinced that he's got happy feet going. I think that, I don't think that's debatable. Okay. I think it's like hot, but like when the Eagles feel was 150 degrees there against the Titans. That's what Drake is constantly like moving around.

So that piece of it. I don't know what the cause of it is. But if he has another bad game, because I know you guys beat the Steelers, I thought he had a bad game in that game. It's certainly below average, not his average, just below league average. It now will start to worry me. and that's about Drake individually, but then also about the Patriots as a whole being going down a road of a really tough season.

So that's where I stand going into this game. I am with Nick in that I'd rather have Trevor. And it's simple as this. I've seen him play good football this calendar year. I mean, that's the hate to be there. This calendar year, 2026, calendar year. These are the numbers. I mean, Trevor,

got him whooped, not just in fewer games. In everything. Why fewer games? Well, because his team didn't make the Super Bowl. No. No, they made the playoffs. Yeah, deep. Yeah.

Deep run. Reception season. Yeah. But Drake's one good game this calendar year was Miami, you know, the last game of the regular season. And so, yeah, I agree that I got to see Drake play better. And I know Trevor wasn't great last year, and I think he's up and down, too. fifth in MVP.

No, I mean, last game. Oh, last game. Last game, you were. Last game, Trevor was not good. Yeah, but I think Trevor has a, as up and down as he has been, he has more of a body of work in the NFL than Drake. I at least know Trevor's a lower rung tier two quarterback. Well, he might be a higher run tier two.

Maybe mid. I'm not high. I don't know about high run. Mid. And Drake, I'm still, the verdict still, the jury's still out. So the verdict is, the jury's not. still out for me. So I will take Drake because I think for two reasons. One, just game preview style. I actually want to see how, because we have played some soft quarterbacks. Drakes,

I'm excuse me, Trevor's a real quarterback that will be a real test for this defense. He's put up big numbers. He went into Denver last week, didn't play great. So is this defense, Patriots defense, you know, really as good as these numbers say? I'm not. huge Patriots fans, even I think this is a little much, especially with the injuries we have. So, but are we maybe not the second best defense in the league? Are we actually

top 10 or we've been feasting on some weaker opponents? That's what I want to see from the defense. For Drake, look, Drake has to whatever one in New England wants to see is Drake look like Drake. I don't think that I think Drake, what we need

to get back to is Drake May. I think this is real. Drake's performance last year was real and we're an outlier. I don't think this is the reality and this is the outlier. Does that make sense? So he's taking sacks, three sacks in both games. He threw a dumb pick, obviously

three dumb picks in first week. Last week was another dumb big shot. Vrabel's like ball security. Take it like just move, take what we can get. Hopefully make a little run here. Can I I?

I, I, Vrable was really, I think Vrable's concerned. Did you hear us, did you listen to his quotes? So, well, so this is what I was, maybe they're different quotes, maybe they're the same quotes. So Sunday after the game,

he's asked about Drake, me in the offense, he's like, you're not going to ruin my Sunday. And then, you know, he's like, asking me about it tomorrow. Monday, they have the press conference

talking about it. Tuesday, his press conference every day, Tuesday, he's asked about Drake in that game. And he's like, yeah, those are questions for a Monday. day. Meaning, like, we're looking ahead now. Meaning like there's a very thin window of time to see what he does where he is willing to discuss the struggles of the quarterback. So I don't know if that. The quote that jumped out to me was, we trust Drake to make the right decisions. And it felt like

support for the team, support for the wide receivers that are currently healthy, support for Josh McDaniels. Like, hey man, it's big boy football. Like, you have to make the right call. It's not the offensive line. It's not missing AJ Brown. It's not Josh's I do think the Jags are going to be hard to run on and on Winnu is out for the year now so you guys are going to have to deal without him like that is I do

think this Jags defense presents real problems for you. It'll be interesting. The winner of this game is all of a sudden excellent and the loser all of a sudden is no good. That's the rules of first things first. Bill's blowout win on the board against the Chargers. That's next on first

first. New from Nespresso. Blend wellness into your coffee routine with a coffee plus range infused with functional benefits. Choose the coffee you love with added B vitamins, like coffee plus B12 to help support immune function and coffee plus B6 to keep your day moving. Or go with the flow and choose ginseng delight. Our new double espresso with ginseng extract.

Whatever lies ahead, don't change your morning. Let your morning change you. Discover Coffee Plus on Nisproso. Live from New York, it's a show that's going to have a viewing party at your house on Thursday. Thursday. Who's playing Thursday? I don't know. Are you coming Thursday?

Yes, yes. I leave for Vegas early Friday morning. What, don't we have a show? Nope. No show Friday. No, maybe the next. Who's playing Thursday, God? No, no.

KW just canceled already. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back on Thursday. We don't even have a show the next day.

No, I'll be there on Thursday. He's like it won't even. On there on Thursday. Second hour, our first thing's first. Steelers Browns. Oh, that's good. Maybe not. Maybe not.

Today are the bills on upside alert. Yeah, more time to hang out, have some food. And a special edition of Nick's Picks. Nick's Picks was two and one last week? Should have been three and oh, but yes. And the premiere of a lot. I love it. Meanwhile, Matt Liner joins the show talking Hoosiers.

Talk a little. A lot to talk about in college. This is a great week in the college football. Hoosiers on tonight. Friday night football. Come up. Right now I headed back to the NFL. This game's also on Fox. Bill's Chargers Sunday at one. Bills look unstoppable on offense. So do their opponents who both scored 31 points against Buffalo's defense. Good news for Herbert, whose offense have scored a total of 28 against the Cardinals and the Raiders.

Here's Justin Herbert with a little spice. Take a listen. Our team is so close, and so I don't think there's a lack of vocal leadership at all. So I think I'm going to stop you right there and say that it's very present. We've got great leadership on this team. And I trust those guys in that locker room. And so I don't think anyone is panicked or worried because that's not going to do us any good. It's moving on to the next play and understand that we're close. We've made mistakes.

How do we fix them? And how do we move on? I like this. I like that from Justin Herbert. Does anyone expect the bills to win easily versus the Chargers? Listen, I think that that is one of the most likely outcomes. Now, I'm going to do Nick's picks here in a minute. Bills minus seven and a half is not in there because I do think that on the menu of possibilities

is chargers get the opening kick. Chargers exploit the bill's bad defense. They go down and score. Bills have some of the turnover luck that's gone their way, go against them, and all of a sudden it's 10-0-0-chargers early and, you know, we're in a dog fight the whole game. But the thing, we have spent a lot of. A lot of time debating the existential question over this NFL season, how good is Justin Herbert? And a lot of that is because his numbers this year have been dreadful.

And when you pair that with a lack of historical success, it begs the question. That's a Justin Herbert graphic. This, however, is a Chargers graphic, which is the Chargers this year have been dreadful on both sides of the ball. They also, and this, you know, I don't feel like they walk into this game or many games with a decided talent edge over their opponent. They played the Cardinals in week one.

They did not look like the more talented team, and they didn't look like in that game, they had the better quarterback. They played the Raiders in week two. They didn't look like the more talented team. So because of that brew, I oddly think that this game will tell us more about Buffalo than about the Chargers.

Because I just flatly don't think the Chargers are that good. So if the Bills can't put up a real defensive fight, to where it stifle the Chargers offense, the way the Raiders and the Cardinals did, I will be moving closer. I won't be all the way there, but closer to Kevin Wildside. of, oh, this defense could be

a huge problem for them. A killing heel, maybe. Yeah, I mean. Not literally. I get it figuratively. You know what I mean? Like, so that's my... Be careful, though, saying moving closer to Wild's take,

because remember, his take on the bills is they're not making them. Well, I don't know. They're 2 and O. No one in America believes that other than you. They're 2 and 0. Is the season over? 2 and O and looking great offensively. But anyway, half the ball.

Yeah. I do not see them winning easily. Okay. And here's why. the Chargers are playing for their season, period. Like this past week, Jim Harbaugh, Mike McDaniel, Justin, her everybody had to look in the mirror and say, this is it.

They know, they won't admit it, and I understand you won't admit it. This is your season. Now, I think they're going to lose this game, but they cannot get blown out. If they get their doors blown off, it's going to be a terrible season for them because we know the schedule coming up and I think their confidence already shaken will be gone.

And in the back of their mind, they'll know we're done. We're done. They don't know that yet. They suspect it. They haven't played well. But they don't know that they're done. They lose this game by blowout. they will be done.

So I think they're bringing out everything they have. They're going to throw the kitchen sink at the bills. And that defense is suspect in Buffalo. So I think they're going to lose a relatively close. I'm not even saying it's going to be like a nail biter. But I think they're going to be in the game. More competitive than they were. Yes, be competitive and lose a high scoring game.

But play pretty well. If it's high scoring, then the Chargers can win. Can. But I don't think. Justin Herbert is going out, outgun Josh Allen. The bills are, you know how we believe in due dates on this side of the table. The bills haven't had a turnover this year. Yeah.

They're going to eventually turn the ball over. They may have one or two this game and it'll be fairly close, but do you end up winning? Just one more question for you, bro. Justin Herbert, fair or unfair, has been, is on the verge of being labeled a playoff choker. Oh, is that fair? I mean, it's the lowest pass for a pretty much labeled that right now. I'm trying to be. I'm saying it's not solidified.

It's in pencil. If he's truly playing for his season, do you think this is a chance to exorcise those demons? Or is this like, uh-oh, this is like a de facto playoff game for me? I don't think you can exercise those demons until the playoffs. Now, if they're in him, like if he feels like, if he and himself gets worried,

gets afraid, gets too anxious in the playoffs, then, yeah, this type of game could do it. But for the public, it won't. The public, he has to do it in the playoffs.

But yeah, in his own mind, if he knows, man, big games, I get too nervous. Yeah, that could do it. We're still in September. So it's, you know,

we shouldn't, for our conversations, and we're trying to do a better job on this show this year than we did, last year on making everything about the Super Bowl. With that said, the bills are front of the line or one of the front of the line teams we could see being in or winning the Super Bowl. This Bill's defense graphic is what you've been talking about.

And I don't know if that was your concern going into the year or it's just your concern now, but it is a real thing that the Bill's defense this season has been dreadful. I think we have the, yeah. This is what I'm talking about as far as the most interesting point. hearts of this game for me. I know Josh Allen and the bill's offense is excellent. I know they are. Yep. The things that are most instructive on teams postseason chances will be when the Chargers have the ball because I don't think the Chargers have a great offense. We can debate whether or not they have a great quarterback. It's pretty undisputable. Right now. Right now. Right now. Right now it's clear they don't have a great offense. If they just move the ball at will like the

Lions did like the Texans did, then you do start to ask, okay, who can the bill slow down at all? And so, and, you know, new defensive coordinator, everybody loves Jim Leonard. Like, at some point you need to start seeing those dividends. This would be a week to see it. All right. It's time now for a segment so hot. I might use it to power my home if I lose power with this Nor'Easter. You know, we have a Nor'Easter coming.

I heard that. I might use this segment to power my home. It's upset alert. Before we get to Coach's red hot upset alert, a quick update on the scoring. The scoring and the standings, all of it. Total points. Coach and Greg with three, Wilds with three. After that three in the hook did you well, Jets plus three and a half.

Kind of got screwed there, to be honest, KW. Yeah, I thought we were going out. You should have gotten six and a half. Jets should have won outright. Brew, you and I both got with Jags had total control. The whole game kind of out. Also, coaching Greg should almost be docked. Keep in mind with the new upset alert rules,

you get three for a cover for a win outright. You get three plus the point spread. Plus, this year we have added the parlay rules where you can parlay two picks. I recommend against it. If you do that, you must get both. There's no covering for that. No.

Two outright winners, you get all the points. Now everybody's caught. All right, to kick us off, coach on tape, but this one is red hot. It was too hot for the studio. It's time to go a little bit of big game hunting for the upset alert and I'm taking the team that I can't imagine anybody else is going to take this week I'm taking the team that has looked hopeless that has been Incredibly disappointing

That has been panned by everybody and they're going and and they're winless They're winless against two teams they should have beaten and they're going against the team that's undefeated That's celebrated that everybody's projecting to go to the Super Bowl and I'm taking the Chargers over the Buffalo Bills. And here's my thought process is this is literally, unlike Wilde's must-win game that nobody could figure out the rules to and is judged very unfairly, this is literally a must-win game for the Chargers. So there's a level of desperation.

Jim Harbaugh has always been very good at figuring out ways out of problems the past two seasons. There's been multiple challenges. He's figured out a way to get him to 11 wins in each of those seasons. and now we have a situation where they're as desperate as they can be. On the flip side of that, Buffalo is probably looking at this as much as they're talking about doing everything they need to do to make sure they ensure the win. There's an element of human nature where they think the charges probably aren't as good as they can be, and that leads to being underestimated.

So chargers over the bills, bills again give up a lot of points, Justin Herbert plays much better than he has, which shouldn't be too hard to do based off the first two weeks. And once again, Greg and I take a commanding lead. It's a gutsy pick. That'd be 10 and a half points, if he's right. Second biggest spread of the weekend, only Chiefs, right? Only Chiefs Dolphins is bigger. All right.

Now, Brew, you were claiming that you had something even hotter than that for upset alert. Yeah, and I'm glad I do because I don't appreciate coach pouring cold water on my must-win victory. Yeah, that's true. That was unfair. grapes, coach. All right. Anyway, here we go. I'm throwing caution to the win.

Yes. And going with a parley. Yes. Yes. Let's go. You're going to like my first one. Oh, I think that's a great picture. The Patriots beat the Jazz.

Let's go. That's a guarantee. They get a free one. I didn't like Nick what I saw in the second half from those Jaguars defensively. They let Bo Nix cook. Hello. Denver is. not a great offense and they score 17 second half points.

I do think Drake, I'm not even saying he's going to have a spectacular game, but I think he plays much better, breaks a little bit out of his shell. Love it. And even though I like Trevor better and I say it, I think at this point I take him, I think that defense in New England is really good. I do think I think the numbers. I think numbers are a little high, but I still think they're a very good defense. And then the second one, Hubbs, you'll,

love this one. Raiders over the Saints. I like this one too. I think the Saints are fielding themselves a bit. You just beat Baltimore, great win, play well against Detroit. You think you've arrived, but I don't think so. And the Raiders are playing good football. Kurt Cousins, three touchdowns in each of the first two games. Sixes, I mean, I like the Raiders. I'm not even saying the Raiders are very good. You're great. team, but I think they're a better team. And I think Coopje's got the Raiders 3 and O

after two, after three weeks. This would be worth 11 and a half points. Can I ask you a question for some advice? It's like at the casino you can ask the deal. Yeah, of course. Hey, what should I do here? I mean, it's embarrassing. You should only do that if you're child or don't speak the language, or it's fine.

Don't play games or no rules for it. I'm at the table, though. I want to play. Yeah. I obviously have a red hot upset alert. Yeah. But if everyone else is going big game. It's a long season. Go with your, go with your.

But I have one that I want to. Just go with the one. Just go with the one. You had two hours. What's the one that you, what's the one? Well, you're about to find out. You got a wild one and a regular. Just do one.

Okay. It's time for one. Upset alert pick from the Puxetani Phil of football. Can I revert and live a lot? I didn't do that because I got to get focused. Broncos over Rams. like it straight up like it

Rams I should have a big party because you beat the Giants who were emotionally destroyed after losing Jackson Dart when you had like two weeks worth the rest it's basically your first game

because you're only in Australia for 12 hours I do not think all of a sudden that defense is good I think that's because James Winston I do not think all of a sudden The offense is amazing because Devante Adams had almost 200 yards. It's the fourth most yards DeMonte Adams ever had. He's had a long career.

Pat Sertan's on the field. Are we expecting a monster game with Sartan there? Eventually someone would you be like, hey, Pat, would you like to guard DeVante? He said, sure. Puka, here's the update from Sean McVeigh on Puka. He's not making great progress. Okay, appreciate that. And then finally,

And this is what you guys ran into when you picked Trevor to have a repeat of his success last year in Denver. Tough to beat. That's home field advantage is real. Since October, 24, last 15 home games for the Broncos. They're 14 and 1. They're scoring 28 points. You get a bunch more yards. Did they have some tomato cans on the schedule?

Sure. But Broncos are tough to be at home. Bow Nix is, you know, bouncing back from the Chiefs game. And I think the Rams took advantage. They don't even talk about week one, and they took advantage of the Giants. So for that reason, I am saying Broncos straight up over Rams. That's my first pick. I'm going to.

I'm going to. I got to keep up. I got to chase my losses. You're going to end up with zero points, bro. I have to do it. We don't have a grab. I have to. Otherwise, they'll be like, oh, wow, they're at 15 and 14.

And I'll be at six. He caught the vapids. I have to do it. What is it? What is it? I have to do it. What is it? You know who doesn't have a good defense?

The Detroit Lions. Okay. You know who's pretty? Oh, fine. Fine. The Jets. Also on the Kevin Wilde's Bygast Network, my vibes ranking,

Jets rated, ranked higher in vibes than the Lions. It's the local knowledge. Quarna, Warren Sharp, touchdowns on opponent's drives. Guess how many, well, you know, 44%? I don't know, it's not. You just have the jets beating the line. Straight up.

You put all your faith on the jets. There are three and a half point dogs. Yep. So you would get 12 points if these both come through. I need them both. Yes. Can I do a third? No.

Time for Nick's picks. I can't do it. There were a few. If I hear another one that you have. There's a lot of potential upsets. The Rams go from all that time off to short week. Ooh, I like that one too. All right.

Time now for Nick's picks. Red Hot Nick's picks. Deserved to be three and O. after an 0 and 3 start to the year. I had the Panthers laying 2.5. That was a nail bider. They won by 1,000. I had the Raiders getting 6.5.

That was a nail biter. They won by 20. Yep. I had the jacks catching or late, getting two and a half, pardon me. They led the whole game and then blew it. That should be 3 and 0. It's 2 and 1.

We'll take it. No sour grapes. That 0 in 3 weeks still hanging around my neck. The only way to race that 0 in 06 is 3 and 0. I think you got it this week. First, pick and my first lock of the year. Seattle laying seven and a half against Marcus Marriota,

former Seahawks, D, or, D-Corporonator Dan Quinn and the Washington commanders. Mike McDaniel on the road, 17 and 2 against the spread, 14, 4 and 1. Oh, you guys hear Knicks all the time. West Coast teams going east, 1 o'clock time. Normally they don't like that. Not Mike McDaniel. Mike McDonald's. I'm sorry, Mike McDonald's.

Pardon me. I keep saying McDaniel, my apologies. McDonald's who I mean. Thank you, bro. Mike McDonald, crossing three time zones, meaning going to the East Coast or Australia. 7-1-1 against the spread.

He doesn't care how far they got to go. His team just kicks ass. When's he going on? What do you mean? Or international trips on Australia. Pardon me. They haven't gone to Australia. But 7-1-1 crossing three times zones,

so he has them ready. I don't think Marriota is going to have any success at all against the Seahawks defense. I have to lay the touchdown and the hook. I'm fine with it. Seattle, minus seven and a half. I love this one. And it's my first official lock of the end.

Yes. Next one. Sorry, Bruce. Sorry, KW. The Jags are better and they're at home, and I don't have to lay a full field goal. Also, do you know who runs the second most cover six of any team in the league? the Jacksonville Jaguar.

Stop with this cover. I'm just telling you what it is. We act like it's like. Liam Cohen in his head coaching career at home, not at Wimbley, at home in Jacksonville. Five and one against the spread, average margin of victory greater than

10 points, and I don't know if the Patriots passing game is working right now. And then one underdog. The Raiders catching three. Setting up a 3-0 Raiders against the 3-0 Chiefs in Las Vegas with me and Danny Parkins

in attendance. That's fun. No Kelvin Banks for the Saints, their best offensive linemen. You know who's been a pretty good pass rush for this year? Max Crosby. I'd love to talk to that Ravens Stock that's like this man may never walk again. I don't know. Looks good to me. Plus Brock Bowers is back or should be back. The Raiders went 2 and 0 without their best player. So we got Seattle laying 7 and a half. Jacksonville laying 2 and 1 half. The Raiders catching three. I think they went out right. That's a 3 in 0 week. That puts us above 500 for the year. We're rolling. Two and one. Two and one?

Solid two and one. Oh, yeah. You know what gave you a little pause, the two and a half? No. What gave me no pause at all. What gave me a pause was the fact that I thought Seattle played in Australia. Matt Liner joins the show at college football time next on First things first. I hope you have a two and one week.

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Discover coffee plus on espresso.com. Fox College Football Friday, Big Ten Showdown featuring the defending champs, Indiana, Northwestern, And then big noon Saturday, Illinois, taking on Ohio State live from Columbus at 10 o'clock. Joining us now to discuss all things college football from his home. No. Thank you, Matt, what? Yeah. Matt, thanks for opening up your home to us.

Yeah, you can tell. I'm an art collector. You guys see that beautiful. Beautiful. I think that's apollic. It's right in his bedrooms. Matt, tonight's game. Indiana.

Signetti was saying there's too much scrutiny on Josh Hoover right now. Unfair. Scrutiny. I think we were expecting Indiana to just like smash teams. And things have been a little bit closer than maybe we expected. Well, what are we supposed to make out of Indiana? Honestly, I think they're, I think them and Georgia have been really disrespected so far. I think Georgia's, I mean, Georgia's number two team in the country, we haven't said a word about them all season.

But when you look at Indiana, look, when you play, you guys know this, you play quarterback, you're going to get a lot of criticism, you're going to get a lot of scrutiny. That's what the position comes with. But Josh Hoover's been fantastic. And any time you have to fill the shoes of a number one draft pick, a Heisman trophy winner, Indiana comes out of nowhere last year and wins a national championship. All eyes are going to be on the next guy up. And so I like what Cignetti said.

Hoover's been fantastic this year. The numbers, I mean, he's damn near perfect. Indiana, I think I've told you, Indiana is a really good football team, guys. Like, they are going to be right there in the mix. So they probably like flying out of the radar a little bit right now. Matt, listen, it's my job to be on top of things. And I have to admit, when I saw this quote, I was a little surprised because I'm like, what is the, what is, I missed the scrutiny or the criticism or the conversation.

The people that are picking at Josh Hoover or the Hoosiers right now, what are the gruders? right now, what are the gripes? Because those did not reach, you know, my algorithm, I guess. I got to be honest, Nick, I'm the same way. I'm not exactly sure why I just be a straw man. His Signet. Maybe Signetti, right. He's making it up just to motivate the team.

Exactly. I wouldn't put that past Signetti. But yeah, I'm with you. I was like, wait, his numbers are ridiculous. They're winning games. I don't know. He's probably reading the message boards or something. who knows.

I do think go to another quarterback, Archman, and obviously you got Texas, top-ranked Texas in Tennessee this week. So I want to know one is Texas on an upset alert. But Arch is getting a little criticism or scrutiny and hasn't looked outstanding like he's supposed to. But for that half against Ohio State, really, last week, 50% completions. So what do you think about the upset possibility and really Arch and how he's been playing.

Yeah, you know, Chris, it's interesting because Arch has all the tools, right? He really does. He can run. He's got a big arm. But sometimes when you watch the tape, it just, it's just, it isn't for four quarters. You know, it's kind of periodically, it jumps out. And then it kind of goes back to kind of just looking like a normal guy back there. Yeah, at least, at least, you know, we project him to be the top pick and all these things.

So he's got to play better and just be a little bit more consistent. And then as far as upset alert, I do. I think when you look at Tennessee, they got a great young quarterback and Faison Brandon. He's been really good this year. The number one rushing offense in the SEC, they got some dudes in the backfield. So they're kind of built to take on Texas. I would just, if they can't run the ball in this game, we'll see what, we saw what Texas was able to do against Ohio State a couple weeks ago. And they made Julian Zane, who I think is a good player, look pretty mediocre.

That could happen in this game. but I definitely have Texas on an upset alert. That place is going to be rocking, man. I mean, in Tennessee's offense is legit, so it's going to be a really good game. Oregon's fallen to 20, but still favored against the Trojans tomorrow. Who do you like in this game, honestly?

I always like to add, honestly. Why? Because I went to USC. No, I didn't know that. I didn't even know that. I was just to be honest. I'm sure, I'm sure. You know what? It's, it's, this one's difficult because I really, this is going to be, I should be an analyst, right?

I don't know what's going to happen. And I say that because USC has not proven that they can win these types of games in the last few years. And this is a massive game. And I'm going to say this on Big Noon tomorrow, guys. I think this is the most important game since Lincoln Riley's been there for his coaching career for this team. I really do because Oregon's a really good football team. I know they're struggling a little bit. I still think Amanda Oregon's very, very good.

They're kind of limping into the Coliseum. It's a night game. I do think the Coliseum is going to be packed. I do think it's going to be a great atmosphere. If not now, then when, right? That's the question that's been surrounding USC for a couple years. And USC is really, really talented. So the line is interesting.

I do think it's going to be a high scoring game back and forth. And the only thing that makes me nervous about USC is the defense. And the defense got pushed around against Rutgers last week. And I don't know if that's just kind of a one week thing, or they're going to come back. So I know I didn't answer your question. I'm not exactly sure. But I think it's going to be a good game. But I do think this is a very, very, very important game from Lincoln Rowley.

All right. Before we get to the Big Noon game, a game that I feel like Vegas is begging people, daring people to take Ole Miss. Ole Miss coming off one of the, you know, one of the biggest wins in their program's history. Trinidad Chambliss looking like the, you know, almost runaway Heisman pick. They go to Florida, who's, you know, a fringe top 25 team, and they're getting three and a half. It feels like everyone in the world is going to be on Ole Miss, which makes me feel like Florida is going to win. But I also look at the two teams and I'm like, obviously Ole Miss is going to win. So I'm one of the squares on that side.

What do you make of Florida being not just the fifth? favorite, but three and a half is something. And Florida's, is it the emotional letdown piece? Is Florida underrated? What do you make of this? Here's a couple things for you, Nick. I think when you look at Ole Miss and you guys said it, definitely the letdown of college football.

I think that is a real thing. Kiwan Lacey, I believe is a game time decision for Ole Miss. He's maybe the best running back in the country. That is a huge factor because as good as Chambliss is and he's a star, he's kind of a one-man show there with Kiwan Lacey. So we'll see how that plays out. And then just a few things on Florida for you guys to think about, they got a running back in Jaden Baugh, who's an absolute star.

He's averaging over 150 yards per game. This team is scoring over 50 points per game. Their defense is a little iffy. So I do think this is kind of one of those where it's just going to be shot for shot for both teams. But that's a tough place. I was talking to Irvin Meyer about it today. You know, obviously coach in the swamp. It just has a feeling of like Ole Miss coming off that game.

they go into this game. Summerall is a freaking good coach. It does have the makings of it. I'm with you. I think Ole Miss is really, really good. Me too. But I would not be shocked based on how we've seen Florida play so far. Obviously the team Ole Miss just beat LSU.

I feel like the only way for Kiffin, laying Kiffin, to bounce back from that loss is to get in the playoff and do some real damage there, maybe even play Ole Miss again and beat them. do you think like how do you see this game they got texas a and them and what people are saying is a playoff game because the loser probably probably is out of the playoff so how do you think this kind of plays out you think kiffin bounces back yeah i do i think they bounce back A&M has been a little bit of a disappointment this year and you know Marcel reed was really good last year he's been struggling so far defensively they give up a lot of points last week in their loss so

they're just not putting it together. And LSU coming off that loss, obviously, that was an emotional loss for them. I do think they bounced back. Defense still, I think they lead the SEC and Sacks. They're 24 and 2 in their last 26 at home. That place is going to be rocking. And I do think they bounce back.

But I agree. It is a playoff elimination game. We haven't seen a three-loss team get into the playoff. If you get your second loss this early in the season with the SEC slate, you might as well just pack it in. you're not going to make the playoffs. So this is a huge one for both. I do like LSU in this one.

All right. Matt, thank you. Illinois, Ohio State tomorrow 10 a.m. We'll see you then. Have a great game. All right, boys. See you later. Thanks, Matt.

For first things first after the break. Tonight, these games have been good. We just talked to Matt Leinert about it. Northwestern at number five, Indiana tonight at 8. Friday night football. Watch the Hoosiers. Check it out. Right now, we're back to the first thing.

First Day is six. There will be trivia on the other five First Things First Bowls. Ravens versus the Cowboys is Robid Brew versus Cowboy Brew in Brazil. Ravens and Cowboys are in Rio. Cowboys officially the home team. Lamar was asked if he expects a lot of fans for America's team.

Here was his answer. Yeah, but that's this America, that's Brazil, so we'll see. We'll see. That's true. Brew, would this win mean more for the Ravens or Cowboys? No question. Now, both teams needed. I mean, the Ravens coming off a disappointing loss.

But I don't think there's any question it would mean more for Dallas. Now, a loss would mean more for the Ravens. Wow. If the Ravens lost, now there's real question like, who are they? Are they what we saw last year? Yes. I mean, this is just a repeated last year, right? If they win, you're supposed to beat Dallas.

Of course, you won, even though I at least think in others that Dallas could be a good team. Dallas, though, if they win this game, it's like, okay, that week one was a bleep. Whatever have, yeah, you just throw it out. And they're legit because for them to win, their defense is going to have to be. I mean, I guess if you think they could win a shootout, but I'm, I'm not. I would think if they win this game, it means to some degree they've done a good job on Derek Henry in particular because they've had arguably one of the worst run defenses in the league,

one of the worst defenses overall, of course. And just overall their defense has not played well. So I think Lamar and Derek Henry are going to have their way, particularly coming off a loss. Like they have to be fired up to win this game. So I, but I think to answer you, your question, it would definitely mean more for the Cowboys. So I'll answer

in a second. I want to talk game strategy for a moment, if I may. I think the Cowboys, and this is not trying to be disrespectful to Lamar at all, I think they have to sell out to stop Derek Henry, especially if Zayflower's not playing. And he made the trip.

He made the trip, but I, so I have a huge, this is a podcast topic, not TV time. I like it. I have huge questions and issues with the field they're playing on. Yeah. And if I, if I have a player that's key to my season coming off an injury like Zay Flowers, I do not want his first game back to be on this weird cow pasturey turf they're playing on down there that the NFLPA is not thrilled that they're playing on.

So I think passing could be a little herky jerky in this game, which could hurt the Cowboys disproportionately because that's the majority of their offense. But if I am Dallas's defense, I am simply saying, We are stacking the box. We are basically telling the Ravens you've got a pass to beat us. Maybe they will. I'm not saying Lamar can't do it. But that would be my approach.

I think a win would mean more for Baltimore because... Really? Yes, because Baltimore has to announce itself that it is different than last year. That it is. And I think that I don't... I was in the minority in the media. You were not in the minority brew for believing in. Dallas.

I mean, not everyone had them going to the Super Bowl, but they were very trendy to have a great season. It was universally accepted that the Ravens were going to be back to being the Ravens. Nobody had the...

Even now, you see a lot of people kind of question of... It's still a universe. It's like, oh, okay, yeah, so they lost the game. One bad loss. And it's not like... And their first game of the year, they looked awesome, but it's beating the Colts.

We'll see what the Colts are. It's not like they have this awesome wind to stamp themselves on. But everyone's still like, but they're the Ravens. Lamar's there. Jesse Mentor is going to be great. Up to this moment of the season, Jesse Minter's impact on the defense is yet, in my opinion, to really be felt.

We are right back to the, man, I don't know why they stop pressing the Derek Henry button, those conversations. And this is, and I don't want to be too much about the schedule, but we did talk a lot about how. how the Ravens had this nice path at the beginning of the season before, and their schedule never gets super tough, but the easiest part is these first six games,

this left-hand column, coming out of September 1 and 2, with that being, you know, one true road game in Indy, home games against New Orleans and a neutral side against Dallas, would be highly disappointing, and especially, Brew, when you consider the pace Cincinnati is at. I think the Ravens need to reestablish themselves as, hey, we are the bills, the chiefs, the Bengals, the Ravens, like that is the class of the AFC.

And if they don't win this game, that's gone. But let me quick, what would you think of Dallas if they would? Would you just say, oh, the Ravens aren't they good? No, I mean, no, I, listen, I think Dallas is going to be this year's Cincinnati from last year, like the, or where they can win. eight, nine, maybe 10, 10 would, I think what happened in the playoffs. I didn't miss in the playoffs, but I picked them to go nine and eight with a great offense. Like, if they, if Dallas were to win this game, like the defense, that maybe would change in my opinion.

They win the game 31, 28. It's not that shock. Live from New York, first things first overtime. Today, can the Cowboys slow down Lamar and Derek Henry in Rio? Meanwhile, Matt Stafford, dominating. The Broncos defense. Wow, against my upset alert, Park.

Upset alert picks. Well, there's a question, Mark. Maybe he's going to say that. Oh, you're right. Good point. And finally, a fresh edition of Parkins' picks. How did we do last week, Parkins? Because I root for you.

Could not be worse. Wilde. Oh, thanks for asking. We'll get to it. Yeah. We'll get to it. We'll get to it all. Kind of tough for you.

That was a lot. A disaster across the board. Did you have all your chips in the Herbert? We'll get to it. Jackson Dart. Chips on the table. I FaceTime Danny after his final pick lost. Yeah.

You know what he did? What? No way. Thumbs up. Yeah, yeah. I had a towel over my head. Towel over. It was really hard.

You're gonna love this when we get to the show. It's not Halloween, but the Packers are already booed. Jordan Love at 312 quiet yards. I was about to do it. Yeah, go on it. Green Bay also ran for. 17 yards. Here with Moore is a special appearance from Packers fan

and actually Packers Super Bowl hero, Greg Jennings. Wow. Wild, I want to try my best to defend the Packers, but I can't. Not after last night. We all saw it. It was on national television. It was exposed to the world.

The Packers are soft. Boothed at home, giving up 35 points. 200 plus yards, I may end up going into witness protection because I have stuck my entire

neck out for this organization and this team saying that they were going to be something that clearly they are not at least not right now. And he just moved to Georgia. He's surrounded by Falcons fans all day.

That's probably part of a while. It is tough. All right. So, Greg. has lost, at least his faith is shaken, I don't know if he's lost his faith. And sounds good. Is it too soon to write off the Packers in your book? No, not at all.

And I take no joy in saying. But listen, I think that they have a fatal flaw that can't be fixed, and it's going to, we'll get to the Jordan Love piece of it in a second because I think that their flaw exposes his biggest weakness. But they, there's some Aaron Glenn decisions away from being O and three. Like a huge blown lead to the Vikings in an embarrassing week one collapse. Aaron Glenn was a disaster in week two. Green Bay had less than 200 yards of offense, and it was a miracle that they escaped that. And then they got blown out last night by a team that before that, I know with a different quarterback, hadn't even had a red zone play yet.

They were a deep sleeper. They were a deep sleeper and they give up 35. But, like, at its essence, the simplest way to explain the Packers is they can't block. They cannot block. And their two best offensive linemen, their left guard and their right tackle, are out for the season. So, like, that's not getting fixed. And they don't have a Bejohn Robinson type to overcome it. Josh Jacobs' backups's backups are not good.

Like, they are not really NFL caliber running backs. But the Jordan Love piece of it, Nick was talking about quarterback. who make a ton of money, they've got to overcome things. He, I think there's a really interesting Jordan Love conversation to be had here. Let's look at last night first when he was not pressured, when Atlanta didn't get home. He was excellent. He is very good when the offense is going how it is supposed to be going. And that even happened last night.

But when he was pressured and it was tied for a career high, 23 pressures against Jordan Love last night, it fell off a cliff. He could not do anything with it. He could not make chicken salad out of you know what. But now let's do it for the last three years of his career in the era of him being paid a ton of money. When he's not pressured, the only guys who have a better passer rating are Jared Gough and Lamar Jackson.

But he is just excellent MVP caliber. When he is pressured, this is a sample of three seasons, the only guys who are worse, Cam Ward, Bow, Bill, Nixon, Joe Flacco. So he is just, he is going to be pressured. because their offensive line cannot block, and he's not going to be salvaged by a run game because his offensive line cannot block,

and he does not have a good running back. So the biggest weakness of Jordan Love is just going to come up time and time and time again, so I don't know how they get out of it. Yeah, they're done. I mean, none of us had them making the playoffs anyway, but they're going to be worse than I thought, because I thought they'd be in the hunt to make the playoffs.

By the time Micah gets back, the season could be essentially over. Like, you know, their record won't be, you know, mathematically they won't be eliminated. But he's not going to fix the offensive line problems. Now, I don't, I, Jordan Love has certainly not been perfect. But I think he's the least of their worries. First is the offensive line.

Second is the lack of a running game. And I think all things considered, I would give him like a B, B plus maybe I don't know about a B plus but at least a B under the duress that he's under. He hadn't made all the throws he needs to make, but he's like the one shining light they still have. So here's what I would push back on to a degree as far as I because of how they have built this team and where they've deployed their resources and the picks they've traded and all

of that, they might not be able to shore up these things in any. anytime in the near future in full. And if Danny's correct and the numbers back it up, that this is a massive hole in his game, that's a big problem. It is, you know, the idea, and you would think, Jordan, because he is escapable to a degree,

wouldn't be as, you know, destroyed by pressure as the number show he is. But I think this is, I wouldn't give him a B. He's completing 50% of his passes, I also would give, to Danny's point, the Packers running game and offensive line, an F. And it's, it's not as if they have gone up, they've gone up against teams that you would expect you would have some level of varying success against. The Falcons are

supposed to have one of the worst pass rushes in the league. Correct. Their best out, their best pass rusher is suspended for eight games. Their second best pass rushers, out for the season with an injury, and we're showing some plays that just ended up as incomplete passes. That one was this close to being a fumble. It wasn't like. Last night, he was pressured 19 times. That was the most in his career.

But part of that also is, what do you throw, 50-some passes? 53 passes. I mean, because they don't feel they can run the ball. So I want to give Danny, this is badness, you know, and it will be later in the segment as well, a rough week for our guy, Parko. two of your kind of long-term takes that are coming to fruition, I feel.

One was, Jordan Love maybe a touch overrated in the national media from a year ago or so, I think that is trending positively. The other one was these teams that go all in with huge multiple first-round pick trades for defensive players, you very rarely get the dividend paid off, even if the player's great. is great and it has not worked. What are you laughing about, KW? Danny, who would you like the bears to trade for? Well, I mean,

you know, not for two first round picks. It's acquisition cost. But no, I just, the Packers and the Colts last year thought they were a guy away oddly because of how different trades worked. Both of those first round picks now belong to the Jets.

You know what I mean? The Packers and the cult are two teams that we could see drafting in the top 10. Like, And, you know, the Colts thought they were sauce away. Packers, and maybe the Packers were. Might go away. And the injury, you just got unlucky. But when you put all those resources into that one basket, unlucky can get you.

But I think the Packers are in huge, huge trouble. And I do wonder if one of your, you know, you love the quarterback was for quarterbacks, if Matt LaFleor, or coaches, if Matt LaFleur is in trouble as well. If they hadn't given him the extension, I think he definitively would be. He's an offensive coach who isn't aggressive. and who doesn't, you know I'm much more interested in, like, the play caller offensive scheme guy, but there is some aspect of the leader of men type. He's very uninspiring after these games.

I don't know. He's got a lot of, I don't know, all shucks. Like, he does not seem to be, what did B. John Robinson say about Kevin Stefanski? Martin Luther King. He got a little over. He got a little over. He got a hard time seeing Matt LaFleynke.

given one of those types of speeches. I had a hard time seeing Kevin Stefansky like that. So did I, but it's like... For many reasons. One in seven since starting last year, nine, three, and once. It's been rough. And the one is that Jets game.

Yeah. Jeez. At Tampa Bay. I think we'll see how Baker goes. I kind of believe in Jordan Love now. Ravens in Rio. Looking to feast on a porous Dallas defense. Here's Jerry Jones on facing Derek Henry and Lamar.

Take a listen. Any time you have to face those two players you just mentioned and the Ravens, that's a bad matchup. And so we've got our work cut out for us. And they've got a lot of incentives to play at their top level against us down their Sunday. So it's a rough one. I like that. Chances the Cowboys defense slow down Lamar and the Ravens. I don't think very good.

I mean, Dallas's defense might eventually be better than last year. It really can't be worse. But through two games, it's exactly like it was last year, and they're not really good at anything. They're not good against the run. They're not good against the past. They're not good at pressuring the quarterback. And the Cowboys defense is injured, and the Ravens defense is getting healthier. It looks like Madibuque is going to make his debut for them.

Buchanan's going to be back at linebacker. We'll see if Zay Flowers goes on offense. but the Ravens defense should be very healthy. Cowboys defense is very injured. And running quarterbacks have destroyed Dallas through two games. And I'm guessing Declan Doyle isn't going to forget Derek Henry exists on that terrible field down there in Brazil. Like this game screams run the football and he got crushed for abandoning the run in the second half of that game against the Saints. First time play caller, my guess is he corrects that error given all the noise that's been around it.

So I just, I don't see much. of a path here for Dallas. Maybe they win a shootout. That's always possible. But I don't think that they're going to slow down Baltimore here, Brew. Yeah, I agree. They've given up 173 yards a game on the ground. And that's to Cam Scadaboo and Jacori Kroski Merritt, right? What is Derek Henry going to do, like you said, with Declan Doyle having caught all this

heat all week for not giving him the football? And then you have to not just worry about Derek Henry. you got to worry about the quarterback running. So I would say to Lamar, and this just goes in general this season, I'd like to see him start running again as a weapon, not just as a last resort. And I don't want, I'm not saying go back to 2021, but maybe somewhere in between 2021 and 2026,

where he, because that is going to open things up even more if teams really have to again start worrying about him running, designed runs, not just scrambling here and there. And he doesn't even run a ton on scrambles anymore. So I, but I think to answer the question, no, Dallas, unless it would almost be miraculous. Almost be a football miracle if their defense and improved enough in one week to shut down that offense. Yeah, but it's, you know, in Brazil, like we look back on, was it Packers Eagles in Brazil? That was last time we saw a game?

Yes. Oh, okay. I believe that. They were both two of the top team. Oh, yeah, that was on Friday. That was the start the season. Yeah. And I think we ended up looking at it like,

ah, you know, we view these international games almost with there's another variable in it. It adds a number. Well, the variable added in this one's the field. And I, I'm going to, this is one of the, this game in Chargers bills are the two, in my opinion, best games of the daytime slate on Sunday. And I understand it's the NFL. and I understand guys can get hurt any week. These are two teams that are a lot of people believe, you know,

are legitimate, serious contenders. I know the shine came off for the Cowboys because of that week one performance, but maybe the further we get away, people will be like, no, there's the team we thought it was. It is going to be devastating if one of these teams does not come back the way it went to Brazil because somebody steps on a seam in this field.

And I am, this is, you know, part of my player advocacy, part of my brain that I can't turn off. I take it seriously when the players union raises real red flags about we don't know if this is the right environment. Like that people, I didn't say a

word because I didn't feel like it needed to be said about them going to Australia because I'm like, you know what, that's a business trip. Like the field's fine. I understand it's a pain. Like guys might not like the travel, but there was no added risk to the players. I don't know that that's the case there Sunday.

So I'll be, you know, I'll be watching it kind of like, you know, breath slightly baited about, okay, let's just hope everybody's okay on it. But I also think because of the field, it will be difficult to get a true reading of the result. Like if the Raven, if the Cowboys defense all of a sudden looks a lot better, are we going to say, okay, they're figuring it out or sloppy game, weird field? I don't know what all. We got to see what it looks like, right? Got to see what it looks like.

But I just so I am, there have been. They've been talking about this for the last two weeks that there was concerns about that field. That, to me, is the story, almost the biggest sub-story of this game is, what is it going to look like, which does speak to the idea of give Derek Henry the ball 30 times. The guy seems impervious to injury and just run over people. All right, it's time now for one of the best segments to close out your week. It's Parkins' picks.

Yeah. Danny, do you have any accoutrements? No, listen. Wow. Wow, what happened? I love it. There wasn't a 30% chain. Wow. Yeah, we don't have a 0% chain, Bruce. Thanks for asking. Listen, we're three and three.

It's time for business. Yes. No chains, but I am fair. It wasn't just 0 and 3. Let's recap my last week if we can. O and 3 in the picks. Caleb Williams got hurt. Jackson Dart got hurt. Justin Herbert lost and everyone's questioning his entire existence.

I lost in the first ever fan vote in frenemies. 43.5% of the vote came in for me. Lost 11 chips in chips on the table. Only 62 flights were canceled out of O'Hara on Sunday. It was closer to 450 when you included the entire weekend. So there was an audit on the number of flights canceled on game day. Wait, there were only 62 flights on Sunday. In that range of the game, Nick.

That doesn't matter. It's the, you know. No, I agree it doesn't matter. The field conditions were bad and win. A noon flight gets canceled. That counts on your legend. Oh, and three in the pick. Were they close?

They weren't particularly close. No, right. Yeah, they were. You're three and three. Let's go. I'm an odd week guy. Crushed week one, week two, was bad. It's week three.

Here we go. Going up against it. Old school, head to head, Saints minus three. Oh, what a square! Let's just lock in Saints minus three against the race. You can back Kirk Cousins and that start if you want. That's totally fine. This game's in New Orleans.

They pressure Lamar Jackson on nearly 40% of his drop-back. last week. I'm thinking that might have a little bit more of an effect on Kirk Cousins. But since Tyler Shook, Wilds is a shook guy. Everyone knows that. He became a starter last year, week nine. Where does he rank? Yards per game since week nine of last year. Second in the NFL. I'm a home. Gould have been there. Could have fooled me. I know. No, Mahomes was still throwing for a bunch of yards even when they were playing. Yeah, a lot of like, a lot of yards. So Tyler Shuck covering the three.

You're not worried about Kelvin Banks against Max. No Kelvin Banks, pardon me. against Max Crosby, his backup. I'll take the team at home with the better quarterback. And I actually... You and all the whole public. I like it. I like it. Squares.

Brew, you and me on the Raiders, sharp side. Well, here's the thing. Which one of us actually believes in the Chiefs? Because I'm willing to put it in the picks. Yes. Chiefs. Mine is 10 and a half against the Dolphins. I could talk about Mahomes.

I could talk about Kenneth Walker. I could talk about the dead cap space that Miami is not even fielding a real team. That's not as interesting. I know, but let's just look at Miami's defense so far. You just said you can talk about Mahomes or Kansas Walker. You said you're talking about the Dolphins. I know, I'm going to. They don't have a sack just on accident.

A guy falls down. For two weeks, it's impossible. They have four quarterback hits in two games. First team since 2020 to start 0 and 2 with no sacks. Nick didn't have confidence that his team could win this game by 11. I believe in you, Kansas City. It feels like it's 31, 14 with three minutes left. Andy's a nice guy.

It lets Malik Willis get a garbage touchdown. You're talking about 31, 21. The backdoor covers. Chiefs blow them out, cover the 10 and a half easily. And then back to the game we were talking about just a little bit ago. Yeah, well, you took two favorites. I'm taking three. I'm laying three and a half.

I don't know that they need to pass the ball in this spot against the Owls. Just run Derek Henry. But if you're not going to run Derek Henry, let's go a little deeper on Bruce's point about Lamar Jackson running the football. hasn't been running a ton so far, but the Cowboys have allowed the most rushing yards to quarterbacks of any team in the NFL through two games. Jaden Daniels, before he got hurt,

was just destroying them in the first half. Jackson Dart was running a ton in week one and getting them, obviously, from the pocket. So I think Lamar has his best rushing day in a while. Derek Henry gets 25 plus carries, and the Ravens win this one by double figures. It's got one and two written all over it. I don't know.

You probably cover with the Chiefs, I'll be honest. But I like that. I like it, Parkins. Laying three and a half in a neutral sight, weird field. I don't love that, Parko. I love it. That's why I didn't consult you about whether or not. But you should have.

You literally log out of every single thing. You adore it? You adore it? No. Parkins, we have 45 seconds left. And I think you're going to talk about this on the other side of the break. Okay. I won't give away about that stuff.

Any thoughts? Any thoughts? Emotionally on backing your guy, Justin, Herbert to have a bounce back game. He's getting... Oh, yeah, you didn't even take him getting seven and a half. Seven and a half. You wouldn't even include him in the picks.

This was my AFC championship game preview. I thought I was going to be so pumped for this game, Bill's Chargers. That was my AFC champion. I thought this was going to be a shootout. You still could. It's just been two weeks. Yeah, I know, except one team is snapping the ball into receivers who run in motion. Oh, my God.

Everybody. Leading the league in penalties. And the other's got nine touchdowns with no turnovers for their quarterback. So you think Bill's blowout. I was put it this way. Do you see Chargers plus seven and a half on the picks? Wow. Okay.

Wow. How the mighty have fallen. I'm a Justin Herbert guy, not a Chargers guy. I don't know, are you? He plays for him. It's a team game, Nick. Best case scenario will faith be restored in the Chargers written up? Dwight Freeney joined the show.

Oh, really? Yeah, that's awesome. Good job. Syracuse legend. That's right. We welcome you back to the OT. Let's start with the Chargers who take on the bills Sunday. on Fox, the start of what is expected to be a brutal stretch of their schedule.

And of course, the Chargers are already 0 and 2 to start the year. People like me who had them in the AFC championship game, not going great. But Justin Herbert says, you know what? No one on this team is panicking. Take a listen. We make a couple of mistakes here and there. And, you know, it's a different game. So there are a lot of plays that we left out there.

And so I think it's promising to see that all the plays that we could have made and how close we are. I trust those guys in that locker room. And so I don't think anyone is panicked or worried because that's not going to do us any good. It's moving on to the next play and understand that we're close. We've made mistakes. How do we fix them? And how do we move on? Super Bowl champion and Hall of Famer Dwight Freeney joins me now.

Dwight, thank you for the time. Chargers, seven and a half point underdogs. So will your faith be restored in the Chargers if they pull off this upset? No, not yet, man. I mean, I need to see consistent football. And what that means is you got to play well all the time. And not just one game, you have to string some games together. You know, and that's kind of what we did in Indianapolis.

And that's what the Patriots did for so many years. And it starts with taking care of the ball. And if there's a graphic that I kind of did some research on, these guys keep turning over the ball left and right. And you're not going to win games if you do that. The game is about protecting the ball. Yes, it's about points. Who scores more points? We get that. But whoever protects the ball normally wins the game. And they're having turnovers, as you can see in the graphic,

they have five turnovers in two games, which, you know, it's not going to get you any dubs, what you're looking for, right? And, you know, Herbert's talking about, look, you know, where one or two plays away, I think you're a little bit more than that, to be honest with you. You have a block punt that happened in one of the weeks. You have, you're throwing big in their exceptions in the fourth quarter and worse, you're fumbling the ball. Now, there was a lot of recovered fumbles that happened also. Yeah, I think it's six fumbles with five being recovered. So, you know, it honestly, it's been very ugly and it could be way worse.

And listen, as someone who's back to the Chargers and back to Justin Herbert, I've watched every snap of these games and your graphic does a very good job encapsulating it. But it honestly is even uglier than that. They got a guy wide open. The ball's going right into between his numbers. And then another guy on the team's like diving because he thinks the ball's coming for him. And he deflects it away from his own teammate. They're bobbling interceptions.

Joe Alt, their right tackle, leads the NFL in penalties. He gave up the safety on the hold to Crosby last week. What I will just say is it would help. It would go a long way to restoring my faith because the bills have allowed 31 points in both games. They allowed 31 to the Texans. They allowed 31 to the Lions. Based on what I have seen from the Chargers, I don't know that they could put up

up 31 against anybody in the NFL right now, but you're not slowing down Josh Allen with how well he's playing. So if they can actually, because the whole thing coming out of L.A. is that what they are doing in practice is not translating to the field. They are just not executing this new system

in the games like they are executing it in practice. So maybe a Bill's defense that isn't very good will kind of be their get right spot. I just don't have a ton of faith that given the sheer volume of mistakes that you can correct all of that in just one week. Yeah, and you hit it right on the head, to be honest with you, it's the volume of mistakes. We're looking at it across the board defensively, offensively, and special teams.

And you have a lot of penalties. There's a lot that you need to correct. It isn't just a little thing. It's a lot. And now you have Buffalo coming in here. Look, if there's a lot. Any team that you can try to get on track with is Buffalo, if you can win it, right? That's a big momentum there if you happen to win that game.

But you're asking a lot from a team that has a lot of mistakes and a lot of things to fix. You know, so, you know, I would not hold my breath if you're a big charges fan hoping that they can win in this game. It doesn't look well. It doesn't look good, but you never know. The other piece of it, Dwight, is like I understand that it's early in the season and no players. is going to come out and say what those of us in the media will say, which is you lose this game, your season is over. Since 2000, the only teams who have started 0 and 3,

who have ever gone on to make the playoffs, the Houston Texans actually did it twice. The Texans did it last year, and the Texans did it in 2018. But it is overwhelmingly likely that if you lose your season is over, I would think that that creeps into your mind as a player. And you either, you know that, you hear about it from the media, you hear about it on social media or whatever.

Do you think that that is at all in the Chargers purview that they lose this game and the overwhelming likelihood is their seasons over before October? Well, look, I think if you're a fan, if they lose this game, you might say, ah, you know what, this is not the year. Regardless of what the outcome may be, as far as maybe they, by miracle, make the playoffs,

chances of them making a run in the playoffs is highly unlikely. And you just said two teams that did it was Houston twice. Did they win the Super Bowl? I don't think so. They very much not. Yeah. So that's my point is that, you know, you can get hot. And sometimes, you know, things happen that no one can expect.

But when I see so many mistakes left and right and you go 013, man, it's going to be a tough, it's going to be a tough fight uphill. for those guys. Now, I will say in the locker room, their faith will stay strong. They will stay strong because that's what they have to do. That's what they've been trained to do. They always have to continue to have faith that this thing will be turned around. But as a fan, I wouldn't be looking forward to the playoffs if they lose another one. All right, let's talk about the other L.A. team. The Rams also had huge expectations. Dominant win over the Giants in week two, nearly 330 yards and four touchdowns for Matt Stafford. And they go to Denver as slight road favorites Sunday night.

Broncos linebacker Nick Benito, though. He talked to the media about Matt Stafford in this matchup. Take a listen. He's a tough challenge just because, I mean, if you watch him, he gets the ball out so quick. He's such a fast processor. You know, he knows where he wants to go. He's seen every type of blitz. So nothing's kind of going to surprise him on that aspect.

But as a D-line, it's kind of still our job to, you know, make life difficult for him. He's not going to get too far deep in the pocket. So on the outsides, we're going to have to collapse. it and detackle is going to have to get pressures early. So, I mean, we have a good plan for him. The Broncos defense, a different challenge, we'll say, than the Giants defense last week, Dwight. Do you expect Stafford?

Yeah, you'd expect him to have a lot of success against this Broncos defense? Sure. I mean, look, I mean, Stafford's been playing for a long time, right? So understand that, you know, as a veteran quarterback, be able to decipher and figure out different coverages pretty quickly and especially if you blitz. So, yes, he's going to have some success.

Now, is he going to have as much success as he had versus the Giants? Absolutely not. I mean, these are two completely different teams, defenses. Everything is completely different. They're on the road now. They're not at home, you know. So there's a lot of different things that are going to be happening in this game. And the thing is, with the Broncos, you know, they can cover guys and they got some guys

and get after the quarterback. And my whole thing is, look, when you're playing a great passer, You know, I played against a lot of the great ones, right? And Tom Brady is one of those. You have to be able to rush with four guys and drop seven in coverage, all right? Some type of shell to where it is though you keep everything in front of you and make them go to the long race, especially with this high-powered offense that they have. You got to make sure that they have a 10 and then 12, even if they happen to score, it has to be a 10 or 12 or 13 play drive type of score, not like, you know, five, six plays and they're putting up seven points because I don't think on the other side of the

ball the Broncos have that firepower to match the Rams. So you have to keep things in front of you and the only way you're going to do that is drop seven and hope that your rush gets there. I think that makes a ton of sense. And just to Denver's defense is excellent. It's star studded. And that is a tough place to play. I know home field advantage is not really what it was even back in your day because teams are just so much better with the silent count and the in helmet communication and everything, like just the gambler in me knows that like the home field advantage isn't as much of a thing. But Denver at night can still matter. And let's just show the Broncos defense at home last couple of years. These are what starting quarterbacks have done when they

play in Denver last three years, including the playoffs. Yeah. More turnovers than touchdowns and a pass a rating of 73. Like the giant secondary was bad and injured. This is Patrick Sartan and Riley Moss and Jade Barron and Hufunga the safety. And then you mentioned Nick Benito. and the rest of those pass rushers. Like Denver has a whole different set of problems defensively for anyone to deal with. And the Rams looked dominant against the Giants. They did. But I'm not sure that without Pooka Nakuha, and he's listed as doubtful right now.

And Sean McVeigh basically came out and was like, he's not making progress. So it does not sound like Pooka Nakua is going to play in this spot. So Devante Adams, who looked amazing against Giants' cornerbacks, now it has to be a number one going up against Patrick Sartan, maybe the best cornerback in football. He's certainly on the short list. I think this is a low scoring game, and I don't think the Rams are going to have a ton of offensive success.

You kind of laid it out, right? You show the stat of what it is, and that is not by mistake. That's a lot of data, right? And you see what's going on when teams come to Denver, right? There's a lot of reasons for that. You know, you have the altitude. no one likes to talk about. Trust me, it's a real thing.

And then you have that crowd noise. It's a real thing. So understand is that there's going to be some things that they have to deal with. It's not going to be all comfortable like how they were at home. When you're at home, you know, offense usually throws up a whole bunch of points, especially an indoor team. Trust me, take it from me. I play the Indianapolis Coast.

I understand. Right. But when you go on the road, things are different. And they're obviously playing a different team. They took care of business last week. The Rams did it. against the Giants as they should. All right?

But this is a completely different week, you know, and this is two teams that want to have two wins. This is going to be a big game, and I expect a close game. Yeah, and the Jaguars offense had been absolutely rolling, got out to a hot start against Denver, and then Denver just completely shut down Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars the rest of that game.

So I'm expecting a little bit more of the same from the Broncos defense. Dwight, thank you so much for joining us. All right. We'll see you next time on the OT. We appreciate you. man, no problem. All right.

Coming up, Jeff Schwartz fills in for coach and Greg. A lot of pressure on Jeff Schwartz. It's chips on the table. Jeff's a gambling, man. Welcome back to the OT. Jeff Schwartz hanging out now. It's time for chips on the table, making our week three wagers with some of the biggest games of the weekend.

You've been known to make a wager or two. Every now and then. Bear bets, check it out. Schwartz is filling in for Coach and Greg's team. So a lot of pressure. Greg Jennings takes this very seriously. You do not want to be on his bad side. Let's take a look at some rules.

It's simple. Basically, we all started with 50 chips. Yes. It's confidence. Just winners. No spread attached to it. So we pick games with close spreads in either direction. You put out five on a team that you like.

You get it with five back. If not, you lose it. If we can look at the standings here. Because everyone knows that I had a rough weekend across the board. Ooh. Yeah. But I'm still winning. in this, I'm at 39 chips left.

You're at 31, and if you actually do an audit of the chips that we literally have on the table, you got 31 and I got 39. You feel confident? My side is down 19 after two weeks. I've got to pick it up for us. That's correct. You guys are down 38% of your starting stack.

I don't like it. Not good. Through two games. It's not good. All right, let's see the first matchup. We'll do the cards reveal. Patriots and Jaguars. I'll go first.

I don't have a lot of confidence. So I'm only going to put two chips on the Patriots. The Jaguars really struggled last week after that first eight minutes or so against the good defense with the Broncos. And I legitimately think the Patriots defense is very good. So do I like that there is no AJ Brown? Absolutely not.

There is a lack of offensive explosiveness on New England. Romeo Dobbs had a disaster of a first game, actually got going in the second game. He's going to be the number one. So I think Drake May will feed Romeo Dobbs, and they will just try to ball control this thing. And I think Jacksonville kind of patted a lot of their offensive stats against lesser defenses.

I think the Patriots have a real shot at a top 10 defense this year. I think this is a low-scoring, ugly game. So I'll take the Patriots over the Jaguars, but not for a ton of confidence. I am way more confident than you are in this game. I'm taking Jacksonville for five chips here. Quite simply, Danny, we are going to fade teams this year that have poor offensive lines that are injured,

New England Patriots. and less explosive offense. We've seen so far, Packers last night, but every team so far this year, they cannot really block, they cannot have explosive plays. They don't win these games. And Jacksonville's offense, yes,

struggle a little bit last week, show good in game one. They've won a lot of regular season. They played very well. Trevor Lawrence seems to be taking the next step. I think he can have a time of protection in this game for a ball down the field. More importantly, though,

I think it's more game about New England's offense struggling to move the ball against Jacksonville's defense. Also, I don't really love sort of the New England team playing hot weather game in Jacksonville as well. That's a real, I mean, everyone handicaps that. It's a thing. Okay. I mean, the Bears went into Carolina.

It was a thousand degrees. They put up 59 points. Like, you should be able to deal with a little heat. You should, but it's a big adjustment to go like super, super hot when it's not that way at home. Okay. And the offensive line, minceiding with the offensive line. That is, it's a concern of mine because we've seen, especially last night, maybe I'm biased for what happened with the Packers last night.

But if you cannot block, you have no chance to win. And I think the Patriots right now with some of their injuries and their offensive line against the Jacksonville defense line, defense line. It's going to struggle for drag man in this game. All right, that's a big bet. Remember, I got this little rake here to get these chips out of here. It's a totally useful tool. Let's get this out of the way. All right. What's the next game that we have here? Bengals at Steelers. You want to go first with this one? I can go first if you would like. I'm taking the Bengals here just for just for two chips and only two chips because are we sure the Steelers voodoo is done with a new coach. Because these are the games

that they always have won in the past with Mike Tomlin, right? Where you're an ugly side, an ugly dog. No one thinks you're any good. Your offense is kind of sluggish. And all of a sudden, the Bengals show up or someone in division shows up and you just have a game where you force five turnovers and you win 16 to 13, right?

But I think this Bengals team is different. Their defensive line, Danny, is legit. It's a real defensive line that four sacks to end that game against Houston the fourth quarter. Pittsburgh offense is really struggling right now. The Bengals offense can get going, I think, in this game as well. So if the voodoo is gone completely,

it might have been more chips, but I'll keep two right now on the Bengals. Okay, I don't, I don't, don't know anything about voodoo, but I know about one team can't score, and it's Pittsburgh. So I'm quadrupling you up. I'm going eight chips. Eight. Big bet on the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Bengals defense, I don't know how much of it is momentum, confidence, luck, or some combination of all of it. Like some of it was luck with all the fumbles they were covered in the first game. But they have spent years hearing how bad they are. And they invested a ton on the Jonathan Allen and Dexter Lawrence and Boye Amath. And the returns have been incredible so far. And what's so like keep it rolling. What's, they're not playing Buffalo.

They're not playing Detroit. They're not playing an offense that I know is good. They're playing an offense that I know is bad. Terrible. And so like they can look at this like they will look at the film of this game and say, we should dominate this game. Meanwhile, Joe Burrow gets to look at film and say, we're 2-0 and we haven't played well yet.

The Bengals' offense has not been good. So I look at this as like statement game for Cincinnati. Put it together, get to 3-0. Obviously, we'll see what happens, you know, in the Ravens Cowboys game. But like, they are out in front in this division. This is a division matchup for them. And they haven't put together a complete game on both sides of the ball. So I expect this to be the first statement game of the year for the Bengals.

Scared money don't make money. Two chips, you should be embarrassed. It's a small bet. It's a small bet. I got five on the first one. That's true. If these are my chips, I'm my face on it, I get it.

If I was here every week, maybe I'd be putting like seven on this one. I understand. Greg Jennings, Coach Benjini. They're very scary people. I wouldn't want to bet Coach Van Genie's money. I certainly would not want to lose it. All right, what's our next game?

The cards will tell the tale. The aforementioned, Ravens, Cowboys in Brazil. this one I'm going back a little smaller. Now, it was a, it was a Parkins pick. And so you'd think I'd go more on it, but I care so much about Parkins' picks that I can't also, like, putting chips on it.

It's a very scary proposition. So I'm just going with two here. Like, it is a, the Ravens should run all over Dallas. I firmly believe that. But the field conditions are what they are. It's a weird situation. And Dallas is going to score.

So, like, this was a, it opened at 51. and a half for the over-under. It bloomed up to 53 and a half. They're expecting offense both ways. So I know I just need to have an outright situation here, but I think that Baltimore running the ball, quarterback and running back, should be able to get the job done. I will take Baltimore over the Cowboys.

I'm going to go to the Cowboys here because no one ever picks the Cowboys than anything. Look, I think that defensively saw a little bit better last week, which we're going to get better every week with a new difference coordinator. The DeVin injuries worry me a little bit, but if this is a close game, we've seen the Ravens continually blow

close games year after year. If they figure it out with a brand new coach how to close out, the same thing happens, right? They don't want Derek Henry enough. It doesn't matter with the coordinator, the coach, that continues to be a problem for them. If this game is close, I trust the Cowboys to close out this game a little bit better on this weird turf. Even the practice fields look terrible too. I don't really get the point of playing on fields that are this bad. I hope they fix that for more international games. But I'll trust the Cowboys here, improved defense. I trust Dak and the offense a little bit more in big moments. The injury report piece of this, like Dallas is now three defensive starters, including

overshone, who matters a ton. Baltimore, emotional boost, like Madibuque, they paid him, beloved player on that team, should be making his return, no injury designation on the Thursday and Friday injury report, so he's good to go, obviously made the trip. Maybe no Zay flower still for Baltimore, which does matter, but Buchanan back at lineback

or Madibuque back on the defensive line. They're the healthier of the two defenses, and if the field's going to be bad, again, Declan Doyle took a ton of heat because you're right. In Baltimore, they seem to always forget that they have Derek Henry, which is weird because he's so big and strong. I would like, how would you forget about him? He took so much heat, and it's his first time really taking heat because he's a first time play caller. I would imagine, if it was me, I'd overcompensate.

Like, first five plays, Derek Henry, Derek Henry. You know, I could easily see this being a 25 to 30 touch Derek Henry game, and in that spot I would love Baltimore. That's why I only put two on Dallas. Because if we get 35 of Derek Henry rushes, that's probably not great for me. Right. Yeah, we need like 18. 18, I feel good.

35, probably not a day for the two chips. I got to figure out these fields, by the way. You're the NFL. It's not acceptable to have these fields of international. Figure it out. So that was our third edition of Chips on the Table. I know that Coach and Greg are watching. Coming up, the storyline we're most excited to watch ahead of week three.

Still hanging out with Jeff Schwartz. here on the O.T. A lot on the line for a lot of teams every week in the NFL. Eight teams looking to stay undefeated. The whole board, the world is your oyster, Jeff. What

week three storyline are you most excited for? Players and coaches will tell you it's a week-to-week league, and it is. You think week to week to week. However, players and coaches know if you start 0-and-3, you are doomed. And since 2000, only one team in the 14-team playoff bracket has made the playoffs starting 0-3, even just

historically, and it's like 3%. It was Houston last year. It was Houston last year. So we have all these teams that are these are undefeated teams, but the 0 and 2 teams right now, the ones I'm eyeing this week, right? Chargers, Texans, bucks, like those are teams that expect to be playoff teams. If they don't win this weekend, like

their season effectively is over. And so I'm looking at those three teams specifically to have a spirit effort in the games their plan, especially the Chargers at Buffalo. Okay, so we are of one mind. That is the game of the week. It is, because the The Ravens Cowboys game is an awesome game and an awesome matchup,

but there is the weird element of the field. This game for the bills, like, if they dominate the Chargers, it's just, okay, more of the same. They are establishing themselves as the Super Bowl favorite, at least coming out of the AFC. For the Chargers, I mean, pack up shop if you don't win. Because, like, everybody knows what's coming with their schedule. And maybe they can beat Denver, maybe they could be Houston or whatever.

But like, you are in a spot of desperation. Yes. And they are talking in LA like, we're close, we're close, we're close. It has not looked close. It has not looked close. So I wonder if they play a Buffalo team that has given up 31 twice. If the charges come out and only score 17 or 20, it's like, okay, you guys are a disaster. Or if they meet that number and win a shootout, maybe they're actually right and things are going to be okay.

The problem is it's not even close to it. They're getting blown out. They lost double digits to two teams that we don't think are very good. I know. So they need not only to look good, they have to win this game this weekend. Yes, the definition of a must-wit spot. I will tell you, even if they play better, I don't think you're slowing down Josh Allen with how he's playing right now. You have to score them.

You got to score in the mid-30s. Well, oh, yeah. So Detroit just did it last week. They scored 31. Still lost convincingly. So I think they're in big trouble. Enjoy the games. We appreciate you watching.

We're back on Monday.