NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Week 5 picks & Vikings vs. Packers recap

Episode Date: October 3, 2014

A room full of heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Marc Sessler -- preview every game on the Week 5 NFL schedule and recap the Packers 42-10 win over the Vikings.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast is not afraid of the Turk. Welcome back to another edition of the Round the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis, and I am joined by a room filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal. What up, boys? Hey, Dan. Full house.

Just like when you were in Vegas, full house. cards reference I don't gamble yes I know you don't Mark Sessler's back Welcome back buddy Glad to be here It feels like

Ages since I've sat in here with you I don't know how long it's been You promised He promised the Sizzler Of being here with double barrel fist pumps Oh yeah Initially I said revolvers I know you don't

You don't listen to the show But I said that you'd be back With two revolvers shooting When you returned And then I downgraded it To avoid a suspension To two fists I'd be like the first time

I ever made that motion So that was kind of a risk. You really are like the last guy that would ever pump your fist for anything, I feel like. By the way, I listen to the show because I am here. It's not a fist pumping guy. I hear the show because I am involved in it. Okay. All right, listen.

Back off, man. We got a great show today. So get excited. We are going to, this is our big week five preview show. People get very excited for the week five preview show just because the way we do it, we just break down all the games. And we cut right through all the malarkey. Do you think they'll be excited for week six, too?

Or is this just specific to week five preview? If week four is any indication, week six will also be, there will be a wild celebration when people listen to this because it's going to be so great. So we're going to go through all those games. Also, because maybe at some point we'll mix it into the middle of the show because it's something we have to touch on. Greg Rosethal known as the boss had his first,

not his first QB index post, but his first one where he broke. broke down, essentially the power rankings, 1 to 32, dropped them. So we're going to talk about Greg's list a little bit. One that Chris Wessling was completely on board with, almost suspiciously so. No qualms whatsoever with the list. I was told that I should have had more problems with his list just because it doesn't seem like our podcast. So I, you know, my answer to that is should we stick it up like other places and just generate false debates? No, don't worry.

I have some issues with the QB index. I thought you being so nice but you were going to be asking for something soon or something like, you know? I don't think that's my M.O. And Sessler privately told me he had major issues with Greg's work as well. So there will definitely be some real conversation.

I just want to know what Lacky told Chris that he had to drum up false debate. It was, you know, where do we usually get this stuff on Twitter? Oh, you know what? No. By the way, I wasn't going to bring this up, but no, snitches get stitches. But you will bring it up. Yeah, I made a joke about the Colts punter.

What's his name? Pat McAfee. That right there is kind of disrespectful. You know what? And someone had to report it back to Pat McAfee, and then he dropped the ultimate Twitter bomb where you really don't recover from. And he says, I don't know who Dan Hansis is.

That's how it was. NFL media heat. I wasn't even involved in that, but I went in and preemptively blocked that guy just for that move. Who, Pat McAfee or the snitch? The snitch. Yeah, so you know what? Listeners, we love you, you love us.

We're all in this trust tree together. Let's keep it in-house sometimes. Sometimes it's good to get the word out, and that's how you get the Stitcher and the best of 2013 iTunes Award. I don't know where the Stitcher Award is, but it's somewhere. But sometimes you keep it in-house. It's like an Italian family. A lot of beef right now with the Around the NFL podcast.

Between this and the Move the Stigs podcast. When you're on top, a lot of people want to shot at you. It's a tried and true. sports radio method to getting more listeners. It's called punching up. So that's what Damasek is doing, and that's what Move the Stix is doing. They're punching up trying to get some attention from the top top.

Damasek, too. It's a little petuline. It's a little punching up, but also hitting out, whatever, just hit clawing of people. I don't like the lack of harmony. How do you guys think 50 cent win platinum, guys? You know, that was it. Yeah.

Beef wins. Well, TD, just an FYI, because you have your hands in the soup with every one of these podcasts, it benefits you. because you know come on he's not he's not even where's your loyalty he is in the middle of the pot stern it up are we your priority you know how I look at it and we'll use

TD I know you're a rap fan remember in 2007 when Kanye was releasing graduation and 50 cent was releasing Curtis or whatever was and Curtis talked all this garbage and then 50 cent and then Kanye dropped a monster album and it was over we're graduation that's that's true it's all about the work all right we had this

on that. All right, so yeah, so let's get into, before we do anything, let's go to the Thursday night game, of course, in Lambo, the Vikings against the Packers, and talk about that one. Thanks, Dan. I wish we had a fun game to talk about. But we really don't. This game was over by halftime the Packers drubbed the Minnesota Vikings,

42 to 10, Chris Wessling. Aaron Rogers just watched the Matt Flynn for the fourth quarter. seeing a lot of this on Thursday night? What were your big takeaways? From the second quarter of the Bears game through the end of the third quarter tonight, the Packers went on a 66 to nothing run. They're clicking on all cylinders. That is ridiculous. I mean, I know the Bears and Vikings aren't the two best teams in the NFL, but these are two-win teams. They're two, you know, they're both two and two. And the Packers are treating them like the Jaguars or the Raiders, more, worse than that.

Yeah, I think one of my other takeaways was Christian Ponder in the rain. Bad idea? Against a Packer's defense that hit him 16 times. Bad idea. I don't think we can take too much away from the Vikings tonight because he's not their quarterback, Teddy Bridgewater is. Well, that's true, but their offensive line has been uneven all year. Like, they'll look okay when they play Atlanta, but Matt Killeel struggled.

16 quarterback hits is ridiculous. I know Ponder holds the ball too long sometimes, and he took six. sacks, but I don't think that was the big problem. You know, a lot of people were honking about Ponder in the newsroom, making fun of him, and look, he had a really bad night. One of his interceptions was terrible. The other one was because of quick pressure, and a lot of his bad throws were because of quick pressure, where the Packers, especially Mike Daniels, were getting to him so fast

that he had to get rid of the ball, and then the throws were bad, and, you know, the throws he did have time for weren't too good either. Mike Daniels has been a beast, the first five games, and we should also talk about Julius Peppers. Wait, making the leap, Mike Daniels, right? He is making the leap. See, we got one, right? And Julius Peppers.

Oh, yeah. He's had a bounce back season. His career's not over. The Bears had him playing out a position at defensive tackle quite a bit last year, and he's on a pro-bowl pace now, the only player in NFL history with 100 sacks and 10 interceptions. He got around the corner a little faster, I think, than James Starks did tonight. I mean, he got around the corner faster than some wide receivers.

That was pretty impressive on the pick six. Also a fair assessment of James Stark's evening. Peppers has outplayed Clay Matthews, by the way, this year. Matthews not really having a good season, especially giving up a lot of big running plays. And Peppers has been very consistent. Look, Dan and I picked the Packers to win the Super Bowl this year because we thought this would be a complete team,

not just Rogers, that the offensive line was better than it usually was. We saw that tonight, especially in the running game, that the defense was going to be better than it's been the last couple years. We really haven't seen that overall over the first month. this was certainly their most complete performance. So, you know, now here they're three and two. That one and two start really didn't hurt him too much, and they're kind of rounding into form.

Do we see them as, you know, one of those NFC contenders? I do. I don't know if they're as good as the Seahawks. We saw that in the opener, but they have to be feeling good about what they saw out of Eddie Lacey. And if you doubted his talent tonight, you got a wake-up call. He was cutting very sharply, carrying defenders on his back, making defenders miss an open space.

He looked phenomenal. That's a big boy. I mean, when he gets to the second level, when they can get a good block up front, which they did, they made some holes for him tonight, then he's a lot to deal with. And the Vikings defenders, and we keep seeing this on Thursday, and I mean, this has been a disaster of these blowouts.

The three biggest blowouts in Thursday night history were the last three weeks, according to Jim Nance. And I have no reason to doubt Jim Nance. No, nobody does. I think that's it. We should get back to preview in the games. I will send it back to you, Dan. Have a good rest of the show.

All right, so that was Thursday night's game, and now we move forward to the rest of the week five slate. Let's start with the Sunday night game where the New England Patriots, fresh off that, Greg, that humiliating road loss in Kansas City at Arrowhead, now have to welcome the Cincinnati Bengals to town the 3-0 Bengals, which means undefeated.

They have not lost. playing very well as a team, a complete team. The Patriots, meanwhile, a lot of struggles all over the place, but where everyone's focusing right now is the offense. How do we see this playing out, guys? I don't know. This for me, this game is the most fascinating game of the weekend. Ever in the world.

Of the weekend. And I'll tell you why, because the immediate reaction to what happened in New England, because we're so used to them being this statue that just goes 11, 12 wins, no matter what happens, was, and I don't entirely disagree, was an immediate defense of Tom Brady. Oh, it's not him, it's everything around him, and they do have problems around them. But if this is like the Patriots we've known for a long time, they're going to come out at home and drop a bomb on the Bengals, I don't see that happening.

No, you took the Bengals. I was surprised three of us took the Patriots. I thought I might be on an island. I have a rule. I always take the Patriots Island. No matter what. Nailed it. Got it.

I'm worried because in this matchup last year, the Bengals held the Patriots to six points, and this Bengals defense so far has been better than they were a year ago. So even the Patriots who were struggling on offense early, they had big time problems with the size that Cincinnati has up front. The Bengals right now are on pace to give up fewer points than any team since the 2000 Ravens. It's interesting that you mentioned the defense of Tom Brady is the immediate reaction because what I've seen is basically the Patriots season is over. Right.

Because this loss happened on national TV and everyone saw it. I think there was a lot of defense. We wrote a post hours after the game that he's not the reason. Who wrote that post? Albert Breer went around the league and no one sees it as Brady's fault. And listen, I think the problem is he's got less time to throw than he ever has. And he's not a mobile guy. And he's...

His receivers don't separate. And they have an offense based around Julian Edelman. It seems to be an offense-wide slump right now, but Brady is part of it. Brady's not playing well either. And one thing I want to point out, you know, Dobson deactivated two games because of some issues with Josh McDaniels. That's something at a time where they are. Reportedly.

Very wise, Greg. Don't want to leave us open for litigation. I'm just saying, it's not out there, really. It's just, you know, some tweets and whatnot. Yes. So you take him out of the mix. Amindola, Danny Amidola, I don't know, does he even exist anymore? Julian Edelman can't do it alone.

Came out today, a report from the Boston Herald that Danny Amandola underwent groin surgery in the office. offseason, and the suspicion is that's contributing to his inability to produce. So basically, the Patriots offense stinks, but they're awesome at concealing information. That game is on fire, because no one's reported this Dobson thing. No one knows Amandola. You know, they had a chance to sign Emmanuel Sanders at some point. Remember, they once tried to trade for him?

They could assign them for very cheap this year. Instead, they decided to keep Amandola, who's basically turned into Edelman's backup. If you were going to do that, you might as well kept Wes Welker. I mean, Greg, hold on. You've had a lifetime, a decade plus, of just nothing but ease. No, who's had more painful playoff losses in the last decade of the page? At least you're getting to the playoffs. You know, your coach isn't fired by January 5th.

Sounds like a Yankee fan there. Be careful, great. But level of concern, like this team, whatever happens to them, usually they figure out their offense by mid-October and they go on a 10-game win streak. Is this that team? I do think they will bounce back, yeah. My level of concern is higher than it's been at any point since 2008. nine. So I would say more than last year, because last week, the fact that the defense just got

blown away was more concerning. Because I was thinking this is a team. Maybe the offense isn't going to be quite as great as it usually is, but this could legitimately be a top 10 defense, more talent that they've had for a while. If they're just another generic Patriots defense that's given up big yardage, then it's big time trouble. All right. We'll see how it plays out Sunday night. Moving forward. So this is a big game. The Denver Broncos are Facing the Arizona Cardinals in Denver, Cardinals coming off their by week, without, most likely without Carson Palmer once again, who after a visit to his specialist, he was told that they weren't going to go down any surgical route at this point.

They're still waiting for the nerve to, quote, awaken, which just doesn't sound great to me. But so Carson Palmer probably, Drew Stanton will make a third straight start. Will the Arizona Cardinals hang with the Broncos in Denver with Drew Stanton? Stanton? I ask you, Greg Rosenthal. This is the game. This is the game where the Arizona Cardinals become the team of the Around the NFL podcast. Chris Wilson said it that if they go to Denver and they pull off the upset, the Cardinals, who I've been backing since day one, Bruce Arian's best coach in the league right now, making Drew Stanton kind of fun to watch with Michael Floyd and Larry

Fitzgerald and John Brown. I think they can hang with the Broncos. Broncos couldn't blow out Kansas City in Denver, so I don't think they'll blow out Arizona either. If you ask me which first place team right now has the best chance of missing the playoffs, it would be the Arizona Cardinals. They've played three close games that could have gone either way. Well, that's because they're in Seattle's division. Well, I'm just saying, I feel like they've played three close games that could have gone either way. I feel like Todd Bulls, his defense has been doing it with smoking mirrors, and that's going to be put to the test against Broncos' offense. Isn't that a glass, you know, half-empty approach, though? Because from another angle,

They're extremely well coached for Marians, and they're squeaking these wins out. Here's an interesting stat courtesy of the NFL media research team. Peyton Manning has to deal two very good cornerbacks. Antonio Cromarty, another guy that Jets decided they didn't want last year or this past off season, has been targeted 13 times and allowed six catches for 52 yards and no touchdowns. Three passes defense. Patrick Peterson targeted 15 times, allowed nine catches for 64 yards, and two touchdowns with one pass defense.

So actually, Cromarty's having a better season, I guess, statistically at this point. But those are two very good corners. So Peyton Manning, who's not putting up historic numbers this year, the offensive as a whole, they're not going to score 600 points this year. Denver, it doesn't look like. That's how they win this game. They need to keep the score to a minimum because Drew Stanton's not going to be winning in a shootout. These are two teams I don't think we know much about yet.

Partly because they've only played three games. They're both coming off a buy. Wes mentioned it. The Cardinals have one kind of crazy games. I thought they were outplayed in week one and they managed to win. They were outplayed in New York, managed to win, had a nice performance against San Francisco in week three. Denver, I don't know what to take from Denver either.

I mean, they were outgained by Kansas City in Denver. They were great in the first half a week one, pretty lousy in the second. They didn't really move the ball in Seattle. You have to give them credit for getting into overtime there. I don't know what this Broncos team is right now. They had a week for Demerius Thomas to get healthier, which should help. Yeah. He's been well below his normal level.

of play. West Welker was out for the majority of the first quarter of the season. I love the way their defense is playing, and I feel like Vaughn Miller is right back to where he was before the ACL injury. What if the Cardinals just lose by a field goal at the last second? That's not part of the deal. What so you wouldn't jump on board? No. What more do they have to do? Beat the Broncos. What sort of a hoop? Are you having them have to jump? Yeah, that's not like the tough. Who would be favored in Denver at this point in the entire NFL? Seattle wouldn't be favored. Let me ask you this. What do the Lions have to do to be the team of ATO?

Let's stay on point here. Be interesting. They're far more interesting in the Cardinals. Not playing a dome. We'd rather watch Drew Stanton than Matthew Stafford. That is... Drew Zand is electricity personified. We all pick the Broncos straight across the board here,

so, you know, I could see the Broncos playing a tight game, but at the same time, we all see Denver winning, so what is that said? You know what? You know what? Chris Wessling loves most in a quarterback delivering while getting hit. I do. And you know what's written right here. on the notebook. Stanton, very tough delivery and wild hit.

It's proof. I agree. You're a man. I like Tristan. I think they're a more interesting team with him than with Carson Palmer. Did you have, do you guys, any of you watch Always Sunny in Philadelphia? Yes. Every episode.

You know Charlie Day, how he writes in his own language? Yes. T.D. Can we show this on the TV screen? We're showing it right now. On the magical TV screen. Are there any symbols in there like a sock and a cat? Well, there are little.

That's some Charlie Day scratch. Yeah. It reminds me more of the Kevin Spacey character from 7. Well, that's not a good capacity. All right, so that's it. Amen. Moving forward. All right, let's head to Indianapolis,

where the Indianapolis Colts will take on the Baltimore Ravens. Andrew Luck is playing out of his mind right now. The last two games, eight touchdown passes. 75% completion percentage, 60 of 80, one interception. Just playing great. The Baltimore Ravens, meanwhile, have to face a coach. Andrew Luck for the first time since the 2012 playoffs. They don't have a lot of knowledge of him at least face to face.

Chris Wessling, I ask you, Andrew Luck, is he heading into like a phase right now where he's just going to be unstoppable no matter who he sees? Certainly looks like it. I mean, we can talk about the subpar defenses he's faced, but he's doing things. He's putting on a clinic on dealing with pressure. It just does not affect him. Pressure in his face doesn't affect him.

And his teammates are putting in him some bad spots. watched last week games in the first quarter, first half, they keep getting penalties and making it third and ten. He keeps moving them and getting first downs. It's third and 15 because they keep doing false starts or holding. And he keeps completing the third down passes and leading him down for a score. With all of that stacked against him, he's still, he's playing almost perfectly the last two weeks. But I don't think we can just gloss over the fact that now he gets to play a real NFL team outside of the AFC South. I mean, it's nice when you're 0 and 2 and you get to play the Titans and the Jaguars back to back and make everyone feel better.

The Ravens, I think this defense is coming together. Dumerville and Suggs played very well last week. They're very weak at safety, though, which worries me going into that stadium against this group of receivers. They've given up some big plays. Dary and Stewart, they're just missing a lot of plays. Matt Elam has given up a lot of big plays. Yeah, I think that's their weakest position, and so there could be a lot of big players.

I think there's going to be a lot of scoring. Both these officers are looking at a game. I think Joe Flacco has been put into the best offense. he's had in the NFL, I think the Kubiak, number one, this running attack has been successful week after week, and we're looking at a rather vanilla cult's defense that doesn't scary on any front. I think there are going to be, we're looking like a 3730 type game right here. The scariest thing about them is how West pronounces Bjorn Werner's name. They got nothing on defense. That's why, I think that's what showed up. Wait, now I've got to hear it.

Can you pronounce it? Bjorn Werner? Bjorn Werner. Here's a, by the way, the Ravens' offensive line, wasn't that on your top 10 surprises list? It was. They were historically in that place. Can I read you a stat? They couldn't protect Flacco? They couldn't open up running lanes?

Please, let's hear your stat. This is from the NFL media research guide. Joe Flacco has not been sacked in his last three games, marking the first three-game stretch of his career without a sack. The Ravens have never gone four straight games without allowing sack. So Flacco is playing a lot better this year so far than he did last year. Look no further. than what's in front of them. And they're also great blocking for the run.

I mean, they're making Justin Fawcett and Tali Afaro look like a perfectly good starting duo to rack up some yards. That's impressive. Their interior line destroyed Carolina last week. I mean, they pushed the Panthers around. And it feels like that game got a little lost in the Steve Smith, you know, Bananza, like everyone was paid attention to Steve. Hullablo.

I mean, they killed them. Their offense looked good against the Browns. Their offices look good every week. That's why they're going into Indianapolis. They should have two Pro Bowl guards, Marshall Yanda and Assembly. And yet you guys all took the Colts. We are split on this game. I'm standing by that, by the way.

Calling us clowns. Greg Rosenthal and Kevin Patcher both took the Ravens. The rest of us took the Colts. I'm just right now at home, Andrew Luck. I will not go against him. Greg is not into winning games. Greg hates Andrew Luck ever since he called him out. That's not true.

Greg did a few weeks ago after a subpar game said that Andrew Luck was a middling quarterback in the NFL and now it's coming back at him. When Andrew Luck has a cold streak is different than any other quarterback's cold streak. No, he is streaker than other quarterback. All right, scientists. Okay.

All right, next up, let's go through. As we always do every week, we highlight the games that we call our hero picks when only one of the around the NFL team picked a certain team to win a game going against the field, and we call this segment, defend your hero.

Defend your hero. All right, handsome Hank. Thank you, buddy. All right, so we'll start. Why do we start with the Cleveland Browns who are hosting the Tennessee Titans coming off their bye week, the Titans who, you know, sad to say,

if you missed Wednesday show, Mark, they were forked. They're out. They're no longer in contention for a playoff. spot in our minds so they're not exactly a relevant team and now the browns get to come off a buy and play that game against the titans team that i guess is going to have jake locker back but who's getting excited about that even you would think this would be a game we would all agree

on the browns potentially but no chris wesley goes with the titans and you and gregg i think you set it downstairs well west has gone full heel with the browns he likes to poke mark he uh poking the bear little teddy bear yeah it's trolling he's trolling he's trolling he's trolling he's So you troll so hard, Wes, defend your hero. That whole narrative that you guys have laid out could not be any further from the truth. The Browns, to me, are like the Rams, the Raiders, maybe the Jaguars, several teams that haven't been successful in a decade. And until they are successful, I'm probably going to default to the other team when it's a game where it's a pick-em game. Yeah, but don't you think the Browns have looked better than the Titans this year?

significantly? Yes, and if they were playing at Cleveland, I would take them. What about the Titans makes you think they're ready to win a game against anyone? They've lost by like 30. Nothing about the Titans makes me think they're ready to win. So you think this is essentially what you're saying. This is a matchup between two bad teams and somebody's got to win. That's what I'm saying. Brian Hoyer, who you left off your top 10 surprise, you put him an honorable mention.

I have this stat has thrown 156 straight passes without an I&T. that's a longest stretch in the NFL. Philip Rivers is 39 passes behind Hoyer. Then on the flip side, a negative thing for the Browns. And their defense, as we talked about on Wednesday, is really what's held them back in their one-and-two start. Joe Hayden has given up a pass rating of 155.3, third highest in the NFL amongst cornerbacks

with at least 25% snaps played. Mark, I'll ask you, you watch his games very closely. What happened to Joe Hayden? Is he not healthy? and how big is that for the Browns defense? I think he's healthy. Hayden may be one of the better examples of some of the new rules on the cornerbacks affecting his play. He thrived as a very physical cornerback for years.

And that's how he shut down bigger guys like A.J. Green when he had success against them. And I don't know if it's – I'm not saying it's just that. He also has had a tendency in the past to give up big plays and big moments. a long, he'll have a strong 57 minutes, then one minute that undoes everything. Well, part of the reason his numbers are so bad is they've only played three games, and in one of those games, Jimmy Graham

went up and down the field with Hayden on his back. I don't know what more Hayden could have done in that game. He was all over Graham for all, and Graham's making great catches. He caught like eight passes. Yeah, Wesleyan, I mean, I don't have a problem with Wesleyan picking between what you see as two relatively vanilla

teams, the home team. I don't have an issue there. You seem relatively comfortable to be nestled in last place in our picks. Wow! When you pick against a team that beat your Super Bowl pick. Wes, not thrilled right now, Wes. I just want to know you've seen nothing from Cleveland. What is it that you've seen from Tennessee?

Give me something that you like about the Titans. How many wins do the Browns have? One? They have one, but they beat the Saints. The Titans do too, and they beat the Chiefs who slaughtered the Patriots. So we can play this back and forth all day, and I'll remind you it's week four. Let's check the standings at the end of the year.

That's how things work. All right, so that is, this is a great showdown for Sunday in the newsroom. That's all I'm going to say. I'm going to sit back and enjoy it all. So, yes, we are- I'm going to sign this game to Patra. The Browns against the Titans. All right, moving on.

Another hero pick, the Atlanta Falcons, who have looked pretty great, pretty damn great at home in the Georgia Dorn. this season. Some really nice wins where their offense looked almost unstoppable have not looked that great on the road, especially in Minnesota in week four, where they gave up, I believe, 550 yards

of total offense. They head to the medal lands to pay a giant team that has a quarterback in Eli Manning that has really played great football the last two weeks. The Giants have bounced back after a bad start and yet there's Mark Sessler. He says forget about it. Forget things like stats. Forget things like trends. The Atlanta

Falcons are due for a big road win, so you picked him so i ask you mark sessler to defend your hero well i don't know it was very late at night and i ran through how did i know it was going to start this way i just you know was going left or right picking teams and i picked the falcons but why well i don't know now i'm looking at the fact that matt ryan has not won a game outdoors in his last eight attempts and that concerns me on some level but you know what was in his spot last week at least well west defended his hero better than mark did all i'll say though is that the falcons are going to be a sneaky team to maybe win that division or get into the playoffs as a wild card.

You've got to go on the road and win a couple of these games. This is one that they have to take care of business. The Giants, I think the Giants are a much improved team from where they were earlier in the year, which is, you know, less than a month ago, so that's not that long. But this may be a little bit of a battle for that final playoff spot. Matt Ryan has lost eight straight starts and games played outdoors. You don't say. and was that the same stat you laid out good knowledge

you added some emphasis to that thank you drop that hammer out there was one of my this was my power pick this week and I never picked the John Dressel Power I realized about halfway through that sentence like why is that sound familiar Mark said it 68 seconds earlier the Giants have disassembled their last two opponents

they're playing really well and the Falcons do not play well outdoors as you saw in Minnesota last week right how about this one by the Eli 29 and 6 in October. Well, you put that step of the way. 801% winning percentage, best of any month in his career. That means nothing.

Brian Billick said this week that the Falcons have the worst defensive talent in the league, which I found interesting because his brother-in-law coaches the Falcons. So maybe you get a little bit of an insight into what Mike Smith is thinking about this lousy defense that he's coaching, given of 558 yards to Teddy Bridgewater and Jerich McCannes. Kenyon, they have no pass rush. That's why I can't really get into your hero pick mark. The Kansas City Chiefs are hitting the road. The 49ers just play all home games this year?

Is that what's happening? It sort of feels like to me. They're at Levi Stadium. The Chiefs coming off a great win against the Patriots on Monday, and now they head to San Francisco to face the Niners. It's hard to make any sense of the Niners right now. As we all know, they came out with that win against the Eagles this past week. Greg Rosenthal, perhaps because it was so close.

to home his Patriots with a team on the losing end against the Chiefs, is sticking with the Chiefs. He thinks they're going to put together another big win and announce themselves as one of the true early surprise teams in the NFL. Defender here. They've been one of the best teams in the NFL the last three weeks in a row. Tell me the result that wasn't impressive. They go into Denver and the outgame the Broncos.

That wasn't that impressive. The Broncos took their foot off the gas pedal. They played them straight up. You watched that game and they look like two even teams. Alex Smith goes to toe to... Weren't the Broncos 21 to nothing in that game? They moved the ball. And then took their foot off the gas pedal?

They moved the ball the whole game. The Broncos only had seven drives. It wasn't... The Chief's defense didn't particularly play well. I think you're the one going full heel here on the 49ers. Well, that might be a part of it, too. Hey, I believe in something, and the 49ers haven't shown me enough to believe otherwise. Colin Kaepernick's not playing well.

I think Alex Smith right now... You're selling him short. Alex Smith is playing better than... Colin Kaepernick. That's true. Well, imagine I was saying that a couple years ago when they got rid of Alex Smith. You have to give Colin Kaepernick credit for one thing, though. He's messing up some plays, but he's making some very hard plays to make.

He makes three or four wow plays that no one else can make every game. But he also just misses throws. He doesn't see receivers. He seems like, you know, they talk about quarterbacks. The game slows down for them. The game has not slowed down for Colin Kaepern. It's going very fast. At home last week, again, another home game in a stadium named after a pair of jeans.

Blows the game clock three times, I think it was. Right. I mean, I think that Wes is correct. That what Kaepernick continues to do some things that only Kaepernick can do in a good way. But he almost seemed to be a calmer quarterback at the line of scrimmage in year one when he was starting then now. He hasn't progressed. I never would have thought that both Wes and I, and I don't know if you guys agree, that Alex Smith right now is playing better than Kaepernick.

It's incredible. Yeah. Well, I think Smith is one of those guys that everyone, the book's been written on him, and people are going to be real slow to change their opinion. But with what is around him, it is amazing what they did last week with what they have at wide receiver, which is essentially nothing outside of Twain Bell. The talent around him is getting a lot better, though. Travis Kelsey, he's legit.

Sure. And they're bringing in Nile Davis is a playmaker, or Nile Davis is a playmaker too. They've got some interesting talent now for the first time in a while. Their offensive line has settled down at least. They had a good game in Miami, a road game that they won convincingly. I'm just saying this team, I think on balance, has been better than the 49ers this year. I think they have the better quarterback. And Alex Smith is going to get a little revenge on the organization that gave him up.

All right. How about A.J. Jenkins' revenge? Is he getting out of the field? He's starting for Donnie Avery this week. What's the revenge? I grabbed millions from you, produced nothing, and then continue my career somewhere else? Fair retort. That was similar to a couple weeks ago, Mark, when you were talking about Ryan Fitzpatrick getting revenge on the bills for giving him a $60 million contract.

Well, by the way, after we pointed the finger at me saying that I was completely incorrect there, a narrative comes out that Ryan Fitzpatrick said he very badly wanted to win that game because he felt disrespected by Buffalo, the city, and the state of New York. How about that? Harvard getting pumped up. He's a maniac. is all right uh before we made me like it more oh sorry no no i like i always like the amish rifle but seeing that in a passion kind of reminds me of gregg on a sunday morning at about nine fifty eight right before kickoff when he gathers us in an alleyway he's like a bumper car he's just bouncing off people minus gregg's inability to grow facial hair is that true i can totally grow facial hair i've never seen it's got a little don johnson look going on right now

all right before we get to the rest of the games let's take a quick time out to go talk a little bit about Greg's QB index, which was released today on NFL.com slash around the NFL, in which Greg broke. You could even go slash ATL still. You can? That will work?

It'll revert back. I don't know what they call that. What about NFL.com slash news? That wouldn't work, would it? That would work too. Holy crap. It's a vestige. So, Greg's top

32 quarterbacks, as I look for it, on our website. I'm really excited to find it. Let's go through. We'll start with the top shelf. You broke a six pack of great quarterbacks. One through six. Philip Rivers is number one.

Peyton Manning, two. Matt Ryan, Andrew Luck, at four. Aaron Rogers at five and Drew Breese at six. Wes, you've already said you agree with everything here. Anything that maybe you were thinking, maybe at top six, we've got to tinker with it a little bit. If there was one thing, I would wonder how Breeze is playing better than Big Ben.

Or Stanford, really, too. That's a good point. I don't see a tier separation between Breeze and the two of them. That's fair. I mean, he got a little extra name value. He maybe should be down. Breeze played very well in week one against Atlanta. He had an unbelievable second half against the Browns.

He played pretty well against the Vikings. I think overall he hasn't been bad. It's not like you look at Drew Breeze and say he's had a bad season or anything like that. Well, not if he's at number six. There you go. This won't be the first time name recognition helps the quarterback on this list, by the way. Thomas Brady. That's not true. All right, so, Mark, you okay with that top six?

Yeah, this is based off of where we are right now. Oh, yeah, quarter pole, baby. Yeah, this is just supposed to be 2014 and that's it. I mean, I think Big Ben, what more could Big Ben have done at this point to get into the top five? It's fair. One more games, but that's not his fault necessarily. Well, actually, yeah, because he had the bad game in Baltimore, the offense, and they couldn't close this past Sunday.

To me, that can knock you down to, quote, the next level, Greg Rose-Athal. Do you think Cam Newton's playing better than Russell Wilson? I do. Here is the next level. Ben Rufflesberger, Matthew Stafford, Cam Newton, Joe Flacco, and Russell Wilson, 7 through 11. I got to admit, there's one guy who did get a boost from name value on this entire list, and I just had a hard time putting him lower, and that was Russell Wilson. I don't think he's done that much this year.

If you really look at what he's done, they don't ask him to do too much. Cam Newton, I think, is throwing the ball better right now than he's ever done in his career. He played great last week. You've got to watch that game, West. Reesancy bias. No, he's played good. Give me the game where Cam Newton didn't play well. Give me the game where Russell Wilson didn't do.

Cam Newton is obviously, he's throwing the ball well. He's been sacked more times than he's rushed the ball. You have that entire element of his game, which makes him so special, completely eliminated at this point. Well, he'd be in the top five if he had the running ability, because I think the passing right now is as good as I've seen. And Joe Flacko right now is as good and as consistent as I've seen from him in a long time. All right. Let's go to the next level after that, which Greg titled The Next Level After That.

That's my favorite part of this entire production. Maybe a rewrite there. Number 12, Eli Manning. Ow, top 12. Tony Romo, Alex Smith, Jay Cutler, Colin Kaepernick, Tom Brady at number 17, and Andy Dalton at 18. Greg, I got to tell you, Andy Dalton is playing better than Tom Brady right now. You try to put Tom Brady below the Dalton scale. But that's what I think.

That's what it's all about. You got to do it. I think you put Dalton somewhere just so that you can have. What is Dalton doing? The rest of it. Yeah. Andy Dalton is the most overrated player in the league right now. He's really the reason.

You have him right in the middle where he should be. But Tom Brady, if this is about the first quarter of the season, I know he's the golden boy, but he's got to be lower after four games. I don't think Brady played poorly until Monday night. I really don't. I think last year when I did these, I had a whole thing kind of killing Brady, had him very low. I thought he was struggling early in the season. I honestly believe the first three games, he played fine. Monday night was, you know, we don't want to talk about Monday night.

I do. Anybody else have thoughts on that little tier? I agree with Greg totally from watching all of the Bengals games. All Dalton has done is dump the ball off at G.O. Bernard. He doesn't do anything. They ask him to make like six hard throws a game and he misses four of them. Wait till Sunday night. I would say one thing that maybe Tony Romo needs to be up a little higher than he is.

His first two games were brutal. So that's half of his. It makes sense that he would have climbed from the bottom. You could make an argument that Alex Smith belongs in the tier above too. Yeah. Again, he had another bad week one. but he has been consistent enough to be higher. Yeah, he was great against the Pats.

The after Dalton, this is the everything after Dalton starting 19 to 24. Austin Davis, number 19. Nick Foles, ooh, some Nick Foles hatred coming from Greg. Kirk Cousins at 21, even after that meltdown against the Giants. A Carson Palmer, Drew Stanton Poo Platter, Ryan Tannenhill at 23, and Brian Hoyer, Cessler's Boy, at 24. I disagree with Dan on Fools. You could put him lower.

Yeah. He's been brutal. Well, that Niners game was abhorrent, but at the same time, I mean, you are looking at a guy that's getting protected by players that shouldn't even be starting in the NFL right now. The protection was fine in week one, and that was... I'll talk about the Niners game, though. I know, but his worst game of the season was week one.

It was one of the worst five games I think any quarterbacks had all year. He missed a lot of throws against the Colts. The reason Foles is even that high to answer you, Wes, is he does make a handful of really nice plays every year. game. I mean, he moves well in the pocket. Let's be honest. The reason he's that high is because of one game. He played lights out against the Redskins. Yeah, that's true.

He has six giveaways this season. He had four all of last year. So, yeah, there's no doubt that his play has dropped off after what he was doing. How about a Hoyer escaping the bottom tier. Way to go, buddy. Well, let's look at the bottom tier, and I'm not sure that's a compliment. Dan chastised me for not having

him on surprises. You only am 24th out of 32. I wasn't the only one that chastised you said to this guy right here to my right. Then he put him underneath the guy who almost got pulled last three. Let's be honest. Let's be honest. He's played three games, and two of them, he's been fairly lousy. So why did you chance to us?

It's October, the baseball playoffs. I'll use an analogy of the umpire that has the wide strike zone and then doesn't have the wide strike zone, batter to batter. You've got to pick a strike zone and stick with it. Whatever the strike zone is that says Hoyer's mediocre. That's the one of us. TD has a hot take. Guys, one of the chances that Andy Dalton this year becomes good enough

where he's no longer the AD skill. However, Austin Davis also improves and becomes consistent enough where he's the AD skill. I would say 2%. I don't think Austin Davis is going to ever be that good. Willing to eat your softball pants for that one? Is that good right now? I don't think that could be measured. I do worry about that.

Or maybe it would be like a weight coming off our shoulders. Austin Davis right now is what Case Keenham was after two and a half games last year. That's fair. Here's the end game. These are the final quarterbacks. Matt Castle, Ryan Fitzpatrick. Gino Smith, Jake Locker, Josh McCown, Derek Carr, E.J. Manuel, and the worst quarterback in the NFL, I guess, among guys that have started enough games to qualify for such a thing is Chad Hennie. Get excited about that end of the list.

I thought Gino would have. If I had done this after a couple weeks, he would have been higher. I'm a little surprised that Gino didn't creep into the next year just because you've been a staunch defender. Both in the beginning of the season, you were impressed, and then you've been defending him the last couple weeks. It's a little low now that I... Yeah, well, you always have to put Castle a few spots higher than he deserves because that's your thing. So maybe that explains it. I don't know.

You've got to have... It looks weird. It was 31, and there was no castle for a while, and I just thought that looks weird. You've got to put someone. All right, let's go to the good QB index, right? Do those come out every week? Every week. Thursday mornings.

Are you kidding me? Free. It's like the same as the end round. The end rounds every Friday on NFL.com. Friday. Anybody else want to plug their content? The lighter side of sports. This and I don't need to use the show to plug our own pieces and stuff.

It is free. And if you were raised by a mother and a father instead of a pack of wolves, that means you don't complain about it ever. It's free. But we complain about the free food they serve here all the time. Although I think I've had words with you about that. Remember a couple of years ago I was like, all right, enough of this complaining about the food.

I don't complain about that shut me up. I will hold you to that, West. Next time you complain, I will not do that. That would be the first time. All right, finally. Let's go to the rest of the games where we get out of here. We'll start with Tampa Bay heading to the Saints. The Bucks coming off that shocking win over the Steelers on the road.

Really, probably the biggest upset of the season to date. And now they have another tough task on the road against the Saints. I guess what makes this game a little tricky. We all pick the Saints, but what makes it a little tricky is that obviously the Saints have had their trouble on the road. They weren't exactly dominant when we saw them at home either in the Superdome. This is a game that if the Saints don't win by 20 points, then I think you two should start getting really worried about that Super Bowl pick. They better blow out the bucks.

This just in. I'm already really worried. What Greg Hosell said on, I believe, the Ross Tucker podcast this week, that Jarus Bird, or Jarus Bird, Jerrus Bird, Jerrus. Jiris Byrd. Jiris. Byrd. Yeah, has been the worst safety in the NFL this season.

How about that? I guess Greg Cosell is a lot better at measuring those things than we are, but he hasn't played well. Neither is, I mean, his competition for the award might be Kenny Vicaro. Ouch. Don't give Greg Cossel too much credit. Mark is the best at evaluating safeties in the entire. Mark, he did call Harrison Smith last week.

You know, I'm really concerned about birds back. That's obviously a big issue. And when I've, you know, unpacked hours of all 22-foot concerned about his ability to shift and turn and make the tackle and close in on the guys coming down field. It is true. This guy got more money than any free agent in the league, and then he underwent back surgery right after that.

But Vicaro, by the way, kind of swindled the Saints. Vicaro number one on our Making the Leap list, and we are starting to look a rather suspect. He's number two. Last year, number one, Ryan Tannahill, so you maybe don't want to be on this list. Let's not talk about the Making the Leap list.

Let's keep it buried for now, and if we have to face the music, buried so far yeah don't check it out don't go to nfl dot com slash making the leap uh austin davis and the st louis rams are heading to philadelphia to face the genius and the eagles uh austin davis officially named starter uh the mr hill era is over it didn't last that long it took one injury to open the door austin so austin davis is playing well i think he's number three on gregg's qb index uh number three or four i don't remember can he go into philly and light up the Eagles and keep him in a game and a shootout potentially.

No. No. Why not? He's looked good at every game he's been out there. Two words. Schottenheimer, comma, Brian. I don't know. He's looked at a shattenheimer the last couple of weeks.

Maybe Brian Schottenheimer was just waiting for Austin Davis to come along that they're a match made in heaven. He's tried to turn every other quarterback he's had into Austin Davis. So here you go. Sessler and I have had this conversation several times where Mark and, Listen, defending Brian Schottenheimer is probably not something you want to type of business you want to get into. But Brian Schottenheimer was the last time he had a decent quarterback to work with. Maybe Austin Davis can play a little bit.

Maybe Brian Schottenheimer! So all the Rams that made excuses for, all the Rams fans made excuses for Sam Bradford for years saying his receivers and running backs offensive line were no good. Austin Davis comes in and three games does something Sam Bradford never did. Maybe Sam Bradford just isn't very good. right potentially Michael Kendrix I believe is going to be out again

they're not really good cover you know he's good at the touch pass I could see some score in this game the Eagles are a weird team I don't know what this is yeah they are strange and Nick Bowles

is kind of hard to figure out right now we all took the Eagles moving forward the Pittsburgh Steelers who we mentioned just moments earlier shocked at home by the bucks on last Sunday

now head to Jacksonville to face the putre jaguars who were forked by us forked nice and hard this past Wednesday so now Now, to me, this smells exactly like everything is lined up for a nice 41 to 14 pasting Steelers win. Anybody disagree?

Nice callback to the Patriots Chiefs score, making Greg just writhe in his seat. Decades of happiness, but potentially under the radar, yes. I think the Jagars will be a lot more competitive than that. I give this crowd in Jacksonville a lot of credit for the noise they were bringing in their one game. It was 30 to nothing in that game, and they were going crazy. They don't even know what's going on. I swear to God. I mean, I can't believe it.

Foxborough, they'd all be home by that point. They were just arguing over who gets the giraffe floaty in the cabanas. Blake Bordels, though, first home start, they're going to be cooking. I don't know. I think it's a little dangerous. He's completing 70% of his passes. It's only a two-game sample size. But, you know, listen, who would have, last week,

we would all been laughed off the stage to suggest that Tampa could score points on Pittsburgh's defense. I like the idea of us being on a stage. A dais. Can we get one? That'd be awesome. It's like maybe like ain't around the NFL play. This could be a sneaky, uh, everyone in the pool game.

No, uh... No pun intended. Yeah, whatever you want to call it in Jacksonville. Everyone in the pool for fantasy. Marco Polo? Could be like 47 to 38. That's what I was smelling. Oh.

Party time. Everybody. I will be stunned if this game isn't a blowout. Here's a battle two, three and one teams that, I don't think anybody predicted they'd be three and one at this point. The Houston Texans heading to Big D to face the Dallas Cowboys. And this shows you how the Cowboys are kind of moving in the right direction. Never a huge popular pick among the around the NFL group.

But we all pick the Cowboys to take care of business at home against the Texans. I guess Ryan Fitzpatrick's speech last week doesn't have any carryover effect for the around the NFL boys. I think it also shows that underneath it all, when it comes down to a tough matchup, no one believes in the Texans. Turned down for what! I'm not sure I needed that sound bite with it, but very well done.

What a matchup if Watt ever gets way on the outside there, Watt versus Tyrant Smith. How about Watt versus Tony Romo's creaky back? See ya. Wait, so who are you picking? We're all taking the Cowboys. We all put Dallas. I thought you were making a reference

that J.J. Watt was going to maybe assessor. The injury is interesting because Dallas's offensive lines suddenly, you know, maybe top two, three in the league. They're better at run blocking than pass blocking. I mean, let's see if they can deal with what. And why is the most relentless player I've ever seen in the history of football? The Texans have some of those. That's not why I said that.

It would be funny if just randomly for the rest of the year, just whenever one of us starts talking, you just throw that in there. It has nothing to do with JJ. just shut this up. Watt has more quarterback hits than like 15 teams or something right now. It's great. He's special. Watching that I monitored that Texans Bills game last week, and you don't even, it's not recorded on the box score, the plays where he's swallowing up one or two guys, and some other guy in the Texans gets a quarterback hit and gets a sack.

It's happening all game long. No team has less impressive victories, though, if you're impressed by offense than the Texans. I mean, they were winning with these pick sixes by defensive linemen and block punts. I'm terrified of this game. Absolutely terrified because if we know anything from the Dallas Cowboys in the last three or four years, they are afraid of their own shadow, they are afraid of success. How many games have they blown where they were starting to get momentum in a season or three in one? They have a chance to jump to four in one, and here come the Texans, who they're better than,

you totally see the Cowboys blown. I agree. One thing to think about, though, Arian Foster did not look healthy at all against Buffalo, and he's a game time decision at best right now, and he and Andre Johnson combined don't have as many touchdowns as J.J. Watt. Let's talk some Kyle Orton. Get excited.

A former cowboy. Why? Did you want to talk more about it? I was just wanting to keep it moving. No, let's go right to Kyle. I was giving you the final word. No, I'm fine. Kyle Orton.

I like giving you the final word. Bang it out, and then we move. I made my point. Let's proceed to the Kyle Orton conversation. Kyle Orton is the starting quarterback of the Buffalo Bills now. E.J. Manuel exists now only in theory. He's a backup. And now Kyle Orton leads a, let's say I said a talented bills team to Detroit to face the lions.

The lions who are coming off a win on the road against the Jets are looking genuinely frisky this year. Three and one playing very well on defense. We don't know what we're going to get from Calvin Johnson, who barely played against the Jets. Missed another practice on Thursday. So I don't know what's going on with him. However, good game right here. This is a really sneaky, great game of the week. Buffalo at Detroit.

Your thoughts, gentlemen. I agree. I asked Mark, when I got in this morning, since he's our rookie guru, if the addition of Kyle Orton makes Sammy Watkins the heavy favorite for rookie of the year now. He's got to start catching some passes. I think it does. Really? I think all he needed was somebody to get him the ball.

And E.J. Manuel could have been very good, though. He's not going for ball. I have a week two stuck in my mind when he had... He could have had 10 for 180 and three touchdowns if only two inches away plays happened. And he dominated that game. A lot of negative plays, but we're burying the lead here. Mark Sessler and Kyle Orrin have a heat and animosity between each other,

unlike any media, NFL player... Does Kyle Orrin know about this? Kyle doesn't know quite yet. But he doesn't know anything about it. You have ranted about Kyle Orton how distasteful he is. How about this? I'm not into guys that, you know, are collecting millions of dollars and openly don't want to be doing what they're doing.

So you quit and then you realize, oh, wait, I need that still. So bang, the Buffalo Bills need a quarterback. Now, hold on here. I don't, I think the West may be on to something. If Orton has got his head, you know, screwed on straight, this is an upgrade for the bills, a quarterback, and suddenly, if he can even just, looking at your quarterback rankings, a properly functioning, Orton, is higher than six or seven of those guys.

I like, he's ornery already, though. He was calling reporter. Didn't he say something was a clown question? He said it was a crap question. Somebody said, asked, how will you run this offense better than E.J. Manuel? And he said, that's a crap question. And we talked about on Wednesday, some of his wide receivers openly saying how Orton gets the ball out faster and reads things.

better than E.J. And they have to adjust. Don't we always hear things like that, though? Not an easy first. Yeah, you're right. And not an easy first matchup having to go to Detroit and play in the dome. Who took who here? We all took the Lions.

Live across. Lions aren't just frisky. They're genuinely good. We're not ready to take Rusty Kyle Orton on the road? It wouldn't shock me. This was one of the tougher games for me to pick. I was a little surprised no one with the bills. I thought pretty hard about taking the bills.

The Jets are losers of three straight and now travel to the West Coast to play. The San Diego Chargers, a team of ATL nominee, finalist even. Gino Smith, here's a little setback with Gino Smith and the Jets' offense. Eric Decker on Thursday pulled himself out of practice with the hamstring tightened up again. This is now something that you really have to concern is going to stick with him for a while. so the Jets could be potentially without Derek, Eric Decker without David Nelson, who has an ankle injury,

and when I mentioned David Nelson is maybe a big piece of the pie that's out, that tells you a lot about the Jets depth at water receiver. So an underman Jets team slumping heads to San Diego, who's got the Jets? You wouldn't even, you didn't even take them. Couldn't do it. Couldn't do it. I don't like the way things are going.

I didn't like what I've seen from Gino Smith this week, who was having some issues with the media. He had the middle finger incident. He seems to be cracking a little bit right now. He doesn't seem to be in a great spot. And Philip Rivers is just playing too well. He's going to carve up that jet secondary. He's going to throw for over 300 yards,

pass rating north of 110, three touchdowns away we go. Chargers seem like they have graduated from the point where you worry that they might play down to a level of competition and have a game where the Jets could beat them. I just think they're too mentally tough right now. I look at the game where you go into Buffalo, tough place to win, and you pull that out. That, for me, is when they graduated from that,

because that's a total spot where you see San Diego melting. You know, though, we sit and talk about these games and we're missing the fact that five of these are going to end in bizarre fashion and make total fools of what we say, who knows? Maybe the Jets pull this thing out. Yeah, this isn't a wild mismatch or anything. And in general, when you look at this week, and we talked about it downstairs, this is one of those weeks where you're picking the games.

Like, oh, this seems easier than the prior weeks. Those are always the weeks where you ended up being shocked by what, happen. So maybe the Jets save their season because at 1 and 4 there probably is no coming back. I know how New York narratives work and it smells like next week's narrative will be, well, what about Rex Ryan's defense? You know, this

guy is supposed to be a defensive coach after the Chargers put, you know, 30 points out or whatever, like, let's take the attention off Gino Smith and put it squarely on the glacier. Or who thought Rookie Jay Samarro would score a game-winning touchdown against the Chargers? Finally, the final game.

Ooh. All your Sessler's are for things that you didn't actually predict. Right, I picked the Chargers, so I've got to cover it on both ends. That's one of the trends of the season when we talk about the quarter poll. Sessler predicting things that go against his written predictions elsewhere. Well, in that all, I can point to something that came out right every time. Yeah, we were walking downstairs after the podcast, and you went on this long rant how your team of ATL nominee,

the Jets are going to trash the lions next week and prove us all wrong. And then I go and look at our picks, the lion. Did I pick correctly? You're damn coward. Finally, Monday night football the Seattle Seahawks heading to Washington to face the Redskins. The Seahawks seem to be in a very good spot here, considering they are a superior team. But on the road in prime time,

the Seahawks aren't as good on the road and the Redskins are frisky, although they're coming off a bad loss for Kirk Cousins where he performed terribly. How do we see this? I want to see what the Redskins defense looks like, because I thought this team had some promise until that Giants game, and now that Giants game has stuck with us for two and a half weeks, and that's all we can remember. But this team looked pretty good for the first three weeks of the season.

You know, I think that Bucks game, for instance, where they went out and got absolutely ripped by Atlanta, you thought, oh, they're going to lose every game this way, and then they come back and beat a much better team than them and the Steelers. I don't look at the blowouts, and it doesn't – they shouldn't stick with you, those blowouts week-to-week. This is Washington's season, in a sense. You've got to show that you can do something in a home spot here.

I don't want to overthink this. The Seahawks are on a much better team than the Redskins. Right, we all took them. Yeah, they are. But, hey, Seahawks haven't won. When was the last time Seahawks won a road game? 2013? Give me a break.

How about this, February 1st, 2014? The Super Bowl! Technically, that's neutral, but yeah. Whatever. All right, so that's it for Thursday's edition of the Reds. on the NFL podcast. We will be back on Sunday, as we always are, the only NFL podcast that you will find that has a podcast up and ready to roll Sunday night for you to soak in, whether you're putting yourself to sleep or you're driving at work or you're pumping

iron at the gym, Sizzler style. That's what we bring. Why hasn't some competitor jumped up and decided we'll do a show on Sunday night too? They're afraid. It just seems like no one's connecting the many ideas. All right. So we will be back on Sunday night. This is Dan Hansen signing off for the sizzler the mailman the boss and t d behind the glass until then well if we're out a break i'm going to blow i know use that at the end of the podcast this is an iHeart podcast this is an iHeart podcast