The Fumblerooski Podcast - A Late Start -Ep 299 The Fumblerooski Podcast

Episode Date: October 4, 2024

The Falcons beat the Bucs in an OT thriller, Kirk Cousins throwing for over 500 yards and 4 TDs, have the Falcons finally found their groove? Will the Bills injuries be too much to beat the Texans this week? Can the Chiefs figure it out on offense without Rashee Rice? Chris Costich, CJ Medeiros, and Adam Wright discuss all of this and more!

the Falcons and the Bucs put up a Thursday night banger as the Falcons went 36 to 30 and OT Kirk Cousins over 500 passing yards. Who knew he had it in him? It is Kirk Tober. You're listening to the Fumble Rooski podcast. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws. Back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns.

Someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides. You're listening to the Fulham Brewski Podcast by Power8018 Radio and Secret Weapon Consulting. I'm Chris Kostic, and with me for the last however many episodes now CJ Medeiros and Adam Wright and CJ dude you make a great point I I think this year has been a great Thursday night football year so far besides obviously the Pats Jets game that's probably been the only bad unless we want to take opening night away and not consider that because it wasn't like. Oh, no, it was on a Thursday. It counts.

Okay. Okay. We'll count it. I was thinking more Amazon Prime games in general, but in all totality, so far, the Thursday night games have been bangers uh especially the amazon prime games this past week bucks and falcons uh last week not as good of a game with cowboys and giants but still pretty competitive game and then um week two wasn't great but week three wasn't great either now i now i'm really saying it uh two of the games weren't really that good but next week is going to be 49ers seahawks you know that's going to be a really good game uh broncos saints

that won't be great now i'm kind of starting to dial back on my take now i mean i was gonna say like there were there have been a couple of them been bad but opening night was really nice um and i think there's the nfl is starting to NFL is starting to give some of the better matchups to Thursday night football, which is like, I don't really care. I just want football in the middle of the week to hold me over. I understand them giving the bad matchups to Thursday night football, but if you get a good one, then I don't mind it so much. I'd rather them give a good primetime game,

but at the same time, every team is going to end up getting at least one primetime slot at one point or another. And that's kind of what we saw with the Amazon Prime games the last few years. And every single game was just garbage. This one definitely tops tops mall in terms of how good it was uh kirk cousins 42 for 58 509 yards four touchdowns one interception

drake london 12 catches 152 yards and a touchdown baker mayfield didn't have a bad game either. It wasn't a big throw-in day for him. Only 180 yards passing. If you took the DraftKings boost on him for passing yards, then you definitely got dicked over, a.k.a. me. It's the first thing you brought up when you got in the studio today. Yeah. Run game for Tampa Bay, too. 160 yards on the ground especially for a tampa team that

isn't that great running the football either uh and rashad white 10 carries 72 yards uh granted 56 of the yards were on one carry um and chris godwin mike Evans, both getting five catches. Mike Evans with a two-tutty game. Wasn't any big standouts in the receiving game. Darnell Mooney, nine catches, 105 yards, two touchdowns for the Falcons. All around, this was an amazing showcase from both teams. And the takeaway, the takeaway, Excuse me. Holy. I mean, I don't really know what the big takeaway here is because both teams showed out amazingly.

Atlanta's finally starting to get it going again. I think that's really the big takeaway is that Atlanta is finding is finally finding their groove. And even Kyle Pitts had a big game, seven catches, 88 yards. The only player on the Falcons team that didn't really go off was Bijan. Well, one,

so one thing I'll tell you is a big reason why the, why Tampa wasn't as vertical in this game was because they were ahead for most of the second half. In fact, they weren't ahead for the entirety of the second half of the game or, and it got to the point where the only reason it went to overtime was because of a last second field goal. So Atlanta never led in the second half.

And therefore Tampa, they're not going to be throwing the ball. They're going to be trying to run the clock out. So I understand why Mayfield wasn't really hucking it deep because they're trying to run the clock out. That's just basic game script. But I mean, this season has been a year of new beginnings, of fresh starts for these quarterbacks. Two quarterbacks who they've started their careers with different teams, and they're experiencing a career renaissance with their new spot. With these two quarterbacks, Baker Mayfield and Kirk Cousins,

also Sam Darnold, and also Justin Fields. So we're seeing a lot of that and these two quarterbacks put on a show um i mean if you looked at just the scores you would think tom brady and matt ryan were facing each other i mean it was that kind of a game where these two were going back and forth there were a few different lead changes. Kirk Cousins looks pretty good so far this year. 500 yards. 509 is a franchise record, by the way, for a single game. So, I mean, this NFC East, it looks like it's going to be a dogfight.

You have two teams that are 3-2. NFC South. What did I say? East. You said East. Excuse me. NFC South. It's going to be a dogfight.

You have these two teams a quarter of the season in. They're both three and two. It's going to be a fun time. Now, what I really liked from the Atlanta Falcons was the resilience of the team. Because, let's be real, let's get the jokes out of the way now. Usually Atlanta is always on the other end of the way now usually atlanta is always on the other end of this right looking at a certain super bowl and to be fair they weren't infallible because i would argue that the tampa bay defense performed pretty well you know until the second

half but you gotta look right i believe they gave up four sacks matt ryan even threw a pick matt guys like yeah guys like tyke i mean not matt ryan kurt cousins you know same bland white guy different team no i'm kidding we love kurt cousins he's one of the cousins with swag surfing after the game i don't know if you guys saw that one yeah yeah so i mean for tampia guys like tykee smith and jamelle dean just flying around the field and heck the mistakes kept coming for atlanta i mean young way ku we we know we love him he even missed two field goals on three or five on the day but you know he was able to clutch up when it mattered and that's the thing no one thinks of the term clutch and kirk cousins unless you're chris in the same sentence and chris i think was correct 42 of 58 509 yards four touchdowns beautiful and drake london went

off kyle pitts actually did something darnell mooney with over a buck through the air and heck could daryl hodge with the walk-off touchdown that's what you want to see at bare minimum from the Falcons and you know it was obviously a tough game for you know both sides really shoot out and look it was a divisional game so these games between good teams usually results in fireworks and this game promised it there and i i would say that i remember last week there was a game i was talking about where i said if i could hand both teams an l i would this guy feels like if i could hand both teams a w i would but hey someone had to lose unfortunately it was tampa i don't think this is a damning loss on tampa's part i really don't i just think the falcons are getting hot at the right time you know if you're the bucks

you know you lost an ugly game of the broncos you lost a nail biter the falcons this is just they go back to the drawing board week and come out firing but for atlanta you know for how they started the year right with that weird loss to pittsburgh you beat philly in a nail biter you lost the chiefs in a nail biter then you beat the saints a nail biter and you beat the bucks in guess what kids another nail biter so i'm starting to notice that well i am happy with the falcons and they are put, or at least Kirk is putting on an air show. We need to remind ourselves that these aren't convincing wins. These are games and it's a game through the entire way. These are like, like I said, like fourth quarter down to the

wire nail biters where they're either winning or losing by a score. So for Atlanta, you might want to start working on getting some more convincing wins. But in the meantime, take the dub. You earned it. I'll have to disagree there. We might have to agree to disagree. But yes, they are wins. And they are, I guess you could call it unconvincing wins. But they're gutting them out against good teams.

They beat the Falcons in overtime. I'm sorry, who beat the Falcons in overtime? Excuse me, they beat the Buccaneers, sorry. They beat the Buccaneers in overtime. They beat the Eagles. They barely lost to the Chiefs, and they beat the Saints, who have been more competitive than they're supposed to be so far this season in the final seconds as well.

So it's like, yeah, they're gutting them out, but they're winning the tough ones. It's not like they're playing bad football. They're still pretty solid, and they're getting better, and they're gelling as the season goes on, but they're gutting them out, and I think that's better than just blowing every team out that you see yeah and another thing too is that you know this this is your typical shootout i i don't expect the this falcons defense especially to be putting or to allow 30 points very many times as well this is probably gonna be like the one of two maybe three times that they put up that they allowed 30 points this year and same same thing on the Tampa side too no I mean you

have a point you really do it's just that you know it's I mean I wouldn't like you said I guess I wouldn't call these unconvincing and it's always good to win these nail biters. But at the same time, a lot of people thought this about, Oh my God, you're going to call this a reach, but I don't care. You remember the 2022, what they were called the cardiac Vikings,

you know, or like all their games are nail biters. I like this Falcons team. I just don't want this to be a repeat of that Vikings team. Yeah, we don't love that. That was a very, very fun team to watch, though. Sure, but they were coming back against the Colts. I mean, yeah.

The Jeff Saturday Colts. I get what you're saying there. I'd like to see some blowout. Yeah, no, I mean, I'm not disparaging them. It's like I'm'm just saying like, you don't want to be the team that has to win. I mean, look, a comfortable victory ain't gonna hurt every once in a while. And it's impressive that you're winning these nail biters,

but what happens, actually we saw what happened when maybe a call doesn't go your way and it's late in the game. You never, and we've said this before, you never wanna be in a situation where a bad call or maybe a boneheaded play can cost you the game you want to see them blow some out yeah all i'm saying is these are against teams that have been pretty competitive this year and they it's if it would be one thing if they're barely edging them out against teams they should be blowing out of the water but for the most part these wins have been against very competitive teams yeah and if you take away the Steelers game uh the first

five the first five weeks of the season they're going up against playoff caliber teams if we want to consider the Saints in that category right now which they very well could be uh they're three and one against playoff teams this year true playoff caliber teams um but yeah that's that's basically all i have really for the falcons game i mean this we basically hit the nail on the head with it it's not a damning game for the bucks and for the falcons this kind of just shows that they're, they're here to play. They can come back in the big games and, and come away with the win when it matters most. But I agree.

Yeah. Yeah. So we'll move on. It's Friday. So it's time for our game picks. We'll take a quick break. When we come back, we'll get to the London game in our 1 p.m. slot. You're listening to the FumbleRisky Podcast.

It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws. Back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides. This is the Fumble Whiskey Podcast by Power 88 Dean Radio. Secret Weapon Consulting.

Chris Gostich. CJ Medeiros. Adam Wright. As we go into the 1 o'clock games. First, though, the 9.30 game. The London game. The Jets versus the Vikings. Vikings coming in at 4-0 with Sam Darnold playing MVP-level ball right now.

The Jets on the other side of the totem pole coming off of probably what could be their ugliest loss of the season uh it's not looking great probably some tensions most likely there definitely is some tensions between rogers and sala uh man this is it's not pretty right now in new y. That is, that is for certain. Um, and right off the top of the bat right now, I'm feeling the Vikings on this. They're hot. And the jets too many Eagles egos going around. I don't think so. I've said this a lot of times now.

Sala is just not a good coach. I I'm thinking it's going to be the Vikings on this one. Kevin O'Connell is going to cook up a good game. Sam Darnold. I mean, it's going to be a tight one because this Jets defense is still a pretty good defense. Vikings defense, though, has stepped up and shown that they're going to be a top defense in this league. Yeah, I have to go with the Vikings as well. I think this is a team.

The Vikings look pretty good. Sam Darnold is having a little career renaissance. And again, this is the league of, this has become the year of fresh starts for quarterbacks. And Sam Darnold has been the embodiment of that. He is, I mean, he's looking for me like the comeback player of the year by a mile right now. And he's taken over a team that is, that has is loaded with targets

and they're about to get TJ Hawkinson back very soon. And this Jets team, I still think they have a shot to be competitive. If they do become that, then it looks like it's going to be later on in the season where they figure things out. They may be floundering around 500 for a little while in the beginning of the year. They may sneak into the playoffs at 11 and six, 10 and seven. Until that point, I'm taking the Vikings and I don't even know if it's going to be close. I think the only reason this game has the possibility of being close is solely due to the jets defense we can all agree on that however the vikings defense under their defensive coordinator brian flores has been amazing and you saw the jets lost to denver and people forget this is a sam

donald revenge game let's not over complicate this give me the vikings pretty easy pretty easy um and then we're just gonna get this sucker out of the way here uh the toilet bowl of week five of the season uh dolphins patriots goodness goodness me. This Dolphins offense without Tua. And Tua is a top 15 quarterback, or at least better than half of the quarterbacks in the league, I feel like. And this offense without Tua is just disgusting. Absolutely just. There's no other words to really describe how bad this offense is.

They're just terrible. And New England's defense is pretty solid in its own right. I hate to say it. I'm going with the Pats on this. I'm going with the Dolphins and not in a good way. And there's a couple of reasons I have the Dolphins over the Patriots. Number one is offensive line. The offensive line play is so bad for the Patriots. And that says a lot going against this Miami team that doesn't have much

to write home about upfront themselves, but it's this new England offensive line. It just keeps getting worse and worse. They lost Mark Andrews for the season, their center. And there's not really, excuse Dave, Dave Andrews, excuse me,

misspeaking all day, all day today. Sorry. Yeah, they lost Dave Andrews, their center. And the only real, the only real bright side they have is on Wenu.

But the other factor I have is pass catchers. Miami has some electric skill position players, not just in the passing game with Tyreek Hill, Jalen Waddell. They also have Devon Achan. Yeah, for those two reasons, I have Miami, and it doesn't say much because this New England team is just so bad. And Miami's quarterback position is bad too, but New England's is just as bad.

This is just a weird weird matchup because new england was already not a great team but let's be real they've been decimated by the injury bug like their defensive signal college want bentley's out they just lost longtime center david andrews and And Miami doesn't have a quarterback and their best pass rusher Jalen Phillips is done for the year. I think, and look, well, I've said a lot of harsh things about Miami and it's true. I don't think, I think McDaniel is overrated. He's just an unserious head coach. But the thing, the name of the game is speed. New England has some good fast guys in the backfield like Jones, Gonzalez, and well, the other Jones, but New England has always struggled with pure speed and Miami. They're not a good, I mean, they're not a very tough team. They're not tough. They're not agile. They're just fast. I think that's going to be enough, not to mention New England usually tends to struggle against scrambling quarterbacks. I mean, heck, they're making Brock Purdy look like

Amar Jackson last week. And coupled with the O-line, I'm leaning towards Miami, but oh my god, I would not be shocked if New England won this. but honestly, if new England had even an average offensive line, I would say it's a slam dunk for the pats, but because it's now going to be five weeks of five different offensive lines, just for that alone, I'm tilting towards Miami. Unfortunately,

it's going to be another tanking year. Yeah. This is probably going to be a, like six, nothing 10 to three game or something like that. Every loss they get, Adam will get a little bit more excited for Travis Hunter. Yeah, and I'll get a little bit excited as well after the game when I look on Twitter and see the Christian Gonzalez stat line when he covers Tyreek Hill.

Because last year's matchup when Gonzalez was covering Tyreek, it was like no catches, no yards, or something like that, and one interception when he got targeted. Yeah, so Chris, you are the only one of the three of us taking the Patriots, correct? It seems that way, and I'm just okay with that. Hold on, you're not alone. You're not alone you're not alone because one of our other co-hosts justin tucker i believe also picked new england he's he's on the right he's got the right mindset man he's got the right mindset i'm not saying i i disagree it's just it's

the o-line like i said if they even had an average o-line i'd go with new england that line is terrible it's so terrible one of the it is the worst O-line in the league statistically. Yeah. They are just way too injured to do anything. Statistically and personnel-wise. On paper, with the team they have, if they're healthy, they have four-fifths of it. They have David Andrews.

They have that other kid who plays guard. They have Cole Strange. They have Mike O'Neill. City, so, yeah. They need that left tackle, though. Yeah. All right, but let's keep going, I guess. Yeah.

Carolina-Chicago spread is in favor of Chicago by four. Oh, man. And I'm going to go Chicago, but it's, I think Carolina might give him is going to give him a good game. And I was looking at, uh, I sent this tweet to you guys earlier this week and it was basically, um, Jess Jackson Smith and Jigba. Uh, so earlier this year he had commented something about shane

waldron he's now the oc over at uh over in uh chicago now and he commented about how they're probably not gonna be that better off with shane waldron as their oc and it was a dig it was a dig no doubt about it but looking at at the routes that he was running, JSN was running with Shane Waldron as the OC. He was running probably like three routes, a curl route, a fade route, and one other route that's like not coming to mind right now. And since Shane Waldron has left,

his route tree has expanded by a billion. Now you look at DJ Moore's route tree, very similar to what JSN was running last year with Shane Waldron as his OC. Um, so that's pretty concerning. Uh, but I think Chicago's headed in the right direction right now. They got a bit big win this past week against the Rams.

Uh, Deandre Swift is starting to get it going again in the run game after being absolutely abysmal for the first three weeks of the season. So I'm going to go Chicago on this one. I'd like to look at the route trees for the other two wide receivers in that room too because DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett both had pretty good seasons last year and Jackson Smith and Jigba was the rookie. You know, they, sometimes you have,

you have some players who just, when they first enter the league, sometimes with wide receivers, they do very well, but, um, when they're, when they're rookiesies but sometimes it takes a year or so but uh i'm going chicago as well i think this chicago team it's going to be a little more rocky than we thought with a new quarterback but they're looking a little bit better on offense as the season goes on and i think that's an encouraging sign i don't know if this team is going to reach its full potential this year but they're at least showing that they're a product, that they, they, they're a product out there. They may not even make the playoffs, but they could win games against teams like Carolina who are struggling to figure things out themselves. Um, I mean, they benched their prize starting quarterback for Andy Dalton. So for

that reason, Bears have a very good defense. Caleb Williams is figuring things out. I don't know if he will entirely, but he's figuring it out. He's getting a little better. So for that reason, I have the Bears. I'm also going have to go chicago here for the sole reason of defense because with andy dalton at the helm carolina can make any game competitive i mean you saw like it since he the bangles didn't even get that much of a convincing win over the panthers with andy dalton and and Andy Dalton outright beat the Raiders. I think it's going to be close with the Bears. Defense is going to be the difference maker.

And Caleb is going to do just enough to keep him afloat on offense. You know, like I said, might not be their year yet, but they're going to develop into something special, I think. So, yeah, not too complicated. Give me Chicago. Yeah, I'm currently looking for the route trees of the bears right now. So DJ more obviously looks. So last week, DJ more was basically just running fades and out a curl.

That was all last week. Week one was definitely a little bit more week. One for DJ more was a little bit more. Week one for DJ Moore was a little bit more routes. Roma Dunze, though, week two. I'm looking at basically a corner route, two corner routes, a seam route, and an out route. So three routes for Roma Dunze. There's nothing for Keenan Allen just because Keenan Allen barely's played but kind of goes to my point of what I was saying um but

I'll if we had more time I will look at the Seattle ones uh from last year uh moving on but now we can keep going it's just game planning at that point. But Baltimore and Cincinnati, Baltimore's favorite in this one. Cincy is most likely going to be without Trey Hendrickson, I think. He got hurt last week. He's currently questionable on the injured list. And if Trey Hendrickson's out, that's going to be pretty big on the Cincinnati line, considering the way that the Ravens have been running the football with Derek Henry.

And I could see this being a very similar game. I don't know if it's going to be a near 200 yard game, similar from a Sunday night football, but I could see another 120 plus rushing rushing yard day from Derrick Henry. So with that, I'm taking the Ravens. Yeah, this is kind of – it's not a must-win for Baltimore. It's definitely a must-win for Cincy, but if you're Baltimore, the only reason you would see this as a must-win is because you do not want

to let Cincy back into this race. Once they get competitive again and they start believing in themselves, they're going to be a problem for everyone in that conference. They have the talent capacity to dance with any team in the league. And if you let them back in the race, they could potentially win the division. They can make a deep playoff run. They're going to be big problems for Baltimore. If, if the Bengals win this game, because then they're both two and three, you have a wide open AFC North. And with that in mind, I'm going to take Baltimore. Baltimore has more momentum. Cincinnati has been playing better ball, but Baltimore just,

they're not, they're not as dysfunctional as since he seems to be, there seems to be a lot of problems with this Bengals team and it's probably going to sink them this season, but give me the Ravens. The Bengals missing Trey Hendrickson's is a huge deal and even if they did have them i'm still going baltimore and i'll tell you why because the bangles really kind of couldn't convincingly put away the panthers you know what i mean the panthers are still getting theirs and meanwhile baltimore completely disassembled the bills like took them apart in every facet so it's not really close however to the ravens i'd like to issue this warning be careful it's a division game and you never know what can happen in a division game other than that though i will have to go with the ravens

don't let him back in this race do not let him back yeah huge game uh cleveland washington give me washington jayden daniels hot right now this offense for washington is on fire uh defense is still not great but it's gonna be good enough to not let Deshaun Watson do anything. Granted, he hasn't done anything all year. And on Cleveland's side, the only thing you really have looking forward to is Nick Chubb getting back in the lineup, back practicing this week. Don't really know when he's going to be playing yet.

Definitely has to get back up to game speed and coming off of what was a very serious injury. But that's basically the only thing you're looking forward to and maybe getting rid of Amari Cooper, but that's really it. So, yeah, give me Washington. Even when Nick Chubb is is back this is looking like it's going to be more of a jerome ford year uh running backs who come off knee injuries they usually take a lot more than just one season to fully recover um but i'm still taking washington and it's not

really going to be close there are so many problems with Cleveland right now, and it looks like they invested in the wrong quarterback. Look at how Baker is doing over there in Tampa. Look at how your prized acquisition Deshaun Watson is playing now. Even in games where I believe that Cleveland would win, they're losing. I thought they would beat the Raiders last week, and they didn't. It was just such a sluggish game for Cleveland in such a winnable game. If Watson actually had his head screwed on straight. And for that, we think that Washington is going to be better for them. No, this, I mean, this commander's team is on fire right now, and they're going to continue. They're going to win another game. Yeah, it's got to be Washington.

Come on. I mean, that's simple. And look, when you look at the Browns, oh, my God. Here, it might be a touchy subject, but the issue is not Deshaun. It's everything including to sean you know because cooper is probably going to be traded nick chubb he's going to play yeah not this week and joku still hurt the lines banged up the defense outside of like garrett and ward are underperforming so it's easy to point the finger at Deshaun Watson,

but he's not the only one there with problems. That entire Browns team needs a complete rebuild and maybe a deep clean it. So let's not overcomplicate this. Gimme Washington. Let Jaden Daniels feast. Especially Watson's locker. Oh yeah. Next game on our docket uh the colts versus the jaguars in jacksonville and jacksonville is oddly uh enough uh favorited in this game very surprising colts coming in off of a big win last week.

Jaguars obviously coming in at 0-4. I know that they're favored in this game. They're the home team, but I just don't see. Colts defense is all right. The only way the Jacksonville Jaguars are going to win this game is if they just kill the Colts in the run game. But this offense is just so terrible, and Jaguars' offensive to win this game as if they just kill the Colts in the run game but this offense is just so terrible and Jaguars offensive line isn't good

so I don't really see the Jaguars really get anything going on the run game never mind the pass game the only thing the Jaguars really have going for them is Brian Thomas Christian Kirk's still alright but he's still got a bit of a case of the drop sees Gabe Davis is overrated

but Colts side just don't let Anthony Richardson make a ton of mistakes and throw terrible balls on slant routes and whatnot and they'll get the win but I'm taking the Colts It's going to be Joe Flacco by the way most likely Either way I think that's actually a better case for you taking the Colts. It's going to be Joe Flacco, by the way, most likely. I mean, either way, I think that's actually a better case for you. I'm actually going to take Jacksonville. I cannot see this Jaguars team going 0-5. With the talent that they have on this team,

they have to break out at some point. And I think that's going to be this week against the Colts. It's a divisional game. Division games are always competitive. And it was a close game last week against Houston. I think against this Colts team, they'll have more luck. They'll break through. They'll be one and four. I cannot see this Jaguars team being that bad. They're going to be bad this year, but they they're gonna break through with at least a few

wins and i think this is one of those games you have trevor lawrence you have brian thomas you have christian kirk you have travis etn um you're you're gonna figure it out at some point to win at least a few games and i think this is one of them adam can't see them going on five, but I sure can. And I know it's a division game, but honestly, this might sound weird. I think they would have a better chance if Anthony Richardson was back there. I do. I don't trust the Jags defense, but I do trust the Colts defense and I trust Joe Flacco. So call me crazy, but I'm going with Indy.

Yeah. And I mean, here's the thing with Joe Flacco. So call me crazy, but I'm going with Indy. Yeah, and I mean, here's the thing with Joe Flacco. We saw what he did with Cleveland last year. That's it. I mean, you have Joe Flacco in the game, and he's going to come in. He knows his role. He's coming in, no pressure at all. He's coming in here to just sling this sucker around. And Tuck also had the Colts,

so I am perfectly okay with sticking with the unpopular opinion i think in the words of nfl network you're the lone wolf yeah yeah or it's it may be just me maybe it's just me uh vegas versus denver uh basically our last game on the 1 p.m. docket. The other 1 p.m. game is going to be our risky matchup of the week, so we'll get to that later. Vegas versus Denver, though. Vegas coming in off of the win to the Browns last week, but Vegas, they're looking a little weird right now

with the whole Devontae Adams situation. Probably a lot of drama going on in the locker room. What's the status on Max Crosby? Now, that is a big question. I don't think he's playing. Max Crosby? No Max Crosby. It doesn't seem like it, at least.

Hmm. Hmm. That's not good. That is not good at all, to the least for the raiders uh so we're gonna go with the wild one here give me denver give me denver you know i mean if bonex can get a win with 60 passing yards against the jets i bet you the denver that going to step up and get themselves a win against the Raiders. This was when I was giving my game picks this morning, just reviewing the matchups. This was one that I was stuck on.

And I think I'm going to go Denver because the Raiders are missing so many different players. They have so many. They also have some distractions off the field. They have so many, they also have some distractions off the field. They may end up losing their star player, their best player on the team and Devante Adams very soon. Um, that's a distraction. And then you may even be without Max Crosby. So I, it's really hard to be excited about this Raiders team. There's really not much to be happy about with them. So for that reason, I am going to go with Denver.

Yeah, Denver has a good defense and they have a young quarterback who's kind of up and down. So for that reason, I think there's more to be excited about with this Denver team. So just on that, I think Broncos win. I just think the Raiders have too many locker room struggles to really take advantage of this divisional game. And Denver's not perfect. You saw that absolute to borrow a term from Chris, slobber knocker against the jets. So you almost have to pick Denver just based on that alone. And like you said, a bow Knicks can win with 60 passing yards against the jets defense. Then he could probably win with a hundred against the Raiders. I would,

I'm going Denver and it's honestly not that hard. Yeah. Moving on to our four o'clock in primetime matchups. First up, we got the Cardinals and the 49ers. Cardinals are a weird one right now. They should be a fun team to watch. But they're just not figuring it out right now. It's weird.

You know, Kyler Murray is playing some decent ball. They're still kind of figuring out how they're getting Marvin Harrison involved James Conner still running the ball good but this 49ers team is just way too good right now especially now that they got all their assets back give me the Niners yeah I'm gonna take the 49ers They have everybody back and healthy. The Cardinals are still struggling to find an identity. They have a lot of good individual players, but they haven't gelled. And they may not at all this season with how young all of their players are. They just got Kyler Murray back at the end of last season.

So for that reason, I have to go with the 49ers here. It's going to be a divisional matchup. Maybe it gets close, but Niners are taking this one. Like you said, the Cardinals are too young. This is really more of a learning year for them. I wouldn't be shocked if they could make it some sort of a game, just because these divisional games can be a tad wonky, but you don't have to think too hard. This Niners team is basically on the offensive side of a game, you know, just because these divisional games can be a tad wonky. But you don't have to think too hard.

This Niners team is basically on the offensive side of the ball, at least at full strength minus CMC. So, yeah, give me the Niners. Not too hard. Green Bay versus the Rams. Rams are favorited in this one. Both teams dealing with their own injuries. Christian Watson for the Packers probably won't play.

Jair Alexander, my limited participant in Thursday's injury report. He's up in the air. Romeo Dubs, he's not injured, but he missed practice due to a personal reason. So Lord knows what's going on with that. Luke Musgrave was a non-participant in Thursday's practice. So Packers are probably going to be relying a lot on Devontae Wicks, Rams. Everyone knows what they're dealing with. Oh, man.

My heart says the Packers, but the gut is kind of leaning towards the Rams right now. I don't know. What do you guys think? My heart and gut are telling me Packers. They still have Jaden Reed. He's their number one, and he may be a number one at this point. He's shown plenty for me that he's a very good receiver in this league. They finally found their guy, and I would be hesitant if it weren't for Cooper Cup and Puka Nakua still being out. I like Matthew Stafford, but even the best of quarterbacks in this league

need something to throw to. And they just don't have that right now. They don't have anyone to throw to, and that's a problem. So give me Jordan Love, Jaden Reed, and the Green Bay Packers. Yeah, we saw Jordan Love Jaden Reed and the Green Bay Packers yeah we saw Jordan Love he had a bit of an ugly start but he turned it around real fast last week and also I don't trust the Rams defense you know they give up a lot of passing yards the pass rush is extremely hit or miss and I know the Packers have a lot of people injured but let's not act like Tucker Kraft can't fill in a game or two in the wake of Luke Musgrave. And even still, I like Dontavian Wicks.

And I love Jaden Reed. I mean, I was never high on Watson. Even if Dobbs misses a practice game, come on. Like, he's still going to play. It's not like he's hurt. It's a personal reason. And even if he doesn't play i i still like green bay green bay green bay green bay wait so are you changing are you still going with the ramps i'm going with the packers all right well i was kind of teetering on

the fence and that was me just throwing it out there um giants and Seahawks. Seahawks favorited by a ton. Give me the Seahawks by a ton. That's it. Seahawks and I don't need explanation why. Also, Malik Neighbors is out in case you guys needed any more reason.

One of their few bright spots that they actually have. I'll keep this short and sweet for the Giants. No neighbors, no winning. Gimme Seattle. Sunday night football, Dallas versus Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh's favored in this game by two and a half, and the reason being no Demarcus Lawrence and no Micah Parsons for Dallas,

most likely at the very least. Parsons dealing with a high ankle sprain. And Demarcus Lawrence blanking on what he's dealing with right now. But regardless, this is looking pretty dire for the Cowboys. Trayvon Diggs is hurt right now, too. Demarcus Lawrence actually was put on IR not come to think of it the other day so

Cowboys defense is looking bad so don't make me do it don't make me do it just make your pick give me the Steelers give me the Steelers

give me the steelers give me the steelers okay give me the steelers wow give me the pack uh excuse me give me the i made i just made up my own match match up no give me the cowboys um the cowboys still have a very good offense and in order justin fields i have to give credit where it's due he's playing mistake free football that is something that he struggled with during his time in chicago he was making mistakes that were costing them games this year he's not doing that that being said he's still playing conservative ball and there's there's a couple different styles of play you could go here you could be the quarterback who's playing to win it,

and there's the quarterback who's playing not to lose it. Playing just mistake-free football is not making the risk you need to make. And in order to dance with this Cowboys offense, with Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, Brandon Cooks, you have to be able to play more than just mistake-free football. You have to go for it. I don't think Justin Fields can do that. Give me the cowboys i know the cowboys defense isn't great i know the pittsburgh defense is great but the

cowboys still have that high powered offense and even though they're missing cooks i don't think that's gonna matter too much because the steelers pass rush is great you know minus alex highsmith i think but their coverage outside of minka and even joey porter jr's kind of spotty and fields there's a very real chance you're going to be playing from behind and this is the game for fields where you cannot afford to just sit on the football will fields rise to the occasion? I don't think so, but I think Dak will. Give me the Cowboys. Monday Night Football, Saints versus Chiefs.

Spread is at 5.5 in favor of the Chiefs. No Rasheed Rice, most likely. Jeez, we're going to have to rely on getting Travis Kelsey open again, Noah Gray, Justin Watson, still no Isaiah Pacheco. They got cream hunt. Give me the Saints in an upset, man. Give me the Saints in an upset. I'm going to take the Saints as well. The Chiefs are missing a lot of players. I still think they're going to be fine. They're going to win their division, but they're going to lose a lot of games this year,

a lot more than they usually do. They could win this division at 11-6, 10-7. That doesn't mean that this team is any less in trouble than they are. They're missing Pacheco. They're missing Rasheed Rice. Travis Kelsey does not look like his usual self. So far this year, that could change. But so far, not looking good.

Marquise Brown never played a game before being ruled out for the rest of the season. So they're leaning on Travis Kelsey to find his own form and Xavier and Xavier Worthy and also an old Kareem Hunt not 2017 leading the league in rushing yards Kareem Hunt old Kareem Hunt second stint in Kansas City Kareem Hunt for that reason I'm picking the Saints the Chiefs are going to be fine this year, but the Saints have been very competitive early in this year. And I think they're going to steal one from the Chiefs. Correct me if I'm wrong. This is an arrowhead, correct? Yep.

I think the Chiefs win because I think Mahomes, he's going to have, it's ironically going to be Mahomes who is going to have to play conservative because he has not been playing his best ball we can all agree but the kansas city defense i definitely think can keep the saints honest so i think kansas city wins but it's not going to be by that five and a half spread it's gonna be ugly i'll give you one debate point um and you don't have you don't even have to reciprocate because i know we want to we want to move on quick um who's this quarterback for the saints um car isn't it does have he was in that division he does have a track record of going into arrowhead and making it a competitive matchup not to say say that it gives them an edge, but it makes it a little more of a ball game. Yeah, it's just that the Chiefs' defense has been really good.

I also don't trust New Orleans' defense, but you have a solid point. With that, we move on to the Fumblerski Game of the Week. Bills at Texans. The Bills coming off of an extremely terrible, terrible loss to the Ravens last week. And Texans looking to stay on the winning path after they beat the Jaguars last week. But this is injuries, injuries injuries injuries on the bill side um shakur is out at oliver's out a couple other names are escaping me right now but um yeah taylor rapp is also out terrell bernard questionable taron johnson questionable

injuries are starting to plague the Bills. Thinking this is going to be the Texans' time here. This is going to be the Texans' time. They get it to two in a row. Noah Brown, low-key. Low-key Noah Brown might be a top-ten receiver in the league right now. This is certainly on paper one of – actually the best matchup of the week um but with all of the injuries that the bills are facing on top of a roster that really wasn't much to write home about going into the year you have to pick the texans and by kind of a mile i

mean the texans are have been a very good team this year. They had that one hiccup against the Vikings, who have been destroying everybody to start the season. But, I mean, you have to give the edge to the young Texans who have just figured everything out and have really hit the ground running this season. I believe that there's a very good chance that Josh Allen alone makes this game a ball game. But I just, like I said last week, I don't believe the 3-0 bills were as good as those

first three games shown. And the Baltimore Ravens proved that when they, when they hosted them and blew them out of the water, I think we're going to see another loss for the bills. They go three and two again, they're going to be okay, but this is going to be a down year for the bills just because they just don't have much as far as a supporting cast goes for Josh Allen. So right off the bat, I think this is going to be a competitive game, but the Texans take it. It is going to be a competitive game.

That's solely because of Josh Allen. Shakir will be out. Bernard's out. Taron Johnson's out. It's just Buffalo, which a roster that was already damn near picked clean and free agency keeps getting banged up and look josh allen is on that upper echelon of qb but in houston uh you know i just and after they got spanked on prime time by Baltimore, I'm going to have to go with Texans for the sole reason of they're just healthier. And that Bill's defense is going to need to find an answer for Nico Collins,

Tank Dell, and Stefan Diggs. And Dalton Schultz. Yeah, and basically Dalton Schultz. And whatever their running back is this week. Yeah. Joe Mixon's still listed as questionable. Laramie Tunsell's a little banged up. Tank Dell's still banged up as well. Also, Buffalo's missing Ed Oliver, right? Yeah.

Yeah. Bills are dealing with a lot more, but the Texans, I'm just, obviously I'm still going with the Texans, but I also want to point out that the Texans are a little banged up in their own right. But real quick, Nico Collins, I feel like that he's got to be a top 10 receiver at this point, right? Statistically.

Leading the league in receiving yards right now. Statistically at this point, but like – He's just not a big name, but – He needs more time to establish himself there's we see a lot of wide receivers who have big years but aren't don't have big careers you know what i mean oh yeah i feel like that we just need to give him his flowers because i mean you look at his receiving stats right now he he's, he has a hundred more yards than the next guy on the list, which is Chris Godwin, who got himself there because of last night.

Bleak neighbors was the original leader in receiving yards, which is pretty incredible for a rookie, by the way. Um, but I just wanted to give Nico Collins flowers real quick or, uh, no. Yeah. Nico Collins. Wait, did I say Collins his flowers real quick. Yeah, Nico Collins. Wait, did I say Noah Brown? You did, yeah. He's not our Nico anymore, unfortunately. I meant Nico Collins.

I meant Nico Collins. You did say Nico Collins. No, he said Noah Brown a bit ago. A bit, yeah. One other mismatch here. The Buffalo Bills front seven front seven extremely banged up we've already established but the texans have a very good offensive line so that's a big mismatch that favors houston and as long as stroud is able to stay on his feet to look for his targets in Nico Collins, Tank Dell if he plays, Stephon Diggs, Dalton Schultz even, then it's going to be a long afternoon for the Bills.

Yeah. Any final thoughts on this one? That basically does it for our game picks of the week. Any final thoughts on this one that basically does it for, for our game picks of the week? Any final thoughts from you guys? I think injuries. Yeah. Quick. I think injuries kind of robbed this of being a much better matchup than it

was. I would have loved to see the bills, what they had with Josh Allen doing more with less and turning this into a game. But I feel like there's nothing really Josh Allen can do that can win them this game. Unfortunately, they just don't have anything there.

That's it. That'll do it for us. Thank you for tuning into this Friday episode of the Fumble Rooski podcast. New episodes out Tuesdays at 730 and Fridays at 5. You can find all of our episodes on Spotify, Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and so much more. Be sure to follow our Instagram, FumbleRooski underscore pod, and our TikTok, FumbleRuski underscore pod and our Tik TOK on FumbleRuski pod. Jeez,

I can't speak right now for all the latest NFL news and coverage and stay up to date on our podcast itself. But other than that, we will see you on Tuesday for our week five recap over and out.