The Fumblerooski Podcast - Black Friday Madness -Ep 222 The Fumblerooski Podcast

Episode Date: November 25, 2023

Packers feast on the Lions, Cowboys manhandle Commanders, and Seahawks offense continues to struggle as 49ers have their way with them. Justin Tucker, Chris Costich, and Special Guest Grant Flood talk about this and the preview of the remaining Week 12 slate!

You are listening to the Fumble Ruski podcast by Power 88 Dean Radio and Secret Weapon Consulting. Happy Black Friday. We're going to be reviewing the Thursday Thanksgiving matchups. Packers feasting on the Lions. The Cowboys getting the win over the Commanders thanks to a 25-point fourth quarter. And the 49ers having their way with Seahawks and, of course, the Week 12 preview. This is the FumbleRoski Podcast. Here's Edelman broken up and the pass is no sign yet.

Edelman comes down with a football and they're saying it's a catch. It's a catch. It's caught. It's a catch. Side-line. Touchdown. Unbelievable. Swings it way down the field to Watkins.

Sammy Watkins for the touchdown! You're listening to the Fumble Rooski Podcast. I'm Chris Kostich. Alongside me, Justin Tucker, the Ravens homer himself, and special guest, Jaguars fan and host of the Floodster Sports Zone. I got that right, right? Yep. But host of the Floodster Sports Zone, Grant Flood,

multiple-time guest on the show, first-time guest with me on. Grant, welcome to the pod. Oh, well, thank you for having me on the show. First time guests with me on, uh, Grant, welcome to the pod. Oh, well, thank you for having me on Chris. I see you again, Justin excited to,

talk about the week 12 matchups and it's a good week too, because the Jaguars are on. So you picked a good week to have me on. Yeah. And they got a big, uh, game ahead of them too, because they're playing,

uh, Texans, right? Massive division, uh, implications on the line on Sunday, game ahead of them too because they're playing uh texans right massive division uh implications on the line on sunday but we'll get to that when we get to that yeah and uh ravens are actually on sunday night too now that i think of it really we're sunday night yeah you're sunday night against the chargers yeah i like that yeah that's a i think it's going to be a good matchup. It could be.

We'll get to that when we get to it, though. But first, we'll start with the Thanksgiving Day games. Packers feasting on the Lions, 29-22. Packers really just had control of the game pretty much the entire way. Lions were able to make it close towards the end, but man, the Lions did not look good. Jared Goff had three fumbles in that game. He did have over 300 yards and two touchdowns, but that first quarter that they had so many miscues in that first quarter, which really kind of set the tone. And I was saying this with Adam on Wednesday, we were expecting the lions to win truth be told,

but I kind of figured the Packers would come out with a little bit of extra fire because of how they got embarrassed in green Bay earlier this year against Detroit. But I wasn't really expecting anything like this. And Jordan love had himself a pretty, a pretty good game as well. But initial thoughts from this game. Grant, since you're our guest, we'll start with you.

Well, my initial thought was the second Christian Watson caught the opening play inside field goal range. I knew that was going to set the tempo and that showed how hungry Green Bay was determined to pull off the upset against a division rival in Detroit. And overall, Jordan Love had himself what I think is by far the best game of his career so far. Over 300 yards, three touchdowns, completion percentage over 60. He was firing on all cylinders in the first half. Packers defense really stepped up in the first half as well. In the second half, it was kind of more Detroit trying to crawl back. They couldn't, thanks to a good fourth down stop midway through the fourth quarter. Pretty much ended all hopes of a Lions comeback. Overall, it was a pretty impressive outing by the Packers,

and they are right back in the thick of things in the playoff picture now at five and six Seattle losing we'll get to that later but there is a possibility that the Packers can make a playoff push and this and last week's win against the Chargers was kind of the extra push they needed to make this late season push yeah and there was a and I've said this before Packers defense is pretty underrated this year and showed by the they've got multiple fourth down stops on uh detroit yesterday as well um tuck what are your thoughts as good as the packers where i'm actually more disappointed in detroit this uh i want to say the lions already beat it already beat the packers in

lambo so i thought okay this is a game where they should be able to win because it's at home and I want to say the Lions already beat the Packers in Lambeau. So I thought, okay, this is a game where they should be able to win because it's at home and it's on Thanksgiving. So within reason, they should be able to win this. I felt like this was a different culture, a different standard. And I looked at the game and it's like, no, not same old, same old Lions again. And I actually looked at the record on Thanksgiving Day. They haven't won since 2016

i don't know what to say about that other than that it's detroit that's wild everyone since 2016 yeah oh no i thought i was kind of disappointed even though i know green base defense is very good and i know it's a divisional game, I just thought that the Lions were just overall a better team and that they should have hands down won this game. So when I looked at the final score and that they lost, I was kind of disappointed more specifically with how the offense performed in that game. Yeah, and I don't know if you guys saw this.

Jay Kuda is more of a joke more of a troll on twitter but he posted right the on wednesday i have bad news for the lions since the merger they are oh and 12 on thanksgiving when the moon is in a wax and gibbous phase and yes it was a waxing gibbous. Insane. So do we blame like the moon cycle? Do we blame the Twitter page that posted that? I know exactly what account you're talking about. He posted about baseball all the time.

And of course he kind of went out of his way and did a football one this time around. And the prophecy is true for whatever it was. It was true. And and you know when i'm making my bets on flip yesterday morning i remember what seeing that tweet and i'm like do i place a bet on the packers no i'm gonna do jamar gibbs touchdown anytime touchdown score failed that lost my parlay my other two hit whatever could have won nine dollars but yeah and i'm for detroit's case it's not like this loss is gonna kill them really no and because they're still sitting at eight and three they still got a two-game lead over the vikings packers like you said grant packers are definitely now in a spot

where they could potentially put themselves in a playoff race. Right. Um, just going to try to pull out the standings real quick while I'm at it. Um, the question is, do they keep the two seed after San Francisco one? Yeah, that's, that's also going to be huge as well. Um, well, so Detroit's in third technically because, because San Francisco wins the tiebreak over Detroit based on best win percentage in conference games. San Francisco, you know, or excuse me, six and one in the conference. Detroit's five and two in the conference. But with the Packers winning now, they're in the eighth spot right behind Seattle and obviously Seattle taking the loss. And that's the other thing, too.

I was talking about saying this with the Bengals as well before Burrow went down prior to the Bengals Ravens Thursday night game last week that the Bengals need to start winning some conference games. And it needed to start withursday night because prior to that game they had only won one conference game sorry for kind of going off track with it but it still is the same case here right detroit is going to have to hope that san fran at least loses another game so they can get themselves into a better spot uh realistically for that number two spot. But regardless, if they don't, they still have that home field advantage for at least the wild card round and the divisional round two. But don't think that this lot.

I'm not going to think too much over this loss, though, in general, especially with the schedule that Detroit has. It's one of the more easier schedules in the league so so i could still see the lions being at least a 13 win team or 13 12 win team um moving on cowboys beating the Commanders. This was kind of a given. And Commanders kind of made it a game up until the fourth quarter, and then the Cowboys put up 25 in that last frame. I don't know. This is just a case of the Cowboys having their way with a bad team. I feel like there's not really much to talk about unless you guys have

anything else to say about it. Well, I want to give my congratulations to Duran bland, of course, setting the NFL record for most pick sixes in a season with five now. And that happened late in the fourth quarter. I was just about to change the channel. And then I just started hearing the crowd going insane.

I'm like, what's going on. And what a call by Jim Nance to announce the record-breaking play by Deron Land. It was truly incredible. And I think a good question now is, does Bland enter into the Defensive Player of the Year conversation if he continues to get these interceptions? He should.

Without question. Without question. I mean, you have five pick sixes in a year i mean let alone a cornerback that puts up seven interceptions alone or eight i i don't know off the top of my head how many interceptions that bland has right now but if you have a high amount of interceptions you're automatically going to be a defensive player of the year candidate and five pick sixes in one year is almost unheard of because a corner, a good corner will sometimes only have three or four picks in a season.

But Tuck, takeaways from this game. Takeaways. There's not much. I'm not going to lie. There's nothing much to go here. Sam Howell shut it down for the season because you guys aren't going anywhere. That line is abysmal. Fix that line for him next year.

What else? The Cowboys are beating up on another bad team. They can't beat the good ones, but they're world beaters against bad teams. They'll make the playoffs without question, but, again, I question who they're going to beat in the playoffs once they get there oh no just a mighty mighty butt whooping in the fourth quarter yeah literally and i mean credit to washington though they did hold cd lamb only four catches 53 yards on nine targets as well curtis samuel had himself pretty solid day, nine catches, 100 yards. But going back to what you were saying about the O-line,

four sacks on Sam Howell yesterday. I was surprised that it wasn't more, to be honest. Yeah. Moving on to the Thursday night game, the 49ers having their way with the Seahawks. This was kind of another given, to be honest, because the Seahawks offense has been sputtering this year. Me and Adam were talking about it on Wednesday.

Geno Smith is starting to look like the Geno Smith of old now, and especially too because the Seahawks didn't have Kenneth Walker. So you knew that one part of that, or the running game, wasn't going to really get going as much. Final score was 31-13. Geno Smith, 180 yards, an interception. Zach Charbonneau, who took over for Kenneth Walker, 14 carries, 47 yards. Christian McCaffrey had himself a turkey leg day, though.

19 carries, 114 yards, and two touchdowns. Big, big day for him. But the other thing, too, San Francisco, six sacks on defense. Just a defensive – what's the word? What's the word? Defensive clinic. That's what it was. Tuck, thoughts about the game, really?

Quickly on the Seattle side, I like that catch that Jackson Smith and Jake built me. Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. Turn from one side to the other and make a one-handed catch. That was a pretty good one. The Pig Six tried to make it interesting, but at the end of the day, they couldn't really get much going on offense. I'm not sure how I feel about Seattle this year.

Last year, I felt more confident about them. This year, I'm not I felt more confident about them. This year, I'm not sure how I feel about them. Now, looking over to that San Francisco side, they look like world beaters of old now. I don't know where that skit came from, but now that they look like they're back on schedule and looking like the San Francisco 49ers that could contend in the NFC Championship game, that defense is looking stellar. That offense is looking sharp. Now I can't wait until Christmas because we have to face them on Christmas Day. I'm so excited. That game has NFL

Game of the Year potential on it. I really wish it didn't, but it does. That's a lot of people's Super Bowl matchup too. That is a potential Super Bowl matchup, too. Yep, that is a potential Super Bowl matchup. But everybody thinks Kansas City is going to the Super Bowl. But this is still a pretty damn good game to watch. So I'll be sitting back, relaxing, while stressing about this damn game. Grant, thoughts about the game? I mean, I already had to play the 49ers, Rath.

And since they have acquired Chase Young, they have 15 sacks in three games. Yeah, that's unheard of, by the way. Statistically, that is incredible. So now you have a sputtering Seahawks team with the Packers on a two-game winning streak. As I already mentioned, now Seattle's playoff chances are looking very bleak. They have San Francisco again with Dallas and Philadelphia on the schedule, and they lost both games to the Rams. Not looking great for the Seahawks' playoff chances right now if they can't steal one of those two games against Dallas or Philadelphia. As for the Niners, they look great. They're back into the

two seed, and they are right now focused on December 3rd. What's December 3rd? 49ers Eagles in Philadelphia. That is what they acquired Chase Young for. This is why they wanted to bring Javon Hargrave in in the offseason. They want to compete against Philadelphia, and they have NFC's, and they have last year's NFC Championship loss fresh in their minds still they want revenge plain as that and they want to build that caliber team that can break through that great Eagles offensive line and win that game so the Niners

right now they're just kind of gearing up for how are we going to game plan against Philadelphia they've already beaten Dallas and all these other quality opponents they're back to being healthy Brock pretty clear concussion protocol Brandon Ayuk is getting hot at the right time they got Debo Samuel back a couple weeks ago and he's got a touchdown the last two games Niners offense is looking great. Defense looking scary good. Yeah. And I think that's really the big bullet point here is that the 49ers were able to get healthy again, right? I mean, to look at that three game losing streak, that wasn't not a healthy 49ers team. Brock Purdy, we talked about it before. Brock Purdy was most likely concussed for the latter part of those two games. And now they had the bye week to get healthy, and now they're on a tear.

Anything else you guys want to add? I just would not want to run into the 49ers right now if I was an NFC team. Even if I was the Eagles, I'd have a little fright in the back of my mind because I think if they're healthy, they could definitely beat anybody. AFC, NFC, it doesn't matter. 100%. So we'll take a quick break. When we come back, we'll go through the Week 12 preview.

You're listening to the Fumble Rooski podcast. We'll be right back. This is the Fumble Rooski podcast sponsored by Power 88 Dean Radio and Secret Weapon Consulting. Chris Kostich, Justin Tucker, Grant Flood, our special guest. We look at the week 12 preview coming up here uh it's going to be a shorter one obviously because we just got through three of those week 12 games um and no one on the bye with this week either so that's that's a little odd to think of because we're still in that bye week season but regardless uh and there's even a game today so we're recording right now 1 21 p.m eastern standard time uh jets versus dolphins kicking off today at three o'clock so by the time this episode gets out it'll probably be somewhere around the third or fourth quarter maybe uh the jets dolphins um

dolphins spread at nine and a half this is probably i'm gonna have the dolphins on this because the dolphins are another team that just loves to beat up on the bad teams uh zach wilson being benched to the point where he's not even going to be a backup or the second string. I can't even think of who's starting. We were just talking about this, too. Tim Boyle. Tim Boyle. Tim Boyle, the starter.

Trevor Simeon got signed on as well. So he's going to be the backup. Zach Wilson pretty much demoted to practice squad our third string whatever you want to call it now with the new nfl rule um i don't it this this is definitely going to be leaning dolphins but since it's obviously it's an afc divisional game and it's in uh it's in met life too uh weather for it supposed to be around 47 degrees cloudy don't you would think warm weather team won't really perform well with the cold weather so that's kind of something to note and with it being a divisional game you never know this could

be or this could end up being a closer matchup maybe, but I would have to go with Dolphins by at least 14 on this. Oh, 14? At least 14. I think it's going to be closer than that. I don't know why. I just believe in that Jets defense. If they only had competent quarterback play,

they'd be able to play off contender just off that defense. I don't think the Dolphins are going to win by plus 14. I could see 10, but I think it's going to be by a touchdown. I'm going to live with that. I mean, yeah, bad quarterback play and a bad offensive line, and the Jets' run defense, in my opinion, is a little suspect. But, you know, it's still a solid defense that can make plays and keep your team in a game.

Grant, your thoughts? I mean, well, we've seen pretty much outside of last week against Buffalo that the Jets' defense can keep them into any game. It's just that the offense can't capitalize. The defense gets tired and they give up big plays late. That's what happened when they played the Chargers on Monday Night Football and a couple of other games. And, you know, their defense stepped up just enough to the point to keep them in their week one game against Buffalo and their week six game against Philadelphia so realistically you guys are right it's going to depend on how well the Jets defense plays I'm going to be honest with you I don't think the Jets score more than

10 points today on offense so I mean they're going to have to turn to the 1985 Bears to win this game and I don't think that's going to happen. So unless, you know, no one really has film on Tim Boyle, he goes out, slings the rock, and gets 300 yards and three touchdowns, and maybe the Jets have a shot because no one really has film to study off Tim Boyle outside of his limited snaps with the Bears last year. But overall, I think Miami should run away with this one. Nice and handily. Again, it's not a team above 500 or anything, so people may still scoff at Miami.

But at the end of the day, as long as Miami wins the games they need to win, they're going to win the division. And that's all you could really ask for right now if you're Miami. Yeah, and they also have a – so starting with the Jets today, they have the Commanders next week, then the Titans, and then they have the Jets again, and then they have the Cowboys and Ravens and Bills the last three games of the season. So seeing how the Bills are right now and how vulnerable the Bills are,

this is going to be a pretty big four-game stretch for the Dolphins so they can get themselves intophins so they can get themselves into a good spot for A, seating, and B, for the AFC's division title. And they're already two games up on Buffalo right now. So if they can get themselves on – so they beat the Raiders. So if they can get themselves on a five-game win streak going into uh Dallas then they'll be in a really good spot because at that point they'll be 12 and 3 um not looking at Buffalo's schedule right now but Buffalo's schedule is pretty tough

down the road so they'll be going into those last three games. They're going to have to be in a really good spot or they want to get themselves into a really good spot for those last three games. Moving on to the 1 PM slate. We'll start. We'll start with grants jar Jaguars, big AFC South matchup here. Cause obviously the Jaguars being a top of the division at seven and three and the Texans are right on their tail at six and four.

The Texans are saying they're the team of tomorrow, but they obviously they're the team of tomorrow, but they are making a case to potentially even make a pretty big playoff run for all we know. I mean, this is still a young Texans team and a young Texans team that can compete with these good teams like the Jaguars and the Bengals. And they, this is a team that if you're not careful,

they will put up over 500 yards of offense on your ass. That they will, that they will. And, you know, the funny thing is, Houston already beat the Jaguars in Jacksonville in week three, and it was an absolute clinic too. Best defensive performance Houston had all year. They shut down Trevor. It was remarkable.

And C.J. Stroud since then has significantly developed as a passer. Jacksonville, you've got to look at this game as you've already lost to this team at home. Now you've got to play them on the road where they're red hot, where I think they're on, what, like a four-game winning streak or something. They've been playing incredible ball. That performance that C.J. Stroud had against the Buccaneers was near flawless. I'm scared to play this team. I shouldn't be saying that as a division rival, but I am really scared to play this team. And I hate to be that fan, but at the way things are going, I'm going to see Houston winning on Sunday, 27-24. It's great.

The Jaguars finally scored over 30 points against the Titans. That's the issue. It was against the Titans. Texans are going to make it much closer for much longer. This is going to determine a lot about both these teams. Heck, I think this game is going to ultimately determine who's going to win the division. But I'm going to go Houston wins 27-24

just because the Jaguars offense is still very inconsistent, and I need to see more consistency out of this offense before I can confidently pick us against a playoff contender. Tuck, what are your thoughts? The Jaguars need to win this game because they still need to keep pace with the Chiefs and the Ravens in order to contend for the number one seed. So in order to do that, they have to win this game. This isn't an option. They have to win this. And the problem is Houston has progressively getting

better and better and better and better, which each passing week goes by. CJ Stroud is actually getting MVP talks as a rookie, which is almost unheard of. He looks like a stud back there. He's already beaten the Jaguars, so he knows he can do it, especially on the road. Now that he's at home and the team that's looking the way that it's looking, it's going to be tough. Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars need to come out swinging and they need to come out swinging fast because if they do not, they could lose this game again quite handedly because that defense is looking good for the Houston Texans. Derek Stanley is coming back and looks healthy. He had a pick against the Cardinals last week.

Oh no, I'm just, I'm worried about the Jaguars chances in this game. And if, if the Houston Texans make the playoffs, watch out because they are going to be a dangerous out in the AFC. Yeah. And like I said, this is, this is a team that's going to be competitive with all these other teams too.

And seeing the way that the Texans manhandled Jacksonville on Jacksonville's turf, I said the same thing with the Packers. I'm expecting the Jaguars to come out with a little bit of fire because they're going to want to come out because they got manhandled on their own turf. They're going to want to do the same thing on Houston's turf. So definitely expect a better game out of Jacksonville. But I think I'm going to go with Grant 27-24 in favor of Houston. Keep in mind, Jacksonville is the favorite by one and a half.

Um, but that honestly doesn't really matter to me. Cause I'm going to still pick Houston any day of the week on this one. Uh, I don't know. It's a, I could see Jacksonville winning because it's a divisional, divisional opponent. And plus they lost them before. So I see the added motivation motivation but do i trust that offense right now yeah that that's the big thing is the offense and it's really a coaching issue right grant correct me if i'm wrong i think taylor is awful i want him fired as soon as the end of

the season i i am not fond of him as an offensive coordinator. Our defense has kept us in so many games this year. It's ridiculous. A couple of games where we could have potentially lost like in the games against like Buffalo and week one against Indianapolis. We only won those games because our defense really stepped up in the last second. Mike Caldwell, our defensive coordinator, he's wowed me this season. Our offensive coordinator, Press Taylor, not impressed with them at all. I wouldn't even be shocked if we lose this game. Doug Peterson thinks about taking over offensive play calling duties. It's getting dire because you add in Calvin Ridley

and this offense has gotten worse. I don't understand, but that's what's happened. Could be worse. You could have Matt Canada as an OC. That is true. At least we don't have any Matt Canadas, Joe Judges, Matt Patricia. None of those guys run the offense. But still, our offensive coordinator, he is far from S tier.

We got to ump up our game offensively. Moving on, we'll move on to the next game on the slate saints falcons saints are favored by one and a half looks like derrick carr will play but no michael thomas no marshall latimore um yeah i i feel like this game could go either way it's another divisional there's a lot of divisional games on the slate this week too. Yeah. Now it's another thing I was going to bring up. It's rivalry week in college football.

It seems like it's kind of the same way in the NFL this week as well with the amount of divisional games that there are. And this being one of them, the Falcons, if they can actually use their weapons, they'll win this game, but they've somehow been able to win four games without using those weapons. I don't know.

It, this is, like I said, this one is flip a coin, take your pick. I'm going to go saints. I agree. I'm going to go Saints as well.

They're right now leading the NFC South. Playoff teams find a way to win games without their star players. So even though they're without Thomas and Lattimore, I know Thomas just went on IR. Saints should still be able to beat the Falcons. Steelers, Bengals. Like we just said, Matt Canada just getting fired. Who cares?

But Bengal, yeah, who cares, literally, because you still have Kenny Pickett as your quarterback. We don't know how good a red Kenny Pickett is. I really want to see him under a new OC. Sure, but hold on. Let me find Pickett's

numbers real quick, because he has not thrown a touchdown pass in God knows how long. And I'm not sure if it's him or his OC. I'm really not sure. It's a mixture of both, I think. Because if he just all of a sudden comes out and he's throwing touchdown passes. He has two touchdown passes in one, two, three, four, five, six, seven games, two touchdown passes in seven games.

And yeah, you could say that's Matt Canada, but at the same time to like your offensive coordinator can only hold you back so much. And I don't know. It's like, can only hold you back so much. And I don't know. If Joe Burrow wasn't hurt, then I'd go Bengals. I'm still going Bengals. I'm going to go Steelers on this.

Steelers by two. That's the spread right now. Steelers are the favorite by two. That's the spread right now. Steelers are the favorite by two. The Bengals defense is also just bad in general too. The Steelers defense is still a top ten defense in the league. It's still a really good defense that can carry them into the playoffs if need be. That's kind of why I'm going to go with the Steelers on this one. I have no choice but to go with the Bengals.

And it's a question to me. I need the Steelers to lose, which is why I'm going with them. I need the Bengals to win this one. It's going to be an ugly game, though. It is. It's not going to be a shootout it's strictly defense strictly not strictly defense but bangles defense still still stinks though um grant what do you got in this game i'm gonna go with whoever wins 16 13 bangles run away with this one if he was healthy obviously with jake browning officially getting

his first career start i don't know i'm probably gonna end up going pittsburgh but 16 13 the foul score this is going to be a field goal fest that's all i'm gonna say and that's the thing too is like jake browning was a good quarterback at washington right he yes he did really good at Washington, but you know, it's, it was clear that he was going to be an NFL backup, but that's the thing. We haven't seen Jake Browning play really in an NFL game besides that Thursday night game against one of the best defenses in the league. And now he's going to have to do it again against another really good defense. So, I mean, they also had the extra, the extra days based,

basically a bi-week at that point to get yourself prepared. So maybe, maybe like Grant said, maybe it ends up being a three point game and Jake Browning can get a lot of, maybe he gets 20 points on the board for all we know. Maybe the Steelers' defense just absolutely sells and Jake Browning has a career game all of a sudden. Yeah, sell Steelers. I just want to sell this game.

I need this. Yeah. Yeah, you really need them. But if Browning plays well enough, then, hey, the Bengals' playoff chances aren't dead. All Browning has to do is play great football for at least above average football for the rest of the season and the bangles will still be in wild card contention and that's all they need them to do just play turnover free football and relying your defense

to win some of these games down the stretch my problem with it though is like you look at the schedule the rest of the way i mean it kind of, it's middle of the pack schedule to say the least, because you got to play the Steelers again. And then you got the Jaguars next week. And then Colts, Vikings,

Steelers again, Chiefs, Browns. That's a tough schedule. You could easily go 500 in that next stretch moving on to the next one o'clock game uh panthers titans there's not really much to talk about on this one uh titans are the favorite by three and a half um bryce young's probably gonna stink again uh Panthers are 0-5 on the road. Titans are 3-1 at home. Give me the Titans by 10.

Titans by 14. I don't trust the Panthers at all. No. Winnable game for Carolina, but Tennessee should come out with the win, so I'll pick them as well. Yeah, there's nothing really much else to talk about because the Titans really just got to talk about because if the titans the titans really just got to double up adam thielen and they'll be fine right because adam

thielen just gets 15 targets a game all 10 to 15 targets a game and that's where most of their offense is coming from uh bucks colts colts favored by two and a half uh colts just dropping uh darius leonard in a pretty shocking move uh earlier this week granted leonard it was said that leonard's uh injuries and uh declining in performance was a big reason why he got released to begin with. So that's definitely – because Darius Leonard has been with the Colts for quite a little bit too. He's a multiple-time pro bowler. And when you got a guy that's been in the locker room for so long and then all of a sudden he gets dropped out of nowhere,

you wonder how that can be for the locker room at that point too. I mean, my question is for the Colts is why would you do something drastic? You're 5-5 a half game out of a playoff spot, and you release your defensive captain? What's the logic behind that? Sure, he's declined, but has he really? Not really. He wasn't like how he was in 2020

when he made an all-pro season, sure, but he was still a fine caliber player, especially to cut him in the middle of a playoff push. I don't know if I agree with it. I really don't. I think his presence, kind of in a haunting way, I think the loss of

his presence is going to hurt Indianapolis this week. I'll go Bucs win. Zach, what you got? I think Bucs are going to win. I think the loss of Darius Leonard is going to be felt from an emotional standpoint because I believe the teammates will really miss him, his leadership and things of that nature. I think the Bucs are a better team than the Colts in general.

I think they just have better quarterback play also because Baker's been playing very good this year, despite the loss to San Francisco. So, I don't know. I still got the Bucs winning this against the Colts. This should be a relatively easy one for them to win. Yeah, even with the Colts being favored by 2.5, other thing to note too, Colts 1 and four, this is in Indianapolis.

Colts are one and four at home. Bucs are two and three on the road. And with the way that the NFC South is, the Bucs need to start winning some games because the way that the NFC South is looking, you could probably get in again with a losing record because that's kind of been the NFC South recently. of the South is looking, you could probably get in again with a losing record. Because that's kind of been the end of the NFC South recently.

If the Falcons beat the Saints and the Bucs win this game, does that mean there's a three-way tie for the division lead? So if the Falcons beat the Saints? Yeah, and the Bucs win. Yeah, so yeah, it would be a three-way tie. Oh, my God. What a cluster. So, hold on.

Let me look at the playoff standings real quick. Have them up right now. So, Tampa and Atlanta are both 4-6. Atlanta currently holds the tiebreaker over Tampa Bay because of the head-to-head win percentage, right? Because Atlanta is beating Tampa Bay. And the Saints are sitting in the four spot because of them holding the division lead. You look at the division, Falcons are 2-0 against NFC South teams.

Saints are 1-1. Bucs are 1-1 against the division teams as well. Falcons, if they can win, could probably shoot themselves back into that 4 spot. And the Bucs, if they win and the Rams lose, then they could even see themselves shooting up to the 9 spot at that point and back into a chance for that seven seed. So there's that for you. Oh, man, why can't we just have one decisively good team in the NFC South to make things a lot more easier?

It's been too long. It's been way too long. Way too long. Last game on the one o'clock slate. This game makes me want to throw up. Patriots-Giants. Oh. Yeah.

Understandable. In New York, Patriots are favored by 3.5. You guys better win that game. Well, the thing is that I don't even know who the starting quarterback is this week. Mac Jones. Is that the hour? No, I don't even want Zap.

I don't want any. I'd rather kill all the quarterbacks at this point. I'd rather just have Will Greer go in and just do whatever and just tank the rest of the year. I don't even want to see Mac Jones anymore right now. The rumors are that Mac Jones is probably going to be in the same boat as Zach Wilson in the fact that he's not even going to be the backup if those rumors end up being true. The rumor mill coming out of the bye week or going into the bye week

was that Mac Jones was going to lose a starting spot and it was going to be down to Will Greer and Bailey's happy to battle it out at a press conference the other day. Mac Jones was asked if he was going to start. He's like, I hope so. No, no one in Pat's nation knows what's going on.

We don't, we don't know who's starting this week. The only thing we really know is that Tommy DeVito is on the other side. And Belichick usually does pretty well against young quarterbacks besides Tua. I want to say the Patriots,

but I don't even have faith that they could beat the Giants. I really wish you guys kept Malik Cunningham so you guys could use him as quarterback I really wish you guys kept Malik Cunningham so you guys could use him at quarterback to see what he did. I wish you guys kept him. Malik Cunningham isn't even all that in a bag of chips. He had one good preseason game, and that was it. It is better than everyone else.

I want the Patriots to start Malik Cunningham as well. I mean, this kid was electric in Louisville. I mean, what the hell, right? You have nothing to lose. Just start the kid. Get him off the practice squad and just start him for the last couple of weeks. I just found out I am going to the Patriots-Chargers game on December 3rd. Oh, Lord, I'm going too.

Oh, nice. And now I'm hoping that Cunningham gets the start in that game. That would be kind of cool. But for this game on Sunday, I'm going to go Giants. And honestly, the fact that the Patriots are favored, I think is kind of hysterical just because they probably haven't been favored in a very long time. I know the Giants aren't much better,

but their defense is going to do just enough to stop whoever the starting quarterback is for the Patriots. So I'm going to go another bore fest, probably another like 16-13 type game. I'm going to go Giants win. Yeah, I'm surprised that the spread is even this large. If the Pats win, the Giants are covering. I'm going to put some sort of faith into the Pats, though, because – actually, no, no faith into the Pats, though, because...

Actually, no. No faith in the Pats. Because the Giants defense has had their bright spots, and I think the Giants defense is going to show up. Give me Giants by four. You know, when all these Patriot fans say to me, oh, the Patriots are so bad, I say, listen, out of my 10 years of being a jaguars fan they didn't make the playoffs for eight of them oh i guess technically seven yeah so i i tell them you know

it's cliche but trust the process because i promise rebuilds they're gonna take forever but once your team is good your team's good and you kind of you know you don't have to worry about it anymore tuck prediction for the game uh which game was it one more time just to make giants pats what do you got i don't care enough about this i don't i know i just had to make sure uh i got patriots winning this. I do not trust DeVito. And I think Matt Jones will somehow, someway play good enough to get this game over. Let's just move on. I'm surprised that you actually have faith in the Pats, and I don't for once. That's wild.

We'll go to the break on that. When we come back, we'll go through the 4 o'clock slate and the primetime games. You're listening to the Fumble Rooski Podcast. Here we go. down. You're listening to the Fumble Ruski podcast powered by Power D 18 radio and Secret Weapon Consulting four o'clock slot.

Some solid games here. Well, to be honest, probably two solid games. We'll start with Browns Broncos. Broncos are favored by one and a half. Um, you got DTR as your quarterback for the Browns. I'm going to go Broncos by three,

but it's going to be a scary three. Cause that Browns defense is a very good unit. Very, very, very good unit. But there is a different energy in that Broncos locker room. They got so much momentum going for them right now, which kind of makes me want to believe that they're going to get the job done. And the Broncos defensive unit, too, has really turned it around since the beginning of the year.

So I think they're going to have their way with DTR in that offense. I think the Broncos will find maybe a little success, but very little. But I think they'll still find a way to get themselves into maybe a 16 to 13 win. If anything, maybe 20, maybe they put up 20 points if they're lucky. I don't know. Tuck, what do you got in this? I got the Broncos. I'm not picking the Browns.

I need them to lose all day. I got the Broncos i'm not picking the browns i need i need them to lose all day i got the broncos winning by a field goal it's going to be tough because that browns defense is like that uh miles garrett is going to have his but i believe that russell wilson will cook just enough just enough for them to get the victory and continue their little winning streak. I need them to win this game. I'm picking them. Don't mess this up, Russell. Don't mess this up, Sean Payton. I need this.

I need this for my division. Brad, what do you got? I can't believe you guys are going to pick Denver. I'm actually going to pick Cleveland by three in another low scoring game. Listen, the Browns defense has held the Cardinals like 60 yards of total offense through four quarters. They held the Steelers to 10 points last week. They have shut down the Bengals in week one, held them to three points all game. The Browns are used to this sluggish offense, defensive performance. The one time where of course the defense kind of crumbled against Baltimore,

they ended up winning that game. Sorry, Tucker, but you know, they ended up winning that game. And that was the one game that the offense showed up in, right? Browns are used to winning these low scoring battles. And I think they're going win this one against denver uh if there's any defense right now that could squash denver's momentum other than san francisco's i'm just gonna be honest best defense in the league probably other than san francisco's it's clean runs so give me the browns win by three it's it's not the browns and it's not san francisco yeah ravens are great, too, on defense. Absolutely. There we go.

That's all I need to say. Since we had Roquan, we've been the best defense. And this is a pretty big game playoff-wise, too, because say the Broncos do win, Browns lose. That drops the Browns to 7-4. Broncos go to 6-5. And with Buffalo, say Buffalo loses to Philly, we'll get to that in a second,

but say Buffalo loses to Philly, then that'll shoot the Broncos up to the 8th seed, and with the Steelers winning, they'll go to 7-4. If the Steelers win, they'll go to 7-4 if the Steelers win they'll go to seven and four Texans win this is all just hypotheticals um Texans win they'll just get shot up to the three seed and the Jaguars will just drop down to uh the sixth seed we're the sixth seed that's ridiculous yeah that is ridiculous if we end up being the sixth seed. Yeah, but at that point, though, so say Bills, Colts lose and the Broncos win, they're going to be in the eighth seed and in a spot to get the seventh seed, you know? So and say the Bengals beat the Steelers, they'll be six and five

and the Broncos and Steelers'll be tied for the seventh spot. And I can't think of if the Broncos and Steelers played already. I don't think they have, but Steelers would still have the seventh spot because they would have a better conference record as well. Just something to take note of, I guess, moving on to the next 4 o'clock game.

Four 4 o'clock games, to be exact. We're not going to talk about this one that much. Rams-Cardinal. Rams. Next. Rams are favored by two. I'll take the Rams as well. Chiefs-Raiders.

Probably not much. Eh. I feel like the Raiders could cover here. Chiefs are favored by nine. Chiefs receivers, they suck. They suck so much. I feel so bad for Patrick. He's giving them catchable balls,

and they're just dropping them when they matter the most. Yeah. And something to take note of here, too, Raiders are really good at home this year and it's in uh vegas raiders are four and one at home so they they have really been taking advantage of that home field advantage with getting four huge wins at home um so i'm still gonna go chiefs but i think it's gonna be chiefs by like four to seven it's gonna be a one touchdown game i would say that the chiefs went by i don't know i don't know

i i my my mind is telling me chiefs but my heart is telling me Raiders because I just don't trust that receiving core for Kansas City. I can't do it. Once MVS dropped that game-winning touchdown pass, I was like, no, I can't do it. So you trust Aiden O'Connell against LeJarrius Sneed and Trent McDuffie? I don't know. That's the thing. That's the thing is that are you willing to trust the Chiefs defense at that point? I trust Aiden O'Connell.

I'm going Kansas City by seven. I trust Aiden O'Connell against LJ Sneed and Trent McDuffie than I do the Kansas City receivers and air. I do not trust them. I just can't do it. They've done it to me too many times this season. Kadarius Stoney, opening game of the year, drops a pass, game-winning interception. MVS, game-winning touchdown, drops it, costs them the game. I can't do it.

It's completely understandable. It really is. I want to pick Kansas City. I just can't do it. Wow. I love it, though. We got an upset pick. I love it. I can live with the Raiders pick on this.

I mean, it's not out of the realm of possibility. They did lose to Miami, but they do look better under Antonio Pierce. That's another team that has a much different energy since the beginning of the season, or ever since they fired McDaniels.

Moving on to the last game in the 4 o'clock slate, Bills-Eagles, Philly favored by 3. It's another one where the home team the four o'clock slate bills, Eagles, Philly favored by three. It's another one where the home team has done a really good job of taking advantage of their home games. And that being Philly Philly's four and O at home, the bills one in three on the road.

Give me Philly by 10. I'll go Philly by seven, but yeah, Philadelphia's defense is going to be ferocious. The Bills' offensive line, they had trouble against the Bengals' defensive line a few weeks ago on Sunday Night Football. I don't know how they're going to really manage the Eagles' defensive line well. So just based off of how weak Buffalo's offensive line has been this year compared to previous seasons, I'm going to say Philadelphia wins and Josh Allen might get sacked about four or five times. I got the Eagles by three.

I think the Bills offense looks better than it did in previous weeks under this new OC. They put up 32 against the Jets. So I'm feeling a little bit better. But I still think it's the Eagles game to lose than it is for the Bills game to win. I think the Eagles are just the better team right now. Yeah, and the Bills are definitely a very hungry team, right? So obviously they got that get-right game last week against the Jets.

Josh Allen looked really good ever since Ken Dorsey got fired. So maybe it was the OC that's holding the Bills back, but you were also playing the Jets. So who knows what's going to end up happening with that, but all around, Philly will be the winner. We're going to go right into the primetime slot since we are a little short on time. Sunday night matchup, Ravens-Chargers.

Surprisingly, the spread is at Ravens by three and a half. I'd say Ravens by 10 because the Chargers, I know I like to bring up the home and away records, but I mean, the Chargers have not played that great at home. They're two and three at home. Ravens, obviously being the Ravensvens they're four and one on the road ravens have a really good defense um but you know you also have the problem of mark andrews being out i feel like that the ravens have shown that they're a little beat or that they can be kind of beat up i mean lamar jackson took some shots. OBJ got a little hurt as well.

Granted, much like the Bengals, they did have that extra time to get themselves healthy again. Regardless of that, I'm still going to pick the Ravens. I don't know if Keenan Allen is going to be healthy to play because I'm not gonna lie if it's just Quinton Johnston I'm not feeling at all threatened right now but I think the Ravens defense will just be too much for Justin Herbert and the Chargers to handle right now because I don't think they're fully healthy themselves because they just lost Joey Bosa on the defensive side. So overall, I think that the Ravens being the better overall team to begin with will just manhandle the Chargers.

I do like the plus 10. So I'm going to agree with you on that. And I think we're just going to just flat out win. But I think I think that I think the game is going to be quite entertaining to say the least though it has potential to uh yeah it seems that uh your point about keenan allen though it seems that keenan allen is going to play i was just checking the injury report he's not on it uh gerald everett is questionable but he's not anyone to really scoff at to be honest or if he needs someone to scoff at excuse me if slayer is, then I think it's going to be a lot closer because then they don't have to rely on Quinn Johnston to make every single catch.

Yeah. Or go to him in the clutch. Grant, what are your thoughts? I'm going to go plus six and a half Ravens win. I think it'll be a little bit closer, and I think it could be a one-possession game because even if Keenan Allen is inactive, they still have Austin Eckler and Justin Herbert is bound to throw for at least 250 a game. That's just kind of around what he averages.

But Baltimore's defense is still going to be too much to handle for a full 60-minute frame. Lamar Jackson, all he's got to do is play turnover-free football, and the Ravens should win. You know Baltimore's key. Take the lead early hold on to the lead that's that's been their model for the past couple of years and it's been working well for them and coach Harbaugh so I'm gonna say Ravens win by seven moving on to the Monday night game somehow the Bears found themselves into another primetime slot. I don't know why, but Vikings, Bears. They keep getting away

with this. They keep getting away with this. By the way, I just finished Breaking Bad this week. That's so funny you guys mentioned that reference. I just finished the show a couple days ago. What is this, number four or five?

This is number four, I believe. Yeah. got number four i believe yeah it feels like an eternity it feels like every ridiculous vikings by 20 i don't care it's i'm pretty sure it's in minnesota as well yeah it is vikings they're mad after they lost against denver they're gonna rebound against divisional rival i don't care if justin fields is back he played well against detroit more of the story is they still blew it to possession lead with three minutes left against divisional rival. I don't care if Justin Fields is back. He played well against Detroit. More of the story is they still blew it to a possession lead with three minutes left. How can I have confidence in that team to beat a team in the wild card race right now?

I can't. So Minnesota wins. Both teams, for that matter, are coming off of pretty tough losses, so I wouldn't be surprised if either one came out firing. The Vikings defense has shown up quite a bit as well um vikings are favored by three i'm gonna go i'm gonna go viking i think vikings are about to blow the doors off the chicago so i'm gonna go vikings by 14 at the very least i just got vikings whatever. I just don't want to see Chicago. It doesn't matter.

Vikings by whatever. I like that prediction. Yeah. Yeah. It's unanimous decision, Vikings. Yes. But, yeah, that's the entire slate for Week 12. Anything you two want to add?

Actually, now that – going back on the Ravens, actually, this just popped up on my feed three minutes ago. Zay Flowers set to play, OBJ, game-time decision. Yeah, sure. Doesn't matter. Ravens will still win that one. Yeah, Ravens are still winning, but that is going to be something to keep an eye on at the very least.

Oh, here's another one from Broncos Browns. That's, for some reason, just catching my eye. Denzel Ward out for this week. Oh, still picking Broncos. That just makes me feel better about my pick. Yeah, that makes me feel better about the Broncos pick as well. I'm still putting my faith in the Browns D line though. So I'll still go Browns.

Heck yeah. Well, yeah, that's, that's it for the show. That's it for us for this afternoon. We're going to have a, thank you for listening, obviously, but new episode coming out on Tuesday, 730 Eastern standard. New episodes out in general, Tuesday, 730 Eastern Standard. New episodes out in general, Tuesday, 730 Eastern Standard, and Fridays at 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Be sure to catch us on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker.

I don't have the script in front of me, so I can't think of all the streaming services that we're on because there's just a lot um and also be sure to follow us on instagram at fumble ruski underscore podcast or our tiktok which is slowly getting a lot of fame right now from that last broncos tiktok thank you for everyone that viewed it, liked it, shared it, and followed us as well. Thank you. But be sure to follow the TikTok at FumbleRooskiPod.

But for us, Chris Kostic, Justin Tucker, special guest Grant Flood, thank you, Grant, for joining us. Absolutely, Chris. It was a blast. Thank you for having me on Definitely going to have to get you on again Especially if the Jaguars get themselves Especially if the Jaguars do

End up making the playoffs One seed, it ain't no playoffs We're fighting for the one seed right now We're going to make the playoffs We need to make the one seed But game by game We got Houston And then we got the bangles tough schedule tucker

week 15 can't come soon enough my friend sunday night football it's gonna be a blast with that being said we'll sign off and have fun happy black friday happy thanksgiving as fumble risky podcast says so long and have a great rest of your weekend