The Fumblerooski Podcast - Downward Trends -Ep 213 The Fumblerooski Podcast

Episode Date: October 24, 2023

Are the Bills, Dolphins, and 49ers circling the drain? Could the Vikings make a playoff run? Adam Wright and Chris Costich host special guest Ari Koslow of the Fantasy Football Expert page to discuss these topics and more!

here's edelman broken up and the pass is no sign yet edelman comes down with a football they're saying it's a catch it's caught to Yates sideline touchdown unbelievable swings it way down the field to Watkins Sammy Watkins for the touchdown

lots of upsets as we conclude week seven and transition into week eight of the 2023 NFL season. This is the Fumble Rooski podcast by Power 88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. I'm Adam Wright with Chris Kostic, and we have a great show planned for you guys tonight. We're going to talk a little bit about the Patriots, how they beat the Bills in a shocking upset. A couple of other ones as well, the 49ers losing to the Vikings on Monday Night Football, the Dolphins to the Eagles, the Ravens destroyed the Lions 38-6. And joining us to cover all of these topics. We have special guest and, and content creator of the fantasy football expert, um, uh, Instagram page, Ari Koslow. Ari, thank you so much for joining the show for some of our new listeners. Why don't you reintroduce yourself? Yeah. Thank you so much for having me on. Um run at fantasy.footbollexpert

on Instagram. I've been running it since 2015, so quite some time now. And I've kind of grown it, you know, over the past eight years or so to a pretty good community. So yeah, excited to be on here today. Yeah, it's been great. And from following your show, I'm sorry, your page, I think what I like most about it is you're not afraid to branch off to other sports as well that are kind of trending. So if it's March Madness, if it's, you know, the MLB as well, I've noticed you post some Mariners stuff. You kind of go based on what is trending not not simply uh just fantasy football yeah I mean it's obviously a fantasy account but I know a lot of us are into all different kinds of sports you know as am I

and so I do try to mix other sports in a little bit, mostly, you know, more so on my stories than, you know, actual posts for the most part. But just to kind of because I'm, you know, not just a fantasy football fan, but, you know, all sports and all that. So I think it's kind of fun to mix it in and talk about, you know, other sports. Yeah, definitely. All right. So we're're gonna get right into it so leading off we're gonna talk about so the patriots they hosted the buffalo bills as home underdogs and pulled off a shocking upset 29 to 25 this is the bills second uh second loss out of the last three. And the one that they won was they barely hung on against, I believe it was off the top of my head, it was the Giants, correct? Yeah.

So, I mean, my takeaway here is on the Buffalo Bills. So, I mean, the way that the Patriots just gashed that Bills defense consistently throughout this game tells me they are really missing some key pieces. Tredavious White and Matt Milano most notably, but this is a team that is really hurting, especially on the defensive side of the ball. And without them to make up for some of Josh Allen's turnovers, that is going to be a problem. So I wonder just how far this Bill's team is going to make it, but Ari, I'll hand it off to you. What do you think about just your basic takeaways on this matchup? Yeah, I mean, it's

been a weird season for the Bills. Week one, they had the loss against the Jets, or they lost Aaron Rogers, Allen Thru. I think it was two or three interceptions, and people were a little bit concerned to a degree about the Bills. Then they rip off three wins in a row, capped off with the win over the Dolphins. I think that was the one week after they scored 70 points. And then after that, you had the London loss against the Jaguars which you know London all that travel you can kind of take the how you want but then you know barely hanging on against the Giants where they had the ball at like the one yard line you know at the last second and then now this loss so it's been you know a really up and down season for a Bills team that obviously many people had

you know as a top two or three Super Bowl contender heading into the season. You mentioned injuries on the defense, obviously playing a part in the struggles, but it's also been inconsistency on the offense as well with Josh Allen in the passing game. They've gotten a little bit more, I feel like, from the running game with James Cook than what they got last year. We're seeing Josh Allen run less a little bit, which has been notable for fantasy football in particular. But I still think that they are a top three to four team in the AFC

despite the up and down to this point in the season. But definitely consistency has been a problem for this team to this point in the season, no matter consistency has been a problem for this team, you know, to this point in the season, no matter who the opponent has been. Yeah, certainly consistency is a good, is a good way to put it with this Bills team. And you could have, you could have been able to make, make that case in the past few years with the Bills. Now the final product of, when you look at the regular season as a whole, in those couple of seasons, it looks really good. Allen's probably still going to throw 30-plus touchdowns.

They're probably still going to win 11 to 12 games. But putting it into context and where they exit in the playoffs, it's not as good as it might look. But, Chris, what do you think? Well, you know me. I'm not a big Bills defender. I'll never be a Josh Allen defender. His turnovers have always been a problem for him. Obviously, most turnovers since he got into the league, out of anyone. His first throw of the game was an interception, and they threw a fact out there during the game. It was the third time in his career that he game was an interception, and they threw a fact out there during the game.

It was the third time in his career that he's thrown an interception on the first play of the game. I don't know. For some reason, the Bills just love to make it harder for themselves, much like the Pats. I've never been a big believer in the bills at all. Really. They've jet.

They've always had Josh Allen's turnover problems. Just him being too aggressive. Yeah. He's not running the ball as much, which is good because takes a little load off his shoulders, makes him less injury, whatever you want to call it more liable for injury um or less i'm gonna backtrack it makes him less liable for injury there and they're starting to get james cook more involved

which is nice but that's always been like the key thing for them is that they never really had a run game it's always revolved around josh allen and that's when you put the entire game in your quarterback's hands it can go one or two ways it'll go either really well or it'll go really bad and a lot of times it's gone really bad and another part of this that the bills aren't really playing that great of football excuse me they aren't playing that great of football. Excuse me. They aren't playing that great of football in the first half. Put up zero against the Giants in the first half. They put up three against the Pats in the first half. You know, you can't be a one-half football team in this league

because then you'll have games like this where the Patriots will still have time on the clock to come back and beat you or a slow start or probably won't even get to that point where the Bills will have a slow start and won't just just won't catch up entirely. Yeah. Will the Bills still be a playoff team? Yeah, they won't be a Super Bowl contender, in my opinion, especially with the problems that they have on defense and especially the way that the Patriots manhandled them on offense Mac Jones only five incompletions this was the Mac Jones redemption game right here by all means necessary and the Bill Belichick redemption game you kidding me? And when that report came out that Belichick got,

was quietly, quietly signed to that extension, a lucrative extension, all of Pat's nation was freaking out, including myself. I was thinking, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? What was that? I said, I'm still freaking out because I don't know if I want him on this team anymore. Yeah, and he comes out and they get a great win over Buffalo,

a win that they haven't had in two years. And that was when Mac Jones threw the ball three times. And now you have a game where now you've proven you can beat the bills on the back of Mac Jones and they're starting to actually get their skill guys involved they're they're getting Kendrick Bourne the ball they're actually using Pop Douglas I'd love to see them use Booty a little bit more but they're actually getting guys involved now finally which has been a huge problem is that you got to a huge problem in my opinion opinion, for the Pats, that they have too many mouths to feed. You know, you have a lot of good young, a lot of great young talent, but it's just a matter of how often you're going to be able to distribute the ball.

So I've kind of gone away from the bills because that was the main talking point. But looking at the Pats' schedule, they could potentially be 6-7 or 7-6 and maybe sniffing at a wild card spot in the coming days, coming up to the Monday night game against Kansas City. Sure. So the way I would look at the Patriots, I'm glad you brought them up because then we can briefly touch on them as well um i'll say this any given sunday right anybody can on any given sunday can have can have an incredible game and just pull off a wild upset um what makes a great team is being able to string those together consistently and And until I see that from this

Patriots team, I thought they could potentially going into this season, be a playoff team. Now I don't see it. Now, if they win, I'll give you this. If they win against Miami, if they win against Miami next week, game on, game on. If they, if they go, if they go over and beat back-to-back teams that are projected to be in the playoffs, then I'll take it. Okay. Then the schedule gets a little softer, and suddenly those teams, the commanders of the world, right, the Colts, they seem a lot more beatable to you now, and you can actually see them sneaking into the playoffs at 9-8, 10-7. That's something that we can see, but we got to see that at some point we, we need, it's a big if at this point. And that's why, that's what I mean, Adam, is that even if they beat the dolphins and they

can string together these wins against Washington, Indy, New York, the giants, the chargers, the Steelers up until that Monday night game against Casey, if they can string some wins together, even if they take a loss to Miami, they could still be sitting looking at the wild card spot at six and seven. That's not out of the realm of impossibility. Granted, you still got Buffalo, New York,

the last two games of the season. And you also have Denver, which should be a beatable game or a winnable game. But you know, it's, I'm trying not to sound like a delusional Pats fan here, but you sound like a delusional Pats fan. It's no, the delusional Pats fan will say that we'll win out. Okay. Yeah. I'm trying to, I'm trying,

I'll be a realist and say that, yeah, we, the Pats entirely have the possibility of being 7-6 or 6-7. But like you said, it's any given Sunday. So the Pats could just as easily not be 6-7 or 7-6 come that Monday night game against KC. Anything can happen. It's not any given Sunday if they're winning every Sunday. At that point, you're just a good football team. Yeah, at that point, you're just a good football team. Yeah, at that point, you're just a good football team. But what I'm trying to say, it's not out of the realm of impossibility if they can play the way they played against the Bills.

They actually gave Mac Jones time in the pocket. They did. And it gave him time to actually get rid of the football and surprisingly enough according to next gen stats mac jones his average tie to or his average like snap to throw was 2.4 seconds second quickest in the nfl up to this point and that's because he actually has time to actually look downfield step into his throw i don't even think he got did he get sacked once i i have i have not seen that um you can check if you'd like in the meantime he's got sacked once he got sacked once okay it was i have no complaints from the patriots

this past sunday I really don't. I'm saying, okay, let's see it a few more times. That's all. But I do want to throw it to Ari to get his thoughts in because it's just been you and I talking about this topic. Sorry. But what do you think about this? Which side are you leaning towards? Yeah, I mean, you know, it was a great

performance, especially from their defense. And then, you know, obviously with Mack, it's just about not committing those, you know, the turnovers is the biggest problem for him, I think, from what I have seen. But yeah, I mean, I can't say that I'm a total believer in the Patriots over this one game, but, you know, the Dolphins, total believer in the Patriots over this one game. But, you know, the Dolphins, with the way the Dolphins secondary is banged up, if they can give – if the Patriots can give him time against the Dolphins, you know, I think the Dolphins will still be a little bit too much, you know, in the end. If they can even just be competitive in the game and keep it, you know,

within 10 points, you know, give or take, something like that. You know, I don't know their entire schedule, you know, after that, but I think this upcoming game against the Dolphins would be another tough test, obviously divisional game that will tell a lot more about, you know, their chances of maybe having any chances of sniffing wild card, you know, come later in the season. Yeah. I mean, I think we all can stand in agreement that it's going to come down to their offensive line. Their offensive line is, has been putrid this year,

even when it's been healthy. Um, but if they can put things together and give Mac Jones some time, then sure, they will have a chance. But I just, I also think it goes a little deeper than, than that. So we'll have to just see how how things play out with that but it does none of it matters if they can't fix their offensive line um so without being said i would like to move on so we're going to talk a couple of upsets um potential fraud alert so dolphins losing to the eagles on sunday night football in the 49ers losing to the vikings speaking of the and the 49ers losing to the Vikings. Speaking of the Vikings, do they have a potential chance to make the playoffs?

That's all next. This is the FumbleRisky Podcast. here's edelman broken up and the pass is no sign yet edelman comes down with a football they're saying it's a catch it's a catch Touchdown! Unbelievable! Swings it way down the field to Watkins! Sammy Watkins for the touchdown! Welcome back to the Fumble Rooski podcast by Power 88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. Adam Wright, Chris Kostich, special guest Ari Koslow. So the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Miami Dolphins 31-17 in a showdown that we thought was going to be a much more competitive game. And don't look now, but it's been well over a year since the Dolphins have beaten a team that is over 500, which is hard to believe because during that stretch of time, we have looked at

this Miami Dolphins team as a contender during that time, besides the time that Tua's been hurt. But they've been a very competitive football team. So the Eagles absolutely showed them up. Jalen Hurts, 279 yards, two touchdowns a pick. He ran for a touchdown as well. What are we thinking about this matchup? Do you guys think that we have oversold the Dolphins at all? Ari, I'll start with you. I mean, I think, you know, like you said, with the win over 500, teams over 500, I think they have, you know, a little bit more to prove in terms of being a legit, you know, Super Bowl contender. But I think to me, this is more about the Eagles showing out than it is the Dolphins, you know, being frauds or whatever you want to call it. You know, the Dolphins are still, I mean,

both teams were banged up in the secondary. Obviously the Eagles offense put it on them, but, you know, Tyreek Hill had that drop that wasn't a touchdown that could have changed, made the game a little bit closer. But yeah, I mean, to me, it's more about the Eagles being impressive and it is the Dolphins, you know, fading or whatever you want to call it. There was the one bad interception by Tua where he just threw it up and they could have gotten the field goal if he just threw it away.

But the way I – my biggest takeaway was just the Eagles, you know, being a clear favorite in the NFC, especially, you know, we'll get into Monday Night game. After we saw Monday Night, the Eagles being a clear favorite out the NFC, especially, you know, we'll get into Monday night game after we saw Monday night, the Eagles being the clear favorite out of the NFC. Um, I'm going to slightly disagree with you, Ari. I think that I think I definitely think that it's, is more the Eagles like it was, it was their day.

They had their way with the Dolphins all day. You also had Tyreek missing that touchdown. Like you said, there's a lot of missed calls to which Mike McDaniel went on X Twitter, whatever you want to call it, afterward, literally like the night after or the day after and just aired his grievances, attacked the NFL for paying attention to the Swifties more than the actual officiating. But I digress. The Dolphins, their wins this year, the Patriots, the Broncos, the Giants, the Panthers.

Who are the two games or the two teams they've lost to? The Bills and the Eagles. What are those teams? What are the difference between those teams? The Bills and the Eagles. What are those teams? What are the difference between those teams? The Bills and the Eagles are contenders. The other teams probably won't sniff any sort of playoff contention. The Patriots obviously being a divisional opponent. Now, if they beat the Chiefs in London in two weeks, we could be having a different

story. They're back. They aren't fraudulent. But the problem is that the Dolphins, it's not to say that they're a bad team, obviously. This is a historic offense we're talking about here. And, yeah, they're dealing with injuries on the defensive side. But it's still a team that's going to beat up on the bad teams. But when they face up against good teams, it's

kind of, um, it's kind of which team, which dolphins team are you going to get? Are you going to get the dolphins team? That's going to put up 70 on the Broncos. Are you going to get the dolphins team that loses by 21 or 28 to the bills? It's, I don't know. It's one of those things that you can't really get a gist of until you get to the middle of the season. And for the middle of the season, for the Dolphins, it's going to be the Chiefs. And that's going to be their big test because obviously Mahomes is going to beat Mahomes.

The Chiefs are going to do – they're just going to do their thing. And the Chiefs defense surprisingly is actually very good this year too they're the fourth best defense in the league first out of nowhere you know last week i just got done saying how they've always been a suspect defense throw that out the window because they're here to play they finally have a defense that granted they didn't necessarily need a great defense to win the super bowl but now they have a defense that, granted, they didn't necessarily need a great defense to win the Super Bowl. But now they have a defense and not as good of an offense. But with Pat Mahomes as your quarterback, they're still going to be a contender for the Super Bowl or probably going to be in the Super Bowl regardless.

And that's just something that we're going to have to accept. Back to the Dol the dolphins real quick dolphins i just don't know if they'll be a super bowl contender unless they and just figure it out and get some wins against some good teams which i think that they can but it depends on tend to agree with you on the dolphins um this and it's not even necessarily to his fault he doesn't have that good of an offensive line the offensive line isn't very good and it was evident in this matchup despite them being you know they were facing they were facing the one of the best front sevens in all of football, but you still have to, you still got to give your quarterback a chance. He got sacked three times in this matchup. That's a problem.

So if he's pressured all like, you know, every other play, um, then you're not giving your quarterback the best chance to find the Tyreek Hills and the Jalen Waddles of the world. So he's got, they got to be able, they have to be better with their offensive line. I was a little disappointed with what they did this off season to fix their offensive line, which had issues on the right side. I mean, Austin Jackson can't stay healthy. I mean, they can't really do much with Toronto Armstead. They took their best shot they could, and he can't stay healthy either, but they have some problems on that offensive line that I wanted them to fix and they haven't. That being said, yeah, I tend to agree. I think

the Dolphins will be a playoff team, but once they run into anyone like the Eagles or, um, you know, anyone like that in the, in the AFC, the chiefs per se, uh, you can say the Ravens, the Bengals, if they figure it out, they run into them. Um, they may have some issues. Also the Jaguars, Jaguars are a team that's up and coming. And they're figuring things out on offense as they continue to go. So this Dolphins team, they've looked good. But every time they run into someone good, they lose. That's the problem.

Do what you did against Denver every week against good teams. Be battle tested. that's my problem yeah and go back on your offensive line point too that the big thing is that one of the biggest things that the Dolphins have had obviously speed is the speed of their running game as well and they only had 45 yards on the ground you know this this team isn't meant to go head-to-head. It's not a team that's meant to be physical. It's a team that's meant to be fast. They're going to beat you with speed. But the Eagles are a team that's meant to beat the living hell out of you.

And they made sure that they weren't going to get beat by the dolphin speed. And that's all you really have to do it. The Eagles basically showed us how to beat the dolphins, just beat the hell out of them physically. And don't let them beat you with their, with their speed. And that's what happened. You're right. You're right. Um, all right. I want to briefly, we're in a decent spot with time, but I want to touch on the 49ers losing to the Vikings on Monday Night Football because that's a big one. Not only did the 49ers lose in an upset last week to the Browns starting PJ Walker,

but now they just lost to the Vikings with Kirk cousins. So I wanted to pull up the, but I wanted to first touch on the Vikings here. I wanted to pull up their schedule because it, their schedule in the next month and a half is actually disgusting. First next week, you've got you are visiting Green Bay. Then you have the Falcons.

Then the Saints. Then the Broncos. Then the Bears. Then the Raiders again. Then you have the Bengals. That's going to be a tough one if the Bengals are healthy, but they've been iffy this year. You have the Lions, which is a tough one.

Packers, which I think should be a victory as well. Then you have the Lions again. So you have the Lions twice and the Bengals. Those are three that I think will probably be losses. But don't look now, but this team does look like it has a path to go to, to make the playoffs perhaps. Yeah. I think that they could definitely end up being six and four,

seven and three in this last stretch coming up. Obviously you pick out the Packers twice, the Falcons, Saints, Broncos. I think they can rattle off all these games that are the next four weeks and get themselves onto a six-game win streak and get themselves into that playoff conversation. And my only problem is defense. And I'd say defense in the run game uh vikings defense has been is like middle of the pack right now in terms of yards um vikings defense hasn't necessarily been the greatest especially this year and they've also had to rely on Kirk throwing the ball 35 to 40

times a game with on top of that their run game not doing a ton granted they did have a pretty solid day on the ground 74 yards but you know that's on 18 attempts from Madison Acres and the rest is just folk just focusing on throwing the ball around. Um, so I think that the Vikings definitely could, but they're just too much of a one dimensional team to really make a run. But that doesn't mean that Kirk cousins is not a top 10 quarterback. It's not a top 10 quarterback. He is a top 10 quarterback. It's not top 10.

All right. What are your thoughts on, um, on the Vikings here? quarterback. He is a top 10 quarterback. He is a top 10 quarterback. It's not top 10. Ari, what are your thoughts on, on the Vikings here? Yeah. I mean, it was certainly an impressive performance on Monday, especially from, you know, the defense and the offensive line, you know, keeping cousins really upright. You got sacked zero times against that nine years pass rush. And then, you know, it's, it's still too early to look at, you know, playoff standings and all that. But I mean, the NFC is going to be, you know,

wide open in that wild card kind of race and that five to seven range. I still think the Lions, despite their performance this past Sunday, they still are, you know, the clear team to be in the division. I think they're still going to win in the division. But when you're looking at the wild card spots, I mean, it's too early, but they're a half game right now behind the last wildcard spot right now. And you talked about their favorable schedule with a lot of matchups that are very winnable.

And then, obviously, you have the likely return of Justin Jefferson kind of in the week 10 to 12 range, in that range. So definitely this win was huge for a lot of different reasons for them, you know, for this season. Definitely. I wanted to touch on the 49ers now. So, again, as I introduced this portion of the segment, back-to-back losses, not exactly against good teams, right? So here we are, we're looking at this 49ers team. They're

5-2, so they're still in a good spot playoff-wise. You have the Seahawks hot on their heels right now, who are currently sitting at four and two. And Brock Purdy looks human the past couple of weeks. After a 10-0 start to his regular season career, and I believe it was two playoff wins? One or two. He got a couple of them. He got them to the NFC Championship.

Okay, one. Didn't know off the top of my head. Or no, it was two because they didn't have the one seed last year did they i thought they had the one seed no because they were the eagles had it that's right yeah they were in yeah no they beat the seahawks in the wild card round yeah yeah too right yeah yeah that's a tough one um i mean you're you're seahawks are in a better spot than our Patriots though. Look, me personally, I'm not ready to hop off the bandwagon of the 49ers. They've, they've showed out very nicely and Brock Purdy has shown me that he can be a very good quarterback. And honestly, I didn't hate his performance against the Browns. It was against one of the best defenses in the league. And he did get his team into field goal position. He got them there. It's not his fault that the court, that the,

that the kicker missed the 42 yard field goal. Um, this one, this performance was a little worse, but at the same time, every quarterback is going to have bad stretches. I don't think we can hold it against, uh against Brock Purdy that suddenly he's not a very good quarterback just because he had a couple bad performances in a row. Everyone does it. Tom Brady's done it. Peyton Manning's had bad stretches. All of the greats have had bad stretches for a certain amount of time.

We let Justin Herbert off the hook all the time. So why are we not giving Brock Purdy the benefit of the doubt suddenly? Right? I'll definitely give him the benefit of the doubt. So I would give him some time. If he's this bad for this long, for like, let's say the rest of the season. Okay. Then we have to start having that conversation that maybe it's all the talent around him. But two things can be true at once. He may have good talent around him,

but he could also still be a very good quarterback, right? Yeah. I think the only problem is that he's got the whole Mr. Irrelevant thing hanging over his head. And that's probably what's going to turn a lot of people off at that point, especially when you have two really bad mistakes that turn into interceptions in the last five minutes of the game that's the huge problem here is that that we're forgetting about is that the two interceptions we had were the last five minutes of the game and that's crucial and on top of that the niners are missing Debo very badly right now. Debo, we're now seeing how much of an effect he has on this offense, especially in the way that they actually move the ball, too.

Like I said, Vikings are middle of the pack. They're still not that great of a defense. The Niners should have had their way with this Vikings defense last week I'll give them a pass because it's the Browns but this week they should have had their way especially with with or without Debo and they didn't they couldn't move the ball sufficiently yeah everything you say is true everything you say I agree with all I'm saying is this is this is such a small sample size to be saying that this 49ers team is fraudulent this team is not going to be in contention they're still they're still a good team and they just they had a bad stretch i mean it happens to a lot of great teams

remember the 2019 chiefs during a stretch they couldn't beat some really middling teams. But they figured it out. They got healthy. And they went on to win the freaking Super Bowl. And their quarterback won Super Bowl MVP. So everyone just has tough stretches for a certain amount of time. So I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. But let's proceed with

caution here. But Ari, what are your thoughts? Yeah. I mean, you know, they're still a great team, obviously. I think while they were missing Debo, I think missing Trent Williams was just as big, if not bigger, especially on that left side of the line that was getting quite a bit of pressure. But, you know, Brandon Naik had a pretty good first half and he I don't think he had one catch in the second half so they also were missing that kind of game breaker that you know Debo brings them and then we saw you know the secondary can be exploited if their pass rush isn't getting to the quarterback when we talk about how great the defense is for San Francisco and how hard of hitting they are and all that.

I mean, it really is mostly their pass rush that creates all that kind of chaos that makes the defense look that good. So I think, you know, and then we saw at the end of the first half, the all-out blitz with seven seconds left with no timeouts left was obviously also a questionable call that's, you know, calling a lot of 49ers fans having questions question with Steve Wilks, you know, as their defensive coordinator and all that. But, I mean, yeah, like you guys said, it's a tough stretch.

They're still a great team. You know, they do have a big game against the Bengals next week, which, you know, if they can get back on track heading to the bye, it would obviously be big. I mean, it's only a one-game difference of being 5-3 versus 6-2 heading into the bye. You know, losing three in a row versus, you know, getting back on the winning ways, you know, obviously isn't a pretty big deal.

And then they have Jacksonville, I think, out of the bye, which is another relatively, you know, tough game. So they're definitely going to be kind of battle-tested in that regard, you know, with this tough stretch. But, you know, all in all, all in all, they have too much talent not to still be one of the best teams in the NFC and even in the NFL. Yeah, and that's going to be a fun matchup to watch is 49ers-Bengals because the Bengals are going to be coming off a bye.

They will be well-rested, And hopefully that means Joe Burrow's calf is going to be closer to 100%. And suddenly the Niners are a wounded animal. And they're going to be defending their playoff, not playoff hopes, but Super Bowl contending hopes and their chances at getting a high seed against this Bengals team, who's also fighting in the same breath. So that's going to be a fun matchup to watch. And, um, it's going to have, I bet it will have some major playoff implications for both sides. Um, given, given the, uh, the magnitude and what is on the line for both sides. All right, I want to move on.

We are a little bit against the clock. I'll put it up to a vote. For next segment, do we want to touch on trivia or do we want to touch on the Ravens in their loss, in their victory, Jesus? I mean, the only thing really to talk about for the Ravens is their receivers are actually somewhat good. And they blew doors.

They blew doors. Lions, I think there's just going to be a one-off loss. Lions are going to be fine. They're going to be fine. This is just one game. Have you seen the Lions schedule coming up? I actually have not. It's also disgusting.

You can see two games where they actually will probably lose, and they might have one other where they mess up. But it looks like it's actually disgusting. They're going to have a little bit of problems at the wide receiver spot as of 12 minutes ago via ian rapaport lions receiver marvin jones jr steps away from his team to tend to personal family matters and he was out for last week too okay but you have you have josh reynolds you have amin rah saint brown you have jameson williams i think you're set there and uh that other kid laporta holy crap did that guy just come out of nowhere.

I thought they made a mistake trading TJ Hawkinson, but they found this diamond in the rough in this young kid. He's doing really well. The Iowa boys. Them Iowa boys. They're good. Let me go through it real quick, and then we'll go on to the next segment, which will be trivia.

Their next game, Raiders, then the Chargers, then the Bears, Packers, Saints, Bears again, Broncos, Vikings, Cowboys, Lions, Jesus, Vikings again. There's like two games that they lose. They could roll out of bed and win 12, 13 games. Yeah. I mean, we could probably just add in an extra loss just because because because mistakes happen it's football any given sunday so they win 12 games this year what do you think ari yeah i agree i mentioned are you got anything out of that i agree i think i mentioned earlier with the Vikings and the Lions are still a clear favorite in the division.

Yeah, I agree. It was a one-off game. I think they're going to take out their anger on the Raiders on Monday night and pick up a convincing win to get back on track. Absolutely. All right, next we have Chris's trivia segment. Most turnovers since 2018. That's going to be fun. Stay tuned for that. This is the Fumble Rooski Podcast. in the pass is no sign yet. Edelman comes down with a football.

They're saying it's a catch. It's a pass. To Gates! Side-eyed! Touchdown! Unbelievable! Slings it way down the field. The one count!

Sammy Watt gets for the touchdown! Welcome back to the Fumble Rooski podcast. I'm Adam Wright with Chris Kostic and Ari Koslow. All right. So we have reached the trivia segment of our show. So, Chris, what do you got? Trivia for today, most turnovers by an NFL player since 2018, looking at the top five players. So we'll just go back and forth. Since there's five, it's just best just three out of five,

whoever gets three first wins. Ari, since you're our guest, I'll let you go first. I mean, you mentioned him earlier, and I think that was his rookie year in 2018, Josh Allen. Yep, Josh Allen, 89 turnover since 2018. Didn't mention him earlier in this episode. He's number one. That's why you did this topic.

Maybe. You were just looking at a way to trash on Josh Allen. I like it. I like it, though. Maybe. Maybe. All right. Give me Lamar Jackson.

Lamar's not on the list. He's barely even top 20. Oh, yeah uh, he's like barely even top 20. Oh yeah. Cause he's missed a lot of games too. Missed a lot of games. And there was, uh, his MVP season.

He only had like six interceptions. That is right. Um, are your turn? Yeah. Ari. I'm not sure if he's made enough starts recently, but Jameis Winston,

not Jameis Winston? Not Jameis Winston. He is in the top 15, though. That was going to be my next guess. Let me think. I've got to go with who gets a lot of turnovers. And who's been around for a little while? Give me Kirk Cousins.

Kirk Cousins is number five. Ha. There you go. 79 turnovers since 2018. Okay. So one to one. Ari, you're up. Baker Mayfield.'s number 482 turnovers since 2018 and I'll always be a Baker Mayfield believer but yeah that's I think most of those turnovers were also from his rookie year as well I remember

he was racking up some interceptions that season. 2-1, Ari with the lead. Adam, your turn. Give me Justin Herbert. Who? Justin Herbert. He's not on the list. Sorry, my mic or my earbud cut out when you made your guess, but he's not on the list. Wasn't around long enough. Yeah, that that's right he only came in at what 2020 yeah

jared jared goff jared goff is number two so ari takes the win all right what was the last one well you guys keep get can keep trying to guess the last one if you want uh i don't really feel like it but i was gonna say i was gonna say daniel jones daniel jones is uh top 10 okay uh but the last player that we were looking for was Derek Carr. He's number three. That would have been a good one. Okay. Yeah. Derek Carr with 83 turnovers. Jared Goff had 84 turnovers.

So, yeah. I'm surprised about Jared Goff, actually. Not going to lie. Yeah, Goff has been a stable quarterback. I know he's thrown some picks, but. I was just thinking, like, of just how pass heavy he's kind of been in a lot of the offenses and just mostly volume based. Yeah, especially with the Rams too.

Like, they like to spread it out a lot. Yeah. That's fair. All right. There you have it. And for our next segment, do we want to go right into it? We don't need to play the intro. Yeah, just go right have it. And for our next segment, do we want to go right into it? We don't need to play the intro. Yeah, just go right into it.

Want to touch on your top three, bottom three? You can take control of the banners here for that one. Yeah, so top three, bottom three for week seven. I had a much – this was probably the toughest week for me, not going to lie. I felt like there was a lot of good candidates for the top and the bottom. But we'll get right into it. Top three. Patriots. Obviously a great win against the Bills.

I think that it's definitely getting them into the right direction of where they want to be and potentially getting to maybe a wild card spot, but it probably won't happen. But regardless, for morale's sake, it's a good win. Ravens, great win. They finally figured out their whole wide receiver stick. Zay Jones, rookie wide receiver. He's a dog. Jesus Christ, there's a fly around me.

Sorry. Eagles. That's just a great dominant win for the Eagles, in my opinion. And they just had their way with the Dolphins all day, proving that they're still a top-two team in the NFC. Honorable mention, the Vikings and the Bears. The Bears just having their way with the Raiders, especially with the backup quarterback too.

I can't think of what his name is right now. It wasn't the greatest game. I mean, he only had 162 yards. But in terms of getting a job done, he had three total touchdowns on the game and doing enough to get a win, a blowout win, nonetheless, against a Raiders team that is kind of hot, but not anymore. Vikings, obviously, their win last night against the 49ers. Tyson Badgen.

Tyson Badgen. Tyson Badgen. Tyson Badgen. Tyson Badgen. He had one throwing touchdown, and I believe that was actually it. But, you know, they won with a D2 quarterback, so you get what you get. True, true. What do you guys think, though, before we move on to the bottom three? I think you nailed it, honestly. I think this was a good one. Yeah, Vikings won the game, but it didn't look too pretty.

As for the Patriots, Ravens, and Eagles, they blew doors against great teams. So that's something to look at. And the Bears, when you win with a D2 quarterback, you're bound to at least sniff this list. That's something to look at. In the Bears, when you win with a D2 quarterback, you're bound to at least sniff this list. So that's pretty good. Ari, your thoughts? Yeah, I have no disagreements.

I mean, some teams like the Bears aren't going to be on this list very often, so you might as well put them on there when you can. And then the other teams obviously had pretty convincing wins against you know playoff or even super bowl caliber teams um so yeah no disagreements from me yeah and some other ones that i had in mind too the browns uh their shootout against the colts another one was uh the steelers uh they're still looking like they could actually be a playoff team, even with Matt Canada as their OC, and they have Deontay Johnson back from injury as of last week, which is big for them.

So those would probably be a couple other ones that I had in mind. Moving on to the bottom three, though. 49ers, just a bad loss against the Vikings. We were just saying how it's probably just going to be one of those one-off losses that probably won't worry about too much same thing with the lions lions they're going to be just fine especially with those schedule that they have coming up that we were just talking about the raiders geez can josh mcdaniels have Jeez. Can Josh McDaniels have any more horrible losses? You know, last year you lose to Jeff Saturday, who in his first game as being a head coach,

and you just get embarrassed by Jeff Saturday, who's just coming in all willy-nilly. And on top of that, and last year as well, losing to Baker bigger Mayfield who joined the Rams on Tuesday and then beat him on Thursday. And then this weekend, you lose to a D2 quarterback in a bottom two team in the league. What is that? That's just unreal. And the craziest thing is that ever since he went 6-0 to start his coaching tenure with the Broncos way back when, he's had a horrific head coaching record. I can't believe that Josh McDaniels was even considered

for a head coaching job to begin with, but that's neither here nor there. Honorable mention, the Bills uh they're just bad right now they'll probably end up being fine the rest of the way but you never know with the bills especially with the injuries and how they can't perform in the first half right now uh the dolphins dolphins just a bad loss they just got the hell beat out of them by a very physical Eagles team. And maybe we see more teams try to just dominate them physically and not try to get beat by the speed. And that's probably going to be the Dolphins downfall is relying too much on the speed.

Thoughts? As for this list, the only issue that I would have is i know i know the raiders lost with a d2 quarterback which is why they deserve to be on this list but as an honorable mention because they're not a very good team either and they're not even starting their their current starting quarterback right now they have they have um completely blanking on the name brian i forgot about that yeah it was brian i actually forgot about that the bills blanking on the name. Brian Hoyer. I forgot about that. Yeah, it was Brian Hoyer. I actually forgot about that. The Bills, on the other hand, they lost in an embarrassing matchup

against a Patriots team that their own fans are calling to tank on the season on. So, like, I just think that's a much more embarrassing loss, and the Bills had much more to lose. I mean, they're now what? They're about 4-3, and they're now looking at barely being in... I mean, they're going to make the playoffs most likely, but they're not going to get a top seed now. I mean, that's pretty much gone, mostly because of this loss

to a team that you should be beating. And now we're going to be questioning when or whether or not you beat them the next time you face them, or if you can even beat the, beat the dolphins the next time you face them, because you're losing these games that you should be winning. Yeah, I agree that the teams here are where they should be,

but maybe Bill's definitely had the worst loss just given expectations and who they faced and who they had healthy and all that. But other than that, I agree with the teams overall that are on here. A couple – one other one that I took off last minute because of the Niners, and honestly, it could probably go in for the Raiders or any of these teams for that matter, is the Commanders only putting up seven on the Giants. That'll do it, yeah.

That earns consideration at the very least. Yeah, that was a tough one to take them out. The Giants aren't a terrible defense, but they're not a defense that's a Super Bowl winning defense, I would say. Yeah, I was also thinking that defense was probably moving off the momentum that they had against the Bills, only allowing the 14 points and allowing zero first half points as well but that's just one of those commanders games that it's you don't know which

commander's team you're gonna get yeah it's you really i mean that is a great way to summarize the commanders you don't know which team you're gonna get They could go toe-to-toe with some of the best in one week and then lose in an embarrassment the next. What were you going to say, Ari? I think he's frozen right now. Is he frozen? Yeah. One more thing I will say about the commanders, too,

is another reason why I had them even sniffing the list is they gave up six sacks for sam howell and sam howell is not the problem it's that old line and just the whole team in general and we were saying this the other week. Sam Howell leads the league in sacks taken. Like, that is just a problem. Yeah, there's that. All right. We're going to have to move on to the next segment. I hope Ari finds – oh, he's gone right now. All right.

We'll see if he comes back. Actually – oh, here he is. He's coming back. All right. I was going to say we would have to because we have the guest segment next we would have to yeah sorry there's thunder and lightning and i think the wi-fi cut out uh all right no worries no worries oh am i good i hope yeah we can just hear echoes right now. Right now.

Is the sound not good on my end? The sound on your end is fine. We can just hear ourselves. And I just hope that doesn't reflect on the broadcast. I would say the time, so you're not talking, have yourself muted so we don't hear the echo. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good idea. There we go.

All right. So next we have Ari's guest segment. Fantasy football PSA for this time of year. A lot of teams struggling. A lot of team owners struggling right now and wondering, is it even worth it? So Ari has something on that. That's next.

This is the F is no sign yet. Edelman comes down with a football and they're saying it's a catch. It's in. Oh! Diggs! Sideline! Touchdown! Unbelievable!

Swings it way down the field to Watkins! Sammy Watkins for the touchdown! Welcome back to the Fumble Rooski podcast by Power 88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. We welcome you to the guest segment of our show brought to you by Secret Weapon Consulting. So for our guest segment, we have Ari Koslow, who is the owner of the Instagram page known as the Fantasy Football Expert. He's going to talk about a little fantasy PSA that he goes over during this time of year when some teams are struggling to make the playoffs, all those fantasy owners.

Ari, what do you got? I just want to confirm, is there still the echo on your end? Nope. We don't have that. No, you're all set. I appreciate it. Yeah, so, yeah, obviously it's been kind of a crazy season. I mean, I guess I feel like we kind of say this every year with a lot of unpredictability and all that.

But, you know, a lot of teams struggling and some teams, you know, having a good year so far. But if you're one of those teams that, you know, is struggling, whether it's due to injuries or players in the performing or, you know, you got Kyle Abijon last week, let's say, where he didn't even, you know, he saw one carry. Just to kind of always remember that fantasy football is, you know, it's a long season and not to kind of overreact for one week. You know, if's a long season and not to kind of overreact for one week. You know, if you're struggling, look at who the last team in the playoffs is at this moment and see how far behind them you are. And, you know, kind of see how many games are behind the last playoff spot and kind of use that as kind of a guideline or like a baseline to kind of see where you need to go to kind of you know so so to speak save

your season um i mean every year we see teams that are you know under 500 or just sneak into the playoffs and then get hot at the right time and you know and win leagues as the last playoff seed obviously in fantasy football you know all you have to do is get i mean even in nfl obviously but in fantasy football all you have to do is find a way to get into the playoffs. And at that point, anything goes. So kind of use that as a baseline if your team is struggling. Obviously, it's probably easier if your team has six playoff spots versus, you know, four, let's say, to try to sneak in if your team is struggling.

But, you know, kind of use that as a baseline to see how far out of the playoffs you are, if you even are out of the playoffs. And kind of, you know, gauge your team with the rest of your league because, you know, even though it is a long season, we're seven weeks in. So you kind of, for the most part, you kind of know where your team is at this point in the year. So just kind of, you know, take a step back and objective look at kind of where your team stands, where you are, you know, in comparison to where the playoffs is at. Because, you know, we have six, seven more weeks left of the regular season for most fantasy leagues that, you know, go through week 14.

So, yeah, don't make, I mean, don't make any panic trades, but also make moves if you need to because, you know, the trade deadline is also kind of approaching the next few weeks that most leagues, you know, have a trade deadline kind of week 10, 11, 12, in that range. But, you know, all in all, I'll remember that we're all competitive and want to win, but it is also fantasy football. And we can control, you know, so much at the end of the day and kind of we can like can control, you know, so much at the end of the day and kind of just keep that in perspective,

you know, when you're looking at your teams, I think it's very well put. It's very well put. I'll, I'll say this is well put my, my, I had a team last year.

That was the lap. That was the seventh seat. It was a 20 man, two owner per team league, $1,900 payout. Don't ask me how I got involved in this, but we were the seventh seed, and we ended up going all the way and being the eighth seed in the championship last year. So there's an example for you. Yeah, I'll tell you a story. I had a couple of years ago, it was the 2020 season,

and I barely squeaked into the playoffs at 5-9. And we still do trades throughout the playoffs, and I pulled this crazy trade. One would say it was stupid, but I wanted to do it. I wanted Stefan Diggs and I traded away one of my star receivers. And I also traded away Tom Brady for, I know I traded, I traded for Tom Brady and Stefan Diggs and I gave them the, him, the, uh, the then MVP Aaron Rogers. Um, I wasn't going to do it. I was going to give away Tom Brady. Shoot. I I've completely messed it up. Uh, I had Tom Bray. I had Tom Brady and Aaron Rogers. Okay. Um, and I was going to trade Tom Brady. I'm a

Brady zealot, but Aaron Rodgers was having a better year. And this kid goes, well, by the way, you're talking to me about Aaron, about Tom Brady. I would think that you think he's washed too. I didn't like that. So I traded away Aaron Rodgers. They got Stefan Diggs. And, um, in the, uh, we eventually both made it to the playoffs. This kid was like top of the league. He only had two it to the playoffs. This kid was, like, top of the league. He only had two losses on the season. We met up in the championship. Tom Brady didn't only outscore Aaron Rodgers, but I was down 30.

It was a Monday night football game with Stephon Diggs facing the New England Patriots without Stephon Gilmore. They had JC Jackson. He scored 41, and it won me the league in a walk-off. So that's kind of a – It doesn't get much sweeter than that. It was amazing. So Stephon Diggs, he's a hero.

He's – yeah, so i definitely get that right um and it's it really does take just making the playoffs because you really you really don't have much control over how these players do i mean some of them just catch fire and next thing you know you're just burning through the playoffs and you just you take the championship by storm at five and nine you know so and i didn't expect a spot that season either so that was just unbelievable um but yeah that's i mean that's a good point right like kind of just try to figure out a way to get into the postseason um because you know in fantasy football that's kind of the way it ends up going. But, yeah.

All right. So I guess we don't have much to add on that. No, I don't. Yeah, I don't either. But, yeah, that was a good guest segment. And so we'll move on to our final segment of the show our fumble ruski fan box so we asked you guys who's the most underrated defensive player of the uh defensive player so far this season lots of different answers that's next this is the fumble ruski podcast podcast. They're saying it's a kiss. It's a kiss. Oh! It's a kiss!

Skyline! Touchdown! Unbelievable! Swings it way down the field to Watkins! Sammy Watkins for the touchdown! Welcome back to the Fumble Ruski podcast by Power 88 and Secret Weapon Consulting. Adam Wright, Chris Kostic, special guest Ari Koslow. So we welcome you to the Fumble Ruski fan box portion of our show where we post a question filter on our Instagram every Monday and you guys can respond with hot takes, questions, and more. And we will discuss it and give you a shout out on our instagram every monday and you guys can respond with hot takes questions and more and

we will uh discuss it and give you a shout out on our podcast respond to next week's fan box question to be featured on our show all right so the question of the week was who is the most underrated defensive player so far this season we got some interesting answers leading off with owen vanslack who said bradley chubb. And Bradley Chubb, ever since he's entered the league, has been a pretty good defender, which is weird because he was a first rounder. And he also, when he was traded from the Broncos, he went for a first rounder. Yet he's still somehow underrated so this kid can still clearly ball but i mean he's just still overlooked in in the general fan populace yeah no i i can agree with that bradley chubb has always been a dog in my opinion and

that was a huge thing for the dolphins to pick him pick him up, but I think just because of the hype of the Dolphins offense, he's kind of flown more under the radar. Yeah. Or really that whole entire defensive unit in general. Yeah. This next one, so Eli Turner, so forgive me for the pronunciation, Josie Jewell? Yep, Josie Jewell.

Okay. This guy's actually been pretty good since entering the pronunciation. Josie Jewell? Yep, Josie Jewell. Okay. This guy's actually been pretty good since entering the league, especially in the past couple of years. And he's on pace for over 100 tackles yet again as an off-ball linebacker. It's always the off-ball linebackers who are just, they're always forgotten. And there are some who are some of the best in the game, and you would barely even know who they are. Like this Aloacon guy? Holy crap. On the Jaguars? He is a tackling machine. That's just one of those.

That's just some of those guys that are just in the right spot every single time. There's nothing you can do about it. Right. But if you're getting the tackles for loss, though, like Foyo Alokan, that guy gets, he's getting tackles like it's nobody's business.

It's unbelievable. Alright, Grant Flood said, Roy Robertson Harris. Shout out my boy Grant. Yep. Rock and rock, baby.

What are you thinking? I'm not overly familiar with Roy Robertson Harris. Is he a Jaguars guy? I would assume so. Yeah, he is. Yeah, because that's Grant's team. All right, so looking at his statistics right now. All right, so he does have, so far this season, 18 combined tackles,

11 assists, half a sack on the season. He doesn't have a season of more than 45 total tackles. So he's probably a rotational guy, I would assume, but he's been in the league for a couple of years. I believe this is, looks like this is, he's been in the league since 2017. So he's probably just one of those, I would say, role players on the defense, right? He can make some plays, but he's not meant to be an everyday starter, which is underrated. Grayson Mortimer said, Andrew Van Ginkle. Vanimer said Andrew Van Ginkle. What are our thoughts? That's another one that I'm not entirely familiar with.

Alright, we'll look at him as well. That's probably the same thing with Chubb in the sense of that Miami defense just overshadowed by their offense. as well that's probably the same thing with chubb in the sense of like that miami team's just overshot or that miami defense just overshadowed by their offense well damn guys these are some good picks if we have to research him um he has four sacks on the year 31 combined tackles 19 solo um 31 so he had 47 last year um and he's a linebacker, and he looks like he's been more of an on-ball, considering he hasn't really racked up too many tackles, but he gets the sacks.

So pretty solid. Patrick Williver said Jesse Bates. So this is a good so this is a good one he's one of the better safeties in football he doesn't really get mentioned much and it was an underrated loss i mean it was a big loss at the time for the bengals losing losing losing Jesse Bates and also Vaughn Bell. Um, although they did do a great job of replacing them, you slide Dax Hill into a starting role, and then you bring in Nick Scott. They've done a good job on their defense overall, the Bengals. Um, but it doesn't mean the Panthers, uh, Jesus Panthers, the, I was thinking of Vaugh. Doesn't mean the Falcons didn't get a really good safety in Jesse

Bates. Both sides win in this one because the Bengals did a good job at replacing him. Dax Hill's a pretty good safety. Alright. Those are all our responses. Do you guys have any thoughts before we end the show tonight?

I guess one other underrated defensive player we could throw in it there is uh jabril peppers yeah that's a good one i i did like that i did like that pick when yeah uh when somebody responded with it the only problem is i didn't mention it because it was spelled wrong um and now if it was spelled wrong that means we post it and then it we're spent we're posting jor-el uh peppers yeah i'm sure it was just a typo so no just make for all our fan box responders out there please make sure you use good grammar because if we if we shout you out and we post where you are spelling something wrong, it's a negative reflection on us. It makes our page look bad and unprofessional.

A couple stats I'll throw out for Jabril Peppers, though. Best run defender in the NFL right now with a 93.0 grade. His defensive grade in general, 91.3. Third in the NFL, best among safeties. He was a first-round pick too, right? Yeah, he was by the Giants. Giants or Browns? I think he got drafted. Giants, yes.

He got drafted by the Giants, and then he went to the Browns, and they weren't using him right. He went to the Browns in that Odell Beckham Jr. trade. Yeah, and they weren't using him right. So then to the Browns in that Odell Beckham Jr. trade. Yeah, and they weren't using him right. So then finally now he's getting his flowers for the Patriots. Right, because Bill Belichick is one of the best defensive minds of all time. That's one positive thing I will say about Belichick is that he is very, very good at getting the most out of his defenses.

And part of the reason why I do not think they needed to take Christian Gonzalez in the first round, I think they would have found somebody somewhere somehow and they would have made it work. He's done it before. He's found JC Jackson. He's found Malcolm Butler. He's found Jack Jones. He found Asante Samuel who was a first round fourth round pick himself. He's found Marcus Jones, who's been pretty solid.

I think they would have been fine without it. They could have Jordan Addison on this roster, but that's neither here nor there. All right. We got to end the show here. Yeah. But, Ari, thank you so much for joining the show. Thank you for having me on.

Of course. And Chris, it's always a pleasure to be a co-host. Always a pleasure. Always a pleasure. Kirk Cousins is in the top ten quarterback. Yes, he is. Yes, he is. I would be very willing to let this show go another half hour. That'll do it for us tonight.

Thank you for listening to us. We have new episodes out on Tuesdays at 7.30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Also, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. We have all our episodes available on Spotify, Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts, and so much more. Also, be sure to follow our Instagram at FumbleRooski underscore podcast to keep up with our podcasts and the latest coverage on the NFL. Otherwise, we'll see you next week.

Over and out.