The Fumblerooski Podcast - Ep 325 -Civil War in the North

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

The Vikings and the Lions face off to see who will take the NFC North and the #1 Seed in the NFC. Will Sam Darnold’s inexperience in big spots like this hurt the Vikings, or will they be able to turn the corner and get a big time win against Detroit? Pro Bowlers have just been announced, and of course the big talking point is who got snubbed? Chris Costich, CJ Medeiros, and Adam Wright talk all of this and more!

another friday for the fumbaruski podcast week 18 is among us pro bowlers have just been announced for both the afc nfc we'll take a look at who had who has shined the brightest this year and who got snubbed along with that big big ruski game of the week that could decide who wins the NFC North and other playoff implications and what should be a wild week 18 of football. This is the Fumble Ruski Podcast. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws. Back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns.

Someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides. Welcome to the Fumble Rooski podcast. This is January 3rd, Friday, first Friday of 2025. Happy New Year as this is the FumbleBers Keep By. Powered at 18 Radio and Secret Up and Consulting. I'm Chris Kostic. With me, CJ Medeiros and Adam Wright. Got a good show for you in store for the final week of the NFL regular season.

And before we get into all that, we have our Pro Bowl selections for this year. There's some obvious ones. Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Lamar, Derek Henry, Saquon, Joe Mixon. A lot of guys on this list that you would say definitely deserve to have made the list. Brock Bowers made the Pro Bowl as a rookie tight end. He broke Sam Laporta's rookie tight end receiving record. Mike Ditka's receiving yards record as well. Very well deserved for Brock Bowers.

Definitely a candidate for Offensive Rookie of the Year as well. And that's only just on the AFC side. Jared Goff, Jaden Daniels as a rookie. Sam Darnold also made it. Jameer Gibbs, Josh Jacobs. Got to show some love to the fullbacks. Kyle Juszczyk and Patrick Card, which those two make it every single year anyways, because they're basically the only fullbacks in the league.

George Kittle, Trey McBride. Trey McBride only having one receiving touchdown as well this year. He had a great season, but it really stinks that he only had one receiving touchdown on the season. In terms of the defensive backs, at least for us Pats fans, we really would have liked to see uh what's his face christian gonzalez make it as a pro bowler but patrick sirtan was made pro bowl with denzel ward marlin humphrey and derrick stingley on the afc side and patrick sirtan was having a champ bailey like

season it's kind of hard to say that he's not going to win defensive player of the year this year. And teams like the Ravens ended up having the most pro bowlers as well. The Jets and the Dolphins ended up with none. The Patriots, you would assume, wouldn't have any. But they had one special team player, Brendan Schooler. So that's pretty nice. But other snubs, one in particular, also Baker Mayfield, 40 touchdown passes, ended up being snubbed. But, I mean, this probably would have been mentioned in the next five minutes.

Half of these players aren't even going to end up playing in the Pro Bowl anyways. So all the Pro Bowl snubs are probably going to end up playing in the pro bowl anyways so all the pro bowl snubs are probably going to end up being in the pro bowl anyways but uh thoughts on you from you fellas on who you thought should have made it or should have been left off the pro bowl roster christian gonzalez the amount of he barely even made the top 10 in voting, and the amount of players who made it in over him, Denzel Ward doesn't deserve to be in the Pro Bowl over Christian Gonzalez. I like Denzel Ward as a corner. I'd say he's a number one,

but Gonzalez has been playing at an all-pro level this season. Look at the amount of yards that Gonzalez has surrendered in totality, and they don't realize that he had a slow start at the very beginning of the year coming back from that shoulder injury but of late he has been shut down lock you down and has been i mean he's been the type of corner at this point where quarterbacks don't even throw his way like he shuts down an entire side of the field and if you look at i'm also seeing a trend if you look at all the players who made it in it's all for teams that are at the very least competitive or in contention you don't see a lot that you don't see a lot of pro bowlers that are

on bad teams which is not the best look for the league. Not at all. Another one on a bad team, J.C. Horn. He was the only pro bowler for the Panthers. Just throw a name out there. He had a really good year. But, yeah, to your point, like, a lot of these guys that you would, like, if there was – if they were any better, then they would be having more pro bowlers on their squad, but that's just not the case. CJ, your thoughts.

Well, well, well, every year I say this, the pro bowl is ridiculous. And this year more than others, I think proves my point that I mean, just how ridiculous it is. I think, proves my point that, I mean, just how ridiculous it is. I mean, sometimes in the past when I talk to people, I've gotten pushback when I've said it's a stupid thing. It's meaningless. It's literally a popularity contest for the slack-jawed yokels that just don't know ball in any facet. And as I said, well, well, well, it would appear I'm right again.

Because like you said, if you're a star player on a bad team or if you're a really good player, like you've had a statistically great year, but you're quiet, you're game, do the talking, you're not a household name. No, no, no. The great unwashed masses will tell you to just go F off a cliff.

Now, there is one selection that I have issue with, and I can already hear the wolves at my door on this one. Max Crosby of the Las Vegas Raiders. Look, he's a big name, I'll grant you, but 28 solo tackles and seven and a half sacks? Really? He made the Pro Bowl, did he? Why? So keep in mind, Trey Hendrickson made it, and Miles Garrett also made it in the AFC.

That's good. And I know he's not a big name, but oh my God. Would you believe me if I told you that Kyle Van Noy, of all people, is more deserving? 23 solo tackles, but 11 and a half sacks. Heck, we're living in a reality where TJ Watt, with 40 solo tackles and 11 and a half sacks, is a Pro Bowl snub? Really? Or what about this? Denver Broncos, Nick Benito, 11 and a half sacks, 30 tackles. And look, I know offense sells.

And I know that you're, you know, only the big name defenders get chosen. That's all anybody knows because nobody pays attention to defense because that's just the state of our society. But come on, people, do your research. knows because nobody pays attention to defense because that's just the state of our society but come on people do your research and as a pats fan look most people i think know that christian gonzalez has been done to death i mean the argument's been done to death just in case but But Travis Kelsey being in, that is 100% on name value alone because he's been very okay. He got better as the season went on, but not by his own accord

because kind of like how Mahomes' stats got better, they're overinflated because they're wailing on bad teams. Travis Kelsey this season had 823 catches and three touchdowns. I mean, 823 yards and three touchdowns. And I never thought I'd say this, but do you know who deserves to be a pro bowler? Jonu Smith, 828 yards, seven touchdowns. Like what? Why? Like they're basically the same. Kelsey, actually Smith might be a little bit better, especially when it comes to touchdowns and the more gadget plays that he runs. But Kelsey's literally just a big name.

Like I said, Pro Bowl is just a popularity contest, which is why, if you really care about accolades, you should look at All-Pro. It's funny you mentioned Max C the first few the first sentence is literally crosby's reputation and relentless pass rush garnered the sixth year edge rusher his fourth pro bowl nod reputation yeah that's all it is garbage no no no no and of course i don't know if any of you want to talk about it or if you had this in your back pocket, but Brian Thomas Jr., were any of you going to talk about him? I was going to get to him, but you can go with him. Okay, so for those of you who don't know, I imagine most of you do,

Brian Thomas Jr. is the rookie wide receiver out of LSU for the Jacksonville Jaguars. The NFL select, or the fans selected Zay Flowers over him. Look, Zay Flowers is good, but here's the thing. Zay Flowers had 73 catches, 1,047 yards and four touchdowns. You know, fair enough. But listen to Brian Thomas. Keep in mind, bear in mind for everybody listening at home, this dude is a rookie all right he has 80 catches which already is more than flowers 1179 yards there's more than flowers and 10 touchdowns he's not a pro bowl he got rooked plain and simple which is you know as a term it's like you know you got to earn your stripes pay your rookie dues you're not to get in the Pro Bowl or all pro right away.

I think that's nonsense. If you can play, you can play. So, yeah. And, you know, Adam's telling me to, you know, hurry up. But he still agrees. No, I was just going to add on to your point. Jacksonville, they were also working with Mac Jones for a good chunk of this season. Still managed to have a really good year.

Brian Thomas did. I really liked him coming out of the draft. That's a player who I wish the Patriots traded back into the first to get. From early drafts, I saw that – mock drafts, I saw that he was going to go possibly second round. But another player also for a team that – he deserves to be in the Pro Bowl, but on a bad team that just doesn't get a lot of publicity. I mean, it's at this point where it's a lot of not just name recognition,

but also team recognition. Who is in the playoffs? Who's a contender? They want to show all of the star players for contending teams, which I think is a little flawed because you want to get the attention from fans of the teams that are competitive which i think is flawed brian thomas jr is one of the better young stars in the league right now and they're giving on the finger that's why they need a i just need to go via committee at this point i know that all these leagues want to go to fan voting and keep going with like just get fan engagement but like how good is fan engagement when as,

as the big talking point, it's just a popularity contest. And it's, it's not an, it's not just an NFL problem. It's a problem in the NBA. It's a problem in the MLB, the NHL, it's a problem everywhere. It's not just the NFL. And if you look at, I mean, if you look at the MLB, they've done fan vote voting for years. I remember I I'm old enough to remember back in 2016, their all-star game that year was basically a scrimmage of the Boston Red Sox versus the Chicago Cubs. And there were some players who didn't deserve to be there based on the seasons they were having.

The Red Sox, they had some career years, but the Cubs, oh my God. Some of them just didn't deserve to be there and that's all that's that's a side effect of van fan voting so be careful there yeah and i mean granted the cubs ended up winning the world series that year as well but the the point stands that's my point though yeah no i as point stands um some fun facts for these pro bowl selections. This is the jets have now gone nine straight years without a pro bowl selection on offense.

Uh, the last one was wide receiver, Brandon Marshall in 2015. That's a, that's one for you right there. Uh, chase, uh,

Jamar chase and Trey Hendrickson are the 11th and 12th players in bangles franchise history to now be four-time pro bowlers um kind of just going down the list right now interesting facts but really the one about the jets probably uh was the one most interesting to me because it's crazy how they've had no offensive players make it since Brandon Marshall especially with what with guys like Garrett Wilson and Brees Hall on their roster this year um receiver Brian Thomas Jr. back to him real quick first rookie receiver to surpass 1,000 yards in franchise history and holds franchise rookie records and catches yards and is a first alternate um so if someone backs out of the pro bowl which as we just

mentioned half of these guys will back out of the pro bowl he's going to be one of the first guys in line so um if you thought that he should have gotten in over zay flowers nico collins and jerry judy then well you're gonna have your way anyways so anything else you guys want to add to the pro bowlers pro bowl snubs and all that before we move on basically real quick as far as the jets go on offense outside of one good season from breese Hall who really deserved it I mean you could say Garrett Wilson but then again you all know I've never bought the top five receiver hype like a lot of people said after his rookie year I mean I'm not saying he and Hall are bad I'm just saying that they're I mean they're good, but they're not top tier,

which is what the Pro Bowl should be emphasis on. Should. But yeah, the Jets actually does make sense. Yeah, it's just one of those things that's just mind-boggling that it's even a stat to begin with. But we're going to move on. We're going to get into our week 18 picks and our root Ruski game of the week,

a game that deserves the hype to say the least. This is the Fumble Ruski podcast. It may not have always showed it in the staff sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws back to back games where he has three touchdowns. Someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a

lose-lose scenario for both sides. Welcome back to the Fumble Rooski Podcast. Chris Kostich, CJ Medeiros, Adam Wright. Go to our Rooski Game of the Week. Sunday Night Football. The Vikings and the Lions. The winner takes the NFC North and the number one seed.

The loser is the number five seed. And we'll go on the road to take on the fourth seed, which would be the Rams would be the Rams or the actually no, it would be the Rams or the bucks no, it would be the Rams or the bucks, which, or the Falcons because Falcons in the box are still battling for the NFC South title. We'll get to that later,

but this game potentially is going to be the game of the year. Could even potentially be the NFC Championship game. This is a game where we could very well see these two teams again in the playoffs. And boy, oh boy, it's going to be fun. I'm going to go with the Vikings. I'm going to go with the Vikings. Why not?

It's just been that type of season for Minnesota. Sam Darnold just getting that Pro Bowl nod. Justin Jefferson continuing to ball out. Jordan Addison's balling out. Aaron Jones balling out. The defense right now under Brian Flores is flourishing. And Lions defense. Defense is very very very shaky expect this one to be a very high scoring game as the over under suggests which is at 55 and a half give me the vikings in an upset

victory this is the number five seed is going to be a 14 win team this year. Just let that sink in. Yeah. It says a lot about how top heavy the league is. You have a lot of teams that are bad this year, as we've covered kind of, we'll call it the tankathon. And we also have a few really good teams that are having,

you know, 14, 15 plus wins this year. This has been a weird season. It's been a bad year to be a bad team. Yes. And a good year to be a good team. Because as you can see, teams like the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills and the Minnesota Vikings are just okay. They're

still, they're really good, but their records have been inflated from all of the bad teams in this league. And that's not to take anything away from the Minnesota Vikings. They have clearly shown yet again that they can take quarterbacks in their system and help them to have these unbelievable years. And Sam Darnold has been awesome this year. He's having, I mean, I saw a good year out of Sam Darnold this season. I didn't see this. And I don't think anyone did, where he's scoring 35-plus touchdown passes, over 4,500 yards. This guy's having an unbelievable year,

and they're going to pose a threat to the Lions on this game and in the playoffs. I believe this is going to be close. The Lions' defense has been shaky this year, but it hasn't been necessarily bad. And sometimes the best, sometimes the best defense is more offense. If you keep scoring, then it's, you're going to, you're going to get a shootout back and forth. And it also limits the, what the other team can do. They're not, if the other team is scoring a lot of points on the other sideline, then you're not going to be running the ball. They defenses know what you're going to do. You're going to be throwing it more. Sam Donald's going to be throwing it. So that being said,

it's going to be a very close game. Um, and I think in a very close game, just because it's the regular season if this was the postseason i'd probably have a different victor in this in this matchup i'm gonna give it to sam darnold and the vikings i think they've had an unbelievable season the the last time these two teams faced each other the lions barely got out of there and i think this time it's gonna go to the vikings but i wouldn't be i wouldn't be surprised if these two teams face each other again at some point in this postseason, and it's going to be an exciting matchup.

But, yeah, give me the Vikings in a very close one. Razor thin. CJ? This is definitely going to be one of those games where that's the old thing last one to score wins i am fully expecting fireworks i'm expecting like honestly like a 38 35 point victory and it's mostly because the lions defense is injured right we know this very well it's a well-established fact I think like how many starters they have on IR like all of them essentially and I'm sure you saw I don't know if you saw this with their rookie Terry on Arnold was chirping the Vikings beforehand and

said they got some good guys but we got cover guys and I'm like did you really just poke the bear a bear named justin jefferson that's not a good idea and they also have jordan ass and t.j hockins says just the vikings even though they have sam donald and some people might not be sold on him understandably so just it's just the name that can scare people but but even still the v the Vikings have played so incredibly well. And honestly, I don't know. And honestly, I think they're going to dice up that Lions defense. However, the Lions offense, this is the epitome of the term, act like you've been here before.

Goff and Amon Ra and Jameer Gibbs. I mean, look, no day in Montgomery, no problem. And even Laporta's catching fire too. And the Brian Flores defense is going to have its hands full. So they're going to need, if I'm being honest, the Vikings are going to need, especially Flores, they're going to need every trick in the book to keep these Lions down. But at the end of the day, strictly because of injuries alone,

I trust the Vikings' defense more than I trust the Lions, coupled with the fact that the Vikings just have more ways to attack you. Even though Donald isn't necessarily better than goff i am tilting towards the vikings this is going to be a tough one this is this is going to be a tough game, a game that I could see going either way. And in the Lions' defense, the Lions have been there before. And the Vikings, I mean, they've kind of been a competitive team here and there. But have they with Sam Darnold? No, they have a new quarterback this year. And they've done it during their during their entire history with different

quarterbacks they've been able to plug them in with all the various skill position players that they've had there's been a million of them um i'm i'm not going to say that this vikings team is uh i wouldn't say that this vikings team is necessarily fraudulent. They're not fake, but they haven't been there before. And they've used this formula to be in contention in years past. And they've fallen short. I'm not saying that they will this week, but the lions have already been there last year.

In fact, they were a much more competitive team. They made it all the way to the NFC championship and probably would be in the super bowl. If they didn't make a couple aggressive decisions that they probably shouldn't have made. Um, if the lions have learned from that, then they should be in the super bowl. They've already been there. They have, they're loaded with talent on the offensive side of the ball, and they still have people on the defensive side. I might still – I don't rule out the Lions just yet. Just saying.

Definitely not, but I'll throw another statistic out there for you guys as well. Kevin O'Connell has been debatably the best head coach when it comes to one score games and getting out with a win. He's currently 24 and nine in one score games in his NFL career, which is the best winning percentage right now in all of NFL history. And in terms of NFL head coaches and one score games. I think that goes to show how great of a coach he is. Never mind the fact that he's been able to get this team to a 14 win team with Sam Darnold, a team that probably I think most people would have said wasn't

going to get anywhere past 11 wins, nevermind competing for the division. And here they are a win away from being the one seed, nevermind the division. So I think that says a lot about Kevin O'Connell as a coach and how this Vikings team has played all year long, which I mean, I'm not denying all of this.

This is a great season. All I'm saying is, as far as Sam Darnold goes, as far as this whole team goes, name the negative on this team. We mentioned this on our last episode. Their offensive line is one of the best in the league. They have pass catchers everywhere you look. They have a good running back in Aaron Jones. They have great coaching.

They have a great defense. Everything is lined up for Sam Darnold. But the only question I have is that Sam Darnold has never looked like this in his entire career. Could it be a flash in the pan? I'm not quite sure, but I'm not ready to give him the benefit of the doubt if he's never been there before. And yes, he's been on really bad teams. That's one extreme. The situations he's been in, I will completely agree with you on. Terrible situations. Excuse me. But this is the other extreme, where everything is perfect so that you could put anybody in there,

and the situation would be pretty good. And maybe Sam Darnold in a decent situation is still good, but I mean, he's on pace to flirt with 40 touchdown passes. So I'm a little, I don't want to say that I'm down on the Vikings. I think they're a contending team this year. They've been awesome. And I'm not going to be down on Sam Darnold either. What I'm going to say is I'm a little skeptical. I want to see what happens this postseason. It's going to be a fun one indeed.

Fun one indeed. We're going to move on to the rest of our Week 18 picks, starting out with the Saturday slate. But we'll get to that when we come back after the break. This is the Fumble Rooski podcast. It may not have always showed it in the stat sheet, but you can see him making throws when he needs to make the throws. Back-to-back games where he has three touchdowns.

Someone's got to get that six or seven spot. He's an elite wide receiver as a rookie. Truly a lose-lose scenario for both sides. Welcome back to the Fumble Rooski Podcast by Power 88 Dean Radio and Secret Weapon Consulting. Chris Gostich, CJ Medeiros, Adam Wright. Week 18, we start out with the first game on the docket at 4.30 tomorrow,

depending on when you're listening to this. If you're listening to this today on Friday, then this is going to be tomorrow at 4.30, Saturday at 4.30, the Browns and the Ravens. This is easily the biggest spread for an NFL game that I have seen in a long, long time. Like there was a lot of spreads this year where the favorite had about 14 and a half, 15 point favorite on the other.

But by God, 20 point favorites for the Ravens. I mean, for good reason. The Browns, like they were in between Dorian Thompson Robinson and Bailey Zappy. And Bailey Zappy is getting to start. Two guys that you might as well bet the mortgage against. It's an easy one to bet for the Ravens. Now, if you're talking the spread, that's a lot of fucking points. But also just know if the Ravens win, they clinch the NFC North. The AFC North, officially.

They currently have that lead over the Steelers, but if the Ravens win this game, they lock up the AFC North. Yeah, I mean, you look at two teams that are in completely different uh completely different mindsets i mean the browns have nothing to play for except the number one overall pick which they want to lose for the ravens have something to play for they're trying to keep their lead in the division and keep their playoff seating if they lose then they drop from the three seed all the way down to one of the wild card spots uh so they have a lot to play for so it's a mismatch browns have bailey zappy going lamar and the ravens have their entire arsenal so give me the ravens in a landslide

how is it not the Ravens? I guess, like you said, who are their quarterbacks? Dorian Thompson, Robinson, and like Bailey Zappy, you said someone Bailey's app.

He's getting the start. Jesus H and James Winston's the emergency third quarterback. Yeah. Um, just ridiculous by the way. Yeah. So yeah, I don't think DTR is actually ever won a game in the NFL.

I can't imagine. I think he has last year. They won games with some quarterbacks that they should not have won with. I'm pretty sure they won a game with four different starting quarterbacks last year. It was a weird year for the Browns. Well, notwithstanding, I'm still going with the ravens because i mean once again i feel like the browns are going to try to fall into that trap of what's that very dangerous thing bad teams do at the end you know play for pride like no no don't play spoiler don't play for pride roll

over and die come on and i know they're like oh we don't want to. Don't play for pride. Roll over and die. Come on. And I know they're like, oh, we don't want to. I mean, like, that's why I keep hearing. It's like, oh, but, you know, we don't want to give them the one seat. All right. Or the in the division, at least. We don't want to give them the division crown. It's like, all right. Then Pittsburgh gets it.

So like Browns, once again, just just roll over and die. So, yeah, give me the Ravens. Now the real game that everyone's going to be watching on Saturday night, the Bengals and the Steelers. So, obviously, we mentioned if the Ravens win, then this game for the Steelers doesn't really mean anything besides playoff positioning. If the Steelers win, then they keep the five seed, but they would also, if they lose, then they would also need the chargers to lose. So they keep the five seed.

So Steelers still would have something to play for, but they're obviously going to keep their eye on the Ravens game, but everyone's going to be talking about the Bengals. The Bengals, if they need to win this game, they need the Broncos and the Dolphins to lose, and they're in. And they're in. It's crazy. Absolutely crazy that the Bengals, by all things, that they've been through this entire season are alive. Somehow, someway they're alive. And I can't believe that I kept faith in this team when they're one in five or whatever it was.

I kept some sort of faith. Barely. And here they are. Give me the Bengals. I don't care if Pittsburgh's going to be riding high with those terrible towels and renegade blasting all throughout the Pittsburgh night. Joe Burrow is going to go in there ice cold with a top two receiver in the league in Jamar Chase and T Higgins coming off of a three-tutty day last week against the Broncos.

Give me Jamar or T. Higgins for three-tutties in this one. Maybe Joe Burrow gets five. Either way, give me the Bengals by three. Yeah, the Bengals, they've won won four straight the Steelers have lost three straight and I gotta say the Bengals they continue to pick up steam I've we've been talking about them the last couple of weeks the momentum the winning culture is starting to be kind of restored here in Cincinnati after, you know, you two straight AFC championship appearances. One of them, you waited to a super bowl.

Your quarterback got hurt in that during that one year, you pissed off some of your players who are, whose contracts are going to be up soon. T Higgins is having a lot of fun. And I'm sure, I'm sure Trey Hendrickson, who's leading the league in sacks right now is having a lot of fun and I'm sure I'm sure Trey Hendrickson who's leading the league in sacks right now is having lots of fun over there in Cincinnati winning is the best deodorant and with that I'm picking the Bengals to win this game I don't know if they're going to make the playoffs with other game picks well we will show you later on in this show but they're making a case and even if they don't make it they're at least giving oh no can you still hear me i agree we can still hear you if you're listening even if we just went out it's my service has been bad the past few weeks um even if they miss the playoffs they at least give a strong strong pitch to T Higgins and Trey

Hendrickson and Jamar Chase to stay long term and to build around this core of players to eventually return to Super Bowl contention because the let's face it football is not the same without Joe Burrow and the rest of your star players in the mix I think everyone's just rooting for the Bengals to win and the Broncos and the Dolphins to lose so they can see the Bengals play the bills next week in the wildcard round. That's, that's America's playoff team right there. Playoff game. I'm going to have to go with the bangles on this one look i know it's in pittsburgh but the steelers are doing that patented mike tomlin

collapse i mean this is so maybe not as bad but so eerily similar to 2020 it's not even funny and honestly we expect this every year with pittsburgh they start out hot and then they fizzle out but every so often they'll shock you by starting out terrible and then getting really hot to end the year but either way it'll just end with them being a little over 500 and being bounced first round you You know, the status quo, you know, you got to keep that. But the thing is, the Pittsburgh defense is really good and the Bengals defense is really bad. But I know Russell Wilson looked really good last time they played, but these are two teams on two different trajectories, right?

Even though the Bengals defense isn't that great they are much improved to from where they were last time these two teams faced and for Pittsburgh they've atrophied and now that Russ now that the original high is kind of over and we're starting to see his true colors can we really expect them to keep pace i would say no so give i expect because the bangles defense is bad i expect pittsburgh to get their licks in but overall i am pretty comfortable choosing the bangles here like i just don't think they have an answer for chase and higgins clicking on full cylinders and even chase brown has emerged as a great rb1 i could i could see this very well being another

shootout just the way it was uh last time between these two sides but except it's going to be the bangles on the winning side of said shootout which i mean the bangles have been a lot of shootouts this year and I've been on the loose side of a lot. So I think this could be one of those times where they're on the right side of things, getting into the Sunday slate. And there's a lot of games here where a lot of teams are going to be

just doing buckets, just straight bullshit. And this is going to be one of those right here, the Bills and the Pats. Pats playing for the number one draft pick. The Bills, nothing really to play for. They already have the two seed locked up. Josh Allen, might see him for a quarter or two. We're going to mainly see Mitch Trubisky in this game,

which is why it's prevalent in how the spread is. Bills by three at the moment. Drake May is getting the start, apparently, which makes sense. Gerard Mayo may or may not be coaching for his job. And I'm on the wave of giving coaches more of a chance after one year, but the way Mayo has acted off the field has been hard to say that he's going to stick, stick around,

but craft is craft. So, you know, he's going to stay around cause he doesn't want to admit that he's wrong. Uh, I think that the pats are going to end up finding a way to fuck this up and get a win. So give me the pats are gonna end up finding a way to fuck this up and get a win so give me the pats but i'm not happy about it yeah although i will say drake may just got listed as questionable due to a hand injury

yeah but alex van pelt and gerard Mayo both said that they're going to start. Yeah, I want to see Joe. I want to see Joe Milton. I mean, they didn't say that he's going to go the whole game. No. In which case, I have to believe that there's still... Mitch Trubisky isn't your everyday backup quarterback. He is capable of winning a game against a bad

team every now and then. So I will take the bills. I think the Patriots don't try to be the hero, just lose the damn game. Give me some sort of, give me some sort of silver lining to this dumpster fire of a season. Because you if you you don't you're not probably not going to fire gerard mayo your head coach and you're going to win the last game of the season surrendering the number one overall pick that is that's going to leave a mark on some fans and especially if you you you don't spend for another off season in a row. You're going to lose fan interest all around New England. Or if you lose out on potentially hiring Mike Rabel to the New York Jets because he just interviewed him the other day.

He has to be doing this as a leverage play. There's reports all over saying he wants to coach for the Patriots, and then his first coaching interview is with the Jets. If Robert Kraft doesn't bite on this, then that's a massive, massive failure. Now, I think they should interview, but we'll see. Look, I'm not going to give my thoughts on that until it happens or it doesn't. I'm going to wait until Black Monday to unload on them. But I am concerned as a Patriots fan,

if the Patriots are going to fall into that very scary thing, like I mentioned earlier, called playing for pride. Why? Why would you do that? Playing for pride is stupid. It only hurts you. And I said this last show, and I will reiterate now, if you as a Pats fan want to see them win, you are selfish. You are selfish. You're

not a real fan. You are a disgusting, just disgusting human being. You don't know football at all. You should burn all your Patriots gear and probably get a CAT scan to boot. And that aside, like I said, you're literally prioritizing the little feel good over the future. Why would you do that? Stupid. Whatever. So long story short, I think it's going to be a game, you know, because Buffalo's going to be resting all their people. But at the end of the day, this hurts me to say i just think trubisky's gonna play well against the patriots defense because i don't know if you notice this but why does every scrambling quarterback literally turn

into prime vic against new england that's not even a mayo thing scrambling quarterbacks are always bill belichick's kryptonite too but they they still can't figure out how to keep a lid on a scrambler. So overall, I still think so. And also May's hurt. It's an issue with his throwing hand too, so that's concerning. But yeah, overall, I do think the game is still Buffalo's to lose, even though it's in New England. And hey, maybe it'll inspire change.

Hopefully it does. That's all I got. buffaloes to lose even though it's in new england and hey maybe it'll inspire change hopefully it does that's all i got organizations should be doing one of two things either winning a championship or taking steps towards being capable to win a championship the patriots are not winning a championship but they should be taking steps towards being capable of it you can't establish a winning culture if you don't have the horses to win they need to get this number one overall pick i don't like this rebuild at all but the more meaningless games you win the more you will prolong it the worst players that you will get the more complacent owners are going to get and it's it's not it only hurts you in the long run so oh by the way there is one thing worth noting.

I don't know if you heard about what happened last game, but at one point the stadium was only half full, like three quarters by kickoff. So I will say one thing, though. The fans are making their distress heard. You can call fans spoiled all you want, and I think that's an intellectually lazy argument. So are fans spoiled for wanting to have a good team not even the super bowl but just have a a watchable scrappy

team at least like i don't think that's you know i don't think that's unreasonable but yeah so my point is i there's no way i think the Crafts can be complacent because the fans are making their displeasure heard. But my point is, if you're still complacent, then I don't know. And that's actually quite literally a them problem because that shows they don't want to change. Yeah. I mean, half the stadium was chanting fire mayo

high and chanting for variable at the same time at one point uh during the game last week as well another thing to note pats actually gave the bills a game uh first time around that they played so this could be a very interesting one uh regardless of who actually plays in this game. Mike White also got signed to the Bills roster. So there's a chance we might see some Mike White this weekend as well. Panthers-Falcons. Falcons with the win keep themselves alive for the NFC South, but of course they still need the Bucks to lose. So they can, they need the Bucks to lose and the falcons need a win for the falcons to win

the nfc south and clinch the number four spot oh i i think pennix had a really good game last week he he did pretty well after throwing that first drive interception but now you're asking him to put up another performance that's good enough where you need to win the division pretty high stakes to throw a rookie quarterback in and it's it's not like it's in your hands like the division isn't yours to lose anymore. It's in Tampa Bay's hands. You've left it in the hands of Tampa Bay to decide your fate. So there's a little bit less pressure. But I'm looking at the Panthers looking to play spoiler. They've gone hot this second half of the season. They put up a couple stinkers last couple weeks.

To the Cowboys, to the Bucs. They're looking to get a little payback. They've wanted to play spoiler. Put up a couple stinkers the last couple weeks. To the Cowboys, to the Bucs. They're looking to get a little payback. They've wanted to play spoiler. Now here's your chance. Give me the Panthers. I liked what I saw from game one to game two for Michael Penix. I didn't think it was a bad game in week one, but it was a reasonable first game.

Game two, he threw some really good balls, including that one touchdown pass to send the game to overtime. So I will say, give me the Falcons. I think they win this one. Besides coaching, I think Pennix is in a pretty good situation. The offensive line is good targets are good again coaching is a little complacent i i think raheem morris might be out we'll see maybe he won't but i think this is a decent situation for a young quarterback and he looked better from game one to game two give me some more improvement from game two to game three falcons stay alive they go nine and eight over the Panthers. I think the Falcons are going to stay alive because, look,

I have heard that argument, right, before regarding, you know, the Panthers are heating up. But they're heating up, but it's not translating into wins they beat the very fraudulent cardinals and before that their last victory was against the giants in overtime in november 10th so even though technically they are playing better it's just not translating into wins and i don't see that i know the panthers want to play spoiler. I get that. But do you have the horses for it? Do you really have the firepower to play spoiler?

You really don't. And even though Penix is a rookie, I think he's going to do just enough to manage the game. And I think they're going to win. At the end of the day, I don't think it's going to matter, but I think the Panthers are going to win. Banders Cowboys, this is another game that doesn't really matter uh in terms of playoff spots i guess i mean the commanders they just need to win and they keep the sixth seed uh if they lose then they need the packers to lose and if they lose and the packers win and the packers are playing the Bears, so the Packers are most likely going to win. The Panthers get bumped down to the seventh seed and will have to go to Philly.

If they win and keep the sixth seed, then they'll have to go to most likely L.A. and face the Rams or Tampa Bay, one of the two. But Cowboys have looked so bad, especially from last week. They don't have CeeDee Lamb anymore. It's great that you have Rico Dattle that's been playing fine, I guess. Brandon Cooks, Jalen Tolbert. Terrible.

Yeah, Commanders, pick your number. Yeah, give me the Commanders. Pick your number. Yeah, give me the commanders. They still have a little bit to play for as far as seeding goes. And the Cowboys have been such a mess this year. They don't have the horses anymore. They don't have anybody. Everyone is gone.

CeeDee Lamb's gone. Dak Prescott's gone. Commanders taking this one. It's still the Commanders. If you're the Cowboys, you really don't have anything to play for. You don't want to play spoiler because Washington has already punched their ticket to the playoffs. You don't really have to tank because you're not we're probably not going to end up with a top 10 pick

so really what is there to do other than just kind of exist and i know cooper rush has been reasonably solid but no cd land no winning so yeah no i i gotta go with the commanders that's But no C.D. Lamb? No winning. So, yeah, no, I got to go with the Commanders. It's not like so. Let's not overthink it. Speaking of the Packers, we'll get them out of the way as well. Packers-Bears. Look, Bears are 0-7 on the road.

They're going to Lambeau. It's going to be cold as shit. Temperatures right now are looking like 17 degrees with some sun at kickoff packer spread is at 10 i see josh jake they're gonna just give the ball to josh jacobs and he's gonna run like a grown-ass man that's all i see this as uh bears are gonna go winless on the road give me the packers and see what the hell happens if they end up in the seventh seed. Like I said, Packers win, Commanders lose. They take the sixth seed and go face the Rams or the Bucs. If they win, the Commanders win. If they lose, if they stay in the seventh seed, they go to Philly.

And that's really it. But Packers, Packers, Packers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to go with the Packers too. And the Bears just have so much talent on their team. And it sucks that they've lost 10 in a row now.

But, I mean, they need to make some coaching changes. and it sucks that they've lost 10 in a row now. But, I mean, they need to make some coaching changes. The writing's on the wall that they will. And that seems to be their biggest flaw. And aside from health in the offensive line, and maybe they need to work on it a little bit, they're already looking towards the soft season. And Bears fans should just be glad that this season's almost over.

I think they have plenty of reason to be hopeful about Caleb Williams, their new young quarterback. As shaky as he's looked, he's also showed a lot of promise. He's the least developed quarterback so far of the quarterbacks who have started this season in the rookie class but he's still shown some reason to believe that he will be a pretty good quarterback um but still give me the packers the team's in the playoffs already how is it not Green Bay? Because once again, with the Bears, you're not really playing spoiler. You're not really competing for a good pick. You're just in that awful in-between where all you can do is just hope the loss doesn't hurt too bad.

Even though at one point I do expect Green Bay to rest their starters probably by halftime, I don't think it's going to matter all that much for Chicago because Chicago is mentally checked out. They're already dreaming of who their new head coach is going to be. So, yeah, once again, you've got to give me the Packers here. Yeah. Another game that just doesn't matter, Jaguars-Colts. Colts are already eliminated. Well, in the terms of this Colts team, it's just a big storyline fest. Colts.

Pat McAfee has been blasting the Colts all season long, and there's even an article that came out about the Colts as well pretty shortly after. So Pat McAfee basically just ripped the colts organization for being soft no one takes accountability players showing late for meetings practices and no one's showing accountability for it and it's funny because there's a certain sports illustrated cover athlete that ran amok on the Colts about 10 years ago. And his name is Jonas Gray.

You guys remember Jonas Gray. He ran for, what, 290, whatever, against the Colts, three touchdowns, career game. Two weeks later, misses his alarm, missed the team meeting, missed practice, whatever it was, Belichick caught him. He said, see ya. It's funny because that was against the Colts.

And here's the Colts and Shane Steichen saying, yeah, you know, guys are missing practices and meetings, but there's also a sense of accountability that needs to be held. You're the one that's supposed to hold the accountability, dipshit. You're the one that's supposed to be holding it. Sorry. Sorry, I needed to get that out but uh there's also an article that proceed that followed it and it was basically saying how anthony so anthony richardson gets benched right they put in joe

flacco they realize flacco's not the guy and then they go back to AR and they're like all right what the hell are we doing here and that and it also got to the point where DeForest Buckner goes over and it's like hey you need to step the fuck up Anthony Richardson our first round quarterback who's supposed to be the franchise now you need to step the fuck up because you're not doing shit that's that was basically the tone of the article uh anyways uh give me the jaguars i don't care this game doesn't mean anything to me anymore the colts maybe they're just fighting to have some sort of pride the jaguars they're just they're having a good time with mac jones uh yeah yeah this colts organization has just been a garbage shoot and the fact that you couldn't even beat the giants last week while you were still somehow alive in the playoff race you couldn't beat them they eliminated you and on top of that you brought up anthony richardson they benched him for the year

for taking himself out of the game for not being a leader and then when they realized joe flacco was also bad they just put him back in where's the accountability there now we can talk plenty about showing up late to meetings and not showing up to practices that's i i agree there too but what really raised my eyebrows was that one like you tried to discipline your starting quarterback and ended it after one week just because the the backup was bad this is part of i mean i bring this up to the patriots too this is part of, I mean, I bring this up to the Patriots too. This is part of developing your quarterback the right way, not necessarily looking for wins right away. Because if you're reasoning for benching Joe Flacco again

to bring back Anthony Richardson as, well, he gives us the best chance to win games, well, you're also rewarding the guy who you're trying to punish after he just took himself out of the game. That's not the right way to develop a young kid like that. And some people are just so simple-minded that they only think about the direct results, not how you get to those results. And the Colts just don't get it.

So that's not my game pick, though. My pick is the Jaguars. Mac Jones, sometimes they win games that they need to win, and they have the talent to do it. And I think the Jaguars are going to take this one pretty convincingly because this colts organization's a joke look i can lay into the colts just as well as anyone. And honestly, the cultural rot that permeates this organization, I think it starts at the top. I really do. Jim Irsay, if he even cares for the Colts as make bad decision after bad decision like he's still hitting the bottle, which honestly he probably is knowing Jim Mercer's history.

But the Jaguars are also an even bigger clown show. Doug Peterson is well past his expiration date. Trent Balke should have been fired two years ago. And Shad Khan is just way too hands-off to the point where I question how much he genuinely cares. See, the football team, the Jaguars to old Khan there, I mean, you know what's weird? You know that he owns some wrestling league or whatever

his son does yeah tony cohen does i know but that's the thing it's like it's like they care more about the wrestling aspect than they do about football i mean well if you actually saw the wrestling shit that they put on it's it's it's terrible yeah well i guess it runs in the family doesn't it but either way i just think when it comes to the players on the field the colts have the upside because i don't know i'd hate to be relying on mac jones in 2025 but yeah so you know just you gotta give me the colts this. This is just an awful game. Thank God I'm not watching it. Did we already talk about the Texans game yet or no?

No. All right, Texans, Titans. The Texans don't have anything to play for. They've already locked up the 4C. They're not moving out of that spot, even with a win. Titans are favorite. I wouldn't be surprised if the Titans win this game, but Titans are so bad.

This is probably going to be up there for probably one of the worst games of the week. That and maybe the Jets and the Dolphins, which we'll talk about later on. Give me the Texans, but not a very pretty game. That's for sure. Yeah. I kind of – I'm taking the Texans, but I give the Titans a shot.

Yeah. I think the Texans have been as shaky as they've ever been, and while the Titans don't have much to play for, they are playing for that number one overall pick, but it looks like they're trying to figure out what they have in the quarterback position, which is probably going to be their undoing as far as getting the number one overall pick

if that ends up leading to a victory. Because they want to figure out what they have. It seems like they're on the edge of saying we're going to go out and get a new quarterback. I'm still taking the Texans, but proceed with caution in picking your matchups for this weekend because this is one that could easily go towards the Titans too. I'm going with the Texans,

but only because I think the Titans are that much worse. I mean, God. I don't see Mason Rudolph doing a whole lot of, well, anything. That's basically it. I mean, the Texans, I don't care that they won the

division. I mean, I really don't care. I mean, it's not that the Titans can play spoiler or whatever So the Texans, we've probably already accepted that C.J. Stroud is having an awful sophomore slump Teams have figured him out And overall, I just, if you're the Titans What incentive is there to win?

Like I say, you're not playing spoiler But you have a good shot at getting the first overall pick. I would say tank. But, oh, no, it's a divisional game or whatever. That's so stupid. Once again, playing for pride is really, really dangerous, and it actually hurts you more than it helps. So I think the Titans might know that.

But either way, I would still say getting the texans because there's not like a team stance alone like i don't trust i trust sophomore slump cj stroud more than i trust mason rudolph teams don't tank organizations do let's i think we all just have to remember that, unfortunately. Speaking of that exact same thing, the Giants and the Eagles. The Giants doing everything they can to not get the first overall pick with their win against the Colts last week. Drew Locke having another. Drew Locke having that one game every year that he has where he just goes stupid. Where he has the game of his life.

The Eagles, I mean, they basically have already made it known that they are benching probably everybody. It's unfortunate Saquon Barkley won't have a chance to break Eric Dickerson's rushing record. Currently is sitting at 2 sitting at 2005 rushing yards. Would have had to get 101 rushing yards this week, but unfortunately he will not get there. Still an insane season from Saquon.

A 2000 yard rushing season is still amazing. So hats off to him. In this game in general, the Giants do have a chance to win, but the Eagles are most likely going to take it regardless. It doesn't really matter. Like I said, Eagles

have locked up the 2C. They're not moving out of that spot. It's really just a matter to see if the Giants lose and where they end up in the draft. Okay. just a matter to see if the giants lose and where they end up in the draft okay so i'm disappointed too that saquon barkley is sitting and he's not going to go after that rushing record it seemed like if he started then he'd have it in the bag. But they kind of made the right choice. It sent the right message that they don't care quite as much about this record. It would be great if they did get it, but they don't care as much about the record

and they care more about the Super Bowl. And I got to say, Nick Sirianni made an adult decision here. I'm very impressed by sirianni he has shown some pretty cool character development this year and i wonder if he's actually changed like entirely like permanently for the better he used to talk a lot but he has been very quiet now it only took him to have to go bald to do that, though. Whatever makes it work, dude. The guys figured it out. And the reason I'm picking the Giants to take this game, not only are they riding the high of winning that one game

with Drew Locke, again, playing out of his mind, but they're also, the Eagles are playing with nobody right now. Like nobody, they're sitting everyone. And they may be without Kenny Pickett who with a rib injury may end up being out too. So their third string quarterback, the Giants may not just screw themselves out of the first overall pick, but they may push that pick even further down. So I am going to take the Giants on this one. It would be Tanner McKee or their fourth string guy, Ian Book. Notre Dame legend.

Notre Dame legend, Ian Book. I mean, that's a good... Adam Schefter brought this up a few weeks ago, but he said that they shouldn't let Saquon Barkley go after the rushing record. They should sit everybody and rob the Giants of their prized number one pick, Shador Sanders, that they wanted to take. Now, the Colts already took that from them

by being as bad an organization as they are but oh boy if they screwed them even further what a what a petty football rivalry thing that would be now we know the reason the eagles are benching their starters because they they don't have anything left to play for they're trying to play for a super bowl but you can't say that that isn't in the back of their heads where they're like this is kind of the cherry on top this is going to make things even better yeah i think it's going to be a close game i still think philly a lot of their backups are better than the giant starters i think theants are going to try, but I think they're going to lose. However, Philly letting the Giants win, wouldn't that just be funny? And honestly, I know Nick Sirianni's

been getting panned for not letting Saquon get the record, but like you guys said, it really is an adult decision because you know what was going to happen, right? Why don't I just, I can't shake this feeling that if they got greedy and let him go for the record, he was going to tear his ACL or something. It's usually whenever that happens, players get injured. And I know it's more anecdotal than statistical, but come on. You don't tempt fate like that. That was a good decision

i think philly's still gonna win things gonna be an ugly game because you know resting starters obviously the giants get cute competitive but philly should win i am rooting for the giants to win though because that would be hilarious like imagine if excuse me if imagine if the eagles were still fighting for the number one seed. You play Saquon Barkley, and he breaks the rushing record against the Giants, against his old team that didn't want to sign him or re-sign him. I just want to revert back to that tank-a-thon issue. You know, this is a nice analogy for what the eagles would do you know

that invert you know the blue shell in mario kart just goes up you throw it and it goes out and kills the person in first yeah it's like an inverted version of that the the front runner just throws it just throws it to the to the guy in the back just to be a dick. That's what they're doing here. They're so petty. Now, I know that that's not their intent, but you can't say that they're not thinking of it. Yeah.

There's a lot of different ways that I think this could have really gone. I think each way would have been really funny, depending on if the Eagles are still fighting for the one seed or this situation that we have here. Either way, it's, it would have been hilarious. Um, next game, uh, probably don't need to spend too much time on this buck. Saints, saints are a dumpster fire this last week. They lost to the Raiders. They look good for the first half, and after that, they looked like the Saints that played the Packers.

The Bucs, they're starting to get everyone healthy again. Bucky Irving, 1,000-yard rusher. Mike Evans. Mike Evans doesn't want to get 1,000 yards as much as Baker Mayfield and the rest of the Buc wants them to get a thousand yards. And I absolutely love that. Um, bucks by a hundred just because of that.

And also, uh, make sure you bet on all these overs as well for some of these guys that need incentives, especially with a guy like Mike Evans, who's going to get an incentive for breaking a thousand receiving yards. He needs five catches and 85 plus receiving yards to get a $3 million bonus. Baker Mayfield is going to make the entire NFL world feel stupid for snubbing

him out of the pro bowl. Not that he even cares, but I mean, all I'm going to say is the last 40-touchdown quarterback for a Buccaneers team that was snubbed of a Pro Bowl, things went pretty well that postseason. It was back in 2020. But you can guess who that was.

Give me the Bucs, though. Is there literally... Is there any reason to pick the Saints? I know what you're thinking. Oh, but they could be playing spoiler. Once again, just another scenario where you just don't have the ability to play spoiler. You know, they really don't. Even if they wanted to, they can't.

And honestly, if you're the Saints, you should probably focus on getting a better pick. Give me the Bucs. You know what's bad for the Saints? When you don't have anyone that is playing for any incentives. There's no player that's playing for an incentive this week. That's how bad they've played this year and also how beat up they've been we were going to take a quick break but we're running short on time let's just get through these late afternoon games uh chiefs broncos chiefs they're basically

resting everybody they are resting everybody carson Wentz is getting the start. Let me read everyone that has been ruled out so far. Chris Jones, Patrick Mahomes, Trent McDuffie, Nick Bolton, Kareem Hunt, George Karloftis, Travis Kelsey, Justin Reed, Drew Tranquil. Those guys are actually doubtful for this game. Isaiah Pacheco, Jawan Taylor, McCall Hart. McCall Hart, wow. I don't know how I just can't pronounce McCall Hartman's name all of a sudden.

Him and Jalen Watson, those are the four that have been ruled out so far. And all of them are most likely not going to play. The ones that were ruled doubtful, you can bet your ass they likely not going to play the ones that were ruled doubtful. You can bet your ass they're not going to play. And that would mean that the chiefs, those guys would not be playing for 23 days because of the first round by that they have clinched as well. So it's going to be going to be interesting to see how they end up playing in the divisional round.

But give me the Chiefs because I want to see the Broncos lose. I don't care. I want to see the Bengals make the playoffs. So give me the Chiefs. That's the only reason I have. And I don't need another reason. Never underestimate week 18 Carson Wentz. Yeah. Never underestimate that guy but give me the broncos the broncos have something to play for and listen the chiefs it's not like they don't

want to win and they have they're going to be throwing in players who want to prove themselves but it's just going to be too much for them. The Broncos have a good defense. They have a good young quarterback who continues to impress. Yeah, still give me the Broncos, but watch out for the Chiefs. Come on, you got to give me Denver here. I just think about what you're playing for for the Broncos. This is literally to punch your first ticket to the playoffs, right?

Since you won the Super Bowl in the 2015-16 season. Yeah, it would literally be 10 years since you made the playoffs. So Denver, I think they're going to go out and win. yeah, it would literally be 10 years since you made the playoffs. So Denver, I think they're going to go out and win. And also week 18 Carson Wentz better be aware of 2024 Pat Sertan because, oh, you know, Sertan's going to be putting everybody on lock. So honestly, give me Denver. However, a tiny part of me can't shake this feeling that Denver's just going to throw up all over themselves and then

lose. Either way, I still think it's going to be Denver, although I wouldn't be shocked if it were like an ugly game, like unreasonably close. I'm getting a little tired, but Cody Barr needs one interception to get $250,000. Courtland Sutton needs

82 receiving yards for a $2 million bonus. Dehop needs nine catches and 140 receiving yards to get 500K. That's just incentives. I think that last one's not happening, but all right. No, unless he gets

force-fed the ball. I just lost where I was uh chargers raiders chargers win and steelers lose then uh the chargers get the five seed and i think matchup wise that's kind of what you're looking for if you're the chargers uh because if the chargers go to houston then the Chargers get that win. If they have to go to Baltimore, that's a whole different story. So you can bet your ass that the Chargers are probably the biggest Bengals fans right now in terms of that. So they can beat the Steelers. Give me the Chargers.

Yeah, give me the Chargers. Quite literally, the Chargers would have to try to lose in order for the Raiders to win, because the Raiders also just don't have the horses to play spoiler. They just don't. There's a reason why they are a quarterback needy team just like the giants are um yeah give me the chargers and jk dobbins is back they're they're a multi-dimensional offense now again yeah bitch i mean they they looked a little just a little

shaky on offense for those few weeks but now do Dobbins is back and healthy, and they're firing on all cylinders. Chargers, I mean, what else do you want me to say? The Raiders are another team that, once again, even if they could play spoiler, they just don't have the power to. I mean, it's not like the Chargers are in a win and in scenario. They have already clinched. So if you're the Raiders, once again, I feel like you're just looking for that pick. I wouldn't expect them to try too hard.

But then again, like you guys said, organizations tank, players don't. So we'll see. I still have the Chargers, though. Alexander Madison needs A-plus receptions for $125,000. Christian Fulton needs one interception for $125,000. J.K. Dobbins needs 58 rushing yards for $150,000. And Bud Dupree needs one more sack for $250,000. Interesting.

Very. Seahawks Rams. Geno Smith, 4,000-yard passer. He needs 185 more passing yards, and he gets a $2 million bonus. Good for you. The Rams, no one. So in terms of the playoff spots for the Rams, they win, they lock up the three seed and they kind of need to win this game because if they lose and the Bucs win, Bucs get the four seed because of conference record.

So there's that. Yeah, so give me the Rams because this Seahawks offense, this Seahawks offense has been so piss poor in my eyes. Last week was really the icing on the cake for me. Like beginning of the season had some promise. They went on a little bit of slump, then they picked it back up and then they really fucking hit the fan.

They really just could not get it going. Gino Smith. Does he get 185 passing yards? Yeah, sure. Smith, does he get 185 passing yards? Yeah, sure. He's going to get 185 passing yards. They're probably going to throw it 40 times because they don't run the ball for some reason. Granted, they don't have Kenneth Walker anymore.

They got Zach Charbonnet. But still, even with Zach Charbonnet, you should be giving him 20 rush attempts without Kenneth Walker. But, yeah. Give me the Rams. The Rams don't... The Seahawks don't have any reason to play anymore because they technically are out. And they can technically play spoiler

because they have... They have the horses to play. And they just barely missed the playoffs i'm surprised they were eliminated this quick um i thought they would be a week 18 team where they'd be trying to get in but they're already gone um and that's weird considering they're already they clinched a post an above 500 record that being said give me the rams rams are still playing for something yeah i'm going with the rams because even though you've clinched you don't want to get the four seed because if you lose and you get the fourth seed, you are playing either the Lions or the Vikings, right?

And they're both a 14-win team. And I know how in sports there's a saying about how you never, ever duck a team. But yeah, I think you can safely say the Rams should probably duck one of them, should probably duck getting the fourth seed so yeah obviously i feel like the rams it's not even that they want to win i think it's that they don't want to lose you know because you cannot like if you are basically a slam dunk one and done if you get the four seed and have to play detroit or uh or minnesota so yeah rams They still want to play more. Yeah, it's the difference between playing those two teams or the commanders. That's basically the difference. And I

would 100% bet you that they would much rather want to play the commanders based off of matchups alone. All right, Dolphins Jets. This is going to be a contender for probably worst game of the week with that Texans-Titans game we were talking about. Oh boy. Where do we even begin with this game? Not a lot, really. Dolphins are kind of in the same scenario as the Bengals, where they need the Broncos to lose and they need to get a win. But the Dolphins are in New York. Pardon, in New Jersey,

because they're not in New York. They're in New Jersey. They're at MetLife, cold weather. It's going to be 36 degrees at kickoff, so not below freezing. So, let's see about those statistics. But there's no Tua. They got Snoop Tyler Huntley starting in this one. And if I know anything about the Dolphins, the Dolphins do not win without Tua. So give me the Jets. It actually

pains me to pick the Jets because I fucking hate the Jets so much. But this is part of me wanting the Bengals to make the playoffs so badly. So I'm hoping the Jets actually win this for once in my life. Give me the Dolphins. Excuse me. Give me, geez. Yeah, give me the Dolphins. Dolphins. Dolphins. The Jets are just so bad.

They're both just so bad. I would much rather want to talk about my New Year's resolutions than talk about this game. This is a coin flip in all of the worst ways possible. You know how earlier in the year I would give my game picks, and for the worst ones I say, give me this team but not in a good way? Literally neither of these teams could win in a good way. I guess the Dolphins, it's shocking that this team is still

in playoff contention technically. But this is, I guess the only interest I have in this game is that this is one of the dominoes that needs to fall in order for the Bengals to make the playoffs. And I think this is out of the three, between the Bengals, Broncos, and

Dolphins. Obviously, the team I give the least of a shot is the Dolphins. But they might finish 9-8. I can't believe it, but I'm going to have them going 9-8. I have to go with the Jets because even though the Jets are an abhorrent dumpster fire of an organization that probably should have been deleted and restarted on Madden, like, you know, Woody Johnson's kids there, years ago, they actually if Miami loses, then they have no path forward. Right. They quite literally have no path forward if they lose.

Right. They their entire playoff chances hinge on them getting a win. So on the Jets, you know, maybe it's in New York, too. And it's New Jersey. It's going to be a little chilly to uh so or actually no no you're gonna have Tyler Huntley I'm not calling him Snoop he hasn't earned that nickname I'm sorry no no no it's for the same reason we don't call Nathan Peterman the goat you know you haven't earned that so overall I just I'm sorry Tyler Huntley I know he's a pro bowler supposedly like that one year, but as a whole, I I'm just, I'm not feeling it for Miami. I think it's over once again, they're beating up on bad teams,

but now they've gone from predator to prey because the Jets look at a play spoiler. You know, the Jets love Quinnen and sauce and Rogers and Wilson and Adams. And Adams has been on a tear, I don't know if you've seen. But, yeah, no Tua means no winning. Give me the Jets. Last game on the docket, Cardinals-Niners. This isn't really that great of a game to even talk about it as well. Let's just rapid fire this one.

Yeah. Cardinals, not going to be a pretty game. No James Conner. Kyler Murray might be their leading rusher. I think they might actually be on their third string running back, just like the Niners. Maybe we get Marvin Harrison Jr. getting 200 yards. I don't fucking know.

It's week 18. Adam? Yeah. I'll take the Cardinals. Cardinals have more talent. And at least more talent that's healthy. So, yeah, Cardinals, not much more to say here. Also, the 49ers are without Brock Purdy for this last game.

So that's pretty much the tipping point for me. The 49ers, yet again, have been hit by the injury bug, and they should probably fire their strength and conditioning staff. Overall, yeah, solid point. I just – I have to go with the Niners solely because Purdy's hurt. It's just not worth it. The Niners because Purdy's hurt? Basically, yeah.

Don't you mean the Cardinals? I meant, yeah, Cardinals because Purdy's hurt. Gets dark a little bit earlier. I think that's getting to us a little bit. Yeah. It's getting to me, but I just more so have a cold right now but that'll do it sorry i said ah ah i'm a pussy uh uh that'll do it for us our week 18 friday picks the final week of the regular season. I'm kind of bummed. I'm a little sad that we've come to this week again, but that just means we're going to get some great football next week

with the wild card round. It's going to be interesting to see how this playoff picture gets set up, but that'll do it for us tonight. Thank you again for listening. New episode coming out on Tuesday at 7.30. Of course, Fridays at 5.00. We're a little bit late on this one, and we apologize on that. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Also, have all our episodes available on Spotify, Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts, and so much more. Be sure to follow our Instagram, fumblerouski underscore podcast to keep up with our podcast and the latest coverage on the NFL. And pay attention on Monday for Black Monday because a lot of coaches going to get fired on Monday so be sure to keep in touch with our updates during that otherwise we'll see you on Tuesday and we'll recap those Black Monday firings all around for myself Chris Costas, CJ Medeiros, Adam Wright we say so long over and out