It took some time but I finally had a monster week! I ended up going 14-2 on the week but, full disclosure, I reverted to instinct and picked the Saints even though I said Colts on the show. 13-3 isn’t too shabby though. It’s way better than going 7-7-2 against the spread but I stayed above .500 and I gained some ground back versus the over/under with a respectable (and way better than usual) 10-6 record.
| Nick W | Nick L | Nick T | ATS W | ATS L | ATS P | O/U W | O/U L | O/U P | Christen W | Christen L | Christen T | Rids W | Rids L | Rids T | ||||
| 14 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 10 | 6 | 0 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 7 | 0 | ||||
| Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | ||||
| 63 | 42 | 0 | 52 | 49 | 3 | 38 | 49 | 2 | 62 | 43 | 0 | 39 | 36 | 0 | ||||
| Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | ||||
| 77 | 44 | 0 | 59 | 56 | 5 | 48 | 55 | 2 | 75 | 46 | 0 | 48 | 43 | 0 |
Thanks to a couple of good weeks recently, I gained the household lead and worked my way back into second in the league. Christen also had a great week going 13-3 and she didn’t even do the show, so there was no discussion. Ridley has missed a couple of weeks but she posted a 9-7 mark this year and is still above .500 on the year. Right about halfway through the season, it’s kind of anyone’s game.
Football is a funny game. However, I think a big part of why we love it is that the margin of error between domination and defeat is so incredibly thin. The Lions have been among the best teams in the league all year and the Raiders have been mediocre at best, but the Monday night meeting between the two was closer than it probably should have been.
Detroit dominated in every area that mattered, got the breakout performance from Jahmyr Gibbs, and wound up winning 26-14. The Raiders’ defense gave them a chance for a while, including a Marcus Peters pick-six that cut the lead to two in the 3rd quarter. However, it was Vegas’ stagnant offense and a good Lions’ defense that ruled the majority of this game.
Football fans everywhere, and probably Las Vegas in particular, are rejoicing over the news of Josh McDaniels’ firing. The former Raiders and Broncos head coach has never been a good head coach but now he has the distinction of being the first NFL coach to get fried before the end of their second season by two different teams. And Mark Davis fired General Manager Dave Ziegler as well. They still have to face the music that their QB isn’t much more than handsome without an elite defense and dominant run game, but it’s a problem that wasn’t getting better under the current leadership. So, cheers to that.
The Chargers finally won a game they were supposed to and beat the Bears and their backup QB on Sunday evening. I get that on paper it was supposed to be billed as Herbert vs Fields, and the idea was that these teams would be so stank…but I want a word with the scheduler.
It helps to have a healthy Austin Ekler back, putting up 100 all-purpose yards and pacing the team in receptions because the Bolts needed a get-right game. Justin Herbert had about as good of a day as he’s had all season, going 31/40 for just about 300 yards and 3 TDs. They did most of their scoring in the first half though and closing out games has been the issue. Time will tell, but their run defense holding up was a really good sign.
The game we should have had on Sunday night was the Bengals at the 49ers. Cincinnati handed San Francisco their third-straight loss, 31-17, and a team that looked invincible is treading water. Meanwhile, the Bengals are getting healthy and looking good on both sides of the ball.
Joe Burrow looks healthy and ready to roll, as he threw for 283 yards and 3 TDs on a very efficient 28/32 day, with 10 of those completions finding Ja’Marr Chase for 100 yards. And Joey B ran for 43 yards to complement Joe Mixon who tallied 87 yards on the ground.
It’s not that San Francisco didn’t move the ball either, but once again it was the turnovers by Brock Purdy that iced it. I know the tendency is to get enamored with Christian McCaffrey and, don’t get me wrong, he’s been great for the Niners. However, I think it’s pretty evident that the absence of Deebo Samuel is paramount. The Niners will be fine in the long run and they head into their much-needed bye week, but this seems like a wee bit of karma for my brother venting about SF being disrespected.
The Ravens improved to 6-2 on the year and climbed the power rankings with a 31-24 win over the pesky Cardinals. This was a weird one because Baltimore was coming off their whipping of the Lions and I knew it was gonna be a spot for a letdown, but after going up 24-7 in the 4th quarter it got a tad dicey. Maybe it was a foot off the gas situation, but I took the Cards to cover 9.5 points so garbage time is good with me. It was good enough for the Vikings too as they traded for Joshua Dobbs in the wake of Kirk Cousins’ injury.
Speaking of the Vikes, they got a huge win over the Packers, 24-10, to get to 4-4 on the year but the big news was Cousins being lost for the season because of an Achilles’ tear. I don’t know what is going on but this is the year of Achilles’ injuries. It started with Tim Patrick during the off-season, then J.K Dobbins and Aaron Rodgers in Week 1, Tre White at the beginning of October, and now this. I never thought Kirk was going to take Minnesota to the promised land, but he’s tough and I’ve liked him this season more than ever so it sucks to see yet another player lost to this injury.
Back in afternoon action, the Broncos pulled the upset of the week, and maybe even the upset of the year, beating the Chiefs 24-9 in Denver. These two had played to a 19-8 finish just a few games ago with KC coming out on top, so the awkwardness isn’t completely unexpected and, heading into the game, I said that all the elite teams had lost weird games to inferior competition except for the Chiefs. Well, that’s over now. Maybe the Russell Wilson Broncos are going to make some noise because I didn’t see them move any big pieces at the trade deadline.
The Seahawks took over 1st place in the NFC West for the first time in a while as they beat the Browns 24-20 in Seattle. It was not an easy win and it looked like they were in trouble as they had blown the lead and done nothing right in the second half, but their much-improved defense hung in there and Seattle managed to put together the right drive at the right time. Geno Smith connected with Jaxon Smith-Njigba for the game-winner and the defense held out for the rest. Massive win for the Hawks.
Carolina picked up their first win of the season over the Texans, 15-13. As I said on the show, if the Panthers were going to get a win, this was going to be the game to do it. I still didn’t have the stones to pick CAR but they put together a really nice drive to end the game that covered the final six minutes of regulation and ended with Eddy Pineiro hitting the game-winning FG.
The Eags and the Commanders went at it again, with Phille prevailing (again) 38-31. It didn’t take overtime this time, but Washington is clearly a tough matchup for Philly. The Eags had to rally from down a TD twice in the second half before an interception swung the momentum firmly into Philly’s hands. Sam Howell had the kind of game you wanna see from him but, with falling to 3-5 and not having much to show for the defense, I can understand why they dealt some big defensive pieces. Meanwhile, the Eags re-take the top spot.
Also making moves, the Jags improved to 6-2 on the year with a 20-10 win over the Steelers. I knew the Steelers weren’t that good, but they did limit a pretty dynamic offense to just 20 points. However, Jacksonville has a pretty good defense and it’s only getting better. Not that it would have made a difference but Pittsburgh also lost Kenny Pickett again to another concussion. That’s already two this season if memory serves, and that’s a scary thing to consider.
The Jets are a tough out in every sense of the word. They managed an ugly 13-10 win in overtime over the Giants. It was raining and sloppy, and the two teams combined for just 23 completions, but the Jets’ defense will always keep them in the game. Sadly, Tyrod Taylor took a hard fall while being chased out of the pocket and the last I heard it was a “rib thing” but he had to be hospitalized for it and that’s scary since he had a punctured lung in the past. Here’s hoping Tyrod is okay.
In unsurprising news, the Dolphins handled the Patriots, 31-17, to maintain their spot atop the AFC East. Not much to write home about, this game went basically as expected.
I can’t figure out the Saints but they maybe figured out something themselves with a 38-27 win over the Colts. Sadly, I had Rashid Shaheed on my bench as he went for 153 yards and a TD, and Taysom Hill had one of those days. When the Saints play well, they aren’t bad but they don’t always play well and the Colts aren’t the stiffest test.
The Titans are weird too, but I finally found the right frequency for them and actually picked them to win on a week they won. Will Levis had a breakout performance and will be the starter moving forward on the strength of a 4 TD performance. That is until when/if Ryan Tannehill is ready. In the same game, Desmond Ridder got benched for the more experienced Taylor Heinicke who may be a good spot start if you need a QB.
Dak Prescott and company seem to have figured out who they are as they thumped the Rams 43-20 and did so with an aerial assault that has been few and far between for the Boys this season. The really bad news for the Rams was that Matthew Stafford jacked up his thumb pretty badly so their aims at being a playoff team took a huge hit. He is listed as day-to-day, but a thumb injury on the throwing hand is a big injury.
Then, of course, the Bills survived a Hail Mary attempt against the Bucs 24-18 on Thursday night football and got a mini bye week to get prepped for the Bengals in a huge game on Sunday Night Football.
The Eagles have stayed the course and sit atop the power rankings, the Jags crack the Top-5 while the Chiefs and Niners slide, and the Panthers officially sends Arizona to the basement this week.
| 1. Eagles 7-1 (+3) |
| 2. Ravens 6-2 (+1) |
| 3. Jaguars 6-2 (+4) |
| 4. Lions 6-2 (+1) |
| 5. Dolphins 6-2 (+1) |
| 6. Chiefs 6-2 (-4) |
| 7. Seahawks 5-2 (+2) |
| 8. 49ers 5-3 (-4) |
| 9. Cowboys 5-2 (=) |
| 10. Bills 5-3 (+2) |
| 11. Bengals 4-3 (+4) |
| 12. Steelers 4-3 (-2) |
| 13. Browns 4-3 (-2) |
| 14. Jets 4-3 (+1) |
| 15. Saints 4-4 (+5) |
| 16. Falcons 4-4 (-3) |
| 17. Vikings 4-4 (+7) |
| 18. Buccaneers 3-4 (-4) |
| 19. Chargers 3-4 (+5) |
| 20. Titans 3-4 (+6) |
| 21. Texans 3-4 (-4) |
| 22. Rams 3-5 (=) |
| 23. Colts 3-5 (-2) |
| 24. Commanders 3-5 (-5) |
| 25. Raiders 3-5 (-2) |
| 26. Broncos 3-5 (+3) |
| 27. Packers 2-5 (-2) |
| 28. Bears 2-6 (-1) |
| 29. Giants 2-6 (-1) |
| 30. Patriots 2-6 (=) |
| 31. Panthers 1-6 (+1) |
| 32. Cardinals 1-7 (-1) |
Thanks for reading! I still believe word of mouth is the best way to help, so if you enjoy what I’m doing, please tell somebody. And if you have a comment, I’d love to hear it! Liking, subscribing, and sharing go a long way too. And, as usual, be well, stay safe, and Go Bills!