Chiefs in Trouble? Week 11 Reflections & Week 12 Bold Predictions

The 2025 NFL season is flying by! Week 11 is wrapped, leaving the AFC playoff picture in chaos, and Week 12 is upon us. Darin Hayes of Pigskin Dispatch and analyst Ed Kleese returned to the Pig Pen to discuss the Chiefs’ unexpected struggles and lay down their biggest Bold Predictions for the coming slate of games.

📉 Ed's Take: The Chiefs’ Nine-Year Dynasty is Ending

The most significant takeaway from Week 11, according to Ed Kleese, was the Denver Broncos’ win over the Kansas City Chiefs.

Ed asserts that this loss is bigger than just one game; it signals a major shift in the AFC. The Chiefs are now 5-5 and have suffered losses to all the teams they're competing with for a Wild Card spot (Broncos, Chargers, Bills, and Jaguars).

"They will not be playing any home games at Arrowhead in the playoffs this year for the first time in a decade. That is a huge change."

Ed now believes the Chiefs will not win the AFC and are no longer a sure bet for the playoffs, meaning the AFC is now "open season" for other contenders. Darin agreed, noting that Denver head coach Sean Payton exposed a successful blueprint for beating the Chiefs: running the ball, eating the clock, and keeping Patrick Mahomes off the field.

📊 Week 11 Results: Darin Takes the Lead

While the Chiefs stumbled, Darin Hayes delivered his best week of predictions yet, flipping the script and snatching the overall lead.

Darin Hayes' Week 11 Results: 8 Points

Pick Details Outcome Points

1. Lions at Eagles-Lions win Incorrect 0
2. Bears at Vikings-Bears win & DeAndre Swift over 100 yards. Correct (Nailed both)2
3. Bills at Buccaneers-Bills win & Josh Allen 4+ TDs. Correct (Nailed both)2
4. Rams at Seahawks-Rams win & force 4 turnovers. Correct (Nailed both)2
5. Panthers at Falcons-Panthers win by 10+Bonus (Panthers won)2

Total Week 11 Score 8 - Overall Total 53

Ed Kleese's Week 11 Results: 6 Points

Pick Details Outcome Points

1. Bears at Vikings.Vikings win Incorrect 0
2. Rams at Seahawks.Seahawks win Incorrect 0
3. Chargers at Jaguars.Jaguars win.Correct2
4. Giants at Packers.Jameis fun/Packers win late.Correct (Giants had ball in the red zone late)2
5. Raiders at Cowboys.Cowboys win easily.Correct2

Total Week 11 Score 6 - Overall Total 52

Darin now leads Ed by a single point, 53-52, as the season heads into its final third.

🔮 Week 12 Bold Predictions

The analysts now turn their attention to a critical Week 12 slate.

Ed Kleese's Week 12 Bold Predictions

Game Bold Prediction Rationale

1. Bills at Texans.Bills win in a close one. The Bills will pull it out late, as missing the injured C.J. Stroud makes it too tough for Houston's offense, despite their good defense. Less than 40 total points will be scored in the game.
2. Cardinals at Jaguars.The Cardinals upset the Jaguars. This will be a tough, unpredictable loss for the Jags, cementing their "roller coaster" path that will see them miss the playoffs.
3. Steelers at Bears. The Steelers win in a close one in Chi-Town.
4. Eagles at Cowboys. The Cowboys beat the Eagles. Ed likes the additions Dallas has made on defense (Easley, Wilson) and how they will neutralize the Eagles’ running attack.
5. Seahawks vs Titans.Seahawks bounce back from a loss last week to beat Tennessee by 20 plus points

Darin Hayes' Week 12 Bold Predictions

Game Bold Prediction Rationale

1. Bills at Texans.Bills sneak past Texans with a late field goal; total score under 35 points.Similar to Ed's pick, but adds the bold layer of a low-scoring defensive struggle (less than 35 total points).
2. Cardinals at Jaguars. The Cardinals upset the Jaguars. Arizona, led by Brissett, has been surprisingly competitive and will capitalize on the Jags' erratic form.
3. Chiefs at Colts. The Colts win by 10 or more points. The Colts are one of the hottest teams in the NFL, and the shaken Chiefs can no longer be trusted to "figure it out" against good opponents.
4. Eagles at Cowboys. The Cowboys beat the Eagles. The defensive additions Dallas made to shore up their run defense will be the deciding factor in neutralizing Philadelphia's primary strength.
5. Buccaneers at Rams. Buccaneers win by 10 or more points. The Rams are due for a "hangover" after their emotional win last week, giving the Bucs a significant edge.

The duo will return next week to break down these predictions and preview the Thanksgiving Day slate of games.

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Miss our football by the day of the year podcasts, well don't, because they can still be found at the Pigskin Dispatch website.

Ed Cleese is going to join us as we make some big, bold predictions and some reflections back on the week that's past.

Some great football coming up.

Some great football that occurred.

And Ed's joining us right now in just a moment.

This is the Pigskin Daily History Dispatch, a podcast that covers the anniversaries of.

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Now onto our episode.

Hello, my football friends.

This is Darren Hayes of pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal deposit of football history.

And welcome to another week where we get to go and predict some bold predictions for the NFL games for week 12 coming up.

And as we have every year this or every week this year, we've had Ed Cleese join us to help in the programming.

Ed, welcome back to the Pig Pen.

Hey, Darren, how are you?

I'm doing great, Ed.

How about yourself?

Doing fantastic.

Well, Ed, we had a pretty exciting and eventful week in week 11 of the National Football League.

And what are some of your thoughts coming out of this past week?

Well, I say let's, let's buckle up, Darren, because it's story time with Ed.

So hold on a second.

I'm gonna put both, both snaps on both sides of this chin strap here.

There you go.

Or get a pillow, you know what I mean?

And I'll let you know when I'm done.

Okay, I'll assume the crash position.

Speaking of pillow, I've got, you know, hopefully I've brought a few listeners to the pod.

You know, I've mentioned my aunt, my mom, my mother in law, a lot of my family, some friends and family.

Thank you.

One of, one of my friends, his name is Brad and he is a loyal listener and I know he listens because he sends me specific comments that we talk about.

But what's really funny is he, he, he tells me that he, he, he, it helps him fall to sleep.

And I don't know, a backhanded compliment or what.

Yeah, and what I, and he said that he listens to it in, in, in segments throughout the week.

And I said, Brad, it's like a 35 to 45 minute podcast.

Like, you must not get very far before it knocks you out every night if it's taking you five days to listen to it.

I think Brad's getting a lot of sleep off of us.

So, so, so we are providing some digital NyQuil for my buddy Brad.

So if he's.

Now I started talking about him, maybe he's asleep before, before we get to the end of this, I don't know.

But yeah, Brad, if you're still awake, thank you.

If not, sweet dreams.

There you go.

So there you go.

So.

But my first thought was really it has to do with fandom.

And like I said, buckle up.

So story time.

I've got, you know, I'm just old enough, just old enough to have remembered the very early Gibbs years.

Now, I was very young, so those are tougher memories.

They're more like snapshots.

And I'm definitely old enough to have remembered the second half of the first Gibbs run when they won their second two Super Bowls.

That's sort of my glory years, my adolescence, growing up watching football.

And then unfortunately, I'm more than old enough to have remembered in great detail the following 30 years after the Super Bowls.

And I was always curious as when I got older and I had kids, if they would kind of adopt it.

I've got a 16 year old daughter and she is a huge, huge basketball fan.

That's her game.

Huge NBA fan, huge Thunder fan.

But she likes football and she likes the commanders and she has always watched them with me.

And I think we can call her a football fan and a Washington fan.

And then a few years ago, my son, who is now about to be 14, he started to really get into football, started playing football and getting into football.

And I was like, well, I guess we got another little Washington fan.

And then my 9 year old, she's, she's more into basketball right now, but even she'll wear a jersey or watch the game.

So kind of sucking all three in a little bit.

We were 1 and 3.

We were playing the Titans at home and we had spun the roulette wheel that off season for, for our quarterback like we did every year.

And that year it landed on Carson Wentz.

And so that's who our quarterback was.

It was a beautiful day.

We're one and three it was a very entertaining, good back and forth game.

We get a first and goal, we're down by four or five.

So a touchdown wins.

No field goal does no good.

We're down inside the five, first and goal, 30 seconds left, less, you know, so it's.

It's do or die.

And he tried.

He almost does.

An interception on second down.

Thankfully, the Titans drop it and we live to fight another day.

But as they say, you know, if you don't try it first, try again.

If you don't succeed at first try, try again.

So he did, and he was able to throw the interception on third down instead, which ended the game.

And at that time, we also.

There was the very beginning.

Pangs and whispers of maybe Snider being forced to sell.

But at that point, it did not feel real.

He was still the owner.

And that night, my son and I had a moment, Darren, a moment that I will never forget.

Because I started thinking that, you know what I'm saying, stuck in this place.

Okay, I'm.

It's too late for me.

There's no saving me, Okay?

I am here forever.

And I am now in this black hole with Dan Snyder and the rest of the fans that are still here.

And we're here forever.

And it is not fair to my son to force him to be here with us.

So I took him into our bedroom that night and I said.

I said to him, I said, look, you don't have to do this for me, okay?

You can go.

I will buy you a Patrick Mahomes jersey.

I'll buy you a Josh Allen jersey.

You got your.

Your grandma's families from.

From Buffalo.

You can root for the Bills.

The Chiefs aren't too far away.

You can root for the Chiefs.

You can't pick anybody else in the NFC east, but you've got 28 other teams that if you tell me right now, dad, I want to root for somebody else.

Because I said.

I said to him, I said, because if you keep rooting for this team, this is going to be your life.

This is it, okay?

So this is your chance right now to get out.

All right?

And Darren, this was like one of those, like you never forget.

He looked at me.

He said, no, dad.

He said he didn't even think.

He goes, I don't even think about it.

He said, I'm in.

I'm in just like you.

And, you know, obviously that's sort of a. Oh, my gosh.

You know, I don't know whether to laugh or cry or both or be mad at him.

You know, I don't know.

Like, you know, I don't know what to do.

I don't know what to do.

So anyway, that's a little backstory.

So we suffer through the rest of that season.

So there was hope, right?

There was a lifting.

From the heavens, right?

And my kids get to experience it.

We go to two games last year, both two of the best games of the year in the NFL, if not just for the Commanders.

Both end with Washington touchdowns in the last 10 seconds.

And we're there for both of them.

We experienced the amazing two road playoff games, getting to the NFC Championship and having this wonderful quarterback there.

So now we.

It was an amazing experience, and it felt so worth it.

And I was like, well, I'm really glad we had that conversation.

And he stuck it out.

So then we fast forward now to the current time, right?

And something I've noticed from them over the.

My kids, when I say them over the first several weeks, is they're already starting to drift with our bad start, maybe losing a little focus and interest already after being spoiled last year.

So I sat them down prior to this week, and I said, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You guys had your chance.

You had your chance.

I gave you an out, all right?

A couple years ago, you didn't take it, so now you're in, and now you're locked forever, okay?

And so I said, so get ready, because we play In Madrid, the 3 and 7 Washington Commanders against the 3 and 7 Miami Dolphins early in the morning, and you are getting up and we're going to pregame just like we always do, and you're going to suffer through it with me just like we always do, because that's what we do now.

So I get up about 6am I take the dog for a walk.

I go get some of our favorite bagels from our favorite bagel shop.

We all sit outside and, you know, they're sort of begrudgingly and dragging out there a little bit, but I'm making sure they got their jerseys on, they got their sweatshirts on, because this is what we do now, right?

And so we sit out there as a family, we watch the game.

It's sort of an oddly entertaining, entertaining game.

And, you know, it's back and forth.

And here's what's really funny, Darren.

You know, you can convince yourself as a fan, you know, you know the realities, right?

You know, the records, the season's over.

You know, there's no, there was no saving the season, right?

But all of the logic and all of the reality goes away once the game starts.

And what happens is the instinct as a fan, as a competitor is you want your team to win.

So the game is close.

It's, you know, they wind up with a million chances to win it late.

We don't.

The Dolphins kind of screw it up.

We kind of screw it up.

We lose on a last second field goal.

And what's really funny is that's our eighth loss this year.

It is definitely our least important loss or least impactful.

You know, it doesn't really matter, but it bothered me the most for some reason.

I don't know exactly why, just sort of that fan thing.

Maybe because we'd suffered through five straight losses and I kind of thought this would be a fun morning to get a win and a kind of little bit of a memory and just kind of a, you know, fun thing to do.

And it really, really bugged me.

And I could tell that the kids could tell, right?

Because all of a sudden they started being way nicer, like all than they normally nice kids.

But they were being like, my son was offering to help clean up and stuff.

I'm like, oh, okay, what's going on here?

It's almost like there's been a death or like, or I got fired or something and they're trying to be really nice to me and, and I'm kind of do what I do, I, I tend to pout a little bit in the immediate aftermath of a tough loss where I used to get very quiet and just go about my business.

And as I'm cleaning up the kitchen, Darren, it's very funny.

My 16 year old daughter, who's a very sweet girl, but is kind of past these types of things a little bit, she walks up behind me, she gives me a hug out of nowhere and she just says, dad, I'm sorry the commanders stink this year.

And it was sort of this heartwarming moment where, you know, they, they realized how important it is to me and they stuck it out there with me and they're kind of in it with me now.

So it's just sort.

It was just a fun little observation for me about fandom, fanhood, why we do this, you know, and why it matters and why it bothers you and why it makes you elated sometimes and just kind of like the fun of all of it.

And then I sent him a Text message in our little family group chain the next day when they announced, I thought in two weeks, when we're off our buyers, I thought they were going to flex our game out on Sunday night against the Broncos.

There's no way they're keeping us now.

But they announced actually that we're staying.

So I sent them all a text message and I said, I'll see you on Sunday night in two weeks, prime time.

We'll be right back at it again.

You better be ready, because this is what we do.

You missed your window, kids.

You're in it for good now.

So that was my.

That was my experience from Sunday, Darren.

And I know you also had a. Yours was more Saturday, but.

Right.

Yeah, I had a pretty good weekend.

Western Pennsylvania, we had.

Ackershire was.

Had some of the biggest highlights of the football season, I think.

Oh, that's right, because both games were there.

That's right.

Yeah, Both.

Both games are there.

I was in person at the Notre Dame pick game and got to see Jeremiah Love with the famous spin move touchdown in the first quarter, which was incredible.

If the guy doesn't win the Heisman, I don't know who ever deserves a Heisman because he's.

I mean, he's unbelievable.

And then you know, just.

Just seeing a lot of things.

You know, a spitting incident where you have a right.

A player rejected for punching, and now a guy's out for.

Suspended for next week.

And Jamal Chase, Jamar Chase, and.

But Darnell Washington is a freaking beast.

And it was.

It was one of the most incredible displays he had.

Two plays.

Everybody saw the one where he caught the 17 yard pass and stiff arms a linebacker to the ground, just backs him up, crushes a DB and then runs over another DB and knocks him out of bounds as he goes out of bounds.

That was just unbelievable.

And fans are going wild on that.

I'm watching that on television from home, but today I'm watching all 22 of it.

And there was a.

A run by Kenny Gainwell to the right side in the fourth quarter where Darnell Washington leads out.

He blocks Miles Garrett just to clear the path so he doesn't knock Garrett down, at least knocks him out of the way.

And then he goes down and hits one.

One defender into another defender.

And these guys are, like rolling, you know, ass over teacups as Gainwell gets, like a big, big gain, a big rushing gain.

So, yeah, Darnell Washington is like a national folk hero in Western Pennsylvania right now.

He's the dude.

And we have.

There's.

You always See at Ackershire, the, they show the, the, the tramways are going up the hill just outside the stadium across the river and that is Mount Washington that they're, they're going up and down.

Well, everybody has been calling him Mount Washington because he's a very large man.

He's very large.

Yes.

Things doesn't look normal when he has the ball in his hands.

Yeah, they say he's 260 in the program, but everybody knows he's like 320.

You know, he's bigger than the tackles for the Steelers.

So.

Yeah, just unbelievable.

A game of football between Darnell Washington and Jeremiah Love of Notre Dame.

Just great, great weekend.

So some really good football in that stadium.

Unless.

Except for the Pitt Panthers, which made my brother in law a little bit sad, which is just great.

Just great.

Don't tell my mother in law though that I said that.

No, but it was a pretty cool game too because for Pip fans, because they had.

They retired Aaron Donald jersey that game, which was the big fanfare at, you know, the whole game they had showing little clips, everything.

But Tony Dorsett was in attendance, Hugh Green was in attendance, Darnell or Darrell Rivas was in attendance.

They had all kinds of different people coming on there.

You know, former coach Dave Weinstadt gave a little speech and got the crowd all riled up and it was just unbelievable.

And then James Connor, who was a teammate of Aaron Donald at Pitt, it was on via video and had some nice things to say, but it was really pretty cool.

And of course they had the whole, you know, the ESPN game day crew there.

The ACC game day crew was there and it was really cool outside the stadium and inside on Saturday we had a great time.

Yeah, they retired his jersey and then the Irish retired the Panther season.

Yeah, yeah, basically.

Basically.

They'll still be have some bowl season though, right?

Yeah.

So.

All right, so what else did you have from week?

Really?

Just because I rambled on so long there, I'll keep this thought pretty short.

I've got.

I really just had one.

We know something we talked about last week was what happened in Denver.

And this is one of the only times I have ever felt this way that I can think of in watching the NFL ever is that I almost feel like the Broncos win over the Chiefs was more important for the NFL at large than it was for the Broncos.

Because we talked about it last week, how I said I think the Chiefs, if you had me pick, I'd still pick them to go to the Super Bowl.

I would put them as number one in the AFC power rankings.

And now that's over.

Because that one more loss changes everything for the Chiefs because now they're five and five.

They're four games behind Denver.

Right.

And they're what, two games behind the Chargers.

So they are not.

And they have losses to both.

And then they have losses to the Bills and the Jags, teams that they're competing with for the wild card.

So they're in actual trouble.

Forget the division.

This is nine division titles in a row.

It's amazing.

So that's ending.

So they will not be playing any home games at Arrowhead in the playoffs this year for the first time in a decade.

Okay, so that is a huge change.

Right?

A huge change.

Huge change.

So that is really just.

And there's a. I still kind of think if you put a gun to my head and said the Chief's going to make the wild card, I'd probably say yes, I think they'll figure out a way in.

But it's no sure bet.

And if they do make it in, there's certainly no sure bet that they're just going to run the table three straight road games or anything like that.

So I no longer feel that the Chiefs are going to win the afc.

It all shifted in that game for me because that was the one I thought they'd get.

That kind of kept them up near close enough to where they could still close things out later, but now they can't.

Now they're just fighting to get in and that's an unfamiliar spot for them.

I do think there's a little bit of some people over going a little overboard on my homes a little bit right now, almost talking about how maybe he's winding down and stuff like, oh, let's pump the brakes on that a little bit.

At least 30.

Yeah, you know, let's.

Let's relax.

Yeah, I think there's a blueprint out there on how to beat them.

Sean Payton really exposed it and he said all week long leading up to that game that he was going to have his defense.

I mean, Denver's defense is unbelievable.

They are stacked, they play well together and they keep points down.

And they definitely did that against one of the more potent offenses in the National Football League.

But Sean Payton said all week long that he planned on, you know, keeping the ball away from Mahomes and, you know, having his offense run the ball and, you know, Eat clock.

And they did that, too.

And just holding them, the field goals.

And he did that, too.

Mission accomplished for coach Payton and his Denver Broncos.

Yeah.

Their defense is awesome.

Yeah, Most definitely.

Most definitely.

All right, well, as long as we're Talking about week 11, maybe we ought to talk about how we did on our point totals last week for our predictions.

Do it.

Let's do it.

So, Darren, take a bow.

You just had the best week that either of us have.

Have had.

And I don't mean that.

Yes, it's going to show in the numbers, but also just in how good your picks were this week.

They were fantastic.

So we're gonna.

We're gonna start with.

We'll just start with the one you.

After the pitiful week the week before.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, this is.

This was quite the bounce back.

So you're going to get.

We'll start with the one you didn't get any points on.

That was the Lions game.

You know, going into Philly and beating the Eagles.

And that wasn't.

That was bad.

That was surprising.

A couple fourth.

They had the fake punt.

That didn't work.

They had the fourth down play.

That didn't work.

You know, Campbell, all his risk taking really didn't pay off from where it normally does.

And.

We talked about that earlier this year a little bit, and I think it holds true.

It is hard when you establish who you are and your culture and how you do things to then be very critical when you still do those things you normally do and they don't work because that's sometimes that work.

But there is context, there is time and place.

And sometimes I think that Campbell is just reckless.

You know, it's the, you know, you look at that game that the Lions defense was doing a great job.

Take the three.

Sometimes, you know, golf is struggling, right?

Take the three.

Let's just keep this game going.

Put.

Put it in your hands and your defense, punt the ball.

You know, when it's.

It's a one score game or midway through the third quarter or whatever, just punt it, push the Eagles back.

They're not driving the ball very well at all either.

You know, trust your defense.

You know, so there was some of that going on, but really, gosh, it was just a terrible night for golf.

And you weren't close on that one, but we can get to the ones you were more than close on.

So you had the.

I'm happy to talk about those ones.

Yeah.

Here you go.

So you had the Bears winning in Minnesota and DeAndre strips.

John DeAndre Swift going for over 100.

Both of those, brilliant.

Way to go.

Congratulations.

That was.

You nailed them.

You nailed them both.

Weird game.

Kind of.

Kind of a weird game.

But, but, but, but you nailed them.

I mean, that was perfect.

So it had to come on late because for the first half, he really didn't have anything right.

But he, he closed well.

And so you got your two there.

You're gonna get your two also.

I mean, you said that the Bills would out kind of like out duel the Bucks in Buffalo and that Josh Allen have four or more touchdowns.

I had six.

I mean, it's incredible.

So you were right on that one as well.

Just spot on.

Spot on.

Perfect.

And then you also had the Rams.

Not only did you say they would beat the Seahawks and kind of the game of the week, but they would force four turnovers.

How many turnovers did they force?

They forced four turnovers.

It was like being in a bakery.

Yeah, you were just.

Turnovers.

Yeah, you.

Nice.

You were just.

I might deduct you for that, actually.

Okay.

But that was, that was great.

And then.

So here's what I'm gonna do.

On the Panther last pick, you had the Panthers beating the Falcons by 10 or more.

They beat them not by 10 or more, but.

So I was gonna give you a one for that, but I'm actually gonna give you the full two because I felt that by nailing those other picks so perfectly that you just deserved almost like a bonus point because that was to get it so perfect.

So you're going to wind up with eight for the week, which is the highest scoring week either of us have ever had.

And that's going to land you at 53 points overall.

Then we want to.

Me now, I actually had a decent.

A decent week, but not quite as strong.

I'm on the opposite.

We went head to head.

And that's another thing.

You went.

You won both of the head to head games.

So I get zero for that Vikings game.

I know it actually wound up being close at the end and the Bears had to win it on the last second field goal.

That actually would have been a kind of a travesty had the Vikings won that game.

McCarthy was horrendous.

They have.

We've talked about it last week.

It's just terrible.

It's terrible there with the quarterback situation.

It doesn't matter that their defense is playing well.

It just doesn't matter.

So they're.

They're, they're got a little ugly.

Yeah, they're ugly.

They're ugly.

So I was off on that.

And I'm also going to get a zero because I had the Seahawks beating the Rams.

I thought that was a fabulous game.

I thought that was, I thought it was a great, entertaining game.

And sometimes people say if a game is a little choppy or sloppier, there's turnovers, that that's an ugly game or not a good game.

I think that's sometimes the beauty in football is when it's not pretty and it's not easy and there are a lot of mistakes being made because that's usually, you know, that was a sign of two teams that I thought were the two best teams in the NFL going in and they just went toe to toe and battled.

And despite Darnold's four interceptions, that game was great.

It was really great.

And it came down to a field goal at the end.

So that was a really, really fun game to watch.

I do think if you're Seattle, we talked about it just a little bit last week.

Is this, this is now a pattern with your quarterback dating back to last year with Minnesota, biggest moments, biggest games coming up short.

Yeah.

But I'm sure Minnesota would gladly take.

Him back right about, goodness gracious, they might take back, they might take back France Tarkington right now, as he, as he sits right now, he might be a little bit better.

So I got zero on that.

I am gonna get two for my other picks.

I had the chart.

I had to, I nailed this one, had the Jaguars winning over the, the Chargers in Jacksonville.

And that was, that was a great selection by you.

That was an easy one.

I'm also going to get two.

I think I, I'll waffle between one or two.

But I said that Jameis would do some fun things for the Giants.

They would keep that close and the packers would win late.

So even though the score was 7, the Giants did have the ball in the, within the inside the 10 yard line at the end of the game with a chance to tie or win.

So I'm giving myself two for the Jameis pick and I'm going to get two for the Cowboys pick on Monday night where I said they would win easily, their offense would roll.

And so I got the, I got the two there over the Raiders.

That gives me six for the week.

That gives me 52 for the year.

So last week I ended with a one point lead over you and we have now shifted.

You now have a one point lead over me.

I think we've done that like the last three or four weeks.

We've gone back and forth and somebody's got a one point lead and it.

Just back and forth and it's tight.

We're down to about the final third of the season, so it's.

It's a.

It's time to.

Time to get after it.

Yeah.

So we would.

For combined, we're 14 of the possible 20 points for the week, if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah.

Not bad.

That's our better week.

We're getting better with age, I guess.

That's right.

There you go.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, great.

Great picking by you and.

And myself and, you know, so we have week 12 coming up, and we had some great matchups last week that we talked about.

There's some really interesting games coming up for week 12 as well, and I believe you have the first selection this week.

So what's your first big, bold prediction?

We'll start Thursday.

Thursday night we have the Bills at the Texans.

Really kind of a bummer because I feel like the Texans are coming on, but missing Stroud with the concussion is tough for them, so.

But I think that that Texans defense is really good.

There's some really good defenses in the league and they are in the top three or four, I think.

So I think it's going to be a little bit of a comeback to earth game for the Bills going on the road after their extreme offensive explosion last week.

It's gonna be a battle on Thursday night.

The teams are going to combine for 40 or fewer points and the Bills are going to pull it out late because Davis Mills just isn't going to be able to get it done for the Texans.

Okay, that's interesting.

I heard a report today that Stroud is practicing and he may play in this game, so there might be a.

Chance that would change my thinking a little bit, but I can't change after the fact, so we'll stick with it.

All right.

Well, it's interesting you picked on that game because I also decided to take that game and we're very similar in it, but I have a little bit of a tweak to it.

I'm also saying that the Bills are going to sneak past the Texans with a late field goal, but there's going to be less than 35 total points.

Between the two teams, so even more bold than me.

Okay, got it.

All right, well, we'll see.

That'll be kind of interesting because what do we do if it's, you know, 39?

Do I win?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I guess because I.

Well, it's definitely more than 35, so.

Yeah.

So, yeah.

All right.

So I'm gonna.

I'm gonna.

I could potentially benefit from being less bold.

I like it.

All right, so then we're gonna go to Sunday now for me and I am going to say so.

I've been pretty good on the Jags this year, picking one way or the other.

So I think this week it goes back the other way.

They're going to fly out to Arizona to play the Cardinals, who have looked very bad, who looked really, really lousy the last two games after winning in Dallas.

But the Cardinals are going to beat him this week.

The Cardinals are going to.

The Cardinals are going to beat the Jags straight up.

I think you're going to see a little bit of a roller coaster of an end of a season for the Jags and I think they're going to miss the playoffs and it's going to be because of.

They're going to have a trouble in a game like this one.

They probably should win, but the Cardinals are going to beat him.

Well, I couldn't agree with you more because I also picking the Cardinals over the Jags in that game.

And yeah, I think Brissette has been playing, you know, well enough to.

He's been holding on to the job, you know, whatever Kyler Murray status is.

But I think, you know, Brissette deserves to be there.

He's been.

He's kept them competitive for the most part and I think they will take that roller coaster ride on the Jags and upend them this week.

Okay, I'm going to pick a road upset here, one that might be.

You might be pretty interested in.

The Steelers and the Bears are playing in Chicago and I think both teams are in a position where you would normally stay away or fade them because they've both been kind of hot, playing pretty well.

And this is an area where I kind of usually like to zag, but I can't zag against both of them.

So I'm going to say that the Steelers are going to grind out a win in Chicago.

It's just going to be a very tough game.

It's going to be fairly ugly.

I'm basing this prediction on whether Rodgers plays or not.

Either way, I feel a little bit better about it, of course, if Rogers plays.

But I think this is going to be a game where the Steelers defense, which has been getting better, is going to show up, give the Bears some trouble.

And I keep saying that the Bears luck is going to run out.

Well, this is the week.

I mean, I did not pick on this game because you talk about roller coaster rides.

It seems like the last three or four weeks, one week the Steelers look like, you know, they deserve to be in the first place.

Next week they look like, how did they get in first place and how are they even competing against other NFL teams?

And I'm hoping that you're correct in your, in your assumption.

And I'm, my, my heart is saying, yeah, I hope, hope the Steelers do really well and, and beat the Bears on the road, but I'm not picking this game.

But I like your selection.

All right, I'm sure you do.

Yeah.

Well, I'm going to go to one that we've talked a little bit about is a possible playoff scenario, and you got the Chiefs and the Colts playing this week.

And we talked a little bit about the Chiefs coming up here into this episode from week 11.

But, you know, these two teams are sort of almost polar opposites of this year.

You know, the Chiefs have been riding high for the last, what, eight years or so in the Mahomes era, Andy Reid, you know, pushing all the right buttons.

Seems like they can do nothing wrong offensively and defensively.

Struggling a lot this year.

And the Colts have been one of the hottest teams in the National Football League this year.

A very pleasant surprise for folks in Indianapolis.

But I think this week the Colts ride is going to slow down a little bit and the Chiefs are going to regain some composure.

Chiefs are going to win this by a touchdown or more.

And I believe it's at Indy.

So I.

No, it's an arrowhead.

It's an arrowhead.

Okay.

But I, I'm saying that the Chiefs are going to win this game.

You know, they had disappointing loss, they've disappointing offensive performance, but they're going to win this by a touchdown or more.

Even though the Colts now are really stocked up with some talent, they have, you know, Sauce Gardner and some of their recent additions at the trade deadline.

And they're all, they're all playing pretty well anyway.

But I think that the Chiefs take this one.

That's my gut, too.

But last week, like I said earlier, shook me.

So with the Chiefs.

So now I'm not.

Normally I'd be like, okay, this is a must for the Chiefs now.

They'll.

They'll get it done.

I must.

I just don't feel confident anymore because I think, you know, they're sort of past that point where we can just say, ah, they'll figure it out.

Maybe they won't.

You know, maybe they can't.

You know, maybe they're maybe they just won't.

And the Colts are really good.

Yeah.

Yes.

I think if I'm picking the game, I'm picking the Chiefs, but I no longer have a lot of confidence in it, and that's why it wasn't on my list.

What is on my list is I do think.

I don't think I can say with a straight face anymore that I still think the Seahawks are the best team in the NFL.

They got beat by the Rams, and the Rams do have a better quarterback.

So, you know, it would be.

Now that I see that and I saw that on Sunday, it.

It alters my thought on the Seahawks just a little bit.

But I still really like them.

They're going to bounce back in a massive way in Tennessee.

The Titans have, since they fired Callahan, they've been fighting a little bit.

They've been kind of clawing in games, but that's a bad team.

They're.

They're really bad.

The Seahawks are going to go into Tennessee.

They're going to take out some frustrations.

They're going to light the Titans up.

That game is going to be over at halftime, and the Seahawks are going to win by 20 or more.

Okay.

That's a big prediction.

Yeah.

Especially with the Titans.

The Titans were winning part of that game last weekend, which was surprising everybody.

I kept fighting.

They're playing hard.

Yeah.

Yeah, they are.

They are.

I. I like the selection.

I. I did not pick on that game, but I can, you know, I could see that going either way with 20 points is a big number.

So that is a bold prediction, that's for sure.

Well, I'm going to do a bold prediction that I think maybe you might like, and this is going to happen in your NFC East.

I'm taking a look at the Eagles and the Cowboys here, and I think the Cowboys are going to beat the Eagles this week.

There's.

I think the.

The Cowboys have done just enough to shore up their main weakness on defense, which was a running game.

Now, with having, you know, easily they got earlier from Green Bay in the Micah trade, and now having, you know, Quinton in there in the middle, they're a little bit beefier in there.

They got the Luke Wilson, the linebacker from Cincinnati, who adds a little bit of thump to him stopping the run, and I think that might be the.

The Eagles, Bugaboo.

They've been.

You.

You've sensed it a couple times this year or mentioned it a couple times this year.

The Eagles are sort of a little bit out of sync.

They're not the Eagles that they were the last year on offense and there's some.

Something going on there and I.

Nobody's quite put their finger on it, but I think you've sensed it, right?

And I think that's going to be exposed this week because the Cowboys, we know, can put up points.

It's just they normally have some points put up against them too.

But I think that has settled down a little bit.

I'm not saying they're going to be a perfect defense and that the Eagles won't score, but I think the Cowboys will outshine on the scoreboard and beat their rival.

Well, damn you, Darren.

On.

On two accounts.

So the first one being, please don't ever assume that I would be happy with Dallas winning a game.

The only, the only.

The only thing that would make me happy in an Eagles Cowboys game is a meteor.

Okay?

So let's just, let's just.

Let's just make that clear.

There's never a happy moment when either of those two teams are on the field.

So just please, that's insulting.

And then secondly, I completely agree.

It's my last pick.

I thought I would be the one to throw it out there and I was going to puff my chest out because I'm going to pick the Cowboys to beat the Eagles.

But I do.

I have Philly.

I have.

I have Dallas over Philly as well.

You know, I've kind of liked Dallas all year and you know what?

I'm hopefully.

You know what I mean by liked, maybe respect a little bit.

There's something about the way they play that I like.

I didn't like the hire of Schottenheimer.

I was kind of happy when I saw that they hired him.

If I was kind of a boring hire, but there's something about him.

I think he's doing a nice job.

I think.

I think their offense looks great and, and the defense just had nobody.

And as soon as they added some pieces, now they look better.

And.

And so this is a weird thing that usually teams don't get in the middle of the season.

Right?

So in the past, what, week and a half, the Cowboys added a couple of pretty big impact players on defense, both through trades and getting back from injury.

So they, they added several new defensive players, which is a little bit odd for a middle of the season.

They had their bye week, which came at probably a good time.

And then again, we talked about this.

Unfortunately they lost a teammate.

But those sort of tragedies that happen in the middle of seasons, they do tend to sort of galvanize the team, they kind of, you know, provide a focus and, and those three things kind of all happening at the same time I think have changed the trajectory and just sort of how the Cowboys season feels.

They get a really nice, good, feel good win against the bad Raiders team and now they've got a real chance to get into the picture if they can beat the Eagles on Sunday.

And I think they will because I think now their defense isn't good and it probably won't be good, but it's better.

And maybe it will be good enough to give their offense the chances they need to score enough to beat the Eagles, who again, like we keep mentioning, are struggling mightily on offense.

Yeah, I think it's not only shoring up the running game a little bit against the run a little bit, but I think they've got a little bit of pass rush that they didn't have since Mike has been gone.

That might really help.

And why the Raiders the other night weren't running the ball, I don't know.

I mean, I know Dallas was giving them some looks that inviting them to pass the ball, but my God, when you have Gentry, you got to run the ball a little bit to keep a defense honest.

Even if they have nine guys in a box, you got to take a couple of hits, just let the guy run into the line, you know, so they think there's a threat of a run.

It's probably the story of the Raiders season.

They have not been able to get the run game going at all all year long now.

And so they're kind of wasting genty.

That's the one thing you bet you're going to take a running back in the top 10.

You better have some road, some road pavers for them or it's not going to work out very well.

Yeah, they kind of can maybe kind of did it backwards.

Yeah, I think you're right.

They should have got some, some big guys up in front.

So.

Okay, so.

So my final pick is.

I'm going to go to.

You talked about the Rams last week.

You know, we talked about the Bucks.

They had a, you know, how about the Buccaneers?

The games.

They're like going through a gauntlet of these top teams in the National Football League and this is like a premier matchup.

And I think this is going to be a really fun game.

Just like the, the Bucks were against the Bills and the Rams were against Seattle.

But you know, these, these are big boy pants games here.

But I think this week that Baker Mayfield and the Bucks are going to overcome the Rams and in a shootout just like they had last week.

But they're, they're going to beat the Rams at their own game.

Mayfield and the Bucks on top.

Yeah, I took a peek at this one and obviously the only way to make a real bold prediction would be to pick the Bucks to either keep it really close or to win.

And, you know, I just don't see it.

There's, you know, as.

I really like Todd Bowles, like I think a lot of people do, but their defense has these odd moments where they get just, they get into way too many shootouts.

You know, they, you know, they, the Bills lit them up this last week.

The Seahawks lit them up in that game a few weeks.

The 49ers move the ball really well with Mac Jones against.

Their defense is kind of weird in Tampa.

And the team that I saw in LA last week, they look like a team that's ready to, to win the super bowl, to me.

And I don't think they're going to have a letdown.

I think it'll probably be a pretty tough game, pretty close game.

But the Rams I think will win.

So I'm going to disagree with you on that.

But of course it's not on my official five.

Yeah.

But the main thing is doing.

Is because they had such an emotional win last week over their divisional rivals, I think there might be a little bit of a hangover, a little bit of a letdown coming, which is natural.

Happens all the time in the National Football League.

And that's what I'm sort of banking on.

And I think the Bucks have a little bit of an edge to them because they, even though it was a 12 point game that Buffalo won, it was a close game for the majority of that game.

It was back and forth, it was fun.

They were competitive with the Bills and I think they'll be competitive this week enough to put them over the edge.

And if the Bucks lose, they, you know, they.

Strangely enough, they got the Panthers nipping at their heels right now.

Yeah.

And it might be let teams like, you know, Dallas and Green Bay and the Lions back into the playoff picture too.

So.

Yep.

For sure.

It could be really interesting.

Very, very interesting.

NFC race for the wild cards in the divisions in most cases.

So, yeah.

Pretty interesting.

All right, well, that is our, our picks for, for this week.

You know, I think, I'm not sure.

Is there anybody having a bye week this week or.

Yeah, yeah, we do that.

Darren, I thought you'd be very upset.

You don't get to watch commander's football this week.

Yeah, Yeah, I was pretty upset about it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, yeah, it's the Commanders and the Dolphins and then the Broncos and Chargers are the four.

I think.

I think it's the last week and maybe there's one more.

I don't know.

Yeah, I know it's dwindling down here where they're not going to have bye weeks here very much longer, but.

Yeah, so teams will get no rest till through December.

So.

But getting in the fun part of the year where the races and the, the teams are, the competitors are coming to the top and the pretenders are falling back.

And this will be a fun one here again.

Hard to believe we'll be talking about Thanksgiving games next week.

Yeah, that's.

That is for sure.

So, folks, that's something to tune back into.

You know, three games on Thursday next week, and I'm sure we'll be picking at least one of them, each one of us because those are a good majority of the games and of course, the whole weekend of the games after the Sunday and Monday games as well.

So tune back next week, same bat time, same bat channel.

And Ed, we'll see you then.

So appreciate your thoughts here today.

You bet.

And if Brad is still awake, you know, have a good week, Brad.

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