The Eagles get to face the Vikings on Sunday, and I would like to see Carson Wentz so devastated by the merciless onslaught of sacks and interceptions that when he prays after the game, God tells him that only an idiot would continue playing. Taking this as inspiration, Wentz shows up to work the next day to find that his locker has been cleaned out. A guy can dream… On to the rest of the games!
Sunday Morning
- Los Angeles Rams at Jacksonville Jaguars – (9:30a from London, England)
- This is one of the strangest NFL seasons I can remember. Every time we think someone is good, they lose. Anytime we think someone is bad, they win. The Rams didn’t lose, but they should have pulverized the Ravens last week. Instead, it was a weak ass 17-3 victory over a shell of a Baltimore team. Now they get the okay-I-guess Jaguars but in London so that won’t tell us anything either. Then they have the Saints and who-knows-who-is-playing-QB 49ers who only have good wins over the Seahawks and, you guessed it, the Rams. They face Tampa on November 23. That’s Week 11 before we will have any idea about the Rams.
- Outside of the Covid season, the Jaguars have played in London at least once every year since 2013. I know this is due to their owner, but is there a stranger union of sister cities than Jacksonville and London? One has been a cultural and political hub of the world for the last 1000 years while the other is known for… Limp Bizkit? Other than Super Bowl 39 and the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, why would anyone ever go there? Sorry, Jacksonville. At least it’s hard not to be happy for their solid start considering how dreadful it must be to both live in that city AND root for this abomination of an organization.
1 PM Games
- New Orleans Saints at Chicago Bears
- The Saints have destiny in their hands. Despite a disastrous win over the Giants, they have the Dolphins, Jets, and Titans ahead on their quest for the #1 pick. If they can manage to pull out losses in all of those games, they will be sitting pretty. Trading away Chris Olave and Bryan Bresee could really help with this. All of the league’s bottom feeders except Baltimore are playing at the 1 o’clock hour. Just a great slate of games.
- Of course, if anyone could screw up the Saints plans, it is the Bears. Guys, I really appreciate what you did for me last week in beating the Commanders, but I do not trust you even a little bit. Part of being a good team is winning the games you are supposed to. Do not lose focus and give this one away. They have Baltimore, Cincy, and the Giants coming up. They need to go 3-1 for anyone to think they are legit.
- Miami Dolphins at Cleveland Browns
- This might be the worst game of the year so far. The Dolphins are a dumpster fire who seem to inexplicably be getting worse. This past week their QB questioned the professionalism of his teammates, was then called out by former teammates for being unprofessional himself, then had to apologize. What a joke. How do you come back from that? They are completely screwed with him too. Losing to the Browns might be the final straw for the GM, the coach, and the QB. Give me Bradley Chubb!!!
- Think of the Browns as more of a controlled burn. Any team that is willingly giving Dillon Gabriel QB1 reps knows what they are doing, right? This team has no chance to actually score any points even against a miserable Dolphins team. That’s the idea though with the Deshaun Watson contract clinging to life but still wheezing and moaning at the top of the cap sheet. At least they have players to trade in a lost season. This game might end 7-3 with the Browns winning on a pick 6. Watch at your own risk.
- New England Patriots at Tennessee Titans
- So, the Pats are in 1st place in the AFC East and everyone is anointing Drake Maye, huh? Well, they do have impressive wins over the Dolphins, Saints, and Panthers. Wait what? Those aren’t impressive at all. A big deal is being made about them beating the Bills just like people made a big deal about the Giants beating the Eagles, except the rest of the body of work is pretty terrible. The Pats lost to the Raiders, the RAIDERS!!! Now they get the Titans. More than half their wins will be against the worst teams in the league. I’m sorry, I’m not buying it even if they do roll the Titans and then…lol they play the Browns next week! Come on with this schedule.
- The Titans fired their coach and can barely get a play off. It’s bad, but they need to make it worse. They have CBs the Eagles should be interested in and Jeffery Simmons can land a pretty good pick haul if they trade him. Bite the bullet and fully dedicate to the rebuild already.
- Las Vegas Raiders at Kansas City Chiefs
- The Raiders are not a good team and do not have an easy game until Cleveland at the end of November. The only reason I didn’t have them as definite sellers this week is because Pete Carroll is too old to rebuild. That means they are just stuck in a directionless void.
- Rashee Rice comes back this week. The Chiefs have been playing him up like he’s an elite receiver and the missing ingredient to the KC offense. The Raiders aren’t much of challenge, so get ready to hear about how “back” the Chiefs are after they run away with this one. Other than an in-theory difficult matchup with the Bills in a few weeks, the Chiefs schedule the rest of the year is pretty light on challenges, so expect the Chiefs as the favorites narrative to gain significant steam. That’s fine. Let them have false confidence.
- Carolina Panthers at New York Jets
- My neighbor is a Panthers fan having spent most of his life in Charlotte. After they beat Dallas last week, he was seriously confused as to how they were 3-3. He follows the team, and it didn’t make sense to even him. I politely thanked him for the win but couldn’t believe their record either. How did this happen? Last I remember, their dedicated podcast decided to end itself rather than continue following the team anymore. They have a very legitimate chance to be 4-3 after this weekend. Outrageous!
- The Jets aren’t going to be sniffing anything close to .500 ball this year. There is already significant buzz about firing the coach just 6 games into his NFL Head Coaching life, but everyone should calm down. They do not have a QB and have been playing most of their games tight. Just getting to the draft should be their goal…along with trading Jermaine Johnson to the Eagles.
4 PM Games
- New York Giants at Denver Broncos
- The only saving grace about losing to the Giants last week is that it was an impossible problem to ignore. The Eagles were massacred by a rookie QB with no receivers. If that’s not an eye opener, I don’t know what is. Even on a down night for the defense, the offense should have been able to do something…and they couldn’t. This is the same Giants team that was killed by the Saints. They need to lose to the Broncos to at least make that loss a little less painful too.
- But goddamn this Denver team is not that good! I know they beat us, but they also eeked out wins over the Titans and Jets while handily defeating a dead Bengals team. The Eagles loss might be the only game where I believe the officials actively gave another team a win. It wasn’t the final non-PI play either, it was half a dozen other calls that directly led to 14 points. Just gross. I still want them to beat the Giants though.
- Indianapolis Colts at Los Angeles Chargers
- The Daniel Jones renaissance would be more concerning than funny if the Colts had any quality wins. They do not. With the fraudulent Chargers this week and the Titans next week, a solid opponent isn’t really on deck either. They are still just a nice story despite having literally the best record in football.
- My one man hate tour of Justin Herbert rolls on this week. Yes, the Colts have a good record, but if Herbert can’t solve this defense, please, for once, take this guy down a peg. Despite never doing anything impressive in the NFL he gets nothing but praise with zero derision. Justin Herbert slander is a hill I’m dying on. I admit my traction was getting rough when he opened the season with a win over KC, but I’m back on firm ground. He’s an overrated loser who gets praise for being tall with great hair.
- Washington Commanders at Dallas Cowboys
- What to do? Washington is the bigger threat but Dallas is Dallas. They have virtually the same record too. Both are coming off seriously stupid losses with Jayden Daniels fumbling away a victory and Dak Prescott leading a heroic -8 yard drive in his final possession of the game. Can we have another tie?
- Green Bay Packers at Arizona Cardinals
- Did you know Jacoby Brissett was still playing AND on the Cardinals? Not me. Well, he will be the one to try to snap Arizona’s 4 game losing streak this week. If that doesn’t happen, they will be featured prominently on next week’s trade deadline primer. Their next 7 games are against teams with winning records. Yikes.
- The Packers went from favorites to losers to fine-I-guess in 5 weeks. By those labels, their season really starts now because no one knows what to make of them. They get an easy Cardinals team this week, but then the Steelers, surprising Panthers, and then the Eagles. That Eagles game is going to tell everyone a lot about both teams.
Sunday Night Football
- Atlanta Falcons at San Francisco 49ers
- Just when I thought it was safe to label the Falcons losers, they go and crush the Bills. Are they really not losers though? I know they had a close loss to Tampa, but they also only beat JJ McCarthy, the free falling Bills, and the Jayden McDaniels-less Commanders. They did have their junk kicked in by Carolina though. What is that?
- Last week was the first time the 49ers played a game that wasn’t decided by one score and that’s only because of an interception and a field goal late in the 4th. Does that make them a good team? Well, they do have close wins over the Rams and Seahawks. Does it make them a bad team? Close wins over Arizona and New Orleans shouldn’t make them feel very warm and cozy. No idea what to make of them. I do think it’s funny that their team is exactly the same whether Mac Jones or Brock Purdy is playing QB. Check this out:
| Name | Games | CMP% | YDS/GM | TD% | INT% | RTG | AAV |
| Brock Purdy | 2 | 65.8 | 293 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 85.8 | $53m |
| Mac Jones | 4 | 67.3 | 313 | 3.6 | 1.8 | 93.7 | $4.2m |
Monday Night Footballs
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Detroit Lions (7pm)
- The Lions were banged up last week and playing in KC, so we still have no idea what kind of team they are. They have two good losses to KC and GB on the road, but also don’t have any good wins. Beating the sizzling Bucs would put to rest a lot of the doubt.
- Baker Mayfield has taken the league by storm this year, but let’s not act like they have any good wins either. Winning at Seattle is the best one, but that’s not an elite team by any stretch. The Baker fun will probably continue this week against a beat up and suspended Lions secondary, but I want to see how they do against…wait a second. If Buffalo stinks, then this week and 11/23 against the Rams are the only decent games left on their schedule.1 They might not be tested again and that Eagles loss looking better and better for us.
- Houston Texans at Seattle Seahawks (10pm)
- After an 0-3 start, the Texans desperately needed easy games against the Titans and Ravens, outscoring them 70-10. Their 3 losses even look pretty good now with the Rams, Bucs, and Jags all still over .500. Unfortunately for them, they face 4 over .500 teams in a row starting this week. They are already behind the Colts by 2 games and need to keep pace. I think my dream of a Danielle Hunter trade is all but over at this point.
- I want to like Seattle. I think they have a ton of young talent, but aren’t exactly setting the league on fire either. They are 4-2 though and need to beat a talented Houston team for anyone to start believing in them. 5-2 is exponentially better than 4-3.
- Also, why are we doing double Monday Night Games? No one wants this. I watch MNF because it’s football on Monday Night, but I also need to sleep as a 40 year old dufus with kids. I am going to watch it no matter who is playing. Why are they making it so I can’t watch? It’s like a movie theater showing me Rocky 3 and Rocky 4 on the same night back to back. I obviously want to see both, so why are you actively killing me? I’m so old.
- That’s the 3rd time I mentioned 11/23. That’s going to be an awesome weekend for football. ↩︎
Philly Front Office 
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