Former NFL safety Nick Ferguson @nickfergshow and sports analyst Alex Hardy break down all the drama from NFL Week 7! From the Detroit Lions’ dominant win over Tampa Bay to the New York Giants’ historic fourth-quarter collapse against the Broncos, this episode covers it all. We also dive into Christian McCaffrey’s monster performance, the Colts’ surprising rise, and whether the Chiefs are truly “back.” Plus, we preview Thursday Night Football and discuss coaching decisions, injuries, and playoff implications.
📌 Topics Covered:
Detroit Lions vs. Buccaneers: Jameer Gibbs breakout
Giants vs. Broncos: 33-point 4th quarter comeback
Colts’ playoff push & Jonathan Taylor’s MVP pace
Chiefs vs. Raiders: Is KC back or just beating bad teams?
Thursday Night Football preview: Vikings vs. Chargers
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We are those guys. You see these guys all the way over there? Well, what about those guys? I’m Alex Hardy, joined as always by Nick Ferguson, 10 years in the National Football League, and he joins us now. It is Monday Night Football Recap. We are currently watching the Houston Texans and the Seattle Seahawks. But let’s start things, Nick. The Detroit Lions take care of business 24-9 over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Both of them sitting 5-2. both of them sitting uh squarely within the NFC conference, kind of top of the deck there. Uh what did you see from a Detroit team that just relied on Jir Gibbs, dominated on the ground, and really gave Baker Mayfield, our MVP front runner, kind of an erratic performance tonight. What I saw was the attitude of their head coach, Dan Campbell. Uh we remember the last time we saw this team, they had a touchdown taken off the board playing against Kansas City and it just seemed as though like Kansas City owned them and and that wasn’t the bluecollar attitude of the Detroit Lions. And tonight they were able to get things back on track against, you know, Baker Mayfield and Tampa Bay Buccaneers who I had as you know the number one team in the NFL as far as a team to beat and Baker Mayfield being the front runner for the MVP. But I mean he was neutralized uh tonight and he looked more like uh Clark Kent. But here’s what it says. It says that quarterbacks once again don’t win games by themselves. you need a whole combination or of individuals. Allah the Justice League if we’re talking about comic book characters, but it seemed as though the Detroit Lion had all the characters. And it’s interesting you talked about Jir Gibbs and how he was able to run the ball. This team is their bread and butter is on their physicality. They’re they’re in that black and blue division and tonight they did that and ran rough shot over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It made sense wearing their black and blue jerseys playing in that black and blue division. Um, you know, the physicality you saw when the offensive line set him up and sprung him for that 78 yard run on the outside. Um, you saw that physicality when Jir Gibbs was asked to run it. I think he had the the uh like a fiveyard pickup on a fourth down. Typically, you’d see David Montgomery doing that. They asked Jir Gibbs to do it and he’s capable of it as well. They were just more dominant on both ends of the attack. And for look, two of the most injuryridden them because they took care of business on Sunday night, but two of the most injuryriddled teams in the National Football League. You had all four starters in the secondary. I thought the Lions were going to give you a call, Nick, uh that were out for this game. You know, Brian Branch for his own reasons. I know we disagreed on whether or not, you know, Guju had a glass jar or not, but it was a it was a game that I was sort of worried that without anybody in that secondary, they were going to have issues because Mike Evans was coming back. Amecha Ibuka uh not missing any time and yet just more setbacks for Tampa and Baker’s capable of these erratic kind of games. It reminded me of the Bronco game last year when Tampa Bay started 2 and 0. They host the Denver Broncos and get absolutely trapped. We thought, look, they’re facing a rookie Bo Knicks who still hadn’t thrown a touchdown pass yet, but that Bronco defense kind of neutralized them. And that’s really what Denver did despite all the guys that they were missing. And meanwhile, listen, Mike Evans uh came in after missing a couple games with a hamstring injury, takes a big hit, ends up breaking his collar bone. his season is pretty much done, ending one of the best streaks in the NFL. 11 straight years of a thousand receiving yards. And look, that that just makes life very difficult for Baker Mayfield and the setbacks for Chris Godwin to come into this season. He’s never been 100%. Amecha Ibuka definitely not 100%, but uh look, they need to get Bucky Irving back in a hurry and I wouldn’t be shocked if Todd Bulls ruled them out this time tomorrow. So, it’s going to be Rashad White. It’s going to be a banged up Acha Ibuka. And it’s going to be MVP Tez Johnson. Well, you know what? This says a lot about, you know, the NFL. And obviously, he’s always said it’s a war of attrition. And we’ve seen so many marquee players go down for a number of teams. And you think about the the Chargers, they’re still winning games and they have injuries. Uh they got Khalil Mack back. San Francisco. I mean, it’s like someone you every time you watch them. Yeah. Someone’s always hurt. Right. Right. Nobody Yeah. Nobody’s making excuses, right? So th this is one of those times you say, “Well, our team is beat up. That’s why we’re not winning games.” And it’s like hell. I mean, from week one, no one’s 100%. You just need to find ways to win games. And even if that means changing your system, going deep into your depth, finding ways to win. And this is going to be one of those odd years when we get to the back half of the season, Alex, and teams start to position themselves for playoff positions. The first thing we’re going to look for is we’re going to look for, well, who’s hurt, right? Who’s healthiest on on a lot of these teams, and that’s going to be the tail of the tape. But, uh, yeah, uh, it it was a great game. I I enjoyed watching it from a Detroit Lions, uh, standpoint. What a way to come out and kind of like stamp your name back on the fact of, yeah, we lost a game against Kansas City, but that doesn’t define who we are as a team. And that’s what you need to have, as they would say, the mindset of a goldfish, being able to put things behind you and being able to move forward. And once again, I mean, Bryant Branch, you know, the physical guy, the leader of your secondary, he’s not playing in the secondary. No DJ Reed, Terry Hner is not playing. They’re just beat up, but they just found a way to win games, and that’s what you have to do in the NFL. We’ll get to the second game of the Monday night double header. Uh, awesome that we get a 700 p.m. Pacific, 8:00 p.m. Mountain time kick because it’s just it keeps us going. And then right on Q, we had a game seven in Major League Baseball. Tomorrow, the NBA regular season begins. We are just we’re being overfed, Nick. for getting fat and happy on all this all this great sports uh sporting events for us to watch. I just like look it’s I’m a pig and slop. I mean, simply put, like this is this is where we’re at and we’ll get more into it. I mean, it’s very funny. Kind of like the Spider-Man meme with Seattle and Houston looking each other in the mirror. Neither team able to run the football. The passing offense, they’re trying to funnel it through one guy in particular. It’s working out better for Seattle. uh that Sam Darnold, the JSN connection, much better than when we saw Cooper Cup try to throw the football to him. That’s for damn sure. But we’ll get to that game a little bit more Thursday. Our theme when we talked uh prior to week seven was who was going to put any pressure on Tampa in the NFC South. And we thought it could have been the Atlanta Falcons, but they show up to Sunday Night Football, go across the country to San Francisco. Yes. and pretty much lay a dud against another injury depleted team in the 49ers. I mentioned it. If we talk about the effective game Jir Gibbs had, well, Christian McCaffrey, uh, 129 yards on the ground, 72 in the air. Um, it it was a game that was just carried on his back. M. Jones did have the costly interception, but still this is a team that they let Atlanta get close and then they closed things out in the fourth quarter with the game sealing touchdown on their uh second to last drive defense getting Atlanta off the field. I was really impressed with the way that defense stepped up. Um and meanwhile, Atlanta just looked completely lost. I really thought they had an advantage both with their weapons on offense and with the stability on their offensive line coming to shape a little bit, but that was far from the case. Michael Pennock’s 21 to 38 for 241 and a touchdown. Sacked a couple of times. Um, but they just look, they couldn’t run the football either. Um, Bjon Robinson got fed early and often, but if you put that ball in Michael Penn’s hands, he could not do anything against that Ner’s defense. See, here’s what that says to me. It says that San Francisco has something cooking. They’re doing something that other teams wish that they can actually do. And I know Kyle Shanahan gets a lot of grief because they look at him like Marv Levy, a guy that can get the team there, but can’t really get them across the finish line. But I will have those people to to think about this. I mean, the Bron with not the Broncos, the San Francisco 49ers. We’ll get to them. Yeah. Yes. They’ve been able to get to the Super Bowl with Jimmy Garopolo and Mr. Ire relevant and that’s Brock Pury. And Brock Pury isn’t playing yet. They’re still winning games with with M. Jones, which which is wild because you think about that 49er defense. You think about the number of marquee players on all three levels that have been injured. You you look from the safety position, Taleno Funo, who I I think uh is extraordinary safety, he’s now playing with the the Denver Broncos. So you’re saying, well, how is it that Robert Salah is able to get this young, inexperienced defense to continue to play the way that they’re playing? Oh, by the way, we watched the Atlanta Falcons. I mean, the week before, Bean Robinson and Drake London were fantasy darlings, right? With the number of the rushing yards for for Bean and and and catching out of the backfield, none of that happened. And you thought going into this game there’s no way the San Francisco 49ers are going to be able to shut him down. But shut him down they did. And basically what Kyle Shanahan say, look, I’m depleted with the players that I have, right? I have a good field goal kicker, which which serves well. I have a very serviceable quarterback, right? He’s not a top tier. He’s going to do everything that we want, but I have that dude and run CMC. We’re just going to lean on him. we’re going to put it on his back and he’s going to carry us forward. Now, my only issue with this, Alex, is that we’ve seen this happen to CMC before where he’s carrying the brunt of the load of the San Francisco 49ers and when they need him in the playoffs, he’s been run down. So, they’re going to have to try to find a way to manage him. But, man, Kyle Shanahan looks like he is deserving of the coach of the year for the job he’s doing. As for Atlanta, no better opportunity than a get-right game. They host the Miami Dolphins next week. So, uh I think we’d all be just as shocked to find out that Mike McDaniel still has his job uh next week based on the lack of effort that we saw in a rained out game against the Cleveland Browns. Um but look, he’s going to be fortunate that he puts that key card in front of the door and the door opens. Um, look, there’s there’s a lot of issues with Miami, but let’s talk about a team with more issues, and that would be those New York Giants, who go toe-to-toe, up 19- nothing in the fourth quarter against the Denver Broncos. They scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, and they still make history, losing that game 332. I’m not going to scapegoat the uh practice squad kicker who missed a couple pats. I’m going to scapegoat that defense that gave up uh I believe it was 33 fourth quarter points. Nick, um is this really just coming down to literally the way the football bounces because we had back-to-back touchdown drives with deflected balls that ended up in other receivers hands? It was what Troy Frank Franklin and then the Giants came back the other way with Theo Johnson. Was this just the wildest game that really came down to the way the ball bounced? Well, it was a wild game, but here’s what I don’t agree with. The whole idea is that you you blame Shane, I think it’s it’s Shane uh Bowen, the defensive coordinator, for for the he he’s catching a lot of strays in New York City, both I guess nationally and locally, but and by me, let’s put a name to it. I’m criticizing Shane Bowen, okay? So, but to blame him solely for the 33 points, keep this in mind. So that meant that the defense for three quarters did their job. I mean, they totally made Shawn Peyton’s offense look like a JV offense, right? And in the fourth quarter, things changed because guess what? His offense, Brian Dable’s offense didn’t control the time of possession, right? It was it once again, usually we say it’s a tail or two halves, but it was three quarters for the Giants, the fourth quarter for the Broncos, and the Broncos couldn’t get anything going. So, their defense was constantly on the field while everyone was kind of getting upset and blaming the Broncos defense and Vance Joseph for not being able to slow down Jackson Dart and Cam Scout. But once again, I said that you have to sustain the drives. You have to get first downs because if not, you’re putting your defense in a tough spot. In a tough spot that their defense were definitely put in because there was no flash and dash like it was in the first three quarters. And it seemed like Brian Dable kind of got a little conservative, right? We had the Broncos exactly where we want them and he got a little conservative with his play calling because early in the game, the Giants started off running the ball that set up the play action. Meanwhile, the Broncos, they passed the ball because I mean, just think about this. Bicks finished with 50 passing attempts. Yes. 50. That’s That’s playing from behind. That’s playing from behind. I mean, you can’t call it, look, you’re you’re down uh 19- nothing to start the fourth quarter. You get down three scores. Uh like it’s it’s not garbage stats. It’s just they weren’t effective running the football. I think they had six first downs in the first three quarters. They were just trying to throw it back into it. And as for the Giants, they still matched Denver when they started scoring touchdowns. Denver, I think, took three and a half minutes to score their first points on that o on that opening drive of the fourth quarter. They get down the field and they score three more touchdowns each of those drives in less than a minute. I understand that the Giants couldn’t, you know, they were getting off the field quickly. They’re also getting off the field quickly because they scored two touchdowns themselves. So, I’m not solely blaming the defense, but I’m not going to make the kicker public enemy number one either because if you’re relying on your second kicker to make Pats, what’s that? Wait, does he cash a check? Does he get paid to do a job? Right. Does the defensive coordinator get paid to do a job? Yes. But as the as a defensive coordinator, you put players in a position they have to perform. As a kicker, you don’t tackle anyone. You’re not running behind offensive line. You’re not even catching passes. You do one thing and one thing only. What is that thing that you do as a kicker, Alex? Please tell me. I understand. You kick the football, Nick. You kick the football, not miss field goals. So now, I’m not going to, with that being said, I’m not going to solely blame the kicker, right? I’m not of course. No, no, no. But he had a job to do. And then there was moments where Jackson Dart think about it this way. the third and five play where he threw the interception to Justin Sternard. It’s a third It’s a third and five. The Broncos have one timeout remaining, right? So, why not run the ball, force the Broncos to utilize that timeout, milk the clock, win the game, and and hopefully your kicker can actually kick the field goal. But if you go back and check out the play as Nick Ferguson_25, check out the video, I break it down. On the third and five, Jackson Dart has a choice. either run for the five yards or tried to throw to Bellinger, his tight end. What he tried to do, he tried to throw to Bellinger. And he telegraphed the play because he watched him the entire time. Yeah. The lesson the young quarterback is going to learn. But I’mma tell you this now. I’mma tell you this. With that defense that they have with Tibido, Brian Burns, Abdul Carter, they they add some more Dexter Lawrence. They add more value to that. They get Malik Neighbors back. They draft some other weapons. To me, when you look at the Giants, man, come 2026, they’re gonna be that team for real. You know, you mentioned Jackson Dart and the issues that you see from a quarterback making his fourth career start. I can tell you nobody’s more upset for that kind of mistake than Shawn Payeyton who really I think was more upset than anybody uh because he was after the game talking about how uh it should have been none other than Russell Wilson who should have been on the opposing sideline. I have a ton of respect for that organization. I spent four of my early years there um coordinating Super Bowl first time first game in this stadium before 9/11. um close with the Mayor Tish family. Um and you know, they found a little spark with that quarterback. Um I was talking to John Maron not too long ago and I I I said we were hoping that that change would have happened long long after our game. So, how about none other than Shawn Peyton holding a grudge undefeated? Talk to Nathaniel Hackett. How about this guy winning and saying how he really wished that Russell Wilson was still out on that football field. Like we said before, those goalposts that Russell Wilson threw to in that Cowboy game, they really wish that that he was still out on that football field as well. Uh Shawn Peyton, Petty King, Nick. Yeah, you know, you can tell that uh Sean still holds a grudge. And being here in Denver, it was obvious that that wasn’t a marriage that was made in heaven. At moments when things were going well, it looked like it was. And then the bottom fell out and that Detroit came where we all saw Sean screaming and yelling at Russ. And when asked about that after the game, he said, “Well, that’s between me and my quarterback.” And like no one should ask questions. like we all saw it. It was a national televised game. How can you expect no one to even ask a question about well what was that about coach and just kind of brush it off? I I you know what for me Russ is where he is, Shawn is where he is. There was no reason to kind of, you know, beat that dead horse, if you will, and take a moment to take another shot at Russell. I I just I just thought it was uh uncalled for. And it’s one of those things when you when you you’re trying to figure out a way to answer a question, you know, always try to keep it classy. Talk talk about Bo, right? Talk about everything that Bo did, what Bo can improve on. Because even in the press conference when someone asked about tempo, right, which was a change in the game, Shawn didn’t want to talk about tempo. No, no, no, no, no. We’re not talking about tempo. only to have, check this out, to have Bo Knicks and Mike McGlitchi talk about tempo and how that changed the game after the Shinraard interception and and and they were not prompted to to respond in that way. They offer that. They were freely willing and giving to say, “Well, we went up tempo.” And I’m thinking like if you have your star right tackle and your quarterback saying, “Man, we look so much better going up tempo.” You would think that you would go up tempo, right? But that’s not the game that Shawn Payeyton calls, right? He’s the one holding the clipboard, which on the back says, “Remember to run the damn ball.” That’s Shawn Peyton’s decision. Dan, what the quarterback or the starright tackle think, Nick? That’s That’s inside the mind of Shawn Peyton. Wait, wait, wait, wait. I thought the idea as a coach, I I could be wrong. Please correct me if I’m out of pocket. I thought the idea of coaches on either side of the ball is to set your players up to be successful at at whatever cost. No, no matter what, because it’s about the player. Am am I wrong in that mindset? There are two teams in the AFCly above your Denver Broncos. We’re talking my New England Patriots and the 6-1 Indianapolis Colts. Uh both winners on Sunday, the Patriots taking care of business after playing with their food and the Mike Vrabel return against the Tennessee Titans. Uh we also had the Colts make the cross country trip, come to Los Angeles, absolutely blow out the Chargers. It was never even close. Um I would say of the two winning teams, Shane Stiken is coaching out of his mind. and Jonathan Taylor. Uh, believe it or not, Nick, on pace for 2,000 yards and 26 total touchdowns. So, let’s just go top down, right? The only six-1 team in the AFC, the Indianapolis Colts are getting it done with an incredibly efficient offense. Uh, a completely balanced one, as good as Jonathan Taylor is. Daniel Jones still has to drop back 34 times. Uh, super clean, super efficient, not turning the football over. And meanwhile, this defense, man, there’s some questions in the secondary, but boy, did they miss Kenny Moore. He’s back with Cam Byron back there. And the pass rush got home, too. Two sacks from DeForest Buckner on Justin Herbert just absolutely abusing what is, I believe, at this point, the Chargers seventh and eighth tackles on the depth chart. Well, that’s a tough situation to be in if you are coach Harbaugh and more importantly if you’re Justin Herbert is having protection. And this is where things are different for Shane Stiken and Daniel Jones because you talked about the number of dropbacks for Daniel Jones. Yeah, you can do that when your offensive line is doing a hell of a job keeping you clean and having a guy like, you know, Jonathan Taylor that you can dump the ball off to or hand the ball off to. to to me this is a different looking Colts team and as I talked about you know Kyle Shanahan earlier Shane Stiken is definitely a candidate for coach of of the year just think yeah I mean a year ago Anthony Richardson was was the quarterback and we saw Jonathan Taylor doing Jonathan Taylor type of things but they were not at this particular point you bring in a guy who was presumed to be a castoff and he’s looking for a jump start in his career and now he is Mr. Indiana. And you know, I’m I’m happy for any comeback stories because once again, Daniel Jones could be the comeback player essentially of of the year, especially if the Colts get into the playoffs. And could he make people forget about, you know, Andrew Luck? Strong possibility. Well, that that comes with the Super Bowl because Luck made what? At least one AFC Championship. Two maybe Super Bowl. Luck didn’t. No, he he he didn’t. I didn’t I didn’t say Daniel Jones was going to make No, that’s Indiana Jones, you know, is a great meme, but as far as replacing the best quarterback they’ve had since Pton Manning, one of the most promising guys that uh retired, you know, right before what, his seventh season, like that’s a that’s a meteor. That’s an enigma. That’s something that flashes across the sky. And like Haley’s comment, you may never see again in the National Football League for 80 years. So Daniel Jones has a lot more to do. But look, seven games of an offense that efficient um is a pretty large enough sample size that they are one of the best offenses in terms of um EPA, expected points per attempt. Like they they are one of the most efficient offenses we’ve seen in the last 20 years. And seven games is something to kind of build on. Like I don’t know if you could call them this year’s Minnesota Vikings and make the comparison of Daniel Jones coming from that KOC uh you know that that KOC team Minnesota last year. Maybe it’s just goes up in a puff of smoke when they get to the playoffs. But until we get there, I don’t see any reason why they couldn’t continue to lead the AFC. And I will say for my 5-2 Patriots right behind them, they’re beating teams they’re supposed to beat. Whereas last year and the year before, they were the team that was supposed to be beaten. I think that’s a huge difference. And I understand that they’ve looked their best beating up on New Orleans, beating up on Tennessee. They still have to play the Jets twice. They still have to play the Dolphins again. But I I I just have to say like they are on track to at least get to the postseason, which is a far cry from where they were. And honestly, nobody’s been more like more accurate throwing the deep ball. Jason McCordi kept hammering that on the CBS broadcast yesterday. And then right before the half, Josh McDaniel wants to play keep away. He wants to make sure he gets the ball at the end of halftime. Boop. 50 yard to Keshan Booty to close that first half. So, I’ve been impressed with the poise that Drake May’s played with and he’s rushed at times because that offensive line is still a far cry from what Indianapolis has or your Denver Broncos have, but they’ve just been very good and very timely at doing enough to get by. Hey, teams they’re supposed to beat. Well, yeah, it’s kind of uh you you play the teams that are on your schedule. you can’t do anything about it. It’s not their fault that they happen to be in uh the AFC East that’s pretty weak right now at this particular point. And that’s saying that with Josh Allen being in that division, especially knowing what Shawn McDorman’s defense has been over the past couple of weeks. So, does it look like it could be a triumphant, you know, Patriots return? Things are shaping up in that direction. Now, once we get to the playoffs, that’s when a lot so many things actually change and the cream rises to the top. But as it stands right now, Drake May is doing a great job. Rael had his I guess if you want to call it revenge game. So much so that uh long veteran Tyler Lockett is asking to be traded or asking. He’s gone. He’s gone. Oh, is he? Yeah. Yeah, they cut him. They cut him. and and I don’t I don’t blame him because being in that locker room, seeing the chaos in that organization, a guy of his caliber, he doesn’t want to be involved with that. I wouldn’t be surprised with the way that things going or taking place in Las Vegas that he looks to link back up with his old coach uh P. Carol and and Gino Smith because hey, man, they need help bad in Vegas. Well, you know, I know uh Lorenzo Carter hung it up uh during training camp just looking at this team and saying, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Amari Cooper doing the same with the Vegas Raiders. Thanks, but no thanks. Uh hey, look, maybe Amari was on to something with the way that they operate uh in Vegas. And look, we mentioned the six-1 team, the 5-2 teams, and there they are. 4-3 Kansas City 31- nothing over the Raiders. Is this just the return of Rasheed Rice? This offense is whole again. Or is this just taking advantage of playing the schedule and beating up on the Raiders? Well, it’s idea of beating up on a bad team. A team that’s trying to That’s all that is. Wow. You’ve got you’ve got a lot of people saying Kansas City is bad. I’m just saying I mean you ask I’m telling you this is just a team beating up on a bad team. I know I’m I’m listening to national media. Oh, you know, uh, the the Chiefs are back and and Nick Wright, you know, I mean, he he’s a Chief’s homer no matter what. Yeah, that’s, you know, we can’t be unbiased here. The Chiefs are back. H, how are you back, right? How are you really really really back? No, I mean, you have to play a more dominant team. And playing the Raiders right now in that Chiefs game, you know what that’s like? That’s like going over to the sandbox and taking some uh kids uh lunch or something like that when they know they can’t fight back. That’s kind of what that is, Alex. Let’s call it what it is. That’s what that game was. Playing against another competitive or dominating team now. We would be able to say, “Oo, wow. The Chiefs are back.” Until we do that, no, I can’t really say that. And it sounds like I’m saying it because I’m a former Broncos player. I’m not. Sure. I mean I mean just just give me the evidence to say no the Chiefs are back. Rasheed Rice just comes back then all of a sudden they’re back. Come on now. Okay. Their next five weeks they host the Commanders on Monday Night Football. They are at Buffalo. They have their by-week. Then coming off the buy, they go to Denver and then they host the Colts. Those are four legitimate teams. I mentioned the by-week in the middle. They’re four and three. What’s their record after those four games? Well, I’m thinking they’ll probably take an L in uh two of those games with the Broncos and the way the Colts are playing unless something miraculously happened between now and then because look, I have faith in the Broncos, not because of their offense. Their offense is really skilled and talented. Uh but it’s because of their defense. Their defense is the thing that really kept them in. Now, if you tell me that there’s going to be massive breakdowns in the Broncos defense, then I’ll say, “Well, you know what? I will lean the other way with the Kansas City Chiefs, but I will not do that until I actually see that matchup and see how both teams actually play when they face off. Well, we’ll see. I mean, that matchup with Washington is definitely interesting because uh they’re coming off that loss to the Dallas Cowboys. Jaden Daniels gets banged up again. Uh you know that like again, look, they lost by 22 points. It could have easily been even more than that. Um, Dak Prescott just looking great. CD Lamb integrated into that offense. Um, so I look, neither team has that strong of a defense, but Dallas is on that schedule for Kansas City as well. That could that’s a game that could easily total, you know, 80 points if everything plays out right for, you know, how we want it to for fantasy football or if you’re taking the over in your pick them. So, I look, I I’m encouraged as anybody that through seven weeks, there’s no clear team that is dominant over the rest. Um, Philadelphia definitely made a statement and I’m one to say like, hey, they could just as easily beat anybody in the NFC, especially getting AJ Brown and Devonte Smith involved in the passing game. Honestly, the best passing performance we’ve seen from Jaylen Herz since they hoisted the Lombardi. So, look, could we be headed for another Eagles Chiefs collision course? We could be, but based on what we’ve seen from Indianapolis, what we’ve seen from other teams in the NFC, I’m just saying it’s not it’s it’s wide open still. That’s my whole point. That’s my whole point is that it’s wide open. It’s still wide open, but the idea of of the Chiefs and Philadelphia, I don’t know. Maybe I I’m just saying it’s a possibility. As much as it is give me chaos, it could be those teams again. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s a possibility, right? that it could happen, but it’s not something that I think will happen. I mean, when you look at when you look at Philadelphia, yes, the rough patches that they’ve experienced thus far, it’s going to battle test them. It’s going to make sure that they’re ready towards the end. But when you look at the AFC and the NFC, there’s more challengers in the AFC than there are in the NFC. And with Kansas City, I know it’s a one game sample size with Rasheed Rice coming back. that to me that doesn’t signify that oh the Chiefs are back like I once said because there’s still teams that they have to play against like you mentioned the Broncos the Colts and they still have to play against the Buffalo Bills and Josh Allen wants to be able to say that he has been successful at beating Patrick Mahomes not just in the regular season that doesn’t that doesn’t matter in week nine season that that matters in the postseason listen I I I know but to get your mind ready for the postseason because think about that the the Chiefs are only going to play Buffalo once and the winner of that game is going to determine a lot as far as the postseason is concerned if you are to be proven right to say that Kansas City could be right back there again. You’re going to need to win that game against Buffalo because Buffalo’s already beaten Baltimore. So now they need to beat you to make you have to go back to, you know, Buffalo to beat them. So, this game, even though it’s not in the playoffs, it is going to have playoff implications. He’s Nick Ferguson, 10 years in the NFL. I’m Alex Hardy. We are those guys. Continue to follow our content. We’re available uh YouTube or podcast, Apple Podcast, wherever you get your podcast. Um, if you want to see us, it’s really fun that we get to interact and Nick can see, you know, the sarcasm just pouring out of my veins. And I got to be honest, like towards the end of that, I’m just staring up at that Tarheelss helmet over your right shoulder because as bad of a weekend as anybody could have in the National Football League, at least they weren’t Bill Bich. I mean, it was just brutal. They’re about to beat Cal. They get that ball over the goal line and then the ball pops out and Ron Rivera’s uh I you can’t really say as the general manager he’s leading that football team, but to me it’s like riverboat Ron was back. You know, I I just it is for my guy Bill Bich been an awful awful football season. Um, and it just goes to show you that if you are letting your 24year-old girlfriend run your business and your brand, uh, no wonder the NFL didn’t want anything to do with you. Well, you know what? Here’s a here’s a difficult thing for for your favorite, uh, coach, right? The first thing to think about is it can’t get any worse, right? You say that. You say that and then we find out Michael Lombardi was in Saudi Arabia two weeks before the season. I think it could get worse. Well, at this particular moment, it’s not that bad. And you have Mike McDaniel at 0 and one said, “At least it can’t get any worse.” Hey, look, you can always trend up. All it takes, man, all it takes to start a streak is to win one game. That’s it. And right now, that should be their priority. Go out there, play the game, make positive plays, possession by possession, and just win one game. That’s a winning streak. One game and then after that we’ll let the dust settle and then handle it from there. But uh tough outing for your guy in college football. Yeah, no kidding. Absolutely no kidding. Uh that’s right. He’s Nick Ferguson. I’m Alex Hardy. Uh until we come back, uh we’ve got look an exciting slate to talk about for Thursday Night Football. I believe, correct me if I’m wrong, we’re coming to the West Coast. The Vikings, led by Carson Wentz, because some mystery injury to JJ McCarthy aka uh he’s not ready to play football uh is keeping him off the field. Meanwhile, the Chargers have to get right quickly. Uh hopefully we get Joe Alt back. Um so until then, Nick, I think we’re going to be coming off that game, but what do you have to say for the people? Hey, it’s a cold world out there. Bundle up. I mean, sure, but I’m in California, man.
