Latest / Altitude Problems / 2026 Episode #16: Week 1 Breakdown! Week 2 Thoughts! Fantasy Buy Lows!

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2026 Episode #16: Week 1 Breakdown! Week 2 Thoughts! Fantasy Buy Lows! · Altitude Problems

• Big Country: Welcome into the Outstitude Promise Podcast. This is episode sixteen. I'm your co host, Big Country, alongside my partner P V. we're in week two of the NFL season, Pat. how'd your weekend go? PV: Yeah, you know, it was it was good to have football back. that was the good part of the weekend. Disappointing as a Broncos fan, obviously. Whole lot of negatives that we saw come out of that game, but still fun to see football come back. had a good week in fantasy myself. also hit a couple parlays, which was nice. So good week one to start the season. What about you? Big Country: it was good about until around four o'clock in the afternoon, maybe four thirty, when my Packers decided to take a shit in US Bank Stadium. PV: Yeah. Yeah, rough rough week for our teams. Big Country: But but watching parlays miss by a James Cook touchdown or you know my long shot tend to win, you know, a thousand five hundred missing, that was pretty cool too. So overall, good weekend. Got the juices fun and start right back up tomorrow with Lions Bills. That should be a fun game. PV: Bill's lines, yeah. Big Country: But anyways, let's react to week one. kind of to break down today. I mean I don't know how you wanna like I guess talk about it but like dude like PV: Yeah, honestly I'll start by breaking down the Broncos game. everything went wrong in that game. I think that the biggest thing to take away from that game is that we are being we were not well coached that game. and if we're gonna do anything this season, we definitely need to see the coaching step up. there was a lot of things like tackling, you know, tackling the entire team. No one was bringing anyone down. That was the big story of the game. Almost over two hundred I think it was over two hundred forty yards in missed tackle yards that we gave up that game some of the most in NFL history. Absolutely ridiculous. We can't let that happen. Kenneth Walker just demolished us. there were plenty there were tons of penalties on both sides of the football, just so many disciplinary issues that kept costing us the so many big instances of the game, pushing us back 10 yards on holding penalties after getting a solid run, not actually running the damn football. I mean in the first half JK Dobbins had three carries and as a team we had six Which is just absurd. not good play calling at all by Davis Webb. so obviously we want to see that step up and just you know, a whole lot of things that need to be addressed, a whole lot of things that need to be fixed. Play calling needs to step up, tackling needs to step up, everything on the team looked wrong. There were a lot of drop passes that we had. we gave up on the run after getting a holding after every call. All the holdings need to stop. It's just as a whole, you know, this team needs to be coached better. it c it it all boils down to that. coaching was very flawed that game. Coach, something happened in this off season that we obviously weren't prepared for this week one game. We looked we looked like a college team out there going against an NFL team. We could barely touch these guys and stop them, couldn't move the rock. So obviously a lot needs to be done. I hope that Sean Payton has these guys just running straight tackle drills all practice. checking for holdings and making sure that everyone's disciplined, not doing it on constantly on every play. So Yeah, obviously a terrible start to the season. hopefully we can see them step it up next week, but we have a tough schedule down ahead of us, so Big Country: Yeah, we I mean we talked about this prior to the season, Denver's tough schedule to start the year and how they you know they're gonna have to win some of these games if they're gonna wanna, you know, compete first on the playoffs. But definitely a tough start to week one for them. Like you were saying, missed tackles was a huge, huge deal for them on defense. They missed twenty eight total, allowing two hundred and forty seven yards after missed tackles, the most yards allowed by any defense in the game since two thousand eighteen, quoting next gen stats. They also have eight different defenders miss multiple tackles on the night. That is insane. And PV: Yeah. Completely awful. Big Country: not and that is not on par for what you normally see with the Denver defense as well. They have known to having somewhat of a good defense. Last year, you guys had an excellent defense. We kind of talked about it prior to week one. you know, the ability to stop the run with loss of John Franklin Myers, you know. Jonathan Cooper on the edge and then relying on Nick Medino, not the greatest run defender. That's saying I'm gonna I was calling for them to run all over you guys, but Kenneth Walker did look great in general. Mahomes looked back to you know, we'll look like Mahomes again. PV: Honestly, Mahomes really didn't look that great. it was the run game that kept the the Chiefs looking really good. If you really looked at the pass game, honestly, we were still locking down the skies, but if they ever got any type of short passage opportunities, obviously with our tackling, they were getting away from us regardless. So I don't think we had much of a problem in the secondary with coverage, but you know, if you can't stop the run game, you can't stop short passes either. Big Country: Yeah. Right there. do you think there's like a bigger issue developing with Bonix, or do you think it was just knocking off the rust? PV: I think kind of a little bit of both. I blame more than anything the play calling. I mean you don't take any pressure off of Bo Nicks calling six total run plays in the first half. and you're coming off of a year where statistically the Broncos were the best offensive line in football. So calling six run plays in the first half is just stupid. And obviously it put tons of pressure on Bo Nicks in the second half. He could never get the ball off, couldn't get any plays rolling. Even when we did, we weren't coming down with the football when we should have been. so You know, I think it was a little bit of both. There definitely is some rust that he needed to knock off, but there's also some a lot of things that need to be fixed. and and you know, it's it's not just on our new play, Carly Webb, here. I mean, Bo Nix also has to be able to work with him and make those adjustments at the line. He wasn't making good adjustments at the line, obviously. and so yeah, both both of them just need to get their heads together and figure out this offense because what we saw on that on Monday was pitiful. Big Country: you know, first game of the year we saw Sam Donald go down in the first drive for the Seahawks. Saw Drew Lock, Drew Horsecock Lock step in and really he didn't play like he didn't play well until the fourth quarter, but he got the job done. JSN had a great game. I mean, wiggle it, man. How are thinking about Drake May? That's the real question. He looked horrible. There's only one way to put that, honestly. PV: Yeah, and we called it. we called early in the off season. We we were saying that we were pretty low on Drake May. you know, there were a lot of things that we felt like just need to improve on his game and that week one was not a good showing of things that he needed to improve on. He was still making a lot of rough decisions. he obviously that last interception that he decided to throw was disgusting. you can't make that throw regardless of who you are, especially in the NFL, so You know, just it g it boils down to bad Big Country: instant throwway anyone's game. PV: decision making. Yeah, ins that's an instant throwaway, especially when you're in field goal range ready to at least send it into overtime. So you know, he's still an athletic he's still athletic, he still has a great arm. he did lose Suze's wide receiver one in AJ Brown, it's gonna make it tougher for him going forward. so I don't know. I think you and I both said it. I think New England, they were a little bit of frauds last year with a slightly easier schedule, so we're seeing it show. here a little bit. So we'll see if maybe Drake may can learn from his week one mistakes. Big Country: Yeah, definitely. I mean Romeo Dobbs also needs to learn how to catch the ball. I'm not hating on Romeo because Romeo's PV: Yeah. Big Country: a packer. he dealt with some mental shit and I hope you hope for the best with him, but I mean inexcusable drops. Hey, PV: Sixty million dollars, but no catches is Big Country: you can't wear Gronk's number and not play like Gronk, you know what I mean? Simple as that. move on, we saw the Niners take down the Rams in Australia. some you know, I've been going back and forth on this, like in my head, like how much did the no prep PV: Pull up our picks. Big Country: stand from PV: Mm-hmm. Big Country: We saw I mean, as you know, we we were talking about it over the week and I was like don't really know, you know, how much the time the time difference and everything settling and how much it affected one team versus the other. But like when you lose by twenty, how much can it really be on that, in my opinion? Like I I don't really think that was the difference personally. But you have a different take, so PV: I don't know. I I do think that it did make a major difference. especially because near the back end of that game it really seemed like they were just giving up more than anything. I mean, obviously they pulled out Matthew Stafford, I think, with like s eight, six between six and eight minutes, somewhere around there. Big Country: Yeah, when they're down multiple scores. PV: yeah, and they were down multiple sports, they kinda just gave up and I I do think that their whatever their travel plan was was not a good idea. It didn't end up working out for them, whatever studies they conducted, sending random people, rather than, you know, trying to Just figure it out figure out a whole thing, a whole schedule for themselves. The Niners clearly had an advantage there, and they did look a lot more fresh out on the field. however, regardless of that, obviously there's still some other concerns. because regardless of the schedule that they decided to take, Devontae Adams still minimal production in the game. Puka Nakua being the only really productive receiver in that offense. And then more importantly, Miles Garrett in his injury, which has now placed him on IR. not really something that everyone saw coming, you know. Maybe later in the season he may get hurt or something, but you know, starting the season, not even getting a tackle in his first game and then getting slapped on IR almost immediately after, I think is cause for concern. Especially because, yeah, you have Aaron Donald, but you have Aaron Donald who's been two years removed from the league. so there's no guarantee that he'll still be in his prime form like he was before. So I do agree that. While it may not have had the it may it may not be the whole reason why they lost. I would say that honestly their schedule was still a big reason why, because they did look really tired and really lackluster out there. Big Country: Yeah. I got him on the spread though, so that was cool. PV: Yeah. Big Country: I think one of the things to note in that game was for why the fuck are we not using Devante Adams in the red zone? PV: Yeah. Big Country: I think there was ten plays and he wasn't used in nine of I w I could be off on that stat. You're talking about the one of the most dynamic players in the red zone, one of the greatest players off the line of scrimmage. Like, what are we doing? Running Matthew Stafford on a sneak at a very pivotal moment. PV: Yeah, no, I don't know what they were doing there. Big Country: Either way, man, I I don't think twenty points is a the cause for not coming to Australia five days before. I really don't. but I think, you know, San Francisco just punched them in the mouth and they didn't really respond. Simple as that, you know? Cause Rams are Uber talented. We've They said it all off season. I didn't believe in the hype personally. A lot of people did. You know, idiots, but but they're gonna have to have a huge rebound this week. They're gonna be forget who are they're who are they playing. we'll get into it anyways. But let's open to the next game. Giants on Sunday night. That's no, not Sunday. PV: The Giants, they're playing the Giants. Yeah. I think it is Sunday night actually. Maybe it's Monday. Big Country: Back to back. Sorry. PV: It might it might be the Monday night football game. Big Country: No Chiefs are Monday night. Anyways, we'll we'll get into that later. PV: Again? Chiefs are Monday night again. Big Country: Sorry, Chiefs are Sunday night. PV: So then yeah, then it's probably Big Country: something weird. They always give teams like an extra rest day, especially coming off those like early weeks or longer weeks, you know. but we saw Pittsburgh take on the Falcons. Rogers last first game of the season ever. A little emotional for me. PV: Kind of a disappointing game for the Steelers, honestly. This should have been kind of a route for them. when we had them at minus three point five. This is when Tua was still supposed to play. They went up against Cooper Rush. their offense did not look good. You know, their defense definitely kept them in that game, won them the game P T J Watt with his pick six. but that offense really la it was lacking. their best running back again was Jalen Warren. Rico Daldo looked pretty bad out there. Really was not very productive whatsoever. I'm hoping that they target Michael Pittman more in that passing game in the future 'cause I feel like we need to see him get more involvement. but honestly that that Steelers game was closer than it should have been. Big Country: Yeah, I definitely think it was it was closer than it should have been. There's a we saw Rogers target DK a lot this week and a lot of balls you just didn't come down with. And honestly, I thought Rogers looked great. Truthfully. He was making throws that most quarterbacks still can't make, even at his age. you know, but I think there's a lot of hope with that team, what they can be. I don't think they're gonna be world beaters by any stretch of imagination, but their defense is going to keep them in games. Yejan looked amazing by the way. and once PV: yeah. Big Country: that offense starts clicking a little bit more, man, I I see them knocking off some wins here, man. They're not that bad of a team. But they I mean, they got the job done at the end of the day. They beat Cooper Rush. I don't think that's much of a difference anyway between Tua or Michael Penix anyway, to be honest with you. So good win for the Steelers and we got the pick right, both on the spread and the and here's where I was completely wrong. Indianapolis PV: Yeah. Big Country: did not cover nor win in at home versus Baltimore. Baltimore looked very dominant. The run game with Derek, you know, thirty-three year old Derek looked amazing. Lamar didn't really have to do that much. PV: Zay Flowers in that first half put up a hundred and fifty yards. Big Country: Yeah. Zay looked amazing. Of course he goes down with NG right right during the game, but this looks like it's just complete domination by Baltimore. I mean, but even even the start. PV: And yeah, and it was like I said with the Colts. the Colts just they're missing a good wide receiver one. they Alec Pierce, I don't think, is gonna cut it as a wide receiver one. Jonathan Taylor was really the main focal point of their offense, which is fine. But if you're gonna have ac Jonathan Taylor as that main focal point, you you've gotta have at least one consistent wide receiver. And you know, Josh Downs only got two catches. I think Tyler Warren was maybe their most productive receiver on the day. ended up catching a touchdown. and that he might not have even been the most productive, but regardless, there wasn't that one guy who had constant targets, constantly moving the chains for them. It Keenan Allen actually, maybe. Keenan Allen ended up getting like six catches, I think, for thirty something yards. But it was Big Country: Thirty two yards. PV: yeah, but it was mostly just a lot of short hook routes, stuff like that. So they really weren't moving the ball that far down the field other than when they were running the ball in. You know, once they they need that wide receiver one in that offense, I think, to really be a successful team moving forward. And obviously whenever you face a jugger like Baltimore, that's kinda when you're gonna end up in these high scoring situations where you get whooped like that. Big Country: Yeah. I I've been a critique on Lamar and just Baltimore in general for the past few years and I'm I'm gonna eat my words a little bit on it, but Colts are not the type of team, you know, to get into a shootout either. You know, they're the beats you PV: You're right. Yeah. Big Country: in a low scoring game, their defense definitely led them down here. I mean you allowed under forty four yards to Derek. Like come on guys. We PV: Three tdies. Big Country: know they're gonna do one thing, that is run the ball. You know. But giving up three hundred yards to Lamar in the air. I always I always say with Lamar, make him make him play quarterback. He played pretty well. So PV: We did. Yeah. Big Country: either way, I'm gonna we'll see how they fare in week two. don't Yeah. then we saw Buffalo go into Houston, knock off the Texans, covered the spread. So we got that both correct. that was a great game by honestly each squad. Obviously you had the unfortunate fumble by CJ Stroud at the end. But Stroud and that offense looked like they were humming. I'm liking what I'm seeing. They faced a tough team. They're gonna be probably pretty good this year. PV: Yeah, I think that they looked really good, especially offensively, is their brightest spot. and I think what really helps them here is their run game this year. David Montgomery looked phenomenal back there. He was just a lot of smash mouth football, scored three touchdowns for them, even one through the air. so he proved he can actually still catch the ball out of the backfield, not just run it down your throat and so With that and then you would you have a solid receiver, Nico Collins. I Nico Collins really stepped it up. we saw Xavier Hutchinson get a solid amount of catches here. I think he did a good job stepping into that wide receiver two role. I was speaking actually I talked about that specifically, how they needed someone to step into that role. So I think he did a good job really spreading that offense a bit more. so yeah, I think they look I think they looked really good. That defense, you know, is as good as it is. it's it's really hard to stop Josh Allen. So Obviously letting out thirty three kind of sucks, but they still kept them in that game enough to where they had a chance to win it in the end. Big Country: Yeah, and truth be told, David could be a little bit more efficient too, you know. Twenty carries for sixty yards is no it's not great. But it got the job done when PV: Right, yeah. Exactly, yeah. Big Country: it needed to at the time, but at the same time, they didn't end up losing the game. So if he could be a little bit more efficient, you know, he'd be better. I think on the Bill side of things, I mean Josh Allen took care of the ball. his new best friend, you know, DJ Moore, they look great together. Think that's just a really great pairing. and then you still got your Kincaid looked like a fucking monster. Holy shit. PV: Kincaid. Kincaid is taking a huge leap forward this year, yeah. Big Country: Dude, that dude looked like like tight end one potential. So I'm interested to see how that plays out this year, because PV: Yeah, I could see him finishing tidy and Big Country: that dude looked like he was open every fucking time, you know? So PV: Yeah, I can I can easily see him finishing top three tight ends this year. was getting tons of targets, was getting tons of yards after target, was on the field plenty, is in a is in a phenomenal offense. So yeah, I think Dawson Kinkade is definitely in the someone to keep an eye out tight end this year. Big Country: Definitely. Yeah, definitely. We saw Chicago going to Carolina, take care of business, put up fifty nine points against Carolina. Carolina, I feel like they played their asses off, bro. Like you scored thirty seven points, you expect to win. But when you go up against a Ben PV: Yeah, you know. Big Country: Johnson led offense, man, you gotta put up more, I guess, PV: Okay. Big Country: man. That was insane. and and Chicago didn't even throw the ball really. That's what's crazy. PV: Yeah, the the run game. Yeah. Yeah, that run game looked insane. DeAndre Swift for three touchdowns. Kyle Manungai threw got one in there as well with a long touchdown. and then they were still able to throw the ball really well over the entire game. Yeah, it was just a overall crazy game for the Bears. and, you know, Loveland owners can calm down a little bit, might be overreacting after a zero point game, but I think that, you know, that offense is super successful. He was out there the whole time. He just didn't end up having to get fed this game. So, you know, don't there's Big Country: Yeah, no. PV: nothing to worry about this time around. the that s that Chicago offense looks incredible this year though. Year three, Caleb is really stepping into it. Big Country: Yeah, year two and Ben Johnson's offense. I mean we said Ben Johnson's offense, they can support many players in the one fantasy season, as we saw with him in Detroit. not happy to see this as a you know, Packers fan. I'm worried, but I like what I saw out of Carolina too. Chubble Hubbard looks like he's back to his RB1 role, and I'm loving it. So I think where he gets into a yeah, when he PV: Yeah, I think Carolina looked really, really good. Big Country: gets into a game, not like this one where it's a shootout, where they're gonna have to rely on him to actually, you know, carry the ball at least 20 times a game, these numbers could be even better too. Because he only carried the ball ten PV: Yeah. Big Country: times, cut the ball out of the backfield three with two touchdowns, which helped his line for fantasy. But, you know. You can those NFC South matchups where they're not shootouts, they're those grindy games, man, where it's like twenty three twenty, man. He's gonna be a frickin' stud. Like all he has to do is stay healthy. And my Chubba my Chubba thoughts stay true. So yeah. PV: Yeah, and I think you know, another bright spot in this team was Jalen Coker stepping up even further into that wide receiver two spot. Everyone was already high on him as a wide receiver two on this team. but honestly he looked almost like the wide receiver one out there in that game. Tech Big Country: Yeah. PV: McMillan. Tech McMillan's obviously the wide receiver one at the moment, but with all those targets that Jalen Coker was getting and all that production that he has, you know, he could easily be a wide receiver one there. and he's productive enough to be considered one and he works he has great chemistry with Bryce Young, so Big Country: Definitely, yeah. And I picked him up in fantasy, so I was happy about it. talk to me little bit about the Cleveland Jacksonville game, 'cause apparently eight and a half points is enough to cover when you're facing the f fucking Deshaun Watson. PV: Yeah, I knew it would be enough just because it's Deshaun Watson. Ninety Deshaun Watson wasn't doing jack shit in that offense. I think Deshaun Watson is a bottom sixty-four quarterback in the league. couldn't even be a backup. I don't think that he deserves to even be on a team right now. He showed me nothing positive throughout preseason, throughout training camp and obviously in that first game. I don't know what coach Munken's talking about saying, we saw a couple positive things to rely on him starting the next game. Absolutely not. He had one deep ball to a six foot four Denzel Boston in garbage time. a deep ball that, you know, any NFL quarterback should be able to make, especially when you've gone four quarters and haven't done a single thing. So I you know, Cleveland being that shitty of a having that shitty of a quarterback at the helm, there was just no way they were gonna be able to score any points against Jacksonville and Jacksonville being a great offense, going against the Miles Garrettless Browns defense, ran up that score on them. Trevor Lawrence went out and threw four touchdowns, so it was an easy cover for them in this one. Big Country: You know, I'm gonna look like I countered you on Deshaun here. You know, 'cause I'm looking at his stats. He was sixteen for twenty-two. You take away that forty yard, you know, forty-six yard pass to Denzel Boston. You're still looking at a five fifteen for twenty one with just a pick, and then you ran the ball for thirty, forty yards on the ground. Was this more of a question like maybe, hey, the Cleveland Browns defense has taken that big of a step back? Or is he really like this bad? Because I mean, if you're just looking at numbers He didn't actually play that bad. His run game was dog shit too. His run game was barely getting two PV: Right, you can't just look at the numbers though. Yeah, you can't just look at the numbers though. Big Country: yards of carry either. So Raheem PV: And Quinshawn Judkins is actually someone who I think you're the alarms, the saxophones should be ringing for you in fantasy. I was worried about him early on being in a shitty offense, especially with the fact that he doesn't have any pass catching ability in that backfield. You know, Dylan Sampson going out with the injury may help him a little bit now for the future because Dylan Sampson was their pass catcher back there. but you know, that offense is just so horrible that if you're not afraid of them throwing the ball because Deshaun is that bad, and that's what makes your run game so bad. So, you know, you just you just stack the box every time. No one's ever gonna be able to get past you. And then you Deshaun Watson's so bad at decision making and just isn't able to get the ball off in time for whatever reason that he only got twenty two pass attempts in that game. only scored one touchdown, even though he was down that whole time, really never you know, they never even managed to get a couple first downs, get th get anything going. So if you can't get any first downs, it's You know, obviously your you your stats may look decent because you have good completion percentage and you may get a couple like five to seven yard completions every so often that get your yards up to where they were. But if you're not constantly moving the offense, it's it's a bad game. And Deshaun Watson was not moving that rock at all. Big Country: So let's not forget that the Jags also played amazing on offense. PV: Jags did have a really good offensive game, but it's it's eas it's easier when you have that much momentum on your side. Big Country: Yeah, certainly. I mean, I'm not saying Deshaun should be starter by any means, but if you are just looking at numbers base the worst game he could ever have. You know, there's worse numbers, let's be honest here. that being said, he'll probably lose again, so and hopefully he gets benched. But PV: Yeah. Well I know I'm taking the Buccaneers defense in fantasy next week. Big Country: Yeah. here's where we were kind of wrong. we thought you know Detroit were, you know, killers at home. And, you know, they they were one play away from, you know, losing this game outright just in over time, but they also had that controversial, you know, backwards pass. But three turnovers for the Saints didn't help measures whatsoever. They could have easily won this game. PV: I don't know what the Lions were doing in this game. Big Country: Neither. PV: The Lions should have taken a big early lead. They hung in 7 0 for the longest time. They let the Saints stay in that game and almost like you said, they almost snatched it up in the end. the Troy Detroit's offense really didn't wake up until that second half when they finally saw them start cooking. So, you know, obviously Jameer Gibbs was still phenomenal on the ground. R really no complaints about Jameer, but That passing offense kind of lacked a little bit. we only really saw Amon Ra finally score that touchdown near the end. we didn't see anything Big Country: Two touchdowns. PV: out of Jameson. He did score two touchdowns. Okay. So then yeah, yeah, I guess Amon Ra was a product was really their only pr 100% productive Big Country: But only for sixty seven yards too. So PV: receiver. Jameson Williams, like you mentioned earlier before the podcast, he did have a few drops. that could have obviously changed the momentum of their offense a bit. But, you know, they their offense was still efficient. They still dropped thirty-one, but For whatever reason, they took a really long time to get cooking in this game, so they didn't end up getting that big spread blowout and they let the Saints hang in there. But honestly, I don't think that this is a big problem for Detroit. I think Detroit maybe just had a couple of a little bit of rust to shake off for the season. they'll get it rolling here soon. Big Country: Yeah, I think for the Sandside, you knocked off that Russell in the half and we saw what you couldn't be in the second. Now, Detroit, your defense looked PV: yeah. Yeah the yeah. Big Country: like fucking switch cheese in the second half. So I think that's a little PV: Yeah. Big Country: cause for concern. And I think that's been a cause for concern ever since Aaron Glenn's left. That defense wasn't that bad a couple of years ago. So we'll have to see how they kind of respond next week or week two. But I mean, for both teams I think there's a lot of positives and things to take from this game moving forward. PV: Yeah, definitely. Big Country: I think Calfield's played better, man. We're throwing the floor forty times and Barry throwing two hundred six yards. Come on, dog. You gotta bump those over. and then the team that we were kinda high on in the four you know the season started was Tennessee. they took the biggest one of the biggest shits I've ever seen. Like that team that there was no part of their game that looked great. You can't you can't ever make the Jets look somewhat decent. You know, I'm seeing posts where PV: No, yeah. Big Country: Frank Wright is in his bag. Come on, dog. This is the same guy that's been ass for years. PV: They he was though. He was though. I I do I did like I did appreciate the scheme that the Jets were coming out with having a five personnel, five tight ends, five Big Country: That was sick, I will say. PV: tight ends slash pullbacks. I thought that that was phenomenal and it obviously worked. I mean their run game was it was efficient. Brees Hall got his touchdown, Braylene Allen almost got away with one before getting that penalty called that pulled it back. But You know, Tennessee, yeah, Tennessee did not look good. we were high on Tennessee all offseason and throughout the preseason and even in week one, they really haven't been showing us what we were high on them for. So hopefully sophomore year Camera Ward really starts stepping into his element. 'cause as of right now, he definitely is struggling. he didn't you didn't turn the ball over, which is good. but yeah, Big Country: was big for him last year too. PV: definitely. But you still Same thing like I with Deshaun Watson, you know, you might have decent looking stats, but if you're not moving the ball down the field and you're not keeping your offense on the field, you're not playing good football. Big Country: I'm deadass. I think his stats are worse than Sean's. PV: His stats were worse than the Sean's, yeah. But they both they both had the Big Country: That's that's saying something. PV: same effect. They both had the same effect in that they were not moving down the field. They were not keeping their offense out there and it cost them the game. Big Country: Yeah, 'cause honestly like Tennessee's defense probably didn't play that bad. It was just probably the fact that they were on the field so damn much. And saw at some point you're gonna reach a breaking point in anyone's defense if they're on the field too much. You know, Gino was nineteen for twenty four. PV: Especially when you're running against O five personnel. Big Country: Nineteen for twenty four is insane for a guy that ha led the league in picks last year. Yeah. PV: Yeah, and yeah, like I said, when talking about Garrett Wilson and his potential four and a half touchdowns for the year, you know, he's still Geno Smith is still a veteran. He has some experience in this league, so he knows how to throw the rock, he knows how to read defenses. He wasn't he's had obviously a lot of years where he's been lousy. but that doesn't mean that he hasn't had years that he's been good. So he showed this first week that he's still got something left in the tank. Big Country: Yeah, Brees Hall had a great game too. Almost a average five yards of carry with the tug on the ground. So I mean, we're gonna have to see PV: Extremely efficient on the ground, yeah. Big Country: with the Jets. I think Green Bay has honestly got a little bit of a test this week with them going into New York for it too. So I'll see. We'll see how they look. PV: Yeah, I think especially with the with the run defense in the state that it's in, I think Green Bay is gonna need to figure out that whole new O five personnel that the Jets are running. But you know, obviously I think that the I think that the Packers should have a bounce Big Country: Do you think our run defense looked bad? PV: back. I think it only looked good because you went against a really weak run game. Big Country: I mean Doc, defense is not the problem that game, I'm gonna tell you that now. PV: And they and they still had and they still had some n they still had some pretty good runs on you with a very weak run game. Jordan Mason had like a thirty yard Big Country: with some negated holding calls. PV: touchdown. Th yeah, that's true. I will give you that. I'll give you that. Big Country: Yeah, that was a big ass hold. No one fucking said anything. I I'll I'm like watching my le my linebacker get thrown to the ground with his handout trying to get a call. And that's a bigger story. And we'll get into that in four games, PV: Yeah. Big Country: but it's going to Tampa Bay, Cincinnati. You saw Tampa Bay turn the ball over way too much and it cost him a game. Since he didn't look that good on offense, but their defense showed up when it mattered, because truthfully it was PV: Defense looked insane. Big Country: Tampa Bay either turning the ball over and just giving the ball to the Bengals to score within twenty, or they're going down the field to score. So PV: Or even, you know, Bengals with their fumble six. you know, Bengals whole new Big Country: Yes. PV: looking defense this year, forced four turnovers versus last year. They could never force any turnovers to save their lives. And so obviously Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say that Cincinnati's def offense looks bad, but it could have been better. Jamar Chase obviously didn't have much production. Big Country: That's what I'm saying. Like I don't think their offense was that bad. They just turned over the ball. You know, I don't think Cincinnati's PV: Yeah. yeah. Big Country: defense was that great. They just were opportunistic. You know, the f the ball f came to them, you know? Because like truth be told, like, there wasn't that many punts. Not like they were stopping or PV: No, yeah. Big Country: getting those quick three and outs. It was just one team was turning over the ball way too much. 'Cause PV: Yeah, it was still twenty seven thirty three at the end of the game, so Big Country: Yeah, like I I I think there's like a lot of stories to tell in that game. And one of them is like they locked up Jamar Chase too. So Chase Brown look I think really helped out me in my little futures, but whatever. PV: think Mike Kazicki looked really good in that offense. he seemed to be at least that game the go to. Yeah. Yeah, Big Country: can't wait for him to be the most added tight end just to drop a five point performance next week. PV: I wouldn't even be surprised. It's gonna be one of those guys. And it's cause we're gonna Big Country: Yeah, and PV: see probably Jamar drop a thirty bomb. Big Country: yeah, after his four target game, twelve yard performance. Yeah, hundred percent. Can't wait. Igbuka, he only had sixty three yards. I mean Baker was distributing the ball pretty well, you know. Baker just also, you know, lost the ball three PV: He's reckless. Big Country: fucking times. PV: Yeah, he's too reckless. He really needs to he needs to be safer with that football. Big Country: Go down. PV: yeah, I understand his his enthusiasm for winning the score, but Big Country: Yeah. PV: it cost him that game. I mean, there were several opportunities where they would have gone up well not they wouldn't have gone up in the moment, but had they had that score then, they would have been in a better position later in the game. Big Country: Yeah, 'cause they're just constantly fighting those turnovers. Multiple PV: Yeah. Big Country: scores. And they brought within a possession, but Ben, you give the other team four possessions, and they give you one back, it's hard to win. Especially in the NFL, you know. but anyways, okay. I I pray for for Matt, man, but I I I gotta admit Arizona look good. Like they look good, man. That offense looked really good. Trey McBride was back to, you know, Trey McBride. PV: The offense looked very, very good. The offense looked very, very good. I was impressed. I mean Jacoby Brissett was distributing that football. What was up with Kendrick Bourne? Kendrick Bourne, eight catches for 75 yards out of nowhere. And then Michael Big Country: Literally, bro. PV: Wilson was was getting his targets, Trey McBride being a dog. they spread the rock pretty well between Algier and Jeremiah Love. Love got his first NFL touchdown. That was good for him. Yeah, that offense, that offense looked really good. They had the They had the talent to make it work and you know what? That week one they made it work, so we'll see if they can keep it rolling because that was Big Country: Yeah, I'm PV: the surprise of the week for me. Big Country: Little worrisome about Marvin Henderson, just with all the, you know, question marks going into training camp and in training camp with his you know his drops and shit not looking like he wants to really play for them. So we'll have to see what happens there, but I mean that's a pretty deep quarter that they got in there for the receiving room, man. And then you got the best tight end in the football. Which I love personally. But PV: Yeah. Yeah, I think Yeah. Big Country: still. PV: I think Kendrick Bourne was like I didn't really think about it in the moment, but seeing it now in that offense, what an what an addition. I mean, two Big Country: Definitely. PV: now you have two different receivers who are very good possession catches, and that's the type of receivers that Jacoby Rissett prefers. That's where we saw his success last year with Michael Wilson, not very much with deep ball threats such as Marvin Harrison. You know, Marvin did get a nice thirty yard catch in this game, a nice little deep ball, so it's not like he didn't do anything, but He's certainly falling kinda down to that wide receiver three spot in that offense if Kendrick Bourne is gonna be absorbing anywhere near what was eight targets a game. Big Country: Yeah, definitely. And on the Chargers side, I mean, you know, it's just like it's just every week we like add another injury for them. Unfortunately, Lad PV: The yeah. Big Country: is having a good game too. Gets hurt. Umarian had a touchdown, then he lost a fumble. They're playing down pretty much the whole entire game. Weren't able to really use him. Herbie can't really say he looked great, truthfully, through that pick. don't really know why he was throwing that, PV: That meatball, yeah. Big Country: to be honest with you. There's double covered. PV: No, I think the the biggest concern here is that offense doesn't work without Lad Pekonki, and that's a big concern, especially if he's gonna get injured. they very clearly need another wide receiver in that offense. Q J isn't cutting it. Trey Harris got you know, he got some targets, but he wasn't really he wasn't really super productive in this one, especially once Lad got knocked out. Yeah. Big Country: Yeah. He's a year away, man. Like I I I truly think you could've used another year of of a guy like Keenan Allen, truthfully. I don't care how old he PV: Yeah. Big Country: is. He's he's good in that offense, he he's a trusted receiver, and you let Ladd roam free, you know, and then Q J fuck I don't care what that says, Q J is ass. PV: Yeah. Yeah, QJ QJ really needs to step into some sort of role. He can't just be running deep routes the whole time. He needs to spread that offense. yeah. Big Country: Well that's the thing, you do you can't run routes. PV: Yeah, the only one that was opening things up for them was Lad because he's their only route runner. So until they find someone else to help him out, it's gonna be rough going on that offense. Big Country: Yeah, definitely. Alright. as we're kinda like, you know, mentioning earlier, Dream Bay lost to the Vikings. they give up twenty nine straight points from two minutes to go in the third quarter to the end of the game, which you know, as we all know is not a recipe for winning. but I did see a lot of positive things on the offensive side of the ball for first three quarters. Christian Watson, dog. Matthew Golden, dog. Pick him up in fantasy, trade for him if you have to. Got a ton of targets. PV: Hey, I said it you were low on him. Big Country: Jordan Love, can't really get mad at him, truthfully. I thought he did pretty well. I think you got to blame a lot of this loss on on our play calling. In our offensive line. Our offensive line was just straight pitiful. you're going against one of the most blitz heavy defenses and we're just there's points where we're not blocking anyone. And you're just like, Are we trying to kill Jordan Love? Like, what are we doing? PV: Yeah. I think we need to see more screens in that offense. I think we need to see more kind of those kinds of things to open up the running back. Exactly. Big Country: Yeah. Definitely I mean if when you're facing the blitz, you gotta get the ball out quick. You gotta get the ball out quick or you run the ball. But they can't do either. PV: Yeah, they were struggling to run the ball, and that's why I think they should have, you know, started throwing a couple slip screens or even wide receiver screens to start beating those blitzes. But for whatever reason they didn't run too many slip screens. we only really saw a couple of runs. I think thirteen was the most out of Marshawn Lloyd, and then seven by Chris Brooks after. neither one of them was terribly efficient. you know, they weren't horrible, but they weren't efficient either. So, you know Especially with those blitzes, you wanna slip them out of that backfield, give them a small catch or something. We didn't see many catches from the running backs. I think that, you know, you guys were still in that game. you your offense was clicking at first, but for whatever reason you didn't make the adjustments down the stretch, so Big Country: Well one of the big things that has been talked about is the when we had a field goal on the board, we were up twenty five to seventeen to yes, seventeen at the time. Eight point lead, total control of the game with that, you know? And we get that penalty, they get the penalty, we accept it and we go for it on fourth and one of fourth and one and then PV: Fourth in love. Big Country: And we're fucking running a goddamn QB sneak with Jordan Love. Have we not seen this story before? Like come on, guys. PV: You know, and there were a lot of QB sneaks this week one that just did not work. I Yeah, and it's exactly that. Big Country: With guys that shouldn't be running Now PV: It's players that shouldn't be running them and it's because coordinators think they can catch the team off guard, but it's not as simple as catching them off guard. You really do gotta have a quarterback with strong legs like Jalen Hurts. That's why it works for them. Big Country: Yeah. You know, last year we we know when Turk Kraft was healthy, we ran him. Now I don't know if we're not running him because of the scare with the ACL and everything, working him back. But if that's not if that's not a play that's highly successful for us, which we were one of the worst teams in fourth and short last year. Well the worst. Why the fuck are we running it? You know? PV: Yeah. Big Country: You know, LaForce gonna get heavy criticism on that one. I'm giving it to and then just Please be a little more. Yeah, why the fuck is Stafford running one, bro? my god, bro. These play PV: I think we even saw Stafford try to run a fourth in one QB sneak. Like, yeah. I don't know why offensive coordinators are doing this. It's not working. Big Country: callers, man, they think these guys are just like magical. Because, truth be told, Green Bay PV: Yeah. Big Country: had total control of this game. Everyone thought Green Bay was gonna win this game. Until they gave a little bit of momentum right then and there. Because Missa went down and scored, took the lead 24 to 22, and it opened up the floodgates of what was. You know, Jefferson wasn't playing that great, Aaron Jones wasn't playing that great, Jordan Mason wasn't playing that great until that that fourth quarter. You know? 'Cause PV: Yeah. Big Country: then the fumbles the fumble happens, love gets hit because his own line can't fucking block a sixth grader if they've tried. And then he gets tipped at the line, not I'm not blaming him on the tip, truthfully. That's that's just how the cookie crumbles sometimes. Ball tips right up in the air and ball goes to the edge team. You know, it's not like he made a bad read. Arm just went up at the wrong time. You know what I mean? So big game PV: Yeah. Big Country: next week. If we don't win, I burn my jersey. so yeah, I'm getting tired of fucking losing. If you didn't know this, if you're under the age of thirty five, this is the longest losing streak a Packers fan has ever gone through. Just six games. PV: How it's really Big Country: And back to last year, obviously. So I'm PV: Yeah, obviously. Big Country: getting tired of this shit. I haven't been I'm not accustomed to this, you know? it on. Sun Lake Vegas take down the Dolphins. We kinda knew this was gonna happen. The Dolphins don't really have anything anything to you know counter a single team with with their offense besides Devonta Tron, and you can't really do that when there's no threat of a quarterback doing anything downfield. So it's pretty obvious what we saw there. PV: Yeah. Yeah, and I mean we were right also about the revamped Las Vegas defense. Those that pairing of linebackers is really, really nice. The Kobe Dean plus Quay Walker down the middle. I think that that is gonna be a huge help for them going forward to having those managers on that defense and then Ashton Jense obviously still looked phenomenal and even without Brock Bowers, Big Country: Two. PV: you know, Michael Mayer was able to have some production out there. it was really just the run game for the for the Raiders this game, but they didn't need to throw the rock given that they were ahead by so much, so Big Country: They were pounding it to him too. I mean, Genty, hundred and forty seven years old purchase, man. PV: Yeah. It was every touch. Big Country: He had twenty nine touches, bro. Like whew. I PV: Yeah. Big Country: mean, I don't know if you're gonna be able to do this against other teams, other than like you know, a few like PV: Right, yeah. Big Country: Miami. But man, I mean Kirk turned over the ball twice too. PV: Yeah. And hey, one of the players that I was high on all offseason, Caleb Douglas, went out there and caught five catches for ninety-four yards. one of my dynasty sleepers that I had waiting. So kind of a little sleeper to probably it's someone that's being scooped up in a lot of leagues right now. Slid immediately into that wide receiver two role in the beginning of the season, is looking more like a wide receiver one. and you know, they're always gonna be down, so you they're gonna be hucking that football so he'll get his share of targets. Big Country: Definitely. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Last game of the afternoon slate, we saw Washington go into Philly, covered the spread, but Philly was a winner, which I predicted correctly. You were kinda on, you know, the spread, but you also thought f Washington could win it. It's kind of a weird game, honestly. the team I don't think looked exceptionally well. I thought Saquon ran the ball effectively, you know, fifteen for eighty three, just no touchdown. so I like what I saw from that, but touch Aviad Wicks. He had a pretty good catch and run for a touchdown, which I like to see as a you know, he's a former Packer. But PV: Yeah, I think there's a few takeaways from this game, honestly. you mentioned Ontavian Wicks. I think Dontavian Wicks was kind of the biggest bright spot on the Eagles offense in this one, given that Maky Lemon, who were they who they were hoping to be a really good receiver for them, they could not figure out how to get him open. Three catches for negative five yards. nothing was working there. Devontae Smith had some pretty solid production. He did end up I think he ended up scoring a touchdown. but the commanders still kept this one actually really close. Obviously, they covered that spread, almost pulled it out in the end. And I think that the biggest takeaway here is that they have a good receiving core, but it didn't involve Terry McLaurin this time. a lot of those targets went to Stefan Diggs and then Antonio Williams, the rookie wide receiver, was actually a really, really big addition to their team. He saw tons of targets, tons of yardage, especially in that second half. so it'll be really interesting to see things go forward. 'cause Terry's still probably that wide receiver was not probably he is that wide receiver one in that offense. obviously they just had to end up going against Quinyon Mitchell, who's a very, very good corner one. So I think that that could have a big reason as to why. But I think that their wide receiver core looks f significantly better than it did last year. I mean, last year was just Terry really, and then Traylon Burke near the end Traylon Burke's near the end of the season last year, but You know, now he has a lot more options. I think they still need to figure out who they really want to be their running back one. Bill Krosky Merritt seemed to get the most most of the touches back there and he was relatively productive. So we'll see how they end up sorting that out. Big Country: Yeah, I like what I'm seeing. from their core. like you were saying, Diggs he had nine targets, which is kinda crazy. For a guy that just signed off the streets a few weeks ago. he made kind of a dumb mistake, as Jin Daniels had talks about in his postgame presser, you know, he's like we gotta be smarter, essentially. He put him on himself. No, dude, that's just Stephon Diggs, let's be honest here. but either way. Washington probably is not gonna be the greatest team this year. So the fact that they kept it close with the Eagles, you know, team that's probably favored to win that division. I think it's a very promising sign for what's to come. the defense probably just needs to be a little better. But overall I think it was a very positive game for them. No, it's there's no positives really in a loss, but there were. lead up to our Sunday night game. last game we're kinda wrapping up for week one, but Dallas, I mean we were completely off on this, but Dallas didn't look like Dallas, man. Their defense didn't look the PV: Their office. Big Country: greatest and their offense looked like shit. PV: Yeah, I don't know r I don't really know what happened to their offense that game. they couldn't keep up with the Giants. Their CeeDee Lamb got four catches, I think maybe two catches by George Pickens, something like that this game. They just couldn't find the way to get the ball to the wide receivers for whatever reason. Javante Williams was really the only productive player, individual player in that offense. Cam Scattabu and the Giants were running all over that defense. Malik Neighbors looked really good in his first game back. It was a mental thing for the most part. He still ended up getting a really good six for sixty, I believe it was. And then yeah, I'm I'm really not I really don't have too many answers as to why Dallas struggled so much, but they just they couldn't find their two elite ride receivers. Big Country: Yeah, definitely. And honestly, like big problem for them this week was the middle of the field, man. Isaiah likely looked damn good. Holy shit, dude. As a owner of him as a backup PV: Yeah, Isaiah likely was killing them, yeah. Absolutely. You were right about that, yeah. You called that one. Big Country: to Trey McBride, I'm in love. But I'm excited. Honestly, I I'm a Jackson Dirk fan, not a big Scat fan, but Jac Scat didn't look that bad, man. Eighteen for eighty one with a TUD. And you had single Terry out of the backfield catching passes, man. Like, they got a little PV: What was up with the four plays in a row? Screen toss screen screen all to the left side and it worked every time. I I g I mean, how do you not adjust? I I couldn't understand what I was watching. They literally just kept picking the same play. It was crazy. Big Country: That's Dallas, bro. Let's gotta just be Dallas. but you I mean Dallas is gonna be Dallas, man. That's all you gotta really say about them. So I kinda so far that's our week one, right? PV: Yeah, 'cause we already talked about that Kansas game. We don't need to talk about that again. Big Country: but let's get back. let's talk about week two, you know. Try and go through this a little quick since we're already in like almost an hour, PV: Yeah yeah. Big Country: which is crazy. But let's let's just go kinda like rapid fire quick things, nothing crazy. Let's be honest as fuckers, don't want to listen all of this. Like give me your pick on Detroit at Buffalo to open the new stadium to. PV: I'm gonna take Buffalo minus four point five here. as much as I like Detroit in their offense, I think that if they're gonna let the Saints hang in, they're not gonna have a good time against Buffalo, who has both a better defense and a better offense, especially a better offense. I think it'll be a shootout still, but I still think that Buffalo probably pulls away by like a small two position lead, like somewhere like nine to fourteen. Big Country: I agree on the Buffalo pick. I just don't think they're gonna PV: I don't think so. It's gonna be a close one. Big Country: I think Detroit has a good enough offense to keep it close. See. I'll take it away with Atlanta, Carolina. Shouldn't be that Carolina. PV: Yeah, this one's an easy pick for me. This is one of the ones that goes into my parlay. I take Carolina and Carolina minus two point five. Carolina looked really good last week. Offense looked phenomenal. And they're going up against Cooper Rush. I think they're gonna take this one easily. Big Country: Yep. I like Chicago and the points this week. Chicago's gonna be fired up to play at home in front of those fans. Minnesota's a fraud. they shouldn't have won, so I'm taking minus five and a half for Chicago. PV: Yeah, and I'm gonna agree, but that's not because I think Meso is a fraud. Well, I not that they're not f frauds. I don't think they're as good as they showed last week. Yeah, I'll I'll give you that. But I just think that Chicago's offense is gonna maul them. Big Country: Yeah, now Chicago gets a whole week to face fucking Carson Wentz. Come on, guys. PV: Yeah. Big Country: Well maybe not. I don't know if he w he's going through construction protocol, but like PV: Well he kinda tore it up last week though, so he had a pretty good game. He had a pretty solid game. Let's see. Well I wasn't I'm not stat watching. Big Country: Okay, no he didn't. Look at his stats. Dude, he didn't do shit until the fourth quarter. PV: Yeah, but that fourth quarter is where he showed up. It's not I'm not I'm not a stat watcher. I'm a does it does he win the game for him? Big Country: He he did nothing. The defense played great. They just got s shit on because they gave them the ball in the twenty three straight drives in the fourth quarter. PV: Twelve for nineteen, three touchdowns. Three touchdowns, a hundred and thirty three yards. Big Country: Hundred thirty three yards, we're we're praising that. PV: Three touchdowns is what I'm praising. You get the ball in the end zone, you're doing your job. Big Country: You're getting hit the ball in the end zone because you're starting on the fifteen. PV: He's finishing the drives. There's a lot of teams that would get field goals on those drives, like the Broncos. Big Country: When the defense is gasping in the fourth quarter, it's pretty easy. That's all I'm saying. PV: We got we got the ball on the five, we ended up on the fifteen. Big Country: Yeah, so you guys got bone X. PV: So so that's what I'm saying. That exactly. So I'm saying Carson Wentz did a great job. Big Country: Castle Wentz did his job. He didn't do a great job. Pittsburgh at New No, sorry. Philly at Tennessee. Fairly. Give me fairly. PV: You know, I'll take Philly, but I think I think the Tennessee somehow covers this one. Big Country: I don't think so personally. I mean you're facing a better team. PV: I I think it's gonna be one of those weird games. Yeah, I think it's gonna be one of those weird games and Philly just didn't show me too much on offense last week for me to think that they can really pull that far ahead of Tennessee. it's their their their defense will definitely hound Tennessee. It's gonna be a low scoring game, I think, but I think Tennessee will keep it at least within seven. And it might be honestly I don't think it'll be a close game. It might be something where it's like a two position lead and then they score a touchdown with like two minutes left or something. Big Country: What do you what do you think into New England when Pittsburgh? PV: Tough one. But I think New England's gonna have a bounce back week. I think they looked really bad against Seattle, but they still barely lost. And Pittsburgh did not look great against Atlanta. And so I think, especially given that they're gonna have to count out AJ Brown on the offense anyway, they're gonna figure out s a different way of playing offense this time around. I think that they do end up covering this one win by at least a touchdown. Big Country: I like Pittsburgh and points, personally. I'm not believing in New PV: Pittsburgh and the points. Big Country: England shit. They're hurt. They didn't look good. Pittsburgh's gonna look better too. The defense looked good too. They were opportunistic and they got to the quarterback. PV: Yeah, it's it's it's their offense that I'm worried about. Big Country: I don't think their offense looked that bad personally, so. PV: Didn't look good though. Big Country: You're gonna give Rogers a week to prepare. I like it. don't need to explain it. You don't need to explain when you're a Rogers lover, PV: He had he had all the off season to prepare for week one. Big Country: alright? You don't need to explain. Green Bay at the Jets. I like Green Bay, but I do I'm I'm like kinda hesitant on the points. but it's my team, so I'm gonna sit in that. PV: Yeah, I'll just take Green Bay and the points here. I don't think that the Jets can have a repeat performance of how well they played last week. and I think that Green Bay's gonna be angry at how they finished last game, so I think they've cover here. Big Country: I'd hope so. based off last week I'm gonna take Tampa Bay and the points. hope hope and pray. PV: Easy. Deshaun Watson at starting quarterback, are you kidding me? I'll always fade him. Big Country: Never know, dude. Cleveland's gonna do something stupid, bro, I swear. I mean, you remember last year when no one when like Green Bay were like world beaters by those first two weeks? They go into Cleveland and can't do shit? PV: They lost by like a field goal. Yeah, that was really bad. Big Country: That was the most depressing thing in my life, not gonna lie to you. but let's make I mean, if we're if we're wrong, we're wrong on the points, you know? Tampe is still gonna probably win. Baltimore at home against PV: But that was a Miles Garrett Brown's defense. Yeah. Yeah, they're gonna they're gonna be fine. Big Country: the Saints. I think we learned last week Baltimore has something to prove this this year. So, PV: I think Baltimore wins, but I don't think they cover, honestly. Big Country: I think they cover because they're at home. If they weren't at home and they were in the Superdome, I think they don't. But I get what you're covering. PV: Yeah, that's fair. I'm gonna go with them not covering just because Killimore is still really aggressive in that offense. They're still really high scoring. I think they'll be able to keep it. You know, maybe not I think it's gonna be the same thing, like I said earlier with Tennessee. They'll probably be down two possessions, score one to bring it within one possession, but it won't be enough to win it. Big Country: What are you thinking about Cincy and Houston? PV: This one's an interesting one. especially 'cause like you mentioned, Cincinnati's offense could have been better last game. It was really their defense and the forced turnovers of the what won them that game. I think honestly, with how good Houston looked on offense against the Bills, I'd take Houston minus three. Big Country: They're they're de or not to defense, their defense didn't look great, obviously, but their offense looked PV: But we know how good their defense can be. Big Country: pretty damn good, honestly, all things considered. Since he's the revamp, man. I'm a little hesitant on Houston, man. I like I like Sincey's defense PV: It's a close one. Big Country: and what they what they could do. Obviously they're a little up new tartanistic. He's still forcing, you know, bad throws and some fumbles. So I'm gonna take Sincy plus three. A little upset. But you know, I like s I like running for those in them, so plus I like Joe Burrow personally, so PV: Yeah, I don't mind it. Big Country: I don't understand why the fuck you were favored personally. PV: Me neither. Mm. Big Country: Come on. I'm gonna take Jacksonville plus the point minus the point plus the points. I mean, Jacksonville looked amazing. You guys look like utter dog shit. I don't understand. PV: Yeah, and I would take Jack's or at Denver. This is interesting. Big Country: His first game back, man. That that place is gonna be rockin', man. PV: I'm gonna s I'm gonna honestly say we somehow win this one, but I think that Jacksonville they they they're they're plus two point five, right? Not three point five. Big Country: two point five yeah. I don't know if the line's changed since I made this yesterday. PV: Shit. Well, if it stays minus 2.5, I'd still take Dever. I think we win it by a field goal just because it's gonna be a rockin' stadium. and I really hope that Sean Payton slaps everyone and gets them into their fucking places. Cause what an awful display display by the defense. But you know, I think I think we can step it up. I think we somehow de get some sort of miraculous fourth quarter comeback in this one. Honestly, I could see us starting off terrible being down early. Making a comeback. hopefully it's not a repeat of last year's face off against the Jags. I think honestly we might win this one just 'cause it's our first home game of the year, but I'm also not that confident. Big Country: Yeah. Braders at Rams. I mean I think it's f safe to say PV: LA C minus seven. I guess the Chargers are in this game. Big Country: Hm? What the fuck? PV: It says L A C minus seven. So yeah, that's that's definitely the ch Yeah, it's definitely supposed Big Country: No, it says L A it does say L I C. PV: to be the Chargers 'cause the Rams play on Monday. Big Country: the boy, Noah. I don't think the Chargers cover personally on this. PV: No, actually I don't think they cover. I think that like I like I mentioned before, Big Country: Same story as last week, man. PV: yeah. those those linebackers, I do think that they're gonna make that defense look good. I think the Chargers Man, they really need to step in up on offense if they're gonna make me think that they're gonna win this game. if they look anything like they did last week. Big Country: A lab man. I think they get a gritty win man, but they're not gonna PV: That is what makes me worried. Honestly, I think that the Chargers might even or not the Chargers, the Raiders might take this one. Big Country: Yeah. Well, there you go. PV: Yeah. I would take a plus seven and Raiders. Big Country: what do you think about Washington at Dallas? You know, Washington's have back to back away games inside their own division. Dallas is favorite at home, three and a half to start start their year at home as well. Do you think that I I feel like this is like the team you know, like the only team Dallas has a problem with in a in their own division has been Philly. Everyone else dude, when they're at home dude, they fucking kill it. They do play really well at home too. PV: Yeah, I think they kill him this week. yeah, I think they kill him this week to cover the spread and everything. I think that they finally figure out how to get the ball to their star receivers. I do think that week one fluke, especially since neither one of those two was productive, is gonna be just a fluke. we'll see at least one of them be significantly more productive and I think that offense is just too powerful and they they will probably outproduce the commanders. Big Country: then we get Seattle's four and a half at Arizona. I am taking I'm gonna take Arizona with the points, but Seattle to win. I think Arizona's just getting up to keep this thing close. but just bad enough not to to win. PV: And this is Drew Locke again, right? 'Cause Sam Darnold's out for a few weeks. Big Country: Yes, okay. PV: Hmm. This one's an interesting one because Arizona's offense looked particularly good. Meanwhile, Seattle didn't look good until the very end of the game. Honestly. man, this is a tough one. Honestly, yeah, gimme Arizona. Gimme Arizona and gimme them to cover. Big Country: Yeah. I mean this is probably the only game that they can win against Seattle. Like this the this is the type of game they could win. So that's why I gave them the points, but PV: Yeah. Yeah, early with them still trying to figure out the running back situation and now you have to figure out the quarterback situation, this is gonna be their best shot. Big Country: Yeah, playing at home too to start out. do you think twelve and a half is too many points? PV: Yeah, toilet app is crazy. but is it it's it's Big Country: I mean, we're everyone's picking s S F to win. There's gonna be a lot of money in Vegas for them. I don't know how much money you're gonna put on one twelve and a half point favorites, but PV: I think I can't yeah, I think I can't place that much I think I can't place that high of a spread. I'm gonna have Miami cover this, but San Fran. And it'll be like it'll be some garbage time touchdown that covers. Big Country: I'm you know, I always say is I always say some stupid shit like, Hey, that's too many points, but this is a East Coast team heading to the West Coast, PV: And then it ends up hitting. Yeah. Big Country: man, their bodies are not gonna be adjusted for this type of shit, man. Fa stats have backed this for many years. Like, teams going to the West Coast usually don't play well. And vice versa. So I like San Magisop cover, mainly because of that, and they're just better. So they covered twenty against the Rams. PV: They're definitely a lot better. Big Country: The Raiders covered fourteen against them last week. I think San Francisco can do that. But it is a lot of PV: Yeah. I think textbook Big Country: points. PV: I think, you know, looking at it, they should walk away with beating this spread, but I think it's gonna be one of those bait lines. So something crazy's gonna happen and Miami's gonna they're not gonna they're not gonna win, but they'll somehow cover. Big Country: Yeah. I like Kansas City minus six and half. going into that house again. I don't think indeed looked great last week and I think it could be another same story 'cause Kansas City somehow has a run game now. So It's another story PV: Yeah. Big Country: of they have a better they have a better team too, so PV: Yeah, I'll take KC. KC looked really good. run game wise, obviously we we made them look really good with those missed tackles, but regardless, they still they still have Kenneth Walker back there and he had some really patient runs regardless of whether or not we were missing tackles. He looked really, really fresh, really good ball carrier vision. So that's gonna be something that Pat Mahomes has not had in years. Big Country: Yeah. And then to wrap it up for Monday night, Rams open up their home schedule, opening up the Giants on Monday night. Who you taking here? PV: Honestly, I'm gonna take I'll probably take the Rams to win, but the Giants to cover. I think in this one, Myles Garrett not being there is gonna cause some question marks on their edge. Aaron Donald is probably gonna play this game, maybe, but even so, that's two years removed from the NFL. and Devontae Adams just doesn't look as productive as he needs to be. So I think there's a lot of question Big Country: I using them. PV: marks still going into this game. New York probably keeps it close, but I think the LA Rams still finish it off and win. Big Country: You I was a little on the fence as well. I had this one as the Rams two cover, which I definitely still think they can, but like seven's almost a little too much though with the Giants, how good their offense looks last week. I know it's another West Coast team facing an East Coast team, the East Coast team is traveling. but the Giants have to convince me from their last week victory. The Rams haven't shown me that they're ready to contend this year. So yeah, that's our two picks. Schedule. Let's get into kind of some fantasy talk. couple players I we think you guys should target in each of your leagues, kinda milo candidates. PV: Okay. Big Country: I c I'll c start off. we were kinda high on him all preseason, all off season, just the offense in general, but Herbert didn't have the greatest game. I think he's a great milo candidate. You know, he's always finished as a top ten quarterback in fantasy when healthy. but he just had he had a bad game. I know Lad's out, but that dude can hum the rock and he also has a little bit of r running game. So I think he'll do just fine, but obviously don't. PV: Yeah, I think one of the biggest buy lows right now is gonna be Colston Loveland. You've probably heard that already. but I think it's a pretty obvious one here. A hundred percent route chair, he was out there literally the entire time. Sure he didn't get any tar well, he got two targets. Sure he didn't get any catches this time around, but the offense really did not need to be slinging the ball as much as they usually do. That running game was just working too well. So they didn't really necessarily need him in this game. I think with as high power of an offense as they are, and him obviously being on the field literally the whole time, he's gonna be a very valuable still in the future. So especially with his high price having dropped just now with no points on the board, it's a good time to buy. Big Country: Yeah, definitely. next one I got for you guys, Saquon. I know he obviously is, you know, a high value player in fantasy, you know, early second round pick for a lot of people, in fantasy this year, but I still feel like his value could be a little tanked out after that first game, no touchdowns, you know, they didn't seem to get in the red zone a lot that game either. so I feel like his value could be a little bit lower. And that's a perfect time to go scoop him up. You know, as an owner of him, I won't be trading him. But, you know, let your dumb idiot league mates, you know, not be able to figure that out. You know, he is great. He has a lot of potential, big play potential still, even at the ripe age of I what's age, twenty nine, I thought. PV: Me nine, I think. Might even be thirty now. Big Country: say that that's my pokey. So twenty nine. PV: My next by low, and this is a player that I'm very high on. I think this is a very important by low for a lot of people, is gonna be Jamison Williams. Jameson Williams in a very high powered offense in Detroit went out, only got four catches this past game, and got a couple of drops, and so that dropped his value quite a bit. And I think that he still has very, very high value. He ended up having nine targets in that game, if he ends up even catching slightly over half of those targets that he didn't end up catching. He ends up with another three catches on the boards with seven catches and probably over sixty yards to put him over at that 13 point margin, which is really nice. So obviously there were a couple of missing points that he left on the board there. And I think that he's still very involved in that offense and he'll still be able to be a very productive receiver moving forward. Big Country: Sure. And last like Belly Little candidate for trade in fantasy. I would go and try and go get DK Metcalf. he had four catches, didn't have the most yards, but Rogers targeted him ten times in this game. I think it will continue. He is his number one for a reason. Obviously, he's going to distribute the ball, but he's clear which type of target he wants to target the most. and as someone that has watched Rodgers for years, he does this with his receivers and he turns him into great. Great fantasy seasons. Look at Javante Adams in 2021 and 2020. That's all I have to say. but let's get into our bets of the week, aka donation time. time to donate. Because we love donating, right, Pat? PV: Absolutely, except mine actually hit last week. So I hope you guys are watching. Big Country: Mine went two for three last week. Fuck you, Packers. Just saying. We were actually pretty good. If you guys did straight bets, those bits did cash. Five for six from two of us. Obviously, Pack got three for three. No, two for three, but here's my lock of the week. I like Green Bay getting the bounce back against the Jets. Obviously a little all old spread, but I love them at minus two and a half. That doesn't mean they're gonna, you know, beat the brakes off them, but I feel comfortable with them beating them by two and a half. Same with Tampa Bay against the Browns. I think the Browns might keep this a little closer since it's at home. And since the But Bengals have a little baggage, Buccaneers have a little tendency to turn the ball. I feel like it might be a little closer in this one. And then could see another shootout type of game with the Bears. I feel like the Bears could even do this on their own. Sorry, like over 41 and a half. Probably this is going to be up to plus 201. Pull a little sprinkle a little units on there. You'll be happy. Any thoughts about? PV: I like it. I I'm pretty much there with you on the Tampa Bay one. I have a similar line in mine. I do think that Green Bay comes back and they're a lot more hungry. So yeah, I like it. For mine, I'm gonna go Jaden Daniels over one seventy-five pass yards. I mentioned it early in the podcast that that brand new revamped core for their wide receivers looks a lot better. He now has three reliable options to go to. I think his main option was locked down in this last game with Quenyan Mitchell going up against am I forgetting his name? Terry Big Country: Supergine. PV: McLaurin. No, Terry McLaurin. but and then they still have Stefan Diggs and Antonio Williams really stepped into a really big role there. So I think especially with Cowboys being a high powered offense, this is probably gonna end up being a high scoring game. And I think he ends up throwing the ball for over one hundred seventy five. The Panthers, we talked about it earlier. we think that this one's a lock for them to win. Going up against Cooper Rush and having put up 37 points last game. Their offense obviously looks phenomenal. I don't think Cooper Rush will be able to keep up with them. So minus 2.5 for them in this one. The Buccaneers, I think that they still had a very good-looking offense regardless of all the turnovers last game. They still had a lot of opportunities to score, and they still did score 27 points regardless of the four turnovers. So going up against. Slightly easier matchup this week. I think that they can easily cover minus six point five. I think that they'll be they they'll be out there scoring a lot of points and I think as long as they limit the turnovers, this should be an easy win for them. Big Country: Yeah, for sure. Definitely like your Game Daniels pick. Panthers I'm a little weary on just because it's a home game for the Falcons, correct? And it's a division, yeah. PV: It's a division. Yeah, it's a division game, is the one thing that worries me. These division games always end up being close for whatever reason, but I do think that the Panthers, you know, that Panthers offense compared to the Cooper Rush offense is gonna be what gives me the upper hand here. Big Country: Not to mention too the Bij John ran all over the Steelers. And the Bears just ran over the Panthers. So big Bijon game saying for for people betting. I'd bet on that again. And then Bucks PV: Yeah, yeah, it'll probably be a big B shot game. Yeah. Big Country: facing the the Browns, like we were saying before. And Browns are not that good. Do I know PV: You just can't trust the Sean. Yeah. Big Country: if Deshaun's really the answer? Probably not. But they should have probably no problem, you know, beating them at that kind of wraps it up for that. Let's talk CU a little bit 'cause we never got into that at the start. we saw CU roll over Weber State at home for our first home win of the season to set up like kind of a big matchup at Northwestern on Saturday. talk a little bit of the keys of the game. I guess I'll go with the first one. Northwestern ran all over their last opponent. I forget the name of their team. I want to say North Dakota State, but I know that's wrong. Maybe South Dakota State. they ran over them. and that was the big point of emphasis leading into the Georgia Tech game. If we can be able to stop the run, make them for force the pass, I think we have great chance of playing great defense on Saturday at five. So we can keep going. PV: I think one thing with this, kind of calling back to the game that we just had against Weber State, like all of our points were massive plays. they were all like 60, the first two touchdowns were 60 yard touchdowns to start the game. and I think that's to be honest with you, in my opinion, that's kind of a negative. I think if you're going against a worst team, obviously you're gonna end up having those big plays down the field. So we didn't necessarily see a methodical offense move down the field, and I think that's what we're gonna need to see against a better team like Northwestern. And so obviously it was exciting to see those big plays and all, but we I hope that we have some plays saved that are more so for methodically driving down the field. I hope we see something like week one where we were just running it down their throats near the end of the game and they couldn't stop us getting five yards carry. As long as we have that type of efficiency and consistency on our offense, I can see us having a good game this next Saturday. Big Country: Yeah, and you know, Gian was saying especially over the past few days, like that, you know, there's same areas to clean up 'cause truthfully, you know, even though that we beat him by thirty one, probably should've been like f by at least forty to fifty. You know, you're paying a team to come in to basically beat the shit out of and get right, you know. PV: Right, yeah. Big Country: And we also I I like that how well Juju did look, you know, 'cause a lot of the time in that George Tech game he was overthrowing receivers, it wasn't as accurate. He looked very accurate at home. and I think you're you're kinda spot offensive. We need to be able to run the damn ball down the throat. And I think that will set up Juju a lot, you know, for the passing game as well. So PV: Yeah, take the pressure off his shoulders. Big Country: And not to mention we were killed by penalties against Weber State. So if we clean that up as well, become a you know a little better team by discipline. I think we could be going to a potentially a three and start heading into Big Twelve play. PV: Yeah, that would be awesome. Big Country: I believe the buffs are not favored too, to be honest. So PV: Yeah, it's gonna be a tough one. Big Country: I I I'm very confident in us winning, personally. Obviously I went to see you. PV: I think we need to see some yeah. I think we ne I would like to see a little bit more out of Juju. 'cause, you know, deep balls against a shitty team doesn't really sell it for me, but if he can keep up the consistent play, if we can see some good decision making out of him this game, then I will be sold. Big Country: Yeah. CU is trading at plus one forty five on the money line. They are plus three and a half to cover and truthfully I'm throwing coin on both of those. and just so everyone knows, they are not playing at a at Northwestern's field, their new field. Playing at this rinky deep field where CU is allotted six thousand tickets. It's gonna be a damn near home game for us. I'm gonna let you know that right now. Keep that in PV: Yeah, actually. Big Country: mind. So well, that kind of wraps up for our episode 16. Make sure you guys are tacking on those units onto those plays and let us know what you guys think on our takes. We'll be back for next week. Recap of week two, getting into week three, just getting started, baby. This is the Altitude Problems Podcast. PV: Peace.