Wild Weekend of Sports

What’s good Chirp Fam! Hope everyone had an absolutely fantastic weekend. This is officially the inaugural newsletter from Mr Chirp himself, if you are receiving this in your inbox you are a part of history right now and I couldn’t be happier to have you as an early supporter of The Daily Chirp!

We had a wild weekend of sports, from college football conference and rivalry madness to shocking NFL L’s and some absolute beatdowns from some teams that look like prime Super Bowl contenders at this point in the season.

The Bills fresh off of a much needed victory against the AFC rival Kansas City Chiefs came into Miami and got absolutely curb stomped by the Fins. Last week marked the 5th straight season that the Bills have taken down KC in the regular season, yet they are 0-3 against them when it matters most in the playoffs in that same time frame.

I thought maybe it was one of those adrenalin peak and hangover type of affairs, but you have to go all the way back to 2021 to see when the Bills lost a game after beating the Chiefs in the regular season. Back then it was just a 3 point loss to the Titans who were 4-2 and coming from a bullying performance from Derrick “Diccbraid” Henry who went for 143 and 3 TD’s on the ground.

This one feels quite different though. This Buffalo team is infuriating to watch. Devon Achane beat down the Bills rush defense for 174 and 2 TD’s on the ground. Buffalo ranks bottom 3 in rushing yards allowed per game in the NFL right now only in front of the Giants and Bengals, no surprise there. A season ago they were 13th in the league showing a huge decline this year. In their 3 losses so far this year they’re allowing an average of 160 pounding the rock per game to opponents.

And you have to remember that this Miami team is shitty as fuck too. They themselves are ranked 26th in rushing yards allowed per game yet the Bills got behind early and basically had to eliminate the run all together. The Bills are 5-0 in games where running back James Cook has gone over 100 rushing yards. This game he only put up 53. Costly turnovers like JA13’s INT at the Miami 5 yard line after a nice drive to start the 2nd half basically put this game away.

The run defense needs to get sorted ASAP for the Bills if they want to survive going through the AFC come playoff time. Going up against Jonathan Taylor, Lamar and Henry, Denver or the Chargers top 10 rushing attack, and the Chiefs somehow top 12 rushing attack could send them packing early in any of those matchups if they get game scripted out of their only number 1 rushing attack early.

Arguably the biggest story of the NFL this season is the New England Patriots. I wish this newsletter existed well into a couple of years ago when Mr Chirp was the most bullish mfer in the world about Drake Maye coming out of college. I touted this dude Josh Allen Jr, and so far in year 2 everything is really coming together. The most incredible part of this dude’s game so far this season is that his decision making has been top notch and he isn’t relying too heavily on the run game.

A huge matchup this weekend against Baker and the Bucs had the Pats come out on top to get to 8-2 leading the AFC East by 2 games now over the Bills. The Pats have won 7 straight and are absolutely rolling. This game wasn’t really close despite the score and we finally got the breakout from rookie running back TreVeyon Henderson we’ve been waiting for.

The Ohio State back and natty winner from a year ago who the Pats drafted early round 2 has been sitting his ass on the sideline all season prior to today despite horrific performance from their other RB’s.

Hopefully Vrabal sacks up and stops this bullshit “we don’t play rookies” mentality after he exploded for 147 and 2 TD’s on the ground. The combination of long run potential from Hendo an Drake Maye’s efficiency and run capability make this offense extremely dangerous. It’ll be important to monitor Henderson’s non-explosive plays though to see if he can improve his vision to become an every down back. If you take out his 2 long TD’s he avg’d less than 2 yards per carry on the day. This could also just be an O-line issue so who really knows if bro needs glasses or not.

Drake Maye is 3rd in the league in passing yards and passing touchdowns, 2nd in completion percentage. This is all despite him being 2nd in the league in sacks taken behind Cam Ward. Once the Pats shell up their O-line the sky is the limit. The Pats have the 2nd highest year over year improvement in PPG this year only behind the Colts, from scoring 17 PPG last year to 26.5 PPG this year, that net increase is mind boggling.

Even more surprising this season is New England’s revamped defense from a year ago. They’re 6th best in opponent points per game this season up from 21st in the league last year. The most impressive feat of this defensive rejuvenation is their top ranked rushing defense this season only allowing 79 yards per game. That’s down from 131 last year and 22nd ranked in the league.

Mr Chirp doesn’t know who the fuck to shoutout in the Pats D for the run defense masterclass so if you’re a Pats fan let me know by replying so I can show them some love.

This weekend was full of the cream of the crop in the league beating the fuck out of weak opponents and pretenders. The Seahawks, Rams, Lions, and Chargers handed opponents L’s by an average of 18.75 points. Take that in for a moment. The spreads for the games and final scores were the following:

Chargers/Steelers: LAC -3.5. Final margin of victory 15 points.

Lions/Commanders: DET -7.5. Final margin of victory 22 points.

Rams/49ers: LAR -6.5. Final margin of victory 16 points.

Seahawks/Cardinals: SEA -6.5. Final margin of victory 22 points.

The wildest part of these beatdowns was that most of these games were not even as close as the box score indicates. The Seahawks ran out to a 35-0 lead with 8:33 left in the 2nd quarter. Arizona, come on now what the fuck are we doing dog? The Hawks got 2 scoop and scores from DeMarcus Lawrence who has quietly been one of the best acquisitions of the season in the league. Seattle signed him in the off season after a decade in Dallas to a 3 year deal with a possible out after 1 season. He’s top 25 in the league in tackles for loss and already has the most sacks he’s had in a season since 2022. Great work Seattle.

We don’t even need to discuss JSN but we will because holy shit this dude is the best. 5 catches for 93 and a TD on the day basically all in the first 18 minutes of the game. Through 9 games JSN has 63 catches for 1,041 yards and 5 TD’s. The Hawks hit it big when they drafted this dude in the 1st round of the 2023 draft.

Right now he has 210 more yards than 2nd place in the league this season through the air. He’s also 6th in the league in yards per catch displaying his yards after catch explosiveness and ability to win all over the field. To give you a comparison of how much his game has improved throughout his 2.5 seasons, he currently has the same amount of catches on the season 9 games in as he did his entire rookie year. But he has 413 more yards right now on the same number of catches. Absolutely insane shit.

Seattle is crushing right now, 3rd in points per game, Darnold and the boys are lighting it up for the 12th man. They’re laying the pipe with the 2nd highest scoring margin per game this season beating opponents by an average of 11.4 points per game. That margin is even higher in the last 3 games with 18 point W’s on average. They’re 2nd in the league in yards per play and 1st in points per play showing that they are scoring fast on drives and getting yards in huge chunks.

They also have a top 5 scoring defense this season and doing even better on the road than at home right now on that side of the ball which should help tremendously come playoff time. Their rushing defense is allowing a whole yard less per attempt this season compared to last year and they’re 2nd in the league in sacks per game only behind Denver who is having a historic season.

Seattle’s front seven is ridiculously talented right now with Lawrence, Uchenna Nwosu, and Leonard Williams leading the charge. Rookie safety Nick Emmanwori is a candidate for Defensive Rookie of the Year as well.

All of this to say, the Hawks haven’t really beaten any real contenders yet this season. They face the Rams at SoFi this weekend for a huge battle and still face them again later in the year as well as the Colts and 49ers on the road.

The Rams went up 3+ scores multiple times in their win against SF yesterday. Stafford and the gang made light work of the 49ers defense early going up 21-0 in the first 16 minutes of the game. After the Niners clawed back to 28-20 in the 4th, the Rams scored 2 more TD’s back to back to go up 42-20 and put it away.

Matthew Stafford is tied right now as the MVP front-runner with Drake Maye at +300. I can’t think of anyone more worthy of that reward right now. The media put the nuttiest propaganda on Stafford coming into this season saying he was fucking washed, his shoulder was cooked, and that he was donezo. People were letting Puka slip to the 2nd and even 3rd round of fantasy drafts because they thought Stafford was going to miss the season or play like Aaron Rodgers is.

Despite all of the noise, Staffdaddy is 4th in the league in yards, 1st in TD’s (5 ahead of 2nd place), and just overall letting his nuts hang in opponents faces. He didn’t even break a sweat yesterday on his way to a 4 TD 280 yard performance. A balanced ground game from Kyren and Blake Corum putting up 126 yards on the ground and 4.2 yards per carry kept the play action alive and firing.

The scariest thing about this performance from the Rams was the balanced attack through the air. Early in the year it was all Kyren, Puka, Adams. Now the Rams are running more 3 TE sets than I’ve ever seen in my life. They’ve got Colby Parkinson, Tyler Higbee, rookie Terrance Ferguson, and Davis Allen all capable of making plays for them through the air. It’s a terrifying sight when McVay is dialing up this type of playcalling for the rest of the league to plan for. The Rams will look to keep the 4 game winning streak going against Seattle for the top of the NFC West next weekend.

Dan Campbell took over playcalling duties this weekend for the Lions. This game doesn’t need much to discuss because the Commanders are having such a horrific season so far and without Jayden Daniels they are very much done.

But it’s worth mentioning Jameson Williams’s most involved game yet this season going for 119 and a TD through the air. With Jamo more involved and Jahmyr Gibbs doing Jahmyr Gibbs things, Detroit’s offense is humming just as much as it did this time last year with Ben Johnson at the helm.

Detroit looks spooky again, but their offense is really tested when playing from behind early in games. Last week they basically abandoned the run against the Vikings and Gibbs only went for 25 yards which is unacceptable if they want to play for the Lombardi Trophy.

The Lions have one of the toughest remaining schedules in football which should give Mr Chirp and the rest of football fans a better idea to see if they’re full of shit or not. They have to play on the road against the Eagles next weekend, against the Packers, Rams, Steelers, and Bears just to name a few.

If we learned anything on Sunday night watching the Steelers get ran out the building by the Chargers its that this will definitely be Aaron Rodgers last season as a starting quarterback. If this dude has the balls to play another year after what he’s doing on the field this year, it will be holding a clipboard while he trips as much sack as he wants to on the sideline.

Rodgers is 18th in the league in passing yards and 25th in quarterback rating. He had a QBR of 4.6 in this game. I don’t really know how shitty that is, but it looks pretty fucking bad. He completed 51.6% of his passes and threw 2 picks on the night. This Steelers team is imploding very fast losing 3 out of their last 4 games.

It’s not just the offense that is sucking ass either. The lauded pass defense led by Jalen Ramsey and TJ Watt was supposed to be historic. What they are actually getting is league worst passing yards allowed per game. Despite the strong sack numbers, their secondary is atrocious.

Despite how bad the Steelers are, let’s give the Chargers some credit too. On a 3 game winning streak with Justin Herbert looking like an MVP front-runner as well and a top 10 defense in almost every single category led by Derwin James and third year breakout edge rusher Tuli Tuipulotu they have one of the most well rounded teams in football right now. Tuipulotu went from 4.5 to 8.5 sacks between his first and second season and is now at 8 on the year through 10 games this year. He’s also 4th in the league with 11 tackles for loss.

The Chargers could easily be 9-3 going into an early December matchup against Philly which would be their first real test since a week 7 clapping against the Colts where they fell 38-24 at home. It looks too soon to crown the Chargers as legit contenders knowing how cursed this franchise’s playoff history is, but they look damn good. Third string running back Kimani Vidal has been excellent with workhorse rookie Hampton injured and the passing attack of McConkey, Allen, QJ, and rookie TE Gadsden is absolute class.

The Chargers are the only team in the league right now with 4 guys over 400+ receiving yards on the season. Absolutely horrific for fantasy football managers, but an amazing assortment of options for the people making the big bucks. That’s right, Mr Chirp can cherrypick random ass stats too with the best of them.

If Herbert minimizes the turnovers and they get rookie Omarion Hampton back in the next month or so they have legit Super Bowl chances. Mr Chirp wants to give a special shoutout to legendary WR Keenan Allen who just broke the franchise catch record last night held by Hall of Fame TE Antonio Gates. That bald motherfucker really out here in year 13 doing his thing.

What the fuck was happening in 2022 that made this dude win Coach of the Year? Ok I get the team won 5 more games than before he got there the year before but if you want to play that game the Jacksonville Jaguars had an even worse record the year before and then managed to win 9 games and make the playoffs in 2022.

The Vikings also went from 8-9 with Mike Zimmer to 13-4 with new coach Kevin O’Connell. Philly went from 9-8 to 14-3 with Sirianni too in the same season. Make it make sense.

Oh well, regardless… each season that Daboll was the HC for Big Blue, they won less and less games. It is pretty simple. You go 9-7-1 then 6-11 it’s not looking good. You go 6-11 then 3-14 ok now you’re good as fucked. You start the next season 2-8, yeah see ya fam.

Whoever the Giants hire as their next Head Coach will come into arguably one of the most exciting positions in all of sports. Not just because of the New York market, but because the Giants are actually building something potentially special with this core young group.

Jaxson Dart despire Mr Chirp having high expectations for him (took him at the 1.12 of my dynasty league this year) didn’t think he would come out firing like he is right now. Despite him having a mid tier offensive line and no playmakers to work with right now, he is keeping this team in almost every game.

If the Giants didn’t fumble the game against the Broncos in historic fashion and Dart didn’t leave the game in the early 3rd quarter yesterday they could easily be 4-3 since he took over at QB in week 4.

The Giants core of Dart, Malik Nabers, Brian Burns, Abdul Carter, Dexter Lawrence, Cam Skattebo (please come back healthy), and Andrew Thomas are a significant foundation to build around.

Mr Chirp expects the Giants to have a massive offseason potentially clearing cap in the form of Paulson Adebo, Darius Slayton, and/or Kayvon Thibodeaux to make a splash in free agency in the form of a George Pickens, linebacker/corner help, or some o-line upgrades. If they end up with a top 5 pick in the draft I could see them trading back to collect more assets and bolster multiple needs.

As of now the top head coach odds for the spot are Ole Miss’s Lane Kiffin, Kliff Kingsbury, Jesse Minter Chargers DC, Klint Kubiak Seahawks OC, and Jeff Hafley Packers DC.

That’s all I’ve got today Chirp fam. If you made it this far, let me know what you thought of this first edition. If it was boring as fuck or you loved it please let me know either way! Reply to this email with suggestions on how to improve the newsletter, tomorrow we will cover some college football and will be back with more!

Also don’t forget, if you think someone else would like this newsletter share your referral code with them to join. You will be entered into our weekly free jersey giveaway if you get 1 person to sign up! 2 sign ups enters you into our game ticket giveaway every 1k subscribers we hit!

We’ll be back tomorrow with more unfiltered sports content for ya. Send me a photo of your Redzone/Gameday setup. I’ll share my favorite man cave, watch party set up, grill photo, tailgate flick, stadium view, or anything in between later this week!

-Mr Chirp