Rizzi: Folks, welcome in. Another episode of the Optimistic Depression Pod. a few days removed from the Packers collapse. It's just me and Pip tonight. All the other boys are busy. which this
Pip: Little fire and ice action.
Rizzi: yeah, this is just fire and ice, like oil and water, me and you. But how are you feeling now that we have a few days removed from the collapse? I know you were frustrated. I'm still frustrated a little bit. But I know you were way more heated and frustrated than I was.
Pip: I'm happy that I'm frustrated. I'm happy that I care enough to actually show emotion towards this team and want them to win. Because the frustration comes from a good place instead of being frustrated that we're winning a meaningless game late in the year. I mean, only time will tell. Obviously the defense looks amazing under Glenn. And I'm not ready to write him off as a coach yet. But you gotta see the improvements. You saw it a little bit last year with the clock management. First time he's in a pressure situation this year you see it. He's gotta improve and whether I mean in his press conferences it seemed like he didn't really care or think he did anything wrong or wanted to do anything different. But you don't know what's happening behind the scenes. You don't know what he's just saying to the media. So only time will tell, only experience will tell, and we'll go from there.
Rizzi: Yeah. It's it's interesting because like I don't I think he had his reasoning for why he did what he did. I just think the reasoning was wrong. So like when people are like,
Pip: Yeah, it was really dumb.
Rizzi: he has no clue what he's doing, like he's an idiot, it's like no, I think he knew what he was doing. It's just his decision like to be conservative in the situations that he was being conservative was wrong. Like you were a three and fourteen team last year. Three and fourteen
Pip: Yeah.
Rizzi: team, like just be aggressive. Like who cares? Like I I was we were obviously me, Devin, Duchy and Marco were at the game and I was sitting there in the fourth quarter when they were about to go for it. I was like, I'd rather have them go for it, not get it and lose than punt and either get to overtime.
Pip: Yeah, exactly.
Rizzi: Like I'd be okay with that. Like it is what it is. You're not you we have no expectations this year. And like you said, it's good that we're
Pip: I mean
Rizzi: frustrated.
Pip: Yeah, I mean if this was late in the year and you're fighting for a wild card spot and you want to play conservative, you know what your team is and you wanna do that, by all means go for it. I mean, it's too early for that. No expectations, nothing to lose. Play like you have nothing to lose and go from there.
Rizzi: A hundred percent. A hundred percent. and I think he will learn, like he's proven that he's he it might have taken him a long time last year and into obviously the off season, but he made the adjustments he needed to make going into this season and obviously the defense has paid off. The offense looks halfway decent. I mean we got the worst game possible from our O line, or hopefully that's the worst game possible from our O line. And they still put they still looked fine and it was the w the weather was shitty. Yeah,
Pip: I mean it was solid.
Rizzi: it was solid, right? Like We've ha we've seen so much worse and obviously the bar is low.
Pip: Yeah.
Rizzi: But I don't know, what yeah.
Pip: I mean, if you think about it, it really was Memboo. And he changed his cleats, I think, three or four times throughout the game. Obviously it wasn't a him thing. Obviously it was the playing conditions and everybody's playing on the same conditions, I get it, but I'm not gonna say his standard is now lowered because of that one game. Like he's still who we know he is and that's he could be an all pro right tackle if he wanted to be.
Rizzi: Right. Right. And like last year they played in some rain games and he was fine, so who knows, maybe it was just the cleats that day or the
Pip: Yeah, shit happens.
Rizzi: or the turf or yeah, whatever. Shit happened. So which they gotta get rid of the turf. If if it's just not another sign that yeah,
Pip: Yeah, that's a conversation for the day.
Rizzi: it's a conversation for another day. but I know you said you had a lot of thoughts about this upcoming game and the Lions and how we can win. So
Pip: Mm-hmm.
Rizzi: let's get into it. I wanna hear what your thoughts are s going into this week and kinda your feelings now.
Pip: I mean, my thought is we have to beat them at their own game on offense. Obviously they're gonna have Laporta and Amon underneath, which opens up obviously JMO down the sideline. We gotta do the same thing. Hopefully AD and his finger and hand are okay. But if we do the same thing, we gotta get Sadiq more active, we gotta get Garrett more active underneath, and then you'll see AD just going down the sideline. The big biggest difference between us and them is obviously they have Jameer Gibbs. But our defense is also so much better than theirs. So
Rizzi: Mm-hmm.
Pip: if you're able to just take down everything underneath and be able to just play in front of you and just hold Gibbs to, you know, just give him just give him like his three yards, give him his five yards, don't give him anything after that. You hold him to that, you don't have that threat with JMO down the sideline, and your defense is just better. That's gonna be the easiest way to win this game. It's still gonna be a shootout, they're gonna get their points, but if you hold them to twenty-four points, twenty-seven points. It's a very winnable game.
Rizzi: Yeah, I think if you hold them to to twenty four, twenty seven points, you should at least cover. Right? Like maybe you
Pip: Yeah, of course.
Rizzi: don't win, maybe you lose twenty seven, twenty four, or twenty seven, twenty one, whatever it is, but you should be able to cover, you should keep it close. Like that's my biggest I don't wanna say fear 'cause I do think they're different. I don't think they are the team that they were last year. But
Pip: Mm-hmm.
Rizzi: like we've been here before, right? Like we've been let
Pip: Yeah, of course.
Rizzi: down before and like it's one of those things where you gotta go and show up. Like you cannot You cannot lose by double digits. You cannot lose by twenty one points or thirty points like you did to Buffalo last year after
Pip: Mm-hmm.
Rizzi: a close loss at home. Like you just can't do that. And I think they are different.
Pip: It's it's such a winnable game that like if you're not in it, it will pain me. Like I'm not saying we should be favorites in any way. I'm not saying that like even like fifty one percent, forty nine percent, like obviously the Lions are a much better polished team than us, but like they were in a playoff team last year. They're not this juggernaut that they've been in years past. Their defense is god awful. Like you can take advantage of this. And if you want to be taken seriously in this league, you go out on the road and you show that you have that fight C B in in this game and possibly win it.
Rizzi: A hundred percent. And I think I think the biggest X factor is Glenn knows Campbell and he knows he knows the players on that team like the back of his hand, right? He was there for so long. He was
Pip: Mm-hmm.
Rizzi: he was a big part of constructing that team and kind of getting them to where they are now. So we should it's maybe not an upper hand, 'cause obviously Campbell knows Glenn too, but it should be a bit of a chess match and it's you should be able to like when two coaches know each other, it's hard to for there to really be like a blowout or something like that. Like these two guys know each other well. You should be able to go back and forth and at least at least keep her close and have a chance to win in the fourth quarter.
Pip: I mean, that's why like the biggest X factor in this game is gonna be Frank Reich. And it's a scary thought because obviously last week he did nothing to just improve the game plan, change the game plan, zero adjustments were made and he just kept running the ball with Greece and praying it was gonna work at some point.
Rizzi: Yeah, I like I wanna s I know it it's kind of like the lazy take and just everyone's talking about it all over Twitter, but just give Garrett like ten to fifteen targets. Like throw him the ball.
Pip: Yeah, I mean
Rizzi: You don't want to force it to him obviously, but what was it? Only seven targets, I think, on Sunday? Not enough. Like that's not enough. A hundred
Pip: Yeah, it was it was nothing. He needs double digits every game.
Rizzi: percent. So that's my biggest thing is take some shots. Like they don't I ha like we took a couple shots to A D on Sunday and obviously The weather plays a factor in that, but take some shots. Like you said, what do we have to lose? Like take some shots. You have playmakers. No, it wasn't.
Pip: It wasn't even the weather. That that dude, I I don't even know who the safety was, but he made a ridiculous recovery and a ridiculous play on one of those shots.
Rizzi: Great play. Yeah.
Pip: Like A D should have had a fifty yard bomb.
Rizzi: A hundred percent. He actually yeah, he did make a great play and didn't and it wasn't a penalty, he made a great play. but right, exactly.
Pip: The Lions don't have that secondary though.
Rizzi: Like you should have more of those opportunities this weekend.
Pip: Mm-hmm.
Rizzi: so yeah, it'll be interesting. I think I like our defense. Like it Glenn is slowly proving that, or at least the first two weeks, like whatever. It's a small sample size, but he's proving that maybe calling a defense is his superpower, and this is what he's meant to do, like. And obviously that leads people into saying that he's just a D C and whatnot, but whatever. That yeah,
Pip: Time will tell.
Rizzi: exactly. Time will tell there. but yeah, I I don't know. I go ahead.
Pip: One thing one thing that we did highlight on the last pod, don't know if that's ever getting published, don't know if that's lost in time and space. Mm-hmm.
Rizzi: yeah, I wasn't here for that and obviously it wasn't released so I didn't watch it.
Pip: The the one thing that we did or I did highlight was the biggest pro and improvement in my eyes is AZ. AZ looks insane out there. And the one thing I did say is him wearing number one out there and being tall and lanky and making those plays. It looked like rookie year sauce. It really did.
Rizzi: Exactly. And he comes up in tackles too, like which sauce is something that Sauce can never do.
Pip: he's a big boy. Yeah.
Rizzi: So it is nice to see. And yeah, the number one just looks good on the on a Jets cornerback, man.
Pip: It looks good. It looks good on a lanky Jets quarterback that
Rizzi: Exactly.
Pip: just has his arms are coming out and he's just PVU City.
Rizzi: Yeah. And I think the one like for me the most encouraging thing is our defense looks this solid and you're missing a lot of key guys, right? You don't have Minka, you don't have
Pip: Yeah.
Rizzi: Ponce, Osai, Anyamada got hurt. Like it's gonna be interest
Pip: Mm-hmm. Yep. It's next man up.
Rizzi: yeah, it's gonna be interesting if we can get fully healthy. I don't know, I don't know how Minka's probably far down the road. I don't know, maybe three weeks. I don't know. Cisco
Pip: Cisco looked great.
Rizzi: looks good, which is insane. Like he was a guy that I was so worried about.
Pip: That safety blitz up the middle last week looked great.
Rizzi: He dude, he he popped Lloyd and like the ball went back like ten yards. Of r one of the five fumbles that we
Pip: Yep. Imagine hitting someone so hard you have no chance at a fumble.
Rizzi: Right. It's just like fine, I'll take that. It is what it is.
Pip: But that's what made it so frustrating. Is like they played so well. They really did. And I hate talking about it again, but they played
Rizzi: Yeah.
Pip: so well last week.
Rizzi: They they did and I Like like I said in the chat, it's like there is no moral victories like we can't do that again, right? Like Yeah,
Pip: Mm-hmm. No, not this year.
Rizzi: you you you a hundred percent can't do that. But they're a young team and you know, you gotta hope that they just learn how to you gotta learn how to win in those situations.
Pip: Exactly.
Rizzi: And like
Pip: And like down the road, I just don't want to look back at it and be like one game out of the playoffs being in the hunt and being like just circling that game. It'll haunt me.
Rizzi: A hundred percent. That would suck. It would suck a lot just because of the drought. But on the positive side, it's like if you are in that situation, to be that close to and you're
Pip: Mm-hmm.
Rizzi: nine and eight and you miss and you if you're ten and seven you want to make it, it's like well that's a pretty damn good year compared to what we expected and what what they were last year. So it is a good it it shows progress and that's kind of all we're looking for. Right, exactly.
Pip: Exactly. I mean I had four wins coming into the year.
Rizzi: You had four, I think Matt had five, so seven at seven.
Pip: Yeah. Okay.
Rizzi: So if we get to nine and eight, like I would sign up for nine and eight. And if you and if you happen to miss that nine
Pip: Yeah, I'd be overjoyed. Yeah, a hundred percent.
Rizzi: and eight, well then then whatever. Yeah, it would suck to look back to this Packers game, but it is what it is. Exactly.
Pip: And then we'll just continue to hate watch the Colts and go from there.
Rizzi: Who like they look bad right now, but they played well against the Chiefs, I will say. Their defense doesn't look
Pip: They did, but
Rizzi: good.
Pip: no, it looks horrible.
Rizzi: And those those prime time games get kinda fluky, so you gotta hope that that was just a fluke. Yeah.
Pip: Exactly. I'm not looking too much into it. If Tennessee could win one game against them.
Rizzi: my god, that'd be huge. 'Cause that you would think it's auto two ends, but th they look Tennessee looked a little punchy. I mean, the Eagles aren't aren't world beaters by any means, but no. But it shows that they're not
Pip: No, they're not what they were. All right. You wanna get into some picks for this weekend?
Rizzi: Yeah, we can man. I was I have a couple on on my mind. I gotta just check to see the exact yardage for one of them. Is Pons gonna play?
Pip: opening up the app right now. I don't know. I don't think so. I mean but like he doesn't have to right now is the thing.
Rizzi: He has to, right? Really? To me it's like fuck just play. No, he doesn't have to, but he practiced last week for l a little bit. He's I think he's practicing this whole week.
Pip: But where are you putting him?
Rizzi: That's a good question. You know y
Pip: Like at that point it's just gonna be a rotational piece.
Rizzi: Right. Which maybe that's not the worst for his first start or for his first game. Yeah.
Pip: Yeah, especially missing time in camp.
Rizzi: Alright, let's see here. Okay. I got it. I got my two picks. Alright, my first
Pip: No, rip your first one. Rip your first.
Rizzi: one's gonna be an A D Mitchell T D.
Pip: All right, then I will take Do they not have Sadiq's lines?
Rizzi: right?
Pip: Whatever. I'll take Garrett, seven receptions.
Rizzi: Nice, I like that. I'll take Gino over two hundred thirty passing yards.
Pip: Jesus Christ.
Rizzi: I mean come on, if they're gonna keep up with the lines he has to.
Pip: I know. And then do you have Sadiq's over?
Rizzi: let me see. What are you on?
Pip: Fan duel, but like half of them just aren't loading.
Rizzi: Okay. Hmm. This is being weird.
Pip: You know what? Just call my shot. Whatever it is, I want it.
Rizzi: Okay. Yeah, because it's only giving me like Brees and Jameer and It
Pip: Yeah, it's probably just too early.
Rizzi: i it might be too early, but whatever Sadiq's over is. I like what
Pip: Yeah. If if he doesn't get involved at Mason Taylor out.
Rizzi: There's no excuse. I don't wanna hear that he's on a snap count. Like there's no way. Yeah.
Pip: It it's stum at this point. Yeah, for no reason. Like just cause like if he's if he's not healthy, then don't play him. That that's what I'm saying at this point. Like he he's a freak when he gets the ball. But this was his problem in Oregon too, is like sometimes he would just disappear from games.
Rizzi: Mm-hmm.
Pip: But I think here, right now with the Jets, I think it's more just Frank Wright getting cute with the five tight ends. He ran it twice. No, he's he's an athletic monster. Let's take
Rizzi: There's no reason for him to disappear in any games with us. Right.
Pip: his over. Let's take 80 touchdown, Garrett receptions, and what was your last one? Gino 230 passing yards. Lock it in.
Rizzi: the the Gino two hundred thirty passing yards. And then if for the people out there, if you really want to spice this up with Jets money line, that would really that would probably make it like ten to in five hundred or something.
Pip: I'm probably gonna end up throwing it now.
Rizzi: You gotta you gotta Jets alt line minus four and a half.
Pip: I mean I'd throw that stupid parlay every single Jets game. Might as well
Rizzi: Yeah.
Pip: just sprinkle it in at this point.
Rizzi: Exactly. Alright, any last minute any last minute things you want to say before we go?
Pip: I'm not saying this is a must-win game, but it's a must-compete game. I think
Rizzi: Mm-hmm.
Pip: at the end of the day, if you get your doors blown off, I can't take you serious past this. Even if you go and beat the Bears without Caleb Williams the week after, like I won't be impressed. Then you have the Browns after that won't be impressed. Those are two games you should win. I wanna win a game where we don't we're where we come into it where we shouldn't win. And that's why the Packers hurt so much, and that's why I want it that much more this week.
Rizzi: Yeah, I agree. like there is is I have I don't know, there's a part of me that just thinks we're gonna lose on Sunday, but and like I think we're gonna be two and two after I thought we were gonna be two and two at the end of the four the first four weeks. I really thought I
Pip: You might get gifted one.
Rizzi: really thought we were gonna go two and to start and then lose the next two. but I do think we just go in and win win in Chicago, but we'll see. I also think
Pip: Yeah, I mean time will tell. One week at a time.
Rizzi: interception streak ends with Dane Belton on Sunday. If you could find that bet somewhere, Dane Belton interception, I would take it.
Pip: Geez. Alright, we'll see.
Rizzi: Yeah, maybe we just end it on that, hey Pip. Alright, I guess we can't just stop it. We gotta leave here, right? Alright. Yeah, thank you. Like,
Pip: Yeah, we should. Yeah, we gotta leave, but thank you everybody for listening and we'll see you next time.
Rizzi: comment, subscribe. See you later. See ya pip.
Pip: See ya.
Pip: Little fire and ice action.
Rizzi: yeah, this is just fire and ice, like oil and water, me and you. But how are you feeling now that we have a few days removed from the collapse? I know you were frustrated. I'm still frustrated a little bit. But I know you were way more heated and frustrated than I was.
Pip: I'm happy that I'm frustrated. I'm happy that I care enough to actually show emotion towards this team and want them to win. Because the frustration comes from a good place instead of being frustrated that we're winning a meaningless game late in the year. I mean, only time will tell. Obviously the defense looks amazing under Glenn. And I'm not ready to write him off as a coach yet. But you gotta see the improvements. You saw it a little bit last year with the clock management. First time he's in a pressure situation this year you see it. He's gotta improve and whether I mean in his press conferences it seemed like he didn't really care or think he did anything wrong or wanted to do anything different. But you don't know what's happening behind the scenes. You don't know what he's just saying to the media. So only time will tell, only experience will tell, and we'll go from there.
Rizzi: Yeah. It's it's interesting because like I don't I think he had his reasoning for why he did what he did. I just think the reasoning was wrong. So like when people are like,
Pip: Yeah, it was really dumb.
Rizzi: he has no clue what he's doing, like he's an idiot, it's like no, I think he knew what he was doing. It's just his decision like to be conservative in the situations that he was being conservative was wrong. Like you were a three and fourteen team last year. Three and fourteen
Pip: Yeah.
Rizzi: team, like just be aggressive. Like who cares? Like I I was we were obviously me, Devin, Duchy and Marco were at the game and I was sitting there in the fourth quarter when they were about to go for it. I was like, I'd rather have them go for it, not get it and lose than punt and either get to overtime.
Pip: Yeah, exactly.
Rizzi: Like I'd be okay with that. Like it is what it is. You're not you we have no expectations this year. And like you said, it's good that we're
Pip: I mean
Rizzi: frustrated.
Pip: Yeah, I mean if this was late in the year and you're fighting for a wild card spot and you want to play conservative, you know what your team is and you wanna do that, by all means go for it. I mean, it's too early for that. No expectations, nothing to lose. Play like you have nothing to lose and go from there.
Rizzi: A hundred percent. A hundred percent. and I think he will learn, like he's proven that he's he it might have taken him a long time last year and into obviously the off season, but he made the adjustments he needed to make going into this season and obviously the defense has paid off. The offense looks halfway decent. I mean we got the worst game possible from our O line, or hopefully that's the worst game possible from our O line. And they still put they still looked fine and it was the w the weather was shitty. Yeah,
Pip: I mean it was solid.
Rizzi: it was solid, right? Like We've ha we've seen so much worse and obviously the bar is low.
Pip: Yeah.
Rizzi: But I don't know, what yeah.
Pip: I mean, if you think about it, it really was Memboo. And he changed his cleats, I think, three or four times throughout the game. Obviously it wasn't a him thing. Obviously it was the playing conditions and everybody's playing on the same conditions, I get it, but I'm not gonna say his standard is now lowered because of that one game. Like he's still who we know he is and that's he could be an all pro right tackle if he wanted to be.
Rizzi: Right. Right. And like last year they played in some rain games and he was fine, so who knows, maybe it was just the cleats that day or the
Pip: Yeah, shit happens.
Rizzi: or the turf or yeah, whatever. Shit happened. So which they gotta get rid of the turf. If if it's just not another sign that yeah,
Pip: Yeah, that's a conversation for the day.
Rizzi: it's a conversation for another day. but I know you said you had a lot of thoughts about this upcoming game and the Lions and how we can win. So
Pip: Mm-hmm.
Rizzi: let's get into it. I wanna hear what your thoughts are s going into this week and kinda your feelings now.
Pip: I mean, my thought is we have to beat them at their own game on offense. Obviously they're gonna have Laporta and Amon underneath, which opens up obviously JMO down the sideline. We gotta do the same thing. Hopefully AD and his finger and hand are okay. But if we do the same thing, we gotta get Sadiq more active, we gotta get Garrett more active underneath, and then you'll see AD just going down the sideline. The big biggest difference between us and them is obviously they have Jameer Gibbs. But our defense is also so much better than theirs. So
Rizzi: Mm-hmm.
Pip: if you're able to just take down everything underneath and be able to just play in front of you and just hold Gibbs to, you know, just give him just give him like his three yards, give him his five yards, don't give him anything after that. You hold him to that, you don't have that threat with JMO down the sideline, and your defense is just better. That's gonna be the easiest way to win this game. It's still gonna be a shootout, they're gonna get their points, but if you hold them to twenty-four points, twenty-seven points. It's a very winnable game.
Rizzi: Yeah, I think if you hold them to to twenty four, twenty seven points, you should at least cover. Right? Like maybe you
Pip: Yeah, of course.
Rizzi: don't win, maybe you lose twenty seven, twenty four, or twenty seven, twenty one, whatever it is, but you should be able to cover, you should keep it close. Like that's my biggest I don't wanna say fear 'cause I do think they're different. I don't think they are the team that they were last year. But
Pip: Mm-hmm.
Rizzi: like we've been here before, right? Like we've been let
Pip: Yeah, of course.
Rizzi: down before and like it's one of those things where you gotta go and show up. Like you cannot You cannot lose by double digits. You cannot lose by twenty one points or thirty points like you did to Buffalo last year after
Pip: Mm-hmm.
Rizzi: a close loss at home. Like you just can't do that. And I think they are different.
Pip: It's it's such a winnable game that like if you're not in it, it will pain me. Like I'm not saying we should be favorites in any way. I'm not saying that like even like fifty one percent, forty nine percent, like obviously the Lions are a much better polished team than us, but like they were in a playoff team last year. They're not this juggernaut that they've been in years past. Their defense is god awful. Like you can take advantage of this. And if you want to be taken seriously in this league, you go out on the road and you show that you have that fight C B in in this game and possibly win it.
Rizzi: A hundred percent. And I think I think the biggest X factor is Glenn knows Campbell and he knows he knows the players on that team like the back of his hand, right? He was there for so long. He was
Pip: Mm-hmm.
Rizzi: he was a big part of constructing that team and kind of getting them to where they are now. So we should it's maybe not an upper hand, 'cause obviously Campbell knows Glenn too, but it should be a bit of a chess match and it's you should be able to like when two coaches know each other, it's hard to for there to really be like a blowout or something like that. Like these two guys know each other well. You should be able to go back and forth and at least at least keep her close and have a chance to win in the fourth quarter.
Pip: I mean, that's why like the biggest X factor in this game is gonna be Frank Reich. And it's a scary thought because obviously last week he did nothing to just improve the game plan, change the game plan, zero adjustments were made and he just kept running the ball with Greece and praying it was gonna work at some point.
Rizzi: Yeah, I like I wanna s I know it it's kind of like the lazy take and just everyone's talking about it all over Twitter, but just give Garrett like ten to fifteen targets. Like throw him the ball.
Pip: Yeah, I mean
Rizzi: You don't want to force it to him obviously, but what was it? Only seven targets, I think, on Sunday? Not enough. Like that's not enough. A hundred
Pip: Yeah, it was it was nothing. He needs double digits every game.
Rizzi: percent. So that's my biggest thing is take some shots. Like they don't I ha like we took a couple shots to A D on Sunday and obviously The weather plays a factor in that, but take some shots. Like you said, what do we have to lose? Like take some shots. You have playmakers. No, it wasn't.
Pip: It wasn't even the weather. That that dude, I I don't even know who the safety was, but he made a ridiculous recovery and a ridiculous play on one of those shots.
Rizzi: Great play. Yeah.
Pip: Like A D should have had a fifty yard bomb.
Rizzi: A hundred percent. He actually yeah, he did make a great play and didn't and it wasn't a penalty, he made a great play. but right, exactly.
Pip: The Lions don't have that secondary though.
Rizzi: Like you should have more of those opportunities this weekend.
Pip: Mm-hmm.
Rizzi: so yeah, it'll be interesting. I think I like our defense. Like it Glenn is slowly proving that, or at least the first two weeks, like whatever. It's a small sample size, but he's proving that maybe calling a defense is his superpower, and this is what he's meant to do, like. And obviously that leads people into saying that he's just a D C and whatnot, but whatever. That yeah,
Pip: Time will tell.
Rizzi: exactly. Time will tell there. but yeah, I I don't know. I go ahead.
Pip: One thing one thing that we did highlight on the last pod, don't know if that's ever getting published, don't know if that's lost in time and space. Mm-hmm.
Rizzi: yeah, I wasn't here for that and obviously it wasn't released so I didn't watch it.
Pip: The the one thing that we did or I did highlight was the biggest pro and improvement in my eyes is AZ. AZ looks insane out there. And the one thing I did say is him wearing number one out there and being tall and lanky and making those plays. It looked like rookie year sauce. It really did.
Rizzi: Exactly. And he comes up in tackles too, like which sauce is something that Sauce can never do.
Pip: he's a big boy. Yeah.
Rizzi: So it is nice to see. And yeah, the number one just looks good on the on a Jets cornerback, man.
Pip: It looks good. It looks good on a lanky Jets quarterback that
Rizzi: Exactly.
Pip: just has his arms are coming out and he's just PVU City.
Rizzi: Yeah. And I think the one like for me the most encouraging thing is our defense looks this solid and you're missing a lot of key guys, right? You don't have Minka, you don't have
Pip: Yeah.
Rizzi: Ponce, Osai, Anyamada got hurt. Like it's gonna be interest
Pip: Mm-hmm. Yep. It's next man up.
Rizzi: yeah, it's gonna be interesting if we can get fully healthy. I don't know, I don't know how Minka's probably far down the road. I don't know, maybe three weeks. I don't know. Cisco
Pip: Cisco looked great.
Rizzi: looks good, which is insane. Like he was a guy that I was so worried about.
Pip: That safety blitz up the middle last week looked great.
Rizzi: He dude, he he popped Lloyd and like the ball went back like ten yards. Of r one of the five fumbles that we
Pip: Yep. Imagine hitting someone so hard you have no chance at a fumble.
Rizzi: Right. It's just like fine, I'll take that. It is what it is.
Pip: But that's what made it so frustrating. Is like they played so well. They really did. And I hate talking about it again, but they played
Rizzi: Yeah.
Pip: so well last week.
Rizzi: They they did and I Like like I said in the chat, it's like there is no moral victories like we can't do that again, right? Like Yeah,
Pip: Mm-hmm. No, not this year.
Rizzi: you you you a hundred percent can't do that. But they're a young team and you know, you gotta hope that they just learn how to you gotta learn how to win in those situations.
Pip: Exactly.
Rizzi: And like
Pip: And like down the road, I just don't want to look back at it and be like one game out of the playoffs being in the hunt and being like just circling that game. It'll haunt me.
Rizzi: A hundred percent. That would suck. It would suck a lot just because of the drought. But on the positive side, it's like if you are in that situation, to be that close to and you're
Pip: Mm-hmm.
Rizzi: nine and eight and you miss and you if you're ten and seven you want to make it, it's like well that's a pretty damn good year compared to what we expected and what what they were last year. So it is a good it it shows progress and that's kind of all we're looking for. Right, exactly.
Pip: Exactly. I mean I had four wins coming into the year.
Rizzi: You had four, I think Matt had five, so seven at seven.
Pip: Yeah. Okay.
Rizzi: So if we get to nine and eight, like I would sign up for nine and eight. And if you and if you happen to miss that nine
Pip: Yeah, I'd be overjoyed. Yeah, a hundred percent.
Rizzi: and eight, well then then whatever. Yeah, it would suck to look back to this Packers game, but it is what it is. Exactly.
Pip: And then we'll just continue to hate watch the Colts and go from there.
Rizzi: Who like they look bad right now, but they played well against the Chiefs, I will say. Their defense doesn't look
Pip: They did, but
Rizzi: good.
Pip: no, it looks horrible.
Rizzi: And those those prime time games get kinda fluky, so you gotta hope that that was just a fluke. Yeah.
Pip: Exactly. I'm not looking too much into it. If Tennessee could win one game against them.
Rizzi: my god, that'd be huge. 'Cause that you would think it's auto two ends, but th they look Tennessee looked a little punchy. I mean, the Eagles aren't aren't world beaters by any means, but no. But it shows that they're not
Pip: No, they're not what they were. All right. You wanna get into some picks for this weekend?
Rizzi: Yeah, we can man. I was I have a couple on on my mind. I gotta just check to see the exact yardage for one of them. Is Pons gonna play?
Pip: opening up the app right now. I don't know. I don't think so. I mean but like he doesn't have to right now is the thing.
Rizzi: He has to, right? Really? To me it's like fuck just play. No, he doesn't have to, but he practiced last week for l a little bit. He's I think he's practicing this whole week.
Pip: But where are you putting him?
Rizzi: That's a good question. You know y
Pip: Like at that point it's just gonna be a rotational piece.
Rizzi: Right. Which maybe that's not the worst for his first start or for his first game. Yeah.
Pip: Yeah, especially missing time in camp.
Rizzi: Alright, let's see here. Okay. I got it. I got my two picks. Alright, my first
Pip: No, rip your first one. Rip your first.
Rizzi: one's gonna be an A D Mitchell T D.
Pip: All right, then I will take Do they not have Sadiq's lines?
Rizzi: right?
Pip: Whatever. I'll take Garrett, seven receptions.
Rizzi: Nice, I like that. I'll take Gino over two hundred thirty passing yards.
Pip: Jesus Christ.
Rizzi: I mean come on, if they're gonna keep up with the lines he has to.
Pip: I know. And then do you have Sadiq's over?
Rizzi: let me see. What are you on?
Pip: Fan duel, but like half of them just aren't loading.
Rizzi: Okay. Hmm. This is being weird.
Pip: You know what? Just call my shot. Whatever it is, I want it.
Rizzi: Okay. Yeah, because it's only giving me like Brees and Jameer and It
Pip: Yeah, it's probably just too early.
Rizzi: i it might be too early, but whatever Sadiq's over is. I like what
Pip: Yeah. If if he doesn't get involved at Mason Taylor out.
Rizzi: There's no excuse. I don't wanna hear that he's on a snap count. Like there's no way. Yeah.
Pip: It it's stum at this point. Yeah, for no reason. Like just cause like if he's if he's not healthy, then don't play him. That that's what I'm saying at this point. Like he he's a freak when he gets the ball. But this was his problem in Oregon too, is like sometimes he would just disappear from games.
Rizzi: Mm-hmm.
Pip: But I think here, right now with the Jets, I think it's more just Frank Wright getting cute with the five tight ends. He ran it twice. No, he's he's an athletic monster. Let's take
Rizzi: There's no reason for him to disappear in any games with us. Right.
Pip: his over. Let's take 80 touchdown, Garrett receptions, and what was your last one? Gino 230 passing yards. Lock it in.
Rizzi: the the Gino two hundred thirty passing yards. And then if for the people out there, if you really want to spice this up with Jets money line, that would really that would probably make it like ten to in five hundred or something.
Pip: I'm probably gonna end up throwing it now.
Rizzi: You gotta you gotta Jets alt line minus four and a half.
Pip: I mean I'd throw that stupid parlay every single Jets game. Might as well
Rizzi: Yeah.
Pip: just sprinkle it in at this point.
Rizzi: Exactly. Alright, any last minute any last minute things you want to say before we go?
Pip: I'm not saying this is a must-win game, but it's a must-compete game. I think
Rizzi: Mm-hmm.
Pip: at the end of the day, if you get your doors blown off, I can't take you serious past this. Even if you go and beat the Bears without Caleb Williams the week after, like I won't be impressed. Then you have the Browns after that won't be impressed. Those are two games you should win. I wanna win a game where we don't we're where we come into it where we shouldn't win. And that's why the Packers hurt so much, and that's why I want it that much more this week.
Rizzi: Yeah, I agree. like there is is I have I don't know, there's a part of me that just thinks we're gonna lose on Sunday, but and like I think we're gonna be two and two after I thought we were gonna be two and two at the end of the four the first four weeks. I really thought I
Pip: You might get gifted one.
Rizzi: really thought we were gonna go two and to start and then lose the next two. but I do think we just go in and win win in Chicago, but we'll see. I also think
Pip: Yeah, I mean time will tell. One week at a time.
Rizzi: interception streak ends with Dane Belton on Sunday. If you could find that bet somewhere, Dane Belton interception, I would take it.
Pip: Geez. Alright, we'll see.
Rizzi: Yeah, maybe we just end it on that, hey Pip. Alright, I guess we can't just stop it. We gotta leave here, right? Alright. Yeah, thank you. Like,
Pip: Yeah, we should. Yeah, we gotta leave, but thank you everybody for listening and we'll see you next time.
Rizzi: comment, subscribe. See you later. See ya pip.
Pip: See ya.
