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6 Rings and Football Things

What will it take for the Patriots to pull off the Week 1 upset?

It's time for some football. At long last, the New England Patriots will kick off their 2024 campaign this Sunday in Cincinnati against the Bengals. The Pats enter Week 1 as the biggest underdogs on the board. What will it take for the Patriots to pull off the Week 1 upset? Nick "Fitzy" Stevens and Andy "Jumbo" Hart discuss and preview all the action.

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Duration:
40m
Broadcast on:
06 Sep 2024
Audio Format:
mp3

It's time for some football. At long last, the New England Patriots will kick off their 2024 campaign this Sunday in Cincinnati against the Bengals. The Pats enter Week 1 as the biggest underdogs on the board. What will it take for the Patriots to pull off the Week 1 upset? Nick "Fitzy" Stevens and Andy "Jumbo" Hart discuss and preview all the action.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Will they be kings on Sunday as they take on Joe Burrow, Jamaar Chase, and the Cincinnati Bengals in the opener of the 2024 season and your old pals, Fitzy and Hart, are here to preview it, offer our predictions and more on the latest and always greatest edition of six rings in football things. Brought to you by your friends at Odyssey, W-E-I and 2400 sports. All right, Hart, there's been a little movement this week and I'm not talking about the usual kind of movement we associate with getting excited for football. No, I'm talking about the kind of movement that usually comes with a line that indicates there's been action and movement in wagering one way or the other. So this game, when lines opened months ago, featuring of course, Joe Burrow coming back with his trio, his cadre of world-class receivers and offensive talent, he of course, missing half of last season. He'd be on a mission out for vengeance, an MVP candidate. The line opened at nine and a half against the Patriots, whether it was gonna be Drake May or as it stands to be Jacobi Brissette. Now, earlier this week, because I believe the Jamaar Chase issue drove the line down all the way, the Jamaar Chase uncertainty, drove the line all the way down to I believe seven and a half. Now, since Jamaar Chase returned to practice, I think it's back up to eight and a half. What do you make of all of that? And do we believe we are gonna see one of the best players in the NFL, let alone in this particular game on the field Sunday at the newly minted paycore stadium in downtown Cincinnati? - So a terrible answer, I have no idea. I know we spoke with Adam Schefter on the afternoon show. That's literally its name, don't question it. Go with it, the afternoon show on WEI yesterday. And he was reporting, okay, he's at practice, but how much does he do and all of that? And he's ramped it up a little bit in recent days, but is there still this belief? If he doesn't get a contract, he's not gonna play. So there was definitely positive momentum towards Jamaar Chase playing. But I think there are some Bengals fans who are gonna hold their breath right up until the point they see number one on the field and catching a pass from Joe Barrow. And then I said it to you, there's also the next step is what kind of shape is he in? Is he ready to compete for 40, 50, 60 snaps of an NFL game? If that's necessary, of course he might be standing in the fourth quarter or third quarter 'cause they're up by a bunch, but whatever. I also love how you say the line plummeted to seven and a half. - That's big movement considering that who in the hell in their right mind would bet on a team that is not favored in any of their 17 professional football contest this year. - Just saying the other team was without its best player and still more than a touchdown better than you. - Yeah, because they have an MVP candidate under center. They have a better offer. - Can't throw him back-to-back days. He's the Al Horford of QBs or whatever the hell you wanna call it. No, so yeah, sorry to pull a sentence there that was straight out of the Christian Fourier playbook. No, so yeah, you know, yeah. I, Jamaar Chase is interesting, but did the Bengals need Jamaar Chase to beat you? If you recall, last time these two teams lined up on Christmas Eve, T Higgins made the Patriots his personal business with eight catches for 128 yards and a touchdown. Kind of, I don't think he actually did it, but he kind of did the U2 small to Jonathan Jones owning that. - Did he too short him? - I don't think he did, but he did it in a literal sense, if not the actual celebratory sense. And then the Bengals held on whatever. That game was a weird game. I still think they decided they wanted to go home and see their kids at halftime. And they were like, oh, we're not blowing them out totally. We're kind of in a dog fight here. - It's Christmas Eve. I just want to go home. Oh, wait a second. The Patriots are still trying, oh. - Yeah, gasses, just 'cause you get to drive home and we have to fly home, this isn't fair. - Yeah, I would actually personally rather fly home than drive home considering what a pain in the acid to try to get out of Gillette Stadium. Now, all that being said, Pats did stage a little bit of a comeback in the second half. The Bengals definitely took their foot off the gas. Which they're not usually want to do. Like they play a full game because of that insane psycho killer drive of Joe Burrow. Yet, the Patriots were a ramandre fumble away from winning that football game. Now that's almost-- - Neither here nor there probably. - Exactly, that's a year and three quarters ago. - Different quarterback for the Patriots. A lot of the similar players, coaches for the Bengals. And that's where this game also gets weird 'cause there is continuity on the Bengals. But sort of a lack of continuity, Joe Burrow didn't play the end of last season. That's how they end up. He was five and five. Had the weird start to the year with the calf. Then had the weird that we all saw like, did we witness a guy's career end? 'Cause he can't hold a foot. Remember that sideline video where he literally couldn't do the thing he's greased at? - Yeah, and isn't he the first quarterback to attempt to come back from this injury? Like, something along the lines of I, you know, don't quote me on this. I'm not a scientist and barely a podcast host, but isn't it something like 50% of all people that suffer this injury, something around the half of all people, like their wrist, it's never the same again. Like it's-- - It's scary, yeah. - It's scary for a guy who makes his money because this is not a princess bride. He can't just flip the ball to the left side and say, I did not tell you, I am not right handed. I am left handed. No, no, no, that's not gonna happen. He's never gonna be an elite quarterback. His arm doesn't work properly and his wrist. But you have that, so you have the Joe Barrow question. Then you have the question about Jamar Chase. Is he playing, is he, even T Higgins, is playing on the franchise tag? I don't know. He's like, hey, Jamar, you're kind of, I'm supposed to be the one looking for a contract and you're kind of stealing my limelight right now and I know you're better, but I wanted to put some pressure on them to give me money. - He wants to be the him. He wants to be the man, the dog. Yeah, he wants to get paid. I don't know if he wants to be that. - He's getting paid, he's getting paid like 21 and a half million dollars a year. One year, he wants the big deal. He's seeing these big deals that includes 60, 70, 80 million dollars in guaranteed money for wide receivers. So there's a lot of questions for the Bengals. That being said, all of those questions come from them being a more talented team and that is without argument. But even, you know, you look at their defense and everybody talks about, and I still don't know the guy's name. - Lou Anne-Rumo, Anne-Rumo. - Lou Anne-Rumo, he's a defensive coordinator for Ben's Gal's. - Yeah, I wish somebody would just come up with some sort of like nickname, Big Lou. - Big Lou, yeah, but he's on meds too. - Yes, only on wife number two. - They were not telling me that. - Tell me about this backup quarterback, John Sewer. I hear he gets the job done. - We're getting all the, these two teams will fan, duel it out. - Oh no! - Well, you know, the Patriots were the draft Kings. I hate myself so much. - Okay, we're Doc. - But their defense last year was 31st in the NFL. They were a team that gave up a lot of sacks and had a lot of sacks. Even Trey Hendrickson didn't really practice this summer. But if Hendrickson and Sam Hubbard are on, that's a formidable bookend duo to go against a Patriots team that has lots of questions at the tackle position in the offensive line. So, we got them tackle issues right there, but up the gut, maybe that's where the Pats are gonna try to work more often than us. - City so, city so, not practicing. - So Nick Lebertson, he's starting left guard. - He might be fine enough. - Yeah, good, good enough. - Hey Robinson, I feel good about. Me too, you heard the previous podcast. I said he might be your offensive rookie of the year for the Patriots. Could be a big deal for them. - Is that sad? - Yeah, it was very sad. - A team that has no quarterback, no wide receivers, no offense. - Two years ago, you said the kicker was the second best player in the team. - That was also sad. And I wasn't wrong, that kicker was balls. - Nick, Nick, folk? Oh man, the legend of big kick, Nick. Now, at least we got someone else. Now you can get all excited about being a sly guy because Joey Sly can be good for 60 on any get, boom. - Yeah, or he could be cut, boom. - I know, just like that. - Oh, good Lord. - But they did question all on defense. Oh, I think this game is going to be a mess, quite honestly. Anyone who's looking for everybody, for the people watching it, the people at the NBA. - Could we be in the second quarter and be, oh, I'd never expected a zero, zero affair here in Cincinnati. - Oh, yeah, absolutely. - Yeah, I kind of feel that way too, because the Bengals could take a while. Now, the one thing I will say is I, you know me, I love Joe Barrow. He's one of my favorite players in the NFL. I love sort of everything about him. And I think if there's anybody that can kind of pull a Tom Brady and say, listen, Jamar, I know, you're going to get paid. You're one of the best receivers of the generation. T, you're going to get paid. Can we just kind of go out there and maybe play football and win some game, like, I feel like Joe Barrow is the guy that has that, that it factor, that Genet Se Qua that it takes to do that. - The Joey Birkin, is he good enough? Is he, does he have the cache to come in and just be like, hey everybody, let's all play a little game called Shut the F up. I got paid, you'll get paid. I understand our organization is historically and notoriously cheap. And yes, they have been selling TVs that were used in the stadium out of the back of the stadium for $60 a piece, which is one of the most embarrassing things I've ever heard as opposed to, I don't know, donating them or gifting them to classrooms. - I mean, I don't want to seem like a classic up, but there's like 40 inch TV in my mother's house that I got from Gillette Stadium when they replaced TVs somewhere. They were like, hey, we have some TVs we're getting rid of. Any employee wants them to come down to the loading dock and pick it up. - You know what, I very well might and my mother would appreciate that, because flat screens, they're not nearly as expensive as they used to be. But yeah, anyway, so the Bengals are notoriously cheap. I don't think you're gonna see their offense moving along and humming the way it could or likely should at some point this season. They lose Joe Mixon in the off season. He goes to the Texans. Now you replace him with a combination of Zack Moss. And someone I'm hearing a little positive buzz on last year's third round pick, Chase Brown. I think Chase Brown may overtake Zack Moss as the RB1 for the Bengals at a certain point. We're also gonna have a reunion this weekend, Andy. I know you're very much looking forward to this. Probably why you went shopping at the Big Box store yesterday and stocked up on all your favorite foods and bebs, because we're having a hang with our old pals, Trenton Brown and Michael Gessicki on Sunday as well. - No, which is why I feel better about the Patriots. - Yeah, no, I mean, if it weren't for who he is, I would take Trent Brown's talent in a heartbeat right now. But he is who he is. You get what you get and you don't get upset 'cause you did it, but they got some bigons. Hey, I got some bigons, Trent Brown Orlando Brown and then the rookie Mims kid out of Georgia who's dealing with an injury, but they got three tackles that are massive. - They did invest in the draft in tackle spot. Amarius Mims is a mountain of humanity, but he's been a little dinged up as well. They lose Jonah Williams in the offseason. In comes old Trent Brown, one year $10 million deal. Andy, should the Bengals look forward to at times disinterested, mercurial, unpredictable kind of pouty weird Trent Brown this year because that's his resting state, or is this gonna be focused, energized Trent Brown, who on a one year deal realizes, "Hey, I might be able to dupe some other team into a three year deal next year, so why don't I play hard this year and pretend like I care?" - No, you're gonna get the Trent Brown who will give you flashes of greatness and great games and will infuriate you probably more often than not in the totality of the season. I like that. He is who he is. He was who he was here. He was who he was in Las Vegas in Oakland, or just Oakland, I guess, at the time. He was who he was in San Francisco. That's who he is. Big ol' leopards his size don't change their stripes. - They just get new tats of them doing funny things with girls on their arms. - Yeah, that's pretty much. Well, there's a lot of surface area to get a lot of tattoo on that body. - Okay, good question from our old pal Jeff Stenberg. We started watching lives. We record this live, the six rings in football things. Patriots Bengals preview week one, 2024. When Trent Brown wants to play, he's fantastic. Will playing the pats give him a little motivation? - Probably. This will probably be one of his good games, whatever that's four, five, six good games this year. It wouldn't stun me if this is one of his good games against the Patriots. Also, I don't know how great the matchup is or bad the matchup is for him. You got guys that got plenty to prove on this, the edge of this defensive front. Optimistic guys, key on white, bounce back guys, Uche. You don't have, as Bill Belichick pointed out, in one of his many, many media appearances, you don't have Matthew Judon as the centerpiece of the pass rush anymore. So that's again, that's one of the many, many, many questions throughout this game. And this, I keep emphasizing the questions that the Bengals face, the questions that the Patriots face. - Most teams are facing a litany of questions in week one about, can they live up to their hype? Are they better than their questions? Is this new guy good? Is this coach working? Does this defensive coordinator addition help? - Right. I already have a popsicle headache just thinking about all that. And that's the other freaking team. We haven't even talked about the Patriots yet. Like, for example, will there actually be some sort of pass rush that they can generate or scheme up? Yesterday. - You had that numb nut. - I'm starting, I'm using that and then spinning it into the next level of questions. No, I'm not. - Jidda, listen. - I'm trying to. - That big old head has big old ears. Try to use them. - This big old head. - It's a lot of beers. - Hey, oh yeah, why don't you blow it out? You're a Sicilian a hole. By the way, go after yourself. But now we flip to the offensive side of the ball with the Patriots. Will it be Nick Levert that starts at left guard? - Probably, so now we're going to have the umteeth different iteration or combination of offensive lineman. This is likely not to be the one that they'll play within week two or three. It's just a mess. - I've often heard with the offensive line, it's best to have as few snaps as possible of guys working in their spots together. It's better to just throw crap at the wall and the first time they line up together is the first time in a game. Yeah, it's generally the best way to do it. It's like-- - It's the way Skarnetki always preached and drew it up. - Absolutely. - Yeah, nobody wants rep-- - Guys, we're going to play line roulette. I'm just going to throw 10 names in a bag. I'll pick five, go to your spot, shut your hole and know you're all. - And by the way, if he were coaching, I would take that over what they got right now. 'Cause I think he could take hisons and beat yourons and take yourons and beat hisons. - Now, let's look at the playmakers or at least the people that'll be trying to make plays when the football is in their hands. - Am I critically the squad? - Yeah. - What's going on? - He's doing a lot. - He's got a lot going on. - I'm ready. - It's football season, baby. - I'm excited. - Where's the football? - You can draw it a lee. - Where's the football? - So, when it comes to the remandres, the presets, the wide receivers. All right, first question I'll throw your way. Jacobi Brissette, over under, 25 and a half passes attempted. - Over. - Okay. - Well, they're chasing, so he's got to. I would say-- - You think so? But what if the Bengals just have the ball, like, for 41 minutes? - Yeah, I think the Bengals will have some big plays and some big scores. So, I think you'll be chasing multiple scores in the second half, so you're probably gonna have to throw the ball a little bit for Jacobi Brissette. - But an optimal or a successful game script for the Patriots, where the team coordinated by Alex van Pelt, who has said, I believe yesterday, he referred to it on the afternoon show, as his hostage video, that the Patriots released on Instagram several months back. - Appreciate your listening. - Where he said he wanted to, I gotta try it every now and again before I switch over to the other station. So, (laughs) So, I said, you know, running the football is fundamental to scoring in the national football league. So, he already kind of spoiler alerted us as to what kind of offense we think he's gonna wanna run. And then, you got guys like new head coach, Gerard Rust, I think, Rod Mayo, excuse me. - Oh. - J.K.L.O.L. - Oh, and I'm prickly this morning. - Hey, come on, I didn't sleep very much last night either. So, then you got Mayo saying, yesterday, that controlling the line of scrimmage is gonna be the biggest key for the Patriots having a chance to win this game Sunday. Now, do you see the Patriots dominating or controlling the line of scrimmage on either side of the ball this weekend? - The defensive front, I don't discount their ability to potentially control the line of scrimmage. The offensive front, I think they're gonna fight in uphill battle. Questions at tackle against good ends. Some decent stoutness in the middle of that defense. But again, I can look at their players in depth chart and say one thing, the reality is, they gave up a lot of yards on the ground last year, they gave up a lot of yards through the air last year. And it's not last year, but a lot of the talent, the coordinator of the scheme is a carryover. And Van Pelt and Brissette have familiarity with this scheme and with this coordinator and with this talent, with this matchup. So they should know what they're doing. Now, whether they can execute it or not, we'll see. But yeah, they need to run the ball, we know that. Absolutely need to run the ball to win this game. They need to establish the play action game, the boots, some shot plays. I'm interested, I don't know if you remember, Hunter Henry, before he got banged up, was talking about, yeah, this offense seems to afford the tight ends, some opportunities to maybe get some chunk plays, make some plays down the field. I would love to see a catch and run Hunter Henry play, where he gets a little space 15, 18 yards downfield and maybe can turn that into a 40 yard play. They're going to need some chunk plays. There is no way in hell, they are going to run the ball to the degree of five yards clouded dust, that's good enough. There will need to be off of that chunk plays, which is part of this offense, but I'm just saying, they have to execute those, whether that's Henry, some of those deep overs we saw from Damaria Douglas in practice, like don't just think Douglas is a slot short guy, there's probably going to be some opportunities for him down the field. We had a question earlier about who the healthy scratches may be at receiver, is it booty, is it Baker? I think it's probably Baker who'll be a healthy scratch for wanting to get to that one in the rapid fire questions. But yeah, I have no idea what to expect from this offense. Are we going to see the Patriots go with a traditional ground and pound approach thinking that the Bengals defensive line can be had because they don't have DJ Rita anymore? Are they going to try to scheme up and get after Joe Burrow and put some pressure on him to make some throws with that reconstructed wrist with the receivers that were taking time off in the offseason? Or are they going to sort of hang back and try to do the classic Patriots bend but don't break approach on defense? You know, Demarcus Covington obviously learned from many of the best but now he's making his own shots and calls with a little influence from Mayo as well. I think it's going to be absolutely fascinating. I do. And I am with you, Ramondre Stevenson needs to be the offensive MVP. He needs to be the focal point of the offense. They need to get him as many touches, preferably more successful than not more positive than negative, to say the least. - I do want to get to a couple of questions right here. There we go. Yep. Okay, so Los Tox-Pats on Twitter wanted to know who gets the scratch booty or Baker which you just addressed. I think-- - Baker. - I think Baker, I think he probably does get the scratch for that IG live earlier this week. Here we go. - Oh, it's more than that. It's the totality. I keep using that word because it's a draw on Mayo word. It's the totality of the summer. He didn't catch the ball well. He wasn't in great shape. He was running with the threes. I'm not sure how great some of his professionalism was. It's very similar. The Bengals have a young receiver Burton out of Georgia who had a really nice production on the preseason game field but is apparently kind of a immature dank who's been sleeping. - 'Cause he was at Alabama then had to transfer to Georgia. He was another one of these guys. Like he tried to-- - Maturity. Yeah, exactly. - Yeah, maturity. He's got talent, made some plays but you're not a professional wide receiver yet and I was reading some clips that they kind of expect. He might be a healthy scratch despite making some plays. - So there's Trenton Erwin, who's the other one? Erwin, I believe, is one slot receiver and then Iosivas. Yeah, who's supposed to actually be sneaky good too. Kenny Tasney, is Chase playing? And if so, do you think Gonzo can shut him down? I don't think any one person can totally shut Jamar Chase down unless he's completely out of shape. And this goes back to what we addressed earlier this week, Andy. Too much pressure for Christian Gonzalez to just step in and be freaking Patrick Sertain, one or two or any of your favorite shutdown corners. He's not Steph on Gilmore yet. Can we just let the guy establish his own legacy now before we put him in the Hall of Fame? But I mean, that's what he wants to be. That's what he was drafted to be. He's not that yet and that's not fair to expect that of him. To be competitive, okay. You know, we used to talk, there were games when the Malcolm Butler was the number one corner where he would... Not a number one corner. Well, he was. It is what it is. He was the number one corner. He would struggle with like Antonio Brown. Why? It's tough. Even when you're a number one corner, those guys are really good. They get paid too. The rules are kind of slanted in their directions. Those are tough matchups and the days of winning those and shutting people down are long gone. I need Gonzalez to be competitive and my other concern is rolling the injury report into this. Jonathan Jones limited in practice yesterday with a hamstring, not great. Not what I'm looking for. I don't know if that's what... 'Cause he had kind of an on and off the field all summer thing going on. He's always an ankle or a hammy with this guy. Well, this is a hammy. Yeah. Oh, there was tone to that. There was. I think I actually, I think there was tone. It's a little frustrating. I think a prickly one this morning is the guy who's supposed to be optimistic and positive. I told you I didn't sleep well last night. But Jonathan Jones spoke with the media. He spoke with the afternoon program. That's its name. Don't question it. On WEI on Tuesday. So generally when guys are that vocal and in the locker room and holding session with the media, they're gonna play. But I'm just saying a hamstring first game of the season. T Higgins, Jamar Chase, one of your cornerbacks. I'm not sure I love that recipe or that concoction you're putting together in the back end. Marcus Jones was on and off the field all summer too. He's the one that flies under the radar. I have no idea whether Marcus Jones is a good slot corner or not. Last I saw him. He wasn't all that good at the position. Exactly. Well, as far as the defensive effort, we know one thing as Devon God show told us this week. In the locker room, I call those guys, trust you. All those guys are running to a brick wall behind you, including myself, just having the culture of you playing football, knowing how it's done and then coming out to mentor. And that's each and every day to do the right thing. I just want to say, Andy, we are definitely living in strange days. When Bill Belichick officially joins Instagram and reads a hostage video, you know, script that his girlfriend writes for him. And then on the very same day, the man who took over as coach for him in New England appears on one of his own players' podcasts to have flowers sent his way. And then Gerard Mayo says on The God Show or whatever the Devon God Show podcast is, he says, having a quarterback that can extend the play is key to winning in the modern NFL. You've got a quarterback that can extend plays. He just happens to be sitting on the sideline this week. It was the same day they released the podcast that Gerard Mayo at the podium in his first midweek press conference of a game week said, "You get better at playing football by playing football." Except for Drake May apparently because he's not going to play football. Yeah, it's a weird world. I'm also sick of podcasts. That's probably something weird to say on a podcast. On a podcast? No, I actually feel like I've reached peak podcast. At least like, we put the podcast out, but we have more fun doing this live and engaging with the twisted members of Pat's Nation and our Foxboro faithful than we do just like, "Oh good, we do a podcast." Like this is one of the fun parts for me. And it's going to be more fun Sunday when we not only have the six rings in football things, live post game show and WEEI, but we do our first ever six rings unfiltered live halftime program right here. So no matter how the game is going, ice up son, tune in, get ready, and LFG. All right. I also need to apologize to the Patriot Nation. Devan Gacha said that he would run through a brick wall for coach Mayo. That brought up a cheap shot I took at the offensive line yesterday on our show that I felt bad about even though I kind of believe in it. My co-host Christian Arkand said it's on Gerard Mayo to motivate the offensive line, to get those guys to run through a brick wall for him, to which I said, "These guys, they'd missed the wall." And I immediately felt a little bad. Ah, take a lap just like Los wants me to do because the name of the podcast is Shaw Talk, Shaw to God Shaw, Shaw Talk, Shaw Talk. All right, jeez, my God. It's called "One Podcast Two Men." Too many. Maybe that was the Brian Hoyer David Andrews podcast that was announced this week. Oh yeah, by the way, what's that, Quick Snaps? Yeah. Not Quick Slants, did it? I mean, no disrespect but a backup quarterback in a center. That's your, like. A previous player and a current player dissecting the, I mean, we just, we need podcasts. There's too many people in the world and there's too many podcasts. That's the simple reality. Thanos need to do it again and podcasts need to be part of it. Boom, half of them gone. Can you imagine if there was a Thanos podcast snap that would be amazing? Bye. Yeah, for us. No, we'd survive. No, people need this. We'd survive. Absolutely. Are you kidding? All right, enough. Let's dispense with the pleasantries, the slap and tickle and the Sunday stuttering. Let's just get right down to it. One o'clock, pay course to 18, Patriots at Bengals, over under 40 and a half. As of right now on the sports books, the Bengals are favored by eight and a half points. Andy, give me your prediction for the game as well as a star or player O game. So seeing as I said that they could lose every game and they play this year, I'm gonna pick them to lose the first game. They play this year. I would lay the points with the Bengals. I think they can F around and still find out enough to win by more than eight and a half points. I don't, they have questions, but they have answers to those questions that are really good, even if they're not at their best. So, and I just, you know, I believe the Patriots are sort of a work in progress where the progress has been somewhat slow. - You're being very kind. See, he is being, it's nice Andy. - I'm trying. I'm packaging it, lipstick, pig, meat. So, I just, I gotta take the Bengals. I probably would take the under quite honestly. - Okay. - Because score may be in mind. - I am thinking something like 28 to six or something like that. I think the Bengals are gonna score some points and I don't think the Patriots are gonna score very many points. Patriots need big plays to score in my opinion. - Oh, no doubt. They'll need at least one score on defense. - Kicking game, defense. They need, you know, the Marcus Jones special kind of thing, all in one game. - The old MJS. Who do you have for an MVP on the game as well Sunday? - I'm gonna say Joe Barrow puts to bed. You mean just game MVP, not a Patriots. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Okay, yeah. I'm gonna say Joe Barrow puts the questions to bed. I think he's talked the talk this off season. I think he comes out and walks the walk. And for him, even though they're a bad team, he probably wants to, he's probably heard the Patriots defense is good. Oh, they're a top 10 defense. Mina Kimes thinks they're a top five defense and all this hype about the Patriots defense probably gives Joe Barrow some motivation. Okay, I can show people something against a supposedly good defense right out the gates. - Even with the Pete Davidson/M&M haircut and dye job that Joe Burrow's going with now. - Oh, I love that or something. Actually, I think it looks kind of awesome as well. - And I love Joe Burrow. - I love Joe Burrow. - I've read it for a cancer patient too. - Oh, I think he's a good dude. - I think he's a great dude on all levels. Talent, leadership, normalcy, demeanor. - Yeah, he was at one fashion thing. That he looked ridiculous when he went to Europe or Paris where he was. - That's fine, Brady had long hair. - Our run stuffing defensive tackle just looked like, I don't even know what he looked like in that podcast with the locker room, like all those guys trust you. All those guys are running to a brick wall behind you including-- - Okay. - Don't you think somewhere Fred Smirlish just rolled over in his grave? He's like, he's got like an aviator's cap on with glasses and an ascot. And I guarantee you that ascot costs more than either of our closets and possibly both combined. - Probably. And didn't a nose tackle used to be kind of a gritty, workman-like, like, - Smirlish and Ted Washington are respectively just like gnawing on raw meat on the bone right now. - Ridiculous, but okay. - Okay, so 28 to six final score. Joe Burrows, the MVP of the game. All right, because I'm the one crazy enough, the only one at the station to say that I thought the Patriots could hang in this game would be able to cover. And possibly if they were gonna pull off one wild, holy smokes, this is the kind of fuel that helps the fires of overreaction Monday rage. I may as well just own it right now. So either a, y'all can victory lap all over me on the Six Rings post-game show Sunday. And then forget about me by the time you go to the frequency modulated radio Monday Andy. Or I'll get to say, ah, who was there first? I told you so. So the doing of the Patriots will not score an offensive touchdown on Sunday. They'll get close, but they won't. However, they will get a defensive touchdown from my pick of MVP on the day. Jubreel peppers, the shocker, the upset of the season. Your Patriots 19, the Bengals 17, player of the game, Jubreel peppers. It's an under, it's a cover. Don't take it to the bank 'cause I do not want to be responsible for many of you people needing to take out a HELOC or a second mortgage on Monday 'cause you trusted old Uncle Fitzy. But hey, I gotta own my spot. You said I gotta steer back into my lane of Patriots positivity. Well, there I am. Now you know, and so it goes. Anything else you want to add before we throw to my little chat with our friends on It's Always Game Day in Cincinnati where we find out exactly what the good people of Bengals nation are thinking? - This is a cross promotion, but we had some breaking news recently unveiled on our website about the Boston Celtics according to a morning show co-host Courtney Cox, a source that she trusts implicitly. The bidding for the Boston Celtics who are up for sale, as everybody knows, is down to three groups. And the three finalists are apparently in no particular order, Jeff Bezos and his group, Sam Kennedy and group, which is Fenway Sports Group, and win casinos and resorts. - Wow, so Pagliuca and company out. - This is according to our Courtney Cox, and a source. - Win 'cause, I also find it interesting that - Win took a bath, by the way, on win bet, just FYI. Some of the sports books that have opened and shuttered, that one didn't do very well. - Well, you know, you can't win 'em all. - Well, you get the synergy with the on board down the street and, okay, that makes sense. Number two, you said Sam Kennedy? - Sam Kennedy and group is the way it was apparently listed somewhere, and Courtney Cox is like, well, that's Fenway Sports Group, but that's an interesting way to list it. - Yeah, and then the Jeff Bezos group, and there had been reports both ways that Bezos was in, Bezos was out, you know. - I think Bezos gets it. I think he gets it. I don't think it just becomes a portfolio piece. I think it becomes a point of pride for him. He doesn't worry about second and third aprons. He shells out big money. I think he'd probably be an excellent owner in all those, like Celtic pride. What could possibly mean more? - Well, if he runs the Celtic, if he gets him, and then he runs the Celtics, the way he ran Amazon, he would be the perfect owner, because for years, and I don't know if this is still true, Amazon didn't make money, it broke even, 'cause everything that they made was reinvested into the company to grow it into other businesses. - Didn't it take over 20 years for them to turn a profit? - Well, but by choice, he could have turned a profit much earlier had he just said, no, this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna skate this lane, we're successful in it, but he kept growing and growing and growing, and all money that came in, basically went back into the company, and isn't that how you want your sports team run? If you get it in, just put it right back into the organization. - It sure would, I think that would be, I'm gonna say right now, I hope Bezos buys the Celtics. - I do, I actually don't hate, I mean, the Fenway Sports Group one is probably the least appetizing locally just because of the way they've managed the red Sox of late, and that would be a bit of a concern, so they'd probably be third, but yeah, Bezos win, they're both seem like they're into spending money, so it's fun. - Yeah, and hey, it would make a lot of sense for Bezos to buy the Celtics because most of the Celtics players are in their prime. - Terrible. - I was gonna say it's a win-win situation. - All right, so we have each have one shitty dad joke on the way out the door. Fantastic, all right, that'll do right now for our preview and prediction. Of course, I have the Patriots winning 19-17, Andy has the Bengals 28-6. We will review and recap all of this on the Six Rings post-game show Sunday, and don't miss our Six Rings unfiltered live halftime show right here on the Fitsy GFI and WEEI socials. Good job, heart, good job, commenters, as always. Thanks everyone for playing along, and now please stay tuned for the back half of the pod with my conversation with our friends on our Cincinnati Odyssey Sister podcast. It's always game day in Cincinnati. Spoiler alert, very little mercy is shown. We'll talk to you guys soon. Good day, God bless, stay tuned for that chat, and as always, go pets. From the mind of a two-foot tall talking spunk's puppet comes this year's biggest challenge. It's time for Bob's Dare to Compare. The hottest game show on TV that asks, what happens when you compare Bob's to the competition? You get style, you get quality, you get beeps and boops and dings and wops, and thousands of dollars and savings. 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