00:00All right, we'll see if anybody can get TJ's blood pressure up like Richard.
00:04I'm in a good mood.
00:05They won the game, right?
00:07Everybody's happy, right?
00:08Yeah, thanks, Richard.
00:10Richard?
00:11What's the nickname for Richard?
00:13You tell me.
00:14This text says, I am oddly siding a little bit with Costa.
00:19Happy about the win, but how do you give up a third and 17 to their only good receiver?
00:24Well, I think that was a penalty, wasn't it?
00:26I think he caught it and it was pass interference, right?
00:29Oh, yeah, the Garrett Wilson.
00:31Yeah.
00:32Yeah, I mean, and we talked about some of their guys made some big-time plays.
00:39And I don't want to let them off the hook because you never look at it and say, oh, man,
00:44that was a great play.
00:45You look at it and say, okay, how do I find a way to improve on that?
00:49But they did make, we mentioned that play and Kenyon Sadiq.
00:54Yeah, that was a great play.
00:54There was a couple more catches that were just like, jeez, man, these dudes are,
00:58we're catching everything, right?
01:00It happens sometimes.
01:01Relax, it's going to be a long season.
01:03It says, they're never going to always look exactly how we want.
01:06Find a way to get to 10 wins.
01:08And you're at a good spot right now.
01:10Yeah.
01:11You're 2-1.
01:11You're probably, I mean, if we sat here four weeks ago and we all had to guess what the record
01:18would be right now.
01:192-1.
01:20Okay.
01:21And they're most likely going to have a winning record at the bye week.
01:24Scoring 31 points a game with still not maybe playing a complete complimentary game yet.
01:32Right.
01:32But even offensively, I don't think they're hitting on all cylinders.
01:34Like, Jameer Gibbs has looked good.
01:36Goff has played, I think, the start of his best season to this point.
01:40Yeah.
01:40He's been very efficient.
01:41And taking care of the football, too.
01:42That's the thing.
01:43It's like you haven't given, you haven't put your defense in worse position.
01:48Like, I would love for them to be able to start out and score on a scripted, beautiful opening drive.
01:53Like, that has not happened.
01:55They were three and out in each of the first two games on that opening drive.
01:58They gained a little bit of yardage but still had to punt on the opening drive.
02:01They've only scored seven points in the first quarter.
02:04That was against New Orleans.
02:05I would like to see them start faster.
02:08Yeah.
02:09To help out the defense or convert on that fourth down.
02:13Like, there are some things the offense could be doing, but I'm also not going to complain about scoring 31
02:19a game.
02:19Right.
02:19But doesn't that give you, like, for me, I look at it the other side where that gives me a
02:23little hope and confidence that, man, they're playing maybe a B-.
02:28Right.
02:28And it's with a new coordinator, a new play caller.
02:30With the talent that they have, right?
02:31And then you have to build that chemistry, a new offensive line and moving pieces and a lot of moving
02:36pieces, you know, in the secondary.
02:38And other guys having to step in.
02:40And, like, that's why I look at it right now saying, hey, you're three weeks through.
02:44You're probably playing B-, B- level of what the talent looks like.
02:50Yeah.
02:51But you're still scoring a lot of points.
02:53You're still 2-1.
02:55Because I know just, I mean, I think we all do, that we have confidence that Dan Campbell is going
02:59to find a way to just keep his guys motivated, make the corrections, find a way to get better week
03:04to week.
03:05And then when we're sitting here in December, right, like, hey, man, we just, we're starting to click a little
03:10bit.
03:10We're starting to get rolling.
03:11Or November, those dog days where you've got to go grind some games out where, hey, we're not going to
03:15score 31 points, but we might have to win a game, you know, 20 to 17, whatever it might look
03:21like.
03:21And that's why I just have some hope because, and encouragement, because that defense could have gone one way or
03:29the other coming off of last week.
03:31They all heard all the noise.
03:32They all said, hey, we've got to make changes.
03:35They all said we have to play better.
03:36Calvin Shepard, we already mentioned, you know, his monologue that he gave.
03:40You can tell those guys were under that pressure.
03:43Okay, how do you respond?
03:44You've got to show it on the field.
03:46The defense played well.
03:47They took a step forward.
03:50They're not there yet, but they made some big plays and some key moments.
03:55And that, to me, is encouragement.
03:57I'll be the first to tell you, Jim, you can second this in regards to, I was not happy.
04:01I did not like hearing seven and a half minutes from Calvin Shepard of all the things that they were,
04:06you know, quote unquote doing, you know, showing us how they're making the sausage.
04:10Right.
04:10And I just, all I wanted to know was, is it actually going to pay off?
04:15And I thought, yesterday, I saw it pay off.
04:18I did.
04:19And the guys played harder.
04:20I thought the guys were flying around the field.
04:21I thought the guys were getting to the football.
04:23I thought the coverage was much better.
04:25We already mentioned, you know, the Jets made some really nice plays.
04:29But overall, when you're looking week-to-week improvement, they made a lot of improvements yesterday.
04:36And that's going to be the challenge now is the consistency of that.
04:40You can't, now, you can't walk in here on a victory Monday saying, oh, we had a great game.
04:45We got it all fixed.
04:45We played better.
04:46We got it all fixed.
04:46And we can just cruise.
04:47No.
04:48How can you still clean up some of the little details to put this team in a better position
04:52to not have to, you know, grind one out in the last, you know, two or three minutes of the
04:57game
04:57like they have two of the first three so far?
05:01Let's get to Dan on the phones.
05:02Dan, good morning.
05:04Hey, how you guys doing?
05:05Good.
05:06Hey, I just want to say to the Lions faithful, like, we haven't been running with the same
05:16team that we've all fell in love with.
05:19You know, we lost so many all pros, captains, linemen, playmakers, whether to retirement,
05:26free agency.
05:28Like, you don't just, you know, replace Brian Branch or Kirby Joseph, Carlton Davis, like
05:38Frank Ragnow.
05:39But for some reason, it's like we still have this expectation every year.
05:43Like, we're, you know, we just have to be Super Bowl or bust.
05:46Like, the biggest thing is trying to replace these guys that we've lost.
05:50That has been our biggest hurdle, you know, and every just, like, week after, like, I
05:55was impressed with the win.
05:57I'm happy we got the win.
05:58I wasn't impressed with the, you know, the New Orleans game.
06:01But, I mean, we're making steps in the right direction.
06:04It's just really about getting the guys that we do have healthy.
06:09And then, just like I say, we have to replace these people that we're losing as if they're
06:14just, you know, like they're not all pro players.
06:17Like, I just don't get the expectation.
06:19And, Dan, the goal is get Branch back right around, coming out of that bye week, probably.
06:24That could be a nice boost for this team.
06:25But when you say getting better, where did you think they were significantly better week
06:29one against the Saints versus what you saw yesterday?
06:34Well, what is the free agent that we got?
06:36The DB, Christian Isian.
06:39Isian.
06:39He played well.
06:40He made a lot of plays yesterday.
06:42Like, you know, Chuck Clark, who we brought in from, I think it was Baltimore.
06:48He made a lot of stuff quietly.
06:50You know, like all these things.
06:52Like, having the veteran players, you know, that know how to do their job.
06:57Like, these guys showed up.
06:58But a lot of people won't talk about it because, you know, they're just still having these high
07:03expectations.
07:04But it's like, you know, we brought these guys in for a reason.
07:07We can't just have all, you know, people on rookie contracts.
07:11Like, you know, the few players that we got that are really great, Amin Ra, Finesul, you
07:16know, of course.
07:17But we haven't replaced a lot of people.
07:20And then when I talk about the receiving core, you know, I look at J-Mo as a tool, right?
07:26But he's being asked to be the second best receiver when I think he should probably be the
07:32third receiver.
07:33You know, we lost guys like DJ Chark and Josh Riddick.
07:36Oh, see, I think J-Mo can handle being a number two.
07:39He was top ten last year in the NFL in receiving yards.
07:41I think he can definitely be a number two.
07:43I don't think they're asking too much of him there.
07:46248-539-9797.
07:48Rodney in Westland, you had an issue with something Campbell did?
07:51Oh, yeah, definitely.
07:53He could have cost us the game.
07:55He made one good decision when he finally took Tom Kennedy out of doing a kickoff.
08:01And you see what that improvement did.
08:03And when he went for fourth and one and fourth and two, when they're near the end of the
08:08game, that could have cost us the game.
08:09And they went down and scored the touchdown.
08:11He should have punted the ball then and put him farther back.
08:14And then I don't think they would have tied up the game.
08:17So his decision making with that fourth and one and fourth and two, I hope it don't cost
08:22us down in the future.
08:23But that was a bad decision.
08:25Either of you have an issue with it.
08:26I don't know how you feel about it.
08:28Looking at you, John, TJ.
08:29I didn't have an issue with it.
08:30No, I didn't.
08:31You got stuffed.
08:31And we know that that's their identity.
08:34Right.
08:34That's their MO.
08:34You're going to live and die by the sword.
08:36And they've had a lot of success doing it.
08:38They haven't yet so far this year, which is another.
08:41We mentioned the defense.
08:43Hey, you got time to close the game out.
08:44Offense.
08:45Go win the game.
08:45Same thing.
08:46And the defense, okay, they let up a touchdown.
08:48What's the offense do?
08:49They march right down the field four play 65 yards in under two minutes to score the go-ahead
08:55touchdown.
08:55And it was an eight, I think it was an eight point game at that point.
08:58Yes.
08:59Jets had to go down and, and they got the two point conversion, but you know at that point,
09:02hey, we're probably going to get the ball back, even if this doesn't go well and have
09:05a chance to win the game, which they did.
09:06So I haven't looked at the film yet of that.
09:11I haven't seen that play.
09:12I didn't feel like I loved the play call at the time, but.
09:14Well, at least it wasn't a quarterback sneak on fourth and one.
09:17Yeah.
09:19What happened on Saturday?
09:21Yes.
09:22I didn't have a problem with it.
09:23That's Dan Campbell, man.
09:24We know, we know his MO, we know his identity and what he wants his team to do.
09:28And there was no surprise to anybody.
09:30Two, four, eight, five, three, nine, 97, 97.
09:32We'll make our way through more of these phone calls.
09:34TJ Lang sitting in with us for this hour.
09:37We got a text that wants to know, is TJ with the morning show or the afternoon show when
09:42it comes to the Verlander stuff?
09:47We'll get back to you when we return.
09:48Oh, here's a tease.
09:49We get to a date, nine, and TJ Tease.
09:5297, nine, nine, 36.
