00:00Lions win.
00:01Did they win you over 248-539-9797?
00:04Some feedback early in the show.
00:07I damn near threw my remote through the TV in the first quarter,
00:10but man, did they rally back.
00:12Yeah.
00:13I wasn't impressed.
00:15Cardinals are horrendous.
00:16Talk to me after they win five straight and says,
00:19sounds like delusions of grandeur, boys.
00:22It's SOL.
00:23You know, everybody's back on the bus.
00:26Well, I'm not doing season-long proclamations right now.
00:30No.
00:30And I don't think you are either.
00:32No, it was a must-win.
00:33They responded.
00:34They were challenged throughout the course of the week by the media,
00:38by fans, by the coaching staff, and the players responded.
00:41Now, we've got to see is some of the adjustments
00:45or the message from the coaches to the players,
00:50did it finally hit home defensively?
00:53And is it something that's repeatable?
00:56Because last year, we had the Legion of Whom.
01:00It looked great for one game.
01:03And then it just disappeared.
01:06Last year, there were some shades of 24.
01:10The Bears 50-point game, the Cowboys on Jerry's birthday.
01:13You mentioned Legion of Whom, where they throttled and took care of the Bucs.
01:18The problem is those were few and far between.
01:20What made 2024 special is they did that damn near every week.
01:24They won 15 games, and I believe the majority were by double digits.
01:28They were a dominant team.
01:29This team just did it one time.
01:33They're going to have to prove that they can harness that more often.
01:38But as we wake up today talking about that game,
01:41that is exactly, John, that is what we wanted to see.
01:44Well, and it makes the first four that much more concerning,
01:49because if you show that you can do it once, you should be able to do it again.
01:53All right, so it took them four games to get to this one.
01:57Now, is this something that, because they've shown it,
02:00these are the expectations we have for this defense,
02:02you've got to be able to do it, especially against division opponents.
02:05You've got Green Bay on the horizon.
02:07You've got Minnesota on the horizon.
02:08Minnesota may still be undefeated at that time.
02:10I don't know.
02:11They only have one game between now and then, and it's the Colts.
02:13Right, and so if you're looking at a 6-0 Minnesota,
02:17you're going to have to show, because both of those division opponents are at home.
02:21Yep.
02:23It says, it reminds me of Dan Campbell giving the game ball
02:27to the victims of the high school shooting years ago.
02:29I love Dan.
02:30That's Brian in Cadillac talking about the gesture,
02:33giving the game ball to Dan Miller.
02:35It says, this is the worst case scenario for me, boys.
02:38Shep will keep his job.
02:39No pressure to improve the secondary.
02:40I wish they were blown out to force change.
02:43So we asked that question, and we had no takers.
02:46Yeah.
02:47I got made to look like the fool, because not a single person acknowledged it.
02:51And now all of a sudden, oh, well, now, they're not going to make a change,
02:55because this happened, and we should have lost that game.
02:58Come on.
02:58Another says, love winning, but this was the worst possible thing that could have happened.
03:02The defense looked competent.
03:03It means Shep survives, and we'll be here the rest of the season.
03:07No, the concern that I have isn't with Shep.
03:11The concern that I have is with Brad Holmes.
03:13Does he look at this and say, yeah, I told you guys, we're still, I like the guys in that
03:19room.
03:23He should, I think this is the perfect time.
03:25You're not going to make a change in D.C., but this is the perfect time to go out there
03:30and add.
03:30We saw a trade consummated in the middle of the Lions game.
03:35Now, we knew this was in the works, right?
03:37It was reported that Marvin Harrison Jr., he was going to be inactive because they were working on a trade.
03:42Had no idea who it was until they announced in the middle of the game that he was traded to
03:47the Houston Texans.
03:49And now you're looking at it going, okay, trades are happening.
03:53We saw Joey Porter Jr. traded already.
03:56Marvin Harrison Jr. traded already.
03:58You don't have to wait till the 11th hour right before November 10 to make a trade.
04:06Yes, you're going to get Brian Branch back and hopefully things look better again.
04:11But it doesn't change the fact that you still need to add, upgrade the talent in the corner room or
04:19safety room.
04:21One or both.
04:23They played a lot of man coverage.
04:25It was noted on the broadcast, it's something that they did a lot under Aaron Glenn.
04:29And we had wondered, well, do they have the guys to do it?
04:32And they were trying to trade for Joey Porter Jr.
04:34Because I think there are real questions of if they can run man coverage the way they want.
04:38They did yesterday.
04:40Cannot be seduced by that, though.
04:42Correct.
04:42And so the seduction isn't about Dan Campbell and not firing Calvin Shepard or not moving on from him or
04:51not having somebody else as a defensive play caller.
04:54My concern is that Brad Holmes looks at this and goes, see, I told you so.
05:03Text says, I'm not saying the secondary is going to be fixed by any means, but Abney and Rakestraw are
05:07only going to get better with the snaps they play.
05:10Obviously, Branch is coming back.
05:11We still need to add a corner, but I feel like there is hope now.
05:15So I'm looking at Rakestraw as a rookie.
05:18I know it's his third year, and he's had a chance to sit in those meetings and learn NFL offenses,
05:24learn the defense.
05:25But in terms of experience on the field, he is a rookie.
05:29Sure.
05:30And yes, does he have the chance to be better every week?
05:36Certainly, because he is a rookie.
05:40Ali McNeil looks like an NFL Defensive Player of the Year candidate.
05:46He's been really good.
05:47I'm not going to go that far.
05:50I think he's having the best year of his career.
05:53He looks better now than he did before the ACL.
05:59That's not the same thing as winning Defensive Player of the Year, but this could be a guy that puts
06:02himself in that conversation Pro Bowl type of stuff.
06:05All-Pro, if he were to keep this going.
06:08He's playing to the level of contract that he earned prior to the injury.
06:13And that was in 24 when he got hurt?
06:18When they had their best regular season.
06:21If you can get him playing his best football, they had five sacks from their front.
06:24The defensive line has not been the issue at all this season.
06:27Wonham has been a good find for Brad Holmes.
06:30He's been a good addition for this defensive line.
06:32They were very good up front.
06:34The difference in this game is they didn't have as many blown assignments.
06:37I know there was some stuff with tight ends and bootlegs and red zones, but it felt like their man
06:41coverage down the field was a little better.
06:42I think you get less MAs when you got one guy and you just got to stay on him.
06:47You don't get the, whoa, who's covering that guy?
06:50And it led to their best defensive performance of the year.
06:53And Derek Moore actually now has a stat line.
06:56Oh, he played?
06:57Oh, yeah, he played.
06:57He got a quarterback hit.
06:58Okay.
06:59He got one solo tackle and he was out on two.
07:02So now it's, instead of zeros across the board, you have a couple of numbers in there.
07:08Texas, no, they didn't win me over.
07:10I gave up on them after last year in Pitt and Minnesota.
07:14Pathetic losses.
07:15Wish them luck, but I'm officially Lions free.
07:17Randy in Oxford.
07:19Well, hey, good for you.
07:20Enjoy your Sundays.
07:21Anyways, the rest of us are going to be tuned in as we always are.
07:27And I somewhat understand where he's at in regards to, the Lions have to do more to win him over.
07:36Fair.
07:37Because, and we had talked about this last week, this is why I said this was a must win.
07:41Because it felt like, now that Pittsburgh and Minnesota last year was in December, early January.
07:49You ran out, you're done.
07:50Yeah, but it felt like in that Pittsburgh game, all three phases kind of just threw the towel in and
07:56said, ap, peace out.
07:58Because then they end up losing to Max Brosmer and the Vikings.
08:03Pathetic.
08:04I thought there was a chance that this room was fragile enough that if they didn't win this one, we
08:10would hit that point earlier in the season.
08:13Yeah, so to address Randy, I got no issue if someone says, I need to see more.
08:18Or this was awesome, but it was only one.
08:21Great.
08:22The phrase Lions free has always irked me.
08:26Because while I don't know Randy personally, I feel like a lot of people that say Lions free are the
08:31people that are on their couch on Sundays or listening to the radio and have a take and they're ready
08:36to respond.
08:37How are you Lions free if you are paying attention to the Lions?
08:41Well, yeah, and they're called out on Twitch as well.
08:44If he was Lions free, he wouldn't be texting in about the Lions.
08:47Texting at 645 on Monday morning, but you don't care.
08:51It's okay to just say you need to see more, but don't claim your Lions free.
08:56You're invested.
08:57Right.
08:57Some people.
08:58You may not be as invested as you were last year.
09:01You might not be bought in.
09:03You might be skeptical.
09:04There are people out there who actively root against the Lions.
09:08Yeah.
09:08So with the question being, did they win you back?
09:11I'm going to put them down as a no.
09:13Right.
09:14I think I put myself down as a no.
09:17You know what I mean?
09:18Like, I want to highlight how awesome that was.
09:21And I saw some of 2024, but part of 2024 was stacking.
09:24Right.
09:25So, no, I don't consider myself even someone who's bought all the way back in.
09:31No, I think there's a lot of people that would look at that and go, well, maybe.
09:36Maybe he's not a yes.
09:37Yeah.
09:37And I'm in the maybe category, but I need to see it.
09:40And we have a great opportunity.
09:41We're not going to see it this Sunday.
09:44But we have an opportunity against two division opponents when they return from this bye week.
09:50702, we'll get to overreact, Jims, where we have stories all across the NFL and Michigan State.
09:57A little college football flavor as well.
09:59It's 97-1.
