00:00Hour number two, good to have you on a stunningly beautiful Monday, Lions dust the Cardinals.
00:06What do you take out of it?
00:07But I want to do it a different way in hour two, which is how do you grade the opening
00:12quarter-ish for this football team?
00:15Yeah, we're a little bit more than 25% of the season, but we're a little bit less than
00:19a third.
00:20Let's just view this at the quarter, Paul.
00:21You've gotten to see five games.
00:25You've played who you've played, okay?
00:27Not based on paper, based on the results.
00:30Based on what those teams have done over a quarter.
00:33A lot of consternation about your defense.
00:35Everybody knows the offense is good.
00:38You played one team that people think might be a Super Bowl team, got your doors blown
00:42off.
00:42You played one team that people think might be a playoff team, question mark, and got
00:47beat.
00:48And then you played three recycling bins, two of which you had to escape.
00:52And then yesterday, you finally put the hammer down on somebody.
00:55How would you grade your football team through the opening quarter-ish of the season?
01:01In totality, sitting at 3-2 in a division where everyone has a winning record.
01:08The Packers are 3-2.
01:10The Bears have survived without Caleb.
01:12They're 3-2.
01:13And then the Vikings, whether it's mysticism, you think it's fake, you think it's real,
01:18they're 5-0.
01:19How would you grade where you sit right now?
01:232-4-8-5-3-9-97-97.
01:25I think you and I were in agreement.
01:27I'd give them a C to a C+.
01:30I'm going more C to a C-minus, only because you're 3-2, but the teams you've beaten aren't
01:37really that great.
01:39And that defense, look, yesterday's game was nice, it was fun, but that defense really
01:45hasn't changed.
01:46So I'm going about a C, C-minus.
01:49David, where would you have them?
01:51You'd be in the Cs, would you be a B-minus, C-plus?
01:55Look, they're 3-2.
01:56I'd probably give them a C+.
01:59I haven't been impressed, but they stayed afloat.
02:02It's better than what other teams have put on paper.
02:05And they haven't dropped a game to a bad team.
02:09They haven't.
02:10They just lost both against anyone who can actually get out of bed in the morning.
02:14Go ahead.
02:15That's fair, and I understand why you would be more C-plus.
02:17I understand why you would be more C-minus, but I'm going to be right in the middle at C.
02:21Because I think it can teeter either way after they come back from the bye.
02:26But right now, I don't like the slow starts on offense to games.
02:30Don't like that at all.
02:31And we all know what the defense is.
02:32So when you include all that together, to me, that's just right in the middle.
02:36There's a lot of things that needs improving.
02:39You know what's interesting with the slow starts?
02:41Because they cited it 800 times on that god-awful Fox broadcast yesterday.
02:46Can we just get Kugler and Johnston a severance?
02:49I'd rather watch the game in silence.
02:52But it was Jared Goff saying, who cares if we start slow if we score the next eight drives?
02:56I think there's truth in that if you're playing bad teams.
03:00But if you play good teams, that's not going to work.
03:06Because, A, you're not going to score the next eight drives.
03:08And, 2, you will put yourself in a multi-score deficit, just like we saw against Buffalo.
03:12And, no, no, I'm saying, right.
03:15I was just thinking, yeah, Buffalo tried that.
03:18Yeah, so, no, I'd like to see it change.
03:21For yesterday, it didn't deeply impact it.
03:24But it is something five games in now where you're just, you got ten total points in the first quarter
03:31in five games.
03:33They got to get that cleaned up.
03:35They got to get out to better starts.
03:36Because you're going to play better teams at some point.
03:39But how do you grade them?
03:42What do you do?
03:43And, again, we're getting a couple of calls on the officiating in college football.
03:46You want to rifle in about that MSU thing or the Alabama-Georgia thing?
03:50Look, I'm at a state with officiating in college football.
03:53I don't trust it.
03:55There's an element of corruption.
03:56There's an element of networks needing certain outcomes.
04:00And the conferences and networks are totally in bed now in a way they've never been before.
04:05I don't trust these officials.
04:06I don't.
04:07I'm with you on that.
04:08And I like what baseball did where, you remember, for years you can't argue balls and strikes.
04:13But guess what?
04:14Now you can.
04:15Now it is just, if there's an egregious pitch and you're just like, no, dude, that was a ball.
04:20I called it a strike.
04:21We'll find out in ten seconds.
04:23Actually, it was a ball.
04:25We move on.
04:26That's the other problem.
04:27Why can't they have expedited reviews in football?
04:29Right.
04:29They do it in the NFL.
04:31College, that was a 12-minute delay at Michigan State.
04:35Like, give me a break.
04:35It was a 12-minute delay because they just couldn't come out and say, we screwed up.
04:39So they had to find a way to make it seem like they knew exactly what they were doing.
04:43And you didn't.
04:44And the entire stadium.
04:45And I'm assuming that people on TV were like, what are you guys out there doing?
04:50So I would like that central governing agency, when they were watching it, you know what?
04:56Within 30 seconds, you know if somebody screwed up.
04:58No, no, no, no, no.
04:59That's not it.
05:00Go ahead and call that penalty.
05:01Or that's not a penalty, and let's move on.
05:032-4-8-5-3-9-97-87.
05:07Let's go to the people.
05:08But if you want to throw a grade out there, let's do it.
05:10And the other thing is just, what do you take out of yesterday?
05:14For me, it's a step.
05:17Like, it's not authentic or fair, if we're going to shred this defense, that if they,
05:22I don't care if you played a terrible team.
05:25Look, are the Cardinals dead last in the NFL in producing explosives?
05:28They are.
05:28It's facts, guys.
05:29I'm sorry if facts are mean.
05:31But the defense didn't allow that team to get up off the mat.
05:35But that's a long way from me feeling like this defense can stand in, play average,
05:42get multiple stops against quality.
05:45Now, they've got to show that against Green Bay, Minnesota, et cetera.
05:49But nice step forward.
05:50And it was nice to not have to pay attention and sweat a game in the fourth quarter.
05:55I think the biggest sweat is, please don't let Gibbs get hurt because you're chasing some stupid personal accolade.
06:03I didn't need him.
06:04I didn't need any starters in the game in the fourth quarter, but I digress.
06:07Let's go to the people.
06:08Go to Kerry, 97-1.
06:09Kerry, how you doing, bud?
06:11Hey, what's going on, brothers?
06:13Hey, I'm calling from Texas.
06:14Texas, I'm born and raised in Detroit, and I have to start off with just staying level because I live
06:19amongst a whole bunch of delusional Dallas Cowboy fans.
06:24They still think they can win the Super Bowl, and I just don't want us as Lions fans to run
06:29into that cave.
06:32And so, where I'm at with the Lions right now, I'm trying to stay level and being realistic.
06:38I would grade them a C-.
06:40Okay.
06:41I'm only giving them that because they do have a winning record, but this team does not feel like the
06:46same team a couple years ago.
06:48We're not dominating.
06:49We're not taking away.
06:51We're not getting any takeaways on defense.
06:53And we don't have that grit of, like, just running over people and taking control of the game and winning
06:59the game at the line of scrimmage.
07:02I was just going to wait and kind of to really kind of go into panic mode and see what
07:07we do the next two games.
07:08I'm with you.
07:10I'm with you.
07:11I mean, Kerry, if you listen to the show any amount of time, we can say the defense is terrible.
07:16And I can also tell you, I don't think it's all on Kelvin Shepard.
07:20Players got to play at a certain point.
07:22Now, we're not going to know if this defense is making material improvements, real ones, until you play real teams.
07:29The Cardinals, the best thing you did was you didn't have a repeat of week one or week three.
07:37You snuffed somebody out.
07:38You took the cigarette, you buried it in the concrete, and you beat someone.
07:42That's a step.
07:44Yeah, I agree.
07:45It's a step.
07:46I think our biggest test, and I know we haven't talked a lot about the offense.
07:50This offense is doing well, but we cannot go out there in the first quarter and not put up any
07:55points against Minnesota.
07:56I agree.
07:57And that's going to be a good test for our new offensive coordinator and this offense to see how we
08:04do against Minnesota.
08:06So, hey, love the show, guys.
08:07I'll continue listening from Texas.
08:09Thank you, Kerry.
08:10Appreciate you guys.
08:10You keep those Cowboys fans in check.
08:12Yeah, I'm about to say, hang in there, Kerry.
08:12Keep them in check.
08:16Oh, the Cowboys.
08:17I can't imagine they're already on Dallas.
08:20That's like Michigan fans on crack.
08:23Cowboy fans are unhinged.
08:26They are.
08:27Rico, they are.
08:27No, no, no.
08:28No, I'm just, like, imagining, like, no.
08:31I agree with you.
08:32Oh.
08:32Yes.
08:33They are unhinged.
08:345-3-9-97-97.
08:36This is the gear.
08:37I know.
08:38Dak should be MVP.
08:40Well, look, Dak's not a big problem.
08:43Whatever.
08:43I don't care.
08:43We're not doing, what is this, the ticket in Dallas?
08:45Leave me alone.
