Talking Grit: A Detroit Lions Podcast
Talking Grit: A Detroit Lions Podcast
Episode 2: Lions Schedule Release Reaction and Analysis
Come and listen to Jason and Jacob as they look over the newly released 2024 NFL schedule. They talk about at the Detroit Lions toughest stretch and the biggest surprise as well as their top 5 games they are looking forward to.
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Welcome everyone to Talking Grit. We are brought to you by Monroe County Reporters, Monroe's top news source for police, fire, and community events. Follow them on Facebook, and for 99 cents a month, you can become a subscriber and get the news you crave even faster. I'm Jason Hartwood, and with me again is Jacob Litten. Today we are talking about the Lion Schedule. Alright Jacob, I'm going to let you have the floor on how you want to start this.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:I'm amped for this one, man. Looking over the schedule. I wish the season was starting right now. It's kind of what happens. Uh, this is all we have in the off season. You got the draft, the schedule comes out, all the what ifs until training camp. What is your first impression? What do you think of the schedule when you first look at it?
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:My first impression is, are the Lions ready for primetime? And I don't mean that as, are they ready to play well. I mean it as, we're playing a lot of nationally televised games. It's weird. Just two years ago, we were looking at all one o'clock games. So, now we only have, what, four?
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Well deserved change. looking at it though, we have the 11th toughest schedule, which we knew about that ahead of time. We knew going in who we were going to play. The way that everything laid out, the way the NFL laid it out, I really think they did us a favor this year. And you know, most of the time we don't really get those favors. They did us a solid for the most part. They have a list of the games by miles traveled, and we are actually towards the bottom of that list. So the difference between the number one team and the number 32 team is something like 20, 000 mile difference.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Wow.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:that's huge
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Does that include, like, international games?
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:yes. We don't have any international games. The furthest away I think we have to go is the 49 ERs, and that's not till the end of the season. There's only three games outdoors.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:yeah, I looked at it, it was like 14 of the first 15 are indoors, and I think that's good for golf. I think he plays better indoors, so I like that.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Even when you look at the Thursday games though, so we play the Thursday games back to back and our game before the Thanksgiving game is, uh, against the Indianapolis colt. So that's not a very far drive. We're not getting on a plane too far away or anything playing on a short week. I'm excited about the schedule. I think that we can, you know, obviously, regardless of where we're at, I feel like we can do really good this year. But after looking at the schedule, I feel great about it.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah, I looked at the schedule, and of course you don't like to see the early week bye. It's like one of the first things I think you look at either is where are my primetime games, or, where is my bye. When you mention those Thursday night games, that kind of gives us a little late bye, because, after the second Thursday game. The week after Thanksgiving, play the Packers, then we have 10 days off. It's not a full bye week, take it when you can get it. I mean, I'm glad that they gave the Lions that Thursday after Thanksgiving, if they're going to give them another Thursday game. So they're not playing two short weeks in there. So
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:right. That's what I'm saying. They're doing us favors.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah, well,
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Finally, we just get the, we get the scraps every year. Throw us wherever they can. One o'clock, one o'clock, one o'clock. No prime time games. And, you know, Flip the switch. Finally getting the recognition we deserve.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah, well, when you get to the NFC Championship game, and you only add to your team, I mean, we've lost a couple players, but you've added to your team pretty substantially., it's looking good. The NFL, they schedule for around a lot of things, you know, Taylor Swift concerts or whatever, so.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:What do you think is like the toughest stretch in this schedule that you see?
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Well, you know, you look at that 49ers game, it's gonna be a difficult game. And then when you see the game surrounding it, I feel like the toughest stretch is gonna be the final couple weeks of the season. If you look at the last five games that we play, three of them are going to be divisional games and it's going to be Green Bay. We've got the Chicago game finished out against the Vikings. In between that we play the bills and the Niners. Those are all going to be tough games. They're all back to back. Which, you know, speaks to what you said earlier about the early bye week, we don't have a bye, we don't have a break before that's coming up. Some guys are gonna be hurt, it's a long season, there's gonna be playoff implications, obviously it depends on how the season's going at that point, but right now when you're looking at it, those are all huge games.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:They've really backloaded our division schedule, and our division's going to be tougher this year, and that's what I saw, I was like, oh man, four of the last six are in the division, and The games that they gave us that are non divisional games are not gimme games. Um, I mean, I think the bills are going to probably not going to be as good as last year. They took quite a few losses out of their team, Stefan Diggs being the biggest, they lost Gabe Davis too. It's going to be interesting to see what their offense, is like, you could have Josh Allen making even more mistakes. Kind of curious to see how that shakes out, but then you got that 49ers matchup. So that's in the middle there. So you're hoping that the division is, you know, we're hoping we got it mostly lined up by then because it's going to be a tough little stretch there.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Uh, that's hard to do when most of your divisional games are that late though
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah, I agree. I agree. I think another tough stretch is, week six through ten. You got five five games during that stretch, four of them are on the road. You got at Cowboys at the Vikings. So that's your first divisional game. You got the Titans in the middle. Um, probably the easiest home game on the schedule. Then I'm expecting at least out the gate here, then, you're at Packers at Texans. So, I mean, that's, that's a tough stretch too. When you go four to five weeks on the road in the NFL, It's going to be something that the boys are going to have to fight through
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Right.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:the Lions play well on the road though. They, they played well on the road last year.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:The fans travel real well.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:like making them have home games, it's going to be hard at the Cowboys to, to have a home game cause their Cowboys fans always come out. Divisional games, Vikings, I don't think that we had as many show out out there Packers game. We pretty much own that stadium last
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Right. Right. We showed out for Green Bay, not really in Minnesota.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:so we'll see, if the fans are still going to be out traveling, you know, that'll be interesting to see how that goes. It was amazing. What the fans said last year, uh, you know, home and away, but especially the way it was really noticeable. And when you can hear let's go lions, chance and NFL stadium on the road, that's pretty special.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Right. You'd like to hear
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah, for sure.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:know, the Vikings might have a different quarterback that week as well.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:what I was thinking, too. with the Vikings and the Bears, we got them late, and I would have much rather had them early. Or at least one of their games early with their rookie quarterbacks. Now, I don't know about J. J. McCarthy. I don't know when, you know, it's much more likely he's going to be in towards the end of the season than the beginning of the season, at least in my opinion. Caleb Williams is going to start out the gate. I mean, he's a starting quarterback already. J. J. McCarthy, I, I'm not convinced that he's going to be the quarterback straight out the gate. I think that they're Darnold, and then depending on how their season lines up,
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Right. Depends on how it's shaken out.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:the more losses rack up. The quick air J. J.'s gonna be out there it's gonna be hard to root against J. J. McCarthy.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah. Right. I know. One of those things, you want him to do well, but you want the team to not do well. He can throw for 500 yards a game, just let the Vikings lose. Now, once that Viking's uniform's on, you gotta, you gotta forget about the Michigan
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:yeah, I know we, we root for Ohio State players like Taylor Decker when they got the Lions jersey on. We forget about that and, it goes the other way too, you get a Michigan man and another, jersey
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:the love's still there, we just don't want you to win the game.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah. Yeah. That's right. No injuries.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:You can play well, that's fine, just, you know, as long as we come out on top.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:So is there anything else that you think is a tough stretch or, um,
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Not really, you know, those are the ones that jump out to me.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:yeah.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:I agree with what you said, you know, you got the Cowboys game, you're playing at Houston, uh, you know, you may have some easier games in between on paper right now, um, but you know, even like you said about the Vikings, we don't know, that could be, Darnold could be on his last breath of air, he might need to come out with a big game to keep the starting job, we don't know, maybe he's already lost it by that point,
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah. Those divisional games right there and that stretch are on the road. And I don't care who's the starting quarterback. I don't care what's going on. Those are just tough games. Divisional games are always you know the opponent so well, and you know, you're playing them, at least two times a year, unless you get them in the playoffs or something like that, say, JJ, you know, that might be his first start, let's say, because, Sam Darnold's not working out, or whatever, you have very little tape, or know what, you know, Kevin O'Connell's gonna do with JJ, you don't know what, they're gonna, they're gonna let him run, are they gonna do some RPO stuff, are they just gonna let him rip it to, cause, I mean, JJ's got a, a heck of an arm, we saw it at Michigan, and, he could, he can gun it
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:didn't get to unleash it a whole lot, but it's, it's there,
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:it's there, but, and, honestly, you got amazing wide receivers in Minnesota, you know, Justin Jefferson topping the list,
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:right, great spot for Jada to be in. Once again, we want you to lose. I want you, I want you to win rookie of the year, but I want you to lose,
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:alright, has laid it down
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:get a draft pick in the middle of the round. So it's not even that good for next year.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:What was your biggest surprise with the schedule?
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:I think going into it, I really thought the lions Cowboys was going to be a primetime game. They made it America's game of the week or whatever, you know, it's a four 25 game, but you know, you look at it after what happened last year, controversial ending, Two really good teams. They show out really well. The ratings numbers do good when we're on TV, it'd be the battle of America's teams. You know, they're calling the lions, America's new team, the Cowboys, America's old team. I really thought that that was going to be a primetime game,
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah, I was kind of surprised about that too. I'm wondering if one of the networks just had, you know, wouldn't give up the game. I don't know how much say they have on that, but I fully expected that to be at least a Sunday night football game. It could have been a Monday night
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:right? it. just seems like it was built for primetime.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah, I don't know. Or maybe the NFL just didn't want that to showcase that just so that all that stuff from last year got brought
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:You had their mistake. They don't want to be reminded.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:So, I would like to talk about my biggest surprise. I was actually, surprised that we're starting out with the two of the playoff games back to back. Especially the Stafford game. I thought they would give a little more time for that to breathe, but apparently Danfall wants to bring that storyline right back up. Um, I don't know if you know this or not, but Stafford used to be with the Lions and Goff used to be with the Rams.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Oh No, that makes sense now
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:I just found that out late last year when we hit the playoffs, you know? No, seriously, they're gonna wanna hit that story again. I just don't think it's gonna hit as well. Just'cause it, was at the end of last season in the playoffs, so it's kind of interesting that they threw that right out. I, I understand the intrigue in that game. I just thought if they're gonna put it on Sunday night football, I thought that they might put it a little bit. Later in the year and let the, that story breathe a little bit, and then following it up with the Bucks game. We played the Rams and then the Bucs in the playoffs. It's interesting. We're playing them one and two right away.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Might as well put the 49ers third and just relive it,
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:they could have, done that right. And that would have been really weird. I was also kind of surprised that they waited till week 17 to put the 49ers. I would think they'd want that a little bit earlier, but maybe they're counting on, Lions and the 49ers being a top two team, and maybe we're fighting for the one seed or, you know, one or two seed, in that game. Yeah, I just thought that they might put it a little bit earlier, because say one of us is out, say some quarterback for either team gets injured, that game may not hit as well. late in the
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:That didn't stop them from scheduling Aaron Rodgers with six primetime games.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Do you think he'll make four plays this year or do you think he'll get up to five?
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:How hilarious would it be if on the fifth play, it's the other league?
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Oh my God. I don't want to see anybody
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:that I ever wish, right, right now, and I
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:mean,
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:injuries on anybody,
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:being ironic, wouldn't it be just, it would be crazy. And then Mike North who writes a schedule would be saying a lot of expletives to himself. Like we did it again. We've just
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:right?
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:again. At least, um, for Jets fans, they won't have to see Zach Wilson in there.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah, right. I'm sure they're happy with
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah, I'm sure they are. What was worse, seeing Aaron Rodgers go down or knowing that we gotta go right back to Zach Wilson.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:That probably honestly made it a little worse. They're like, oh No, we suck again.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Oh, I'm sure it was. So is there any other surprises that you saw on the schedule or something that just like was a little head rattling?
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:I was kind of hoping we would get to see Caleb Williams in the barriers week one. I thought that would have been a good opening game,
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Mm hmm. Yeah, that could have been Sunday Night Football. Caleb Williams on his first game.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Number one, draft pick and everything,
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Lions have had bad luck with, you know, rookie quarterbacks in Week 1. Not since the Dan Campbell era, but I'm just remember Sam Darnold.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Monday Night Football.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:That was Matt Patricia's first game, I believe.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:a sign of things to
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Sign of things to come. And I remember Matt Ryan's first game was against the Lions, and he threw a touchdown pass on, I don't know if it was the first play, but it was very early in the drive. It was like a 50 yard play and it was like the beginning of the season and, you know, at that time you're so full of hope, the Lions, and then it just like gets dashed right away.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:then. It was false hope. Now we have legitimate hope.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Now I know the difference. I didn't know the difference back then. I just knew. I was like, we're starting out zero and zero. We're, this is going to be the year. This is what a real football team feels like. I don't think it's hope. It's reality that, you know, we're a good team. I think we've gotten better than last year and we made to the NFC championship last year. It doesn't mean that, you know, you're going to get to the super bowl. Just cause you got better, but definitely doesn't hurt.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:right.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:I'll be a Debbie Downer here on the schedule. Looking at all the teams that we face what is the team that you think that we're going to lose to that should be a win?
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:I had to think about that really hard because obviously, you know, as a Lions fan, you're like, we could win this game. We could win this game. You know, I go through down here, you know, the one that kind of jumped out to me is at Indianapolis in November. And here's why. The Sunday game we're at Indy, then we have a short week, then we come home Thanksgiving against the bears. I feel like, especially late in the season, on top of just the mobile quarterback thing, if Anthony Richardson, he might be having a really good season at that point. Mobile quarterbacks give us, uh, you know, fits in the past. Hopefully we've alleviated that by then, but it's a short week. It's one of those things. Some guys are going to be banged up. They're not going to be a hundred percent. Maybe we're looking forward to the bears. We're looking at the divisional game. You know, some guys might not get as many snaps as they usually do, or they might just not play at all just to play it safe. Let's set them out this one. That's the one that I'm looking at. We, we should beat the Colts full strength. We play the Colts week one. I think we beat them nine times out of 10 without issue late in the season with the other factors. That's the one that I'm thinking maybe they can pull an upset there.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Just to touch on the Anthony Richardson thing, we're going to see him and we're going to see CJ Stroud, uh, next year. We're going to see a lot of young quarterbacks, because not only that, then in our division, you know, possibly seeing JJ and definitely seeing Caleb Williams. Beyond just like watching for football be interesting, just as an NFL fan, just to see those guys. Depends if Anthony Richardson can make it that far. I mean, he hasn't even finished a full game. He hasn't played a full complete game in the NFL yet. So, you know, he's got to prove that he can, you know, make it through injury wise.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:right. Well, and it's later in the season. He could be fully healed and ready to go, or, you know, he could already be aggravated and car to be out again.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:You can have all the talent in the world, the old adage, you know, the best ability is availability. It doesn't matter how talented you are if you're not playing. we'll see how that goes. My loss that should be a win is like very early, week three, Arizona. We're going to be playing two. Playoff teams right away. We're going to have to travel, over to the West coast, Kyler, Murray, mobile quarterback everyone's says, Oh, lions struggle with that. Everyone struggles with the mobile quarterback. That's why teams want mobile quarterbacks. I just feel like depending on what Marvin Harrison, you know, how their connection with Kyler Murray is, just that first road game, you've got to go on the West Coast. You've just had two playoff teams. It could be just a recipe for disaster and early on. Um, But I fully expect Dan Campbell to have his boys ready, but sometimes those games just happen. So that's, that's the one that I'm looking at and I'm like, yeah, they should win this game. I look at all the games, I'm like, yeah, we should win, you know, all
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:That's the problem as a Lions fan, especially when the team's good. You look at every game and it's like every game is winnable.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah, I mean, it's just feel like if you're a Chiefs fan, you got Patrick Mahomes. Every game, we should win every game because we have Patrick Mahomes. NFL is a tough league. Any team can beat any team and it happens all the time. But, you know, my lines should win, like you said, 9 times out of 10 they should beat this Arizona Cardinals team. It'll be interesting. It just depends on how Kyler's playing. he put down the controller long enough to work with Marvin.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah. Week three, they're probably already gonna be getting in their flow right at least after that one, too, you got the long, a little bit of a longer break, cause then, uh, you follow up that game Monday night against the Seahawks, and then that leads right into the bye
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah, that is nice that you get the buy after the Monday night game, so that you get a, get a break. So you don't have that short week. So you've got
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Right.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:week and then into the short week and I'm
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:we only have the one short break, just that Indy, to Chicago.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:So now we're going to hit the big topic. This is what I'm really looking forward to talking about. We're going to talk about our top five games that we're looking forward to this season. Jacob and I have not shared with each other what our lists are. We're going to go from five down to one. We're just going to talk about the games and we'll just kind of go all the way down to one. Do you want to start or do you want me to start Jacob?
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:You can go ahead first. I have a feeling that we, we may have the same five games on this list. Maybe in some sort of variation. I think we probably, at least three of these five are gonna be the same.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:so?
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:there's no way the number one game is not the same for both of us.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:have a feeling about that, but we haven't talked, so that'd be
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:No, I don't know.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:I put the Jaguars game number one, am I am I right? Am I in the ballpark?
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:I bet you did. They didn't make top 10.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:did they make the top 17 though? Okay.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:somewhere, somewhere near the
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Okay. I was just making sure preseason game didn't jump it. I didn't know we are playing the chiefs in preseason. So,
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah, right.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:so number five for me, I have the bears on Thanksgiving, week 13.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:the same number five.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Do you? All right, cool.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:swear.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:that will be a good game and I'm hoping we can break our streak of losing on Thanksgiving day. Especially it's a division game. Last year was our. Tough pill to swallow losing to the Packers again, we're in a national audience. We want to prove ourselves. We want our respect The quickest way to get a respect is to win on national TV when you're the only game in the nation when a lot of the nation's watching you because you're the first game on Thanksgiving so I I Looking forward to see, the Bears. I fully expect them to be,, better this year. I mean, their receiving court is, it could be number one in the league, really, to be honest with you. I, uh, you know, you have the rookie passer thrown to them. So who knows? Personally, Caleb Williams is, not one of my favorites. The games that I watched him play wasn't overly impressed with him. The fact that the Bears picked him is automatically a curse for any quarterback. Uh, they still haven't had a 4, 000 yard passer in the history of their franchise. So, you know, that doesn't bode well. So, I'm, I'm looking forward to seeing Caleb Williams on, Thanksgiving Day. hopefully we're enjoying our turkey with a lion's win.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:That's a big storyline for that too. Cause that's our first we're welcoming Caleb Williams, the number one traffic to Detroit, and he's got to play on Thanksgiving, which is historically, you know, that crowd gets, it gets crazy every week, but on Thanksgiving, especially they're, they're hungry for a win. It is deeper into the season, obviously. At that point, he's either still going to have a lot to prove, or they're going to have a playoff spot on the line. So he's got to play well that game. That's a huge game for the Bears, which makes it a huge game for us. They think they have a quick turnaround, and they think they can contend for the division. We need to show them that they can't, and that it's still ours.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yup.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Side note, Swift, uh, you know, DeAndre Swift is now in Chicago. He is the seventh highest paid running back. So it would be very nice, you know, assuming that he actually isn't injured and he's going to play that far into the season. Uh, it would be nice to shut him down and, uh, let DeMo score a couple more touchdowns on the Bears.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:yeah, my quick prediction, uh, the end of the game, Caleb Williams drives him down, throws it to DeAndre Swift in the corner of the end zone, and he drops it. Oh, wait, we already saw
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah, we've seen that
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah, we've seen that happen, and it was, you know,
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:at Ford Field
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:It did. It was right at Ford Field, and it was Yeah, that was terrible. If you don't know what I'm referencing, it's DeAndre Swift's first game of the Lions, week one, playing the Bears. Stafford finds him wide open, like, it's probably less than 10 seconds in the game or whatever. We have one more play after that because he just dropped it. I started with number five, I'm gonna let you start with first on number four.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Uh, so yeah, my number four, the next one I have, uh, on my list, I'm looking forward to is going to be the home game against the Seahawks on Monday night football.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Alright.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:primetime, uh, early on in the season, especially after last year, you know, we were riding the high from the chiefs win and really felt like we were going to win that game going into it. There was a pick six late in the game. We ended up going into overtime and we kicked it to them in overtime. We never even got the ball back. Right.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:no, they,
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:think we even got to drive in overtime. We got it in the
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Gino took them right down, and they, it wasn't even like, really even a, With Lions defense did not put up a fight in that last drive, which was totally different than like the last Half of the fourth quarter in that game that Lions defense finally took over. Ancelone sacked, Smith I think down around the one but then the Lions came back and In really weird fashion. They just played it really conservatively and Just played for the field goal essentially to tie it up to go to overtime like you said that was a deflating game I was at that game up until the Rams game that was the loudest, that I had ever heard Ford Field. It was so loud in there. Everyone was so ready because, like I said, we had just beaten Chiefs Week 1. The previous year's champion. It was the first home game.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Anticipation was probably all time high at that
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Oh, it was, it was awesome. And then people weren't wearing ski masks because the CJGJ said the thing about the villains.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Look forward to that game because they, they've really had our number. Looking back on it, we haven't beat the Seahawks since 2012. That's a long time. And there's been, you know, a lot of games in between that time too. Um,
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:seem to play them every year now. Um,
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:right. We had a close loss. Uh, well, you know, last year we had the overtime loss the year before that was really high scoring
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:but we lost that one too,
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:That was just going back and forth. That was a track meet. That was crazy.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:right now. We just, you know, it seems like we always, uh, come out on the other end of that, on the wrong side of it. You know, we just don't, don't do enough to get the job done. So I'm looking forward to that one. I w I want to put them away this year.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:So I'm gonna go to my number four. mY number four is different this time. It's actually the Cowboys, week six. Got that revenge game. Definitely the secondary is gonna be better. Maybe we can keep CeeDee Lamb down. Fully expect Aiden Hutchinson to get three sacks because he seems to always get three sacks versus the Cowboys. I'm ready for it. I'm ready to win this game. Just put them down. I think they're just gonna come out and just say, you know, we're not going to let it go down to the last play of the game this time. We're gonna, we're going to go down there and beat you.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:if you had to guess, when's the last time you think we beat the Cowboys?
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:uh, last time we beat the Cowboys. Wow. Um, was it the Stafford game? Was
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:It was 2013 Stafford with a sneak at the one yard line.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:was the last time the lions beat the Cowboys. The Cowboys was actually, that was my number three. Um, but you know, it's. Similar to the Seahawks in a sense where it feels like every time we play them They have our number and we just can't get over that hump The difference between them though is that we seem to have a lot of close games against the Cowboys and there's a lot of You know different things that keep happening where we just keep coming out on the wrong end of it The pass interference thing in the playoffs, uh, you know, the controversial call last year. I just hope that they throw Taylor Decker the ball. I don't care if it's for the first down, like on second down, just throw him the ball at some point. Get the man the ball.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Do you think that they just fool everybody and they just, you know, throw it to Skipper? And be like, I, I actually did report this time, you know? Heh heh heh. They just, Yeah, I don't know who else, man. They could go with anybody. Just make everyone eligible. Everyone report eligible. Just confuse the, you know, the referees. They'll have to give it to us this time. They'll just have to, and they'll be like, All right.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:they can't make a mistake twice. They'll have to give us this one.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:that's right.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Hey, they owe it to us, right? We get one cheat during the Cowboys game.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:yeah. We get one free hall pass. I like it. I get it. Let's petition it. Roger Goodell, get on the phone. We're going to use our one cheat right now. So you just told us your number three is, Dale's Cowboys. So I'm going to move on to mine. mine is the opening game, week one Rams, Sunday night football. I'm. Jack to start the season on Sunday Night Football. That is really cool. I mean the only thing that tops that in my opinion is Getting that Thursday game like we did last year. Hopefully next year it's Thursday at home cause we've won the Superbowl, it's going to be so loud in there. The Jarek off chance are going to be going crazy. I really feel like it's going to be a playoff atmosphere. I'm getting goosebumps now just thinking about it. You're having Stafford in there. I like Stafford, but just like how we can't root for J. J. and we can't root for McDonald over in Seahawks, can't root for Stafford, um, in
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Not when we're playing him.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:when we're playing him and not when we're good.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Bowl. He won his. No, the hell out of the way.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:exactly. It's our time
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:That didn't make my list, but only really because, you know, the playoff game last year, the huge storyline when Stafford came to Detroit and everything, Goff got his revenge, we moved past them. Now, it felt like an afterthought, but you're right, it is Sunday night football. It's week one. It's a big deal. And of course they're going to be talking about Stafford coming back. He's gonna want to beat us, especially after last year, uh, you know, it's right back into it. Like you said, playoff atmosphere, really. I mean, you have high hopes for the season for both of us. You want the playoffs, you, you know, you want the Super Bowl. This is how it starts, just like the playoffs last year.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:He did not like getting booed. Safford did not like getting booed last year. I don't know what he thought was going to happen coming in on the playoffs. We're not going to be throwing out the red carpet for him. I mean, I still like Safford, but. You're the opposing quarterback and we're going for our first, you know, playoff win in, 30 years. So get out of the way. It's Jared Goff's team now. I mean, I'm sure that was hard for Stafford to hear everybody chanting Jared Goff. He wanted that and you know, frankly, he deserved that during our time
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Right, right. That's the thing that's tough is, you know, he did play his heart out for a long time and just, you know, didn't get the right people around him, wasn't able to make it happen. So, you know, he's got to have some level of jealousy there to see The support for golf and the team and everything.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah, I don't know if I would even say it's, jealousy for me might be the wrong word, it's just, I really wish this would have happened for me, it's not like I'm jealous of Jared Goff, it's just that, he wanted it, and he frankly deserved it, he played hurt, he was a tough you know, it, it's just a shame it didn't work out for him,
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Right. He had the full support of Detroit when he was here.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:yeah,
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:But, you know, once you leave, you know,
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:well, I mean even when he left he had the full support of Detroit It was you know, the Detroit Rams. I mean,
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:right, right. For the Super Bowl,
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:I'm rooting for him I was rooting for him at that point, you know,
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:100 percent. I don't know anybody that wasn't. We
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah, we all wanted to win and mine had nothing to do with the fact that I placed a hundred dollar bet You On the Rams to win the Superbowl the night of the Matthew Safford trade and I won 1, 200 bucks mine had nothing to do with that. No, I, I just knew that that was the lion's luck at that time. We're going to trade this guy and he's going to go win his Superbowl. And it happened.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:That was a safe, a safe bet then.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:the tightest turn since that point, and partly because of that trade getting, the capital and getting our quarterback. Let's move on to, uh, your number two game.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Uh, my number two game, I actually have the Green Bay Packers at home in week 14.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Okay.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:The last time they came to Detroit, it didn't end very well for us. Up until the Thanksgiving game last year, it kind of felt like the roles were reversed. We spoiled Aaron Rodgers last game as a Packer. We had beaten him the game before that as well. Uh, the season was going better for us than it was for them. Actually I felt confident going into that Thanksgiving game. We had already beaten them earlier. You know how everything was going. It's like, I think we've got this one in the bag. I think I'm going to have a pretty good Thanksgiving.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah. Not only did we beat them, we beat on Thursday Night Football. We, I mean, we pretty much crushed
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:It, right. It was a great game for us. They come into our house on Thanksgiving and it just felt like nothing was going right. It just, Didn't seem like it was Lions football. They came out right away. They scored that touchdown. I think we answered, but then it was just like all downhill from there.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Well, Jared Goff, they had that weird thing where Jared Goff, like, threw a pass, but they called it a fumble, like, you know, it's like, it's like one of those plays where everyone just stops and then the only one that runs is the guy that just grabs the football and the only reason he's running is because the whistle hasn't blown and he's like, oh. Okay, and then he
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:they don't blow the whistle because they don't want to ruin it and then they look on replay and say well You know, it's not really enough to overturn it. So we just handed them a touchdown
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:That's what I hate about that. Like, I understand why they let the play run. Because, like, what if it is a fumble? The problem is, you need, you know, convincing evidence to overturn it. if you weren't gonna call it in a fu like, it's like one of those 50 50 plays. You know, if you're not going to, if you weren't going to call it a fumble first, then, you know, then the evidence wouldn't be there to overturn it. But because you called it a fumble because you're too afraid to, you know, be wrong, then. I'm not saying it's an easy job, but I, I don't think it's exactly fair the way that's, you know, that's the way that's called, I'm obviously mad in that particular play just because it costs alliance, but it's just, I, I just doesn't sit well with me, that, that kind of call, um, I get why they have to do it, but there's, there's a better way to, there's a better way to officiate that, in my opinion,
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:if you replay that like in real time and try to make that judgment call I think probably more often than not you say it was an incomplete pass But you know, they call it a fumble on the field just cause they, you know, if they don't get a good angle or whatever, they let replay take it over. Well, then you go to replay and you have to overanalyze everything in slow motion and then you really can't tell. So like you said, it's 50 50 on the fields of fumble. They had to let it go.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:right. That play, the way it was happening so fast, I'm not fully convinced it was a fumble right now
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Right. I mean, it's one of those that it could have gone either way though. And then, you know, we just, came out on the wrong end and it really, I mean, outside of that, so golf got sacked, I think like four times that game, he lost three fumbles. Including that one that was kind of controversial. We lost two other fumbles. It was like, uh, I think it was later in the game. He tried to run for a first down. They tackled me, dropped the ball. It's like, man, he finally tried to run for it. And this is what happens. It just, you know, just everything just wasn't turning out. It was all going their way. We didn't sack Jordan love one time. We didn't get much pressure on him. They, you know,
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:than the first game because the first
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:right.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:out the gate and they had his number
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:This is just another one of those games that I have circled. This is another revenge game. A game I feel like we can win and we should win. And now that it's, you know, this is week 14. So potentially there's a lot on the line with the division at that point, depending on how everything goes earlier. Going to be a huge game. It's Thursday night football again,
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yep, only game on we're gonna be listening to al michaels kirk herb street, looking at his thursday night schedule. He's got a little bit better schedule so hopefully al michaels can stay up this time because he Seemed to be getting quite bored last year at certain points during the during the season, but
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:That's why I worry about you. So it's almost midnight right now. I can't believe you're
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah, I know. I know. That's all right. I took a nap today, so I'm good.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:right.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Uh, so, I do not have the Packers. It's my number two game. Uh, the next one, I went with a Sunday Night Football game on number three. I also went with a Sunday Night Football game on number two, the Houston Texans game. When I was a kid, Monday Night Football was the thing. That was what you were looking forward to every week. Now, to me, it's Sunday Night Football. I don't know if it's because I'm older, but it seems like they get more Premier matches than the Monday Night Football game anymore. Seeing C. J. Stroud up there, we talked about getting to see a lot of the young, quarterbacks this season. I'm excited to see, um, Nico Collins, another Michigan person we root for outside of this game. I just want to see this Houston Techens team because I, I really equate with what's going on down there really strongly with, uh, The lions, you know, a team that just couldn't seem to ever put it together. The Sean Watson thing looked like it was going to just destroy them. And, somehow, you know, they, they lucked out, you know, Bryce Young went to Carolina and they got CJ Stroud.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Not unlike the Hutchinson thing for us. You're right.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:I mean, sometimes those things just work out, you know, whether they're meant to be or.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:lions.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:I don't have, a lot of other teams I root for, and mine kind of change on and off, just based on who's playing for them, but I, I do like the Texans, and outside of this game, I hope they do well, um, but that's kind of why I'm playing for them. Particularly glad to see this Sunday night football. This is going to be a heck of a game. I'm really looking forward to this game. Uh, so it's going to be, you know, we're going to have our hands full, you know, another quarterback that can run. I don't think CJ Stroud, like that's not his primary game, but he can't take off and you have to be aware of that. Uh, they got great receivers down there. Their defense is playing solid. I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to Lions proving that, they can hang. So even if they got to go on the road on Sunday night football.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah, that was a good pick.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:It was hard I think your Packers game, as we talk more about these games, it was like, man, I'm really looking forward to that game
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:right. right. We can just circle all these games, man, I'm ready.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:So, let's go to number one. I'm pretty sure that both of us have the same number one, but maybe not.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:There's no way we don't have the same number one. You know. As soon as the schedule came out, you know who we wanted. we want the 49ers.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:We do.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:We want that Monday Night Football, that Week 17. We want the Redemption for the game we should have won last year. We had it in the bag. Let it slip away. If you're a Lions fan, that has to be the game that you're looking at. We, we want the Niners. We want that back.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:It's going to be an important game. What could happen is we face them week 17. We may be facing that same team in a couple of weeks in the playoffs. We need to show them that, we're top dog. We're going to beat you. And. Your place just like we should have beat you in your place in the playoffs, you know We just had a terrible third quarter worst third quarter
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Right.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:that team struggle with frankly all season that third quarter. I hope that's something that they really find the solution to this year I don't know what it is. I don't know if it was something that just was a coincidence I'm not sure but our
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:If it's the other team making better adjustments or something and just takes us till the 4th to kind of, you Adjust to that, you know, I'm not sure exactly but you're right. It just seems like we were we were a good fourth quarter team, but not third quarter and one of the times it just was too much to overcome
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah, I don't know if their philosophy changed. We got this other team where we want them and then they just either on offense took the foot off the gas because they didn't want to make a mistake or I have not, I couldn't pinpoint it and obviously they couldn't either because they would have fixed the problem. I don't know if it was something just internally, they just didn't plan well. Cause the Lions use that in their first drive in the first quarter. Pretty good. They're usually go down and they put up a fight on that. If they don't score, they're at least getting a couple of first downs and you know, and you get a score. You, you putting the pressure on them. Same thing in the third quarter, man. That other team, like in that Saints game, when they came down, Saints score, you know, we, we. Pretty much controlled it, but then the other team scores. And if you go three and out, or you don't get a couple of first downs and their team scores quick, that's 14 points real fast. And then the pressure starts to mount, you know, and that's, that's tough. It is. And especially when you're, you know, if you're not playing in your home stadium, you know, it really compounds because then the crowd just like that you've taken out of it because you've dominated the first half all of a sudden back in it. And it's a different game at that point. So I think, let's not have a bad third quarter in this week 17 match. Let's just do like we did in the first two quarters and just dominate the heck out of that team. we were so close to the Superbowl. I mean, so close.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:close. Felt like we were going to make it there.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Lot of people thought we weren't going to hang with the 49ers to begin with. There was a lot of talk about, you know, okay, this is the end of the road of the Lions. They've hit the 49ers. So it made it extra tough that we just like said, no, man. The first half we're like, no, we belong here and we belong to be in the Super Bowl. We're a top team. And then just, be a helmet bounce and amazing catch. And then, Jameer, fumble Right afterwards that was hard pill to swallow
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:I think for any NFL fan though, if you're looking at the schedule, like which games are exciting, which ones are you looking forward to? I think most people really want to see lions and 49ers.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:That's why it's a kind of a shame that it's all the way at the back end of the season You know, it's all it seems like so long away You know when the season starts it'll come up quick enough because the season always seems to go by super fast I'm sure that all the Lions players. They know they were looking for when are we playing the 49ers? When the schedule come out they want to know when are we playing the 49ers? I'm sure you know
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:get that one back.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:So, all right, so we went through our top five, a few differences in there. I don't know how I don't have the Packards in my top five because I just like seeing them lose so much, even when they're not playing the Lions, so,
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:It's fun to hate on the Packers.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:The last thing that I really want to comment is every year the Lions, Media team, which is an awesome group, they always put out something real cool, do a scheduled release video. I watched it, you watched it, we haven't talked about it, so I don't even know what you thought about it, Did you like it?
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:I thought it? was good. I mean, it was nothing too over the top. Some of the teams went really, like, above and beyond with some of the things they did. Uh, but you know, ours was just classic. The two comedians from Detroit going over it. Uh, It was funny. It was quick. I thought it was good.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah, I liked it too. I think last year's topped it. I like the video game and the AI voices. That was really unique and just Some of the stuff they let Brad Holmes and then Campbell say I was surprised in that in the video last year that was really funny, but I've watched it like this current this video two or three times and at first I guess I was just kind of disappointed because I thought last year's was so creative but the more I watch it it's really funny, and then Tim Robinson yelling about the fanatics, giving out the the jerseys early.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:Yeah, right, right. Those guys are funny and it's cool. They're from Detroit. They're Lions fans
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:So it's it's obvious that they're huge Detroit sports fans it's nice that you know, they that they want to do this stuff so I think that's About it unless there's something you need to add in there.
jake-litton_1_05-18-2024_224335:No.
jason-harwood_1_05-18-2024_224335:All right. I want to thank everyone for listening. I hope you enjoyed yourself have a great day and go Lions!
