Talking Grit: A Detroit Lions Podcast
Talking Grit: A Detroit Lions Podcast
E23: "Biting Re-Caps" - Week 2: Tampa Bay Buccaneers
In this episode of 'Talking Grit,' hosts Jason Harwood and Jacob Litton conduct a 'Biting Recap' of their team's disappointing home loss. They discuss both positive and negative aspects of the game, with an emphasis on why the loss 'bites.' Jacob shares his overall thoughts, expressing deep disappointment while urging fans not to panic. Both hosts break down the game's key plays, highlighting missed opportunities and pivotal moments, including a controversial interception and a costly field goal debacle. They praise the team's strong defense, led by standout performances from Hutchinson and Barnes, while critiquing the offense's struggles, particularly in the red zone. They discuss strategic decisions, missed calls, and the impact of player performances on the game outcome.
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Welcome everybody to another episode of Talking Grit. I'm Jason Harwood and with me is Jacob Litton. We're doing another edition of what we call Biting Recaps, which is fitting because this game, totally bit, it bites, the loss. It's a hard one to take. There are plenty of things to talk about, obviously. both good and course, we're going to be, you know, We want to focus on the bad fans that, you know, our team lost at home. there were some good, good things to take away from this too, and we'll try to focus on that too. but first, before I talk anymore, we're gonna have Jacob tell us his overall thoughts on the game, and we'll, we'll go from there. I think a good word for it is just disappointing, every loss is disappointing, obviously, we want to win every time that we're out there. And, this year we feel like we have a team to win every time that we're out there and stay competitive. Honestly, the whole time during the game, it still felt like we were, we were going to snap out of it and we were going to get it done.
Jacob Litton:There was just so many positive drives and everything. We just weren't able to finish and, even right there at the end of the game in the fourth quarter, it really just felt like, okay, now's the time. Now, we're going to make up for everything that's happened in the earlier part. We're going to get it done. And, we still didn't and just left the game with a really bad taste in our mouths. Just, really disappointed. I will say some of the things that I've seen online, let's not hit the panic button just yet. We're not going overboard with it. Uh, you know, I saw a couple couple things on Twitter where they were calling for golf to be replaced by Hendon hooker. That's not, that's not reasonable. That's not what we're going for right now. It's week two, uh, these things happen, you know, you have bad games sometimes, and really, I mean, we're going to go into it here in a minute, but overall it was not, it was not a bad game. We just, we just didn't get enough. We just didn't get it done. We didn't do enough to win.
Jason Harwood:Yeah, for me, it was the offense, or the offense just, just didn't look totally in sync at all in that game. there were some times where we got some really good. Third downs, we were moving the ball, um, but we just couldn't take care of it in the red zone. but the defense certainly played well enough to win this game. The defense was a bright spot in this game. And that's something that I'm gonna hang my head on going forward. Um, you know, team just hung like what? 37 points on the commanders last week. I know it's the commanders, but still 37 points in this league. That's pretty impressive. And we were able to keep it. Keep them down. So if there was anything I was more worried about coming into the season is the defense over the offense. And so I think the offense has got plenty of time to turn around. And like you said, Jacob, I, you know, I felt comfortable in the fourth quarter. I thought, okay, we're going to get, especially the field position that we got. I thought we're going to come down and score this, um, just didn't happen. Uh, Tampa Bay played good defense and, made us throw it over the middle of the field, which is where we didn't want to throw it. And Jamie had that one by the sidelines that he almost caught that, you know, he just couldn't get two feet and bounce. Cause that could have been a huge play. Um, of frustrating, but we'll go into some reasons why I think they're going to snap out of it when we get down to the offense. And, um, but you know, we'll just hang our head on the defense and just take that as a positive that they played really well. Um, We're going to be able to talk about Hutch in our defensive section, which I'll be exciting because, and that's, you know, above the loss, I'm also disappointed on that. We can't really focus on that. Cause like the lions win that game. I mean, we're thinking about that Hutch thing and a totally different, like he just dominated the game. I really feel like the offense is, is going to break out. I think that we're getting close. It's just a matter of just getting consistency in there. Let's talk about some key plays and miss opportunities. Sorry for you, Jacob. I have like five things that I've listed that are just key plays or, things that I've noticed in the game. Um, I'm sure that some, but we have similar things. So I'm going to let you start off and then we'll just kind of react to that and go back and forth.
Jacob Litton:So really, I guess we'll start at the beginning of the game. Cause that's kind of when they kind of set the tone and had the key plays early on. That deep pass that where they got the pass interference call on Terry and Arnold, we were playing good defense up until that point. You know, they kind of just decided, I believe that was third and long. Right. So they're like, we're just going to take a shot here. You know, it's a toss up, whether it was passing interference or not. It probably could have been called either way. You look at it in slow motion. You're like, I, you know, there's arguments for both sides to say, I don't think it was, or it was live. They called it. That's all that matters. They get the ball down there. Um, instant red zone opportunity. And then the defense really holds them up. We stopped them. That was Hutch's first sack happened right after that. Yeah. And then, uh, you know, hold them to a field goal. And then the killer play was the one right after that. We get the ball back the very first play. Uh, golf throws the interception. That one was definitely a missed call. I don't know. You can really debate that. It was a missed pass interference call on Jameson Williams. Like we said before, we're not here to blame the refs. That's not what we're doing. It was a missed call. You got to work past that. And, uh, I think that those were key plays because that really kind of set the tone for how the game was going to go. We basically spotted them 6 points there right there at the beginning. Um, yeah. Another one, which I don't have in front of me exactly where it was at, but, you know, when they got that roughing the passer call on Jared Goff, I really think that kind of shook him a little bit. They were getting pressure anyway for, you know, a little bit. He was definitely feeling, it seemed like he was feeling more pressure that wasn't there. And I feel like that started after that, um, roughing the passer call. Did you notice that at all?
Jason Harwood:Um, you know, from inside, I rewatched the game today and I, I don't know if I noticed, I mean, he was running more, but I think that that was some of that was kind of more designed. I thought, which was interesting, but, you know, I, I
Jacob Litton:Him, go off like outside of the pocket?
Jason Harwood:when they fake handoff and then I think they knew that he was going to have the option to run. We got that first down. I can't remember exactly when that was, but, yeah, it was, seems like golf was a little more. in the pocket than I normally see him, which, and that wasn't like an abundance of pressure. I didn't feel like they were just crowding on me. I, he just didn't look comfortable. He didn't look comfortable the whole
Jacob Litton:Right, right,
Jason Harwood:it was from that past, you know, that, roughing the quarterback, I'm not really sure, but I can tell you that he was like in the game. So I'm at the stadium, like in one of the timeouts, he's throwing on the sidelines, like loosening up, which made me think that something was. Off. Cause generally you don't see. It was just like during the regular TV timeout too. So it wasn't even like,
Jacob Litton:right. Usually during long breaks, but not like just during regular time out.,
Jason Harwood:I feel I like, I don't think he's like hurt, but something wasn't right. So he needed to loosen up whether it was from a hit or something. Um, so I, I, I think there is something to that, but there's no excuse for some of the throws that, you know, that were made and stuff like that. So I just seems like he was skipping some throws in there. That past interference that you mentioned on the Goss first intercept I don't know how you missed that, you know, compared to what was called on Terry Arnold. It's like, I don't get it. You, like you said,
Jacob Litton:Right,
Jason Harwood:thing. don't, I think if he doesn't hit him in the face mask, like with his hands, I think he's totally fine. He's playing the ball, which is what you're supposed to do. He's, his hands are out there basically feeling for where the receiver's at, but he just happened to.
Jacob Litton:exactly.
Jason Harwood:they were kind of hand fighting, but I mean, the receivers had his hand up there too, and was, you know, moving things around, it's always going to get called on the defense in that situation, you could make the argument JMO ran into the defender, but the defender turns his body like into JMO. So it's, it's clear pass interference those three points at the end of the game, obviously came in very, uh, important, you know, say we, we don't spot them there cause they weren't really driving it much. You know, we, we clearly just put them in the red zone there, um, or
Jacob Litton:right.
Jason Harwood:zone. Um, know, another thing that, you know, is going to get widely talked about as a field goal, that debacle at the end of the half, um, you know, Campbell took full responsibility for that. I don't even really know what's, what's happening. I, you know, I, I watched the TV version and I don't think that you guys could even see, but like, you know,
Jacob Litton:No.
Jason Harwood:the whole, like probably like there was six or seven guys from the special teams that were coming on and so they were all on the field and they were probably like. good five yards from the sideline. And then they saw the offense downing it. So we could, I could see what was going to happen. The only thing I was hoping is that somehow Tampa Bay was offside cause we rushed in there and then we get off sending
Jacob Litton:Yeah.
Jason Harwood:I knew that I was like, Oh, that's a 10 second runoff. We're going to get hosed on this. It's all a big blunder. I don't. understand how that really happens.
Jacob Litton:I mean, you just, you can't let that happen. It's really, it's inexcusable. On all parts, Dan Campbell really took the blame for that. You know, you'd think that that would have been a conversation about if they, you know, if we go down in bounds, if a clock is running, I mean, you have to know that you have enough time to clock it. If you don't have enough time to clock it, you don't have enough time to get the field goal unit out there.
Jason Harwood:that's the thing, like Dan Campbell said in the press conference today, that there was that it takes 18 seconds for them to rush the field goal kicking team on their 14 seconds is like the bare minimum. There was like nine. Say that was fourth down, You'd be better off just going for it because you're probably not going to get the
Jacob Litton:Right.
Jason Harwood:off. So I, you know, whether they lost track of down, I, I'm not sure what happened there, but it was incredibly costly. We could argue the game may played out different tap, maybe played their game different, knowing that we only needed a field goal to win, it just that those three points would come in very handy. Um,
Jacob Litton:It's funny the training camp practice that we went to, we watched them run that drill. We saw them run the field goal team out and try to get that field goal off. And, uh, you know, we saw how angry Dan Campbell was when they messed that up. So I can only imagine what that locker room was like when they had to get back in there.
Jason Harwood:Dan Campbell was incredibly emotional in the, uh, you know,
Jacob Litton:Right.
Jason Harwood:that he almost broke out, you know, he in tears. He felt like he cost them that win. it was a team loss in my opinion. There was lots of things that could've been done better. Um, play that I thought that I'm not really hearing a lot about, but I really think it cost the lions, after they got the interception, had his first sack, we knocked him out of field goal range, they get a 19 yard screen pass to Godwin, which got them into field goal range. So we had stopped them at, it was third and 22, get the 19 yard screen play, and then they, that allowed Tampa Bay to kick a field goal, which those three points are just as, you know, as detrimental as not getting the three points before the halftime. So I was that like getting 19 yards on the third 22. Yes. At least we didn't give him, let him get the first down and then go down and maybe score more. But it just that that's a killer. Those three points end up being a killer at the end of the game. So that was, I was disappointed in that. If they, you know, that was one of the few that, and then the place where Godwin was scored a touchdown, when there was some sort of defensive breakdown, because he walked into the end zone.
Jacob Litton:I think that was kind of just a good play call also. I mean, there was some confusion on our part, but that's kind of how the play design was supposed to go. And they had them going towards Mike Evans, kind of in the middle, breaking off, and it was just that perfect, I mean You can tell, it's exactly what that play was designed to do, that's what they wanted, and it just was right there, it was an easy touchdown for them.
Jason Harwood:You'd see all the coverage shaded over to Evans and Godwin was wide open, um, and just kind of basically just walked into
Jacob Litton:Well he kinda came out as if he was blocking for a screen, so then you've got the corner over there kinda breaks down on him. You've got Mike Evans running kinda towards the center, so the safety over top is cutting that way. And then, I mean, you just, he really, it was perfect. He had just enough room that throw and then he made it walked in the end zone.
Jason Harwood:had run a few of those type plays versus commanders the week before where it's an option to go to the screen or something down the field. And so, Um, not sure if Tampa Tones, when we were interviewing them, but at some point I was watching either. I watched it and saw it a lot of options to screen. And then they would have, you know, that pulls the defense in. And then, you know, Mike Evans is going to command a lot of attention. Um, the way Godwin's playing the last couple of weeks, he's going to start commanding more attention to, uh, you know, he lit us up yesterday, but that was something that was really worried about. We talked about. You know, in our preview about Godwin and a third down machine. And that, that proved, in a couple of plays he, he did, he came through for Tampa Bay, um, we can, complain about the rest for the past interference or just mentioning it, it kind of went the other way, I think in the second quarter, I'm in rock, caught a ball, turned up fielding, and immediately they popped it out. That could have been called a fumble. It was very close watching on replay.
Jacob Litton:Right.
Jason Harwood:would have, if that would have been a fumble, they would have picked it up and ran it the other way for a touchdown. Um, so, you know, you can sit here and complain about the refs all we want. That kind of went our way. Um, It was
Jacob Litton:We were lucky that they didn't, you know, sometimes we kind of, that happened with the Packers game last year where they kind of just let it play out. And I think if they did let that play out and let them take that fumble to the end zone, it probably would have stood because it was dangerously close. I mean, he, he catches it right as he's tucking it. They hit him.
Jason Harwood:takes like one like turn upfield, so it depends on what they consider a football move. It's like one of those
Jacob Litton:Right,
Jason Harwood:matters. Um, so, but like you said, it probably whatever it gets called on the field is probably where it stays. you know,
Jacob Litton:right,
Jason Harwood:you know, is there enough evidence to overturn it? so I, I think that was fortunate for in the lion's favor there, as far as the refs, but. I, I also felt like, just overall felt like Tampa was very physical with us and the secondary and the way that first play went with Terran Arnold, like he wasn't really in physical. He's just, you know, hand fighting and they called that. So you would think just wasn't consistency there and you would like to see some consistency. I don't care either way what they're going to call it. But I just, I, You know, just like most fans want to be called the same, same way. Like it's like a pitcher's umpire strike zone. You know, when you're, you know, you
Jacob Litton:right, right.
Jason Harwood:that pitch is outside. They're calling it a strike. Okay. They need to call it a strike for both teams. I, that's kind of way I felt on that, that was a little inconsistent. Um, the last thing that I want to talk about is interesting or key place was the fake punt Davaki. That was, uh,
Jacob Litton:Absolutely.
Jason Harwood:mean, end up turning into nothing. We went again for it, for it down on the same drive, stalled out and end up having a punt anyway. So it was kind of just disappointing, but yeah, Jake, Jack Fox has got a gun right there, doesn't he?
Jacob Litton:Right, hey, you know what, that was still huge though because it kept the drive going a little bit longer. We didn't want to have to give the ball back right away, we needed to keep the offense out there, even though it didn't turn out. Um, you know, when you're watching on TV though I can't tell, you know, they do that. I don't like the angle anyway, but a lot of times they'll do the camera angle when they're punting where the, the cameras behind the punter. So then, they see the snap and then I can see him throw the ball. And I have no idea whether we got the first down or how close it was or anything like that until after, the announcers are saying they don't even have the first down line on the field because it's a punt. What was it like in person, though?
Jason Harwood:Your eyes are kind of playing with you though, because, at home, the camera's putting, telling you where to focus, whereas on the field, you're, you're looking to see where the ball goes, and then all of a sudden you're like, oh, and then the crowd, starts to swell and you're like, oh my God. But immediately saw it. Like it was immediate that as soon as he got the ball, he, he threw it. And I mean, they, they must've been looking for a certain kind of formation. What's interesting at, on, on Twitter, if you follow in the beat writers, Dave Burkett
Jacob Litton:I was going to mention that. Right.
Jason Harwood:that he goes, Vaki is going to be getting a fake punt at some point this year. And who would have thought it had been like one week later. Um, Jeremy Reisman said, said, uh, uh, said he goes, good thing that Tampa Bay doesn't read Dave Burkett's tweets. Cause you know, he would
Jacob Litton:Yeah,
Jason Harwood:that was, it was pretty crazy.
Jacob Litton:out of the bag,
Jason Harwood:Dan Campbell hadn't I think we only had a couple of last year, but I was not expecting it to come out at that point, which is probably why it works so well. Cause I'm sure Tampa Bay wasn't either.
Jacob Litton:right, right,
Jason Harwood:But
Jacob Litton:nope, I don't think anybody saw it coming.
Jason Harwood:no. And that's, that's when it works the best. I think Vaki said something like he, he thought it was going to get called off at the last second. So they, they must know that they're going to run it, you know, going out there. And then, you know, then they have the off call depending on what kind of, you know, how the,
Jacob Litton:They've got the kill. Kill the play. Let's just kick it away. We don't like the
Jason Harwood:the
Jacob Litton:defense.
Jason Harwood:set up.
Jacob Litton:I wonder who's in charge of that though. You know, the quarterback's not out there. Is that on the punter to kill that and punt it anyway?
Jason Harwood:I don't know. I'm sure, you know, is Jalen Ruiz Maben out there? Because he's something,
Jacob Litton:Yeah, he's back. I guess he would be the captain. He would
Jason Harwood:I, I'm thinking that it's probably him because usually he's one of the protectors.
Jacob Litton:I know there's specific things they're looking for, but he may not have eyes on to see what they're doing over there exactly.
Jason Harwood:they have the kill, you know, when they have that play on that, you know, whoever it is, idea to kill,
Jacob Litton:He knows exactly what we Yeah, right.
Jason Harwood:where they're lined up. That was pretty crazy. So, you know, everyone was calling for hooker to, you know, take over for golf. What about Fox? Fox can take over for golf. You know, he's, he's one for one, man.
Jacob Litton:Hey, when there's no coverage and your man's wide open, why not
Jason Harwood:So I thought first we would start with the defense. We'll start with the positive here. Um, you know, lions held the bucks at 231 yards on 47 plays kept Baker Mayfield down, um, you know, 12 for 19 for, um, buck 85. So under 200 yards, you think if you're going to hold a quarterback under 200 yards and you're going to hold this team to like 70 yards rushing, you got to win that game, right?
Jacob Litton:If you look at any, any stats from this game, any of these lines, uh, it looks like we should have came out on top. Time of possession. I mean basically up and down anything you can look at Outside of the turnovers, but I mean, you know anything you can look at we we were better than stat wise So another reason why it was disappointing
Jason Harwood:disappointing. So, you know, Godwin did have a great game, seven catches, 117 yards and a touchdown like, you know, that you thought that was a great play call. And, and it was, it obviously confused our team. We kept Mike Evans under wraps, three catches for 42 yards. Didn't get in the end zone. you know, if you told me before the game that you're going to hold Mike Evans to 42 yards, really, really, really happy.
Jacob Litton:Well when Hutchinson's in your face every single time you get the ball makes things a little easier there
Jason Harwood:It does, yeah,
Jacob Litton:you know, Baker Mayfield, I don't know if you have the stats in front of you, but he completed four passes in the second half. All of those are the first half and a lot of the Godwin's catches were in the first couple drives. I think at the end, yeah, cause 7 catches 117 yards in a touchdown. That was all early on. He did not catch a pass in the second half.
Jason Harwood:lions defense played. I mean, especially in that second half, we just, uh, other than that drive that Baker ran in, um, and did you see the hit that Anzalone took? Did you see the replay on that? Where he got a concussion,
Jacob Litton:I did not see the hit that he took.
Jason Harwood:uh, watch it. It is Barnes smokes. Um, Barnes is trying to hit Mayfield. Mayfield kind of ducks
Jacob Litton:Oh, you know what? I saw that live, but I didn't realize that that was when that happened.
Jason Harwood:Yeah, so that's when Anzalone gets concussed, and it's, I mean, it's helmet to helmet, and it's amazing that Barnes wasn't hurt worse, because I mean, he just demolishes Anzalone, which, know, never want to see a guy get concussed, especially you don't want to concuss your own
Jacob Litton:Woah, so, that's funny that you mention that. Uh, The very first play of the game for the Buccaneers, did you see Werfs as the one that smoked Godwin on that short pass?
Jason Harwood:oh
Jacob Litton:Yeah, Godwin got the ball, and I forget who was trying to tackle him. Wurfs was trying to run out there and block, and he ends up hitting Godwin. Godwin hits the ground and kind of looks up at him, like, what did you do to me?
Jason Harwood:What did you? Yeah, well, I would too, if worse ran into me. That's a
Jacob Litton:Yeah, right, that had to hurt.
Jason Harwood:it's a big boy. So,
Jacob Litton:I thought you were going to talk about the, uh, Rodrigo. Because Baker juked him, and he kind of fell down awkwardly. That was a bad look.
Jason Harwood:Oh. yeah,
Jacob Litton:I don't think he thought that Duke was coming from Baker. I think he thought more likely he was going to put a shoulder down or slide.
Jason Harwood:yeah, that, if you haven't seen that, or listeners, if you haven't seen that, I mean, it's not fun to see our player get juked out, but it was, Rodrigo just hit the ground sliding and you know, on that turf, you just see those
Jacob Litton:Yeah,
Jason Harwood:just fly everywhere because
Jacob Litton:that makes it worse. Put them on skates.
Jason Harwood:yeah, coming into this game. That was my worry about Baker getting out of the pocket. I've thought for. The most part we had kept him contained. Um, the problem was that, you know, when, even when he wasn't in the first half, he was able to get out of the pocket and make, make some plays too. Um, which, which hurt, but again, defense played well enough. Let's, let's get into Hutch. Okay. We we've kind of danced around it so much four and a half sacks, dominant. In that game, uh, led, you know, he's, I think he's leading the league in pressures. He is becoming a force out there. You know, he's always been this high motor guy, but he just seems to have level this year. The sack record for the lions is 15 sacks by Robert Porsche. It's clearly in sight for Hutchinson this year, the way he started out.
Jacob Litton:Absolute monster. We already knew what he was capable of when we knew that he's getting better, each day, each game, um, especially, last week we had kind of a backup offensive line that we were going against, but he wasn't able to get as much. Uh, as many sacks, I guess he was still able to get the pressures, but they were getting rid of the ball too quick. So we really wanted to see how it was going to go this week, and they weren't getting the ball out as quick as the Rams did, and they really paid for that. They had a backup offensive tackle on him, and he just had his way with that guy. I think he, I think Hutch only went against worse one or two snaps. And even then, I mean, you know, the motor is there, the relentless is there, that backup tackle didn't stand a chance. They start chipping him, trying to do what they can to slow him down. And then we, uh, use our new addition, DJ reader said, Hey, you know what? We're going to run some stunts. You're going to have to cover DJ. And then Hutch's coming right up at the middle. Just beautiful.
Jason Harwood:Yeah. And I, I look forward to that. Just keep happening. It, it, that stunt if you're going to start chipping and sending people over there, that's what the lines are going to do. They're going to run stunts and then, the defense is going to get confused. And, last week, we talked about staff for getting out the ball fast and everything, but at the end of the game, Hutch got the sack at the end of the game, hutch kept us in this game in the first half, gets a sack, when they are in the red zone, like on that very first drive, basically knocks him, kicks him to a field goal. And then the second drive, after we get an interception, he gets a sack. Uh, On second down, which knocked them out of field goal range until we talked about that play that they ran a screenplay and Godwin got that. We were about to get out of that with zero points, even though throwing an interception on our side of the field, which is amazing. And then he got a third sack in the first quarter. I looked over at Preston, I was like, he's on, he's on pace for 12 sacks today. I don't know if he's going to get there, but. At one point he was listed with five until they, split the sack with Levi,
Jacob Litton:Yeah. Right.
Jason Harwood:which is, I think fair just from based
Jacob Litton:Absolutely.
Jason Harwood:that Levi caused that. He's got five and a half sacks. We're two games in the thing is with, and the way he ended last year, I mean, He was on a tear at the end of last year, so I don't know, I guess I could look back, but he's had, I don't know, he's probably got like 10 sacks in the last, like, 4 games or whatever, so it, it's, he is, turning into, A demon on that side, that's becoming unblockable. And when you, like you said, you brought in DJ reader, that's going to take out double teams. We just need, and Levi's getting pressure too. If Davenport comes back and can collapse that pocket, I, That's, that's going to be tough. And we're going to need that next week when we play Arizona, we're going to need to collapse the pocket and contain, cause we got a quarterback that can run. So, you know, we can, we'll get into that in our preview later on, but that's just something to look forward to is just another running quarterback. Those sacks are just, we're just, you know, they were just drive stoppers. They, they totally got the offense, the ball back and, you know, it's why we ran 80 some plays on offense, you know, is just, I just couldn't get it done a defense that play their part. I will talk about Derek Barnes to Derek Barnes, you know, this is his last year, he's to possibly be a free agent at the end of the year, the way they're playing, the way he's playing. I really feel like he's becoming up there with a liam as, um, you know, a must sign. we really need, there's not anybody else on our team that can do what Derek Barnes does play that Sam position play and coverage. You know, rush the quarterback, do the things that we need to do them on the outside. He had that huge play in the fourth quarter where they tried to run that, uh, quick, uh, slant And he you know got his hands up knocked the ball down which was huge because that kept us a timeout You know, which we should have been
Jacob Litton:That really saved that game.
Jason Harwood:It did and it would have You know, it's just unfortunate, you know bucks were two for ten on third downs Another thing he said all those stats lean into the lions should win this game 20 on third downs. We should win this game Uh You know, they had bucks at 10 possessions. They only averaged 19. 3 yards per
Jacob Litton:Right.
Jason Harwood:You know, that's one first down, you know, and then they're punting. Just really deflating that our defense did that. And our offense couldn't come through just because our offense is supposed to be better than our defense, but. That being said, I really think that is not long lasting with the offense. It's gonna, we're going to be able to, you know, bounce back from this. I think we're really close on the offense, it's hard when you're, you're at home in front of your fans and, you know, can't get in the red zone that many times and you can't punch it in.
Jacob Litton:I mean, you hit two or three more of those and it's a pretty easy win for us. I just, I want to shout out Brian Branch again. I know I talked about in week one, and you had said the pro football focus numbers, ratings, whatever, didn't exactly back that up because of a couple missed tackles, but you know, I mentioned The past breakups and his willingness to just put it all out on the line and dive and do whatever he can to prevent The ball from getting there and he did it again this week And you know He actually came away with a big interception too on a weird play where the Buccaneers Seemed like both receivers are running the same route. So then we've got four defenders over there I don't know what that was about But still we we got to capitalize when things like that happen and he did You know, he made a couple nice tackles as well. I, you know, I think that Brian branch has been doing really well.
Jason Harwood:That, that there was some sort of busted play there. I don't, I don't, I can't imagine you have those two guys in the
Jacob Litton:right.
Jason Harwood:especially Godwin and Evans. You know, it's like you're you know, you're gonna crowd create a crowd when you have those two guys together. So that, that was a little weird. But last week, similar, he, against the ramps, he had an interception like that and then he just dropped it this time. No, he corralled it in. Um, which, could have turned out huge. So let's, let's move on to the offense. Now it ran, like I said, 80 play 83 plays for 478 yards. That was, compared to 231 yards. So we, doubled the bucks yardage. Dan Campbell said in the press conference today, we were really good in between the twenties, so much in the red zone and ultimately that's what it came down to, right. One TD and. We ran 19 plays in the red zone to Tampa Bay only ran four in the red zone and. And what I don't understand is, David Montgomery only played 30 snaps, 35 percent of snaps. Especially when they flashed on the screen that Vita Veo was
Jacob Litton:Right, right,
Jason Harwood:I looked at press and I was like, get Demo in there. We're going to be able to run it now. Um, frankly, Oh, it's funny. I said, frankly, but I don't think Frank Ragnall played his best. saw him on the ground a lot and, uh, usually he'll just dominate. So I stopped when Vail was out there that it was, we were just going to get major push and be able to just go. And just never happened to feel like we were to the outside too fast,
Jacob Litton:right.
Jason Harwood:Bay is really fast to the ball. And it was, we would try those screens, uh, uh, Jameer and we'd end up like losing four yards and you're setting your offense back. Um, and it's hard, it was, it was just hard to recover for us.
Jacob Litton:Yeah. So, I mean, I think that we, we made it too easy on them. They had, you know, their backups in the secondary. They had a really young secondary. We talked about that on the preview, you know, some undrafted free agents. Um, Not a lot of experience back there. So, I mean, you have to know, we had to know ahead of time that they're going to be playing zone majority and they did a good job. They blitzed on 54 percent of plays, um, using a lot of, you know, defensive backs and they had a lot of nice blitzes from the side that actually stopped our running game and kind of like what you said, I, we kept forcing it to the outside when I think we should have been pounding it up the middle, especially when Vita went out. Uh, you know, it just seems like that's the easy thing to do. You put David Montgomery back there. You've got the backup defensive lineman. Now they were already without Kansi. You should be able, especially with our offensive line, you should be able to get some push and break out a couple of runs and you know, it didn't happen, but it was for lack of trying really. It just, we did not exploit that enough golf through the ball 55 times. He doesn't do that. We don't win football games like that. Uh, do you know when the last time he threw over 50 passes was?
Jason Harwood:No,
Jacob Litton:Uh, so, it was last year in the Ravens game. And we all know why he threw 50 times that time, it's because we were losing. We lost 38 to 6. So one time last year, zero times in 2022, and then he did it one time in 2021 when we lost. We are not a team that throws the ball 50 times a game, to win, basically, and especially in a game where it's basically, you know, it's one possession the whole time we're in it, the entire length of the game. We are running offense. We have two very capable running backs. For us, not to be mixing that in more and pounding that more was just very disappointing and really puzzling, I guess. Like, why, why was that not part of the game plan? What changed where we decided that, especially after Goff, you know, kind of had the rough couple first quarters, you'd think with still close, let's try to mix in some more runs. We're going to try to go up the middle a little more in between the tackles and It just didn't happen.
Jason Harwood:Well, I mean, that's how this team is built. I mean, we're supposed to run early, get into manageable third downs and you know, that that's where golf can really just tear you up cause he's going to hit just somewhere, but you know, like you mentioned, he was 54, 55 passes. He was. 34 50 55 for three Oh seven. he ran the ball two times for five yards. Like we talked about, I, I don't know what's going on with golf this year. He had a seven yard run in the first game and he's run for five. So I think 12 is more than I've seen him rush for his
Jacob Litton:Yeah.
Jason Harwood:tenure with the lions. But, you know, the game started out with a bang, you know, that 50 yard. Pass and that was a beautiful pass. I mean he had jmo in stride jmo made a nice
Jacob Litton:Right.
Jason Harwood:Um, you know, I was kind of surprised that he didn't get a touchdown on that. That was the best pass that golf through all day. Unfortunately.
Jacob Litton:Yep.
Jason Harwood:Especially when you start out the game like that, you're like, yes, you know, you knew that their secondary is down. You think this is how this whole game is going to go. We're just going to be able to put the ball wherever we want. And you would think that maybe it'd open up the middle of the field a little. Cause that's, I mean, that's where golf is tore up the box so much is just over the middle of the field. And it, just didn't seem like it was coming together for whatever reason. Um, like you said, they were playing zone a lot and it just, I don't know. It felt like. We weren't making the right play calls to get, to get the things done. And then, you know, golf, he's had like, probably like three or four more passes that, that game that could have been
Jacob Litton:Yes.
Jason Harwood:and they were either, you know, way under shot. And it was so bad that the defense couldn't intercept it, or, you know, we just got lucky. It just didn't seem like golf was, on his game in the last, Rams game either. He's just, we're just not in sync. The offense just doesn't look like it's running at its peak. like we saw last year, the good thing is it's September, right? I mean, we have to
Jacob Litton:It's a long season.
Jason Harwood:football, September football, looks ugly for a lot of teams.
Jacob Litton:And, it did this week. For a lot of the high profile teams came out on the wrong end of these games.
Jason Harwood:yeah, let's talk about that for a second. So, you know, Baltimore's 0 2, right? Um, you know, San Francisco loses to Minnesota. They're 1 1. You know, they're, There are teams that are really good teams that have lost too. So the sky's not falling for our Detroit lions. The thing that we worried about all of last year, the defense has looked good in the first two games this year, definitely in this game. Lights out. I mean, Hutch looks and we're not going to be going against backup offensive linemen all the time, but next week we will be going against the backup offensive linemen. Um, and it'll be Hutch's time to feast. So there are positives. is good. We know the offense is going to come. It's going to, it's going to come in. Uh, one player that I think is going to make a difference is Tim Patrick. Um, he played on 39 percent of snaps, uh, which was really high. I thought for someone, they're bringing out the practice squad. I've only been with the team for a couple of weeks. but that guy is huge. He is got a huge catch radius. So, which is going to come in real handy. When we get in the red zone, we were very deficient in the red zone. That was the game right there. know, you could say anything about what else had to play. We, we score one more touchdown. We're at least tied that up instead of a field goal, or we get. In the end zone, just totally. And then some more, some more points. We sh we should have won that game by scoring more in the red zone. We're one of the top five teams in the red zone last couple of years. We're in the bottom
Jacob Litton:Right. Right.
Jason Harwood:that can't be sustained. We had talked a lot about over the summer about Josh Reynolds and missing him. He was a huge red zone piece. I saw, you know, plays where. I was like, that's a break where we're going to go to, you know, that's our Josh Reynolds play where he goes, you know, fakes a left, like he's going outside and then a hook cut right up at the middle, right to the field goalposts and then catches a touchdown pass. That was a Josh Reynolds
Jacob Litton:Right.
Jason Harwood:Um, you know, the Jared Goff felt very comfortable throwing to him there. Um, hopefully Tim Patrick, you know, cause he is tall, he can box people out. He'll be able to catch that pass, uh, hopefully that they can get that report going.
Jacob Litton:For sure. I just want to touch on real quick cause you had mentioned that deep pass, that Gough had to JMO. And, it, I'm sure it was electric, inside Ford Field, and it was awesome. We looked like, here we go, we're driving. The very next play Uh, is that roughing the passer penalty? So goth has that one good ball and then the next one is the roughing the passer. He didn't throw another completion that drive and then we end up having to take that field goal. As far as the red zone goes, because I know, this is speaking on the Tim Patrick thing, the red zone play calls were not very good. The execution was not good. Obviously you don't go 17 Just for bad play calls too. But, you know, the execution was terrible, but the play calls were very basic. They were not very good at all. And it's disappointing. I wonder if because we don't have that classic, you know, Josh Reynolds kind of thing, if that's why we're, you know, I guess, dumbing it down, it looks like. The one red zone play where. It was like golf drop back. He took like two step drop and then he threw an out to Jamison Williams who had two defenders on him. There was no chance he was catching that ball. The protection was there. Um, you know, I'm in raw. Hadn't even made his cut yet. He was going to cut to the corner. David Montgomery was about to run a row out of the backfield and he didn't even reach the line of scrimmage before golf just killed it basically over to Jamo. I, you know, stuff like that. That's poor execution. When you talk about the play calls though, the play calls were worse. They have a very good red zone defense. And, you know, regardless of who's back there, that was evident for sure. We get in the red zone, you know, we already know what they're doing. We know that they're playing a soft zone. We're running, we're snapping the ball from, you know, First and goal situation. And most of their safeties and corners are all lined up, you know, like a yard or so in front of the end zone boundary, they don't want to let anything behind them. That's a time when we should be trying to run up the middle and try to soften that up and really use Sam Laporta. I don't understand why he's in there in past protection or he's sitting back, you know, that, that just makes no sense to me. He's a red zone threat. And he proved that last year. So for him to not even be running routes out there, you know, we, we had that one drive where we're in the red zone. They throw a, it wasn't quite a screen, but it's behind the line of scrimmage. They throw it to Gibbs. We lose four yards. Next play. We run an out route to Jameson Williams. Another like quick out route. We got five yards back third and nine. Golf drops back and it's another one where he just doesn't let the play develop and he just checks it down to Gibbs and We get one yard out of it.
Jason Harwood:There was a lot of that. I think some of the stuff like, they were like a lot, like they had a lot of long first and goal situations where they're not like, but that you're right. Usually they're going to run it. And that the one drive we were, we incomplete pass first down, Dave Montgomery runs, it gets up, three, like seven yards. We get up to like the three yard line. And that's when they threw that out. To JMO that was double covered and basically
Jacob Litton:right?
Jason Harwood:just a wasted play, We could second guess and hindsight's I know it's always 20 Tony, but it just feels like we didn't utilize our weapon of David Montgomery well enough in this game. And, especially when you see the way golf was, was playing it. And, there was another opportunity, I guess we, we kind of talked about the, that. Dan Campbell could, could have kicked like a 15 yard, yard field goal, opted to, punt and then we got the ball right back. I think that that was the right decision to make, but some people argue that we, you know, we got Jake Bates for a long, you know, be able to kick that. Let's do it. But the way the defense is playing, I agree with them, you know, give our offense another chance, they're going to come through, they can't just keep failing in the red zone as far as they did, because that's the thing in those fourth quarter drives we had, now we did our offense, get the ball back. We were getting it in like prime field position, like right at midfield, which we score on
Jacob Litton:right,
Jason Harwood:all the
Jacob Litton:right, right,
Jason Harwood:it's just, uh, it's just heartbreaking.
Jacob Litton:And I mean really the only the only time that they scored the only offense they had was when He had Baker Mayfield had a really nice pass to that rookie McMillan and that was one where he kind of even that you know, I think we were playing in his own He kind of just found a soft spot and he's right there. That was a good, you know, good pass classic, whatever But Then Baker had those scrambles. You know, he scrambles for like 10, 11 yards and they get the first down and then he kind of just decides, I mean, that I think that was a play call. That was the design quarterback draw for Baker Mayfield. Cause that was the only thing that was working at that point. And then sure enough, he runs in and gets the touchdown. I mean, if your quarterback is Baker Mayfield, and he leads your team in rushing, you would think that you lost that game and that it didn't go very well for you.
Jason Harwood:It's just 1 of those things. And usually you would see, like, if there was a big yardage difference, there'd be a larger turnover difference. You know,
Jacob Litton:Right.
Jason Harwood:3 or 4 and, you know, a fumble or something to go along in there, but just the 2 interceptions and. That second interception was just, again, he looked uncomfortable and he just kind of threw the ball the middle of the field. I immediately looked from the stadium. That was like, well, that seems like there was no one around. I was telling Preston. I was like, if he was in the pocket, that was a, been intentional
Jacob Litton:Yeah.
Jason Harwood:there was like. No receiver, even close, you know, Tim Patrick's running out. I'm assuming he was supposed to be cutting in or something like that. You know, Thorn over the middle of the field like that, you know, while you're getting tackled, probably not. It came out as a wobbler
Jacob Litton:Yeah, it was a very bad ball.
Jason Harwood:to, I don't know if it didn't look like it was supposed to be intended right there either, but something happened there. We, we don't know, but I'm assuming Tim Patrick just kind of, you know, we probably had some set of choice route and maybe on a zone he's supposed to cut in the middle where his man to man go to the outside and he just. You know, made the wrong choice. Um, but still, you know, that was another missed opportunity. We could have kicked a field goal in that situation. So that just so many times we've just shot in our self in
Jacob Litton:Right.
Jason Harwood:For you and I, this is our first time talking after a loss, you know, and having to analyze it, it was very tough for me it's definitely not as fun to rewatch, but honestly. some of it, like, helped me get over some of my own crap that I have with, you know, being too involved with sports and looking, you know, just taking it too personally. So it was, I just kind of stepped outside myself and just looked at it as like, okay, I'm going to watch this football game and see what actually happened. Um,
Jacob Litton:Take your feelings off the table.
Jason Harwood:take, yeah. And just like, and it's kind of freeing to be able to actually do that. Um, it still hurts and it hurt, you know, my boys are, were crushed. They actually took it a little bit better, I think, cause the Tigers won that it
Jacob Litton:Right.
Jason Harwood:bit. Uh, so I think it just took a little bit of that off, but it was, um, this is funny cause you know, so I have my perspective inside the stadium, we had known the Tigers. Had one, one before, cause we were keeping track on the phone. They didn't put it up on the scoreboard, but right after golf through that interception, like that one, we
Jacob Litton:Mm hmm.
Jason Harwood:about, they like during the TV timeout, they flashed that on the screen. It was almost as if I'm going to get everybody
Jacob Litton:Yeah.
Jason Harwood:you know, get everybody in a good mood because, uh, and I told Preston, I was like, I wonder if they save that for like, in case a bad
Jacob Litton:Right.
Jason Harwood:or something like that, they're going to throw it up on the screen,
Jacob Litton:Well, they executed.
Jason Harwood:Yeah, they did. You know, they'll either they'll flash stuff and they, they, kept flashing the Cowboys score too, cause they know we hate the Cowboys. So they kept flashing that as, you know, the saints are just
Jacob Litton:Murdering them.
Jason Harwood:Yeah. And saints are turning offensive
Jacob Litton:Right. Maybe we were wrong about the Saints.
Jason Harwood:Yeah, I don't know. Certainly wrong about the Falcons so
Jacob Litton:Yeah.
Jason Harwood:for sure. Uh, It's a loss. We're going to move on. We will get better. We have a tough game next week, Arizona that, you know, that hurt the loss even more, I remember you sending me the text that, you know, we got to face this team and they were up 21, nothing on the Rams.
Jacob Litton:Yeah. They had their way with that Rams defense. Thanks.
Jason Harwood:They did, uh, you know, sometimes those games just get out of, you know, out of hand and, you know, you got Kyler Murray, it seemed like Marvin Harrison is going to be a beast. He finally had his game, uh, let's just take him back a notch next week. We'll, uh, we'll try to figure that, figure that
Jacob Litton:them back to reality.
Jason Harwood:Yeah, well, I also think Kyler, I've seen him play enough and maybe we'll talk, we'll ask Bo Baric who we're going to interview on Wednesday, uh, Phoenix podcaster, well, and reporter, I kind of want to know what his feeling on Kyler Murray is, because he seems like, you know, every time that I've seen a player, he's played the lions, he'll just make a boneheaded throw at some point. Um, you just put a little pressure on him and he just kind of makes an ill advised throw. So I'm wondering if, um, he's seen that yet. I haven't watched all of their games yet, so I don't, I haven't seen too much, but played really well yesterday and they, and James Connor, their running back
Jacob Litton:Yeah.
Jason Harwood:too.
Jacob Litton:That's gonna be an interesting matchup. We'll talk about that.
Jason Harwood:we're going to have our hands full. We'll save that for Wednesday. We'll have, uh, well, we'll talk Wednesday with Bo and we'll have that podcast out on Thursday. So looking forward to that. Um, before we head out of here, let's go over our grit guarantees and review that. Um, the reason I'm bringing it up, cause I'm right this
Jacob Litton:Yeah.
Jason Harwood:and, uh, Jacob's wrong, so I'm going to, I did get his a hundred yards. Um, it looked like they were forcing the ball or not really forcing it, but they were feeding, uh, feeding him very, uh, consistently. And, um, I think the biggest difference is that he didn't get a lot of yards after catch. You know, he just,
Jacob Litton:I mean.
Jason Harwood:they were on
Jacob Litton:Right. That was kind of what the defense was giving them. He played right into where Amanrah's strengths. Cause they're dropping back in the zone. They're not really playing close on to somebody. And Amanrah's definitely able to find the holes in the zone and find out how to get open. You know, on those choice routes and those curl routes and different things like that. He, he's the best at that,
Jason Harwood:So I got it with the 100 yards. And then, uh, Jacob, uh, just picked the wrong, um, defensive back should have picked Brian branch with CD to get an interception. We'll see what we, uh, come up with next week, but anything else that you want to, uh, leave off with Jacob or
Jacob Litton:I just, you know, want to reiterate again, it's a, it's a loss. It's a tough loss, you know, but this is really early on in the season. And you know, it's going to be, there's a long season. There's plenty of time. We still believe in the lions. I know a lot of people, uh, maybe newer lions fans and aren't used to the pain that comes with lions losses. Um, We've become better at coping with it. fAst forward a couple of months from now, we're probably not even looking at this loss, depending on how the rest of the season goes. You know, if we're in the playoff hunt and one thing or another happens, maybe we come back on this and kind of blame this loss as one that we should have had, you know, it's a learning experience and, you know, kind of what the motto of a team is, right. It takes more.
Jason Harwood:for sure. And, You know, let's play no bones about it. This Buccaneers team is a good team and they played and won the game and we, they, we did not take advantage of enough of their mistakes and that's why we lost this game. The red zone was, you know, that's all we had to do was perform in there and we should have won that game. We win this game. Nine times out of 10 in the future with the same setup. So I'm not worried about the future of this team. Yes, it sucks. We lost as I'm walking out of the stadium. Someone yells out in the crowd. Cause you know, last week it was Jared golf and let's go lions. And this week it was kind of like. You know, uh, you know, we're walking out by guy yells out and I can't, I won't use the language he used, but I will paraphrase it for you. He said 16 and one sounds pretty good to me. So
Jacob Litton:Yeah.
Jason Harwood:whether we, you know, do we, have to win the rest of the games? I don't think that's going to happen, but you know, it's a good thought. It's one loss. Right. And so let's, let's just take care of business the next two weeks, go into the buy at three or one, and then we can. know, grow from there. So, uh, I thought the defense played better this week. The offense, what just still hasn't hit its stride, which I'm okay with. We're going to, we're going to get there.
Jacob Litton:We're looking forward to the Cardinals
Jason Harwood:Let's move on to that. So we'll be back with you Thursday morning. Um, same format with a pride preview and, you know, hopefully this guest lives up to the first two guests that we've had because they've been very good and we've heard a lot of good feedback about, um, you, our listeners about liking this, the way that we're running this. Jacob and I are getting our feet, you know, firmly on the ground and figuring out how we want to run these. And this is, you know, we're just getting lucky with some really good guests and we got people lined up for Seattle already, so it's working out pretty well. So we're hoping to continue that series and, then hopefully, next week when we do another biting recap, we're, um, going over a because that'll be much more fun for you and I. Jacob.
Jacob Litton:for sure.
Jason Harwood:So, uh, we're going to head out of here and, uh, hope you guys all had a good day and go lions.
