Talking Grit: A Detroit Lions Podcast
Talking Grit: A Detroit Lions Podcast
E31: "Pride Preview" - Alim McNeill extension and Week 7 - Detroit Lions at Minnesota Vikings (with Arif Hasan)
Hosts Jason Harwood and Jacob Litton present a comprehensive analysis of the much-anticipated divisional game between the undefeated Vikings and the Detroit Lions. Featuring an insightful interview with NFL analyst Arif Hasan, the discussion delves into the Vikings' surprising success, key player performances, and strategic coaching moves. They also cover the Lions' efforts to adapt following injuries, the extension of Aleem McNeil, and Dan Campbell's transformative impact on team culture. Additionally, the hosts explore defensive tactics, notably Brian Flores' pressure strategies,
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to talking grit. I'm Jason Harwood. And with me as usual is Jacob Lytton. a big show for you today. It is the first divisional matchup of the season. Us and the undefeated Vikings going for the top of the division right now. Whoever wins this will be. The leader of the division after this game. So it's going to be a good measuring stick. I think for both teams, Vikings have already had one interdivision game. They went to the Packers and beat them. So to help us out understanding the Vikings, we have a really big interview this week. It's going to be with Arif Hassan. He covers Vikings in the NFL for wide left. You've probably heard of him before. He's all over the place, all over Twitter, a lot, a lot of other podcasts. We're very happy and very lucky to get him. So I'm sure you're going to enjoy this interview. It's going to get you ready for this week seven matchup before we get any, the matchup, big news, lions extended another one of their own and from that 2021 draft class, and that's a Lee McNeil Jacob, you want to tell us how much they signed him for and what you think of that?
Jacob:Yeah, so a Lin McNeil extension, he signed a four year 97 million contract. He's got 55 million guaranteed. The average annual salary comes out to 24. 25. So this year his base salary is going to be just over 3 million. Workout bonus of 25, 000. The cap hit is going to be 3. 3 million. Obviously, especially after how last week went against the Cowboys, he's definitely he's played up to this contract, something we talked about in the off season. We knew this was coming. We weren't sure how large the contract was going to be. And what, especially after the Hutchinson injury seemed like Brad Holmes was, rushing this one along, like, let's just get this done. Now we know what we have. We take care of our own around here. So yeah, very happy to re sign Aleem McNeil. It's interesting that it's happening in the middle of the season. What do you think about that?
Jason Harwood:it was right after the day of Montgomery. it's like a week later, they're signing Aleem McNeil. think this is just, it's different than the day of Montgomery with this Aleem. I think it's just a getting ahead of the market, getting ahead of what's going to happen in this off season. Right now he's the fourth highest paid. DT, when this contract takes effect, I haven't looked at the free agent class that's going to come up, but I'm sure there's going to be some raises. We're going to want to resign him. decided to do it now. And I think it's, again, they're getting ahead of the market. Like they did with Amin Ra to a much lesser extent, Pene Sewell but they got ahead on the Jared golf thing. He just, he started out being the number two and now he's number four or five down on the list. And I think. That's the advantage. You keep your player happy and also, eventually the contract looks a lot better than, than it does right now. I think he think maybe a little bit high for Aleem, but it's going to look good in a, in a couple of years and we haven't seen how the contract is going to break down or their void years or there's the details haven't come out yet, but yeah, I'm happy with it.
Jacob:Yeah, it always, when you see those numbers always looks a little high right at the beginning when you first see it, same thing we thought about Jared Goff. Like you see the numbers and you see where it ranks, you're like, well, I'm not sure you're going to have to see how this plays out. And then it didn't take very long at all for golf's contract to look really good. I imagine it's going to be the same thing with him, especially with a production, he's been showing. So yeah, I'm definitely, I'm okay with it.
Jason Harwood:All right, let's move into the preview section. We're going to talk about the Minnesota Vikings, the undefeated Minnesota Vikings. We all saw that coming before the season. I know I did say that sarcastically, no, no one
Jacob:And, while you go around this, I, I, I've gotta this down. Most, most experts and analysts really didn't expect them to be playing this well, ourselves included, but it's just, from the predictions I saw had them in the 6 8 win range, and I had the Vikings growing 7 10. We both had them finishing last in the division, but this is the quote that Jason says, They are going to go 4 13, I don't have faith in their defense. How do you feel about it now?
Jason Harwood:Well, that's just thank you for pointing out how stupid I am sometimes but now.
Jacob:Really, really bad take.
Jason Harwood:We've seen we've seen the Vikings start out undefeated five and Oh before, and they've failed to make the playoffs a few of those times. So
Jacob:You're right.
Jason Harwood:could happen. The funny thing is there's not much difference between the first and last place team in this division, just two losses. So you could go from first to last in a matter of two weeks. So it could still happen, but yeah, they, they've already out won how many games I thought they were going to win going in. So good for them. good for them, but we're hopefully lines take them down a peg. How are they becoming five and Oh, Jacob, you want to talk about some of their impact players that they got?
Jacob:Yes. So the impact players right now for the Minnesota Vikings believe it or not quarterback, Sam Darnold impact player. Something we talked about earlier at the season. We weren't sure how that was going to go before the changing McCarthy injury. We thought that he may not even be starting at this point. And he's really, show that he's a capable starter right now. Pro Football Focus has him rated 23rd out of 36 quarterbacks. Take that for what it's worth. Other impact players on the Vikings, you have Aaron Jones, 3rd best running back, according to Pro Football Focus. Justin Jefferson, they have him ranked 10th in receivers right now. Obviously, he's one of the best in the game. Definitely gave us a lot of problems last year. Both times we played him Jonathan Greenard, 49th ranked edge defender, which once again, pro football focus looks kind of low, but he's been having a really good year as has linebacker Blake Cashman, ranked 15th tackle Christian Derosa is ranked eight. And Tackle Brian O'Neal is ranked 12th. They, have a lot of, you see these names, a lot of them are kind of in the middle of the pack and weren't people that you were really necessarily worried about before the season, but, combined on this team, they're all having great years. And that's been a reason why they're undefeated right now.
Jason Harwood:Yep. Good tackle play. Darnold's been had, had time to throw and Aaron Jones, Aaron Jones, we, he stayed in the division. I think we said that in one of the, podcasts previously, that was, I was not happy about him staying in the division. Cause we know what he's capable of and he started out and had a, had a pretty good season so far.
Jacob:Right? Right.
Jason Harwood:So the draft that they had really, for multiple reasons it's not going to really impact this game very much. JJ McCarthy was their first first round pick, he's out for the season where, we're not going to be able to see him their second. round pick was Dallas Turner out of Alabama. He's had a sack on the season. he's still developing and that's really all the, the draft picks that impact this team. Fortunately they had Kyrie Jackson pass away. That was really sad. fourth rounder Lions have, always had draft picks that impact the team, and then this team is 5 0 and they don't have any draft picks that impact this team right now, so it's crazy how all that stuff works out. As far as, like, the offseason, do you want to get into some of their signings, Jacob, real quickly? Yeah,
Jacob:talked about most of their free agent signings just because they're impact players for him. I mean, they've been difference makers. Aaron Jones, Sam Darnold, Blake Cashman, Jonathan Greenard. The biggest names are the people that they moved on from. Daniel Hunter, we weren't sure how they were going to, create any pressure without him around Kirk Cousins, the receiver KJ Osborne. Marcus Davenport, obviously not there anymore. He was with Detroit for a short time before he got hurt. But, it seems like they're better off without them this far in the season, right?
Jason Harwood:Brian Flores, disguises pressure. And that's how he gets it through confusion. help line up 6 people on the line and, 4356. They all might, might be coming with, you don't know. Until next time. till the snap where, where everybody's going to line up. So that's how he's creating pressure through confusion. So it'll be up to lions to, and they have a great offensive line. Frank Ragnalls is going to be very good. They faced the Vikings twice last year, had experience, the personnel is a little bit different this time and, they're in the second year of this defense. So the, it's getting. Dan Campbell said today they're disguising things more. So it lines out to be prepared for that. This'll be a big task for the boys up front, to, to block and have good communication.
Jacob:it's going to be a physical game. It's going to be really fun to watch.
Jason Harwood:Yep. It's a shame. It's a one o'clock. I mean, I'm happy. It's a one o'clock game cause we don't have to wait all day for it, but just seems like this game should be a Sunday night football game or a four o'clock four
Jacob:True,
Jason Harwood:least.
Jacob:but before the season started, I mean this had one o'clock game written all over it this early on in the season, everything, but what's interesting is our, last game of the season, which we didn't really understand why we played the Vikings the last game. We thought they could have swung that a different way. And now all of a sudden, that potentially is very, very interesting.
Jason Harwood:Yeah. That'll be a home game too. So that's right. Get this road game out of the way early.
Jacob:Right.
Jason Harwood:All right, let's go over some injuries that may impact this game. For the Vikings, Aaron Jones did not practice today. We're recording this Wednesday night. He did not practice. he doesn't play, that's going to be a huge hit for their offense. He is a big part of their offense. So that is going to be a huge hit. Also. Blake Cashman, their linebacker, he's a leading tackler on the team. He didn't practice today. And I saw some podcasts, Vikings podcasts. They're more worried about losing Blake Cashman than they are Aaron Jones. But I think
Jacob:Oh, wow.
Jason Harwood:going to be huge. Well, Blake Cashman's there, they're green dot. So,
Jacob:Yeah.
Jason Harwood:it's like us losing Anzalone. just he's the leader of defense
Jacob:Which we did have to play without him.
Jason Harwood:Right, exactly. Harrison Phillips is also did not practice. Interesting. DJ TJ Hawkinson is limited in practice. Everything I've read said they don't expect him to come back this week, but they are playing the lions. Second place of the division. TJ Hawkinson's obvious former team. there might be a little extra motivation to play in this game. So see. What did you see uh, the Detroit Lions practice report,
Jacob:for the Lions practice report, obviously we got a bunch of guys on IR that we've already talked about, but the new ones being added are Aiden Hutchinson and Kyle Pecco. So, for the practice report, Carlton Davis did not practice. They're calling that a quad injury, though. You have Dan Skipper did not practice, rib injury. Mm hmm. Brian Branch got a limited practice with knee problems and then Kevin Zeitler and Frank Ragnow did not practice but they're calling that due to rest. The big offensive lineman had a busy week last week, so they just needed that extra rest day.
Jason Harwood:Yeah, well, they're going to get ready and plus, Frank right now is dealing with that, pec injury that Carlton Davis saying we should point out is not due to the concussion at all. This is a quad injury. So he passed concussion protocol. Dan Campbell, when asked today in his press conference said that he's feeling very good about Carlton Davis playing. And that's going to be big cause we're going to need him back there with Justin Jefferson and
Jacob:Yes.
Jason Harwood:Back there. So, that, that was good to hear, but Carlton Davis didn't practice. So we'll, we'll see how that goes. Brian branch, at least he practiced a knee injury, but I don't. Expect him to miss. And then, yeah, when I saw the tweets earlier that Ragnar and Zyler did not practice, I was really hoping to see rest on the practice report, why they didn't practice and then that was it. So, and that's what I was hoping. I mean, they're both. veterans and, they'll be ready to go.
Jacob:Yeah, don't have to worry about them.
Jason Harwood:No, we don't. So we mentioned the Minnesota Vikings are five and Oh, Jacob, you want to tell us how they got to be five and Oh,
Jacob:Yeah, Viking season so far, 5 0 first in the NFC North for right now at least. Week 1 at the New York Giants, they win 28 6. Week 2, they're at home against the 49ers, and they won that game 23 17. Week three at home against the Houston Texans. They actually won that game by a lot. That was 34 to seven, very impressive win for the Vikings. Their week for the division game at green Bay, they pulled that one out 31 to 29. The Packers scored late. They're making that look a little bit closer than it was, but, and then in London against the New York jets, they went 23 to 17 and then last week they were on a buy. So they had an extra week to prepare for us. So really good start for the Vikings.
Jason Harwood:yeah, let's just hope they come out a little sluggish from their bike. Cause they've been starting hot the last two weeks. Packers, they were up 28 to nothing. The jets, they were up 17 to nothing. that's the pattern. Get up on teams early and then their defense can tee off. So to watch that. As far as, their offensive rankings right now, they're ranked 17th yards per game. I'm talking about the Vikings. They're. 18th and passing yards per game and 20th and rushing yards per game. There are offenses, in the middle of the pack, as far as in the yardage range, they are, they are converting a lot of red zone and scoring touchdowns which, Is important. they're getting the points out of it. yards per game. So they're 17th in yards per game. They're 30th in passing yards per game. However, I'm going to leave this a caveat. They've been getting up by so much that I think teams have been just like passing on them so much that. That it's kind of early in the season. So I think that's, that's a little deceiving. I think they're better against the past than what that stat says. But against the run, they are second rushing yards per game. Again, teams went away from the run, but a secondary set that they have is that they have, like, when you look at the advanced stats, have, The least amount of yards running back get before they're going to contact it. It's like less than a yard. They are like three times better than the next team. So they are getting to the running backs very early, which means they're probably getting pressure getting into the offensive line. they line with six people on the line. So they're, they have a lot of people ready for the running back when they run. Mentioned that they're 30th and passing yards for games, but however they could deal a lot of pressure, Jacob. What, where are they standing pressures?
Jacob:So right now they are ranked second in NFL. Really? That's first because they've only played in five games. They have 94 pressures right now. And the lions, we have 69 pressures and it seems like we're back there in the quarterback's face every single play.
Jason Harwood:Yeah, they are. It's, it is impressive where the Vikings sit and pressures because every team that's around them have played six games. So the top 18 teams have played And quarterback pressures have played six games except for the Vikings and the Vikings have only played five and they are number two in pressures like overall pressures, not with 94. So they are just pressuring at an unreal rate compared to everybody else. And like I said, a lot of that is due to how Brian Flores is dialing up his defense. So lions are going to be on, have to be on top of their game with this one.
Jacob:Definitely. It's going to be tough. You got to make sure that we're reading the defense correctly.
Jason Harwood:So excited. We're going to head to the interview with Arif Hassan and we'll see you on the other side. Welcome everybody. Talking grit wants to welcome Arif Hassan. He covers Vikings and the NFL for wide left. He also has his own. Uh, podcast on the Norse code podcast. You can catch them talking about the Vikings. Arif, thank you for, making this happen. We, had to delay it a little bit because your basketball game, but get the result
Jacob:Yeah,
Jason Harwood:never met you in my life and I'm going to make this crazy demand. No, of course, of course, man, I'm glad you were able to go. All right, Jacob, I'm gonna let you start with the 1st question here.
Jacob:All right. Uh, so, most analysts predicted a last place finish for the Vikings. Most of the, the average prediction was around six wins for the total season. So to start the season five and O has got to feel really good. Did you expect to be five and O through the first five weeks? especially with the games against the Packers, the 49ers, the Texans, realistically before the season started, where were you hoping to be right now and how do you feel? Obviously, now it's your five and O.
Arif Hasan:Yeah. I I, I'm not going to puff myself up and say I wasn't one of those analysts. Technically I wasn't. I said that they would finish. Third, right. That's, so much better. Right. So I'm still like wrong in a different way. I, and I thought that, these first five weeks before the buy, they'd be in a good spot if they won two of those five games. Right. Cause that's a ridiculously tough schedule. I didn't think as much of green Bay as I think a lot of people did, but I did expect them to be a better team. Right. Obviously the 49ers are great team. Houston's been, pumped on all cylinders, expected the jets to be a much better team than they've turned out to be so far. Which, I mean. I take great pleasure in the fact that they're not for, I think, fairly obvious reasons.
Jacob:Yes. Silence.
Arif Hasan:well calibrated and designed. Uh, you always love these stories like Sam Darnold, maybe turning his crew around, who knows? Uh, Aaron Jones kind of staying in the division, doing a bunch of great stuff. I don't think you'll play this week. The Vikings have been really ambiguous on purpose about kind of what that is. I don't know. I don't think it's going to happen. But I think these are great stories. TJ Hawkins is going to come back soon again, probably not this week, but I think that, there are a bunch of great storylines for this team. That's great. That's fun. It's a good team. That's great. That's fun. And they're good in like really interesting and unique ways. It's not everyone's running, the, the cover for stuff that we've been seeing a ton of.
Jason Harwood:Yeah, so kind of touched on it. Sam Darnold. What have you
Jacob:Okay. very much.
Arif Hasan:He's a pretty aggressive quarterback. He does make stupid mistakes every couple of games that hasn't gone away. He still makes stupid mistakes every couple of games. Uh, in the first couple of games, he wasn't punished for the last couple. He was, but. The Vikings were able to endure, uh, and, uh, and that's kind of what he was at USC. That's what he was with the Jets. But the thing is, the exciting plays that he wants to make, they're hitting. And, part of that, of course, has to do the wonderful supporting cast that they have. Part of that has to do with a really excellent, offensive, game plan design coordinator coach situation that they've got going on with O'Connell and Wes Phillips. But he is just playing as a better quarterback. He played better. When we saw him in San Francisco for about 50 or so dropbacks, he played better when we saw him in Carolina for about six games. And I think a lot of that has to do with, I think more effectively managing like risk and reward, trying to determine what plays his arm can make and can't make. He still loves the idea of, of being able to, move around and escape the pocket and hold onto the ball, but he's holding onto the ball longer in Minnesota than he'd ever had in his career. And I think that that's more. offensive game plan thing than it is. He's changed his tendency thing. I think it's the way O'Connell coaches cousins held the ball, I think, is one of the longest, non scrambling quarterbacks in the league the last couple of years as well. So I think it's a feature of the offense, but I do think that that has enabled them to really. him the goods when it comes to, creating explosive place. Cause he, he really likes to push for them. And so the Vikings were like, well, if that's the case and we design our offense around explosive plays, then let's do it, let's send these receivers deep, let's make sure that we've got, some answers to a couple of problems that they'll throw at us, uh, and, and make sure that we've got the protection set up. And so I think that that's a lot of it. I think most of it. Is he is managing that risk reward calculus really well. Some of it is he's matured as a, as a quarterback over the past couple of years. He didn't get that with the jets. A lot of it's the supporting cast. A lot of it's the coaching. But it's really just, he's the same play style, but it's, it's, it's just more effectively managed.
Jacob:He's got himself in a great situation in Minnesota right now. This is, the best place for him. It's definitely fitness strengths for sure.
Arif Hasan:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's a, it's a great pair of tackles and Christian Derrissar, Brown and Neal. So you've got that protection kind of set up a little bit of worry up the middle. You can't have everything, but a really fantastic receiving group. I think, obviously there's Justin Jefferson. I consider him the best receiver in the league. Uh, and then you've got Jalen Neal or Jordan Addison who are playing, I think, above my expectations for them. And I put them in a really great conversation. I was actually writing a cause we had the bye week. So I was just like, I'll just watch every
Jason Harwood:Okay. You
Arif Hasan:that's really fantastic. And so
Jason Harwood:Yeah.
Arif Hasan:but Sam Donald was probably going to play this game, whether or not JJ McCarthy was healthy.
Jacob:Yeah, next question here. So the last couple games for the Vikings, the team has really come roaring out of the gate and then the game gets kind of closer in the second half. Is that a coincidence? Or is that a sign of something of the game script? Or is there anything there?
Arif Hasan:Yeah, no, I think that there is something there. I wasn't too alarmed with week two against San Francisco, I think when they got within a score because it was like a last second, to bring it within one score, they'd have to make an onside kick. And then against Green Bay, it was a really, really similar situation where they needed to get an onside kick again. think the Vikings were trying to solely mug the clock. I think they were legitimately playing defense and with an eye to the clock and made a couple of mistakes here or there on that final drive. So I don't want to say it was all prevent and that these are fake, but for the most part, that was their priority. I still think that they would have liked to bat down a couple of passes there. So I don't think that those provided us with. A ton of alarm. There was some signal there that I'll talk about in a second. I think the Jets game, certainly, I think they, they kind of screwed up and I don't really want to put it on the defensive of the defense played really outstandingly. I think it was more on the offense. A lot of three and outs from that offense, especially in the second half which, created a bunch of additional possessions, gave them really good field position, especially with the turnovers. And so that's the problem. So I think primarily the issue is not really on defense. If you take a look at their individual kind of play by play statistics and how they've done, even just in those second halves where they gave up, those leads, the defense is actually playing like. well. But if you're a good defense and the other team has eight possessions are gonna score, right? So that that that's kind of the crux of it, especially if you give them field position at like the 40, which is how, like one of the interceptions for that, uh, that, They gave to the Jets, uh, was like at like the, their own 35, right? So you can't do that. Right. And, and so the issue I think primarily is on offense and, and my biggest concern right now, and this is the piece that I'll be publishing tomorrow morning. Is that I think same Donald's been playing worse every single game. Not a huge he's not playing awful now. He's playing outstandingly week one played all right. Week two, week three, you could argue those bounce back from week two, but for the most part, I think that he's been declining a little bit in his level of play, and I think he needs to reel it back. I think that in terms of the number of kind of stupid decisions, like I said, at the beginning of the show, I think those. Are kind of appearing a little bit more and more. He's getting punished a little bit more and more, like I mentioned. And so that I think is kind of the locus there in terms of the things that you want to fix. Obviously you didn't have Aaron Jones in the second half against the Jets. That probably plays a little bit of a role there too, but I think primarily it's, the quarterback situation. I think that there's an issue with pressure up the middle. That's playing a role. I don't know that they can solve that problem. I don't think they're going to make a trade to solve that problem or anything like that. So you're just going to have to have. To deal with the fact that you're, you're right. Guard is like incredibly good at run blocking and incredibly bad at past protection and
Jacob:Okay. Okay.
Arif Hasan:teams in the league. So, hopefully when they get out of this, like insane beginning to the schedule and they started taking on. Your Colts is or whoever, right. Then maybe they can just hold on to a lead for once.
Jason Harwood:We've talked about the offense. Let's talk about the defense. Brian Flores is amazing. He's gotten this defense plane at a high level. is his secret sauce? How, how does he do this? What, what do you see as a Vikings reporter?
Arif Hasan:I mean, if, if I could break down everything, I, I think that his defense wouldn't be as, taking people by surprise, right. It, if, if a couple of podcasters can kind of unveil it. So I'm always going
Jacob:Silence.
Arif Hasan:that's, that's a dangerous way to live to have six guys in coverage. Right. And, and he loves it. a lot of the defense is to, attack protections, figure out what the protections are trying to do. And always make them wrong. And this is something that we've been seeing a lot in defenses, like after kind of the Tampa two revolution died out, a lot of the ways that people have been attacking offenses has been, by overloading, the line of scrimmage, especially on third down floors, does this on first and second down to, he's kind of crazy. And, uh, and, creating the, all these one on one matchups. And then, you've got a pivot point, to the center or the guard, maybe even a tackle where they have to make a decision to turn left or right to take on a blitzer. And then the running back has to take the other guy and whichever way they turn the wrong, that guy drops back into coverage, right? I think there's a lot of that. there's a lot of positionless football. Uh, so Josh Mattelis has played, safety linebacker. Nickel corner, he's played a tiny bit of edge rusher of all things. Andrew Van Ginkle, very similar, has played edge rusher, has played in the slot, has played off ball linebacker. And I was asking them about it. I was like, Hey, a lot of you were playing like a lot of different alignments. Like I know, like I've watched a lot of defenses where Xavier Smith will line up on the edge and they did defensive tackle. And occasionally, he'll be standing up, but he'll be at the line of scrimmage. But Andrew Van Ginkle is an edge rusher and he's lined up four or five yards off the ball. He's just, he's covering the a gap as a run defender. What is going on here? Right. Ivan Pace is like a five, 10 edge rusher. What are we doing? Right. I have no idea what's going on. I asked him about it and he's well, when he draws it up on the board, he doesn't put the position names down, they're all Xs. And that is like a constant reminder that everyone has to know everyone's assignment on every play, right? And has to know the techniques that are associated with that assignment, because you might be in a situation where you're reading the play and realize, okay, well, because of what's been happening here, the guy next to me has to do this. And if he does that, that leaves this area open and I have to cover for him, which means I have to do something that traditionally my position is not associated with. So they have to learn those things. It's a really difficult thing to learn. But at a lot, but at the same time, you can play really fast once you pick it up. It's, it's a little bit like I don't know if any of you are fans of soccer, but like the old, like the 1970s Dutch football team, the national football team, they played something called total football where they would swap positions mid game or even mid play and just play each other's positions so that they played this like really fluid type of offense. It's like that on the defense for the Vikings where they'll just like swap positions. Based off of calls that are happening pre snap, uh, or even mid play. And so that's like a lot of it but they also have a really good understanding of what quarterbacks are trying to do against blitzes, right? Because a lot of times these blitzes bring an unblocked rusher, which means it's on the quarterback and the quarterback has to make a decision about what to do about that unblocked rusher. Very often you throw into the blitz, because someone's vacating their coverage. Sometimes you've got a hot route. Right. And you throw into the hot route. Sometimes you've got, a check down. They're always going to have not necessarily, a site adjustment or anything like that. And if you have an understanding of what that quarterback's general responses are, you've got the ability to kind of poach what those throws are going to be. And so you've got a safety, coming in off the edge and that their response to having kind of that. That vacated area is to have your tight end, cut the route short, turn around and run a really quick hitch. But if that, then you can have somebody who was at the line of scrimmage at like defensive tackle or something like that, doesn't have to literally be a defensive tackle. Andrew Van Ginkle actually just did this again for Aaron Rodgers and they can drop into that coverage and that area that, that, that pro was supposed to be no grab a pick like I said, that's exactly what happened to Aaron Rodgers. They knew
Jacob:That was a great way.
Arif Hasan:be. That was fantastic.
Jacob:Right.
Arif Hasan:the
Jacob:took it to the house.
Arif Hasan:pick six, I
Jacob:Yeah, right.
Arif Hasan:and I asked, I asked the players after the game, I was like, Hey, so, pick six, what's that about? And, and and Jonathan Granada was like, yeah, I didn't think that was going to be a pick six, but then I saw Harrison Smith throw a block. And I was like, I guess we're doing this. And, and eight seconds later, it was an incredible play. But yeah, they're doing a lot of stuff where they have got a pretty good understanding of what they think that quarterback is going to do in response to the types of pressures that they throw, otherwise the areas that they leave vacated are pretty consistent. They leave the flats vacated and they're good tacklers. And so they're like, okay, you're going to throw screens against us. We're just going to be good at tackling. So that's like a lot of it, but it is really difficult to kind of, If you're in the bullets are live, you're a quarterback. It's tough to figure all of this out.
Jacob:Absolutely. Yeah, that was perfect. Rogers fell right into that trap. That was an amazing play. I mean, just a really good defensive game plan that week.
Arif Hasan:I was
Jacob:So the Vikings blitz at a league high rate. Uh, Jared Goss Passive Rating against the Blitz is 128, he's 91 when not Blitzed. Do you think that will, uh, alter their Blitz rate, or do you think they're still gonna keep bringing the pressure? Yeah.
Arif Hasan:year, Justin Herbert, same thing. They were like, yeah, okay, well you're good against the blitz. Are you good against our blitz? And generally speaking, the answer has been no. Uh, so like, why stop? Right. So yeah, they're going to keep, they're going to keep bringing the blitz. They're going to design the blitzes around kind of like what they expect golf to do. I know that golf likes to throw up the top of blitzes instead of just replace blitzes with rows. When you've got somebody like Jameson Williams, it does. Make a fair amount of sense. So, they'll, they'll probably have a plan. I'm not smart enough to kind of figure out what that that's going to look like,
Jacob:Yeah.
Arif Hasan:know, that's, I think, they'll, they'll take that as a challenge rather than as a caution.
Jacob:Right. Yeah,
Jason Harwood:he's got an answer for everything. So I love it. Jacob.
Jacob:have traded for running back cam acres. Do you think this is because of the Aaron Jones injury? Do you think it's just because of how much they were using Jones or, what's, what's the reason for bringing them back now?
Arif Hasan:Yeah. I mean, his usage pattern was higher than liberalists in green Bay. So that's like certainly a consideration, but I, I think it's the injury. And like they, they said explicitly. Not because of the entry. Yeah, I don't believe him.
Jacob:Right? I'm
Arif Hasan:Yeah, interesting timing to make a trade. Not because a ton of teams made trades, right? But interesting timing to make a trade for a running back. And when your other running back is hurt, you sure you sure that's not the reason. I mean, they, they like can makers a lot. I personally, I don't see it. I don't think he was like a particularly super effective runner, uh, in Minnesota last year. I don't think he was a super effective runner for Houston. You take a look at the production that you saw from, Mixon, Damien Pierce, vastly, vastly outproduced him. Only, uh, Ogun Muwale was like worse than him in that backfield. And I just don't, I don't think he's got the same cutting ability, which I mean, you can't really blame him for two Achilles injuries, right? That's crazy. It is what it is. And I don't think he, like when, when, when they asked Kevin O'Connell about it in like late, like before the Houston game Hey, you're about to play against Cam Akers, what do you like about him? He went on about how great a kid this was, how he went through all of this and never complained and how he battled through a bunch of adversity. And that's all probably true, right? Like I'm, I'm not going to knock that, I don't know that he's like good at running back. So I don't know. But that, I like, the Vikings have consistently proven me wrong with the past, year and a half, two years. So I'm not going to be like too up in arms about a sixth round, seventh round conditional swap. But I, I don't know how much he's going to bring. They said that he's third on the depth chart behind Ty Chandler, Miles Gaskin. If Aaron Jones were, were not ready to go, I think the way that he answered that question kind of suggested that Aaron Jones is probably not ready to go. But, uh, yeah, I, I don't know. It's not a great running situation without Aaron Jones. He's clearly the only performance back on the roster right now.
Jacob:Right. Yeah.
Jason Harwood:one I'm just really curious about, Vikings are coming out of nowhere, really five and I'm sure the fan base didn't really expect that. So what is the general feeling in Minnesota right now? Do they feel that it's real? I mean, are they super hyped or are we still in a caution type, wait and see what happens type thing. Yeah. Yeah.
Arif Hasan:go undefeated and Vikings fans would be in a wait and see. Kinda they're very cautious. Like it's, they've only been burned, right? It's,
Jason Harwood:Yeah.
Arif Hasan:they like. Like I've talked to a lot of fan bases that have experienced like a lot of losing, lions, over, before Dan Gamble, right near the Browns and a bunch of other fan bases. And there's something, I think a little bit different in character between, that
Jason Harwood:Um, Um, Um,
Arif Hasan:16. I don't know, but it's certainly a unique type of pain, right? When you're given something and having it taken away, it's a, for a lot of people, that's worse than not ever having it at all. And, and so the way that the Vikings fan base has kind of evolved in response to this has been this eternal debate about how cautious they can be, how excited they're allowed to be about a team. That's good. Always looking for reasons that this isn't real. And it's kind of funny because I remember, a couple of years ago, green Bay, I 16 game seasons. I think they went 13 and three. And the numbers behind that green Bay team, awful, just a terrible, four or 13 and three team, right? Just like they played more like a nine win team. Right. And so there was a really good chance that we're not going to do well in the playoffs. And you point this out in a bunch of green Bay fans were mad at you. now, instead of me pointing out whether or not the Vikings are real, I just get questions from Vikings fans. Are they real? Are they real? Are they real? This isn't sustainable, right? Like it's a totally different character, right? Because in green Bay, they're used to winning. They got a bunch of rings. They'll tell you about it. And in Minnesota, they're used to getting close and they're not doing it. And so they, they want reasons to not believe. So that they can feel comfortable, right? When, when, I'm describing broad strokes, right? There's always exceptions. and so it actually is sometimes difficult for me to say, Hey, the underlying numbers for this team are actually outstanding. This is like a good team. This isn't and there's actually multiple examples I can point to of five and Oh, Vikings teams that didn't do well,
Jacob:Yeah.
Arif Hasan:team or the 2003 team. Did neither of them made the playoffs? Like you understand, like what this, this franchise has done to people. They're like, Oh, the 2016 team was also like a defense forward team. Right. And you had some questions about the offense and the, the quarterback situation wasn't really resolved yet. Another guy named Sam doing some stuff back there. And it's just it's different. I promise you is I can't promise you the win a playoff game, but I can promise you kind of the underlying stuff here. It's different because back in 2016, I was calling the team fraudulent. I had a bunch of reasons to call him fraudulent. If your defense outscores your offense, you're probably not good. Right. That's what the
Jacob:Yeah,
Arif Hasan:conversation to have. As opposed to, yeah, I think these guys are garbage and, uh, and they shouldn't be 5 0. I'm not there. We're at a point where we're just like, how good are they? So, It's a very cautious fan base. Obviously some people will throw caution to the wind and just embrace whatever. I totally respect them for it because yourself vulnerable to this particular team, I think is an act of courage. But yeah, it is, it is a, it is a fan base. That's been snake bitten and they, and they act like it.
Jason Harwood:So I always find it interesting that the culture and like the The behind the scenes for, know, for each of the different teams and what they've been in their history. I always find that very fascinating. And, know, for Alliance, we've, we were the ones where we didn't have anything. And, when we got to the NFC championship game and that was taken from us being up 17, nothing. So I, we were just thankful to be there though, at that point, whereas the Vikings might've looked at that and said, here we go again. Yeah.
Arif Hasan:100 percent when, when the 49ers scored their first points in the second half. My Twitter mentions were full of, here we go again. It is like week two. And they're like, all right, here we go again. And they did it. They did it against against the Packers. Ah, here we go again. Did it against the Jets. Ah, Aaron Rodgers, another comeback. Here we go again. You can't, you can't take it out of the fan base until they win the Superbowl. That's the only cure.
Jacob:yeah, it's tough,
Jason Harwood:Yeah, I mean, Dan Campbell's done the impossible for us is like he's changed just the whole culture on set. I mean, he did an impossible task. It's, it's. It's really insane the backing that he has, he's changed the whole belief system of this team, even with Aiden going down last week, I mean, previous, I mean, first of all, previous line teams wouldn't have had this much talent, and that would have been just like our one season. Good player that would have been hurt. But yeah, I don't feel like the ceiling's crashing down on us yet, even though, the rest of the league may, may feel that way and look at us. Like we're crazy for in denial that, that we still have any sort of chance without Aiden, but it's, it's crazy, but you can, get used to,
Arif Hasan:I mean, like when I saw Calvin Johnson return, I think it was like for a draft video or something like that. It was like Calvin Johnson was in the building. My God, the lines are making up with everybody
Jacob:right,
Arif Hasan:outs, right? Like
Jacob:yeah,
Arif Hasan:they
Jason Harwood:Yeah. Yeah.
Arif Hasan:and people are just. Up and excited, with the lions. And, and what's interesting is that I've noticed that lions fans have gotten a little bit defensive about their excitement, which that's fine. It's your emotions. You get to play how you play them how you want to. But I, I, I mentioned that I thought it was a little unusual that they booed Matthew Stafford when he should like during the playoff game, right. Pregame, they booed him. I was like, oh, that's a little bit unusual, right. And Lions fans got so mad at me, so mad at me. And I think part of it was being in a situation where you can do that so wonderful that you just kind of want to, and it's yeah, we're going to win. I want to win in a, in a lot of fan bases. And this isn't like a more, one fan base is better than the other. A lot of fan bases wouldn't have done that maybe because they don't feel that need it to, to win these games that they hadn't won before. so anything standing in their way is fair game. And so I understand where that might come from, but it's a totally different approach, right? Then I would argue that Stafford left on good terms. Right. Then, then, then this franchise kind of like legend, that's like giving up his body for the franchise doing a lot, but, not having a lot, right. Doing a lot without having done a lot. Being kind of. Greeted back with a return, right? If the Vikings are in a playoff game against Teddy Bridgewater somehow, right. And he's retired, but like as an example, my guess would be in that playoff game, fans would cheer him pregame boom during the game. Fine. But that's not like a judgment. That's just that's, I think that's where lions fans are probably coming from, where it's no. Weaning is what matters now, and any element that's going to stand in the way is the enemy. I don't care if you're Mother Teresa, kind of stuff. So, Mother Teresa for me personally is a bad example, but, but, I don't, I don't care if you're like a canonized saint. You're on the outs.
Jacob:Yeah, we have separate back, when he was playing in the Super Bowl for the Rams, we all, they have the Detroit Rams. Transcripts provided by Transcription Outsourcing, LLC.
Jason Harwood:Yeah, I, I don't, it, that was a weird situation. I mean, being, I was at that playoff game and I don't, I mean, when he came out, he came out with the rest of the team and they really kind of just booing the whole team. I don't know if it was. I will tell you that it was more that the lions had the support of Jared golf than it was anything against Matt Stafford. I think that that playoff game had just so many storylines written into it that it's hard to distinguish one thing from the Michigan verse, everybody mentality in the sense that, okay, Jerry golf was a cast off and now, he's our guy. He's got us as a playoff, Matt Stafford. Was
Jacob:Okay.
Jason Harwood:this team hadn't been in 30 years and Matt Safford never got us to that place. So I don't know. I, I still think, I mean, I, I'm a, I like Matt Safford. I liked him when he was here. I was glad that he left and got his ring. I was happy for him. It was frustrating. From Alliance standpoint, when you would hear national broadcasters, all of a sudden talk about Matt Stafford's elite quarterback
Arif Hasan:well, he
Jacob:Right.
Arif Hasan:like, four times better. Right?
Jason Harwood:well, I mean, you
Jacob:Yeah.
Jason Harwood:so frustrated. People would be like, Oh, look at this. No luck pass from Patrick Mahomes. Well, Stafford was doing that with Detroit. I mean, he's doing that and they were critiquing him. Then that look, I'll look at his sidearm throws. All that stuff was when he was with the Lions, that was bad. And then when he went to.
Arif Hasan:would ask him press conferences. Are you going to change your mechanics? And he's what are you talking about? I remember that. Yeah.
Jason Harwood:Yeah,
Jacob:Yeah.
Jason Harwood:yeah, it was just, but when you don't win, you get those type of questions, you get those critiques, you, you just do. And, uh, he just didn't win enough with us and it is what it is. Thank you for this interesting, it was really good to hear your perspective outside and just, I,
Jacob:Right.
Jason Harwood:I've. haven't had that conversation with a writer from another team about the Stafford thing. So that was the, interdivision, you obviously had a lot of experience with Stafford. So,
Arif Hasan:Yeah. I mean, he got hit a lot when he played against the Vikings.
Jason Harwood:Oh my God. Yeah,
Jacob:Yeah.
Jason Harwood:no.
Arif Hasan:maybe that's also why I'm a little bit more sympathetic, because I've seen him get beat up maybe more than any other rival team.
Jason Harwood:he is, well, he is one of the toughest. I mean, he had like his first couple of years were injury riddled, he broke his collarbone, did those type of things.
Arif Hasan:the Browns? That's that's still up on like the NFL YouTube channel where he's miked up.
Jason Harwood:Oh,
Jacob:Yeah.
Arif Hasan:stuff, man.
Jacob:For sure.
Jason Harwood:yeah. We talked to another, uh, Tampa, uh, podcaster about that. And just, yeah, that, that's
Jacob:Iconic. Yeah. Silence.
Jason Harwood:at the, the, the, the, the, the, Crazy. Any predictions for, for, uh, for this game that's that, uh, that you see doesn't have to be a score, it doesn't have to be an outcome or anything like that, any prediction that you see coming.
Arif Hasan:God, this one's tough because the Lions offense is also kind of unique. The Vikings haven't played a condensed
Jacob:Silence.
Arif Hasan:like this because it's Johnson is not a Shanahan guy. Uh, he just has some Shanahan plays, uh, man, I, I, okay. My prediction is, is going to be that the Lions are probably going to be the only team That can run effectively and consistently against the Vikings the whole year. Maybe for both games, maybe just for this game, but I do think that they will be the only team that consistently runs well against the Vikings, because the way that they set up those runs is, is I think outstanding and unique. So that's, uh, that's going to be my prediction. It's going to be a game, obviously, I mean, the lions, I think are favored by three points, I want to say. And, and that's pretty fair. Uh, I haven't seen the Vikings lose a game yet, so I'm gonna believe in them. But, uh, it's, it's a pretty fair, uh, line. And I'm not gonna put any money on this particular game, because it is really tough. It's really close. Oh, uh, how about this? How about this prediction? Uh, first game of the season, Montgomery doesn't score a touchdown. How about that?
Jacob:Okay.
Jason Harwood:man. I kind of want them to break this record. The, the,
Arif Hasan:yeah, it's fun.
Jason Harwood:I mean, his, yeah, his running has been awesome. just before you go, could you tell the listeners where they could check out your stuff?
Arif Hasan:Yeah, absolutely. So you can find my stuff over at wide left dot football. That's where all of my written stuff is. Otherwise I've got podcasts with, uh, like you mentioned Norse code. That's one where I cover the Vikings, primarily also the Minnesota football party that's in the lockdown network. And then I've got a new podcast that just talks about like in the NFL, uh, uh, called 60 minute drill. It's with a tech writer named Ed Zitron and, uh, kind of a, Online culture personality, uh, named Caleb. Uh, it's a ton of fun. We've got three episodes out. People have responded really well to it. So, a bunch of podcasts, all my written contents are from white left football. You can find me on Twitter, uh, at a reef is on NFL.
Jason Harwood:All right. Well, thank
Jacob:right.
Jason Harwood:Arif. All right. Hope you enjoyed that interview. We're going to get into our analysis of this game here. Jacob, any stats that you think we should be aware of?
Jacob:Yeah, I'm just going to run down just their rushing defense because that's really what we talked about. They're really strong with. Just want to point out, the games that they've had, just quick breakdowns here. So the Giants uh, running back Devin Singletary, 10 attempts, 37 yards. The 49ers, Jordan Mason actually was running back in that game, 20 attempts for 100 yards. The Texans were without Joe Mixon, so they had Cam Akers who had 9 attempts for 21 yards and a blowout loss. Which is funny because Cam Akers is now a Minnesota Viking again. But then you have the Green Bay Packers, Josh Jacobs and 17 attempts for 78 yards, and then the Jets, Breece Hall, Braylon Allen, 14 attempts for 36 yards. So, there's a decent mix here of either them not having a whole lot of attempts, Or it's just, the run defense actually was playing pretty well. That's the reason the run defense is ranked so high, which kind of said before is that teams aren't really running the ball against them. Whether that be that they're just down early, or if they're just stacking the box so much, the teams are kind of shying away from it. But that last game for the jets, they had 14 attempts for 36 yards. There's just no way that we are only going to run the ball 14 times. I mean, they might run the ball 14 times each between Montgomery and Gibbs,
Jason Harwood:It'll be interesting how they decide to attack this rush defense. Are they going to pass first? Are the lines going to pass first to try to open, open up some of that run? Are we going to trust the offensive line to just be able to, To, just be able to break through. Are we going to use Gibbs more? Because maybe you could use a speed to get to the outside. If they're loading up the box, it's going to be interesting. I'm really curious to see how this works out and have, if they miss Cashman, that's going to, that's going to hurt them because he's their linebacker. He's their leading tackler. And I betcha, Gibbs might have an easier time running the outside of Cashman isn't there to diagnose the play. Yeah, so it'll be in our side, we don't want to repeat of the Bucks game where golf is throwing 55 times a game. I don't want to see that.
Jacob:right? We just can't do that again.
Jason Harwood:Right, exactly. So it'll be interesting to see how we start out if we're going to just, test out their run defense, see if it's as good as, the stats say it is or. they have not run into an offensive line, like the lions have curious how that's going to go. you talked about the run defense. Obviously we talked about pressures, the Vikings blitz at a crazy rate. That's just a Brian Flores thing. He's, that happened last year. are going to have to just be ready for that. Frank Ragnos is going to have to be ready for that. far as on the offensive side, a couple of things that I think are going to be keys to the game. Sam Darnold's had the second. time to throw in this league. And if you're going to give him that amount of time, he's Justin Jefferson's going to get open or he's going to work into a PI or something like that, because it's hard to keep up with him for that long. So we're going to have to watch that. Hopefully we can get some pressure. I know we lost Aiden. We're going to have to figure out how we can, how we could dial up some pressure, and, and this kind of goes hand in hand, they've had the longest time to throw because they've been pressured like the seventh lowest in the league, their tackles are highly rated eight and 12, whether it's that or other offensive line or just play design, lines are going to have to get some pressure, make Sam Darnold uncomfortable. That'll be a key to this game.
Jacob:Definitely, I can, that kind of speaks on what my key to victory is, the defense is going to have to bend and not break in this game. It is going to be a lot different without Hutch. We are going to have a Lehman DJ reader trying to get pressure up the middle. I think that, teams without Hutchinson, they're going to be trying to get more outside, quick screens outside the, quick little jet screens, the passes. Levi and Josh Pascal are not as fast as Hutchinson is. So it's going to be interesting to see whether they can contain and everything, instead of just bull rushing and trying to get pressure on the quarterback. We're going to have to mix in pressure with the linebackers and defensive backs to try to keep Donald under pressure, and like you said, not give him enough time to really just analyze the defense. Sam Donald's smart. He's a decent quarterback and, if we give him too much time as these other teams have been doing, he's looked really good. He really dismantled the Packers in that first half. They finally were able to do something, in the second half. We can't have a game like that though. We've got to bring it early and often. It's a huge test for the Vikings as well. And they're coming off the bye. They're going to be prepared. They watched last week. It's, it's a big game. You
Jason Harwood:Yeah, this is, this is one of the largest regular season games that we've had in the last two years. To be honest with you, it's really lining up that it's a very important early season matchup. If we, if to say the Lions lost, it doesn't end the season. We'll have revenge at the end of the season. We can do that. But it makes the road harder. Right. So I have faith the lines are going to go in there and do that. And one thing that I think is super important is. They need the weather, the storm at the beginning of the game. We cannot let the Vikings come out and get a big lead because that helps their defense immensely. They could pin their ears back. They could blitz. Brian Flores can do so much stuff. So we need to weather the storm at the beginning of the game. If they punch us in the mouth and score first, we need to punch right back and, and, just not let them get a big lead. I'm saying keep it under two scores I would not be surprised to see the lions. coin toss to take the ball so we could get our offense on the field and score first. I would not be surprised at all if that happens.
Jacob:know, it worked well for us last game, though, when the cowboys kinda drove down and then we responded. We stopped them, and then that's pretty much all it took. Then we just ran with it the rest of the game.
Jason Harwood:In that Seahawks game, we took the ball first and we scored and we kinda just stayed out in front of them the whole game and I could see this being a similar type thing, just. want, want to keep the Vikings guessing. And if we're playing from behind, there's, I, I don't want to let them be able to pin the errors back and just go
Jacob:Right.
Jason Harwood:him send the house. That's, that's going to be tough as far as on defense. One thing that, we don't have Hutch, right. What I don't want to have happen is that some everybody thinks I need to do so much more because Hutch isn't here and everyone tries to be a hero and we get out of place and we tried to just make plays. I want people to make plays, but I want them to do it within the scheme and not try to be a hero. I think that that's going to be a big inclination, especially this week to just try to replace Hutch and just not going to be able to do that. We're going to have to do different things to kind of mitigate his loss. blitzing doing, moving around packages, send, more stunts, those types of things that that's what's going to have to happen.
Jacob:Yeah, the pressure, I mean, the pressure is really going to be on Trevor Nowacki James Houston, some of these guys that are going to be lining up on the edge. I think those will be the ones that may be feeling the pressure of trying to have to replicate what Hutch was doing. Anyone else gets their reps and they're out there enough where I think they know the scheme, they know what their responsibilities are, and they're part of the team. I
Jason Harwood:Right, but even that you might feel like a lean might feel like I need to get more pressure up the center because, Hutch isn't right next to me. Not saying that that, he's the only one, but everybody could kind of feel like I, I, I gotta do more.
Jacob:Well, I mean, you, you do though, you do have to take it to the next level, but,
Jason Harwood:but you can't overextend yourself and just get yourself out of position on a defense and just, you can let the running back gas you, or we, we run out behind Darnold and Darnold can run a little bit, in like the Brock Purdy vein where he can run out and get, get you a first down, you got to still stay in position, stay say true to the defense and just not try to do too much. I think there's going to be a tendency to try to overdo it. I mean, there's a balance there. It's a fine line of, to make your play better to make up for the absence. But I don't want everyone to feel like need to be a hero. And then, they find themselves way out of position.
Jacob:right, true.
Jason Harwood:So another thing that. this is kind of just goes every every game you want to make a team one dimensional. If Aaron Jones doesn't play, it'll make it much easier. I think to stop the run with the Vikings. So, see how that goes, but we just seem to make, get the pressure on Sam Donald. He knows this is the big game. He's had very few of these in his career. Games love this magnitude. This probably is the biggest game that he's ever played in his NFL career. I bet you at this point, other than maybe his first game, which
Jacob:Is Monday Night Game against, yeah.
Jason Harwood:lion. So, it's, this is going to be a big test for him and he's going to want to, prove, but like I said, he wasn't, he hasn't been pressured much. If we could get him pressured and all he has to do is make a mistake, throw it up. We got a couple of ball Hawks back there. Branch Kirby. Get a play. I'd love to see one of our corners get a pick in this game. Ion or, or Davis. I would love to see one of them get a pick.
Jacob:What if it's on the first play against Donald and we run it back for a touchdown?
Jason Harwood:No, it would be the opposite. So like, we would throw like,'cause what? Donald threw the pick,
Jacob:Donald did a pick, and then, then they proceeded to,
Jason Harwood:Thrash
Jacob:well, I mean, Donald didn't, Donald didn't thrash us, but the Jets did.
Jason Harwood:yeah. So that, that was embarrassing. I don't even wanna think about that game. gross.
Jacob:Right.
Jason Harwood:you got any more keys to Victor? I have one more, but if you got
Jacob:I've got one offensive key to victory and that's to sustain the drives and wear down the defense, the running lanes are not going to be as big this week as they were against the Cowboys where we weren't getting touched till we were five, six, yards past the line of scrimmage. This one's going to be a lot more physical. So we are going to have to wear down the defense. I think the game plan is going to look pretty close to what it always does, we're running the ball, we're softening them up, then we're spreading out our receivers and trying to use our play column to our advantage. Goff has been really good against the Blitz. As long as he's reading the defense properly and taking care of the ball, I think we're going to have some longer drives that are kind of tiring out the defense, and that's going to get us consistently in scoring range. That's kind of one of the keys of victory, though, is, is Goff going to be able to read the defense? They're coming at you with a lot of different looks. Or is our run game going to be effective right from the jump and make Goff's job even easier as it has been, where he doesn't have to do that as much?
Jason Harwood:I think the mind kind of goes along with that. The lines just need to keep it at third and short. They need to stay ahead of the sticks. If you get to third and short, Brian Flores, isn't going to be able to send the house as much cause it won't, we could hit the hot receiver, get the first down. He, we could maybe even run it if it's third and one third and two. So we just need to stay ahead of the six. We start getting third and long and man. Brian Flores is really going to try to confuse you. And, you don't know if he's going to send six or just send three and back everybody up. I mean, it, there, there's a
Jacob:Silence.
Jason Harwood:just based Getting third and short. And then he just knows he needs, if they send the pressure, he needs to go to the hot receiver just to get a short two or three yard game for a first down. that's going to keep the six going. And I think you're, you're right. it's, we may, the running may come tough at the beginning. We just need to keep moving the sticks, but we just need to keep wearing them down and wearing them down. And then we'll have a ramp situation where they're just gasped by the end of the game and we
Jacob:Right.
Jason Harwood:Pound them into submission. It's going to be a tough game. I'm really looking forward to this game. I can't, as a football fan, just in general, this is going to be a great game. Lions fan, this is a very important game and, for the Vikings, this is, is going to be like, are we for real where I know we're five and oh, we're, one of the last on, 200 feet of teams right now. they, they want to prove themselves too, because there's probably not a lot of people that believe that there are true five and O team right now, even though they've won and beat some quality opponents, they had a tough schedule to begin the year and, face some teams probably at the right time, they missed the Texans with Joe Mixon, CMC was gone with the 49ers, but you beat the people in front of you and, and they've done that. So
Jacob:They have had a lot of those circumstantial things where it's like. You said no Christian McCaffrey. That was the game where they had a 97 yard touchdown pass that end up being the difference against the 49ers Green Bay. They were blowing them away and then they let them come back and they were outscored 22 to 3 in the 4th quarter last their last game against the Jets was their worst game. Statistically, the difference maker that was how well the defense played and they had that pick six. Yeah. It's funny because that's, that's football, right? That's NFL couple of plays are different. And then this team is two and three. And even with the stats they have right now, then it's a way different conversation and people think that they are, in last place where they belong, but instead the ball bounces their way. A couple of times they're five and Oh, and they, they look legit. And it's time to prove, we're, we are legit. So we're going to see how legit they are if they're able to hang with us.
Jason Harwood:All right, we showed America last week what time of team we are 47 to nine over the Cowboys. This will be another proof at week. I mean, every week in the NFL is a proof of week. This one just happens to matter for first place in the division. Be nice to get our rightful seat as. The leader of the division where we all expected the lines to be and expect them to finish as well. So yeah, it's going to be a great game. Can't wait to watch it. So without further ado, let's get to, unfortunately, our grit picks.
Jacob:Unfortunately, why do you say it like that? Jason,
Jason Harwood:Cause we got to talk about how, you
Jacob:how terrible you are.
Jason Harwood:let you, you could rub it in.
Jacob:Are you sure? Okay.
Jason Harwood:review these.
Jacob:All right. So this is how a grit picks went last week. Thursday night football, 49ers at Seahawks. I picked the 49ers. Jason picked the Seahawks. The 49ers win. Good start for me. Sunday Night Football, Bengals and Giants. I pick the Bengals, Jason picks the Giants. Yet again, Bengals win. I'm up again. And then Monday Night Football, Bills versus Jets. Which I actually said in the pod. I said the Bills were going to win, and I said Devante Adams was going to be a Jet by like Wednesday or Thursday. So, I missed because he was a Jet even sooner than that. But I picked the Bills, Jason picks the Jets, and the Bills win. So my overall record right now is 12 4 in crit picks, and that drops Jason to 8 8. Ouch.
Jason Harwood:that's
Jacob:What's it like to take that many L's? Okay. Okay.
Jason Harwood:this is where mine begins. So, all right, so let's get down to week seven here. We got four games to pick. Cause again, there's two Monday night football games. still hate two, two Monday night football games, but that's just the world we're living in right now. So since I'm, last place I'll pick, I'll pick first. Broncos at Saints going with the Saints this time.
Jacob:Off to a good start already. Broncos are favored by three points. They are in New Orleans. The Saints are going to be without Chris Olave, Cesar Ruiz, Rashid Shaheed, Derek Carr is probably not going to play. Patrick Sertan is not going to play for the Broncos, so that makes this more of a 50 50 game for me, but I know that Sean Payton really wants to win this game, so Denver is going to do anything that they can, and I, I have the Broncos beating the Saints here.
Jason Harwood:All right, I don't know, Landmore is going to get a pick on Bonex, going to happen.
Jacob:Sunday Night Football, Jets at Steelers, right now the Jets are two and a half point favorites, Rogers has Devonta Adams back, I tweeted this right away, but magically Adams hamstring is back to 100 percent and he's ready to go and ready to play,
Jason Harwood:Yep.
Jacob:which who saw that coming, we knew what it was. Rogers blamed Mike Williams for the interception that he threw. Now Mike Williams is on the trade block. Devante's gonna be playing. I don't know if you saw that, Mike Williams didn't practice for personal reasons. And those personal reasons are that his quarterback is an a hole and a terrible leader. I really hope that the Jets fall flat. I hope Devontae Adams comes in and they still just tank, and Aaron Rodgers has the same kind of game. But, the football fan in me, and as a fantasy football owner of Devontae Adams, I hope the offense comes back to life here, and I actually pick the Jets to win this one. I still think they miss the playoffs, but I think that this is the start of them having a good couple of weeks. And then thinking that the Jets are back, and then they tank.
Jason Harwood:I'm going with Steelers. I know Russell Wilson's going to play, but I, I'm hoping TJ Watt just Aaron Rodgers down and, beats him at a submission.
Jacob:I like, like the difference. Either you're gonna be catching up, or you're just really gonna be out.
Jason Harwood:yeah. It's going to be, laying it all in line here. All
Jacob:I will say though, that for the Jets, it's gotta be a terrible look. I know Aaron Rodgers and everything, but, this is the second week that he's called out his teammates, like publicly. Like right after the game to the media. And you just don't do that. Like that's just such a bad look. So I'm sure the locker room's not happy right now. So maybe that does affect them, maybe they just tank right now. Maybe they're mad that he, he got the coach fired, he got Devontae Adams in there. He's only throwing the ball to Alan Lazard.
Jason Harwood:Well, I mean, Garrett Wilson's got to be like, what, now I got, that's, that's going to be a
Jacob:Yeah.
Jason Harwood:thing. You
Jacob:Wilson's like, you never invited me over to your house before.
Jason Harwood:Exactly. I've All right. Raven's at bucks. Good game. I'm really excited for it. going Raven's in this one.
Jacob:Ooh, okay. This is the first one that we have the same.
Jason Harwood:Okay.
Jacob:no, I think the same thing. I think this is gonna be a really good game. I'm looking forward to watching this one. I think it's probably gonna be close. Maybe it'll come down to the end. They are in Tampa Bay. But I, I think the Ravens are gonna win also.
Jason Harwood:Yeah, it's going to be, it'll be good. I will see, Baker Mayfield's having a great season. So we'll we'll see how that lines up.
Jacob:Right? Yeah, the second game, Monday Night, Charter's two and a half point favorites over the Cardinals, and I Marvin Harrison may not play. The Packers, destroyed the Cardinals last week, so they really want to win here. The Chargers have been up and down, their defense is great, the offense is not, so far. It's an interesting game, I think this is kind of a toss up, but I'm gonna say that the Chargers offense comes alive and they beat the Cardinals.
Jason Harwood:I'm going Cardinals. So
Jacob:Alright.
Jason Harwood:and we'll see. I'll either I catch up to you this week or I fall way behind, but
Jacob:You can't afford another O.
Jason Harwood:I can not All right, great guarantee time. We've been hitting pretty good on these though, so I feel pretty confident about these. So what do you got what you think is going to come up in here?
Jacob:So I went back and forth about my grit guarantee because I, I do think that Amun Ra is due for having a really good game. But, I saw that Our offensive line is now being called the Detroit People Movers, which is really cool. So my guarantee this week is that the Lions are going to run for over 125 yards as a team. Which will be more than the Vikings have given up the last two games combined. over 125 yards.
Jason Harwood:125 yards rushing. All right. You went offense. I went defense. We're getting two picks in this game. I'm not going to call who gets them, but we're getting two picks in this game. At least two picks. If they get three, it still counts. I'll
Jacob:Yeah, right. I would have given it to ya.
Jason Harwood:technicality, we,
Jacob:I might have pointed out the technicality, but yeah.
Jason Harwood:That's why I clarified. I, cause
Jacob:Third pick doesn't count. Invalid. Hey, I'm down for that, man. Love the turnovers. Obviously played a huge part in the last game, too.
Jason Harwood:Yeah, I think it's, I think it's going to end up in, maybe they knock out Darnold and Mullins comes in and then we get like five,
Jacob:Oh, man. Five, but he still throws for 350 yards.
Jason Harwood:Yeah, I don't know. I, I, I have more faith in our secondary now,
Jacob:Right. Right.
Jason Harwood:it was all going hand in hand. We were getting pressure and having pretty tight coverage. So we'll, we'll see how we can do this, but all right. I am looking forward to this game. It's going to be awesome. It's fun talking to you about this great interview that we had. So yeah, just, yeah, it's going to be awesome. Um,
Jacob:Can't wait.
Jason Harwood:Are you going to be home watching this or you going
Jacob:I will. Nope. I will be home. Glued. Ready for it. One o'clock. Nobody bother me.
Jason Harwood:Yeah. I am have my cell phone out. You and I will be texting back and
Jacob:Right.
Jason Harwood:Yeah, it'll be, it'll be great. So, all right, for Jacob, Jason. We'll see you after, for hopefully a victory Monday. So go lions.
