E34: "Biting Re-Caps" - Hutch returns to Ford Field, Week 8: Detroit Lions vs Tennessee Titans

In this podcast episode, Jason and Jacob discuss the Detroit Lions' comprehensive 52-14 victory over the Tennessee Titans, emphasizing the role of all phases of the game—offense, defense, and special teams. They focus on key performances such as Jameer Gibbs' 70-yard touchdown run, David Montgomery's touchdown pass, and special teams' standout performances, including Kalif Raymond's 190 return yards. They highlight the Lions' efficient red zone offense (5-for-5) and strong defensive play, particularly the impressive goal-line stand. Additionally, personal anecdotes about the game day experience and family dynamics at the stadium are shared. The episode concludes with a call for listener feedback to improve the podcast and YouTube channel.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 2:43 Special Teams Performance
• 13:56 Defensive Highlights and Player Performances
• 27:11 Offensive Highlights and Trick Plays
• 30:52 Gibbs' Electrifying 70-Yard Run
• 34:54 Kalif's Clever Play Design
• 39:01 Player Contributions and Snap Counts
• 45:22 Trade Speculations and Upcoming Game
• 48:17 Concluding Thoughts and Feedback

Transcript

Jacob: 0:40

Yeah,

Jason Harwood: 0:55

blow out wind over those Tennessee Titans. want to thank everybody for listening. Uh, Jacob and I would really like to hear from you. We want to know, what you like that we're doing. What could we improve on? It's a big part of us growing as a podcast and as YouTube channel is, What are we doing that we could we could do better? Um, if you want to click and respond to that, you can go to our YouTube channel. If you're on Spotify or Apple podcast, there's a send us a text message, send us that we'd give you a shout out on the show. Hopefully, we can hear some positive feedback. That'd be great. Jacob, I know you're not feeling well. I'm gonna get going on here. What is your major takeaway from the game yesterday? What did you think?

Jacob: 1:41

the major takeaway that I have is just, uh, you know, we We played a complete game, you know, they're everybody had a hand in this one offense defense special teams You know, that's what culminated in the huge victory over the titans Obviously, they're a struggling team right now. Most of their players are on the trade block and everything but you know Beating any nfl team like that means that your team was well prepared and that you executed your game plan And that's what we did in the game. Uh, you know, our offense is averaging 43 points per game in the last four weeks So we we're playing some good football right now

Jason Harwood: 2:17

Yeah, I agree with that. Some might have characterized this as the trap game in between two road division, tough pro division games. Lions are going to have to face. The way the Titans came in with a one in six or one in five record, they're one in six. Now you could easily say that lions could have, just look past this game. Well, they didn't, uh, 52 to 14, like you said, complete game. And really the special teams were the standout in this game. It was just unreal to see live. I could tell you that it was super exciting.

Jacob: 2:54

Yeah, special teams was definitely the difference maker in this one for us, able to flip the field consistently and, you know, made everybody else's job a lot easier.

Jason Harwood: 3:02

It sure did. Yeah, and it made the offense look not as efficient because they didn't get very many yards in this one because the special teams just put them in such a good in the field each time.

Jacob: 3:13

Yeah, the drives where we were starting further away, it was like they couldn't get anything going for the most part. And then, you know, the drives when we're starting inside on their half the field already, we're just taking it right to them every time.

Jason Harwood: 3:24

Yeah, which is nice. They didn't like settle for field goals. Any of those short fields, they were able to punch it in five for five in the red zone. We'll get that. We'll get to the offense. The stats just, this is one of those games that, the hidden stats, like special teams really tell the, tell the tape. If you look at the offense or whatever, that doesn't look all that impressive, uh, other than Jamiro Gibbs, who had a really nice, statistical game, know, and a real nice game just in general. If I'd have told you for the game, Jared Goff throws for less than a hundred yards, um, and we won, you'd be like, yes. Oh my God. We dodged a bullet. And then you'd look at the score and be like, what, how did we score 52? Jerichoff didn't get hurt, played the whole game. And yeah, never seen anything

Jacob: 4:07

Really weird game

Jason Harwood: 4:09

As much action that was going on in this game, when I was there, the loudest the crowd got was when they showed Hutch on the screen. Uh, people were just super happy to see him. I was super excited. Um, wife who loves Hutch, I, They show Hutch on the screen. We're all cheering. I look over at my wife and she's got the binoculars out. And I just assumed she was looking like, just whip them out to see if she could find Hutch, what suite he was in, then like two minutes later, she looked at, she looked at Preston, my son and said, Hutch was on the screen. And I missed them. She, she had missed the whole thing because she was, she was actually looking on the sideline for Hutch to see if he was down there

Jacob: 4:50

Oh,

Jason Harwood: 4:51

like,

Jacob: 4:52

oh man,

Jason Harwood: 4:53

knowing that he was up in the, so it,

Jacob: 4:54

the crowd didn't give it away.

Jason Harwood: 4:56

I don't know,

Jacob: 4:57

She just had that laser focus trying to find her man, huh?

Jason Harwood: 5:00

The family dynamics when we watch the game are just, um, are just so much fun. Cause I know Preston, my oldest is going to ask me. I start counting it because he's going to ask me, do you think we're going to win this game? That's his nervous go to is dad. Do you think we're going to win this game? And it actually started on Saturday, the day before the game. He goes, dad, do you think we're going to win this game? And I go, that's one. And he goes, one, one. And I go, I'm counting how many times you ask me this. And then he asked me like maybe two more times during the game. a typical game, it's literally like. 25 30 times

Jacob: 5:37

All the way to the end.

Jason Harwood: 5:38

all the way to the end the whole second half. It's dad Do you think we're going to win and so I asked him? do you do that? You know, what, why do you think that I know? And he's like, well, dad, you know, so much about football. You've seen so much. I think, you know, you would have a good read and for me, I know it's just, that's his nervous energy. Like that's how we, you know, he wants some reassurance that the lions are going to win. And so it's, he, he does it a lot, but now it's the family dynamics at a game or fun. I, I really, really glad we got season tickets to be able to experience it. It's been awesome.

Jacob: 6:10

Hey, being an old school Lions fan though, you can't ever say that you're gonna win the game.

Jason Harwood: 6:15

Oh, I

Jacob: 6:15

Until it's over, there's no feeling good about it.

Jason Harwood: 6:17

No, no, they're not. And, uh, that's why it's such a weird position. You know, we've had two games where we've had Hen and Hooker in the fourth quarter, right? I mean, and it's not because we're down by so much. It's because, we're playing so well that we can afford to get these guys reps, which, you know, I think is going to play dividends in the future. It may not be this season. Um, it, it's going to be sometime in the future that, it's nice to get rake straws and real game reps right now, because other than an injury, not going to see the field that much. He's getting plenty of practice time, but not, you know, not in game reps. So I think these are going to just prove valuable, maybe towards the end of the year or, next year when hopefully he's on the field because he's deserving it.

Jacob: 7:01

Right. Oh yeah. Experience, for sure.

Jason Harwood: 7:04

Yep.

Jacob: 7:05

Very valuable.

Jason Harwood: 7:06

We always break, start these breakdowns and we go through, you know, the different groups and special teams usually gets the shortest end of the stick today. That might not be the case because man, they the whooping stick and it was exciting to see.

Jacob: 7:24

For sure. I mean, that's, I mean, you were there at the game, those are the most exciting plays seem to be these special teams plays when you flip it like that. And they did it several times.

Jason Harwood: 7:35

Yeah, they did. Khalif had 190 return yards. Pretty, pretty insane. The touchdown return that he had was direct. I mean, like I say directly, I mean, it was, um, it's my corner at the end zone that he's running into. And he started on that side of the field and I could see right down the line. It was, I had a really good view for that part return. And when I saw some of those lanes open out, I thought, Oh man, he's going to have a really good, dirty turn, you know, and, and anything could to just, the crowd when he misses the first guy, you get the initial wave, and then the sec guy, it starts to get louder, and then it just starts to get louder, and louder, and louder, and then when he hits the end zone, it gets super loud in there, and it was, it was just super exciting.

Jacob: 8:45

environment for sure. Yeah.

Jason Harwood: 8:46

Yep. So I said, Kalief had 190 return yards. I looked it up today. It's actually number five all time for punt return yards in a game, but record's 207. It was set in 1981, but it's actually not even the most Lions return punt return in game. Any idea who would, I don't know if you looked this up or not, uh, Jacob, but any idea who has the record Lions?

Jacob: 9:14

Um, it's hard to say with puns, um, Agnew, Eddie Drummond.

Jason Harwood: 9:20

There you go. You just hit it. Eddie Drummond. It's actually 2004 when Eddie Drummond returned that, uh, it was against the Jacksonville Jaguars. He had two punt returns in that game, both for touchdowns.

Jacob: 9:35

that they'd kick it to him the second time after he already housed one like that.

Jason Harwood: 9:38

55 yard and 83. I mean, but they did it with Kalief yesterday.

Jacob: 9:42

Yeah, right.

Jason Harwood: 9:43

kept putting it

Jacob: 9:44

And after how bad their special teams was doing, you would have thought they were just kicking out of bounds.

Jason Harwood: 9:49

yeah, I just surprised and I think Khalif end up fair catching one that I think he could have returned. So he probably had even a shot to get, get the

Jacob: 9:57

Right. He did have a guy in his face when he fair caught that one, but he kind of overran him.

Jason Harwood: 10:02

Mm

Jacob: 10:02

And then I think, you know, he had probably a good eight, nine yard window before somebody was going to be there.

Jason Harwood: 10:08

Yeah, the Titans

Jacob: 10:09

Hard to say.

Jason Harwood: 10:10

were atrocious yesterday. I mean, really, really bad. Because not only did they allow, you know, Raymond to get all those yards, Vildor had an awesome return that set up the offense too.

Jacob: 10:21

It was Dorsey, right?

Jason Harwood: 10:24

Yep. I'm

Jacob: 10:25

Yeah.

Jason Harwood: 10:25

me.

Jacob: 10:26

Dorsey was the kick. He was the kick return.

Jason Harwood: 10:28

Yes.

Jacob: 10:30

We only had one kicker turn Dorsey had it 72 yards and that was right after the Titans had tied it So, you know, they they they still have momentum. They think that they have a chance. We're tied 14 to 14 things are looking a little shaky and then Dorsey takes us 72 yards right down there and then You know, it just took the wind right out of him. And then that was Brock Wright, he scored that touchdown, like, right after, like, two plays or something after that, it, you know, we just got the lead right back, and then obviously we never, never let up after that time.

Jason Harwood: 11:00

No, I did not. You know, and, um, not to, uh, forget about Jake Bates. He had a yard field goal and then seven for seven on extra points. So you know, not, not too bad of a day, you know, a good fantasy day for him, you know,

Jacob: 11:15

Yeah, right.

Jason Harwood: 11:16

only had one field goal. He had so many touchdowns, extra points that he kicked. So it's, uh, you know, banner

Jacob: 11:23

mean, he's still doing everything that we're asking of him. Hitting every, every field goal we need.

Jason Harwood: 11:28

Exactly. And, you know, uh, special teams coach, Dave Phipps got the game ball for the game to well deserved. don't know if you ever watched those, uh, coordinator press conferences, but Phipps are always the most fun to watch. He, he is high energy and I, he always has good stories. I really like listening to him talk.

Jacob: 11:50

I haven't seen those.

Jason Harwood: 11:51

Yeah, yeah, he just talks on the date on Thursdays usually it'll be FIPP, Ben Johnson, and, um, AG will usually speak, and they'll do them in different orders, but FIPP's always, always got something interesting to say, and I'm sure he's going to have a lot to say this week. There'll be a lot of questions about, um, You know, I'm setting it up. I mean, Kalief had a couple in yards a punt. Dead. take the right angle to push them right into the coverage and they were not getting hardly any return yardage at all, which is, you know, what you want to do. You want to set, you know, for offense is going to score or get down, we can at least turn the field position over and not, you know, make them go a long way down the field. And with an offense, like the Titans have making them go a long way, um, you know, it's going to be tough for them.

Jacob: 13:25

Definitely. Yeah, he had five punts, three of them land inside the 20, longest being 67 yards. Just anytime our punt team's out there, Jack Fox does a great job of flipping the field. I don't even, like, I can't even remember him having a bad punt. You know, sometimes it just happens where it's like, man, that wasn't, that one didn't get off very good. Or, you know, there's a big return or something like that. Just in recent memory, I don't remember, like, I don't recall that ever happening. Seems like every time he's out there, it's a clean. You know, knock on wood clean and it's flipping the field. Then they got a long way to go.

Jason Harwood: 13:56

Yep. And then with our way, our defense is playing, it's, definitely playing better this year than it has in years past. It makes Jack Fox a bigger weapon because we're not afraid to punt it. And then if our offense, you know, just gets a one or two first downs, we're flipping the field totally. And like you said, we're pinning them inside the 20. Their offense has to go, um, long way down the field, but it also gives our defense a chance to get more turnovers like they did yesterday, pretty, uh, turnovers, man, that they are on some kind of role with turnovers.

Jacob: 14:31

I mean, after, I think it was after the third one, you text me, you're like, this is just getting, this is crazy. Like it just, they couldn't even move the ball. And then as soon as they start to punching the ball out, just awesome defensive performance, uh, started a little shaky. I'm not gonna lie. I was not happy with the defense in the first quarter, you know, as the game went on, you know, I don't know the Titans just playing a little bit softer or just knowing how far they were down, how much they had to make up for, but, you know, not putting pressure on Mason Rudolph in the first half was a very big mistake. And, you know, we blitzed him the first drive. I think Levi's the one that hits him.

Jason Harwood: 15:12

Yep.

Jacob: 15:13

I don't know, was it the first play or maybe second play, but I mean, Levi hits him. He's got to rush it, and then Trevor Nowacki picks him off. And it was like, this is great, this is exactly how this should go. And then really, I mean, the whole rest of the first quarter, we were only rushing four. We're dropping everybody in coverage, we're rushing four. And he just had too much time to throw. And, uh, you know, Calvin Ridley was tearing us up in that first quarter.

Jason Harwood: 15:35

Yes. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, he was over 100 yards in the first quarter. He ended up with 140. Three for the game, but he definitely slowed way down after the first quarter because I think Justin Rogers tweeted something like he's on pace for 446 yards and, you know, four touchdowns or

Jacob: 15:52

Yeah.

Jason Harwood: 15:54

That was their option to go to an offense on, you know, for passing, you know, they had just traded Deandre Hopkins, you know, and Ridley's going to be the guy now for the rest of the season, unless he gets traded too, but he's most likely going to be the guy for the rest of the season. So his stats are going to definitely go up. You fantasy guys out there, you know, Kevin Ridley's probably, you know, going to be a start for the rest of the year. Cause that's where the offense is going to move through him.

Jacob: 16:18

Well, I mean, if you're going to be playing man coverage on him and we're dropping, you know, we're dropping other people off, I just, really, it was just beating us. I mean, even the quick slants, everything was there. Um, You know, that one catch he had over Branch, I don't, I mean, you can't really have tighter covers than what Brian Branch had on him. He just like, you know, uh, arms length away, and then he still was able to jump up and get the ball. He had, uh, the two scoring drives, Kelvin Ridley, five catches, 105 yards. I mean, that was the difference maker. The second scoring drive, I think they ran the ball once, every other play was a pass. We weren't blitzing, and then he, uh, you know, he just had all day.

Jason Harwood: 16:58

Yeah, I think the Lions expected them to run more. They were really trying to get to the perimeter of our defense. that's where we're probably the weakest on runs is the perimeter. And they were trying to get around there had some success, but. It's hard to really tell because the game turned into such a, such a blowout that they basically just had to pass, for the whole second half until, they decided to give up and, the game was over. But I think, uh, the turnovers on defense are, what's going to be, is the biggest difference this year. We're getting interceptions. Our safeties are, I mean, they're both playing probably at all pro level right now.

Jacob: 17:37

Yes.

Jason Harwood: 17:38

That it's just given everybody confidence, and I hope it doesn't deter, uh, Brad Holmes from making a deal for, someone in line, an extra edge person, whether it's a big name or, just someone that can help, create pressure. hope that it doesn't deter him because our coverage has been great. And I tell you, Kirby. It's hitting a new level this year. He's always been a ball hawk. His covered skills has impressed. I'm actually more impressed with him. Coming up in the run game, delivering hits. He seems to be more active in that this year. In the interview the other day after the game, he talked about, he wants punch out the ball. You know, Amik had two punch outs, Branch is very good at punching the ball out. You know, Joseph is tired of getting interceptions now. He wants to get a punch out. That's,

Jacob: 18:27

Yeah, I

Jason Harwood: 18:35

uh, you know, I, I. I'm super impressed with Kirby and then Brian Branch is, know, Brian Branch is Brian Branch. He didn't get a turnover this game, but yeah, he plays well all over the field. We're lucky to have those two safeties. In fact, I don't know if you looked, but they are the number one and number two graded safeties on PFF right now, number one and number two. is one, I think Kirby's number two.

Jacob: 19:01

didn't see that, but I believe that. I mean, that's, that's what the way they've been playing. Like you said, just, I mean, all pro level,

Jason Harwood: 19:08

Yep.

Jacob: 19:08

been very lucky to have them both on here playing at the way that they have.

Jason Harwood: 19:12

Yes. Um, Jack Campbell, I thought has been playing. He's steadily getting, uh, improving. He's up to now the 12th linebacker on PFF grade. So he's moving way up the list. It's a good thing because with us losing Hutch, a lot of the pressure is going to fall on the linebackers for the rest of the year. Unless we go, you know, unless we get some significant edge help, we're going to have to be blitzing with them. A lot's going to fall on the linebackers plate, which. if we'd have had Derek Barnes, that would be easier to swallow, but you know, when Malcolm got hurt, this game doesn't sound like he's going to be able to be able to play in the Packers game. That sucks, but it doesn't sound like it's a long term injury. He avoided a high ankle sprain. It is an ankle injury, like a pre existing ankle injury. I think he tweaked, but he had avoided the high ankle sprain, which is important.

Jacob: 20:06

Definitely, yeah, uh, that was in the first quarter, I think, when he got carted off, so, a little concerning right when that happened, but I mean,

Jason Harwood: 20:15

Yeah.

Jacob: 20:16

far, nextmanup's been working for us, I mean, you gotta play with what you have, and we've got a good, solid roster.

Jason Harwood: 20:23

well, I mean, you know Barnes is out and so we have Trevor Nowacki in and he's played really really well I mean, he's showing up on the stat sheet. I mean, he's making game changing plays. He had an interception. Hail Mary He got the sack on that last play versus the Vikings. So it's next man up is important. It's not just words It's not just a saying I think they truly believe it and they don't expect, you know, Dan Campbell said, we don't expect drop off and play. We expect them to come in. I don't know how you could say that with Hutch, because Hutch is all world, he was, he's still the number one rated defensive, uh, edge and, uh, PFF and he's, you know, he's sorely missed. Uh, I can't

Jacob: 21:08

Absolutely.

Jason Harwood: 21:09

game would have looked like had Hutch played, Oh my God.

Jacob: 21:12

Right. Oh, man.

Jason Harwood: 21:14

It's hard seeing, not seeing Hutch out there, but the rest of the defense is, is playing, um, really good. Aleem is up to the fifth ranked defensive lineman right now, too, on PFF. So, you know, we've got some really good, you know, really good players on, on defense. I, I'm encouraged.

Jacob: 21:34

Hey, they're getting the job done.

Jason Harwood: 21:36

They are, they are. We're actually one rated defense on PFF, too.

Jacob: 21:42

Oh, alright.

Jason Harwood: 21:43

we're, our offense, when we get to that, we're offense is the fourth rated, uh, on PFF, which is insane to me, but, uh, our defense is number, number one rated. Our rush rate was insane. I'm sure that's going to drop, you know, the more games we play without Hutch, Yeah, I mean, all phases of the game where, you know, our run defense has been good. I don't think our run defense has been as good as last year, but our coverage is night and day versus last year. Terry and Arnold didn't have his best game, you know, being number one, you know, number one on Calvin Ridley kind of caught not playing the ball a couple of times. Um, you know, the penalties aren't there, which is good, but

Jacob: 22:27

Right.

Jason Harwood: 22:28

got, he's got some room to improve. That's for sure.

Jacob: 22:32

He got beat on that touchdown. Um, that kind of quick slam, but those are hard to cover. I mean, as you know, he gets more experience and everything like that, then hopefully be able to stop those a little bit more consistently. But yeah, he's just, you know, he's getting better and better. That's what we said before the season. I'm not worried about it.

Jason Harwood: 22:51

Yeah, I mean, you're asking, you're asking a rookie to go out there, there's only a few of those out there that go out and play it. There's only one soft gardener Creek will and play pretty good. Uh, Devin Witherspoon had a good rookie year, but there's not a lot of, Uh, cornerbacks that come in this league and play at, you know, pro bowl or all pro level right out the shoot. Usually that's, um, position that takes a little longer. And especially when you're talking the division that we have, we have some really good wide receivers in our division. Um, you know, obviously, Justin Jefferson being number one. So you got to cut your teeth, uh, on some, um, Players that can really play. We had the turnovers, but the other thing I liked in this game was the goal line stand right before half thought that was awesome.

Jacob: 23:37

That was, I just don't, I mean, I think that was really That was a really bad call by the Titans to throw the ball four times from inside the one. But, we'll take it. Um, you know, the defense held up. That was awesome. Because, I mean, they really, they got the ball back at the half, too. So, I mean, they scored a touchdown there. They get the ball back. There's potential. Maybe it doesn't get quite, you know, as far out of hand. Maybe they have some sort of, uh, you know, second wind or a chance, thoughts of a comeback. And we just shut any thought of that down with that goal line stand.

Jason Harwood: 24:09

Yeah, all the momentum. I mean, we were already up, you know, it would have, we were up by three scores. It was 35 to 14 at that point. Like you said, if they get the 20, they get the touchdown, they go 21 and they get the ball at halftime, say they come down and score, then all of a sudden they're, you know, you're within one score, but, and then you have thoughts of like, Hey, we can actually do this. Whereas it. You know, the kids stop for straight plays. You're right. Why not run it down there? It's like smartest guy in the room syndrome, I don't understand why you don't just try to run it down there, at least maybe not on first down, cause maybe that's what they're expecting, but on second or third down, you don't run it and you know, you're going to go for it on fourth down cause you're already down by three scores. You would think at least one of those times you would try to run the ball.

Jacob: 24:55

It makes no sense for it not to,

Jason Harwood: 24:57

Yeah,

Jacob: 24:57

but it worked out better for us.

Jason Harwood: 24:59

I did. And then even on the last play of the fourth, the fourth play, the fourth down, there was a flag and I was like, Oh my God, they're going to get another four chances. You know, they're going to

Jacob: 25:09

Right. I don't remember. We

Jason Harwood: 25:14

they had like two or three offensive pass interference penalties in this game where, you know, they throw the flag and I'm instantly thinking our secondary has gotten caught for grabbing or doing something. And yeah, they were on, on the Titans. The Titans have one defensive pass interference, the one where they grabbed Klee's face mask. I don't know if we've had any other. I don't know if there was another one in that game. I don't think there was, but.

Jacob: 25:38

have a whole lot of penalties in this game on us.

Jason Harwood: 25:40

No, we did not. And so that, that penalty at Khalif was our, I believe of the season, the first defensive pass interference that we've had on a team that we played against. We have not had one called on offensive

Jacob: 25:53

We were the only one in the league. Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Harwood: 25:55

And, which is ridiculous. I mean, they're And, you know, and that was so bad. They were trying to make up for it. They called him for two penalties on the one play, pass interference and

Jacob: 26:04

Yeah.

Jason Harwood: 26:05

on that same play, you know, and we're at the stadium. And I think on TV, I don't know if they cut the breaker now, but, you know, they were the officials are over there discussing this penalty forever. And we're like, They can't be thinking of taking this away because they showed the replay on the screen like four or five times and it's clear that he just grabs his face mask. I was like, they can't be thinking of picking up this flag, can they? But I think they were just discussing the rules about do, you know, do the Lions get both penalties or,

Jacob: 26:35

Yeah,

Jason Harwood: 26:36

I know I've never seen that before in a game

Jacob: 26:38

right. I didn't know that you would get both added on like that.

Jason Harwood: 26:41

I was happy to finally get a pass interference penalty. And then, yeah, like I said, you know, they doubled it up with the, with the face masking.

Jacob: 26:50

Yeah. Huge penalty. Very bad for them.

Jason Harwood: 26:52

It's so weird being on this side of it. We're getting these calls and, you know, fly. I don't have to be as scared about flags going down as much as I have in years past.

Jacob: 27:02

Right. Still feels weird.

Jason Harwood: 27:04

Yep. All right, anything else on the defense you want to talk about before we get over the offense?

Jacob: 27:10

No, I'm good.

Jason Harwood: 27:11

All right, offense, trick plays, you know, open touchdown passes ahead at all, you know, five for five in the red zone, as we said earlier, um, stood out to you about this offense? What was your favorite play?

Jacob: 27:29

I was stood out. It just seemed like everybody got to eat,

Jason Harwood: 27:32

Yeah,

Jacob: 27:33

you know, it just tight end day. You have LaPorta and Brock, right? Both scoring, uh, you know, I'm on Ross scored a touchdown Gibbs with a rushing, uh, touchdown, Montgomery rushing and passing touchdown. I mean, just had a little bit of everything. When I make the highlight video, it's going to be 20 minutes long. Be hard to even cut out some of these plays.

Jason Harwood: 27:54

I know. Yeah.

Jacob: 27:56

It's, you know, being a huge offensive outburst. And then you're looking at the yardage and everything like that. It's like, well, it doesn't really even look that impressive. But, you know, short field where, you know, we're pulling on as much as we had to.

Jason Harwood: 28:09

Yeah.

Jacob: 28:10

Unfortunately, my grit guarantee did not happen.

Jason Harwood: 28:13

Yeah.

Jacob: 28:13

was one of the few people to not find the end zone, Tim Patrick.

Jason Harwood: 28:17

know, I know. I always kept waiting for him to get one in there too. Um, you remember my great guarantee though, my great guarantee was golf is going to throw for under a hundred yards and the lions would score 50 plus points. Do you remember

Jacob: 28:29

Yeah,

Jason Harwood: 28:29

when I said that?

Jacob: 28:31

that's not what you said.

Jason Harwood: 28:32

that is

Jacob: 28:32

You played it really safe and went all the way outside of the game.

Jason Harwood: 28:36

I did. I did. We make the rules. This is our podcast. So I thought that was okay to do that. So I have, you know, we'll have to wait till next year, next year. We'll have to wait till next week to see if, uh, if mine comes true

Jacob: 28:48

To see if that came through, yep.

Jason Harwood: 28:50

you know, golf at 85 yards, you know, I threw for under a hundred had three touchdowns though Could have had four but Dave Montgomery stole one from him. He had to throw a pass We had you know, Chris Christie You know again can point his classless Finger at a Dan camel tell him how classless he is. We're up by so many scores and we're running trick plays

Jacob: 29:14

I mean, that throw by David Montgomery was perfect, though.

Jason Harwood: 29:17

It

Jacob: 29:17

I knew that you didn't have as, you know, you weren't gonna have as good of an angle, or you know, you saw it obviously live, but you didn't get to see all the different angles and everything I did. And that thing, I said, tight spiral, he had two defenders in front. I mean, he was open, but he had to make a good throw.

Jason Harwood: 29:30

Yeah

Jacob: 29:31

Very good. Very impressed by that throw on Montgomery.

Jason Harwood: 29:33

Yeah, so this morning I'm, um, for YouTube, I made a video to play breakdown and that's one of them, the touchdown pass. I, I made that one of my, uh, breakdowns and, you know, the Titans actually defended that play pretty well. Fairly well, um, there was two guys that went out and caught on LaPorta. LaPorta was just too fast and got behind the defense, but Dave Montgomery, you know, sometimes with those running back passes, they just kind of lob it up there because there's so much, you know, the, they've tricked the defense so much that there's no worry. Uh, but Dave Montgomery had to put a little bit on it and it had to be fairly accurate because there was two defenders that went and followed Laporta to the back of the end zone, but he fired it right in there and he used to play quarterback I think they said in high school it showed he he had that's actually a tighter spiral than some of the throws that goth throws

Jacob: 30:24

Yeah, right, right, yeah, he said that in the tunnel after the game they had, um, uh, you know, watch the clip on the phone like they usually do. He said he used to play quarterback in high school.

Jason Harwood: 30:35

You know, yeah, it was

Jacob: 30:36

That was awesome.

Jason Harwood: 30:37

It was awesome. So he had them totally full, but yeah, check out the YouTube channel. If you want to see that play breakdown, you're talking great. YouTube channel. I break down that I break down, um, we'll talk about cleaves, the wide open touchdown here shortly. And then also, um, the play I want to talk about next is give 70 yarder. Wow, man, that, you know, Sonic was, what is the right name for him right there?

Jacob: 31:04

Electric. Finds a seam, takes off, gone. You're not catching him.

Jason Harwood: 31:10

No one touched him. No one touched him. 70 yards and no one even got within, a yard of him. It was insane. When I break that play down, it is the offensive line has that block perfectly, Jeffrey Simmons is right there. They double him. Initially, Frank right now has

Jacob: 31:28

Okay.

Jason Harwood: 31:44

him off. And then, you know, who he blew past the safety, he blew past right to get to get the touchdown.

Jacob: 31:51

You told me this earlier.

Jason Harwood: 31:53

Yeah, it's Quandary Diggs. Just, Quandary Diggs, just, I, I don't know if he thought he could cut him off like right at the end of the line, but just outruns him and yeah, it just goes crazy. And then, you know, someone quickly posted on Twitter, the Sonic videos, those videos are awesome.

Jacob: 32:14

Yes. Collecting the coins.

Jason Harwood: 32:15

collecting the coins, they just, I mean, I mean, people have some skills to be able to just edit those videos that quick and put that up, but I, it's awesome. Gives, second fastest run speed in a game so far this year. It's like above 22 miles per hour.

Jacob: 32:34

Yeah. That's fast.

Jason Harwood: 32:35

Yeah, that, yeah, that is, um, you know, faster than I go down my road in my car in my neighborhood. It's insane. Crazy. He ended up with 127 yards. 11 carries for 127 yards. He only played 19 snaps the whole game. 19 snaps. Yeah. So

Jacob: 32:56

Hey, he made the most money when he was out there.

Jason Harwood: 32:57

he did. He did. Um, and

Jacob: 33:00

You know, to start the game, like just So then they get the third drive, we get a first down with Jameer Gibbs right away, and then three more passes, two more sacks on Goff. The first couple of drives were very frustrating. It's like, I don't know what we're waiting for, what we're trying to develop. I text you, I was like, I, you know, we need to stick to the run. The run is working. Let's run the ball. And then, you know, very next drive, first play handed off to Gibbs and he's gone.

Jason Harwood: 33:44

It was electric in the crowd during some of those plays. Defensively, it was the quietest I'd heard the crowd, especially the second half. We had really nothing to cheer for. We were up by so much and we didn't really need to do anything. Um, you know, the Hutch thing was probably the loudest the crowd got the whole game, I think, outside of like spurts on a big play, like the punt return or whatever, but you know, usually defense, it's, it's at least my first two games that I went, the Bucks game and, um, the Rams game, it's like super loud in there. Because we're trying to affect that offense. But this game, even when I got there, you would ask me what I felt the crowd energy, and I thought the crowd energy was just low in general, just because I think a lot of fans had looked past this game and they weren't really, you know, it wasn't that exciting to them. I mean, I was super excited to be there. I love watching them when, uh, Morgan Cannon had texted me during, you know, asked me if I was at the game and I said, yep, I'm ready for a beat down. But I didn't know it was going to be this kind of beat down a 52 to 14 beat down.

Jacob: 34:51

There's a great beatdown. Another one. Two this year.

Jason Harwood: 34:54

I want to talk about Kalief on that, that play design that they had him run. If I, if I remember right, I think the Chiefs run this in a Super Bowl, this exact play where they run motion and then they stick to the ground and they just run back to the other side of the field. And, uh, if you listen to my play breakdown on this, it's pretty apparent that the defense did a switch. Um, the cornerback that was guarding, uh, Kalief passed him off to the, another cornerback. And then the cornerback, at the same time that Kalief's running back, They do a play action pass, uh, to Gibbs and that cornerback's eyes are all on Gibbs and doesn't see Khalif turn around, go the other way. And then when he sees, when his eyes change and he looks back at where Khalif is, he's a good, like 15 yards away from Khalif. And, you know, He's so fast that it, I mean, there was no one on that side of the field. It was such a great play design. Ben, sometimes I wonder, I'm like, why are we wasting some of these plays in a game like this, but I think some of these plays they have designed just for, they know what these defenders are going to do in this game.

Jacob: 36:03

Yeah. That was a great play. It is, you know, really similar with the Chiefs did in the Super Bowl. If they're in man defense, they pass off and then, uh, you know, the other corner is almost running ahead trying to catch him to the other side of the line. And, uh, you know, surprise, he cuts back the other way, and there's no recovering at that point.

Jason Harwood: 36:21

Yep, know, and also for me, it just this play sets up future like they could do an end around if or they could do so many different or that could even do a reverse off that, have cleave come in thinking that he's going to do the turnaround and then, catch him off guard. Ben Johnson's probably thinking of plays that he's setting up for three or four weeks down the road. He's just, he's such a dynamic play caller. It, it just keeps showing up. And the fact that he was able to call three plays, Ra was wide open on his touchdown too. I mean, wide

Jacob: 36:56

Yes. Right.

Jason Harwood: 36:57

Uh, I mean, all three of the touchdown passes that golf through was wide open and Brock was wide open on his. Touchdown catch too. It's, they totally fooled the defense. Um, that just tells me that, you know, Ben Johnson knows exactly what they're going to run. Jared Goff knows, hey, this is the defense that we're looking for. Cause if he doesn't get that defense, he checks out of it and then they can run it. And you got Montgomery or, and or Gibbs back there. And you know that that's going to be successful too. So they, it's embarrassment of riches on, on offense for us.

Jacob: 37:33

Yeah, you know, they asked him after the Cowboys game about using up the trick plays. I believe he said the well's deep,

Jason Harwood: 37:39

Mm

Jacob: 37:40

like he's not worried about using the trick plays. We got plenty of them and they just keep coming

Jason Harwood: 37:45

Right. So.

Jacob: 37:46

and you're right. They're probably going to use these, you know, teams are going to be studying things like this and then you switch it up slightly. You have Khalif use the same motion, then maybe you do hand it off, or maybe, you know, you do the fake, then you fake it to Khalif, and then there's a tight end or somebody leaking out coming the other way, and now you've over committed because you think the play is going that way. There's just so many things you can do.

Jason Harwood: 38:06

Or they could just say, hand it off to Gibbs, you know, as a play action pass, they just, clear out that lane was a pretty wide lane and they set it up so that the guard and the center split apart, create a lane that it looks like they're going to rush up. those cornerbacks have filled that lane. I think it's just so that they change your eye level and then they just got lost and Kalief just ran out the other way because once Kalief puts his foot in the dirt, I mean, the defenders is looking, you could see on the tape. Cause on the, on the end zone view, he's looking directly at the ball because Jared Goff has the ball really out wide and you could see staring right at it and Kalief has got his foot in the dirt, ready to go the other way. And, you know, a, you know, a zone, that play doesn't work because there's someone on that side of the field. I mean, it may work, but it's not as easy. He won't be as wide open. But on man defense like that, there was just no one over there. It was really impressive. I do have a question for you, Jacob. Lions have players that have completed a pass this year. Do you know the five players?

Jacob: 39:12

Okay, well, Goff, Montgomery, Amun Ra, then Jack Fox. I had that fake pawn,

Jason Harwood: 39:19

Yeah.

Jacob: 39:20

and there's a fifth one, and a hooker.

Jason Harwood: 39:24

Well, yeah, Hennon hooker. You're right. Yeah. So, yeah, I, I asked Preston and he forgot about the Jack Fox. I was wondering if I'd catch you on the

Jacob: 39:32

Yeah,

Jason Harwood: 39:33

Um,

Jacob: 39:34

can't forget that.

Jason Harwood: 39:35

yeah. So, yeah. quarterback or five players have thrown passes. I looked at PFF. Uh, Jared Goff is the fourth rated passer on our team. Uh,

Jacob: 39:46

Yeah.

Jason Harwood: 39:46

and he's still got an impressive above a hundred passer rating, then Hennon hookers way down on the list. Just he's playing at the end of the game. We're mostly rushing at teams know what's coming up. But, uh, Isaiah Williams got his first catch in this game.

Jacob: 40:02

Yeah, that was cool.

Jason Harwood: 40:03

that was awesome. They had set up on the screen. They wanted to get him his first catch and he deserves it. I mean, he's probably practicing really hard. Hasn't had any opportunities in a game. Finally was brought up active and yeah, he got his first NFL catch. So that was really cool to see. Um, I thought another interesting thing was Allen Robinson was in for 21 snaps. In this game, uh,

Jacob: 40:25

had a target too, he almost got a catch.

Jason Harwood: 40:27

he did. With Jamal out, and Alan Robinson might've even gotten more snaps cause you know, we obviously pulled our starters, midway through the third quarter or towards the end of the third quarter. So he might've had even more snaps. Had we number one, had more offensive snaps, number two needed to have starters in there. kind of get the idea that next week. Might be the same thing against the Packers that we're going to see more of Allen Robinson.

Jacob: 40:52

Yeah,

Jason Harwood: 40:53

So it's good to have a veteran presence out there. He's a hard working player. Um, you know, Dan Campbell speaks via highly him and the press conferences. So that's, know, it's good that he got some snaps on there and, you know, for the hometown guy, right?

Jacob: 41:08

absolutely. Would have been cool for him to get his, uh, catch right there, but,

Jason Harwood: 41:12

Yeah, it would

Jacob: 41:13

it's coming.

Jason Harwood: 41:14

It is. Another player that was brought up. This is the second week in a row Shane Zylstra brought up. Played 14 snaps in this game. Parker Hesse has been inactive. I think, I know this week, but I think the past two weeks he's been inactive. Sounds like, uh, Shane Zylstra may be passing Parker Hesse on the death chart. Um, cause after, if we bring him up one more time, then we got to either put him on the active roster or subject him to waiver, waiver wire. We'll

Jacob: 41:42

Oh, okay.

Jason Harwood: 41:43

So I'm, I'm wondering if there's going to be a roster change pretty soon that we're going to try, you know, basically flip flop Zylstra and Hesse. And,

Jacob: 41:53

Well, I mean, that was a toss up even right for final cutdowns. Weren't sure who was going to make the team. So it just seems like that battle is just continuing on.

Jason Harwood: 42:00

yep. And, uh, you know, I, we'll see. I mean, Jade Zylstra offers more in the passing game than Parker Hesse. I mean, let's just give Ben Johnson another weapon. He doesn't have enough. Let's just give him another one so we can have

Jacob: 42:13

Yeah, right. We gotta get more guys out here.

Jason Harwood: 42:15

Right. Um, you know, it was National Tight Ends Day, which was great because Brock Wright and LaPorta both got touchdown. LaPorta, as limited passing yards as there were in this game, he had six targets, six receptions, and 48 yards. He had another, he had two screens in this game, again. I don't know how he gets hidden in those screen games, but they, they turn out pretty successful most of the time.

Jacob: 42:42

Yeah, it seems like, uh, you know, the injury might finally be behind him. So maybe they're gonna start letting loose a little bit more. Maybe we're gonna see Laporta involves back like he was last year.

Jason Harwood: 42:52

I hope so. But we got lots of, lots of season left and, um, you know, it's going to be plenty of chance for him to get, get his yards. I know Amin Ra had a touchdown, but I think he only had like 10 yards in this game. The field was short. He didn't, you know, we didn't have a lot of passing yards. So had a few games where, you know, especially a game where Jamo out, I was expecting Amun Ra to have even more, receiving yards, but that, know, we obviously

Jacob: 43:21

It just wasn't necessary.

Jason Harwood: 43:22

no, it wasn't. Uh, I'm just glad that Amun Ra is the type of player that, that doesn't seem to bother him that he didn't show up on the

Jacob: 43:31

Right. Now, if we're winning 52 to 14, I don't think he's got too much of an issue.

Jason Harwood: 43:36

No, no. As much as many points as we scored in this game, I thought offensively we, especially those, we had three and out to start the game. We weren't playing at our best offensively, which I know is like, it sounds stupid to say when we score 52 points, but you know, the defense set them up. So well, and they did, they did what they needed to do. We five for five in the red zone. That's, you know, that, and the four turnovers, that's all the game, all she wrote for the game, along with our special team. So it crazy to think that, you know, we're still, you know, it's still need to hit our stride. I think part of it is that we couldn't get an offensive groove because we were starting on the short field. So we didn't really have an opportunity to see a long drive.

Jacob: 44:22

Yeah, we weren't able to get the ball rolling and have that sustained drive just because obviously you're starting at the 23rd yard line

Jason Harwood: 44:32

The other team's 20 or 30 yard line. And then, uh, you know, and then the one touchdown that Gibbs had was 70 yards. So, and I really thought he was going to take the first run he had on the opposite side of the field. I thought he was going to house that thing too. He, he got like 12 yards on that one. I thought he's

Jacob: 44:48

Yep,

Jason Harwood: 44:49

looked, looked like he was going to take it. And then, you know, when he took that 70 yarder, oh God, from my view, I was behind it. And you could see the lane open up, but you don't know if he's going to outrun the safety or not, but on the replay, it wasn't even close. He, he outran quandary digs a long, by a long shot.

Jacob: 45:08

right.

Jason Harwood: 45:10

So, all right. Anything else you want to talk on the offense?

Jacob: 45:14

No, I'm good.

Jason Harwood: 45:15

All right. So we kind of already went over our great guarantee. Um, Don't know a mine yet. Mine's in limbo. Um, with, uh, you know, trade, you know, I don't, did you see Dan? You probably didn't see Dan Campbell's press conference today.

Jacob: 45:29

Oh, yeah when he wouldn't really say

Jason Harwood: 45:31

Yeah. Did someone ask him? And he's like, yeah, maybe. Like I think he was just messing with the reporter. I don't, I mean, nothing's been announced yet. We'll see maybe tomorrow, you know, they'll, they'll announce something. There was a trade, uh, today, uh, from the Patriots went, To the Chiefs for 20, uh, yeah, 2026. Six rounders. So essentially a free pick at this point. Um, the Chiefs are been active on the trade market.

Jacob: 46:02

I mean They know what it takes to win championships and they you know consistently doing it. So

Jason Harwood: 46:08

Yeah. I, I, I fully expect the alliance to make a trade. I, I really, um, I really. I mean, it may not be for one of the big boys, but I expect them to try to improve this roster. We are the number one team in the NFC. This upcoming game this week is going to be huge though. It is for first place again. If we lose to the Packers, they're going to own the tiebreaker on it. We'll have the same, same record. Of course, we'll get an opportunity to beat them at home, but for the time being, they would be first in NFC North. So, you know, we just had one the previous week with the Vikings for first place. Now we got to go to Lambeau. And and take it to the Packers.

Jacob: 46:48

give me another tough game

Jason Harwood: 46:50

It will

Jacob: 46:50

Regardless of whether Jordan Love plays,

Jason Harwood: 46:53

Yeah, I don't know we'll get into this on our pride preview as you know Are we or and you know with our interview guests that we have lined up I'm excited about it Hopefully, I find the right way to ask the Jordan love thing because I you know, I don't want to be disrespectful with my questioning But part of me just wonders, you know, are they having some buyers remorse? Is there any a little bit of buyers remorse right now with the way that jordan love has played i'm not saying he's played terrible But you know, they committed a lot

Jacob: 47:29

I mean, right, you're being paid top quarterback.

Jason Harwood: 47:35

So so

Jacob: 47:37

We'll see.

Jason Harwood: 47:37

This was a weird win. And when I, you know, we had a lot of individual plays to talk about a lot of times we have, you know, we're talking about in these things, strategy or play calls or anything, none of that, this game, it was all just pretty much cut and dry, we got to talk, I was excited to talk about these, awesome plays that, happened and, it's going to. At some point, we already did this, picking our favorite plays. You and I did a YouTube thing where we picked our five favorite offensive plays at the end of the year, it is going to be really, really tough to like nail all

Jacob: 48:11

How do you just pick 10?

Jason Harwood: 48:13

It's going to be impossible. So it's

Jacob: 48:15

Yeah, right.

Jason Harwood: 48:16

All right, man. Well, I'm hoping you feel better. hoping this thing blows over soon for you. Dealing with the kidney stone sucks, and I'm sorry you're having to deal with that, but you're a trooper for, for getting on here this late, and hopefully you get some rest. Remember, if you're, if you want, respond to, page. Go to Reddit, go to Twitter. Just give us some feedback. We just want to know, How we're doing and, how we can improve and what you like so we can keep on doing it. For Jacob, I'm Jason. Let's go Lions.