Talking Grit: A Detroit Lions Podcast

E42: "Biting Re-Caps" That's a Penalty!?! and Week 12: Lions vs Colts

Jason Harwood / Jacob Litton Season 1 Episode 42

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Jacob and Jason discuss the Week 12 win over the Colts, that pushes the Lions to a 10-1 record.  Is Daniel Jones a viable candidate for the Lions?  Do you agree with the BB penalty, how about the Gibby penalty?  Join the boys for a post-game analysis!

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Jason Harwood:

tough. You another victory over Colts 24, six and week 12. That's 10 wins on the season. And let's start there, Jacob. They have hit 10 wins before Thanksgiving. What win total are you now expecting for this team? We were in like the 12 13 camp before the season. So where are you at now?

Jacob:

know, I don't, I don't want to, Ever experience another loss, right? Not this year. I want to just keep the ball rolling all the way to the Super Bowl. Um, I guess I'll say that we still, there's two more losses, two more losses in the last, before the season's up, maybe it'll be, you know, the last week we're resting our starters or something like that, hopefully, but I'll say we, we lose two more, but the capability for us to win every game left is definitely still out there.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah, I think we should be favored in every game, um, out there. Buffalo, Buffalo lions game is looming large. That's going to be a, going to be a really good game. I'm excited about, I'll be going there. I'll be excited about that. Um, I know San Francisco got walloped by the Packers yesterday, but we're going to face, most likely going to face a 49ers team than what the Packers face. So then that'll be set up for a Monday night battle, but yeah, I'm with you. If you know, 14 wins is a heck of a season and that's what they would end up when, if they go foreign to the rest of the way. Anything four and two are better. I'm happy. Uh,

Jacob:

the injuries, really. I mean, just, you know, we, we definitely have the injury thing working against us. We've been able to overcome that so far, but, you know, we got another big test coming up with a short week here in the division.

Jason Harwood:

and it's kind of early, but the, you know, the injury report came out today was not favorable for the lion. So hopefully we get a few of those guys back. Um, we'll talk more about that, I guess, in our preview podcast, but I. Yeah, that that's looming large over the same and we'll, we'll talk a little bit about the injuries when we get into the game here. Um, I want to bring up, uh, the Daniel Jones stuff. So he got, you know, cut, he's, or he got waived, made it through waivers. heard some chatter about, should the Lions be interested in him? Let's start there. Are you, are you entertaining any thoughts about signing Daniel Jones for the league minimum for the rest of the season? Okay.

Jacob:

I think I would be okay with that, uh, you know, I, the idea of signing him would just be to have, you know, a veteran around, help the team out more, you know, he obviously has been around just for a little bit. We wouldn't ever be signing him with the intent on getting him suited up and getting him out there. But from what it sounds like, Daniel Jones camp and everything, that's, that's, that's You know, kind of what they're looking for right now is just minimum the rest of the year, he wants to sign on somewhere where there's going to be some sort of playoff, experience. And then, next year is probably a different story for him. He's probably going to go elsewhere and try to fight for a starting spot. I mean, why wouldn't you circle the lions, the Vikings? Um, there's one other team that I think they said it was a destination that he might be looking towards. Just, you know, it's weird because the Vikings potentially have a spot for him. You know, like he, he could play into, you know, over top of Sam Darnold, which, you know, I would be okay with that, but yeah, I, what are your thoughts here? Because I'm okay with the signing for the minimum and keeping them on the roster. But I just don't. There's never. A situation where I think that we need to give him any reps at all, and especially, like, let's say we have another blowout or something like that. Hennon hooker, I think should still be the 1 active and should still be the 1 getting the play time. It doesn't it's no good to have Daniel Jones for the rest of the year and have him suited up like that.

Jason Harwood:

I would. It's cool. Kind of touchy. I would be okay with entertaining the thought. The only, the drawbacks that I see are it's going to take up a roster spot. Cause you're not going to cut Hennon hooker. So all of a sudden you're going to have another quarterback on your roster and that's going to take up a roster spot, which with their injuries, we need a lot, you know, there's a lot of things that we want to play around with. So I think it's almost a no go just from taking up a roster spot. However. It would provide good insurance. Cause I think Daniel Jones with this offensive line, I think we could have a better chance of winning games than with Hennon hooker at

Jacob:

Okay. Okay.

Jason Harwood:

him. Cause I could see him out playing, Sam Darnold. I know Darnold's done all right. The last couple of weeks, but, um, Jones, I think is, I think he's better than, than Sam Darnold, at least in my opinion. It's hard to get a fair assessment on Daniel Jones. Cause he had went, what wide receivers has he ever had? And, you know, I mean, like neighbors is could turn out to be really good, but it's his rookie season this year, but that just hasn't happened. So it'd be, I be curious to see what he looks like in a different uniform. I don't know. I'm not totally against it, but I just think from the roster spots, um, Taking up a roster spot. It's going to be a no go for the lions.

Jacob:

That's a good point. I mean, like we already said with the injuries and everything like that, can we really afford to take up another one? I mean, you know, we need depth elsewhere.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah. You're going to have that. And then I'll, you know, we're hoping that those injured players come back. You know, you're hoping Anzalone comes back. You're going to have rake straw back. You're going to have, you know, guys hopefully come back at some point and we're, yeah, we're going to have to use up those roster spots. It was interesting. I'm talking about roster spots that they brought up mahogany. And put our sheikah on, you know, and he wasn't our sheikah was not on the injured reports. I don't think it had anything to do with injury. So you're wondering if mahogany had passed him somehow in practice. So that was interesting from a roster construction I thought.

Jacob:

Even more so after the game that Mahogany didn't, he only had just a handful of snaps and they were all on special teams. He wasn't really even used. So, you know, yeah, I don't know what, if there's more to that, you know, Emmanuel Mosley was also activated. He played, but he also only played special teams. He didn't even have a defensive snap. So maybe they're just slowly trying to get them. You know, back in the swing of things with the intent on maybe playing more, but yeah, it's, it's interesting.

Jason Harwood:

I think a lot of times Alliance like the player to go through like game day prep and just kind of get them used to that before they throw them out there. I don't think Mahogany is going to be out there taking any snaps away from anybody, maybe on special teams, but not anywhere else, obviously. Um, but. Mosley, especially Carlton Davis. I could see him working his way into the lineup, this week, possibly. So we'll, we'll, we'll see on that.

Jacob:

With his injury history though. I mean, it's definitely, you know, was probably the right decision. Uh, let him go through the motions, let him get the warmups in, let him play some special teams, let him get his feet wet a little bit, you know, the next step ideally would be for him to start logging some defensive snaps in a limited role and now because of injuries and because of, you know, we'll get into it more, but because of the cornerback play last week, now he. You'd like him to be further along than what he is and be more capable of playing at full speed, but you also don't want, I mean, knock on wood, God forbid, you know, just want him to stay healthy for his sake. I, you know, feel terrible the way everything's gone for him the last few years. He had such a good training camp, you know, just really want him to come out and show what he's got and be able to stay healthy.

Jason Harwood:

Yep. You know, you've written for the human in this, in this case, I feel like even if he has like a decent end of the season, I think he's going to want to come back to the lions, all the chances the lions gave him. And if the lions want him back, they could have, you know, it could have a role on, on a team. Um, hopefully don't need him like need him because of an injury, but hopefully he can come in and, and, Make, uh, make some headway in this team. I I'd love to see it for E man. I, the team loves him. they obviously kept him around for a reason. He was potentially going to be, you know, going for that starting nickel spot all the way up

Jacob:

Okay. Thanks. Thanks. Bye bye.

Jason Harwood:

that we, Oh, we need E man back, but they have that potential of another starting potential corner come in. Would be, be huge.

Jacob:

Yeah, him and Amiq were neck and neck. I mean, they both, the cornerbacks were all really playing well in training camp. So you know, it's just frustrating for these injuries and everything to happen the way that it did. And you know, to be without Terry on without rake straw, Carlton Davis is now injured. This was a weak spot last year that we made a strength this year and uh, you know, now due to injuries and stuff. It's gonna look a lot more like last year, potentially.

Jason Harwood:

Yep, we'll see, um, AG was sitting on the bench towards the end of the game, probably, you know, a job well done. Well, now he's going to have his work cut out for him this week, but we can get into that in our preview podcast. Um, the only other quick note is that Jamo. Um, it's not going to be charged with anything related to the concealed weapons charge that was announced today by the Wayne County prosecutors. So any worry about suspension or whatever, we don't have to worry about that.

Jacob:

They tried to make something out of nothing with that, and then it quickly kind of just went away when everyone found out there's no story here.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah.

Jacob:

then, you know, now, now it'll be a story again, just because, hey, he's not gonna be charged, but, you know, this is what we expected, right?

Jason Harwood:

Yes. And that's fine. I'm good. I'm glad that that part's over. Uh, not that it was really looming. I hadn't really even given it a thought.

Jacob:

No.

Jason Harwood:

but the people that like to make clickbait articles, um, really did give it a lot of thought because, know, JMO is a hot topic, whether he's playing really well or when he's, you know, maybe doing something, noteworthy off the field. But anyways, let's get into our overall thoughts of this game. I'm gonna let you start, Jacob.

Jacob:

It's hard to go over overall thoughts without getting right into a tangent about what I want to talk about with the offense and defense. But, you know, I'll say overall thoughts here is just, you know, we did enough to win the game. It was a, you know, 24 to 6 win. We shut them out in the second half again. I feel like obviously we did enough to win. We played a decent game. I think a lot of this was the Colts shooting themselves in the foot and we kind of capitalized on those opportunities that they kept giving us. Just kind of shows, you know, the coaching staff that we have, the veterans that we have on this team. We knew that we were able to handle adversity. I wouldn't even call it adversity I guess it was just you know, we kept answering the bell pretty much every time they brought something we were ready to play

Jason Harwood:

Yeah, I touched on what you said about them shooting themselves in the foot. It was the penalties. That was a huge part of this game.

Jacob:

Yes,

Jason Harwood:

10 for the Colts for 75 yards, Lions at 5 for 45, but all the Colts. Penalties seem to come at, the expense of a huge play. Now, a lot of times they got the huge play because of the penalty, either a hold or some sort of, you know, offensive

Jacob:

the pick play. Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Harwood:

Like those types of things, like, yeah, the yardage is one thing, but then the hidden yardage is all the result that they could have gotten with a play. Now it's hard to judge whether they would have gotten it if the penalty wouldn't have been called or whatever. But anytime the Colts are starting to get some momentum. They would create a, you know, create a negative play and they just, sometimes they could get out of it for the most part, you know, when it was first and 20 or second at 20, they were, um, they were stuck and they were going to end up punting the ball.

Jacob:

Yeah, I mean we'll talk about it more but outside of the first drive I mean the defense played very well.

Jason Harwood:

They did. They did. Um, a couple of things I'm going to get your opinions on. So lines went forward on fourth and one in the red and their own and their red zone. They were up 14 to six. Um, I'm gonna assume you agree with that call going forward in that point.

Jacob:

Yeah, that was one of the tangents that I didn't want to go off on right here That was our only Really the only like I guess you would say questionable call or something in the game is should we have went for it and you know, I 100 percent am on board with going for it on 4th down there, you know, we, let's see, it was 3rd and 2, we call a passing play, you know, golf kind of had to try to evade some pressure and kind of don't don't for he didn't get it 4th and 1, you know, we come out in 13 personnel. So we've got Montgomery in the backfield. I'm on route wide 3 tight ends on the line. We've got the jumbo package. Everything about this says we're running up the middle. I'm 100 percent okay with going for it on 4th down here. Because if we don't get it, it's the same as if the drive didn't go well and we punt it. They're deep in their own territory. We're up 14 to 6 at that point, I believe. So, You know, there's, there's no harm in going for it there for me. My only issue with it was just the play call. You know, they, if you want to try a play action pass to Amon, Ron, or try to get a Titan to sneak outside, you know, I just think they ran a misdirection. It was a counter play with Montgomery and. It was just completely blown up by Xavier Franklin. It was a great play by him, but you know, if you're running those misdirection counters and stuff, it seems like that's probably more suited for Gibbs instead of just handing it off to DEMO quickly. You know, there's obviously a million different things that we can call there. And there's a million things that Ben Johnson does call there and they tend to work out more often than not. I just didn't like that counter call there, which obviously, you know, if it. If it works, then no one bats an eye and no one questions it at all. It's just a longer developing running play. And, I mean, maybe that was the idea, is that they just weren't going to see that play coming. They weren't gonna expect that play call. And if Nemo does break that first tackle to the outside, if he beats Franklin out of that hole, he's gotta, I think he's got somebody pulling, so he can break to the outside. So, I mean, it was possible there. It was a great play by Franklin, but Okay, we're going to the fourth down. Don't like the play call.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah, I'm, I'm with you on that. I'm expected them go for it. If they didn't go for it, I was going to be really surprised. However, would also wouldn't argue with going, taking the three and going up 17 to six, especially with the way our defense is playing. I think as a Lions fan, we're so used to, Hey, we need to get all the points we can get while the way a defense is playing. Sometimes we could play to use that too. I don't argue with going at fourth and one, give me the chances of DEMO making that I'm with you though. It's a slower developing play. The only thing I could see it is out of that is just a bootleg with Golf outside that because there was no one on the outside. They could have he could have walked to that first down

Jacob:

They really wouldn't have seen that coming. Thank you.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah, golf running is kind of like everyone else walking it's really easy to second guess that they didn't get it. They get it, then no one's arguing anything. I just, I'm with you. It just seemed like a slower developing play. did blow it up. Like you mentioned, Franklin was right in there and that really is what caused them to lose that. They got some penetration in the backfield and Dave Montgomery wasn't able to break that tackle to get the first down. Golf knew it was dead in the water, right? When he handed it off, he kind of just walked off the field and was like, no, we'll get them next time. But defense is able to hold on and you know, no harm, no foul. Really.

Jacob:

Exactly, and it's, you know, had that play call happen in a closer game and closer to midfield, then you're really worried about what are we doing here? Why do we try that? You know, then you're more concerned about it, but because it was pretty much almost in the red zone, it's on their side. We're up already. Yeah. Yeah. I'm cool with it.

Jason Harwood:

Um, first next I want to talk about, uh, the couple of penalties, the lines incurred that are at best first on the Brian branch penalty. Uh, I don't know if I'm intruding on your defensive talk, but I'm going to hit you on the Brian branch penalty. What? Did you think it's a penalty?

Jacob:

I know you didn't get to see it live, but I was, I was not happy with that.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah.

Jacob:

Watching it live and seeing how it happened. It looks like the ref threw the flag as if it was a defenseless receiver. So, you know, if you have to slow down the replay to like tenths of a second, and then you can see, okay, you know what? His helmet does actually kind of touch the other helmet. Just barely glances, you know. You don't see that in real time. But I think, you know, in my opinion, it's because it was Branch. He has that reputation. The refs probably already talked about it. They're already looking for it. He already had a play earlier in the game with Richardson where they both kind of led with their helmets and had a collision like that. So, I think initially that's what the call was going to be is that it was a defenseless receiver and like he was going out of bounds. Because they did get together and talk about it afterward. And I've watched the replay a hundred times. He's definitely in bounds and, you know, there's a chance that branch lays off and he couldn't, you know, reestablish himself and get more yards out of it or juke up field. I mean, he's not, it's not a full run conclusion that he's already out of bounds before the hit happens, you know, they get together and they talk about it. And anytime you leave with the helmet, you can get hit with that penalty and they called it, you know, Um, Let me see. Lowering the helmet to make forcible contact. That's the official ruling, that's the official call. Which, how many plays does that happen in a football game? All the time. How many times does it get called? Very, very rarely. Usually it's the defenseless receiver angle, or you know, some No, I mean, really, that's The only time that you see that is if it's a defenseless receiver. You don't usually see that,

Jason Harwood:

the only other time you see that is if a, uh, defensive player hits a player dead in the chest, just spears him with this helmet. I mean,

Jacob:

right?

Jason Harwood:

really what that penalty is for in nowhere. That's not even close to what branch did. Like you said, he did lower his helmet, but you try to tackle someone without like running your head first. You how it's. Yeah. It's impossible. So, I mean, he, he barely glanced down and he's, like you said, he's not a defensive receiver, he's established, you know, possession he's running and. Now we're throwing penalties for people being inbounds and getting hit just because they're close to being out of bounds No, he's on the field of play. He's allowed to be hit. This is the game of football Hits are gonna happen now I know we want to make the game safer and I'm all about that but you cannot take away that hit and football mean if he wanted to go out of bounds and he should have just walked out out of bounds instead of you know Doing what he did. I I was very upset when I saw the play happen. And like you said, you have to slow that down so slow to even see any helmet down, like combat contact in any of it is just like. A slight glaze. It's not like he, he jarred is, you know, it's not like you see the head fly or the face mask fly or anything like that. Most of the contact is with the player's shoulder.

Jacob:

It was nothing like the Packers play. It was nothing like that. I mean, this was just, this was honestly a really good football play.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah.

Jacob:

Tell me, you know, you're not allowed to hit stick anybody anymore. So you, you know, that's about as good as it's going to get. And now even that's a penalty.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah.

Jacob:

yeah, ridiculous.

Jason Harwood:

go back to the Evan Ingram hit from the last game. You wonder why that's not a penalty. I mean, he just, that was almost the same exact hit, except for he doesn't have any contact with the player. With the head. I mean, that's a tough football play, and it's a legal play. He hit him in the shoulder. I, I don't get it. Um, another play that was, another penalty that's questionable is the Jameer Gibbs penalty. Is that a penalty in your mind?

Jacob:

I think it's a penalty. I mean, no, I think it's a penalty because of what he said. I don't know if the ref heard that and that's what he did because the stare down when you're on the field, that's soft, if that's all that was, was he can turn around and look at him and like tossing the ball. That's a soft taunting penalty.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah.

Jacob:

you know, it looks like he told them to get the, you know,

Jason Harwood:

Yeah.

Jacob:

Get the F out of here. And you know, I'm okay with that. I'm sure the Colts defender didn't get his feelings heard about that. That's, you know, that's football, man.

Jason Harwood:

I'm sure that, uh,

Jacob:

It's soft either way.

Jason Harwood:

gets, well, when he gets hit, there's, I'm sure they're saying, you know, in the pile saying 10 times worse, what he

Jacob:

Right? Right.

Jason Harwood:

that you're about to score, you're going to get that stupid ton of penalty. At least they gave him the touchdown and it wasn't like, cause he was taunting them the whole way into the end zone. So, I mean, I guess you could call it a penalty. For taunting him on the field. And then all of a sudden you're, you know, first and goal from the 17 or something like that, and that would have sucked. So I was thankful they gave him the touchdown, but, you just basically pushed Bates back into his happy zone on the

Jacob:

Right.

Jason Harwood:

So,

Jacob:

Did you get the, uh, the celebration the first time? Did you understand that reference?

Jason Harwood:

What one was that? The Iverson one,

Jacob:

Yeah,

Jason Harwood:

yeah, no, I did not

Jacob:

until I post.

Jason Harwood:

tweets. Yeah. I saw some tweets and all that stuff. Yeah.

Jacob:

So backstory behind that, I don't know if you saw that too. So the, uh, the Lions receiver room, almost all of them wore like, uh, throwback basketball jerseys on the way there. So, Jah had the Iverson. I think Amin Rah. Saint had the, uh, Vince Carter. There was Kevin Durant jersey, Supersonics, I think, um, Ray Allen. It might have been Craig Reynolds with a Grant Hill, like the Teal Pistons jersey. So yeah, it was cool, they all had like the basketball jerseys and stuff on, while Gibbs had the AI jersey on. So after he scores, he has Amon Ra come over, and they reenact where he shoots over the Lakers Tyronn Lue and then steps over him. Which should have been back when you were watching basketball, Jason. That had to be like 2000 2001.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah, I was watching the basketball back then. note, I've been watching some Pistons game lately. They've been playing

Jacob:

Really?

Jason Harwood:

interesting and

Jacob:

Yes.

Jason Harwood:

told you that.

Jacob:

Yes.

Jason Harwood:

a little more basketball.

Jacob:

What do you think?

Jason Harwood:

Oh, it's all right.

Jacob:

It's, it is way different, I know.

Jason Harwood:

it does. All right. All right. Uh, other thing that was from the game was the injuries, the amount of injuries we're facing, uh, mostly on the defensive side, but, um, you know, Taylor Decker did get banged up, came out of the game twice. so, I mean, we're racking them

Jacob:

Relief.

Jason Harwood:

side. Yeah. Leaf two. Yeah. And that was on a special team's play. Um, yeah. Now we're, we're racking them up. So that was the other story for this game. And, you know, based on the injury report today, a lot of those players did not practice today. It was just, would have been a walkthrough. They weren't going to do a practice on Monday, but with a short week, cause we're playing on Thanksgiving, um, they got the injury report early on a Monday and it did not look good. All right, let's go into special teams. You've gotten anything for that or you want me to start out? Mm hmm.

Jacob:

Uh, no, I mean, special teams handle their business as usual. You can go ahead and give him the breakdown.

Jason Harwood:

Yep. Bates kicks. Uh, they're first of all, they're looking better. Even his extra points are more down the middle. He's a good, he had a 56 yarder, uh, field goal. And then like I said, the 48 yard extra point because of the Gibbs taunting penalty, uh, made two other, uh, extra points on top of that. the other player is, you know, he got a game ball, Jack Fox. Field changer, pinning them deep, just, he's so solid. Especially with your defense playing well, it's so important to pin these, pin these sims deep and make them get conservative. And then we end up, they end up punning, which is exactly what the Lions want. And then they get their offense back in a, you know, a better field position because Jack Fox is, you know, pinning them so deep,

Jacob:

Yeah, when they're deep in their own territory, then, you know, you start getting to where these second and long, third and long play calls start getting more conservative just because you're worried about field position. They have some of the deep ones where they're forced to run even when they probably want to try to create a throw just because you can't punt a ball from inside your own headzone or short, especially, you know, against us. But, you know, speaking on the injury that you just talked about, because this is, this is a big one, honestly, for Khalif Raymond, because He's hurt. He's, he's not going to go on Thursday. We don't know exactly how long it's going to be, but which is huge in itself. Cause he's obviously a great punt returner for us, but Saint was the one back there when Khalif went out and I don't know anybody who was on board with that, obviously speaking outside of the team, any fan, anybody, any announcer, anybody looking at it was like, don't, you know, when I first saw him out there, I was like, okay, you know what? Sure hands. We're just going to fair catch it. Any fair cop, the first one. The first time we returned it, I was like, get him off the field. Do not let him return another punt. How did you feel about that? You gotta feel the same way.

Jason Harwood:

yeah, I'm not. I mean, I get it. He's probably the emergency returner. I was all about what you said. Fair catch it and just get the offense on the field. Don't risk an injury to Amin Ra because frankly, we can't afford an injury to Amin Ra. He's a pillar of this offense and he's sure handed. Such a good relationship with Jared Goff. Yeah, I didn't want that. And the second, well, the first one he fair caught the second one, he ran out of bounds. And I think it was a three. Third one that he got tackled and, you know, he's on the injury report now. And, you know, the worry is that he got injured on that play. Don't understand, um, they were risking any injury with them, especially with the game we were in control of the game the whole time, so we didn't need, any game changing plays on fun return. So, yeah, I'm not about that, but you know, he might've been there. He's their backup sure handed. So that's, you know, maybe that's why they did that decision, but I know, I don't think he risked an injury with Amin Ra and it's not worth it.

Jacob:

No. But now the next question here going forward, if you're not gonna have Amun Ra, do you let, cause Dorsey's the other kick returner, do you let Dorsey try to return punts back there? Cause I don't know about his hands and how he's gonna do with the punt return. Or, I know Maurice Alexander's on the practice squad, do you activate him and let him handle the punts from here? Okay, here we go.

Jason Harwood:

didn't sound like an IR injury, but. We, we don't know yet. So, you know, they brought Maurice Alexander back. If it's just a short, like two or three week thing with Khalif, then you could bring, you could elevate Maurice for the three games that you can elevate him on the practice squad. He can return kicks for you too. Cause Khalif is doing, you know, back there on that too. And we know Maurice Alexander can return kicks and then you just kind of use someone to experience. I, I think that's the route that they're going to go. Yeah. This just depends on how long cleaves out. Um, but yeah, Maurice Alexander is, has experience with that and you don't have the injury worry that you have with Amun Ra back there.

Jacob:

Had we not lost Isaiah Williams, he'd have been the perfect plug back there. Just, you know,

Jason Harwood:

That's

Jacob:

unfortunate the Bengals stole him away from us.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah. got stuck with injuries and having to, you know,

Jacob:

They had to subject him to waivers, and that's what, you know, that was bound to happen.

Jason Harwood:

yes, we were hoping that he'd skate through there, but he did not. And yeah, right. He went perfect in this situation because he, Could have returned kicks and then he could also, you know, did the punt return thing too.

Jacob:

also possibly add value in the passing game.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah. I mean, he had like some of the cleave crossover, right? I mean, that's where, you know, there was a duplication of talents there. So he

Jacob:

Right.

Jason Harwood:

right in on that. Um, yeah. But, you know, I wish him well with the Bengals, uh, as

Jacob:

Absolutely.

Jason Harwood:

but I, uh, yeah, he could have been useful in this situation. Let's get on to the defense here. performance again, you know what, no touchdowns in the last 10 quarters. They, I don't know if you know this or not, but they shut out the whole AFC South in the second half, have not allowed them to score any of those four teams to score in the second half on us. And. That's pretty darn. That's pretty darn cool.

Jacob:

Definitely. Huge, uh, you know, step up by the defense. I do want to talk about, I've got a little bit of a breakdown here, just because, I don't know if I talked to you about this or not, because I knew you were at work, but, you know. The defense played a great game where it kind of talks about how the Colts really, you know, did not help themselves. They had penalties on a lot of big plays, but you know, that first drive, they had a lot of outside runs. There were a lot of option plays. Uh, it was an 11 play drive. And that was really the biggest threat that they had, you know, the difference in the first drive and even the first drive, I think Anthony Richardson had maybe like four carry or something like that,

Jason Harwood:

three carries

Jacob:

right. Okay. And then, you know, the next drive, I think he maybe only had like one or two carries. It got less and less as the game went on. And I really think that was because of the defensive play. You know right from the get go they have that third and one, you know, he breaks off a huge run Kirby hits him in the open field great tackle by kirby But then jack campbell comes up behind with a big hit and I don't think he saw that coming So in the very next play they call a quarterback sweep. So he runs around to the outside He almost gets the first down. He actually got hit by zeke turner So that was nice zeke got to the outside and had a hit but then rodrigo ends up laying a hit on him and slams him down and You know, his helmet is kind of messed up on the ground. He's really slow getting up. I thought he was hurt right there.

Jason Harwood:

Yep.

Jacob:

then, it was different from that point on later. And then I think that we got to him on the first drive. And I think that's probably why the Colts had to kind of switch it up. Because if you look and play by play, that first drive was called completely different from the rest of the game. And they did not move the ball as effectively as that first drive. The only other drive that they really had effective was just when they were. You know, hitting those shots, unfortunately, when they were finding where Vildor was lined up, and that's where they were trying to go, and they had some success there. But first drive, those couple big hits kind of took Richardson out of the game.

Jason Harwood:

I agree. I mean, they weren't, it'd be really hard to run game like that with like that first drive and have Richardson take those hits repeatedly in the game, especially Richardson, you know, last year. I agree. Didn't even play a full game because of the injuries. He's already had some injuries this year. Um, and yeah, I think he looked totally shook after at that Rodrigo head, he went down and he was like slow to get up. that was that, that happened like around the three, like the four yard line, cause that

Jacob:

Right.

Jason Harwood:

I think what second and one or third and one. And then,

Jacob:

It was second and one, and then Rodrigo hit Taylor for no gain. He kept him from getting the first down. And then the third one is when they had an ineligible man downfield.

Jason Harwood:

yes,

Jacob:

they probably would have went for it on fourth and one, but they had that penalty and kicked him back.

Jason Harwood:

that's what I was going to ask you about. I mean, I think that was a genius move to take the penalty because I'm

Jacob:

Oh, yeah.

Jason Harwood:

was fourth and one, they were going to go for it again. They played really good defense on, uh, third and six and, you know, force them to a field goal. Uh, cause I would not have given him a one yard shot, especially with the way Richardson was running on us on that first drive, they probably would have ran some sort of, uh, outside, you know, power run with Richardson. I would have at that

Jacob:

Right.

Jason Harwood:

and they were having success with it. So I was, I was happy that Campbell took that penalty.

Jacob:

Yeah. I mean, I feel like that was a no brainer. We talked about that before in, like, Keys to Victory. It's like, you can't If they consistently get third and one, third and two, you know, if it's third and short or fourth and short, they're gonna be able to go for it just because they can hand it off to Taylor, which can run them outside. They have somebody leaking. There's a lot of different things they can do with a mobile quarterback like that. So yeah, definitely right. Called a bouncing back.

Jason Harwood:

Yep. Yeah. So just to wrap up the Richardson, you know, three rushes for 35 yards on that first shot, but he finished 10 for 61. So that means the rest of the game, he was seven rushes for 26 yards. We kind of saw that in the Arizona thing where Kyler Murray had some rushes early and then we bottled them up afterwards. I think in this case, it was a matter of us putting some good hits on Richardson and they knew he wasn't going to be able to take that punishment. Um, and it's also just adjustments. Uh, Campbell said so in the postgame conference, it was, or yeah, postgame press conference. It was mostly, you know, a couple of missed plays by defenders, just being out of position and not holding the edge or, you know, just being a little bit out of position that created some of those. So they probably cleaned that up a little bit. I mean, you're practicing against that, but you're not practicing against Anthony Richardson because he's a one of like, well, I'd say one or two. Cause he's kind of like Josh Allen, huge guy that, you know, like we said, a tight end playing quarterback and that's a monster. And that's what makes me really happy that Kirby got him down in the open field. Cause you. I

Jacob:

Well they had an open field with him and Branch. They both lowered their helmets and then he, you know, got some more yards out of that.

Jason Harwood:

I was about to say he took on branch are probably our hardest hitter and you know, on the team and Richardson came out on top on that one. Um, wasn't branches best game. He had a couple, um, misplaced here and there, but you know,

Jacob:

I mean,

Jason Harwood:

overall, but.

Jacob:

the one though, you had that play against Richardson where, you know, he's trying to lay the hit on him. You're hoping that you got guys around you, you're going to slow him down. Which he ended up getting, maybe like, I think 5 or 6 more yards out of that. But, I don't remember the receiver, but he had one that he timed almost perfectly. He had a really nice hit, um, across the middle. But, you know, the receiver held on, bounced off, and then ended up getting some more yards out of it. So technically those are going to go down in the book as missed tackles. He had another one where he was lined up way off. I don't know if he was on his own or man, but if he was a man, he was way off his guy and allowed like nine yards before he even got to him. So yeah, it's not the best game, but I mean, there's some circumstantial. Things there.

Jason Harwood:

yeah. Well, the play you were referencing before, he got caught in the middle of going for a pick or hitting. It was like, he, he couldn't decide it, and if he had timed it just a half a second ahead of time, he had a pick six on it. He He just read it just a, just a tad bit late, uh, Richardson fired it in there. I mean, Richardson reminds me a little bit of early Stafford where Stafford would just throw a hundred mile an hour fastballs no matter where it was on the field. Uh, cause some of those passes Richardson was throwing, man, going to get broken fingers if they're trying to catch that. It'd be like five yards on the field and he's throwing it at a hundred miles an hour. No, no touch. It was just arm crazy.

Jacob:

He did have a couple of nice touch passes. The deep ball they completed was actually really nice, but you know, he did miss some of his targets too. And it also, when you're throwing them that fast, when he's in the red zone, that contributes to why they're not catching the ball too. They're just not ready for it coming like that. You don't, you know, that comes with being a young quarterback though. You're pressured to you're in a hurry. You're trying to get it there and you end up firing it too much. Your own guy can't get ahold of it.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah. Pass the Ogletree that was down

Jacob:

Yeah,

Jason Harwood:

he dropped right by the end zone. I don't know if that was too fast. I mean, it looked like a pretty good pass to me and Ogletree just whiffed on

Jacob:

whiffed it.

Jason Harwood:

yeah, cause that, that, that should have been a red zone touchdown for them, but I'll take it, uh, you know, lions. The best third town team, defensive team in the NFL again, three for 12. That's all the Colts got was three, uh, three for 12 on third down. This is the vast contrast of late last year with the lions when it'd be third and 16 and they would get,

Jacob:

And you're still worried about

Jason Harwood:

Now when it gets a third down, I feel like that's pretty good. We're going to get off the field. Um, so I'm pretty happy with all that. got to give a lean McNeil all the praise in the world. Wow. He had a heck of a game.

Jacob:

Absolutely. You know, if you're not watching the game and you're just looking at the stats, he had one tackle and one quarterback hit. So you know, you're like, I don't even know what I guess he wasn't involved too much. No, he was terrorizing them.

Jason Harwood:

Well, that's why Richardson was less than 50 percent completion. Because half the time, his own offensive lineman was sitting in his back pocket because Aleem was just pushing him through. There were multiple pancakes. Pancakes are usually offensive linemen dominating defensive linemen. No, it was the other way around. Aleem McNeil was just his guy. And that's the benefit of having DJ Reader. They were trying to go one on one with Aleem. They don't have DJ Reader. They're double teaming Aleem and taking their chances with the other guy. Well, you can't leave. DJ Reader's just too strong. They gotta double team him. Aleem just manhandled his guy. He's having a heck of a season. Uh, just, you know, if Hutch was here, it'd be even more noticeable, I think, because

Jacob:

Right.

Jason Harwood:

demanding more attention, and Aleem would probably give him some more sacks. And really, the Lions should have got more, they didn't get any sacks, but there was two plays that they basically had Richardson in their grasp, and just Richardson was just too strong, and just kind of threw the ball away. No chance of completing the pass, but he was just throwing it away,

Jacob:

There were some bad ones. He had an intentional grounding, too.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah, intentional grounding and they didn't throw the flag right away. And I was like, how was that not

Jacob:

Yeah, right.

Jason Harwood:

in the middle of the pocket. Aleem had pushed his guy all the way back into Richardson and Richardson was just throwing it and the ball lands and it's not within 15 yards of anybody. It's like, this

Jacob:

He was shocked. He was shocked that he had no receiver over there, too. Whatever the play call he thought it was, he thought somebody was gonna be right back there. And there's just nobody around,

Jason Harwood:

There was, yeah, there was zero people around. It was great. And then they almost got that, you know, sack fumble in the end zone. That was a really close play. Um, just so close. And, uh, the Derry Smith picked up the ball. It almost looked like he scored a for the lions, but

Jacob:

right?

Jason Harwood:

It was great play though. Yeah.

Jacob:

play. You know dj reader we talked about him. He he had two quarterback hits. It was the same thing They're just collapsing that pocket on him And when that happens, I talked about that before for whatever reason he doesn't anthro and doesn't seem to feel pressure up the middle It's just like he's too late getting there and he's already determined That he's gonna throw the ball or that he's gonna run or whatever So then he's taking all these shots downfield and he just you know, they connected with they connected two times But the one there was a penalty that might have been the hands of the face on a lame. I forget there was a penalty on one of them. So, yeah,

Jason Harwood:

The hands of face that Liam was a long one and then there was the pick play to that was a pretty long one

Jacob:

yeah, it doesn't count.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah. Um,

Jacob:

I hate those because there's always like the, you know, yes, clearly he's wide open because he got picked. And, you know, they're like, well, if you heard the announcers like, well, you know, Pierce, I think it was out of Pierce. Like he didn't really initiate the contact. He kind of got in the way and lifts his hands up. You know exactly what he's doing. He's not running a row, he's picking the guy. You're not right past the line of scrimmage. I think you're allowed within one yard. Right? Is that the rule? You get one yard? So, I mean, you're four or five yards down the field. You gotta do a better acting job, I guess, if that's what you're supposed to be doing. You can't put your hands up and, you know, it was just bad. It was glaringly obvious.

Jason Harwood:

up when you put your hands up, you know, you did something bad. I

Jacob:

Yeah, right.

Jason Harwood:

like, it's like waving the flag like, Hey, look at me. I just committed a penalty, but I didn't mean to right now.

Jacob:

Oh, you watch every punt. Watch every punt where, you know, it's like, is it blocking the back or not? They constantly, they'll run with their hands up. Like, you're still pushing them in the back even though you're not doing it with your hands.

Jason Harwood:

Again, the defense is playing rule. I'm finally glad that people are on board and they're giving them credit because early in the season, you know, I know the Seattle was not probably not our best of, Best defensive performance. Uh, but they've been really, really good this whole year. I think DVOA, their number one defense in the league right now. Uh, I know Monday night football is going on, but I don't think that's gonna cause the chargers are up there, but chargers are giving up, uh, they're giving up 23 points so far. So I don't think that their, uh, DVAs DVOA is going to go up, uh, This game. Aaron Glenn, I know Ben Ronson has gotten all the assistant coach praise, but Aaron Glenn is, you know, especially him producing with all the injuries, you know, Ben

Jacob:

Exactly.

Jason Harwood:

lucky with, you know, injuries this year. Uh, Aaron Glenn has not, I mean, our best defensive player went out in week five. And. They just keep rolling. I mean, if anyone thought that they were still going to have this good of a defense after leave, after Hutchinson left the team, going to be shocked because I thought we were going to lose a lot. And we have lost pressure. I don't think we're creating as much havoc in the backfield. you know, now that we got Zidarius. I mean, the Hutchins, the thing kind of flag that we got to Darius, but, the Darius is a solid player. You can count on him. He's reliable. He's going to get pressure. He's going to hold an edge. These are all the things that we talked about when we traded for him, what we were looking forward. And he's, he's produced on all that.

Jacob:

Absolutely,

Jason Harwood:

player we didn't mention on defensive line was Josh Paschal. And

Jacob:

yes,

Jason Harwood:

that he played really well, held the edge a couple of times. There was a play. I was, uh, rewatched the cadets game, uh, this afternoon. Cause I, or when I got home from work, cause I, like I said, I didn't have a chance to watch it all the way yesterday. And I paused the play. And I wanted to show press and I'm like, I want you to watch this play. It's not an amazing play, but if Josh Paschal doesn't hold this edge and force, you know, Jonathan Taylor up into the middle of the defense, it's a totally different play. And it totally goes unnoticed, but Paschal held the edge. He's doing a really good job. When he was out, were given a lot more outside runs since we've gotten, you know, it's a Darius and Paschal in our starting lineup back again, um, the outside runs have really diminished. And I, I, I attribute a lot of that to Paschal.

Jacob:

definitely. I mean, he's not going to be a speed rusher, but he is able to collapse the pocket and he's definitely able to hold the edge. I thought he played really well. I think preferable focus gave him like a negative grade, so I don't know exactly what they were looking at. I do know what you're talking about. I mean, he had a couple impactful plays like that where he, you know. He did his job. You're holding the outside. I know they had one, um, because Long played, and there was one big run, I think it was by Richardson, and Long kind of collapsed inside, and they just, you know, he had the outside up like that. It's so important to contain that outside. You don't have to be the one to make the play. You've got to be the one that controls where he can run, though. You take the outside away, you make him cut back up the middle, you let your teammate finish the job.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah, it's, it's about doing your job and counting on the rest of your team to do their jobs. When you start trying to be a hero, you know, yeah, it might work out once in a while, but no, that's how a huge play that can happen. I mean, if you're going back to the Minnesota game with Terry and Arnold. Crept in and Aaron Jones just went to the outside, got that 34 yard touchdown run.

Jacob:

Yeah.

Jason Harwood:

Tarion's job isn't necessarily to make that tackle. His is to hold the edge, Aaron Jones go to where the rest of the team is. And, you know, that, that stuff can happen if you're not doing your job.

Jacob:

That's actually where I was gonna go, um, was just with the Tarion thing, because you know, there's been a lot of people that have been kinda on him and talking about, is he a bust, is he really impactful, and we've both been on his side throughout this whole thing ever since the first time we saw him in training camp. It's like, this guy's good. He's got, you know, the sticky coverage. He's right on top of them. He's not allowing anything. Yes. He's gotten some penalties that he needs to iron out, but it was a hundred percent apparent that Terry on Arnold wasn't out there and that we needed him out there.

Jason Harwood:

Yep. Yeah, he's, you know, I'll use the word again. He's sticky in coverage. He is on his fan and bill door, you could see again. It was shades of last of last year where guys are running open deep. Um, You know, I'm not saying Vildor is bad, but there's definitely a difference between him and Tarion. And I'm hoping that this game, people can appreciate how good Tarion has been this year, because you don't see people streaking deep on him at all. And, you know, I know he'll get the penalties, but that means he's right with his man and those little things he can clean up, I think there was a report Tarion must've said that a ref stopped him and said, Hey, you're really good in coverage, but you just need to. Lay your hands off at the top of the route and look for the ball. And that's exactly what we've been saying is, and that's a coachable step. I think seeing progress with the, know, keeping his hands to himself. It's just at the top of the route, he just needs to look back at the ball and make a play on the ball, um, instead of play on the man.

Jacob:

It's going to happen. Silence.

Jason Harwood:

those things. It's just a matter of technique at. You know, the point of attack and, you know, he's also good in the run game. He'll come up and do his, you know, and, and make tackles in the run game. He's doing all the things, right. He just needs a little more growth. The fact that he's playing so much man as a rookie in the NFL. Just tells me that AG counts on him. And like I said, AG is a good defensive coordinator. He knows that position more than anybody else. He's, he's excellent at it. He wouldn't have him out there if, if, if he didn't believe in Terry on. And so I, I see good things coming for Terry and he just needs to keep. You know, making the growth that we've seen other players with the lions under this regime, make second year growth, third year growth. And quarterback is typically a tough position to play a rookie year. So we just see the keep doing the growth, but I'm hoping he's back for the bears game. Especially if Carlton Davis is out. I want. You know,

Jacob:

Yeah,

Jason Harwood:

At least to cover that and if Carlton can't play, All right, let's move on to the offense. Where do you want to start with this one?

Jacob:

I mean, let's start with the quarterback, right? I mean, Jared Goff had a really good, um, week before this. Seemed like he was really on. I don't think that he had a very good game. I know with the sat show, I mean, you know, his throws were just off. Even the ones he connected on, the ball was coming out wobbly. I think he did show, you know, his ability to move around in the pocket and create time on a couple of those plays. The, uh, You know, he had a 27 yard throw to Tim Patrick that was on, you know, where he kind of scrambled and made extra time, but he missed the port of deep. He just looked off a little bit. It seemed like he was feeling pressure that wasn't there. And then when the pressure started getting there, then it just became more of a problem. So I didn't yeah. I mean, how do you feel? I did not think it was a great game by Gough.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah, I mean, it wasn't one of golf's best games, I can tell you

Jacob:

Right.

Jason Harwood:

I

Jacob:

Right.

Jason Harwood:

enough to win. That's how I characterize

Jacob:

Yes.

Jason Harwood:

make the mistake. Didn't throw a pick. He had one that was close. Uh, cliff knock. I think it was through to cliff and it was all off. what was more apparent was the timing between him and Laporta just seemed off and I'm sure that's because of the injury and just, I think there's, I think Laporta missing a lot of training camp. Uh, because of injury has shown up a lot this season. It just doesn't seem like him and golf are on the same desk. They were as a part where he was like, what, 25, 30 yards on the field. And, and golf just overshot him way over his head. And it just,

Jacob:

I mean, if you watch that play, though, I mean, Laporta kinda has to camp down. He's got somebody over top of him.

Jason Harwood:

Yes.

Jacob:

seemed like Gough overshot him.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah, I know. Golf is usually accurate. So I don't know, you know, what, where he thought he was going to go with that. And there was even a shorter play that he kind of, you know, Laporta kind of bubbled the ball and there was another miss pass to Laporta.

Jacob:

Yeah.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah, he wasn't exactly on his game. And usually that's when golf feels hurried for, for no reason. I've also talked about if there's good linebacker play, golf

Jacob:

Yes.

Jason Harwood:

with that. And so, I mean, we're going to have concern with the bears game coming up, but he played well enough to win. Didn't make any dumb throws where you're just like, why do you throw that? Um, so I, I'm okay with, with how golf in that game. He managed the game well, and he was able to hand it off to our running backs. And, uh, them score the touchdowns this game.

Jacob:

That's the biggest thing. If you're not gonna have a good game, at least you're not turning the ball over. And he did have, you know, the one that was really close. He also, you know, Amun Ra had another good game, but they did break the streak. Amun Ra had 6 catches on 7 targets, and you know, that last one that was, uh, incompletion was a very bad pass. And he got pressure in his face, uh, Amun Ra actually had his man beat. He just wasn't, you know, he was looking for the end zone. He wasn't ready for the ball to be thrown short. And if the corner had turned around, that probably wasn't an interception there, but it was just one of those things where he had to get rid of it. He had pressure probably should have checked that one out and, you know, not lobbed it up like that. But you know, obviously hindsight. It hits the ground, it's harmless, he was getting rid of it,

Jason Harwood:

Yeah.

Jacob:

wish they would have counted that as a throwaway instead of a target, but you know,

Jason Harwood:

Yeah, I know. Just to keep that streak going. But, you know, also the other streak that was ended was the touchdown streak between him and Amin Ra. No touchdown in this game. I think it was like eight straight games that they had

Jacob:

yeah,

Jason Harwood:

pass. Um, and then if they were to score a touchdown, that would have been another, cause I think Montgomery, and. Brown, St. Brown have scored, what is it, eight games where they've all scored a touchdown, which is

Jacob:

yep,

Jason Harwood:

for a trio in the NFL history. And that would have been another one because, you know, both Gibbs and Montgomery scored. Let's

Jacob:

I think they're tied, I think they're tied right now for like the 3 of the trio, but just the 2, Gibbs and Montgomery, like those 2 scoring touchdowns in the same game, I think they're like 4th on the list or something like that now,

Jason Harwood:

Yeah. Yeah. They're going to break that thing before it's all said and done. Um, Gibbs, let's just start with him. 21 of 90, 21 carries 90 yards, two touchdowns. yeah, he's, he's the man, uh, gets a second level so fast. It's unbelievable.

Jacob:

Right, fire him out of a cannon man,

Jason Harwood:

Yeah. I like the, the first touchdown that he had, he busted the outside. Those defenders have to defend that corner. Cause they know Gibbs can go there. And then, you know, when they start over defending that Gibbs just knifes up and scores a touchdown. That's how we got the first one. The second one, they tried to cut him off in the hole and, um, Gibbs just ran to the outside and. You know, that's when he turned his back and

Jacob:

yeah, had to stare him down.

Jason Harwood:

at the two yard line or whatever he did. So, And then Manny, I know he got injured. Um, it looked really scary. Cause he came out without, you know, go to the locker room without your pads on. I was like, Oh no, that's not, that's not a good sign. But then he's by the end of the game, he's got his pads on You know, for all accounts, what he said, he could have came back on the field and played, but Dan Campbell said something to the effect of there's bigger fish to fry, meaning. You know, we want you for this next game more than we need you in this last, you know, 10 minutes of this game, but he had another angry run. I posted it on YouTube. It's one of my favorite runs of the game. it was a third and six again, third and long, and we're still running it.

Jacob:

I was going to ask you about that. I mean, I know we didn't get to see it live, but you know, I kind of knew, I knew on both of them, especially when I saw the defense, so we're, we're running it here.

Jason Harwood:

I, I don't know how we keep surprising teams with these third and run third and long runs. And I know. That's a, if they defend the run, then they're just opening, you know, lines are just going to pass, uh, they, they probably have two play calls going, but it, you know, any, I Montgomery, I love Montgomery runs. Cause there's like three. Levels of every Montgomery run. It's the handoff. He runs up, he gets first contact and you think, okay, he's going to get a couple of yards. And then he gets another run. And then, and then the third part is when the offensive line pushes them for another

Jacob:

Right.

Jason Harwood:

yards afterwards, there's

Jacob:

I start dragging people

Jason Harwood:

Yeah. I, I just. There's nothing that gets me more fired up. I mean, I love a good Gibbs, you know, 70 yard run. That'll get you fired up, but just for momentum and just like everything you want, the attitude, everything, the Montgomery 10 yard run with those three different steps that, that is, you know, a heart breaker for the defense and just, you know, just the attitude you want from, you know, you want to show from your team.

Jacob:

agreed. Yeah, we had that first. So that was on third and six when he had that huge 14 yard run. We. I don't know if it was the, it wasn't the first drive, but it was third and eight when Gibbs ran, he had a 17 yard run too.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah.

Jacob:

And then even the announcers later, it was like third and deep or third and seven or something like that. And they're like, I, you know, if I'm the Colts, I think I'm defending the run here. They've already showed you what they're going to do.

Jason Harwood:

That's fine. Let them start out the box on those long. That's like playing right into what the lions want to do. Then, you just play action, pass it. And, you know, I'm in Roz or Laporte is running right over the middle behind your linebackers and, you

Jacob:

Right?

Jason Harwood:

first down that way.

Jacob:

Yeah. I trust that. Like you said, they've got a play called golf. I'm sure they have a kill. They've got something where it's like, Hey, we might call this run, but if they're lining up the way we want it to, we're going to audible and, you know, we'll, we'll find the open man for sure.

Jason Harwood:

Ben Johnson's all about that. Like, we don't want you to know what we're going to do. And it's amazing. And a third and seven or third and six, every other NFL team is to be. Passing. It's an automatic passing down for the Lions. It's not, and I mean, part of it's a skill position players that they have that they're in the offensive line. They're able to control that. But another part is that they're willing to do it. And they're also willing to go for it on fourth down. So that's the other thing that goes into those decision makings. Okay, say we get five yards on this third and six. That means we're going to go for it on fourth and one.

Jacob:

Absolutely. It makes it more comfortable with your play calls.

Jason Harwood:

For sure. I think golf said it today that, you know, he knows he doesn't know for sure that they're going to go for it on fourth down when they call a third down run, but it makes them to feel like, yeah, that's the call. Like we need to get, you know, we need to get, you know, 80 percent of the way there. We can't have any negative plays. And if we get there, then we're going to score on fourth, on fourth down. He said they treat third and eight, kind of like second and eight. You know, we, you know, we just need to get into a favorable position that we can go for it on fourth down.

Jacob:

Right. And it's been working for us.

Jason Harwood:

As so

Jacob:

I didn't last week before town for 10 and worked this past week, but that's okay. More often than not, it does.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah, no, I, I still agree with that decision. Yeah, I get the four extra points rather than the field goal, but who knows, you know, it's a, they went for the field goal later in the game, you know, 58 yard, 56 yarder. Um, I wanted to ask you, I meant to ask you earlier, you know, there was a point in the Tampa Bay game and, you know, game two that we could kick the long field goal. it would have been in the fifth like long fifties, like 58 yard or it was deep in that fourth quarter of that game. But instead we punted and played defense, end up working out, we ended up getting the ball back. But hindsight. Now that we've seen Jake Bates leg, we're have confidence in him. they probably kicked the field goal in that spot. I think to get within, you know, less than three points, you know, you're feeling confident about Jake Bates doing it. So I'm, I'm thinking that they've grown to that point. Dan Campbell might, might've been willing to kick that field goal. Same game situation nowadays, or now, you know, this far in the season.

Jacob:

Right, knowing what we know now. Yeah, I mean that's probably fair. I know that I have more confidence in him than I did before. I was really nervous. And you know, it's knock on wood, I know the announcers were talking about it too. The, I don't know who it was, the one refused to say it because he didn't want to jinx him. But he's perfect right now. And that's, you know, for a rookie kicker to go this far, I think we're the only team in the league that hasn't missed yet.

Jason Harwood:

Anything else on the offense that you want to talk

Jacob:

No, I mean, I, it was another, we expected we were going to be able to move the ball. It wasn't a perfect game, but we, you know, we played Detroit lions football, man. We moved the ball. We put points on the board. We kept the lead. We kept them at bay, played another complete total game with our team. And you know, the only thing is you wish you would have come out of this a little bit healthier to play the bears. We have the divisional game coming up, but you know, we take it one week at a time. We weren't going to take it lightly on the cold. So

Jason Harwood:

Yeah, we dominated and, um, you know, time possession to 37 minutes, I think to like 23 minutes, something like that, You're not going to beat the lions. If we're dominating that much and, time of possession, especially when you get down the red zone, you can't score, right? I mean, defense got, they got all the way down to the four yard line, the 11 yard line held them to two field goals. You know, lions were three for four in our red zone appearances. The one was the go for it up forth down. So, you know, that's, Ben, the story of, you know, almost every game this season, we get down there, we score touchdowns, we don't let them score touchdowns. And that's why we, why we're 10 and one. And, you know, before Thanksgiving, we've had 10 wins. This is any

Jacob:

awesome.

Jason Harwood:

with the Lions. We're like, Oh, we get 10 wins. That's a good season for lines. Now we're there before Thanksgiving. And it's, it's an awesome feeling. Uh, before we head out of here, uh, our great guarantees, um, We both missed,

Jacob:

Hey, is invalid. You don't get to say that I missed.

Jason Harwood:

no,

Jacob:

it to him.

Jason Harwood:

I will. So Gibbs and Monty one go over a hundred yards. That was mine. Uh, Gibbs got a close with 90 yards, but didn't go over the a hundred yard mark. Jacob said, Terran Arno gets his first pick. And he said, if he can't play, cause at that point he had a groin injury, then Ennis Raikstra went out. So if

Jacob:

Hey, I said that at work. That wasn't on the pod.

Jason Harwood:

I know,

Jacob:

On the pod, I said Taryon was gonna get his first pick. At work, we're like, I don't know, Taryon might not play. Like, you know what? If he doesn't play, it's gonna be Riggstraw. Soon as, it was right after I said that, Riggstraw goes on IR, Taryon's out. So then I decided, for the benefit of the team, I was not going to name another player that might get hurt or be out. So I just called it void right then and there.

Jason Harwood:

All right. Yeah. So that's the reason why are injured. It's because Jacob, you know, he's all superstitious. So I,

Jacob:

They were both injured before the game though, too, so you know what?

Jason Harwood:

you know, let's see, we'll see if, uh, we'll see what you pick this week, if you think TA is going to get one, uh, this week or not,

Jacob:

We'll see.

Jason Harwood:

have to wait for that for the preview podcast. going to record that tomorrow night and have that out Wednesday. Cause if we, Kind of want to have that out early before, um, you know, the game on Thursday. So probably this week and next week we'll have the, because there's service against both weeks, uh, we'll have it out on Tuesday. and, when, yeah, we'll do it Tuesday and we'll have it out on Wednesday. So, uh, else, Jacob?

Jacob:

No, I'm good, man.

Jason Harwood:

No. I just want to say a couple things about our YouTube channel. It's going really well. We're getting these shorts up. Um, people are commenting all over, and I just want to highlight one comment that, uh, I'm going to paraphrase it, but it was summed to the fact we put one up at the Bryan Branch on, uh, Engram hit, Evan Engram hit, and someone said something like, he better, uh, Cause he got knocked back so far. It's like anger and better have brought his passport. Cause he almost got knocked, knocked into Canada. And I thought that that was hilarious. And that was my comment of the week for, for that. So, yeah. Um, if you

Jacob:

That was very good.

Jason Harwood:

yeah. If you want to check out her YouTube channel, we got shorts up there. Some of the plays. Uh, It's, you know, quick watch, but it's fun to watch. So you can check that out. Um, and, uh, I guess we'll be up here recording tomorrow night, Jacob. So we're, uh, get your voice to recover. Uh, make sure you do your vocal exercises like

Jacob:

Of course,

Jason Harwood:

and, uh, yeah.

Jacob:

I learned mine from Anchorman.

Jason Harwood:

Anchorman. Uh, yes, I'm kind of a big deal. Um, all right. For Jacob, I'm Jason. Let's go lions.

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