E50: "Biting Re-Caps" Eagles Fall! Lions Back on Track - Week 16: Lions vs Bears

In this episode of Talking Grit, hosts Jason Harwood and Jacob Litton celebrate the Detroit Lions' 34-17 victory over the Chicago Bears, bringing their record to an unprecedented 13-2. They analyze the Lions' chances of clinching the NFC North and a top seed in the playoffs, highlighting key performances by players like Jared Goff, Jameson Williams, and Jahmyr Gibbs. They discuss strategies, standout moments, and the potential playoff scenarios involving the Vikings and Packers. The conversation touches on the defense's improvement, especially regarding linebacker Ifeatu Melifonwu and rookie Christian Mahogany's performance. The episode also includes lighter topics like favorite Christmas movies, new movie releases, and holiday plans. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 2:02 Playoff Scenarios and Key Games
• 4:00 Rivalries and Rooting Dilemmas
• 7:07 Injury Updates and Player Returns
• 10:41 Defensive Performance Breakdown
• 28:43 Offensive Highlights and Key Plays
• 40:35 The Trick Play Breakdown
• 57:44 Christmas Plans and Traditions
• 1:00:25 Favorite Christmas Movies

Transcript

Jason Harwood: 0:42

Welcome back to Talking Grit. I'm Jason Harwood and with me is my co host Jacob Litton. sky is not falling anymore, Jacob. The Lions beat the Bears 34 17 in this week's 16 matchup. are 13 and two. I'm going to say it again. The Lions are 13 and two. I've always dreamed of a Lions team to be in the position that we're in right now. Chance at the number one seed in the NFC. In my dream scenario, they would have already locked up the division and we'd be going for the NFC, but, you know, we're playing the NFC North and it's a really tough division. So how are you, are you flying high still, beating the Bears?

Jacob: 1:22

Oh, absolutely, right? I mean, 13 and 2, this is already officially going to be the best record the Lions have ever had in the regular season. You know, it was nice in the press conference, they asked Dan Campbell about that and he said he acknowledged that and he told his players, but you know, it He said one day we'll be able to look back and enjoy that, but not yet. It's not the time, you know, job's not finished yet. 13 wins is awesome. It's as many wins as Matt Patricia had the entire time he was here. So, you know, that's nice. Dan Campbell, one season, and we've still got a couple of games to spare. It was a great game. It's been a great year. Really?

Jason Harwood: 2:00

Yeah, it's been pretty awesome. So, you know, coupled this was shortly after the win, you know, the Eagles lost and a pretty exciting fashion. So really kind of cleared up some things for the Lions. So as far as the playoff scenarios go, it really is between the Lions and the Vikings right now. So, the Lions win this week, beat the 49ers and the Vikings lose, then we clinch the number one seed and basically week 18 doesn't mean, really matter. If the Vikings and the Lions both win, week 18 definitely does matter because the winner is going to get the number one seed, the loser is going to get the fifth seed. If the lions were to lose this week and then the Vikings win, then same thing. It doesn't really matter. Week 18 is going to decide the NFC North and the number one seed. So essentially we're looking at the Packers, the Packers game got moved. The Packers Vikings game got moved to 425 on Sunday. I don't know if you saw that or not, Jacob. It got

Jacob: 3:05

Yup. Yup.

Jason Harwood: 3:06

which is probably a good thing, because that means we're all going to get to watch it. It'll be the America's Game of the Week. So I'm really happy that we'll be able to sit there and watch the game. I'm not happy about having to root for the Packers.

Jacob: 3:20

don't know if I'm going to watch it after rooting for Green Bay. Just feels unnatural.

Jason Harwood: 3:25

I have a question for you that Preston asked me, but after I'll ask you after this, because it's a good question. My

Jacob: 3:30

Okay.

Jason Harwood: 3:30

but anyways, so essentially, if the Packers beat the Vikings, then the Lions game matters because we can clinch it all the other way around if the Vikings win, then it doesn't matter if we win or lose this game because 18 matchup, we'll, we'll decide it all there is some caveats about ties in there. The Vikings and, uh, lions tie about the number one seed, but not, there's not going to be a tie.

Jacob: 3:58

Very unlikely.

Jason Harwood: 4:00

But my question for you Preston posed me this because we were watching Tennessee Ohio state playoff, we're mad because Ohio state's scoring he goes dad. Who do you hate more the Packers or the Ohio state Buckeyes? Before I give my answer. What's your answer Jacob?

Jacob: 4:19

Ohio State.

Jason Harwood: 4:20

Yeah.

Jacob: 4:21

I hate Ohio State worse than the Packers. There's a deep hate for both of them, at least for the Packers, you've got a couple of games. It's a longer season and everything. Michigan, Ohio State, you've got that, that one game every year. You get one chance.

Jason Harwood: 4:34

Yeah, I, I get conflicted. The only time I get conflicted is I hate the SEC so much, or people's love of the SEC so much, that's. Sometimes I almost feel myself for, okay, Ohio State, my Big Ten allegiance comes over that and sometimes I could be sympathetic towards Ohio State winning. Maybe it's because I just want to make an excuse because I'm mad that Ohio State lost it. Okay, well at least the Big Ten won and We put a SCC down so there is some allegiance there, but I can't ever openly root for Ohio State and this weekend we're going to have to root for the Packers. That sucks but for the greater good of the Lions, of our Detroit Lions. Yeah.

Jacob: 5:22

I don't care when Ohio State's playing somebody else, I do not care. I don't care win, lose. I mean, it's funnier when they lose, but I, I don't watch the game. A lot of times I don't watch the game unless it's a really, like, you know, high profile one. Then I may watch the game, but it's not like I am rooting one way or another. I don't care if Ohio state goes all the way to the national championship. I do want them to lose the national championship. Then I would have to root for the other team. That'd be like the only time. Cause I don't care, you know, even this year they make it a national championship and lose then all the fans that live around here that we'd be talking trash with, you know, neither of us won the national championship, but we beat you,

Jason Harwood: 5:58

There's, that's something I was going to say. That's what's sweet about it. Like, okay, yeah, you won the next day, but we still beat you. And I know that's important to you.

Jacob: 6:08

never want win the championship. Same as a big 10 thing. Like I don't want them to win the big 10 championship now, but I mean, the Packers, when I'm watching the NFL every weekend and week out, whoever's playing the Packers, I hope that they take it to them. Well,

Jason Harwood: 6:23

I agree.

Jacob: 6:24

that's, you know, that's a different angle. That's weird for me. I do hate them both. Let's just say that.

Jason Harwood: 6:30

I know. It all, you know, it all is going to fall down to, I I guess I could see myself in a situation rooting for Ohio State if they were playing someone that we needed to knock to help Michigan out. I guess it all comes down to that, right? Our, you know, our team, what it benefits our team, but for the most part yeah, we're with the Packers, down with But guys down with anybody you know, in the absolute North for sure.

Jacob: 6:55

Detroit and Michigan, where's everybody. Right?

Jason Harwood: 6:57

that's right. We don't own that copyright. So I don't know if we're allowed to say it, any overall thoughts on this game that, that you had?

Jacob: 7:07

The other like overall thought is no new injuries, right? We didn't have anybody go down. There was no more questionable, nobody missing plays that you're like, man, I hope they're okay. I hope they come back. No trips to the locker room, the blue medical 10. I didn't even see, I don't know if that went up at all. I didn't see it go up at all. So, I mean, that's best case scenario. Right.

Jason Harwood: 7:26

yeah, they could have left that blue tent in Detroit. Right. That

Jacob: 7:29

Yeah,

Jason Harwood: 7:29

That, that was a win in and of itself, just not having the blue medical tent, not even really a scare in the game. I, you know, they didn't even have to pull someone out for a couple of plays. I don't remember seeing so that, yes, you're right. A hundred percent of win feels like a total, relief, especially after, week, the loss and, know, four people losing four people, but we have got some, Dan Montgomery got some decent news today. projecting for the divisional round. So let's get that first round by and then Demo will be ready to go.

Jacob: 8:03

Thank God for him getting other opinions, you know, instead of just rushing and trying to get that surgery to recover

Jason Harwood: 8:09

Yeah. Or he just kept searching for a doctor to give him the news that he wanted to hear.

Jacob: 8:13

Sometimes that's what you got to do, right?

Jason Harwood: 8:15

yeah.

Jacob: 8:15

you know, then obviously I hope that he doesn't risk, you know further damage for next season

Jason Harwood: 8:21

Yeah, I, sure all that was weighed with the team and, and, you know, the team could make the decision too. It's not just up to David Montgomery. So,

Jacob: 8:31

Right.

Jason Harwood: 8:32

I don't know if you listened to the press conference today with Dan Campbell, but it sounds like German is getting real close. They started his clock last week. I didn't get the feeling that this, this week he would be brought up. you know, hopefully maybe he'd be back for the Vikings game, which would be nice to have another line, you know, one of our linebackers back plus not to mention what he brings on special teams.

Jacob: 8:54

Absolutely. Let's get into the

Jason Harwood: 8:58

Nitty gritty here. All

Jacob: 8:59

Right, right.

Jason Harwood: 9:01

not too much to talk about on special teams. Jack Fox, unfortunately, did have to have one punt in the game. But it was in the second half,

Jacob: 9:09

Deep in the fourth quarter.

Jason Harwood: 9:11

Yep. exactly. And Jake Bates two for three, but I mean, I'll give them this mess. It was from 65 yards and a very cold environment. That was a tough ask. 60 yards was going to be a tough ask. And then we get the false start. 65 was even tougher.

Jacob: 9:29

Yeah, right. I mean, there was one second left though. They called Hogan Hatton for whatever, playing with the ball, move it back five more yards. At that point, you know, rather just let him kick and see what happens than to try to throw up a Hail Mary or something. What sucks is they looked like it probably would have been good from 60. Like it was just missing a couple yards on there. It was going to be close.

Jason Harwood: 9:53

It was going to be too close. It was hard to

Jacob: 9:54

There's a little outside too, but

Jason Harwood: 9:57

I got to imagine that hurt to kick that, that ball had to be rock hard because there's like 30 to 30 degrees out there

Jacob: 10:04

oh they keep special kicking balls. I don't know if they're allowed to warm them or whatever. Maybe Hogan's just sitting on it over there on the sideline until it's time to go out.

Jason Harwood: 10:12

Like he's yeah, like he's a chicken, like

Jacob: 10:14

Yeah, it's the egg. He's ready to hatch. Let's go.

Jason Harwood: 10:17

Let's go. Suddenly Jake Bates leg, yeah. But yeah, nothing much on special teams. Dimension, I know, Faki had a pretty decent kick return at one point.

Jacob: 10:27

Yep.

Jason Harwood: 10:27

They had some kickable, returnable kicks in this game. I don't know if it was the weather or that was just the game plan. There was some returnable kicks in this game, which

Jacob: 10:36

Yeah. Both ways.

Jason Harwood: 10:37

yeah. So that was interesting to see. All right. Let's talk about this defense, our injury riddle defense. Was able to do the job actually more in the second half than the first half this time which is difference for both teams.

Jacob: 10:52

Yeah.

Jason Harwood: 10:52

so what what was your overall impressions of the defense, Jacob?

Jacob: 10:56

I mean, overall it wasn't exactly a shut down performance in the first half, but you know, with the injuries and everything that we've got going on, especially coming off, you know, The game against Green Bay, the game against the Bills, it was nice to be able to come up with some stops consistently. Bears were 2, 2 out of 10 on 3rd down. They did get a lot of 4th down conversions, which were mostly in the air. So, I mean, maybe that's a little concerning. Who knows if that's just, you know, game script or what was going on if we're playing off, but I mean, overall, I think the defense played a really good game.

Jason Harwood: 11:28

Yeah, they played enough to win the complimentary football, you know, and the big thing is the two turnovers, right? Back to back

Jacob: 11:34

Right?

Jason Harwood: 11:35

Lions turned them into 10 points. It's what we've been missing lately, right? We, we just have not got turnovers on defense and we've been fairly careful with the ball, you know, one, you know, you know, especially in the Buffalo game, that one possession was the difference in the game. We gave up, you know possession to the bills at midfield and without Monroe, whereas this time we were able to get two turnovers. first one was, I don't, I don't, it looked like a really good handoff. So I don't know what a dunes, they did a good thing. Pascoe's there to jump off. And the second one where dunes, they fumbled again, that was just a hustle play by the lines defense. A good age is he came all the way back from the line to come in and punch that ball out while they had the defense, had them held up. And. Cause that was about to be a, you know, that was like, they were running a ton of screens early on for

Jacob: 12:28

Right.

Jason Harwood: 12:28

That was a successful screen and yeah, they turned what was a first down for them to the lion's ball. It was huge.

Jacob: 12:37

Yeah. I mean, he's one of the people I want to shout out because he, he only played 14 snaps on defense, but that play was huge. You know, a doomsday made that catch behind the line of scrimmage and a GUI was right in front of him. You know, he was the edge defender when that happened. So he's driving in the screen comes out and he had a lot of ground to cover and he just never gave up. Right. I mean, he's just chugging down the field. It looked like the defensive backs were slowing him down. It looked like everybody was trying to punch that ball out. Right. And then, you know, one of those, it reminded me of Jack Campbell when he forced the fumble on DK where, you know, you just don't see somebody behind you with that much force and then just pop the ball out. You know, especially for somebody like a good day, cause he's been on the practice squad all year. He only got to play in the one game, the Packers game. And then here we go, he gets another shot. And you know, especially the way that it happened, the bears fumbled, like you said, they fumbled that handoff or whatever. So we already have the momentum. They get a huge play. It was like a 20 yard gain or something like that. And then we get the ball right back.

Jason Harwood: 13:35

Yep,

Jacob: 13:36

So shouts out to him, that was a great play.

Jason Harwood: 13:38

We were going to, we were up 10, nothing, and then, you know, we made it 17, nothing. So it was, yeah, huge play just, and did exactly what we needed to do. Well, we, you know, it's winning football for the Lions, get up by a couple of scores early on, and then, you know, your offense can do enough to you know, to keep the other team away. The offense was super efficient and the first half, which kept the pressure on Chicago's offense to keep pace and whether that caused a couple of fumbles. I don't know. I did notice that Chicago was doing, like we said earlier, a ton of screens and they were testing out the linebackers. They were doing what Buffalo had done to us.

Jacob: 14:19

They were trying to, it just wasn't as effective, right? I think the bigger part of that is that having Ify back and having him be able to, you know, he split a lot of time between he lined up in the box as a linebacker, he lined up deep safety, he lined up in the slot, we sent him on blitzes a lot, we sent Branch on blitzes a lot, I mean That was what we wanted the defense to look like, right? Before Iffy got injured at the beginning of the season. This is what we knew was going to happen, is that, you know, we can send people from anywhere. And even those quick screen passes, I mean, ideally, if you're sending a lot of pressure, those are the plays that kind of counteract that. But we're closing in on them so fast, and, you know, especially with the turnovers, they just can't get anything going.

Jason Harwood: 15:02

Yeah, I was super encouraged by if he 50 snaps in that game. I mean, if he came for his first game and then they put him at 50 stats, you know, he played, I know you mentioned all the places he played, but he essentially, they moved him to safety. And he kind of moved all over the map. They moved branch back down to nickel and they pushed a meek to the outside. And I thought a meek played really well in

Jacob: 15:26

Oh, yes.

Jason Harwood: 15:27

So, and he did what we need. He's aggressive out there. He loves to tackle. He's exactly he's Alliance player and I, and I love it. So it's this was the plan to get. The best personnel on, on the field, you know, with the lines. I don't think they'd necessarily want to move branch from the safety spot, but this was the best part of the best 11 was this lineup and you know, it's good. And then you're right. We needed iffy back, we needed his blitz ability, his ability to play all the over the field. We knew branch could play nickel. He's excellent at that. And yeah, make sure that I could play outside too.

Jacob: 16:07

Yeah, that's another player I want to shout out, just because he, he had a couple really, really great plays. I mean, he had that one you know, he laid a nice hit and broke up a pass. He ended up having two passes defended, the other one he kind of dove in front and knocked it out. But there were also, there were two instances where he was the unblocked corner. Like on an outside running play, and you know, this is where they kind of crash everybody in. Everybody's blocked except the outside or corner. That's who the running back has to make miss. And Amik made the play both times. If he didn't, they're probably getting 8 to 10 yards, especially with Swift. He's probably breaking it out. And then there was another, a third time, where Meek's back in coverage, and he sees the handoff, and he closes so fast that he ends up tackling DeAndre Swift for a loss, so, I mean, other than, he gave up a big 50 50 ball later in the game on that fourth down, but I mean, he, that was tight coverage still Meek really He played lights out. He did great.

Jason Harwood: 16:58

Yep, I know Terry on gave up long touchdown. He bid on that double move on that drive that was at the end of that half. I hate it. That was,

Jacob: 17:09

That's the only knock on the defense, right? Was just that drive at the end of the half.

Jason Harwood: 17:14

Yeah. The score with a minute left and then they just come in. It was like a Madden drive where, you know, you, you know, you played Madden a ton. You score a touchdown and then someone scores 20 seconds later. I mean, that was a total Madden drive. Hated it. It was infuriating to me. But say fourth quarter, Tarion had a play where I've been waiting, wanting to him to make the whole year. He turns around and makes a play on the ball, as opposed to the play on the man. And I was like, I've been waiting for this. I'm hoping not saying, Hey, this is what it's going to be for now on, but I'm, I was glad to see that. And I'm hoping to see more of it in the future.

Jacob: 17:50

absolutely. He's always in position. It's just, you know, usually, you know, the first couple weeks it was one of those things where he wouldn't have his head around. He'd just be playing the receiver and there was a pass interference call almost every time on him.

Jason Harwood: 18:02

Yeah.

Jacob: 18:02

This time, you know, he's got a hand on the receiver but he's got his head turned and he jumps the same way DJ Moore did and he knocks the ball out. It was a great play by Tarion. But I just want to say, like, back to the, the half, that was the only knock that I really had on the defense, is just, you know, if you score a touchdown with 58 seconds left, which was funny, because the Bears should have had more time, right? The Bears weren't using their timeouts again. We were running the ball in the red zone and they were just kind of letting the play go down until it was third down. But, you know, they have less than a minute to make something happen. They get a 25 yard completion of D. J. Moore and then a 45 yard touchdown pass. That takes up 19 seconds of game clock. And, you know, we're getting the ball back at halftime. That literally, like, you just can't allow the big play. We could have, I know that our defense typically does not switch up and play. Prevent and like in a traditional we're not gonna give up those 5 to 10 yards, you know to not let anything over the top They had iffy over there on that side Also tearing on just kind of bit and if he did not take a good enough angle where he was gonna stop the catch That just sucked. You can't let things like that happen and it reminded me of the Chargers game last year I don't if you remember like so That was when Deemo had a 75 yard touchdown run, and we went up 24 to 10, with like two minutes left in the game, or two minutes left at halftime, we were getting the ball in the half, and then the Chargers get the ball, they drive right down and score before halftime. It's like that's, that could have been the kill shot right there, and instead we're prolonging it, and we're allowing them to stay in the game. But as it turns out, that was the last touchdown they scored all day, so it didn't really end up mattering.

Jason Harwood: 19:38

Yeah, it just leaves a bad taste in your mouth going into halftime, right? Cause I'm like you, you scored a touchdown and then like you said, you're going to get the ball back. So you're going to get the, the double score possibility, you know, at the, it's a moot point now, but yeah, that was the most infuriating part of of the game. the game defensively for sure. I also want to shout out that our run defense was back held them to 15 yards, 59 yards rushing, which was awesome. And most of that was Caleb Williams.

Jacob: 20:09

Yes, right.

Jason Harwood: 20:10

DeAndre Swift in check. I know it's been a while since Hutch has played. I, I'm getting nostalgic for Hutch and just wondering what he could have been like, what, what games would be like if he was actually playing defense? I know we've lost a lot of other players, but Hutch specifically, how many more sacks do we have? Because getting sacks are really tough for this team right now. And how many more would we have? How many more interceptions would Hutch had caused, caused just because of causing pressure or whatever? Yeah, I, I just felt it extra this weekend. I don't know why.

Jacob: 20:43

You know, I did too. I, you know, that's one of my one of my stats that I have pulled up here. We had 15 sacks in the 5 games that we had Hutch. 15 in those 5 games. 7 and a half of those were him, himself. Which is still top 25 right now, and he's played a third of the amount of games with everybody. But 15 sacks with Hutch in the 5 games, and we've had 18 sacks in the 10 games since. he just is such a difference maker. Obviously it's not just him. We've had other injuries and everything like that, but you know, you're right. It's stuff like this, like man, especially because Caleb Williams is the most sacked quarterback in football. He's been sacked the most times and we only got him down twice. We did have pressure, you know, he was able to scramble around and everything, but. You know, other teams were able to get back there and sack him for whatever reason. He's able to get outside on us and keep prolonging these plays. Not that it was impactful. It's just, you know, for the actual statistic of sacks.

Jason Harwood: 21:40

Yeah, I, Caleb's been playing well, especially the last, probably since about week 8 or whatever. His stats have gotten a lot better. He still is holding the ball too long and that leads to a lot of the sacks. I wasn't convinced beforehand that he was going to be a pretty good player. quarter or pretty quarterback. But I feel like, I've seen enough of them that I think that he can make some really good throws. It's just going to matter as coaching. He's got to get always having to have the big play out of his system and take what the defense gives you. And if he does that, especially DJ more and all, he's some pretty good check down options, Cole commit, All good check down options. He's got good receivers and depending who they get, I hope Ben Johnson doesn't go there, but yeah,

Jacob: 22:31

Right. No.

Jason Harwood: 22:32

no, I know cause I'd hate to see what, kind of plays Ben Johnson would come up with them, but. The thing I didn't like was that for Caleb Williams, our defense was letting him run up, up the middle where we're over pursuing on the edge, leaving the middle instead of doing the crunch technique. We're over pursuing and not keeping our gaps. we need to. need to do better than that. And this upcoming week with Brock Purdy, where he's going to do the same thing. He's been rushing a lot more this year, maybe out of necessity. You know, Trent Williams has already been ruled out for the last two games of the season, so we won't have to worry about, you know, him on the offensive line, but we have to worry about Brock Purdy running and very similar to what Caleb Williams was doing. Offered to the table, there's a few times it was third nine and they get, you know, eight yards and then they're in a really good setup for a fourth down conversion. Cause you mentioned we held them for two for 10, but they were three for four on fourth down.

Jacob: 23:27

I'll pass this also.

Jason Harwood: 23:29

yeah. And we gave them easier, you know easier times up for down because you know, how far short it got.

Jacob: 23:36

I think a lot of that also is just our linebacker play. I mean, we've got Ben Neiman Zeke, Zeke Turner is out there, you know, just not able to cover enough ground quick enough. I don't know if it's necessarily the defense that we're running or the way they're reading it, and they're just late getting there. I mean, they had one where Ben Neiman came up and kind of just got shook out of his shoes. Caleb Williams got a few more yards out of it. Those kind of things, you know, hopefully with you know, Germ coming back. Maybe that happens less likely. Maybe we don't have to have, you know, Ezekiel Turner covering Cole Komet in the red zone. You know, that's just a recipe for disaster. But yeah, you're right. I mean the scrambling, the, especially when Brock Purdy's coming, at least they're out of the playoffs now. So maybe you know, maybe they're playing more laid back. I do have another stat about Caleb Williams, though. He's against the Lions. He has five touchdowns and no interceptions. Against all other teams, he's got nine touchdowns and five interceptions. I think these are on stats where he's not on, it takes more than 2. 5 seconds from snap to throw. So these aren't the quick passes, these are the ones where he has more time, or creates more time, but, you know,

Jason Harwood: 24:43

I, he hasn't thrown an interception while he's got the NFL record, I think for rookies or, or something like that.

Jacob: 24:50

8 straight games.

Jason Harwood: 24:51

We played him late where I think some of those stats that you just mentioned were. Early through a lot of his interceptions early. He hasn't thrown them late. And of course we played them late. He's just been more careful with the ball, but that's also causing him to take more sacks because you'd rather just instead of throwing it away or whatever, he'll just hold on and take a sack, which you can't do that either. Cause that's a drive killer. I know it's better than throwing an interception. I realized that, but you know, if you go to third and 18, that's essentially a turnover because you're going to force a punt for.

Jacob: 25:29

I mean, in some ways, though, too, that's also him playing too conservatively. Who knows if it's just because, you know, I don't want to throw an interception, I want to take care of the ball, so we're just gonna Throw this one away or you know, I'm gonna check this down or you know, it's hard to say he's shown flashes It's consistent of a rookie quarterback, you know

Jason Harwood: 25:51

Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, he, he's, he's still a rookie. I mean, I guess, you know, something good for the, for the bears fans, know, like Harrison that we had on there, you know, this, is probably one of the best quarterbacks that they've had, prospects. I mean, he's having a pretty good rookie season to be honest with you. just, Yeah.

Jacob: 26:15

right?

Jason Harwood: 26:16

Consider that his, you know, passing game coordinator becomes his offensive coordinator is now his head coach. It's all up in turmoil there. So it's hard. And now, you know, basically they're not playing for much, you know, there's they've lost what this nine straight games that they've lost after starting out four and two.

Jacob: 26:36

Right long season.

Jason Harwood: 26:38

Yeah. All right. Anything else on the defense that you

Jacob: 26:41

Yeah, just a couple more people I want to point out just you know, obviously Brian branch. He led the team with 12 tackles. He was everywhere again I really liked AG sending him on blitzes more you know, it actually worked out for the better, moving Amik outside and then having Branch and Ify kind of taking turns in there, moving in and out, you know, it worked, right? I thought it was really good, Branch was everywhere, looked like he was getting held a lot, I mean, he was in the backfield a whole lot. Jack Campbell, obviously with another great game, just week in, week out, consistency is there. We already mentioned Tarion Al Qadeem Mohammed, you know, the former Bayer, probably felt really good for him to come back and get a couple tackles, and he had a huge sack. That was when we, you know, we were pressuring Caleb Williams, we weren't quite getting there, and you know, he was the first one to come in and start that whole pocket collapse. He had three or four Lions on him, so that was good too, good play. And you know, really, just the whole Bears last offensive drive, we got home a lot. Williams was scrambling a few times, and I don't know if you noticed this, but basically after every play, Caleb Williams was on the ground and looked like he did not want to get up. He was gassed, he was dead, he was taking shots. You know, he just, he had had enough.

Jason Harwood: 27:53

Yeah, some of that is Caleb. I think, you know, he's done that where he's just laid on the bench or whatever, too. So I don't know what that body language means. I don't know, you know, obviously know him enough, but I also don't think that. Yeah. It reads very well for the team when your quarterback doesn't want to get up right away.

Jacob: 28:10

Right.

Jason Harwood: 28:11

I don't know But yeah, I thought jack campbell played really well I mean he's had a really good season this far and it's i'm so glad that he's remained healthy

Jacob: 28:22

Yes.

Jason Harwood: 28:23

be in a world of hurt if if he didn't

Jacob: 28:25

Knock on wood, yeah.

Jason Harwood: 28:26

you know, so I thought levi actually played pretty well, too

Jacob: 28:30

Yes.

Jason Harwood: 28:31

Yeah, I think Levi played really good. So I, defensive, what they needed them to do, the offense that did what they needed to do. So let's get to talking about that offense.

Jacob: 28:42

Yeah.

Jason Harwood: 28:43

I'm gonna start with Jerichoff, man. Guy who can't play outside can certainly play outside this year. 23 for 32, 336 yards and three touchdowns. Oh man. He is having some sort of year. I think we, you know, we talked it was right around the extension time. You were like, I think we've Goff. He he's outplayed last year, in my opinion, he's, he's. Just a better quarterback this year. Do you feel that way or do you think he's playing similar to last year?

Jacob: 29:11

No, I mean, I know we've already talked about it before, but I think the difference is just his ability to move around in the pocket. Right? I mean, it's just, he's sensing the pressure better. He's just moving around more when he has to. And, you know, It's just working. Everything's clicking. We're firing on all cylinders on offense.

Jason Harwood: 29:29

So Jared Goff, this season is almost at 4,100 yards. 4,000 95, 33 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. It's crazy. Half those interceptions came in the one game. Right.

Jacob: 29:40

Yeah. Right,

Jason Harwood: 29:41

but

Jacob: 29:42

man.

Jason Harwood: 29:42

at his last five, he is 1 41 for a hundred nine, one hundred forty one completions for 1 99, yards, 14 tds to one interception. Just playing lights out.

Jacob: 29:58

Absolutely.

Jason Harwood: 30:00

And with a defense injury riddled, he's doing exactly what we need him to do.

Jacob: 30:06

Right. We just need to take care of the ball and keep, you know, win time of possession, put points on the board. And he's absolutely pulling that off.

Jason Harwood: 30:15

Exactly. Yeah, he didn't, it didn't rush for any yards this, this game which was disappointing because

Jacob: 30:21

Yeah.

Jason Harwood: 30:22

he's been doing that, but maybe it was just too cold and he didn't want, he didn't want to go out there and run. The windchill was too cold, you know, as fast as he runs,

Jacob: 30:29

Right.

Jason Harwood: 30:33

speaking of fast runner, Williams. Probably his best game as a lion so far.

Jacob: 30:39

No, definitely.

Jason Harwood: 30:41

Yeah. And let's talk about the 82 yarder. That was sweet.

Jacob: 30:46

Absolutely. Yeah. Career day for JMO. Five catches, 143 yards and a touchdown. 143 is a career high. You know, big playability. You know, did you see Randall L running down the sideline on that play?

Jason Harwood: 31:00

Oh

Jacob: 31:00

Yeah, right, right.

Jason Harwood: 31:01

He on. He wanted to play again.

Jacob: 31:06

That was exactly how that play was supposed to go. JMO cuts in, you're just running all out deep. Play action, hopefully they, you know, hopefully they're late getting there, and then Gough can throw a deep. That's exactly how they drew it up. Gough with a beautiful pass. I mean, people that want to try to knock him or say he doesn't have the arm or whatever, he can throw 60 plus yards in the air and drop it in there.

Jason Harwood: 31:28

It was a great pass. It caught Jamo in stride. And, you know, the safety was just flat footed. I don't, you know, you're, once Jamo had a full head of steam and he was flat footed, I mean, Gough knew he had him wide open. And Gough hit him on the run Jamal stumbled a tad bit, but he had so

Jacob: 31:45

Yeah.

Jason Harwood: 31:46

and it didn't matter. He just was able to regain stride and just take it to the house. Golf right where he wanted. I, you could just see, you know, golf kind of winds up when he's going to go deep and you kind of know what's coming and. Yeah, just seeing Jamo sprint and then getting the defensive, the back angle when they showed that of just him, Jamo running that whole route, you know, he just runs by the corner and the safety is supposed to take over, but the safety is like you said, he's looking at the backfield flat footed and no way he's gonna be able to turn his hips and catch up, you know, with Jamo. There's just no way he's gonna be able to do that.

Jacob: 32:24

Yeah. Once he's past you, it's already too late.

Jason Harwood: 32:27

Yeah. talk about. Let's talk about, yeah, yeah. No, I was going to talk about the penalty, the JMO penalty.

Jacob: 32:39

all right, go ahead.

Jason Harwood: 32:42

Were these refs like super flag happy or what?

Jacob: 32:47

I want to know what he said, because it, you know, nothing bad happened, but whatever he said, two refs threw flags.

Jason Harwood: 32:53

You know, JMO said that he didn't say anything. JMO said

Jacob: 32:57

right,

Jason Harwood: 32:58

the, in the press conference afterwards, he said he didn't say anything to me. I didn't say anything to him. All he did was spin the ball. That's all he did. And if you watch the replay, he kind of looks up at him and then spins the ball. So, I mean, they were ready for it. I mean, they, it was probably something that the ref, the officials knew in, there was the his, that history of the trip and then he threw the ball in his face or whatever. But that, I thought that was pretty chintzy to throw a flag on that. They, there was even no contact. I, I don't know.

Jacob: 33:30

Yeah, I figured it was trash talk. I figured he must have said something that was especially when you saw both reps throw flags It's like, oh god, he must have said something bad. He was talking about his mom. You know, talking about my mama.

Jason Harwood: 33:42

Don't, I mean, Jamo said he didn't say anything and I saw Dan Campbell had a talk with him on the sideline. Seemed like it was, he wasn't really yelling at him or whatever, but it was, you know, it wasn't, he wasn't that getting the daddy finger that Anton Randall L did in the Thanksgiving day game, but it was getting another target too. But I thought the rest were just flag happy all over that one. They threw on Jalen Johnson was ridiculous too. On the bear side, I,

Jacob: 34:14

that was cause he knocked the ball away. I don't know if you saw that.

Jason Harwood: 34:18

but was because so, but I think like, I don't really blame him because Reynolds kind of flipped the ball and I don't think he meant to throw it at Jalen Johnson. Cause it's a ref. If you look is behind him

Jacob: 34:31

He's flipping it over. Right, he's trying to flip it to the ref behind Jalen Johnson.

Jason Harwood: 34:36

I think it hit Jalen Johnson in the, the face, man. So, and then, then he swatted it away. That's the way I read. I don't know.

Jacob: 34:44

I would have to look at it again. When I saw it live, it looked pretty clear like that Craig's trying to throw it over him to the ref and then when he goes to throw it, Jalen swats

Jason Harwood: 34:54

I don't blame Jalen Johnson because he doesn't necessarily know that ref is behind him. Right. And he might think he's throwing it in my, in my face. So, cause originally I thought he was the Jalen Johnson got the flag because of like, he kind of pushed Craig in the, Like

Jacob: 35:11

Well correct. Fifth arm. Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Harwood: 35:13

Yeah. Cause he held him up and then he was kind of laying on, laying on him and then he pushed him down. But after I watched it like five or six times to try to figure out what had happened and yeah, you're right. It's because Jalen Johnson flipped the ball away. And then the ref threw the flag like immediately after that. But I, I don't know.

Jacob: 35:32

It seems soft.

Jason Harwood: 35:33

that seemed very soft. And then I don't know what happened in that fourth down play where they, they picked up the flag in the end zone.

Jacob: 35:42

I don't know what they were going to call. I don't, yeah, I know what you're talking about. That's where I think it was DJ Moore kind of like tips it to himself. Then ion hits him if he hits him from behind. It was a great play by the defense.

Jason Harwood: 35:53

yeah,

Jacob: 35:53

What, I don't know what you possibly could have, nobody was even near him when he tipped the ball up, and once he touches the ball, you can smoke him.

Jason Harwood: 36:00

yeah. I don't know what they were going to call there. Like, cause flag comes out before they hit the ground. Cause I thought, well, maybe he said some to him. On the ground because I mean it was like he was on top form for like a second But I didn't think it was like abnormally long the flag like if you look on the replay, it's like the flags coming out When he tips the pass, but you're right. The only thing they could have possibly called before that would be like know, if you'd have held them, so that when you carry them across the sideline, I didn't see any of that, they just, they discussed it and they pulled the flag up. I, but yeah, I, I don't know what they were going to call there, but they were,

Jacob: 36:37

Anything would have been a bad call, so I mean, it's good that they got together and decided not to, for whatever reason.

Jason Harwood: 36:44

yeah, That,

Jacob: 36:46

The ref should be miked up. It would honestly, no, it would honestly, it would deflect a lot of these things that come up, and you know, then you could see, I mean, maybe you don't release that to the public even, but you just keep that for the NFL and you can figure out what's going on or what they're talking about and, you know,

Jason Harwood: 37:02

Yeah.

Jacob: 37:02

they would never release that to the public because they don't want people to know, but

Jason Harwood: 37:06

no,

Jacob: 37:10

held unaccountable.

Jason Harwood: 37:11

should be a Netflix series, right? We have a

Jacob: 37:13

Yeah.

Jason Harwood: 37:14

where they followed around the

Jacob: 37:15

Just referee.

Jason Harwood: 37:16

we finally get to hear that stuff. That would be kind of cool,

Jacob: 37:20

real quick, just to go back because you were talking about the Jameson Williams thing. I just want to say that the touchdown pass from golf to Jamo is actually the longest scrimmage play. Since 2013 for the Lions. 2013, Stafford threw an 87 yard pass to Megatron. And this has been the longest play since then. So we've had some big plays, some explosive plays, but most of them are around 40, 50, 60 yards. So for this one to be 82, it hasn't happened in a long time.

Jason Harwood: 37:44

Yeah, it, it was a sweet play. Loved it. All right. So lions, before we get to stubble bump quickly, quick stats are seven for 12 on third down. I like that 12 explosive plays red zone. We could be better. Two of five in there. One was we went for it on a port down one time, didn't get anything. We got two field goals. The other times we weren't successful, but that game could have been even over more in the first half. Had we converted some of those field goals. The touchdowns, bears have a pretty decent red zone defense. So I guess that's all, you know, something you can maybe hang your head on a little bit that we're able to get in the end zone. Yeah. We gotta be more successful down there.

Jacob: 38:28

Were you surprised that we did not go for it? We were fourth, it was fourth and three from the 12, and then the other one is fourth and six from the 16 when we kicked those field goals.

Jason Harwood: 38:37

Yeah.

Jacob: 38:38

Were you surprised on either one of them? Were you?

Jason Harwood: 38:41

The fourth and three, maybe a little bit, but I was glad that he went, I, I think it was the right decision to go for the

Jacob: 38:47

Right.

Jason Harwood: 38:47

there. You know, we don't want to give them any more momentum and it's nice to get the points. I'm glad that. Dan Campbell did that, you know, Teddy Bruce, he could shove it. You know, he

Jacob: 38:57

Yeah.

Jason Harwood: 38:57

every time, whatever. No, he doesn't. The time he went for it on fourth and three, or then we didn't get it. I was like, well, we kicked the field goal here, but it was probably the right decision to go for it.

Jacob: 39:08

And the game was already pretty much over at that point. I don't think a field goal would have added much.

Jason Harwood: 39:13

Yeah. I think you're more, you're more hoping to run some time out.

Jacob: 39:16

right. The, yeah, the fourth and three, you know, was one of those maybe if we had Montgomery there was a chance maybe we would have, you know, tried to do something there, but I was okay with taking the points. You know, the second one, it was third, it was third and six, we ran a passing play. And I think like, you know, if we run a passing play on 3rd and 6th, then we have already come to terms with the fact that we're probably going to take the field goal. Right? Because we've shown that we're not afraid to run it on these 3rd down plays. And chances are, if we're running it on 3rd and 6th, it's because we have something dialed up to where if it is 4th and 2, we're probably going to go for it again. But 3rd and 6th, they call passing play, was also one where Goff had taken a shot, and that's kind of what caused the incompletion. He took a hit, like, right as he was going for it, so,

Jason Harwood: 40:01

hmm.

Jacob: 40:01

you know. Plus, that's, I don't know exactly what the statistics are or whatever, but you're way less likely from 4th and 6th to convert than 4th and 2. So, I mean, it just didn't make sense to go for it there either. We had the ball in our court, we had gotten that, that was off of one of the turnovers. So it's really important that you get points off the turnover, so just taking the points was fine.

Jason Harwood: 40:21

Yeah, I, I agree. Yeah. You don't want to get a turnover and then not get the points. And then that just essentially wipes out the, the, the turnover and then, you know, they can go on and get some momentum back. So now I agree with you. All right. Stubble bum. Let's talk about it. We've been

Jacob: 40:37

Yeah.

Jason Harwood: 40:39

What did you know it was a trick play right from the get go? Or what did you figure out? Like the, the announcers figured

Jacob: 40:46

No. realized live as it was happening, which was funny to hear the announcers, like, you know, I forget how they worded it, but you know, like, oh, and Gough falls down, or you know, whatever, however they worded it. And they were like, oh, even when the play doesn't go right, it goes for the Lions. So that's not what happened.

Jason Harwood: 41:03

Yeah.

Jacob: 41:04

It was a cool backstory about it, though, to hear, like, you know, Ben Johnson drew it up because of the game film he saw between the Bears and Packers. I don't know if you saw that, but, you know, he watched the Packers. Packers had a botched snap. He saw the way the Bears linebackers responded. They kind of froze or crashed down too hard. He asked, Ben Johnson asked Jared Goff, if we were to fumble it on purpose, do you think that you could pick it up and make the throw in enough time? And then Goff didn't like the sound of that. He says, what if I, what if I just pretend to fumble? And just pretend to fall over? And then, you know, it was just funny because the whole sideline was in on it. Golf stumbles backwards, Gibbs dives towards an imaginary fumble. You know, they're all yelling ball, ball, ball on the sideline. You can hear that from the broadcast. Everybody's yelling ball. The linebackers don't know what happened or what's going on. And that's all we just needed was that extra second for him to find LaPorta. So, I mean, I realized watching live. He obviously didn't know all that, but realized watching live that it was that play on purpose.

Jason Harwood: 42:02

Yeah. I thought it was like, how could they both be stumbling at the same time? That's, that's crazy. I could buy stop a golf stumbling because I've seen it before on the Packers game. Not, not, you know, a couple of weeks ago. So,

Jacob: 42:14

Yeah,

Jason Harwood: 42:15

that's another reason why it works is that. It's golf. He's not terribly athletic, I

Jacob: 42:22

yeah.

Jason Harwood: 42:22

he has athletic, let's just say he's not the most nimble of feet. Okay.

Jacob: 42:25

Yeah,

Jason Harwood: 42:25

That's

Jacob: 42:26

right.

Jason Harwood: 42:26

way of putting it. And so, you know, you could buy that, but if you watch that LaPorta coming, it's coming across the whole field, does that thing where he's got a block down leaks out and. The, I don't know if it's a linebacker or safety that's going, that's supposed to be guarding Laporta. His eyes are just totally in the backfield and it's too late. Laporta is buying by the time. The time he you know, golf, let's go to the ball. I will say that that is a tough play for, I mean, golf has to stumble. has to regain his footing. then he has to put it, you know, put it, put it in a great place. He threw it. It was a great catch by LaPorta. It

Jacob: 43:07

Yeah

Jason Harwood: 43:07

really was. I wanted to say on that Jamo catch, it was similar type thing where it's like, Oh, it's like a baseball catch. Like over their shoulder looking, you know, that's a tough, that's like one of the tougher catches because you can't, it's hard to watch it all the way into your hands, you're kind of like. Estimating where it is. And then you, you know, you put your hands there being football players. They do it all the time. It's very much easier, but it's not an easy catch.

Jacob: 43:33

Yeah, and we've talked about that before for Jamo it's like, you know his ability to track down those kind of passes hasn't always been there Yeah, so that was nice, you know But on that play also on top of just the fact that golf stumbling has to gather himself You also have to rely on the fact that your offensive line is gonna hold up and that there's not gonna be some blitz crashing from the other side Cause you know, if there is a safety or corner or somebody and they're getting an extra second, who knows, maybe they buy into it too, and they slow down or they think it's a fumble and they run by him, but there are a few things that have to go your way for that play to work and it, they all did.

Jason Harwood: 44:11

yeah. They get originally the Jerry golf said they originally called it earlier, but Killed it because they didn't get the right look defensively. And I'm wondering if that's it, because if there's a corner or safety blitzing off to his blind side, cause I mean, he's, his head is totally backfield and looking down at the ground, so he, he can't see if anyone's blitzing, you know? And I will say for anyone that's listening to this, watch the replay and listen to what Jacob said earlier. The whole sideline sells that that's ball, ball, ball, ball. And so, I mean, I, that just totally sold. I mean, the whole team was involved in this play. So I, it was a great design all the way through JMO. I don't know if you saw JMO and Aminor, I were running deep out. So they weren't, they weren't able to look back and watch the play, but they just heard the crowd erupt, you know, as the thing, and they knew, they knew people were buying it because the crowd, the crowd was in on it too.

Jacob: 45:10

No, I didn't see that. That's awesome.

Jason Harwood: 45:12

Yeah, it's what Mike Florio was talking, they were talking about it today. I listened to that. Mike Flora and Chris Sims were talking about this whole, the whole design of that play and how, you know, about Ben Johnson and Chris Sims, like said, three of the top five plays in the NFL this year have come from the lions, which is, is pretty sweet, but

Jacob: 45:34

Definitely. Bye.

Jason Harwood: 45:35

yeah, it was. Yeah, the offense did enough. They did great in the first half. what we're going to need from here on out from our offense. We're going to need efficient drives to end up, you know, scoring or, know, I love. is where, you know, we mostly end the half and end the game real well. We can run the clock out. And for the most part, I thought at the end of half, we, we did, we ran it down to sub one minute, if we did that in the Packers game too, remember last time we played outside Lambeau, got it under scored with less than a minute left. And that's when Jordan Love threw the interception. We scored on a, on a pick six. We'd love to have that happen again. But this time it just didn't work out. And But I, I love how usually we're super efficient at the end of halves and it's a huge difference and reason why this team wins so much.

Jacob: 46:30

Yeah, offense able to move the ball consistently. I mean, that's the name of the game, right?

Jason Harwood: 46:36

Yeah. And just smartly methodically moving first downs at the end of the half, there was a play where Jamo had the ball and he ran out of bounds. I think it, if he had just came in bounds, they would have either made. The bears use the timeout, they were not using their timeouts for, like you said, for whatever reason, or, you know, we had to ran another 40 seconds off the clock that would have left them with 20 seconds, they probably wouldn't have been as aggressive. It went 20 seconds left as opposed to the full minute that they had.

Jacob: 47:06

Or maybe we'd have been covering the deep a little better,

Jason Harwood: 47:09

Yes, exactly. We probably would have played more prevent on that now, not been susceptible to a double move.

Jacob: 47:15

right? Yeah.

Jason Harwood: 47:16

We haven't mentioned Jamir Gibbs name. An awesome game, 23 rushes for 109 yards, four catches for 45 got touchdown. actually got, you know, did his touch on dance twice because the first one got called back. He had a little dress rehearsal and then we got to see the real deal afterwards.

Jacob: 47:38

I mean, we knew that he was going to be heavily involved with Demo out and he stepped up. I mean, these are the kinds of numbers that we were hoping to see, right? He's one of the best running backs in the game right now, and he really has not even hit his prime yet. Yeah. Yeah. You know, there's still room for growth there, and that's gotta be scary for other teams. I mean, especially, you know, Demo's out for the next couple weeks, if he looks like he did this week, we are gonna be okay. I mean, the spin move that he hit was sick.

Jason Harwood: 48:06

Yes.

Jacob: 48:07

had that guy, it was like what I was talking about with Amik, where sometimes you've got that, where that corner just comes up and that's the guy you have to beat. And he's on the backfield, he hits, you know, It's a spin move and gets another like 10 yards out of it. That was awesome. You know, we had another play where he's the check down. So he's just kind of camping out. He's only like, maybe 2 yards past the line of scrimmage, throwing the ball and then it's just a race. The corner he ends up busting to the outside and gets a 1st down out of like a 2 yard check down. So, I mean, he just. Electric with the ball,

Jason Harwood: 48:36

It's a nice check down option, right? I mean, you give them the ball they, they, another play. I wanted to make a focus. I, it just popped in my head was there was a third down and 17 play that we. The Amun Ra got the first down on it. And I thought that was just

Jacob: 48:51

right?

Jason Harwood: 48:52

of yak. You get, you get the ball in the playmaker's hands and they make a play. There's no way that should be a first down. There's, I mean, you should be camping out at the first outline and crash down and Amun Ra, you know, he ran a little bit to the outside and then knifed up and got the first down, just, you know, that's what Jarek Offa's do, give the check down and get, and let his playmakers make plays.

Jacob: 49:16

I'm on Ross, our binky, right here. Dan Campbell said that

Jason Harwood: 49:20

Yeah, he

Jacob: 49:20

he's our binky. He gives us comfort.

Jason Harwood: 49:23

Yep.

Jacob: 49:23

know, if we're, we're talking about, I'm on Ross, six catches, 70 yards on a touchdown. And some of those biggest plays were on third down touchdown was on third and eight, you know, as a screen screen pass, let him do the rest, you know, He had that short catch third and 18 turns into the first down. He had a third and seven play where he was diving, diving, catch out of bounds. You know, that's why he's our go to, and he's having another All Pro season. Very quietly you know, but definitely All Pro.

Jason Harwood: 49:55

Yeah. I mean, he's like what top five in the major categories receivers

Jacob: 50:01

I think he's like second in receptions, maybe second in touchdowns, third in yards or something like that. I mean, he's just at the top of everything.

Jason Harwood: 50:09

I know. And I, I agree with your adjective there. Quiet. It has been quiet. It seems that sometimes where Avinra hasn't gotten. Much play in a game, and then he'll have a game like he had last week where, you know, in the loss where he almost had 200 yards of receiving, a lot of his games are just like what he just had yesterday, where he's good 60 to 70 yards. He's getting the touchdown, but more importantly, he's getting first downs and yeah, being our binky blanket.

Jacob: 50:38

Yeah, right.

Jason Harwood: 50:39

I don't want to ever let go of my binky blanket.

Jacob: 50:42

For sure. Just to cut it back to the running game though you know, Jamar Jefferson and Craig Reynolds both had one catch, both had a few carries. They both had positive plays as well, so I mean, overall, rushing attack, you know, was a really good performance. Still missing Demo. You know, it probably, especially against the Bears, you know, how Demo's got it out for them, it probably would have been even worse, but, you know. Really, really good performance.

Jason Harwood: 51:07

Yeah, I like Craig's runs. He had some really nice runs and they're hard runs. And I know that the announcers got Jamar Jefferson mixed up with Gibbs and my family did too. That was told I was, my wife asked me, who's this number 28. He looks just like Gibbs. well, he's been on the practice squad and he's being brought up for DEMO right now.

Jacob: 51:28

We noticed that in training camp, if you remember. It was like they both, you know, they both have the dreads. 28 versus 26 numbers. You know, they're both a little shifty back there and it's kind of hard to tell.

Jason Harwood: 51:39

Yes.

Jacob: 51:40

because Ja had black cleats on. Jamar Jefferson had white cleats.

Jason Harwood: 51:44

Oh,

Jacob: 51:44

That's how I knew when they were running who it was.

Jason Harwood: 51:48

Jamir started out with the game with a face mask on like, you know, he was just didn't

Jacob: 51:53

yeah,

Jason Harwood: 51:54

cold weather apparent and then he had long sleeves and I think Jamar didn't have long sleeves. So that's how I was telling the difference between between them. could. It's really funny when, you know, just from how they stand in the backfield when it's, when it's Monty and Gibbs, as you could tell just from their stance, who's in the backfield but it was, yeah, it was a little different with you know, the 28 and 26 for Jefferson and Gibbs also makes it harder to tell

Jacob: 52:20

right.

Jason Harwood: 52:21

because they're so similar. All right. Anything else on offense you want to talk about?

Jacob: 52:25

Yeah, man. We, we got to talk about the offensive line. You know, the offensive line is a unit. They played a fantastic game. Frank Ragnow had been struggling, you know, the last couple of weeks kind of up and down. I think he had a really solid game and you know, the rookie Christian Mahogany, we, you know, have some questions. Graham has been struggling a little bit. He's also been dealing with the injury. Here comes the rookie. How is he going to fit in? How is he going to do? And you know, He came in and did really well, I thought. You know, he had a few really nice plays. I'm sure when, you know, Hank Fraley goes over the game film, they're gonna have a whole lot of good things to look at. A lot of second level things on screen passes and different, you know, like the Amon Ra touchdown. You know, it's a screen pass, and then I think all five offensive linemen are out there blocking. And Amon Ra, you know, had to beat like one other person to get to the end zone. So, the offensive line had a really, really good game.

Jason Harwood: 53:19

Yeah, I was impressed with mahogany coming in. I agree with you, Graham's prime is definitely not had his best season. He played better. I thought last year than he has thus far this year, week Dan Campbell said he's dealing with a couple of things. I could almost see a situation, especially at the Vikings win where Monday night game doesn't mean too much. Yeah. Let's let Graham rest up another week and just put mahogany out there that way. Graham is you know, he has a couple of weeks rest before we see the Vikings. Cause the Vikings obviously try to confuse the offensive line. So I'd rather have the more veteran presence. the Vikings game and get, you know, have Graham in there as opposed to Mahogany. So I could see a situation. Campbell kind of shut that down today and said that, you know, he grams our starter or whatever, but I think that was mostly for people calling, you know, maybe Mahogany's overtaking him. but I see in a situation where. You know, that game, if that game doesn't mean much, yeah, let's let the rookie get out there and let's keep Graham's healthy before a really huge game in week 18 followed by playoff games.

Jacob: 54:27

Absolutely. I mean, that's best case scenario, right? Packers beat the Vikings, the game doesn't mean as much. And then we can let some of these guys who've been battling injuries, you know, either take the game off or, you know, maybe only play the first half or treat it like the preseason where they're trying to, you know, take a little bit easier. And it, you know, it's encouraging to see Mahogany come in and play really well, so that if something were to happen or we need to call his number, he looks like he's definitely ready and more than up to the challenge.

Jason Harwood: 54:56

Yeah, I, if that game doesn't mean much, I, Campbell said, they're flying everybody out there. I think that they'll play, they won't play it like a preseason, especially if they got to be ready for week 18. They're going to want to. You know, keep everything moving. But if you have a player that's dealing with a couple of things, they might be more apt to give that player rest rather than, you know, try to push them into a game that might not mean as much. Yeah.

Jacob: 55:32

week stuff. It's kind of important for them to keep the ball rolling and, you know, keep that routine down so that you're not messing anything up. But if you talk about the offensive line, defensive line, they're getting banged up every single week. And it's not really as necessary for them to be through these walkthroughs. And like, you know, I don't think that they necessarily have to stay in. Saying in shape isn't the right word, but you know, they, it's not going to hurt them by taking an extra week off. They're, you know, not going to miss a step by the next week. They're going to be able to slot right back in and do what they did before. So when you're talking about the people in the trenches, those are the ones where it's like, if they're battling something, you know, at the same time, you have less roster spots available to let every single one of them sit.

Jason Harwood: 56:17

Well, and also you're not going to want to jerk off back there with a backup offensive line. That's not going to happen

Jacob: 56:22

Right.

Jason Harwood: 56:23

him getting hurt. So you know, it's just a matter of, you'd let one, you know, Graham's dealing with a couple of things. You get them out. Zyler was dealing for something. You get him out. Frank's been, seems like he's been fairly healthy other than, you know, we all forget that he like tore his pack or whatever in the Arizona game. Right. We, that was like an injury in that game. And then he said, I'll, I. I think he sat out the next week, but then he was back playing again, which is crazy to think what, how much pain he had to be playing with a torn, whatever he tore there or strained or whatever.

Jacob: 57:00

It seems like Frank's always battling something.

Jason Harwood: 57:02

Yeah. you don't hear about it because Frank just goes out there and plays.

Jacob: 57:06

Right

Jason Harwood: 57:08

So anything else on the offense that you want to talk about?

Jacob: 57:11

now, man, really good, really satisfied with the offense.

Jason Harwood: 57:15

Yes. Great. Great win. It was great to get the ugly taste of a loss out of our mouth and get back to winning. I did get a loss in my great guarantees, right? I, I thought Gibbs was going to go for 120 rushing at 109. However, got his because he said Gibbs was going to get 150 yards total yards got 154. Congrats, Jacob. You're, you're right on there. Yes.

Jacob: 57:41

I know. Right. I'm so brilliant.

Jason Harwood: 57:43

Yes. So Christmas is obviously this week. We're not going to record Wednesday night just cause that's Christmas night. So we'll record Thursday night. Looks like Morgan Cannon is going to join us again. So that'll be a fun we'll get some of his thoughts on this game. Cause he's going to look through the film and I'll, I have some questions probably about mahogany's play. If he's play, those are the two players that I want to. see what he thought of and so Chris was coming up, Jacob, you do? Do you do some traveling? Are you at home for most of it? What do you, what do you do?

Jacob: 58:16

Christmas time, we just go to my parents house, wake up, you know, I have four kids, wake up, you know, do the Christmas thing here at home, go have dinner with my parents and some of my, you know, cousins and close family members. So Christmas is really chill.

Jason Harwood: 58:30

That's

Jacob: 58:30

What about you? What do you got going on?

Jason Harwood: 58:32

yeah, so Christmas Eve you know, I drive to Monroe. We have Christmas there. I have my brother's, my brother's house is actually in my childhood house growing up. So get to go back there. We open up gifts. My mom's side's there. Go home get ready with the kiddos. And all you Sleep in the same room. All well, it was all four of us. We have mattresses for the boys on the ground, but now it'll be the dogs with us now too. So all five of us will be sleeping there. Why? Santa delivers gifts and then we wake up, we have a little bit, just the family was four of us, and then my side comes over, which is we got a couple of nephews. So it's fun watching the kids all open up their gifts together. leave and then Sarah's family comes and then we do Sarah's family is like a one gift at a time. So Christmas literally takes like four hours with that side. So

Jacob: 59:27

Oh, man.

Jason Harwood: 59:27

to have, we'll have some negotiating. Because that's when the football games will be on. So we might have a situation where I have no sound on the games. Cause the Christmas music might be played, but the games will be on wherever we're opening gifts. Will you be watching, will you be, do you have Netflix you're going?

Jacob: 59:47

Yes. Oh, I always like, no matter if we're hanging out there for in the garage or wherever I've got my phone, my account link to everything, there's got to be a game on the TV. Same thing. Even if I have to mute it, there's going to be a game on the TV unless I'm outnumbered by kids and then Mickey Mouse clubhouse is on and I have to be on my phone. But yeah,

Jason Harwood: 1:00:05

Yeah,

Jacob: 1:00:06

Yeah.

Jason Harwood: 1:00:06

no, my, my boys will be there'll be one football. They're, they're mad that there's not football tomorrow. They're like, there was football on Christmas Eve last year, dad. I was like, yes, it was on a Sunday. That's why there

Jacob: 1:00:16

Yeah, right.

Jason Harwood: 1:00:17

Eve. So already disappointed that there'll be no football games tomorrow. Might have to watch some Christmas movies. All right. I want to know your favorite Christmas movie. have a favorite Christmas movie?

Jacob: 1:00:30

That's tough, man. I've got some, I've got a rotation, I've got some ones that I really like. Home Alone and Elf are probably the two that I really like and Christmas Vacation I watch every year too.

Jason Harwood: 1:00:40

Yeah.

Jacob: 1:00:41

What about you?

Jason Harwood: 1:00:42

So, Die Hard, are you of a ilk of Die Hard's a Christmas movie or not?

Jacob: 1:00:49

No, I mean, I, I've heard that before I go back and forth, I don't watch Die Hard every year. I haven't seen Die Hard in a very long time.

Jason Harwood: 1:00:55

Oh, Die Hard's one of my favorite movies of all time. Christmas Vacation is my go to Christmas movie. It has been it's like a family tradition brought in from my dad. My favorite is you know, the guy is getting so upset with his wife. He's like, Grace, she's been dead for 30 years. I love that line. And then you know, the crapper's full. That's

Jacob: 1:01:19

right.

Jason Harwood: 1:01:20

lines, but I love, I love that movie. We showed it to the boys for the first time last year. It's become Bradley's one of Bradley's favorites. Preston didn't want to watch it this year. Cause he had just watched it. And we were on a trip or something and he had downloaded it

Jacob: 1:01:33

No.

Jason Harwood: 1:01:34

phone. Home Alone is my other go to Christmas movie

Jacob: 1:01:37

Right.

Jason Harwood: 1:01:38

I

Jacob: 1:01:38

Home Alone 1 and 2, right?

Jason Harwood: 1:01:40

Elf is out, like you said, is great. I'm not a big fan of the classics. Like There's a Wonderful Life and all that stuff. I, it's all right. I don't think they're bad movies, but not something I watch. But I do like the claymation, like the Rudolph those old claymation

Jacob: 1:01:55

Okay. Right.

Jason Harwood: 1:01:56

from the 60s. I do like those. I just, we used to watch those as kids. And,

Jacob: 1:02:01

My mom used to have us watch those every year, and I, you know, for the last couple years have tried to have, like, you know, let's watch, like, the Charlie Brown, let's watch these ones, my kids are not into it at all,

Jason Harwood: 1:02:12

Yeah.

Jacob: 1:02:13

fun of me, like, is this what it was like when you were a kid? They make fun of me for being old, like, I make fun of you for being old, so.

Jason Harwood: 1:02:20

Yeah, I, there's, there's still some, I, I, I do like those but the new ones like alpha is obviously newer. I

Jacob: 1:02:28

The Grinch, I forgot The Grinch, but that's because we watch The Grinch, like, year round. We watched that one. That's an awesome movie.

Jason Harwood: 1:02:35

Now we did watch red one, which is the, the rocks new Christmas

Jacob: 1:02:40

Oh yeah. Was that any good?

Jason Harwood: 1:02:43

Yeah. I liked it. It was probably a little bit long for my taste. It just seemed to run a little bit long, but I did like it. I think. Good. Yeah, it's a good Christmas movie. Chris Evans is in there, kind of being like a jerk. He's really playing against the Captain America type

Jacob: 1:02:58

Oh yeah.

Jason Harwood: 1:02:59

And you know, The Rock is The Rock, you know, just a big.

Jacob: 1:03:03

Same person. And every, yeah.

Jason Harwood: 1:03:04

basically, yeah, and jk simmons Is santa and I love jk simmons. I think he's hilarious and you know, he's a huge tigers fan Which you know, is important to me. So I

Jacob: 1:03:17

Yeah.

Jason Harwood: 1:03:18

extra vote in my book for how cool he is So yeah, I read one I would recommend if you're looking for a newer movie that your kids would probably Get into yeah, that's it's worth it. And it's free on Amazon. If you have Amazon prime, it's included. It was like in the theater for like two weeks and then they just put it on Amazon prime. So.

Jacob: 1:03:37

I didn't even realize that was a movie that was released in theater. I just assumed that it was a, you know, straight to Amazon thing

Jason Harwood: 1:03:43

I think it was originally supposed to be, and then they probably put it in the theater, but, you know, if you realize you're going to get it free in two weeks, it's probably not

Jacob: 1:03:50

that no one

Jason Harwood: 1:03:51

theater you know, theaters are struggling because of that, because, you know, it's in the theater for like six weeks and then you can have it at home and not pay 8 for popcorn or whatever.

Jacob: 1:04:02

right. What about one last one? The Santa Claus 10 hour movie.

Jason Harwood: 1:04:07

the Tim Allen. Yeah. I like that one. I

Jacob: 1:04:09

Right

Jason Harwood: 1:04:10

I'm not a huge fan of the sequels but I

Jacob: 1:04:14

now, but the original was a good. That's usually the last one we watch.

Jason Harwood: 1:04:18

cgi is dated. The boys will point that out to me but I do I do like that one. Yes,

Jacob: 1:04:25

It's funny how you watch some of those old movies and the, you know, you don't notice the CGI obviously back then, but now it's almost cringeworthy. You're like, ah, man.

Jason Harwood: 1:04:34

like, I used to think that was, that was good,

Jacob: 1:04:36

Right?

Jason Harwood: 1:04:37

you know, it's the best I could do at the time. When you said the Grinch, is it the live action one? The

Jacob: 1:04:42

The Jim Carrey. Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Harwood: 1:04:44

Yeah. Yeah. I do like that one. Sarah really likes in the Bradley, like. The new anime, the newest animated one. They do like that one.

Jacob: 1:04:53

Yeah, my niece and nephew, I guess, watched that one on repeat.

Jason Harwood: 1:04:57

Okay.

Jacob: 1:04:57

I have a voodoo account for digital movies that we all share and that's consistently like at the top of the list. Continue watching.

Jason Harwood: 1:05:03

Yeah. Continue watching. It's like, you

Jacob: 1:05:05

Just always.

Jason Harwood: 1:05:06

left. Yeah. It's just always on. Yeah. The other day, wrapping gifts I turned on a movie. The boys hadn't seen yet. The first transformers, the Michael Bay transformers.

Jacob: 1:05:18

Oh, they hadn't seen that one.

Jason Harwood: 1:05:19

They haven't seen it yet. And I haven't seen it in a while. Megan Fox is super young in that movie. It made me feel, you Dirty, like a dirty old man and watching that movie. Cause I

Jacob: 1:05:31

Hang on. What year did that come out? I'm I'm looking right now. Cause I had to be around like right before I graduated. I was in high school. Cause that's all anybody could talk about with Megan Fox.

Jason Harwood: 1:05:44

oh yeah, no, that was, no, that'd be in like 2000, what, six,

Jacob: 1:05:48

2007 is when it was released. So yeah, I was in high school.

Jason Harwood: 1:05:51

Yeah. I went and saw it in the theater, the part where she's like leaning over the car

Jacob: 1:05:57

Oh yeah.

Jason Harwood: 1:05:57

car parts. Yeah. I've, I've, I'll

Jacob: 1:06:00

That's, that's what pops in my head, right? When you mentioned transformers, forget all about Optimus Prime.

Jason Harwood: 1:06:06

yeah, exactly. I I remember we went to the theater and the, like two rows behind us, someone brought a baby to that movie. I was so

Jacob: 1:06:14

Now that call

Jason Harwood: 1:06:15

why do you bring a baby? That's so loud. And it's Michael Bay, explosions all over the place. I'm like, it's the way babies go to sleep through this.

Jacob: 1:06:24

did they,

Jason Harwood: 1:06:25

yeah, I don't know. I was watching Megan Fox.

Jacob: 1:06:28

yeah.

Jason Harwood: 1:06:30

Oh

Jacob: 1:06:30

Yep. That car scene is when everybody collectively everybody's jaw drop.

Jason Harwood: 1:06:34

Yeah. They were like, wow. Yeah. So yeah, she's, she's something that's for sure. But anyways, Merry Christmas

Jacob: 1:06:43

Merry Christmas.

Jason Harwood: 1:06:44

hope that your kids have a good Christmas and they get what they wanted

Jacob: 1:06:48

Thank you. You too.

Jason Harwood: 1:06:50

Yeah, no, I'm, I'm looking forward to it with the boys and for everyone listening, Merry Christmas to you. If you don't celebrate, you know, hope you enjoyed the 25th of December. Hope everyone's safe and we're going to get what we want for Christmas, which is the NFC North number one spot. You know, we can all and collectively watch Packers beat the Vikings this weekend and then it'll make Monday night really important. We'll win. And then, then it makes my. Sunday tickets for the Vikings on week 18, not worth as much because right now going for crazy amounts of money,

Jacob: 1:07:24

Yeah,

Jason Harwood: 1:07:26

the cheapest seat in the house, I think is a 300 levels, like 350 a ticket right now,

Jacob: 1:07:31

right.

Jason Harwood: 1:07:31

last time when I looked, I haven't looked today, but if you know, if it works out, that's both the Vikings and the Packers. Those seats are going to go crazy and it's going to get flexed the Sunday night too,

Jacob: 1:07:42

Yeah,

Jason Harwood: 1:07:44

I don't want that I don't want another late night, but it will be exciting for America. That's for sure.

Jacob: 1:07:48

right. It's the primetime game America deserves, but I hope it doesn't come to that,

Jason Harwood: 1:07:54

I hope not either. They could flex the Rams and the Seahawks, which may be for the division. If they don't, if the Lions Game falls through, but

Jacob: 1:08:02

right?

Jason Harwood: 1:08:02

Jacob, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, everybody, and Merry Christmas to the Detroit lions. Let's go lions.