Talking Grit: A Detroit Lions Podcast

E52: "Biting Re-Caps" Don't Mess with Kerby's Rook; Lions vs 49ers (with Morgan Cannon from POD)

• Jason Harwood / Jacob Litton / Morgan Cannon • Season 1 • Episode 52

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In this episode of 'Biting Recaps' on Talking Grit, hosts Jason Harwood and Jacob Litton, joined by guest Morgan Cannon from Pride of Detroit, discuss the Lions' exciting 40-34 victory over the 49ers in Week 17. The discussion delves into player performances, particularly focusing on Christian Mahogany and Melifonwu's recent games. Key game moments such as Kirby's two interceptions, Jahmyr Gibbs' standout running game, and Jared Goff's effective quarterback play are highlighted.

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Welcome to another episode of Biting Recaps here at Talking Grit. I'm Jason Harwood and with me is Jacob Litton. And today we're going to wrap up the week 17 matchup between the Lions and the 49ers. Lions came out victorious 40 to 34. With us to discuss this today is a special guest. It's Morgan Cannon from Pride of Detroit. Morgan, thanks for joining us.

Morgan Cannon:

What up, guys? Yeah, thank you for having me, man. I appreciate it. It's an exciting week. Like, I'm, we're recording this on a Wednesday night and to be honest, I wish I could wake up tomorrow and it'd be Sunday, but I know we got stuff. We got stuff to work through before that, I guess. Huh?

Jason Harwood:

Yeah, we got a lot of these guys. We got to let our linebacker heal up. We give Alex a little more rest and we'll be good. So. All right, Morgans, before We get to reviewing the 49ers game, I respect your film study. I always respect how and what you know about the game. So there's two players that I really want to get your assessment on. That's a Christian Mahogany and also Mel Fonmu. Tell us how he's looked in the last couple of games and then, Mahogany actually got into the 49ers game for a couple of plays. Tell us what you thought of him in the Bears game.

Morgan Cannon:

Mahogany was good, man. It was good to see him plug. I'm sure it helps, right? He's playing behind in between Taylor Decker and then an all pro center and Frank Ragnell and I'm not taking anything away from Taylor Decker Like I've a whole article like about like we got to give this man his flowers because he's a really good player too, I think it gets lost sometimes because and rag now are so awesome. Like, their positions, but, seeing the Hageny slide in there was good. He was active and past pro he looks for work. And what I mean for that is like, he doesn't, he might not have someone head up on him as the left guard. But I feel like every time he didn't, he was able to like find work, whether it was helping Frank or helping Taylor. And he puts, he sat some guys on their butts, man. So that was good. He got his, got his first slab. Offensive line people, you know what I'm talking about? Get your first slab. So yeah, it was good to see him be active. He was good climbing to the second level he's a, he wants to get after you, man. I don't know if you guys are nerds like I am, but the night before he started, he changed his Twitter profile picture. What's his name the guy from Dune? I can't say his name fade Ratha saying that right

Jason Harwood:

Something like that. Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

Morgan Cannon:

the comments correct me, but it was that guy that character was awesome I've seen both the dude the Dune movies. I love him. But yeah, I was like this guy is about that action So it was good to see him get it was good to see him get some work I think it's gonna create some interesting conversations Once we get into the off season, hopefully like in mid February, if you know what I'm saying. But I do think it's going to be, cause some point you would like this offensive line to get a teensy bit younger and cheaper as much as I love it the way it is now, but that's a conversation for another time. And Mella Fong Wu, they threw him right in the fire. And then we're recording this Wednesday, like I said, but they they did release Jamal Adams. We'll see what happens. Maybe they'll let him, clear waivers and re Adam. We'll see. He might want to go somewhere else. But they did cut him from the peace squad. So actually we'll see what happens with that. But now if on with, they've thrown him right in the fire full snap load. It's got the sack against who was it against? I was against Chicago.

Jason Harwood:

Yes, that's against Caleb Williams. Yep.

Morgan Cannon:

Yep. So using him in similar fashions, right? I do think like he could prove useful because he can cover these linebackers or these excuse me, these linebackers, these tight ends and these running backs. Mhm. Maybe a little bit better than, someone not named Alex Anzalone can hopefully we get that back soon. So, yeah. What did you guys think of Melifonou though? I know that, I think you guys are big fans of his game as well.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah. Jacob, I'll let you speak to him because I know that's your boy.

Jacob:

Oh, absolutely. Like I love my Lafondue. I love, you know, the versatility that you have with him being able to blitz off the edge, being able to be in coverage like that hybrid linebacker spot. Yeah. Absolutely. That's just something we were really excited about before the season started. And we, you know, we're robbed of that with all the injuries and everything he's been battling. So it's awesome that they're, you know, able to really fully unleash him. He's playing like 60 percent of defensive snaps, I think the last couple of weeks. And yeah, I mean, I just, I love the edge pressure. He's really good at getting after the quarterback and, you know, also dropping. I just love the blitzes when we can disguise it, when you don't know where it's coming from, you don't know if he's coming or what he's doing. They've been doing that with branch more often now too. So, you know, I just, yeah, can't say enough positive things about iffy and really so far, it's been just in the pressures and less in past coverage.

Morgan Cannon:

Yep.

Jason Harwood:

I'd say that the 49ers game, if he got a little more of his feet underneath him, he looked better to me in every other part of his game, as far as coverage and secondary coming up for run defense. I thought he just looked like he was ready to play. And that makes sense. He hadn't played in a while, almost a year really. So it, It made sense that he would be more ready to play. I'm with Jacob though. I it's like the perfect time to get iffy back because we were wondering at the beginning, see where, how are they going to play this? Where are they going to play all these people? With the injuries that linebacker, they've kind of freed up. And also with Carleton Davis going out, moving a meek to the outside, who's played really well. You got branch who could play the nickel. Or if he, however you want to do it, but that helps what Jacob said, disguise where you're coming from. Cause you can line those guys up wherever. So to me, it's a perfect time to get him back. He's only going to get better. As long as we stay healthy, he's got to just get, get his second wind underneath them and be able to have, be a more football shape. Then we'll be ready for playoff football. And hopefully he's got like a, no, a two week break. If after after this weekend.

Morgan Cannon:

Yes, sir. He looked really good. Like, and it's just another chess piece for Aaron Glenn, right? Like, because they're so that's why I love about this coaching staff. One of the many things, right? Like, they're so matchup oriented. So depending on who they like, if he might be a better matchup for X player than Brian branch. So in that, that week, if he might play a ton of big nickel, in like their nickel packages, and like personnel. So, I think that's, it's just another chess piece. So like you said Jason, the longer he plays, the more he's going to get in shape and everything, will even out.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah I'm, it's like perfect timing with the injuries to getting him back. So it was, I'm happy. And I also like if he has a player, I think he fits the mold. I just wish he wasn't as injured as often as he is. That'll be interesting. Another off season discussion, right? We talked about the other one. That's going to be another big one, whether we bring if he back and all that, but you know, we'll table that for the off season, I do want to talk to you both of you, cause I. I saw the post game celebration. With Dan Campbell, the, what he said to the guys it really resonated for me as a dad. And I'll explain that a little bit, but I'm just wondering what your guys thought about what he said after the game. And I'm talking about him just being really proud of the guys. And it was a very subdued. I thought post game, but very like,

Morgan Cannon:

Yeah. Okay. Sounds good. Thank you.

Jacob:

I mean, every time you hear Dan Campbell talk, it's just like, that's somebody that you want to play for. Right. And you want to give your all for everything that he's got, you know, that he cares about his players. He cares about this team. And. You know, for everything to be able to come to fruition, especially, you know, we had that whole thing where do we play our starters, do we not, does it mean anything, and, you know, of course it does, you want to win the game, especially how everything happened, I can't even find the right words, just, you know, I'll just say it was another positive interaction from Dan Campbell,

Morgan Cannon:

no I feel you though, Jacob, because like, thing for me, right? We'll get to the Vikings bit and I'm not trying to be a hater like they've played really well this year. Sam

Jacob:

Right.

Morgan Cannon:

impressed me the last, like, several weeks here. But I think Dan Campbell gets painted as this like meathead man outside of Detroit. People who don't really pay attention, to what he is and like how he conducts himself. But the way I look at it as man, Dan Campbell. Would be a great, like, manager. like executive chef, like whatever he put his mind to, he'd be a leader in that space. You know what I'm saying? Like military just store manager. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, he just, he has that about him. And so much of that, like y'all said is like the emotional intelligence, right? Where it was kind of subdued, like you said, Jason, but at the same time, he's about to cry. The man cries a lot. I got no

Jacob:

Yeah.

Morgan Cannon:

got no qualms with that. I cry when I get real happy. if I'm upset, like I don't have any problems with that. So it's just another, like you said, Jacob, another check in the box is Dan Campbell's just being an awesome leader of men. And I hope he's here in Detroit as long as he wants to and retires. It's just, we got so lucky, man. I was thinking about that when I wanted Robert Sala during that hiring class. I don't know about you guys. Dearborn native. And I was

Jason Harwood:

Yeah, I was I was in on that train for sure.

Morgan Cannon:

I got on board with Dan, he got hired and I was like, okay, this guy seems awesome, but never in a million years that I think like we hit on this like combination of like Bill Parcells, Jimmy Johnson, just, he's this blend of all these awesome leaders, man. And I'm just, I'm thankful. That's why I think everyone's like, Oh, the wheel's going to fall off when everyone got hurt. I'm like, we got all these good players, man. And we got Dan Campbell, like we're going to be smooth.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah. So I, the, what he just said, he was proud of his guys, and when I took from that, was that, and he also said, we know what this game was. And he was alluding to the fact that what was on the line for this game. So I was As far as like standings, nothing, but in that locker room. And for the guys that went through the losing and the NFC championship, it meant everything for them. And so he knew that. And so how a lot of things that football, could be or whatever. And we could. It's hard to relate to any of that stuff. I'm not a professional athlete. I can't relate to running 22 miles an hour, but what I can relate to is Dan Campbell talking to his team. Like he's their dad, like it was my sons. Like I teach, I try to teach my sons how to act right in the world. And when I see them act right, like outside of my jurisdiction where I'm not right there and I can be super proud of them, that's the way I think that he felt right then that he saw, okay, got this, Team, I've talked to them how I want to play. They take the game off because they could have taken the game off and no, they played their hearts out. And also let's be clear. There was no injuries that we're aware of, like, and so, we don't have to go down that Avenue cause that would have totally changed the narrative of the game had that happened, but that's the way I relate to it. And I think that. That's why connect with Dan Campbell, even if they're aware of how they relate to him, but that's what it is. You emotionally are invested in this guy and his team is, and his fans are, and that's, what's generating all this interest and just how it's different from how it's ever been here. And that's the Dan Campbell effect. So let's contrast this to the champagne throwing, getting Sam Darnold on the shoulder celebration with the Vikings. I'm with you, Morgan. Let's knock that. Let's not knock the Vikings. Cause I'm not in that locker room. I don't know what was talked about ahead of time. I don't know that. But from the outside, looking in, you got guys celebrating that haven't done anything yet. They haven't cleansed their division. They haven't got the number one seed. We have looked at our locker room. Very calm. They know what's ahead of them. So why don't you start on this morgan first? What did you think about when you saw that viking celebration is? are we nitpicking or what are your thoughts?

Morgan Cannon:

Maybe, like you said, maybe there's something that we don't know, but I was looking at it. I'm like, what did Darnold break some sort of record or like, I was just confused generally. Like I wasn't trying to be a jerk, like, but I was like, did he break some sort of single season record or like, what's the deal here? Because, yeah, they were treating. were acting like they weren't second in the division because they still are like we're tied, but I don't know if they remember, but the last time we played the lions one. So I didn't really understand it either. I'm not trying to be a hater, like celebrate how you want to celebrate, but it did seem like the lions were like this, like battle tested a unit that was just like, okay, yeah, that was fun. Glad we got that done. But the real meal is on Sunday. I was happy to see it like y'all talked about, like that, my opinion, that's a good thing because I don't, was there any other significance that I'm not aware of?

Jason Harwood:

Not that I'm aware of. And we're going to have a reflect on later on. And I'm going to ask him that question. Cause if someone's going to know, he's going to probably know that answer. And I want to know, and it's not going to come as a yeah. And he'll be able to tell us, but I, I'm just looking at it from Alliance fan perspective. So Jacob, did you have any thoughts on that?

Jacob:

you know, the franchise wins, they can't believe in said in the locker room. Like, you know, there's going to be a time where we look back and we're going to be proud of we are what we've done, but that time's not now, you know, there's still more to do. There's still more, you know, we have business to take care of. And then to see the Vikings, I mean, yeah, they just really like, you know,

Morgan Cannon:

They're going to

Jacob:

did they clinch something? Did they break some record that they, you know, what, what are they celebrating for? But then, you know, from the lions, you know, all the players saw that too. It's like, okay, you know, now I really

Morgan Cannon:

Okay.

Jacob:

their dreams.

Morgan Cannon:

I don't, that's all I could think of. Like maybe there was a record broken because all they did was keep their season. We'll keep this, keep the one seed in NFC North alive. Cause if they'd have lost that game, then obviously that would have been that. But thanks a lot, Green Bay. You guys can't be counted on for anything, man. I hate that team so much

Jacob:

Good for nothing Packers.

Jason Harwood:

was my thing I point after the game, I've hated, I hated them before and now I hate them even more. They couldn't even help us when we needed it to. Yeah, it's unbelievable.

Morgan Cannon:

Yeah.

Jacob:

It's not like they, it's been a long time since the Vikings beat the Packers or that they have some sort of, you know, like, you know, monkey to get off their back or whatever. I mean, they've been back and forth. There's not, you know, There's not as much history there, I guess, so,

Morgan Cannon:

was the last time Minnesota lost week? What?

Jason Harwood:

Oh, the, they

Jacob:

8 against the Rams,

Jason Harwood:

they lost week seven to us and then they lost week eight. That was, four days later, cause they played Thursday in Los Angeles

Morgan Cannon:

That's

Jason Harwood:

right after. So,

Morgan Cannon:

to think, hopefully I'm thinking Buffalo come Monday. Next time we're texting. Cause I've, I'm glad we got that out of the way. That's all I'll say. know what I'm saying? Cause

Jacob:

right,

Morgan Cannon:

been a long, that shoot, they haven't lost since what is that October,

Jason Harwood:

Yeah, it's been a long time.

Jacob:

right.

Morgan Cannon:

That's a long time in this

Jason Harwood:

It's all right. Now, hopefully they're tasting defeat this this Sunday night.

Morgan Cannon:

Yes, sir.

Jason Harwood:

One thing that we didn't taste defeat on, or the Pro Bowl fan voting, Lions fans came through. Thank you for voting because man. only part of the Pro Bowl voting, but it just shows how dedicated the Lions fans are. 19 Lions finish in the top five of their position.

Morgan Cannon:

Jameer was second overall behind T. Swift's boyfriend. So

Jacob:

Yeah, yeah,

Morgan Cannon:

because I know like she's getting not she, but her fans, what I'm aware of are crazy. Like, they've been voting for him like crazy. So people

Jason Harwood:

We should have had Em, we should have had Em and Em just tweeting out this and then we would have destroyed it. Every position, but number one in everyone. But

Morgan Cannon:

Nope.

Jason Harwood:

Let's not get it twisted. A lot of lines deserve this voting. It isn't just Lions fans coming out and putting someone in a position that they don't deserve. A of these guys deserve to be in this. It'd be in this spot. So we'll see how it is. It's a fan voting is only one part of it, but you know, coaches get a vote. I think the players get a vote, so we'll see how it goes. But yeah, lines getting the respect finally from the, on the fan side, anything you thought about that, Jacob,

Jacob:

No, I mean, I just thought it was cool. I, I followed each one of the updates. I wasn't necessarily voting like every day or anything like that, but I was following the updates and I saw, you know, the lines were doing pretty well. A lot of that might be bandwagon or whatever, but yeah, for the final thing to come out and there's just so many of them at the top, even you have it down to like Hogan Hatton was like number three, Sion Iwaki was number three, like, you know, just. That was cool. Hopefully we're not playing in the pro bowl anyway, and if we don't, you know, this is irrelevant, but

Morgan Cannon:

Yup. Yup.

Jacob:

good to see.

Jason Harwood:

it's not irrelevant for some of these guys contracts. I can tell you that they

Jacob:

Yeah. That

Morgan Cannon:

that everything kicked in because he got that all pro nod in his third year. So

Jason Harwood:

Exactly. All right. We're going to talk about the 49ers game. I think I tweeted out something on our account, like for a game that I wasn't looking forward to earlier in the day, I was still standing up and cheering in the fourth quarter because I got super involved in that game, just the way everything fell down. So it was a good game. So Morgan, we always start out with special teams. I'm going to throw out Jack Fox, total bum, didn't do anything the whole game except for hold a couple extra points, and a couple of field goals. This guy gets paid bucko bucks for just sitting on the bench, man.

Morgan Cannon:

Listen,

Jacob:

was the starter that we rested.

Morgan Cannon:

yeah, there you go. Exactly. That's what we should have told people that he got mad though. Yeah, I like having Jack Fox man, but it's a good day when he doesn't punt and it's kind of made me, I don't know. I started to think about the like the magic number of how many stops to the lions need a game realistically to win the game. And in my opinion, it's not many, which is a good thing. But yeah, special teams wise, Jake Bates, why did they do that to him, man, on the broadcast? That's

Jason Harwood:

I caught Jacob looking at it on his phone multiple times the last couple of days, and I'm like, get back to work, Jacob. And he's like, Oh, we just share the same name. And it's like, I get confused. But no, he's just, yeah, get back to work,

Jacob:

Nice.

Morgan Cannon:

Yeah.

Jacob:

Jason's the one making the memes.

Morgan Cannon:

yeah,

Jason Harwood:

Yeah,

Morgan Cannon:

he was trying to, I know what he's doing. He's rolling out that hip flexor on like a softball or whatever. Cause I've, been there and done that back in the day, but Yeah. I don't know why they put that man on blast like that, but it was good to see him. I trust that. I trust him now, man. I'm pretty anti kicker. If you've never like, I know, like we've known each other a bit now, but yeah, I'm pretty anti special teams in general. I like just having a dependable kicker. I know we've been spoiled as lines fans. One of the few things we've been spoiled on for several decades. But it'd be nice if this kid was just like the second coming of Jason Hanson with like a little more juice, huh? That'd be pretty

Jason Harwood:

He hit that 57 yarder with ease,

Morgan Cannon:

with

Jason Harwood:

Which was,

Morgan Cannon:

Yeah.

Jacob:

Yeah, yeah,

Morgan Cannon:

that one against the bears if we didn't, which was that a,

Jacob:

we're at the false start. We had to drop it back.

Morgan Cannon:

That one. I think he'd hit the first one, but then

Jacob:

yeah,

Morgan Cannon:

it a little left on the 65 yarder. It

Jacob:

crazy.

Jason Harwood:

Before we get all specialties, I was not impressed with the kick return coverage. I thought we let Debo get too much room back there which I found surprising. So that's something to think about. We usually, we go for the touchback but yeah, I wasn't very happy with the kick return coverage.

Jacob:

I just want to mention that the extra point that we had blocked. I don't know, Morgan, if you even looked at that, but they look like they blew up Hogan Hatton and you're supposed to be lined up outside. I didn't look at the replay like on film to see that. But I mean, it looks like they just blew him up and went right over. Yeah

Morgan Cannon:

I have to go back and look at it on the all 22, but someone next to Penae was getting bulldozed too, because like the last thing I remember seeing in passing was just Penae, like with his arm linked to nothing because no one was there anymore. Cause that's how they teach you to do that specialty. If you've ever been on field goal, protect like, or field goal, I was like briefly back in the day and it sucks, I don't like doing it. I think, but I w I wasn't in there in the center either where the big boys were. So, but yeah, I don't, that wasn't good. Hopefully we need to clean that up for sure, because those can cost you.

Jacob:

right.

Jason Harwood:

find out now as opposed to a couple of weeks from now, when we're in the playoffs, find out where your holes are and that FIP will get that covered up. So, all right, let's move on to the defense. first thing I'm going to point out was we were, we let them be five for eight on third down, our third down defense is not as tight as it usually is. So that was, I found that disappointing. Jacob, you did not like the play action defense at all.

Jacob:

No, I mean, and I, you know, have said this for a while now, it's just the linebackers that we have out there for whatever reason. It's just not, it's not clicking. I don't know if it's just the miscommunication because outside of just the play action, there's a lot of, you know, the motion and the just the threat of the outside plays. It just seems to make these guys second guess what they're doing. They're just a second late to get there. I mean, there's a couple plays where we have like a linebacker and a safety that look like they're still shadowing and covering the same guy in the backfield, and that allowed Kittle to get open across the middle a couple times. And you know, just, Quarter where they did like a fake pitch to Debo, and then you have Jack Campbell, Ben Neiman, and Anthony Pittman all rush into the backfield towards the right side, and then Kittle just streaks across the left. Like, there's no one within like 10 or 12 yards of Kittle on this play. And you know, that just, I think the pretty, pretty actual stat line is seven for 11 on play action passes with one touchdown and both of his interceptions were on play action too. But you know, it's just, those things can't happen. You just want the linebacker play to be cleaner and hopefully Anzalone is back and that will resolve that issue.

Morgan Cannon:

That would be such a force multiplier, man, because when I went back and watched that tape, it was just a, it's a tough matchup because I do think cattle is still one of the best Titans in football. If not the best and outside of Jack, like I love Jalen Reeves, may have been great person, great special teamer, but there's a reason that he's never really been like a first team, like off ball linebacker. So he was having a tough time and against that Shanahan offense, there's so much misdirection. There's so many play fakes. So there's eye candy. And it just, it only takes a moment of you having your eyes where they're not supposed to be as a linebacker or a safety for a kiddle to have 10 yards of space. Cause we saw that. You're right, Jacob. I don't know how many times watching the film. I'm like, there's no one even in the shot with this man.

Jacob:

Yeah.

Morgan Cannon:

On the broadcast angle, but the all 22, you're like, okay, they're like 15 yards away. That makes sense. And that Because they would, those linebackers would get sucked up towards the line of scrimmage. And it just created a big old, chunk of space between behind the linebackers and then. to wear Kirby and like B so yeah, like J Anzalone back will be hug it, he's been there and h still like the best like defender, the lines have So I really hope we can g night, man. That would be

Jason Harwood:

I agree. Getting Alex back is going to be huge. And this was Jalen Reeves, Maven's first game back. He needed to get all, he needed to get ready. So I'm agree with you. Like he's not ideally who we want, starting linebacker or out there a lot of plays, but he's probably better than Zeke Turner in some of those situations. So,

Morgan Cannon:

Yeah, like Nieman solid, but he was in a blender a couple of times. Nowoski is better, at the Sam than I would like at the will or the Mike. Like, I don't really want him in space. Like he's fine at the Sam. He can set an edge. He can do some stuff there. But, yeah, you need some bodies back. Like even Malcolm at this point would be huge, man. Like the injury bug really did kill that. Like two months ago we'd have been like, I was like, man, I remember having conversations with Miko, like. the linebacker room went from like in 2021, probably the worst in football, to maybe it's like one of the best rooms in football now, top to bottom when they're all healthy. Cause when you started the season, Rodrigo was like, what, your fifth off ball linebacker maybe? And then he worked as, worked his way up, but you got ballers, man, top to bottom. So. Yeah

Jason Harwood:

you got Shep in that room. I mean, Shep coaches those guys up. So great coach.

Morgan Cannon:

coordinator.

Jacob:

Yeah,

Jason Harwood:

All right. Let's talk about the guy, Kirby. Let's talk about Kirby. Two interceptions really saved the game for us. Came up huge. The first interception was kind of a, that was more of a pretty mistake. It just fell into Kirby's hand, but the second play, I want to talk about that great anticipation. What did you see on that in the film? Morgan

Morgan Cannon:

so from what I gather on the second one, he was the post safety, like the loan post safety, and he was just reading eyes, man. And this is where Kirby like experience is kicking in now, and he's becoming like a he's got all the ability in the world, the range, the hands like the quick twitch athleticism. But now he's starting to out think some of these quarterbacks because he saw it the way. Purdy didn't do himself any favors. Yeah, just he because it was a I want to say it was just a dig that the receiver ran and

Jason Harwood:

It's Pearsall. I think

Morgan Cannon:

he had no respect for, like, he didn't really get into his back pedal. He was just staring at that man and then stepped up and sniped it. So he, do y'all think he has a DP or Y case?

Jason Harwood:

you're leading the league. I mean, I think he just had a dry period in the middle. There wasn't like a really outstanding defensive player this year either. Cause the sack numbers are generally down that I've seen. Hutch would be if he was still here.

Morgan Cannon:

Yeah.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah.

Morgan Cannon:

like has 18 or 19 buckets right now. Like, I think

Jason Harwood:

Yeah.

Morgan Cannon:

the most might be like 14 if I want to say, is that bank ankle?

Jason Harwood:

It might be. Yeah.

Morgan Cannon:

like that like, it's not the year of like, there's no miles here. I do agree with you I think it would have been hutch had he stayed on even like Close to what he was doing. He'd have walked away with this award, man.

Jason Harwood:

I will say

Jacob:

I don't know what's next.

Jason Harwood:

The two interceptions that Kirby had came right, one was a penalty from Branch that they're both came after penalties from Branch. The one was a pass interference on Kittle where he picked it off and then he, they called that one back and then he picked off the next play. The next one was Branch who got that personal foul penalty where he

Morgan Cannon:

Pushed

Jason Harwood:

with the receiver.

Morgan Cannon:

Yeah.

Jason Harwood:

kind of pushed him over and then Kirby bailed him out. So Branch, had two penalties. I get it on the first one, Kittle had him beat and he was, didn't need to do what he do cause he was, he would have been overthrown, but Kirby really, I mean, were getting momentum. They had just gotten first downs on, big penalties and, Kirby just came up huge.

Morgan Cannon:

he is, man. He's becoming such a, he's a leader back there. Like even stepping up for Terry on, like, I'm not mad at that penalty. Like Juwan Jennings is doing too much trying to big dog a little rookie and wasn't having that. I thought that was good too. Like I know they were offsetting fouls. That's still costing them the down though. Did you?

Jason Harwood:

Yes, it was afterwards, because it was after the play. I mean, honestly, if Kirby could have held up, I'm not saying he, if he'd have held up, they would have put them back.

Morgan Cannon:

Way

Jason Harwood:

have been like. but like at the 17, they would have been like second or third and goal, which would have given us a huge advantage stole, basically stole four points from them there. But like you said, I mean, that was Jennings was on his throat. They were on Terry on throat. I don't get it. And then they talked for a long time afterwards. And I was thinking, are they going to think about throwing Kirby out here? Cause that's what I thought they were thinking. Like they were, cause they talked for a while.

Jacob:

That'd have been ridiculous.

Morgan Cannon:

oh, yeah,

Jacob:

Well that's back to Kirby's reputation and everything as a dirty player, however they want to paint that. Like, you know.

Morgan Cannon:

I'm glad

Jacob:

Yeah, Terry, I'm kind of hip tossed. Yeah. Yeah.

Morgan Cannon:

Yeah, that's

Jacob:

and then Jennings kind of just took it too far when they're on the ground. You see Taron smacking when he was in the stands though too.

Morgan Cannon:

little. Yeah, that was

Jacob:

Right? Yeah.

Jason Harwood:

That's the way I took that. That was funny.

Morgan Cannon:

was happy to see that.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah. So just go back on your defensive player of the year, Kirby let's dig into that a little bit to some of the stats, the next gen stats on it are pretty interesting. He's when they're throwing his direction, the quarterback rating is 25. 4 passer rating when he's been targeted the lowest in the league and the sixth lowest by any player in a season since 2016, he is allowed just 4. 4 yards per target this season, fourth NFL. So he's doing it and he's leading the league in interceptions, right? I mean, he's. Doing it all.

Morgan Cannon:

I hate the dirty narrative, man. It was good to see like people come to his defense. This last, like, I don't know what game it was, but it was like It might have been like Andrew Whitworth, like a couple of players like Richard Sherman. They're like, what do you want him to do? Like, this is a tight end in the open field. Like, what are you talking about? And do think like some of the, it was just unfortunate stuff last year. Like he went low, but you don't want him to go high. The thing people don't realize about Kirby because he plays safety. That's a big kid, a large, she's like 6'1 probably like 215, 220. He's got big old hands, man. That's why he catches that ball so easy. But. Yeah I don't, Kirby is not a dirty player. He's a great kid. Like I, I think he's gonna get paid now. Like just chalk that

Jacob:

Yeah.

Morgan Cannon:

one. The lines are going to have to figure out, they're going to pay him. You're not going to let him walk away. That's one of the best safeties in football and you keep him in branch together and my goodness, man. So I think he has a candidate just because like you guys talked about it, there's not like a, there's no like slam dunk, like edge rusher this year. So I think you at least got to talk about it.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah, he's in the conversation. It's just gonna be hard to give a safety defensive play of the year, but you need a, need somewhere where there isn't a big sack leader, cause that's always going to be, it's always going to be an edge rusher that's going to be, or a linebacker that somehow, gets a ton of sacks and is on the field, like branch, we're hoping turned into a player of the year, a candidate in a few years, just the player that just makes plays all over the place speaking of sack that he had, the blindside sack. That was a thing of beauty. That was Aaron Glenn calling a perfect play at a perfect time.

Morgan Cannon:

He's so good at getting a branch and Mala Fonu like As like a free runner off the edge, because could pick two players that like be free runners, because that's a, that's not an easy play to make. If the quarterback's mobile it would always be if he and BB man, like, like Jacob said early on, like I love when AG can you get in those third and obvious passing situations and you can just turn them loose.

Jacob:

Absolutely.

Jason Harwood:

Yep.

Jacob:

that sack that he got was on, you know, they were in a hurry up offense. So they're like rushing to the line and they're trying to get set. Brock pretty doesn't even really have a whole lot of time to just, you know, not that he would have been able to tell it was coming anyway, but he doesn't have enough time to read everything. They line up branch, just lines up where he normally does and just, you know, takes off. He never saw it coming. And that's, that's actually the play where Brock pretty got hurt too.

Jason Harwood:

Yep.

Morgan Cannon:

you're right.

Jason Harwood:

And Dobbs comes in and defense, I know the first half, the broadcast just went on and about this defense at nauseam. It was I saw your tweet about Troy Aikman, Morgan. You were not happy about him. So. Just, it was just going back to that. It's a tired negative by now. They're yes, they have, they're hurt on defense, but

Morgan Cannon:

Yeah.

Jason Harwood:

back to me is going to make all the difference. It's, if you look at when our defensive stats really started to go down, it coincides really well with both Malcolm and when Anzalone went out. And I think it's, on the defense. So when you get him back, not that it's just going to go right back up, but it's going to be a definitely another tool that we need in the toolbox.

Morgan Cannon:

I think it's a force multiplier, like it'll make Jack's life a little easier because Jack was playing. He's still playing really well, but I feel like when Anzalone was on the field, we saw even more at Campbell because he just, a little less on his plate, probably like on a down to down basis. I think, like you said, getting him back will be big, man. It'd be nice for the, at least he was act like, his window was open today. Because I'd love to have him back for the Minnesota game, but ultimately, like, gotta have him back for whenever we end up playing in the playoffs, hopefully the divisional round first.

Jason Harwood:

Yep. Yep.

Jacob:

Absolutely.

Jason Harwood:

anything else you want to talk about in the defense, Jacob?

Jacob:

know, he had a really nice pass breakup too. Had that punch out on Jennings late in the first half. It kept the clock going. So, you know, just that's what we wanted anyway, was that a meek was going to be pushed outside. We did not want Vildor to be trusted on the outside of the defense and that just showing that a meek was definitely the right choice. And, you know, really good to have him on the team.

Morgan Cannon:

I love that kid, man. I really, I like the way he plays. He's mean. He has like an edge to him. He's always trying to punch that ball out. I don't know if y'all noticed that like whenever he arrives at the pile fiancee laughs every time she's like there's a meat trying to punch somebody again yeah, he's trying to he's trying to get that ball out, man He balls up his fist and that peanut tillman. So no i'm right there with you. Jacob. I do i'm happy He's on her contract next year, too. So That's someone I'm excited to have back in the Honolulu blue.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah. The fact that, if you go back to the off season, they didn't think they were going to get a meek and Carlton Davis, cause they thought as soon as they got Carlton, a meek would say, no, I'll go somewhere else. But a meek was basically like, we're going to do this still. And that just type, these things happen. He was on the field for nickel and now he's over on the outside and the darn good thing. We signed him because we could be a lot worse for wear if we didn't have him.

Morgan Cannon:

I almost

Jason Harwood:

Morganate.

Morgan Cannon:

I'll go ahead.

Jason Harwood:

No, that's fine. Go ahead.

Morgan Cannon:

Oh, I know. We'll talk, they'll talk about it with the reef. But part of me is like, would he be better off? Sorry, there's some stuff going on here in the, on my neck of the woods. But would he be better off against Jefferson on Sunday? Something that's crossed my mind. Like, I love Terry on. I think he's playing really well. Amik's, a vet. They played, he played against Justin in high school because they're both in Louisiana. Like that. Part of Louisiana. So, that crossed my mind. I was like, man, that might be something they kick around.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah. it.

Jacob:

Interesting take.

Morgan Cannon:

I like a meek man. I know he's shorter, but it's a dog.

Jason Harwood:

He is a

Jacob:

Right.

Jason Harwood:

He's a Detroit lion, man. He's a gritty guy. I love him.

Morgan Cannon:

I'm not

Jason Harwood:

right.

Jacob:

It's not the size of the dog in the fight. It's the size of the fight in the dog.

Morgan Cannon:

Like that prototypical corner. Like that's probably why Aaron Glenn, I bet you, Aaron Glenn loves him. So I'm a meek Robertson, man. You know what I'm saying? Just because of

Jacob:

Yeah.

Morgan Cannon:

the way he plays the game, it's not a big guy, but not scared of anything. I'm not going to take anything. Like, man, yeah, I'm right there with, I'm a big, I'm a big Robertson fan for sure,

Jason Harwood:

Alright, let's move on to the offense. Where do you want to start with Jacob?

Jacob:

Yeah. I mean, we already knew with all the injuries and everything on defense that we were going to have to outscore some of these teams. And that was kind of this game. You know, Morgan said earlier, like, how many stops do we need to get? How many, you know, like, Realistically, and we, we only got three drives in the first half. We had two touchdowns. Then we had that fourth down try. Yeah. You know, from inside their 10 yard line that we didn't get. And then the second half we put points on the board, every drive. So, I mean, the offense was on fire, which it really, you know, when it's firing on all cylinders, it's the best offense in the NFL, right? Another great game from Jared Goff, 26 at 34, 303 yards, three touchdowns. You know, the lateral play. You want to talk about that?

Jason Harwood:

Oh man, just

Jacob:

How many of those can we pull off? It just keeps working.

Jason Harwood:

play, right? It's just that's part of the game plan. Yeah. And it's

Morgan Cannon:

it so

Jason Harwood:

hard to, it's so hard to defend, so hard to defend because everyone's running one way and then Go the other way. And, they're going to do something off that at some point, a double flip, or, just fake the flip and then

Morgan Cannon:

Yeah.

Jason Harwood:

if it's not tight coverage, they fake the flip. Everyone, sees it coming. going to happen. They got something built off that. I mean. Ben Johnson is too good to not have something built off that, but Sam LaPorta just gotten the, just, he didn't even have to lay the block. He basically just stood there and I don't know if it was a linebacker or safety that went, they just went underneath them and JMO was gone. And Tim Patrick was out there playing a nice block later on

Jacob:

Yeah.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah, it was just, sometimes you don't need to block. So you just need to stand in the guy's way. And once that safety took the wrong direction, JMO was, he was gone.

Jacob:

Yeah, right.

Morgan Cannon:

rear view mirror, man. I think y'all are completely right, man. Like the offense it's been one of the best, if not the best in football, but for a little bit now, I've said. If they were going to really like crank things up to another level, if like, if Jameson became like a one B. And in my opinion, he is now, man, like every catch. I feel like he's a lot of separation, like the digs he runs now. I'm like, Oh, he's all by himself. Okay, that's nice. And then he caught the one. And instead of knifing, because that's what you get taught as a receiver, you catch the ball, you get north, south knife. you're Jameson Williams, sometimes you can be like, Oh, yeah, that's what I'm doing. Let me see if I can, dip a little bit and try to turn this corner. And he does. And those are

Jason Harwood:

Okay.

Morgan Cannon:

Those are drive making plays, man. He'll make some of those catches where he turns like a 12 yard drag into like a 30 yard, like where he steps out of bounds. And I'm like, Oh, we're almost in field goal range. Cool. And that's why the offense is getting so good. And then Sam was awesome. Laporta, another surgical game. And I can't say enough about golf. Justin Rogers. Of the Detroit football network. I'm sure a lot of y'all listening to this familiar, but I was listening to his pod for a second. And he made a really, I'm not even a baseball guy. My brothers were but was like, Jared Goff's like a Greg Maddox. I was like, man, that a comparison. Like hall of fame pitcher didn't have overpowering stuff or anything. surgical and like was smart with the ball because like y'all said, man, Jerry was playing so well, like, and I'm so happy because it does. Like Jacob said, it does look like we're going to have to score some points here if we're going to make that, make a run through February. Yeah.

Jason Harwood:

We talked last, I mean, Jacob and I, during the offseason talk, like, did we see the ceiling of Jared Goff last year? Cause he played really well and that was one of his best seasons, if not his best, he's outplayed that. Yeah. Yeah. Wait, he's grown so much as a quarterback. He's accurate. He has actually been able to throw the outside ball a lot better this year, which, and his escapability or just movement in the pocket is just, he's adjusted just enough. I mean, outside of that terrible sack that he took to kick that field goal out to a 57 yarder, that was probably was worse, one of his worst plays this year as far as like getting sacked, but he was, I mean, The Sam Laporta touchdown, he put it in a perfect spot. The linebacker just moved just out just enough of the way he's able, and then on the two point conversion, and he was able, to move out of the pocket and to Pat, just enough time to find to Patrick wide open. He's creating some lanes by moving around. And yeah, he's just. Yeah, he's surgical. And I love the, I haven't, I didn't hear that from Justin Rogers, but that makes total sense. A guy that you're just like, it's like one of those guys that you see, you would see in the bullpen if you're in baseball, and be like, okay, this guy's all right. But then you get in the game and he makes winning plays.

Morgan Cannon:

Yeah. exactly. I can't get it. I can't get a hit off this guy.

Jason Harwood:

if you're the, yeah, if you're on the other team, you're like, what is wrong with me? And I think that Jared Goff had that reputation and that only plays into what people feel about Jared Goff is that, He's, he was a Sean McVay product and then, Sean McVay threw him away and then now he's a Ben Johnson product. No, this is all a combo And you're not watching and you're just looking at stats, Jared Goff is one thing, but you and I, or you guys, we watched the games, right? When we need a big time play, Jared Goff delivers, and there's been plenty of fourth down plays that he has delivered. And those count extra in my book.

Jacob:

Right.

Morgan Cannon:

Tight window throws, man. Like even it's a small play, excuse me. But like when he, he gets through his progressions really quickly. And that one that he, the swing pass, he hit Craig on that Craig turned into like 20. That couldn't have been any, like, that's a tough throw for people to make. Like it looks easy, but. He's under duress. He gets it out. Boom. It's right. And like, Craig doesn't even have to break stride. It's right. Chest level. And he's able to squeak by somebody. And it's actually because that was a third down. Was it not?

Jason Harwood:

Yes, it was. Yeah.

Morgan Cannon:

like, that's a big conversion, man. Like, and Like he makes winning plays. Like you talked about the movement in the pocket, just being on time. He's on time all the time. Throws with anticipation. You mentioned, throwing outside the hashes, like towards the boundary. Yeah. Yeah. takes trust with your guys and that's why I keep thinking about the Jameson thing too, man, because he trusts Jamo in those spots. Now, he didn't used to. Jamo had to be really open for him to get the ball. But now he's like, okay, I trust you. Here it comes. And

Jason Harwood:

JMO has earned that. I mean, he has caught some stuff in traffic and held onto the ball. So the hands narrative to me, that's gone. The track and the ball narrative like you said,

Morgan Cannon:

The dart he caught against Chicago against wasn't

Jason Harwood:

yes,

Morgan Cannon:

to try and that was on a

Jason Harwood:

yep.

Morgan Cannon:

shout out the golf.

Jacob:

yeah, right.

Morgan Cannon:

was on a rope, dude.

Jacob:

He was like, I'll show you civilian. Check this out. Yeah.

Jason Harwood:

talk about Gibby. Let's talk about Gibby, man. We've needed him to come through with Demo being down and boy, has he come through. AT carries for 117 yards. He had that 30 yard touchdown run, made it look easy four receptions for 46 yards. Morgan what more can we say about this guy?

Morgan Cannon:

What is he like? 1700 yards from scrimmage, like 70 plus yards from scrimmage in each game. Like the only person to do that this year. it's the little things he does as a complete back now, like this is going to make me sound like a grandpa, but there was a, I want to say it was a third down again, and. player I like from San Francisco, my God, man, that Malik Mustafa, number six, the kid from Wake Forest, he hits people like he, someone, kicked his dog, like he is mad, he he caught St. Brown one time. I was like, Ooh, that looked like it hurt. And then he can't, he came off the edge. Untouched

Jacob:

Free rushed.

Morgan Cannon:

and Jameer had to step up and pick him up and he did and goth completed it But that's how Jameer got that big old cut on his face. Did you see that? I don't know how the heck that happened, but that was from that I was like, ooh cuz Jameer's tough like he way tougher than people give him credit for he's powerfully built, too But most like I said Mustafa gets in there like he wants to hurt you so he does little plays like that Jameer make now have made me just love him even more because You get, that's another person you can make. That's a, you can make an argument. He's the best back in football right now.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah Barkley is going to hold that especially with this rushing thing, but I'll, I love me some Gibbs and we, this town's not too big enough for two Gibby's, right? We got Kirk Gibson and we got Gibbs. I, we're generations, different sports, but yeah. Also, Jacob, we're gonna, I'm gonna make you sad here. Moody missed the field goal. I know that, that bugs you.

Jacob:

I said, listen, I'm a Michigan fan. I'm a Michigan man. So I, it pains me when he misses the field goals. Not when he's playing the lions,

Jason Harwood:

yeah.

Morgan Cannon:

go.

Jacob:

like, all right, yes, let's go. And you know, the one. The, the one was 58 yards. It's pretty far away, but he had the leg on it and he just missed the kick. And then, you know, he misses the extra point towards the end. The onside kick was just so, yeah, it was so bad. It was like, he, he looked like, just cut me, just get me out of here. I want to go home. He boots the ball right out of the, like, you know, it didn't take the hop that onside kicks are supposed to take. It was just really, really bad.

Morgan Cannon:

No,

Jacob:

I feel bad for him, but you know,

Morgan Cannon:

it's like one of us kicked you on.

Jacob:

we benefited

Jason Harwood:

yeah, the reason I bring that up is because right after he missed that field goal, Gibbs, we got the ball. So like, we have momentum Gibbs gets it and then runs backwards and he's about to lose 20 yards, but then he runs all the way across the field to get a three yard game. I haven't seen him exciting, more exciting three yard run since the Barry Sanders days, because he would do that all the time, like look like he was dead rights and then get a three yard game, but that was, it was a three yard game, but it was more like a 15 yard game. Cause I would have changed that drive drastically.

Jacob:

right

Jason Harwood:

was right out there. I mean, he was just

Jacob:

for a block.

Jason Harwood:

God

Morgan Cannon:

in the

Jason Harwood:

was like, don't get hurt. Don't get hurt. Let's talk about the other runner though. Craig Reynolds, right? Look I know that he's not demo. I get that, but he showed patience on his runs and I was super impressed with that. He wait for a hole or blocked up to develop. And then he take what he goes straight ahead and take what he could give him. I. Really glad to have Craig Reynolds in that role right now.

Jacob:

He's ready to step up when the opportunity comes and he's making the most out of it right now Obviously not as impactful as David Montgomery is but you know, that's as expected But you know, he played really well seven carries 30 yards, you know, he had Morgan said he had a couple big catches So, you know, that's a true traditional Instead of being a 1A and 1B, like when Montgomery and Gibbs are playing, now you have Gibbs, you know, being the every now and back, Reynolds is coming in, kind of the change of pace, I think most of the work he got was after Gibbs got cut, you know, he got cut and was out for a little bit, just while they were putting the bandaid on, Goff said he looked like Nelly,

Morgan Cannon:

We did. kind of.

Jacob:

I don't know if you saw that,

Morgan Cannon:

He did. That's funny. That's how you

Jacob:

yeah,

Morgan Cannon:

a little older than those guys too. Cause a lot of them are like, only know Nelly as a shot. He's daddy, a baby daddy, you know what I'm saying? But yeah. Craig is, I like that you use the word patients to Jason. Because He was man, like a couple of times back there. I'm like, Oh, are you trying to get your levy on bell on? You know what I mean? It's like just sitting back there,

Jacob:

nope.

Morgan Cannon:

but he did a good job of that. And then, yeah, it was a, I didn't realize that was a 26 yard catch. The one I was talking about earlier, the swing past that. So that's a drive, that's a field flipper and in some cases where it gets you into it. So yeah. And Jamar looked okay too. And it was confusing the heck out of Buck and Aikman.

Jason Harwood:

yeah, it was, it confused the heck out of all my whole family because the, the number so close and they, my wife especially gets. my question is, did you notice that both that they got in the goal line? They put Jamar in there. Do you think they were saving wear and tear on Gibbs? Like, cause was that part of the plan? Cause I thought it was interesting. They pulled him like on the first goal line drive, they pulled Gibbs and put Jamar in there. So what's your on that? Is that, was that just for this game? Or do you think that's something that we might see this weekend?

Morgan Cannon:

I want to say that they're probably saving Gibby because I feel like Jameer, like he has a Kamara like ability to not take those big shots, knock on wood. I'm a superstitious guy. So,

Jacob:

Okay.

Morgan Cannon:

good at that, but the goal line carries are always pretty violent. You know what I mean? So I like going with like a little bit of a thicker back. Like, that's why some of these guys are like, why don't we QB sneak more of like, cause man, that's a violent play. Like if you're not, if you don't want to be doing that a lot unless you have like a built, like a bigger quarterback or,

Jason Harwood:

Yep.

Morgan Cannon:

At least golf's like durable, but I wouldn't classify them as like built either. You know what I mean? So.

Jason Harwood:

No.

Morgan Cannon:

Yeah, I thought Jameer or Jamar is a tough runner. Same with Craig. So I'm fine with that if they want to roll with that for a little bit. But I do think when it, you get into these do or die situations, like you've said, Jason, I think they'll start getting Jameer those touches just because it's the more dynamic player.

Jason Harwood:

Yep. All right. I want to talk about we let's go back to Sam. We talked about a little bit earlier, but. He's been, his target rate's been increased. So in the first nine weeks, he was at 14. 9 percent target rate. Now it's up to 21. 8%. And I've noticed that just, watching the games without seeing the numbers, it feels like we're getting Laporta more involved, which is great. This time of year, because this is going to be a difference maker. He's a third down guy, just like I'm on rod. You can count on him. And we have multiple third down guys. I mean, Jamison's can be a third down guy too, but it's nice to have all those options. So I'm excited to see LaPorta get this. And then Jamo, when he got his first touchdown, LaPorta took out two guys, drove them right back into the end zone.

Morgan Cannon:

Yeah.

Jason Harwood:

was great blocking. So loving to see the development on LaPorta this late in the season.

Morgan Cannon:

Yeah, I think some people were getting a little down on Sam like in the middle of the season. He was dinged up and then like the emergence of Jameson and Jameer going so crazy. There's just so many, there's only so many touches to go around. So like you said, Jason, I think to be huge to have everybody all hands on deck because the lines are just, they're just so hard to defend back to that little like thing that Brady went on earlier in the season about how it's They just do everything from like an offensive, like a scheme standpoint. So it's just tough to defend.

Jason Harwood:

Yeah. All right, so we're going to need this offense to keep going for us to win games. I feel, like you said, it's like two or three stops a game. That's what the defense need to get either a turnover, stop them on third down, whatever, and a half situations. We just steal a couple of possessions. And just let our offense roll because they're hard to stop.

Morgan Cannon:

Yep. Try to hold

Jason Harwood:

All right.

Morgan Cannon:

here and there. That kind of thing,

Jason Harwood:

yep. We're going to need to do a better job in the red zone than we did during the San Francisco game. On defense moving forward and, get Anzalone is going to do be important down in that space too. all right, let's wrap up our going over our grit guarantees, Jacob going with the Laporta thing here. He thought he's going to have five or more catches. You hit it. He's had six catches I went again. And I said, we were going to cover the spread and I thought. Didn't look good early on. I thought we might just squeak one out, but yeah, we covered that spread. So I very happy with that. I felt very happy that we exercise a demon from vanquish that and got on with that. And I know for the guys in the locker room, that was important for them too.

Morgan Cannon:

Yep. Mentally for sure.

Jason Harwood:

Morgan. So thanks for coming on. We. a great guest. You're always welcome on our program. We really appreciate it.

Morgan Cannon:

Appreciate you guys.

Jason Harwood:

I want to thank Morgan again for showing up and going over this 49ers game. It's great to have him on, before we head out of here, we got some fan mail, Jacob. So let's talk about that. We have not been good hosts and we forgot to, include this in the last couple of episodes. We have, our friend down in Orlando, Florida. I think he goes by JP. He says, how does the Lions defensive performance injuries aside affect Glenn's attractiveness to other teams as a head coach next year? this was sent to us right after the Buffalo game, which obviously we gave up 48 points. So Jacob, do you think. That how the defense has done as of late, do you think that it reduces Glenn's attractiveness or do you think he's, it hasn't affected it at all?

Jacob:

And I'll think it affected it. It's hard to find good coaches and good promising. I mean, the way the defense was ran and the things we're able to do early in the season before these injuries happen, I think the fact that defense has held up as well as they have even, and that we've been continuing to find ways to win football games. I don't think that any team that was interested in Aaron Glenn before would have been deterred by things that have happened lately. How do you feel about it?

Jason Harwood:

I think it's the exact, I think it's kind of like, does it decrease the attractiveness? I think it's gone the other way. You look at a team like 49ers that have had, you know, not in many, many injuries. They're not making the playoffs. The lions. Have been decimated on one side of the ball and that's Aaron Glenn side of the ball. But yeah, he's been able to piece it out just enough to, uh, to, to be able to win these games. Now, granted, yes, our offense is and where he'd been able to. To do this because, you know, of our offense, but our defense could be historically bad and he's been able to hold surf with this, with this team and be able to come up with, um, a plan. And, you know, Dan Campbell has said, has said as such, like, you know, Glantz done an amazing job. So I think the teams that were. Interested in him before we'll look at it as, you know, he's, this has been a, uh, speed bump, but he's passed the test.

Jacob:

Agreed.

Jason Harwood:

Yep. JP goes on to say that, Glenn has had a lack of flexibility scheme with man coverage, like didn't go to zone. you know, some of the linebacker troubles. Do you think that any of that is, is, is You know, do you think he could have done any, any different? Or do you think he's just, you know, we had, we did what we had to do.

Jacob:

I mean, obviously he could have done things differently, but I think that you have to, you don't see these players in the practice field and you don't see them in the room, so you don't know exactly what they're capable of. How much they can handle and you know, based on what we've seen so far, you've got a lot of people on this team that were practice squad candidates or fringe like roster players and they're out here playing meaningful snaps for us. We had, you know, Jamal Adams, Kwan Alexander, you got people that just showed up and you have to go out there. I mean, the fact that we were able to have any sort of viable defense having guys like that is crazy., I think that he's doing the best that he can with the cards that he's been dealt. Maybe you could call some more blitzes this way or that way, but then you have to worry about, you know, if you are sending an extra linebacker, do you have another linebacker that's going to be able to cover or get back and coverage or protect this side of the, you know, what we're doing now, uh, now that if he's back, you know, we're able to send, if he were able to send branch, you're also relying on the other safety and the other people to be able to drop back into coverage and be able to play that scheme that you're going with. And if you don't have a complete roster of 11 guys that can do that, then you, you know, you have to play with what you're going with. You can't send the extra pressure and then not have somebody back in coverage. We saw a couple of plays where it was happening with the 49ers just because the linebackers weren't clicking. I think the Aaron Glenn is doing the best that he can with what he's been dealt with.

Jason Harwood:

I agree. I mean, you're talking people that were on either our practice squad or other teams practice squad, and And, you know, aren't going to be pro bowl players that are just sitting on the practice squad. You can't fault Aaron Glenn when we're losing a Lee McNeil, Hutch, you know, now Carlton Davis. He's done some amazing stuff, just getting any sort of production out of this team, this lack of pressure and all the, the secondary is not probably getting enough credit, for holding it together, being that the linebackers have been decimated and the lines been decimated. Thanks for reaching out JP. I really appreciate, you getting hold of us. We appreciate anybody that wants to reach out to us. You can reach us on Twitter, blue sky, or on Instagram. We have our YouTube channel, anything like that. Love to have fan interaction. So we appreciate it. Anything, before we take off here, Jacob, or

Jacob:

No, I'm in ready for Sunday night.

Jason Harwood:

yes. Ready for Sunday night. It's going to be awesome. For Morgan, I'm Jason. Jacob. Let's go lions.

People on this episode

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Jacob Litton

Co-host
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Jason Harwood

Co-host