This is the Litterbox, a Detroit Lions podcast
with your hosts, Chad West and Bill Patterson.
Welcome to the Detroit Lions Litterbox. And wow,
is all I can say for our Honolulu Blue and Silver
Warriors winners. 52 to 21 over the Chicago Bears.
And Chet, I have to say that's as much fun as
I've had on a Sunday afternoon in a long time.
It's as good as he gets. As good as he gets,
Bill. It really was. It was a riot. Jared Goff
threw for five touchdowns. So right off the bat,
he had a career day and I believe he was only
0 .02 away from having a perfect QBR. So not
only did the Lions get the win, but Jared Goff
was outstanding, as was the rest of the team.
And with that, I'd like to ask you, we had three
keys to the game. How did you and I do with our
crystal ball on that? So I think we did pretty
good with this. We brought up the very first
key of the game we brought up was Amon Rassein
Brown versus like, who is going to cover the
guy? And it didn't really matter. They all failed.
He did an incredible job. We'll talk about our
PFF grades here in a little bit. But he was he
was top dog this past week. The second one and
probably an even bigger key to the game would
have been the interior line versus Chicago's
interior D line. So our interior much maligned
interior line from week one performed much better
in week two. On the run block side of things.
They didn't blow it out of the water, but they
still were about 20 beats higher than they were
in week one, which tells you how bad they were
in week one. In week two, they were acceptable,
at least. In the pass block, everybody did quite
well across the line for pass blocking. So that
O -line pretty much dominated Chicago's D -line
for most of the game. The only guy that gave
him any real heart failure would have been Sweatt,
and he's... going to do that to everybody because
he's an elite pass rusher. So we had a good game
on that key and won that one. And then the last
one was Lyons, D .C., Kelvin Sheppard versus
the Bears head coach Ben Johnson. I'm not going
to sit here and say that Sheppard out game plan
him or out. I just don't think Ben Johnson has
the horses on that Bears offense to keep up with
with many. I don't think Caleb Williams. is a
top -tier single caller. I think Roman Zay is
a pretty good wide receiver. He did a great job
in that game, and he definitely made Terry and
Arnold look a little silly once in a while. Outside
of that, and DJ Reed for that matter, outside
of that, I think that maybe they were just outmatched
talent -wise personally, but we'll give this
to Kelvin Sheppard, did his job, had the defense
ready, put the Bears in their place. So those
three keys of the game, we won them all. And
we go... winning the game running away. Benedict
Johnson does not have the horses. No, which is
a clear indictment or indictment on Ryan Poles
and just how lousy he's drafted. And here's the
weird thing. When we talk about how many weapons
he has at his disposal, Luther Bolden, the third
was a second round pick. He had one. Catch they
drafted. I believe tenth overall a guy named
Colston Loveland from the University of Michigan
is a tight end He had one target zero catches.
So the Bears are investing resources, but in
high draft picks in positions that should yield
fruit if the lines, both O and D are set. And
the problem is the bears went the route you don't
want to go, which is free agency for both lines.
And they're clearly overpaying a guy that we
used to know well, Jonah Jackson, who I can't
wait for your PFF grades. He didn't score that
bad. He didn't score that bad. I'll give you
a little preamble. He didn't. The right side
of the Bears offensive line was abused all day
and maligned and he is part of that right side.
So I'm a little surprised to hear that, which
again, I don't totally trust these PFF grades.
They have flaws. So, let's dive into your PFF
grades. Alright, here we go. Let's talk about
the Lions. I'm gonna give you the Lions number
one guy on the field, PFF -wise. 91 .6 for Amon
Ross St. Brown. He was the top offensive performer.
No surprise there, right? He had a 91 .4 pass
grade, so he did quite well. Jared Goff was number
two at 85 .1 on the offense. And right behind
him was only 17 snaps. Isaac Tesla, co -slaught.
And then he had JMo with a 74 .8. Brock Wright
checking in with a 74 .6. Thank you. Played a
good deal of snaps. His passing grade was an
89 .3. His pass block. Don't sleep on this. Tight
-end pass blocking was a 74 .4. That's pretty
decent. I like that a lot. His run blocking,
not so great. 53 .1. Penne Sewell was the top
rated lineman outside of Brock Wright being the
tight end. He had a 74 .2 overall. Pass block
was a 66 .8. We had a 75 .7 for run blocking
for him. So... pretty good as far as our metrics
go because the next couple guys, if we talk about
pass blocking, just pass blocking right now,
Graham Glasgow was the second rated, second rated
pass blocker on our line with a 77 .2. Number
one rated pass blocker on our line was Christian
Mahogany with an 81 .1. Taylor Decker, 76 .1.
The entire left side of the line, did their job
pass blocking. Granted, they didn't have to deal
with Montez Sweat. Sweat rush is usually from
the left side. Who had to deal with him? Well,
Tate Ratledge had a 66 .8, and Panay Soul had
a 66 .8 in the pass block. So those two guys
had to deal with Sweat over there, and their
grade was a little bit lower, but still very
respectable. Above the 60 line, which is just
doing your job. So they were getting up there.
Run block. We still got some grades around run
block that are disappointing. Graham Glasgow,
overall, Graham Glasgow and Tate Ratledge brought
up the bottom. Ratledge was a 56 .2, Glasgow
a 56 .7. They were the bottom two offense grades
for regulars. They had a 52 .7 and a 51 .6 run
block for each of them. I think we've identified
probably where our weakness resides right now
in this offense is the middle of the O line and
probably on that right side with those pass or
those run block grades are not going to get you
a whole lot. Okay. It worries me. I have to disagree
with you on this because here's the deal. They
rushed 30 times for 177 yards yesterday. That's
a 5 .9 yard average and You have to take out
three of those runs because they were Craig Reynolds
and Garbage Time for four yards for an average
of 1 .3. So you take that out, the 27 runs at
173 yards puts you over six yards a carry. They
did their job. Well, here's where my concern
lies. If we play a team with a better interior
D line, Those guys go right back down into the
30s and 40s on run blocks and everything gets
blown up The Bears have a really bad interior
D line. They're just not that good So they did
their job against a team that wasn't very good.
Let's see what happens against the Ravens next
week I'll be real curious to see what happens
there. We'll talk about that in a little bit
I'm gonna go through a couple more and then wrap
this up outside of those Scores there that you
get on the offense that the usual performers
were all up there We gave you that on Chicago's
offense. It was pretty bad. I mean they had a
guy they had They had a really bad performance
From Braxton Jones. He had a 46 overall. He's
their left tackle Okay, he's awful. His pass
block was a forty six point nine his run block
was a fifty two point four That is not gonna
win the day Right there. Okay. So we got a couple
of question marks there. Can you go through the
rest of their offensive line? Yeah. Yeah. Just
the offensive line. We'll give you the rest of
them here. Joe Thune, left guard, graded in at
60 .8. Theo Benedict and Darnell Wright, both
graded in at 64 .5 and 65 .8. Theo Benedict's
a backup. Writes the guy I wanted to highlight.
Okay. Did you see the play where he leg whipped
Hutchinson? No into the bad leg. No, it was so
bush league and It's all anybody can talk about
today is like even bears fans are like he is
the worst He got abused by hot shot a day and
he tried to leg whip him which NFL guys don't
go for that Like now it's competitive, but you
don't try to win yet. That's not gonna win you
the day You don't try to end another man's career
So I'll talk about the other two. Your favorite
Jonah Jackson, right guard, 68 .2 overall. So
he's 80 .2 pass block and a 60 run block. He's
good on a bad line, which that should tell you
something. So maybe he's not as bad as we get.
Maybe he's doing better or maybe he just had
a good day against us. You never know. I mean,
this is just one game, right? So that's basically
the line right there. Braxton Jones bringing
up the rear. And then next to that is probably
Drew Dalman, the center, at a 58 .9. He did fine.
He's like a 60 across the board. What are we
going to get? Fans here are really harsh on him.
It doesn't sound like maybe that's just. I think
Braxton Jones was the problem today. He caught
heat and he couldn't handle it. That's the bottom
line. What was Tyreek Stevenson's grade? Tyreek.
Let's look at Tyreek here. Because the Lions
picked on him all day long. The key to the game
is when the Bears shut down corner. So he was
bad. So I was going to get to the defense here
in a minute. Yeah. And the highlights for defense
are all on the Bears side. So you had three guys
that played pretty much most of the game. Tyreek
Stevenson, Naishon Wright, and Kevin Byard. That's
a strong safety in two corners. So Stevenson
and Wright are the corners. Their overall grades.
Stevenson was a 29 .8. Ishaan Wright was a 29
.4. Oof. And Kevin Viard was a 26 .1. Oof. So
those guys just got torched all day long and
their coverage grades were the reason for it.
37, 35, and 26. They were awful. Nick McLeod
wasn't much better. He had a 41 .8 at the other
corner and a 35 .4 for coverage. So they just
don't cover the pass very well in that group.
So they all got absolutely... Jalen Johnson was,
is there better of the corners? He only played
20 snaps. He had a 70 .9, he had a 71 .9 cover
rate. And I still think in the, in the place
he was in, he got beat every once in a while.
So. He's out indefinitely too. He tore his groin.
He had a groin injury going into it and he's
out indefinitely. So a 71 or 70 point whatever,
given how hurt he was, isn't probably that bad.
And he is their best player, which is. not good
for the Bears. Can I end the Bears really quick
as we look forward to the Ravens? I'm going to
summarize it like this, and I'm going to ask
you the question, and this is the difference
between these two franchises. They played at
the same college one year apart. They play the
same position. One was a second round pick. The
other was an undrafted free agent. Who would
you rather have, Cole Comet or Brock Wright?
Because in my mind, they're the exact same player.
They are the same player. Comet gets a little
more play. from the Bears, just due to options.
He seems to catch more balls, but a second round
pick versus an undrafted for agent. I get where
I get, I see where you're going. Brock Wright
took, you know, when, when Colton was drafted
by the Bears, Brock Wright took his job at Notre
Dame. I just find the comparison just stunning
when you think about the launch angle in where
the two franchises are. So. Ryan Poles needs
to go. He is not drafting Difference Makers.
The Bears also had three second or third round
picks that were healthy scratches. I mean, that's
never happened for the Lions. Healthy scratches.
I mean, Levi Onsorike was unhealthy a lot, but
that's totally different. Support drafting. So
I want to just shoot you a couple defensive grades
for Detroit, then we can jump off. Yeah, please.
Okay. Brian Ranch, 91 .4. Guy's a stud. Got the
game ball we saw in the game video there. They
need to lock him up to an extension Yeah, I'm
gonna say that's probably true your buddy hutch
improved. He was in an 80 80 .8 for his overall
score and Grant Stewart in his six total plays
got an 84 .6 I usually don't look at the guys
that just get a couple of snaps, but he's thought
that was kind of funny Do you know he's the special
teams captain for the audience as well? Oh, yeah
So Al -Qaeda Muhammad played 36 snaps and got
a 76 .4 at that nose tackle position. I liked
seeing that. That's some pressure up the gut.
Actually, I think he is going to take somebody's
job. Well, you know who I think? Well, Roy Lopez
was our lowest rated regular defensive player
at a 45 .8. He's doing very little with that
defensive tackle position and probably why he
was available in free agency, let's be honest.
He's... He's a guy. He's a depth piece. My bigger
surprise was Terrien Arnold. Came in at a 48
.6. Terrien just doesn't seem to be picking up
pass coverage very well. He actually scores higher
in run defense and tackling. In coverage he's
like a 46 .1. This is two weeks in a row now
that he hasn't performed that well. And another
guy that really isn't turning in great grades
is Alexian Zaloni. 54 .7 and On run defense,
he's a 40 .6. He's not good. He's not long for
it, and it's not good. I think that's probably
why we didn't give him the big deal that he was
hoping for there. So let's jump off it. Everybody
else did a good job. Yeah, the one thing I was
going to say, medium or above. The thing to look
forward to, Lions fans, Davenport got hurt. on
three separate occasions. He didn't have an awful
game, but I fully expect Mohammed to possibly
push for his position at some point going forward.
Last thing, let's talk about this week's opponent,
Monday Night Football, which is awesome. It's
just so fun having the Lions relevant in these.
You know, they were the game of the week against
the Packers, week one, and now they're on Monday
Night Football. The bad news is they have to
face Lamar Jackson and the Ravens. And since
Lamar Jackson has become a starter for the Baltimore
Ravens, he is 24 and 2 against the NFC. And that
is all I have to say about this. Well, and he's
gonna, he gives us fits. He gives the Lions absolute
fits and if you go back and look at a couple
of the games so far, he grades out as one of
the highest players on their offense. He and
Zay Flowers might be a problem for us on Monday
night. Especially if Arnold can't step it up.
Especially if Arnold can't step it up. So we'll
have another pod for you all later this week
to preview that in more depth, but that's just
the overview and why I'm not feeling super strong
about the Lions. I never feel good about the
Ravens. I can always be is I don't know what
it is, but we just it's just one of those teams.
It's like them and the commanders. We struggle.
I'm just happy it's on the neck of the woods.
It's a road game, so it's not a. You know, it's
a road loss, not a home loss. It is a road loss.
It's a Monday night, which stinks because we're
going to play some prime time TV. But let's see.
Let's see. We'll pull it out. Let's see if our
offense can be there. If I had to give a game
ball, though, to coaching staff, it's got to
be Johnny Morton. The offense was clicking all
the way around and good for him to kind of, you
know, shove it in Benedict's face. So he proved
in a big game, he proved that he can beat a beatable
defense. Yeah, he did. He crushed him. So that's
great. All right, Lions fans, please listen to
our sister pod, the Detroit Tigers litter box.
And that is all we have for you until we give
you the Ravens preview. Great win. Enjoy it.
Celebrate. And we'll talk to you all soon.