This is The Litterbox, a Detroit Lions podcast
with your hosts, Chet West and Bill Patterson.
Welcome to the Detroit Lions Litterbox. I am
Billy P with my co -host Chet West. And we have
a very bittersweet, so close yet so far away
loss in Los Angeles to the Rams at SoFi Stadium.
And Chet, I feel like the Lions offense gave
them a puncher's chance this entire game. However,
the defense, when we needed stops, couldn't do
it. allowed the Rams just put up a 41 points
and lost 41 -34. You can't allow a team to score
41 points and hope to win. I think the cracks
are starting to show on both sides of the ball,
but mainly on the defense. What was your overall
takeaway from yesterday's game? So the defense
is definitely the problem area on this team right
now. Our offensive line, we have enough talent
on the offense. to get by with a substandard
offensive line, which is what we have right now,
okay? You watched that Rams offensive line yesterday.
Man, it felt like Matt Stafford had like hours
to throw the football. Hours. in synchronicity,
and I couldn't agree more. They are orchestrated
dance. They are like ballet. And it all starts
with that line, Bill. It all starts with that
line. And we even got a little bit of pressure
in there yesterday at times. And it wasn't enough.
It wasn't enough. So I start with O lines, but
I also say our D line is just where did Alim
McNeil go? Where? Where are these guys is this
week's? Where are you on the milk? Where are
you for a couple weeks now? I yeah, and then
tackles just Lopez shows up every so often Yeah,
I think we didn't even know he was doing that
great from at least a PFS course He hasn't though
the last two weeks. It seemed really are the
middle of our line I mean we could you could
flip it around in a mirror You look at the middle
of our O line and defensive lines and how they
attack us They go right up the gut at us every
time and it just completely disrupts the quarterback
and Tom Brady in his broadcast this week if you
can get past how bad he is as an actual announcer
and Just distill his information. He actually
gives a ton of great nuggets of information as
he should being the goat he He broke down that
there is no quarterback in the NFL that will
perform well with a rush coming up the gut in
their face. It's just not going to work out.
And Jared Goff is susceptible to it like anybody,
and that happens to be the weakness of our line.
But then when I flip it back around and I watch
our defense, we get no pressure up the gut from
our D line. It's like it's they're just staying
home or something. I don't really get it. We
get a lot around the edges and the quarterback
just steps right up into the pocket and flings
the ball downfield every time and there's no
pressure up the gut. So that was my first thing.
I was watching the D tackles a lot because they
just seemed to be missing in action. And you
made the comment in our last pod that you thought
from a fantasy standpoint, the Rams running backs
were to be avoided. They. torched us yesterday,
not just the passing game, but those running
backs had all sorts of gaps and holes to run
through, which was shocking. But then if you'd
look at where our defense is ranking this year
in run D, we used to have a top five run D for
the last two or three seasons. We've had a top
five run D this year. We're like 13th. That isn't
going to cut it. When you have a terrible defensive
backfield and you have a bad run D, it's just
a bad, the whole thing is just not quite working
on defense. And I'm not blaming it on Shepherd.
I think I'm just blaming it on a lack of healthy,
good players on that side of the ball. Gonna
say yes for the secondary lacking health, and
we always knew going into this game without either
of our starting safeties that it was gonna be
tough sledding. That is out there for everyone
to digest. However, that has no bearing on how
the defensive line plays whatsoever. And true.
Branch does blitz every now and then. Joseph
is a ball hawk when he's back there. Outside
of Roy Lopez, our defensive tackles did nothing
yesterday. And I have serious concerns about
Tylek Williams hitting the rookie wall at this
point of the year. And then I've got really big
concerns on Aleem McNeil and that that was just
wasted money. I don't know what happened there.
It's like we paid him. He got healthy. And now
he's just a non -factor. He's just, he's just
happy. He's rich and happy. He's rich and happy.
And then Hutch, I really, I guess, let's dive
into a little bit of the game going blow by blow.
You know, the Lions get the ball. Crucial that
they make that opening field goal. Bates misses
it. I'm not going to come too hard on Bates with
that. You're allowed to miss a field goal. Unless
you're going to miss one once in a while. Unless
you're Brandon Aubrey. And the killer was, Then,
Hutch gets that amazing interception. He runs
out of gas, because that tells me that he might
still not be fully healed from that broken leg.
I mean, run out of gas. He just doesn't have...
I mean, the guy's not a tight end. He doesn't
have sprint speed. He's not a wide receiver.
I wasn't shocked that he got run down. If he
was that fast, he may not be a defensive end.
I just don't know that you can expect him to
make it all the way there. That was a long run.
That said, he is a playmaker. Hutch does tend
to make plays at times when we need them and
rise to the occasion. I think that's great. There's
another guy on this team I don't think is a playmaker.
I'm going to bring him up when we get to the
offensive side of the ball. But for right now,
I'm going to call Hutch a playmaker. He may not
be the best every down defensive end in the world,
but he is definitely a top defensive end and
they do have to account for him extra. He still
plays too many snaps. He does. I agree with that.
I agree with that. I was listening to the Bears
Browns game yesterday, and they kept on saying
that Miles Garrett only plays two thirds of their
snaps, which two thirds means a lot of things.
I don't even think it's two thirds, a lot of
games. They came down with 65 % roughly, between
60 and 70, two thirds. And you think about how
fresh that keeps him, and the fact that he really
doesn't have a lot. you know, playing next to
him, behind him, whatever have you, which is
also indicative of how poorly the Browns are
doing this season, and most seasons. With that,
I have to say Brad Holmes' negligence on getting
real help, because our guy, he has a new nickname,
Bloody Bob. Bloody Bob. Did you see Bob number
96, those white pants, just coated in garbage.
And I like, look, Bob Muhammad, he's a nice...
Be a fantastic third defensive end if you look
at the Rams or you have young on one side and
Jared verse on the other If we had one of those
two guys, that'd be great. We have hutch So that's
like if you had one of those guys and then nobody
else So we have Bob Muhammad who's probably in
third or fourth the end on many two deeps He's
probably a third or fourth guy He's probably
third or fourth on the rung. He's out there playing
as the opposite defensive end, and he's getting
almost as many snaps, if not as many, as Hutch
is getting. These guys are just gassed, and they're
blitzing every down because they know they have
to. Exactly. And so... I agree this doesn't fall
on Shepard entirely. They face the best team
in the NFL, I think, in my opinion. They face
the best offensive or one of the best minds in
Sean McVay, a quarterback that's playing in his
17th year. And so my first game ball goes to
Matthew Stafford in the Los Angeles Rams. They
were master class yesterday. Whatever blitzes
were dialed up didn't come home. When Amik Robertson
got hurt, that hurt. I have to say the DJ Reed
signing is looking worse by every game. He is,
he can't cover his own shadow. Again, it's about
playmaking. You know, you've got a guy that can
cover the bottom half of the league, the bottom
half of the starting wide receivers in the league,
but can he cover the top half? No, we don't have
anybody that can cover the top half of the wide.
And they're the top half of the wide receivers
for a reason. They're going to be a challenge,
but we don't have a marquee. Corner to cover
a guy like that Pooka Nakua is gonna crush you
Speaking of can I just say this Pooka Nakua?
You know how we talk about comps for St. John
at times I think Pooka Nakua's comp is the playmaker
Michael Irvin. He is so big. He's so physical
He is so strong. Well, he's what we lack in our
wide receiving core. He's what we were supposed
to get there I'm gonna get there. All right,
we'll get so the other thing is Marcus Davenport
is not a I'm not 100 % sure what we're doing
with Marcus Davenport right now. I know, but
Brad Holmes got up in front of... The fact that
we waited for Marcus Davenport forever and he
has just played the way he has, I feel like he's
probably just still hurt or ailing or something.
He's like Aileen McNeil. It's kind of like an
MIA missing an action deal here. But Aileen McNeil,
we still have a body of work that said that he
was a great lion or great for the lions. We have
nothing. We have nothing for that whatsoever.
Marcus Davenport's one of these Saints guys,
right? It's one of these like, oh, he's one of
my guys. He's one of these guys that we had the
Saints. We love them. So we have him here now,
just like Anseloni, just like, and he just hasn't
done it. And speaking of Anseloni did not have
a good day. Let's put a stake in the defense
because we could go on forever. If we had to
give a game ball, the only one that could be
possibly given would be to that of Jack Campbell.
And then I want to give a nod. I know we're hard
on Brad Holmes, but Rak Yassin has been the healthiest
and best person in the secondary this season.
That's not a lot, Chet. This is like a C grade.
You know what I'm saying? Overall, I got you.
But we have we have to give credit where credit's
due. Hey, kudos to the Rams, too, for stopping
TK 85 as well. They kicked it away from him all
game and really limited what he could do. They
did. And he had he had one. He had one return.
He almost broke and they tripped him up. And
he knew it, too. He had green grass and he got
his foot. I was like, there you go. Not quite
right at the end of the game. I tell you what.
If you go in and you look at the PFF grades for
this game Yeah, you're gonna see you're gonna
see where we got killed and the people that did
very very poorly Do you have some PFF grades
for us on the defense? I do I do great. Could
you share those? Let's just look over our our
grades here. So I'll tell you where the bad spots
were. Okay, I'm gonna give you the worst pieces
here the people who got skewered Were DJ Reid
lowest PFF grade on our entire defense at 29
.5 Coverage gate grade of a 28 by the way Do
you know who was all over the field and almost
won the game for the Patriots yesterday? I don't
want to know Carlton Davis the third geez that's
painful. That's painful Derek Barnes is second
worst 36 .5 He didn't do anything well yesterday.
There isn't a single grade. At least DJ Reed
got good grades in run defense and tackling.
He got skewered in coverage and overall. Derrick
Barnes had nothing good across the board. Nothing
over 50. I mean, that was a fifth round pick
that they couldn't wait to sign. I know he doesn't
cost a lot, but again, he's just a guy. He's
not even a replacement guy. He's just a guy out
there. Go ahead. Our guy Marcus Davenport. Third
worst 38 .7 overall He didn't do much. Well Rock
you sin actually came in with some bad grades
forty four point two He he's cover grade was
double that of DJ Reid, but still not good at
45 Aleem McNeil Coming in at fifth worst were
they forty five point two. He did nothing. Well
And then a meek Amik got Torch 2. So when you
have these good wide receivers, they're going
to expose the corners. And that's exactly what
they did all day long. I'm going to give you
a couple of guys that had good grades. Aiden
Hutchinson had an 89 .7 overall. You know who
did have a good grade? And I thought he did play
a really good game in our defensive backfield.
Avante Maddox was our second highest grade. He
did have a good game. Good shout out. 83 .2 for
Avante Maddox. And by the way, he was playing
a position that he normally does not play back
there at safety. I thought that was pretty impressive
from him. Jack Campbell's our third highest with
a 75 .6. Jack, I feel like Jack is kind of just
filling a lot of gaps on the defense right now.
He's being asked to do quite a bit. He is a he's
I think he's one of the top boat getters for
all pro for linebacker too. So good on Jack Campbell.
Well, decided to see him kind of mature over
his time coming up. Anzaloni had some okay grades.
Everybody on the defense after that was below
60. So nothing worth talking about. Even your
guy Bob Muhammad. Hallett, terrible. Tylek, not
good. DJ Reader, not good. All right. They allowed
41 points. We know it. Let's get to the good
stuff. Let's talk about the top performers on
the offense. Okay. Offense. Amon Ra St. Brown
carded in 90. And we all loved watching Amon
Ra in this game. I mean, this is Amon Ra at his
like Finest he's catching balls and let's give
Jared Goff a pat on the back. He scored pretty
high too He was our third highest scorer on the
offense eighty four point one. He had a couple
artful passes in this game He was threading the
coverage. I mean you can't do zone against Goff
if Goff gets two seconds again zone He picks
it apart. He does a really good job with the
zone and I would say he I'm not trying to diss
on Stafford here. He delivers a better ball than
Stafford does. Stafford missed some open receivers
yesterday in the first half. He looked like the
old bad Matt Stafford we know and love. So he
definitely picked his game up in the second half.
I texted that to you, didn't I? Bad Matt Stafford.
Hey, real quick on that. I love Jared Goff. And
I agree with that, that he, if the throw can
be made and the pocket's clean and he has a second,
two seconds, whatever it is, he makes the throw
nine times out of 10. He makes it so where a
guy, he throws it right in the triangle in their
hands. He delivers a nice ball. You don't see
guys, you know, it's got the right torque on
it. So I would like to give game balls to those
two individuals. Now, I'm going to pick on a
couple guys here, and they didn't necessarily
get bad grades. Jameson Williams had our second
highest offensive grade for this game at 89 .3,
getting 86 .5 in the pass. Jamo is good when
the ball's in his hands on the numbers and he
catches it. He can run. He's a runner. I like
him in that position. He makes for a very good
slot receiver type guy in a lot of ways. I'd
love it if he was a burner. I don't think he
has the size to be able to be like a puka nakua
who you're going to throw the ball down the sideline
to or something like that. I think he'd make
a really good slot receiver on a team. One other
thing, though. Well, that's weird because we
already have the best slot receiver in the game.
I know. I know. On the first, we have a lot of
mites out there for receivers and we'll get to
some other stuff around that. But in the first
half, or excuse me, the second half, and I think
it was our first set of downs, Jared Goff threw
a beautiful deep ball over the middle and JMo
went up and tried to catch it and adjust to it
a little bit. And if I'm paying a guy as much
as JMo's getting, And again, mistakes are allowed
to happen, but that was a critical pass at a
critical time in the game. Goff got lit up. He
stood in there, delivered it and got crushed.
He got crushed. JMo needs to make that catch.
That is a defining moment for a guy like Jameson
Williams. We talked earlier about Hutch as a
playmaker. I don't think JMo is a playmaker.
I don't think he's the guy that comes up with
the unbelievable. Can I bring up another point
that I'm sure you noticed as well? And Brady
was the one that called it out. And I know I'm
not usually the biggest Tom Brady fan. I feel
like you're kind of wasting the best of Kevin
Burkhart with him. Actually, I thought Brady
called his best game of the season yesterday.
I like the information he gives. He has to polish
how he delivers it. Of course. And he'll get
better with time. Let's hope. Most do. All right.
So did you see when Jameau had that one good
block and Penne Sewell came over to the bench?
Yeah. Yeah, and was addressing it was ugly. It
was an ugly block, but it was a good block It
was he kind of hugged the guy almost got a holding
probably it looked like a hold. But anyway Where
I think that's what they might have been laughing
about Well where I was going with this is to
your point that he's probably not the playmaker
that they'd like him to be It seems like he gets
kudos for anything. He does. Yeah, it's almost
like not doing the excessive screw up Oh my god,
we got a first down. Way to go. He loves it when
he gets a touch. He ran a nice little route that
seemed up the middle on his touchdown that Goff
threw a dime to him in the back of the end zone.
And all I wanted to say was you ran a great route.
The pass was perfect. You should never not catch
that ball. The catches I want him to make are
the tough ones. The ones that Devontae Adams
makes for Stafford. The ones that Nakua's out
there making for Stafford on many plays. Or even
Parkinson. So I watched those guys and I'm like,
man, Stafford's always been surrounded with a
really good cast in LA as far as receivers and
O -line goes. Again, one bad year. Maybe it was
last year or the year before and he had no line
and that's a big deal That's a big thing at any
rate their GM less need if he makes if he trades
draft picks chat He trades for Jalen Ramsey or
Matthew Stafford or Devante Adams. Yep He gets
guys that are ready to or they're already pro
bowlers or they're gonna be pro bowlers Again,
so I know you had some questions for me. I want
to go through over Yeah, so I want to flip over
to the run side of things and I have a question
for you here Yeah, David Montgomery was our fourth
highest rated player with a 78 .5 He did mediocre
bad and pass block in the 50s and had 79 in the
run game Jamiro Gibbs was seventh rated with
a 63 .9, he had poor pass blocking grades, but
had an 80 in the run game. But Jameer Gibbs just
couldn't seem to get it going. He was in for
52 snaps yesterday, and Montgomery was in for
18 snaps. My question for you is, Bill, do you
feel like there are games where David Montgomery
is the optimal option as the running back over
Gibbs, where he will do better than Gibbs will?
Let's go back to... Are there scenarios that
fit him better? Yes, to answer your question,
and I'm going to just expand on this just briefly.
The Lions were in control of that game going
into halftime. And then they kick the ball off
to the Rams. The Rams come down and score. They
go three and out. The Rams come down, score again.
And they had a 17 -point swing in the third quarter.
Do you know what the time to have run David Montgomery
would have been down the Rams' throats? The third
quarter. I have a feeling you're going to tell
us. And so I couldn't agree with you more, Chet.
It is befuddling to me and this is my biggest
frustration with Dan Campbell taking over the
play calling is not that Dan Campbell's a bad
play caller He's an exceptional play caller Chet,
but he's not managing the game like he used to
all seems to be refusal To give Montgomery the
right he Montgomery was in for 18 snaps. He had
seven runs yesterday on those runs Don't think
I saw a single run from Montgomery where he got
stuffed or got a yard or a half yard He grounded
out for three to five yards every time which
is what that offense needs sometimes I think
that Montgomery is the runner in high -contact
games where you have a good D line going against
our O line Yeah, and you need somebody to blast
all hole you need to lean on Montgomery Gibbs.
I love him He's an athlete. He's incredible at
times. He's a playmaker. He isn't the guy to
blast a hole up the gut. And in some games, you
need that. Yesterday, Gibbs looked the run. He
got 14 runs. He got double the amount of run
plays that Montgomery got. And I can guarantee
you a lot of those were up the gut. Here's another
thing, and I'm not, this isn't Bash, Jamir, Gibbs
time. I'm not saying that. Gibbs is a wonderful
player, great player. No, we're talking about
optimizing. He just has, there are certain people
for certain types of instances. Everybody has
a superpower. You have two running backs for
a reason. Yes. Gibbs is not a good pass blocker.
He just isn't. His grades there have been poor
all season long. He had poor grades there again
yesterday. Monte, slightly better there. Just
seems like Monte, this was a Monte game. I think
there are Monte games, I think there are Gibbs
games, and that's what I was getting at. I couldn't
agree more. I have a question for you on the
same topic. We heard, I think it was three weeks
ago at Dan Campbell's presser, that he was going
to do his best to get both guys on the field
as often as he could. Why is that proven so difficult
now that Laporte has been out? Because we did
see them more. That's a great question. I don't
know if you saw this yesterday, but it almost
made me a little jealous. The Rams run this 13
package. It's a one wide out and three tight
end package. We they have three tight ends are
capable of starting. We don't have any right
now. So we are I think we are trying to move
guys around and do things to create on our offense
because we don't have a true tight end threat
out there. We had Anthony Ferkser, Shane Zylstra
and Giovanni Ricci. out there yesterday. You
guys signed off the streets and Zylstra was the
one of the last men to make the 53 man roster.
This is going to strain your passing game and
possibly your running game, too. So they're moving
guys into the slot. I didn't see Gibbs in the
slot as much yesterday as I did the previous
game. Do you know who is available in the Lions
drafted ties or Isaac Tesla? We're going to go
back and do this. Who? Ferguson that had a great
game for the Rams. He actually didn't have that
good a game for the Rams, but he did seem to
be more involved. Parkinson had the really good
game for the Rams yesterday. He just wasn't available
at that point. But I'm saying that Ferguson was
a stud at Oregon and could have been drafted.
Yes, he will be good. I think Ferguson will be
good. Let's talk about the O line a little bit.
I've got good news for you. The O line. They're
just, you know, outside of Panaisoul, they aren't
scoring high. Ratledge is in the mid. Decker
is just not putting in incredible games this
season. He's hurt. I think he's playing hurt.
He's struggling. He hasn't practiced. You know,
Skipper and Frazier and Glasgow again. Glasgow
turns in another sub 60 game and the PFF scores
just a bad game from him. Tristan cologne had
one of the worst scores pff overall and he did
look like he was just kind of not picking blocks
up The gut was getting penetrated again. He got
blown up four to five times. I will say this
Yeah, and I'm at phrasing it as somewhat of a
question. The time to start Frazier is now I
think so. I think miles Frazier Scored better
than him playing right guard. He was only in
for 13 snaps though These two brown eyes saw
what they saw. I think you gotta put Frazier
in the left guard spot and let him learn on the
job at this point. I don't think you're going
to protect Goff or open up any holes for the
run game using Cologne out there as often as
you are. I know that he has an extra year of
experience on Frazier, but I'm not buying it.
I think Frazier has more talent. Cologne was...
Let's see what Frazier's got. Yeah. Okay, I agree
completely. Can we... Start talking about what
this means now that the Lions are there eight
and six So 14 games in three games left. They
host the Steelers at 325 Central time this week
Then they have a Christmas Day tilt against the
Minnesota Vikings in Minnesota Then we have a
game that will be flexed at Soldier Field in
Chicago We just don't know the date and time
yet because NFL schedule makers want, you know,
the best possible product on the field it all
given times. Chet, they have to win out and they
need help now. What is your gut instinct at this
point? Do they win out as question one and two?
Will they get the help needed and do they make
the playoffs? Oddly enough, oddly enough, I think
to make the playoffs, Lions will have to win
out. They could lose to the Steelers. Beat the
Vikings and beat the Bears and I think they may
still get into the playoffs somehow But other
things may have to happen, but I know if we beat
the Steelers the linchpin game Becomes the Bears
game, which is the last game of the season if
we beat the Steelers regardless Maybe a few other
things have to happen, but it is looking like
that Bears game against our former OC It's gonna
come down to that. I don't see let's put it this
way if you looked at our whole schedule The scenario
that's playing out is about as good as we could
have it. Aside from playing the worst teams in
the league, you're going to play the Steelers
who are struggles. You're going to play the Vikings
who are struggling. You're going to play the
Bears who are hot. And you're going to play them
at Chicago in the cold in January. The Vikings
and Bears games. I worry. I worry about those
games. I don't know we can get by those and we
could be a nine win team this year. And we are
going to have to sit and deal with the fact that
we missed the playoffs. We're a nine -win team
in a season where we expected a lot more, but
we had a very tough schedule. You've been saying
that for weeks, and you're correct. And I guess
maybe I don't mean to diminish it, and if I seem
like I have, I apologize. Diminish away. No,
I'm not diminishing it, because it's the reality
of the situation. If we go back to like our preseason
stuff, Chet, we had them basically at the same
record probably at this time. What we didn't
expect, Chet, was that the Packers were going
to be the cream of the NFC or one of the two
elite teams with the Rams, and we didn't see
the Bears coming in any way, shape, or form.
And the other thing that's really going to end
up hurting... The Lions chances is how good the
NFC West has been outside of the Rams I did not
and I don't know if you did see the Cardinals
I didn't see them as a playoff team, but I didn't
see them collapsing and The Seahawks now already
have 11 wins the the 49ers have 10 wins The Rams,
you know, have 11 wins and clinched the playoffs
yesterday. So we're banking on the Eagles and
then either the Bucks. This is the first season
in a while where we're going to have to rely
on other people to fail to get ourselves in,
probably. Yeah. So what we need now is the Packers
to start losing. And then we need the 49ers to
start losing. We were cheering against the Seahawks
until they... Shane Steichen, man. Yeah. We have
to say it real quick. He rolled out Philip Rivers'
dead body and somehow almost beat the Seahawks
in Seattle. So Chet, here's one thing. Did you
see Philip Rivers drop back to throw and fall
over? No. There's a highlight out there. Poor
guy. Poor guy just dropped back to pass and fell.
Anyhow, he was impressive as all heck for what
he did. Question one, I think we both know that
the playoffs, if they win out, are probably in
reason. My next question to you is, will the
Lions make any noise if they do qualify for the
playoffs? First and foremost, 11 wins should
get you into the playoffs in a normal NFL season.
Sometimes it doesn't, but it should. But it might
not. Secondarily, an 11 -win season is still
a good season, even if you don't get into the
playoffs. Unfortunately, you can't turn around
and say an 11 -win season is a bad season. Third,
especially the NFL. Third, I'm not 100 % sure
If we can get by round one of the playoffs with
the defense playing the way we currently are
it will be as I've said matchup based What kind
of matchups do we have? What are the other team
strengths against our weaknesses? Well, let's
go through this real quick. Let's say the Rams
do what they need to do and win out and are the
one seed So they're gonna be at home, which means
that it would either be The Lions at the seventh
seed either play either at Chicago Yeah. At Lambeau.
Yep. Or excuse me, at Soldier Field, at Lambeau,
at Philadelphia, at the link, or either at Carolina
or at Tampa. Those are the four best scenarios
they could probably look for. I would love to
have one of those last two scenarios if we had
to be in that situation. I would hope that it
was Carolina or Tampa Bay. A, I think those are
teams we can beat and have beat. B, I think the
weather will be better in either one of those
spots than it will at the link. Green Bay or
Chicago at that point in the season. But you
can bank on the weather stinking at Soldier and
Lambeau. There's no way. And I know we're going
to get a preview of this in January when Goff
has to go out there in the freezing cold with
his gloves on and try to throw the football.
He turns into a completely different animal at
that point. At any rate, yes. It does not bode
well. A first round matchup for us does not bode
well because none of those matchups. work, at
least from the standpoint of being outdoors.
But the Panthers and Tampa Bay are ones I would
prefer. Unfortunately, I don't believe those
two teams will be at the top half of the bracket,
which is where we will be playing people. We're
going to be playing the one or two seed most
likely. So we will probably end up in Chicago
or L .A. or one seed gets a buy. So once you
get a buy, that's true. You're right. You're
right. So we'll probably end up in Chicago or
Philly. Would be my guess possibly Green Bay,
but I don't think they'll be the number two or
three Well, I don't think there's any way that
Green Bay Chicago and Detroit can make the playoffs
true. That's true, too So we would have to hope
Green Bay fades. Yeah, so that's really what
it comes down to at this point I just don't you're
right Green Bay is gonna have to lose another
game for us to catch up and get into the conversation
So all right A little bit longer litter box,
but a lot to unpack. Thank you so much Detroit
Lions litter box listeners. We appreciate it.
We will be back on to preview the Pittsburgh
Steelers game later this week. And with that,
go Lions. Go Lions.