This is the Litterbox, a Detroit Lions podcast
with your hosts, Chad West and Bill Patterson.
Litterbox Lions Nation. We've got two games left
in this season and our chances of a playoff appearance
are slim. to none at this point at 16%. We need
two packer losses in two straight wins from a
team that looks like it couldn't find a win.
If it smacked them dead in the face, Bill, I
have a question for you, and I've been pondering
this all week. Are we about to see the end of
Sonic and Knuckles? Chet, unfortunately, it sure
looks that way. Don't see even though Montgomery
is under contract for next season. I can see
the Lions opting out of it and. What you're referring
to is he being Monty Knuckles had a quote that
said, God grant me humility and gratitude and
relieve me of selfishness and fear. Hashtag blessed.
And then he also liked a comment under that post
pushing for a trade out of Detroit. So I saw
that. Yeah, I think he is getting very, very
frustrated with the lack of utilization and we'll
touch on injuries here in a minute. But if the
Lions are going to win these next two games,
they've got to find a way to run the football
and getting Graham Glasgow back is certainly
helpful on that, which if you told me I'd be
ever saying that this season. Come around full
circle on Graham Glasgow. You don't know what
you got till it's gone. Man what a great song
that was anyhow. Yeah, so let's I guess the preview
is this the Lions are now favored by seven and
a half points the reason the line jumped is because
JJ McCarthy has a hairline fracture in his right
hand and Max Brosmer formerly of the you the
University of Minnesota will be the Vikings starting
quarterback He has looked shaky at best in relief
duty or backup duty mop up duty For one, JJ McCarthy
this year. Boychette, I would love to, you know,
say go Lions on this. The over under is 43. So
the Sharps are expecting it to be, you know,
a fairly low scoring game. It would seem the
ideal time that somebody on the Lions offense
looking at UMCDC or you, Johnny Morton, figures
out a way to stop that Brian Flores crisscross
inside blitz. And the running game gets open,
opens up the play action passing game and the
Lions get out of Minnesota with a victory. I
don't know. What are your thoughts? I'm going
to be watching this game for, well, one reason,
and that's just to see if our offense can get
on track against a decent defense. Outside of
that, if our defense can't handle Max Brosmer
and company, we've got problems. And if I was
if I was the Vikings. I don't think I'd let Max
throw the ball a heck of a lot. I think I would
just run a steady diet of Aaron Jones at us.
Mason will be out. He is injured and will be
out. So you're going to get Aaron Jones, I believe
on his own, but you're going to give us a little
more injury news. Is that correct, Bill? Yeah,
let's get into that. I'll start with the Lions.
The two guys that have not practiced thus far
this week are Avante Maddox and our guy Knuckles.
Knuckles is dealing with some type of illness.
Avante and Maddox has a back injury and some
type of illness. So those two, I'm not super
optimistic, especially given that it's a short
week and the Lions play it either 4 p .m. Eastern
Standard Time, 3 p .m. Central Standard Time
on Christmas Day. By the way, we're potting this
on Christmas Eve. So Merry Christmas to all of
our listeners, all of our loved ones. Going down
the list. Uh, these are the guys that were limited
for the lions. Tristan Cologne, Marcus Davenport,
Taylor Decker, Tom Kennedy, Christian Mahogany,
Giovanni Manu, Alim McNeil, Bob Muhammad, Amique
Robertson, Aman, Ra, St. Brown, and Graham Glasgow.
We already talked about Glasgow coming back.
I imagine it's a short week. Don't read into
limited practice. I imagine MCDC is going easy
on these guys and the two that I would I guess
we'll let you talk about it in fantasy in a minute,
but I could see Montgomery not suiting up. I
think he might have played his last game as a
Detroit lion. If Monty doesn't suit up, let's
just suppose he doesn't suit up, is Bakke healthy?
Who would be playing that second running back
role there? That would be one Sion Baki at this
time. And I would assume if he's healthy, wouldn't
it be interesting if he got like 15 carries and
ran for a hundred yards? Gosh, would that be
it? I don't even know how the world would have
had that. That would be one of life's greatest
ironies. That would be. This goes back to, you
know, I keep reading comments and some of our
listeners keep saying, hey, they gotta tie up
or sign Gibbs long -term. Yeah. Here's the thing,
Lions fans, what we're seeing is if you don't
have an offensive line, it doesn't matter what
running backs you have because outside of Barry
Sanders, you're going to produce and Gibbs doesn't
have Barry Sanders moves and he's not going up
against the defenders. Barry went up against
either. All right. The Vikings injury report
is a lot more encouraging if you're a Lions fan.
T .J. Hockinson is out. Ryan Kelly, their starting
center, has a concussion. He is out. The aforementioned
Jordan Mason has an ankle injury. He is out.
JJ McCarthy, that right hand hairline fraction,
he is out. Now let's get to the unknowns. Brian
O 'Neil, their offensive tackle has been dealing
with a heel issue. He is questionable. Aaron
Jones is good to go. He's going to play through
that ankle issue. Jevon Hargrave, the nose tackle,
is dealing with a thigh issue. He's good to go.
Eric Wilson, linebacker, has a thumb issue. He
is good to go. A name I have never heard before,
and this is a mouthful. Gavin Bartholomew, a
tight end. Has a back injury. He is questionable,
so I don't know that he is going to go. Ty Chandler,
a backup running back, is dealing with a bum
knee. He is good to go. And then Austin Keys
linebacker ankle injury. He is unspecified. That
is a rarity that I've seen, but given that these
teams are having a short work week. I think that
is what we're going to get on this. So Lions
by seven and a half points over under 43. Chet,
let's talk about fantasy. What are your thoughts?
So I wasn't going to take anybody on the Minnesota
side of the ball at all. Just with Max Brosmer
running the show, I didn't have a lot of confidence.
They're missing their center. We know what that's
like to be missing your starting center. But
can I make a joke to really? Yeah. Yeah. Do you
think Justin Jefferson has? an ounce more confidence
in Max Brosmer to get him the ball. Successfully.
I don't. I don't. I think this is like I think
this is what we would call a lost season for
Justin Jefferson. And I think he's chalked it
up to that at this point. I think he's sitting
on an island somewhere dreaming of having a quarterback
who can get him the ball. Again, you go back
to you don't know what you know. I don't know
what you had until it's gone, Kirk Cousins could
get him the ball. He's probably wishing Kirk
came back and played quarterback for that team
right now. Do you think he sent Sam Darnold like
a just amazing... Or Sam Darnold for that, yeah.
Harry and David, you know, the pears, the chocolates,
the wines, the charcuterie. If I'm going to take
a Viking in this game, it's probably Aaron Jones.
I think he's going to have a steady diet of run
game. He's probably going to have a couple of
short passes from Brosmer slung out to him. I
think he'd be the guy to take our defense did
nothing against the Steelers last week. And I
think we're going to see similar cast of characters
out there again this week. So things probably
won't change in regards to the Lions. You take
your your usual, you take your usual group. OK,
you're going to take Amanra. You're going to
take Gibbs. You're going to take Williams. You're
probably, you know, I, I'm wondering, and we
saw it in the last game a little bit, and there
were some close calls. I'm wondering if they're
finally getting Tesla integrated into this offense.
He almost had a game winner there. He had a touchdown
catch, but he almost had a game winner too. And
he had a couple other catches and attempts over
the middle. I wonder if they're just leaking
him into the game plan slowly. It would it couldn't
come soon enough for for this co -host. Yeah,
I love nothing more to see it. That would be
a great Christmas present. This is what happened
with Amon Ra when he was a rookie. He got kind
of I think it was like the 12th or 13th game
into the season. We started and then he could
get thrown. Yeah. Yeah, he was great. And he
was great in the preseason. And then we didn't
see him for like 12 games. Yeah, you're right
about that. And they were. firing balls at him
and he was You know people were saying maybe
this guy's gonna be okay I so I'm going with
the usual cast of characters I don't know if
this is a Jared Goff game because if we do get
up on the Vikings early It may become a run get
and may become a let's get the run game healthy
type of a deal, and they may start running the
ball on the line. I could see us getting up by
a touchdown or two, and I'm not saying this is
going to happen. I don't trust this team as far
as I can throw them right now. But if we do get
up a touchdown or two, I could see them trying
to force the run almost to frustration, like
just jamming the line, jamming the line, jamming
the line, get it going, get it going, get it
going until we break one so we can show everybody
we can run again. But, you know, this could be
one of those types of games. We're in the experimental
phase of the season here because the games We
got to win, but man, it's you got to kind of
know that they're dead in the water. Yeah. Monty
is my last question. Given that he's got this
illness, he hasn't practiced. Do you play him
if you have him in fantasy? I don't think so.
Do you sit him? I don't think you do. Do you
leave him alone? Okay. He might've had his last
snaps. I think you leave him alone. I don't think
you can play him right now. He's ill. He's had
a few comments. Dan doesn't deal well with that
stuff. And I'm not saying where there's smoke,
there's fire or anything. He could just be sick.
He could be out. Is that time of year? I chalk
it up to that. But yeah, that's where I leave
that. I wouldn't blame him. If you got him, I
would find somebody else. Okay. Fair enough.
Fair enough. All right. I do want to give one
shout out before we do our predictions. And that
is the Lions had five pro bowlers announced this
week. They did. Yes. Nobody on this list is really
all that much of a surprise. You've got Jameer
Gibbs. You've got him on Ross St. Brown. You've
got Penne Sewell on the offense and then on the
defense on Jack Campbell. Not a surprise. One.
Aiden Hutchinson was a surprise to me. I didn't
think he'd have that great of a year. No, he's
still got 10 sacks. I mean, he's having a great
season. Meaningless. I know it's meaningless,
but you're talking about, you're talking about
a guy with 10 sacks. We didn't have him out there.
I don't know what this would look like. Yeah,
you're right about that, yeah. And Jack Campbell
is the one that I love because that shows he
is growing. And is about to take over a leadership
role in that linebacker corps. I'm from Alexander
Zaloni, who I don't think we'll see next season
on the Detroit Lions. No, no, no, no, no. They're
going to have a lot of cap issues. They're going
to have a lot of guys that got a release. They
got a lot of stuff going on. You're going to
see a lot of contract restructuring and stuff
like that in the off season to make room for
new pieces, hopefully. That's a tease to another
podcast. All right. I'm going to give you my
prediction right now. Do it. Go. I think that
this is going to be one of those that is going
to drive anybody that that's this game nuts.
So I'm going to go Vikings 23 Lions 21. So it
goes over the Vikings cover and it'll be like
a weird cover too. Like they'll be down 21 to
what 13 or something like that. And I don't know
something crazy. I'm gonna go with, you know,
every week, I pick the Lions, when I pick the
Lions to win, I pick, you know, I warned everybody
last week we could lose the Steelers. I'm gonna
take the Lions 24 to 21. Love it. So it's going
over. Lions are gonna win this one. They're gonna
figure this out. And if they can't, oh well,
season's over. All righty. Merry Christmas. Thank
you for listening to the Honolulu Blue and Silver,
the Detroit Lions litter box podcast. Happy holidays
to you and yours, and thank you, Chet. Thanks,
Bill. Happy holidays, everybody. Go Lions.