T.J. Lang joins Jim and Jon to react to the Lions' 31-29 victory over the Minnesota Vikings.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00But let's start Lions, and what'd you take out of that game?
00:04First off, obviously we all have rooting interests, but even if you were just watching that, that
00:09was just such a really good football game.
00:11You know what I mean?
00:12Between two really good teams, two really well-coached teams, four, I think, of the
00:18top coordinators in this league with both your guys in O'Connell and with Brian Flores.
00:27And I thought it was a gutty performance.
00:29I had the feeling a couple series in, I think you kind of look at each other like, oh boy,
00:35it's not going to be one of these days, is it?
00:38We had in Baltimore last year where everything went wrong.
00:42And then just to watch that team just rebound and just not give up and just come back and
00:47say, all right, we took your punch, we know you're coming off a bye, you're probably a
00:50little fresher than we are, now we're going to start rolling.
00:54And then they answered, and answered in a big way, and played complimentary football.
01:00And I think the biggest part for me was the way you finished that game.
01:05You needed all three phases, starting with the Jack Fox punt.
01:08That was a booming punt to knock Minnesota back to about their 20-yard line.
01:13You needed your defense.
01:14You had to have it.
01:15We had to get a stop.
01:16They go out there, find a way to get a three and out, and then offense clearly got to have
01:20a drive, right?
01:21This is it.
01:22We got one last chance.
01:23You get down there, and then you cap it off with special teams again.
01:26So just the way that all three phases performed with the last five minutes of that game, that's
01:32a sign of a really damn good football team, man.
01:35And they look like they're having fun, too.
01:37You know what I mean?
01:38I know coach said they don't bat a night.
01:40They really don't.
01:41They don't flinch.
01:42The defense goes out and has a couple rough series.
01:44Offense like, hey, don't worry, we got your back.
01:46Offense, we start with three bad drives.
01:49Defense like, okay, we're going to hang in there, man.
01:51We're going to keep punching.
01:52We're going to keep battling.
01:53We know you guys are going to get rolling here pretty soon.
01:55So it's just such a fun team to watch.
01:59And I thought it was a fitting end, you know, with Nowoski getting the sack after much was
02:04made about the pass rush all week.
02:07And look, I mean, you know, was it as good as it has been with Hutch?
02:11Probably not, but I thought there were some areas that were improved, you know, sometimes
02:15where they were pressuring or guys getting pressure up the middle.
02:18DJ Reeder had a couple nice rushes.
02:19Aleem had a couple nice rushes.
02:21I thought Houston probably didn't show up on the stat sheet, but had a couple moments
02:27where he was getting pressure and forcing Sam Darnold to kind of get outside the pocket
02:31and take his eyes off of maybe the guys he wanted to throw to.
02:35So I just thought it was a gutty win.
02:37I thought it was really impressive.
02:38And I thought it was a really damn good football team between two of probably the best teams
02:42in the league.
02:43How repeatable is it?
02:44Now, obviously, no one's going to be stressing about the Titans, but in two weeks, they got
02:48Green Bay.
02:50How repeatable is it with not as much pass rush as they had with Aiden Hutchinson moving
02:57forward?
02:58Well, I think that Aaron Glenn is going to have to continue to be very, have multiple
03:05schemes.
03:06You know what I mean?
03:07I think he's got to adapt to each opponent that you're going to play.
03:11Green Bay and Minnesota are not the same offense.
03:15You know, Green Bay has probably a better passing attack, more guys that they can get
03:19involved.
03:21It's just different, right?
03:23Different style of quarterback.
03:24So I think you're going to have to come up with different plans for each team.
03:27But that was one thing we talked about last week is what's the defense going to look like?
03:31I mean, they've pretty much been lining up rush for press man coverage.
03:35You lose one of the best pass rushers in the world.
03:38You know, are we going to do that?
03:39Are we going to change things up?
03:40I thought there were some wrinkles in there where lining up odd fronts and under fronts
03:44and jam fronts and stuff that you really haven't shown on film throughout the first
03:49five weeks that were to your advantage.
03:53I think you were able to generate some pressure that way.
03:56And that's kind of how Minnesota does it too.
03:58I think Decker got beat once in that game around the edge.
04:03Goff didn't really have room to step up.
04:05But other than that, it seemed like all the pressures were, hey man, they're stunting,
04:09they're blitzing, they're twisting, they're doing all this stuff.
04:11And it's just hard to communicate that way.
04:13So I think if your defense can kind of take some of that and help your guys, you know,
04:19come around free, get some free edge rushers, get some free guys up the middle, it's going
04:23to continue to create opportunities to make big plays.
04:26To your point about Glenn, they blitzed the second most of any game he's coached here
04:30in Detroit, 57% of the time, 20 of the 35 dropbacks.
04:34So this was clearly something he said, hey, I got to find a way to manufacture pressure.
04:39Early in the game, those blitzes weren't getting home.
04:40Late in the game, they did.
04:42When they didn't blitz, here's the stat that's going to be concerning for Lions fans.
04:47When they didn't blitz, edge rushers generated pressure on just three of 27 rushes for the
04:53game.
04:54That's not good enough on islands.
04:56When you don't blitz, those guys aren't winning.
04:58Yeah.
04:59So what does that say about their need to do something in the next couple of weeks here?
05:02Well, that's interesting.
05:03I mean, I was thinking about that driving in, but you came out and you won the game
05:06yesterday.
05:07That's obviously the first goal.
05:08Yeah.
05:09Defense played good enough.
05:10Right.
05:11I mean, you can live with that.
05:12Of course.
05:13What, 22 points?
05:14I mean, their defense scored.
05:15So low 20s.
05:16Yeah.
05:17So you can live with that, right?
05:18You can say, OK, we can live with this as long as we keep them out of the end zone and
05:21we keep getting stops in the red zone.
05:23That's our style of defense.
05:24But I honestly, the urgency to go get somebody, right?
05:30Is it higher or lower than where we were sitting on Friday?
05:35That's the question.
05:36Right.
05:37I think you can make the argument for both.
05:38You could say, well, we didn't have Aiden Hutchinson and we just beat what was, you
05:42know, an undefeated team, one of the best teams in the NFC.
05:45But on the flip side, you can also say, we're this good.
05:49You know, is this sustainable to keep doing what we're doing?
05:52I think it is against certain teams.
05:54But I think that the bigger picture is you look at this and you say, man, we are we have
05:59a damn good football team.
06:00Like, if we could go at one more piece, you know what I mean?
06:04I think there's something to be said about, OK, maybe I really do think this is our year,
06:10right?
06:11And I'm not trying to overreact off of one game, but just the way that the rest of your
06:15team looks, you want to do everything you can to help those guys.
06:19Because after a big win like that, you come out and say, OK, man, we might need to go
06:24get something.
06:25Because there's only really one deficiency in what the Lions have as a roster.
06:30Because you look offensively, Tim Patrick has filled and answered every question about
06:36who you want as your three or four receiver tight in your set offensive line.
06:40You could talk about or have a discussion about depth and maybe adding a backup offensive
06:45lineman.
06:46And that's that's way down the road or down the line.
06:49The one deficiency.
06:51And I asked him this question earlier.
06:53Is there a perfect roster in the NFL at this point, seven weeks into the season?
06:57No, no.
06:59Because guys are going to get hurt.
07:00I mean, look at Kansas City.
07:01They're the only undefeated team left, yet they have no premier receiver.
07:05And so, yeah, I think Kansas City is looking between now and the trade deadline two weeks
07:10to add a receiver.
07:11The Lions certainly should be kicking the tires on and maybe it watching what they did
07:18against Minnesota.
07:20Maybe it takes the top guys off of the list because they don't want to spend the draft
07:25capital that it would take to get them.
07:27But as a Darius Smith or I know, you know, last week, you mentioned Ojalary with the
07:33Giants.
07:34There's Landry with the Titans.
07:35You're playing this week.
07:36Yeah.
07:37You know, there are some guys that you could add that would add production, would add another
07:41weapon, another tool for Aaron Glenn.
07:44Yeah, no, no doubt.
07:45I agree with everything you said.
07:46And the one thing I think about this team is.
07:50You might be one of the most complete teams in the NFL just across the board, right?
07:55Even without Hutch.
07:57I think there's other teams where if they lose their star player are clearly not if
08:02Minnesota loses Justin Jefferson, they're not they're done right.
08:07And other teams, you know, Kansas City, if they lose Chris Jones, huge, yeah, probably
08:12done.
08:13Right.
08:14Patrick Mahomes is good enough to probably win you some games, but that team doesn't
08:16look the same.
08:17Well, they're winning the defense.
08:18So it'd be right.
08:19Yeah.
08:20That's why I think this this Lions roster, especially after what we saw yesterday, how
08:23it feels.
08:24You're so close.
08:27Do you really want to risk saying, OK, we don't we need to make a move because we're
08:30going to continue to put all of it on these other guys?
08:34Or do we want to go and just say, you know what?
08:36We feel like we are the most complete roster in this team.
08:39We know we're hurting at defensive end.
08:40We know we're hurting that pass rush a little bit.
08:42Let's just go do this thing.
08:43You know what I mean?
08:44Let's go get it done.
08:45And it'll be interesting to see what happens.
08:47I mean, obviously, I clearly I think they wanted to see exactly what they had yesterday
08:53before they made any rash decisions.
08:55But it'll be interesting to see if there's anything that comes out this week about, OK,
08:58maybe maybe we do need to go get something.
09:00It was a good test because Minnesota has a good offensive line.
09:03Yeah.
09:04Yeah.
09:05I'm not going to call them great, but they're good.
09:06Yeah.
09:07Yeah.
09:08And they had two weeks to prepare for that game.
09:09Minnesota did.
09:10And it's at their place.
09:11And you find out what you're made of, like, you know, in the chest.
09:14Like, do you have that that fight?
09:15And this team clearly showed they had the fight.
09:17I think they knew that.
09:18But it's it's obvious after yesterday, the fights there.
09:22It's also obvious they don't have enough on the edges right now.
09:25So both things can be true, right?
09:27Both things can be true.
09:28Your love, the fight, the resilience, the makeup of this locker room.
09:31But you also want to, to your point, do right by the guys in the locker room and give them
09:34every chance to win a championship.
09:36I would say you don't have enough on the edges right now if you just want to play for man
09:40rush, man defense.
09:41You know what I mean?
09:42Sometimes you need to.
09:43You can't.
09:44Right.
09:45But that's what I'm saying.
09:46Unless they want to go the other path to say, you know what, we're going to turn into some
09:47exotic looking team on third down like what we saw in Minnesota.
09:50You don't know who's blitzing if it's max pressure, max coverage, right?
09:54You know what I mean?
09:55So I think it just depends on what their philosophy wants to be.
09:57And I'll say if they do blitz more, you got to lean on safeties.
09:59They got two good ones, corners.
10:01They're getting better.
10:02And you can more this.
10:03Yes, you can.
10:04The roster does set up more corners, set up a better your your your secondary.
10:07I think a big Robertson in the slot has been a really good player for them.
10:11So and at heart, I think Aaron Glenn wants to be, you know, a four four man rush type
10:17man to man coverage type type of defense.
10:20So it'll be it'll just be it'll depend on what their philosophy wants to be moving forward.
10:24248-539-9797.
10:25We can get some phone calls in the mix on this.
10:28Talk about the Lions offense, the defense, and I think TJ raised a really good question
10:32about the pass rush.
10:33Do you feel like they need to make a move more after that game or less after that game?