00:00Good morning, 97.1 Jim Costa, John Jansen, Heather Park, Gov and Greg behind the glass.
00:04We'll talk Pistons as the hour wraps. We've got a lion schedule out and John.
00:10I haven't gone 11 and six. Okay, I'm not going to give you. I don't want you to give yours
00:16yet.
00:16No, but I just want to get the early reaction to the schedule. We knew the opponents, but you see
00:21how it lays out.
00:22There's a soft runway. They're going to end the year with some big prime time and division games and road
00:27games.
00:28They get that crunch around Thanksgiving where they don't get the bye. It comes early this season.
00:33What were some things that stood out to you? Oh, I instantly looked at the end of the schedule and
00:38it is three division opponents in four weeks.
00:42Now, I'm not. I think that's kind of awesome, but all three of those are on the road.
00:48I'm not a fan of having that type of I don't want to say disadvantage because if you're a good
00:54team, it shouldn't matter.
00:56If you're better than Minnesota, it shouldn't matter. If you're better than Chicago, Green Bay.
01:02But I do think at that time of the year, it's a big deal to have that type of schedule
01:10ending the season.
01:12And you will have been playing for how many consecutive weeks again with the early bye?
01:16With the early bye, right. And I know Tom's got something to add to this.
01:20It is the Germany trip to New England and then seven days later, you turn around and you play Tampa
01:28and then four days later, you turn around and play Chicago.
01:32So you've got an international trip, which I would probably pick out something that I don't like about the schedule,
01:40give or take before, after the international trip.
01:42Just simply because I despise the international games. I love the 930 start on Sunday morning.
01:50I absolutely love it. I get to watch football at 930, one o'clock, four o'clock and eight o
01:56'clock.
01:57It's amazing. But as a former player, I would hate the travel and the fact that you're staying somewhere else.
02:06That's part of it. And I know that what's the flight to Germany, how many hours, eight hours, eight hours.
02:12OK, that's not debilitating by any means.
02:16Or if you're going over to London, if you're on the East Coast, I know Jacksonville does it all the
02:20time.
02:22That's not debilitating. It's the fact that you're there so long.
02:28So those are some of the things that start off with.
02:31I mean, you get a free space to start off with New Orleans.
02:33I know you have them struggling more than just a little slow start with some of their receivers.
02:37But Lions pull away and take care of business.
02:39OK, look.
02:41The fact that the Lions don't get a bye after the international travel.
02:46Sucks. The Patriots have a bye week the week after.
02:49Why not Detroit, which would then get them set to then prepare for Thanksgiving, right?
02:54Tom, you said we're missing something with this.
02:57Yeah, and I don't necessarily know if you'll like it, but I think it's pretty obvious why they didn't get
03:01a bye.
03:02They weren't going to give the Lions a 10-day rest going into Thanksgiving when the Bears come in with
03:07four days rest.
03:09They weren't.
03:10But you understand how bye weeks work, right?
03:12That whenever the bye happens, that team will have an advantage the next week.
03:16So why give the Lions any byes?
03:18Well, because everybody gets a bye, Jim.
03:19No, I know. That's my point.
03:21So then you just deal with it.
03:21Like, I could bitch about, well, this team's coming off a bye.
03:23The Bucs are coming off a bye when they play the Lions.
03:26That doesn't seem fair.
03:27Imagine being in the Bears' shoes, though, and you're on a short week, and you've got to go on the
03:32road on a holiday against a divisional opponent,
03:34and they're sitting there with 10 days rest.
03:35That's my point.
03:36Well, and part of why they didn't do it either is, now, I think they should have had the international
03:42game at a different part of the schedule.
03:44Because if you have a bye after the international game, the Lions would have 10 days between New England and
03:55Chicago.
03:56They would also have 10 days between Chicago and Atlanta.
04:00Yes.
04:01So it would, in essence, be almost two byes.
04:05Two byes.
04:05Now, what they should have done is given the Bears a bye, too, that same week.
04:08Well, that's the other solution.
04:09They should bake it in backwards, the international games that you get a bye after them,
04:13and then build the schedule from there.
04:15Yeah.
04:15I think that makes sense.
04:16If they would have done that, they didn't.
04:20What did you like?
04:21What didn't you like?
04:21And we want to know about record predictions.
04:23I know it's silly.
04:24It's why I had some fun with mine.
04:26I'll say this.
04:26I believe it's unprecedented that you close with three out of four road division games.
04:32Look, I can't do the research on something like that.
04:35I actually saw somebody else did the research, so I'll just kind of copy and paste and help us out
04:39here.
04:41Because it is rare, but I believe it has happened before, Tom.
04:44But let me dig it up.
04:46What were you saying?
04:47Three out of four division road games to end the season.
04:51Since we've had the four division format that started in 2002.
04:58Al Karsten, he's a pride of Detroit guy.
05:02He points out that in 2021, the Washington Commanders, at the time, Washington football team,
05:09had three road division games over the final four weeks of the season.
05:13Lions are the first team since the 21 Washington team to do this.
05:17Yeah.
05:18And I mean, no schedule is going to be perfect.
05:20We could create a schedule, as Tom did.
05:22By the way, tip of the cap, six of them, right?
05:26Yeah.
05:26Wow.
05:27And if you flip-flopped the Packer home and road, if we gave you that, you'd have eight of them.
05:31That's crazy.
05:31That'd be half.
05:32I did have help by knowing two in advance.
05:34Right, yeah.
05:34The two Graham Slam judges said, you know, it does matter.
05:38Only six.
05:39League-wide, this phenomenon, three of the last four games being these road division games,
05:44league-wide, it's happened 21 times in the last six seasons.
05:48So, okay.
05:5014%.
05:50Whatever.
05:51Not to get caught up in it.
05:52Yeah.
05:52Let's get some...
05:54Moving on.
05:56Text from some of you guys on this.
05:58Lions will be 13-4.
06:00One pride, baby.
06:02Tesla has a breakout season.
06:04That's Josh at work.
06:06Cookies, I love you, but you sound crazy as hell.
06:0915-2.
06:10Hashtag play the song.
06:12Jamil and Winsor.
06:13Yeah, baby.
06:1415-2.
06:15Going through the schedule and predicting wins and losses is one thing, but actually making
06:18comments on what's going to happen is absolutely ludicrous.
06:22Well, it was us basically buying into the absurdity of doing the win-loss, win-loss, win-loss game.
06:32On May 15th.
06:33Right.
06:34Costa's inner rabid fanboy takes over when he sees that schedule in Honolulu Blue.
06:38The glazing is just a secondary symptom.
06:41Oh, boy.
06:42You think 11 wins is glazing?
06:43No.
06:45Their win total, I believe, is set at 10.5.
06:48Oh, so you're going over.
06:49Yeah, I have them over.
06:50Okay.
06:50And honestly, I think they're closer to 12 wins than 10.
06:53Like, what stood out to me is, we already knew this.
06:58They're going to play the Saints, Jets, Cardinals, Dolphins, and Titans.
07:01It's the last-place schedule, and we saw the Bears, Patriots, and Jags all be propelled by
07:05last-place schedules.
07:06Even if you're not wowed by the Lions offseason, a nine-win team from a year ago that's going
07:11to play a bunch of lowly football teams, you should bump it up a couple wins, I would
07:16think.
07:16And then, depending on how the O-line gels and what the secondary looks like and the
07:19overall defensive play at the end of the season, yeah, they could win 12 or more.
07:22But as I sit today, as I've navigated the schedule, I had 11.
07:27And I am curious for those that pick a game to go to every year.
07:32Now, obviously, if you're going to go to a division opponent, those are always going
07:37to be, year in, year out, some of the closest games that you go to.
07:40But there's no Cleveland, there's no Indianapolis, there's no Pittsburgh.
07:46Like, what is the road game that people are thinking of going to?
07:52Because there's great intrigue about maybe going to Buffalo, first game in that stadium,
07:58but ticket prices are going to be through the roof.
08:01Yeah, if you want to talk about things you like and don't like about the schedule, I
08:04hate that their most marquee road game is a Thursday night where you're going to price
08:09out a lot of people that have to miss work and pay a premium, right?
08:12And the best home game that's not one of the division games is in Germany.
08:17It's the Patriots.
08:18It's in Germany.
08:18So I don't like that from a fan standpoint.
08:20I don't know that matters from a win-loss standpoint, but from a fan standpoint, I
08:24don't like that.
08:25Well, but if you take out the division games, the road division games, if you want to go
08:31see a non-division opponent on the road, your choices are Atlanta, Miami, Arizona,
08:39Carolina, Carolina, or Buffalo, right?
08:41And there's just no close drive to game.
08:44Last year, it was Cincinnati.
08:46Yeah, I was talking to a friend who him and his dad are going to do Atlanta.
08:52Indoors late in the season, cheap concessions should be a win.
08:56Was that JP?
08:59JP.
08:59Jimmy Powers?
09:00No, it's not Jimmy Powers.
09:02He'll probably go to that game.
09:03No, I got a friend, him and his dad, they pick one road game every season.
09:07I think it's a cool thing they do.
09:08I think so, too.
09:08And I think to the point, John, where should they pick?
09:13Miami?
09:14I think they've done Miami, too.
09:16And there's nothing fun about that game, right?
09:18No.
09:19You've talked about it.
09:19The stadium's not cool.
09:20The team's not very good on the other side.
09:22If I was going to throw my hat in the ring and say go to a road game, I would
09:28probably
09:29say at Carolina.
09:31Sunday Night Football.
09:32Right.
09:33It's Sunday Night Football.
09:34It is a good stadium.
09:36I'm not going to sit there and say it's one of the best stadiums.
09:40The problem might be, it is Sunday night.
09:42It's going to still be a little bit hot down there.
09:45Yeah.
09:47But that's a good road trip to go to.
09:49So if I'm throwing my hat in the ring as a suggestion and you don't want to go to Buffalo
09:52because of the prices, I'd say at Carolina.
09:55Okay.
09:55Look, there's a lot to digest and we're giving you guys the space to do it.
09:58Call in, text in 248-539-9797.
10:01Want to know, as ridiculous as it is, what your win-loss prediction is for this team
10:06and what you like and don't like.
10:08The games you want to go to on the road and at home from this Lions schedule.
10:13And you'll get mine at 7-18.
10:147-18.
10:15John plays the schedule game.
10:17It's 97-1.
10:18And I'll be right back.
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