00:01Good morning. It's a Thursday. Means two grand slam at 725. Your chance to win some money on your way
00:07into work.
00:09Lions got some work to do. They got the Arizona Cardinals this week. John, you and Tom both use the
00:15same two words in your email.
00:17Must win. You want to ask the question? Do you believe it is? Is this a must win for the
00:25Detroit Lions?
00:26You're going into a bye week. You're two and two right now. You just drop one to the Carolina Panthers.
00:31And I think if we go back to our schedule game, most people had you dropping the game against Buffalo.
00:37All right, so that's not out of the ordinary. And it may be how you lost it. That becomes a
00:45part of this conversation.
00:48But the fact that you dropped one against Carolina when they had both of their top corners out,
00:54they had, by the end of the game, four offensive linemen out. They didn't have their number one receiver.
00:59And maybe if they had their number one receiver, they wouldn't hit Ted McMillan so many times.
01:02But you drop one there, and it feels like you've got to stop the bleeding.
01:08You've got to start banking wins because the schedule's not going to get easier.
01:13You come back from the bye week, you get two division opponents. You've got them at home.
01:15But at the end of the year, you've got three of the four against division opponents,
01:19and all three of those are on the road. So you've got to start banking some wins.
01:25Is this a must-win? So I guess it depends on what your definition of must-win is.
01:29Some people would say, well, a must-win game is one that if you lose it,
01:34it eliminates you from the postseason. It's not there.
01:38I want to throw the flag. There are people who do it too literally.
01:41And too early. That's where we want to be cautious.
01:44And so then you start thinking of, does it have detrimental consequences if you lose this game
01:54for tiebreakers or possibly winning the division?
02:00I think you start to get into that category, but I think on the flip side, does it create a
02:08narrative?
02:09Does it create a panic amongst fan bases or possibly even amongst the team?
02:17Look, you heard Campbell this week. He came out, fired up talking to us.
02:21There's an increased urgency. If you fall flat on your face after emptying the tank,
02:26going into the bye, what does that mean for the season?
02:30I think it's a good question. You know, you had said two and three in the bye.
02:33You can't be two and three at the bye.
02:35Having lost back-to-back games against Carolina and Arizona.
02:39Yeah. Is it a must-win game?
02:422-4-8-5-3-9-97-97.
02:44Ultimately, I'm going to say it's not, but that is not to discount how costly a loss would be.
02:50They haven't played a division game yet.
02:51They are going to get some reinforcements on both sides of the ball.
02:54If they lose this game, they are in trouble, but I don't think their season's over.
02:58I would not call it a must-win.
03:02I'm on the verge of calling it a must-win because...
03:05Look at me, the more pragmatic, patient one.
03:08It's... and I'll go back to...
03:10I don't know, was it 23?
03:14The loss to Seattle at the beginning of the season
03:16where you look back and you say, well, if we had won that game,
03:22things would have been very different in regards to seeding or division or...
03:28and again, tiebreakers because it's an NFC opponent.
03:30You're playing an NFC opponent.
03:32You just lost to one, and if you lose to another,
03:36it does affect tiebreaking scenarios when you get to the end of the season.
03:41And it is a long season.
03:43Does this eliminate them?
03:45Will they not be able to recover from this?
03:48No.
03:49And so in that regard, it's not a must-win.
03:51But I think in regards to what we're seeing from this team,
03:54yes, reinforcements are coming,
03:56but is a Brian Branch return going to fix this defense?
04:01No.
04:02Is a Brian Branch return along with a trade that helps the secondary
04:07going to fix this defense?
04:09It'll go a long way to helping it.
04:10I don't think it ultimately fixes it.
04:12But I think the bigger issue is the play caller.
04:16And so I do think that for where the Lions are right now,
04:23this is a must-win game going into a bye week with, on the horizon,
04:30you've got Green Bay and Minnesota.
04:33Yeah, but that's okay.
04:35It's so funny that I'm going to be the one a little more grounded on this.
04:41If they lose this game, I know what Monday's going to be.
04:43It's going to be a lot of hysteria.
04:45For two weeks.
04:46You're right.
04:47But the spin zone coming out is going to be,
04:50well, bye's coming at the right time.
04:52Now we can really do the deep dive analysis.
04:55We're going to get our big chess piece on defense, Brian Branch, back in here.
04:59We're going to add Cade Mays to the offense, even if we have to outscore some people.
05:03John, the bye's coming at the right time.
05:04Can we spin that a second time?
05:06We've already spun that once coming out of the Buffalo game.
05:09Yeah, but that's what they're going to do.
05:10They're going to go, the bye's coming at the right time.
05:11We've got a chance to clean this up.
05:13Hey, they can spin it all they want.
05:14Like, that's what they're, yeah, okay.
05:16It's very predictable what they're going to do.
05:18Yeah, bye, we're going to clean things up.
05:19We're going to do a deep dive.
05:20We're going to, hey, we're going to get all on the same page.
05:23We're going to, you know, all the things that Calvin Shepard said in his,
05:25you know, filibuster speech.
05:27By the way, speaks again today.
05:28Can't wait to hear that.
05:31It's, I do believe this is a must win.
05:34And it's a must win for the morale of the team as well.
05:38You go into a bye coming off of a loss.
05:43And, I mean, we have another team locally that's doing that in Michigan.
05:47Michigan, yeah.
05:48And do you think that it's, okay, different scenarios and a lot of different context
05:54involved in this conversation, but with the expectations that this team had going into
05:57the season, going into the bye at two and three, I don't think it's, other than the doom
06:04and gloomers, which are proving to be more right than we were.
06:08Yes.
06:09It's going to be a S show for two weeks, and then you've got to find a way to beat
06:15Green
06:15Bay.
06:15Well, but that's the thing.
06:16That's the worst team in the division.
06:17And this team has played well, right?
06:19They're two and O at home, Detroit.
06:21So, okay.
06:22Have we not seen Jordan Love light up this defense before when the defense was better?
06:25Hold on.
06:25You're counting that as a loss.
06:27We're only talking about Arizona.
06:28I'm not counting it as a loss.
06:28I'm just saying you're looking ahead going, you're going to need some juice going into
06:32the bye week.
06:32Well, what I'm saying is it's unacceptable for this team to be two and three, but if they
06:35go into the bye week and then come out and win again in Green Bay and they're
06:39500 and they're, they're one and O in the division and they do have guys, you know, all
06:42of a sudden you're going to go, I guess, I guess week five wasn't a must win game.
06:46Like it very quickly gets unraveled.
06:48If they come out of the bye and beat Green Bay at home, not even a good Green Bay team.
06:51Yeah.
06:51But then you're okay.
06:52Then you're going into Minnesota at 500, right?
06:54And again, you get it in your house and you should be, my point is you've got all these
06:58division games still ahead.
06:59So I'm not willing to say it's a must win yet.
07:03I've got the feeling and I'm not normally like this.
07:05I've got the feeling that this is a must win game for the Morellas is because what did
07:09we see last year?
07:10All right.
07:11Hey, they were, they were right in the mix and then they played the Pittsburgh Steelers
07:15and all hopes and dreams felt like they got crushed and that loss fed into a couple more.
07:21You're right.
07:23This will be interesting where people stand this morning.
07:25Let's go to the phones.
07:26Manual import here on your own 97.1.
07:29Yeah, I would say, and I think it's an absolute must win for Kelvin Shepard.
07:33I feel like his job is going to be on the line if he doesn't win with this defense.
07:40That could be very true.
07:41Yeah, that's a good point.
07:42That could be very true in regards to what, and what the defense looks like playing against
07:49Arizona.
07:50Somebody's going to have to step up and cover Trey McBride.
07:52We already heard that from Dan Campbell.
07:53Yeah.
07:53And I think they've typically made the coordinator changes later in the year.
07:57But you don't have that luxury.
08:00No, not if you lose this game and not if it's the same stuff we've been watching and not
08:03if they have the same expectations for their team as we feel like our legitimate expectations
08:09of making the postseason winning the division.
08:13Text coming in says Lions will finish eight and nine.
08:15Their defense is trash.
08:17Another says this is a must win in the sense either solidifies the belief they are below
08:21average or average signed Gary.
08:25If they lose to Arizona, giving up 400 yards, they better have personnel changes signed to
08:29Tony.
08:30There's your second reference to that must win.
08:33This is one of only three lower quality teams will face the rest of the season.
08:37If you can't win this one, it's an omen for what's to come.
08:40That's Arizona, Miami, Tennessee, Tennessee.
08:44Not only a must win, a must win blowout.
08:47Mike and McComb.
08:48I don't care how they win.
08:51Guys, I don't think it's a must win.
08:52I have the ultimate faith in Dan Campbell to get the team back on track.
08:55But if we think we want to change with the defensive coordinator, then I guess you lose
08:59so you can expedite that change and get things rolling.
09:01Just my opinion.
09:03Is it a must win game against the Cardinals?
09:05Get your feedback next.
09:06Update on Laporta 2.
09:08It's 97.1.
09:08Come on.
