00:08so is this just going to be what it is we got text coming in brutal questions gov no one's
00:14going to get those tom and waterford every week someone does poorly it's tom's fault huh
00:18this was a gettable one i don't necessarily know that all 10 were gettable but we had just gotten
00:26done talking about jason back for the past half hour and he didn't he passed on one i think you
00:32should have got this thing right here radioactive yeah uh you should have got duncan robinson played
00:37at michigan i mean even if you don't know hockey mcdavid's a pretty safe guess for who's leading
00:44the nhl in points i'm glad he guessed somebody yeah you know that's a hockey player i'm not saying
00:48you should get all 10 necessarily i think college hoops not exactly on everybody's top of mind you
00:52probably might i don't know you might not know number one team is in the florida gators but he
00:56can do better than two i'm not going to blame the banker for this one no no although tom's going
01:01to
01:02have a hell of a lunch yeah i thought this one was easier than normal we were just saying that
01:06yeah
01:07anyway the the down goes frazier text will never not be funny yeah uh dan campbell's going to join
01:13us at 802 talk about the lions win over the packers and gear up for the vikings because right back
01:18into a
01:19big division game at ford field what did we learn about their game against green bay
01:26um i learned that the trajectory for this defense appears to be on the rise now it's a very low
01:37bar
01:37you started from at the very bottom and actually statistically at the very bottom after four games
01:45arizona okay hey one off we saw it last year against tampa the legion of whom let's see what
01:52happens you get brian branch back it's the other thing i learned brian branch is really good um but
01:57i learned that kelvin shepherd and maybe it's that he needs that safety net behind all of those
02:05defensive backs but it allows ennis rakestraw dj reed that entire secondary to be a little bit more
02:12aggressive because they know they've got a great safety blanket that they can use in a lot of
02:16different ways but the trajectory of this defense appears to be on the rise so it's two in a row
02:23now
02:24where the deep the secondary i'm not sitting there saying it's great problems are still there issues are
02:29still there i still want brad holmes to go get another corner but much better in the last two weeks
02:37than in the previous four now we need to see it against a player like justin jefferson right
02:43the idea that arizona was a fluke we can set that aside because they did in a tougher matchup
02:51against a quarterback who's better against receivers that'll punish you deep they played better
02:58brian branch is part of that absolutely i think he was their highest graded defender on on pff is the
03:02highest graded player on both of all yeah so the trajectory and let's be clear like where they
03:07land is is still not going to be top five or top 10 but can it be good enough to
03:12win this division
03:13can it be good enough to win playoff games they're going to have as good as it was in 23
03:17sure that's
03:18a great way to put it where they were the number 23 points allowed defense and they got to the
03:23nfc
03:23championship game and they had famously a 17 point lead right halftime of the nfc championship game
03:29so i think the secondary is the clear takeaway from the game because it was our biggest gripe early
03:34it is still their biggest position of need but they've seen signs of life the front is the front
03:41they're number one in sacks in the nfl it's getting something on the back end of that defense to pair
03:46up
03:47with that consistent pressure you probably still want a little more um you want some takeaways i know
03:54branch had the punt yeah the yeah the arm punt um but i think that's the next level for this
03:59defense is translating those sacks and that havoc and better coverage into takeaways but that's that's
04:06the takeaway is that they are playing better in the back end of this defense yeah again it's the
04:10trajectory i i i wanted to use that term because you're starting from the basement level and you are
04:21you you played a little bit better against arizona we all thought well maybe that's a one-off well no
04:25it wasn't a one-off you are you played a little bit better this week against green bay and it's
04:31it gives you a little more credibility because of the two receivers that you were playing against
04:37better receivers as a whole as a unit and quarterback you can say whatever you want about
04:43jordan love but better than jacoby brissette yes and so you were able to limit those guys
04:50and limit the explosive plays now can you do it against a squirrely quarterback in kyler murray
04:58and a much better single receiver now they do have addison they've got hawkinson but can you do it
05:04against a guy like justin jefferson he's going to get some and there's also the different challenge
05:09of kyler as a mobile quarterback and the ways that can stress and twist and distort your coverage
05:14and yeah but okay then you did you learn yeah in terms about rush lanes against josh allen sure can
05:21you do it better this time when you're facing a quarterback that's not easily as visible as
05:26josh allen but has a similar escapability i'm not going to say he's as good running the or throwing as
05:33josh allen but he's in he's got some escapability to his game tom what was your big takeaway from that
05:38game um if the defense can get to the 2023 level which is what i've been begging for and i
05:46think
05:46they are getting closer um what i learned is that this team's offense is so close to clicking
05:55and i swear that if gibbs wouldn't have fumbled and they score a touchdown there at the end of the
05:59half
05:59that that game plays out entirely different where you put a stranglehold on a team uh i'm looking for
06:04the offense to kind of get to the late 23 24 level where uh they can put teams in a
06:10body bag which
06:11will only help the defense that it's so close i'm learning it's so close to clicking but they seem
06:17to just not be able in the first half to completely pull away from teams yet and but i think
06:22i see it
06:23coming i don't know if it's gonna happen this week because they're playing a great defense right
06:26but i can see it kind of forming but that's an inexplicable fumble for gibbs he doesn't fumble
06:34kind of a fluky one right because it was kate mays does it yeah like i was right there with
06:38brady and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to try to you know put back-to-back possessions at
06:42the end of a half and a start of a half and they fumbled twice like the offense just keeps
06:47most of
06:48the season shooting itself in the foot just when it seems like it's going to take off but i think
06:53it's coming yeah i think the run game was a little disjointed on uh on sunday but you know what
06:57they did really well is play action pass off of it it's like hey if you're going to be extra
07:01stout and
07:01commit extra bodies into the run game first of all we're going to keep trying to run it because
07:05it's part of who we are and they were fine but we're really going to make you pay with the
07:11play
07:11action pass like golf is such a good quarterback i mean call it great quarterback and play action
07:17situations sure and i did like and we always talk about the you know mobility of your quarterback it
07:22exhausts me but i did like his pocket presence a couple of steps here a couple of steps there step
07:28up a little bit get rid of the ball he's done a really nice job of the offensive line has
07:33done a
07:34nice job of protecting him he's not under a lot of pressure but when he when there is pressure even
07:39if it's late he does a nice job of moving around in the pocket so we got room for you
07:45guys before we
07:45talk to dan at 802-248-539-9797 we want to talk to lions fans about the biggest thing they
07:51learned
07:52from the green bay win it's 97-1
