MichiganCardinal

Be respectful. Throw in James Houston.

Is there room on the bandwagon? Asking for a friend.........

That's exactly it. We are where we are because the NCAA was forced to do something. In court. So they just said "okay, inmates can run the asylum!" ushering in this whole wild west era. The solution will not lie in the NCAA. It will lie in something new, eventually.

Maxx Crosby is probably the only one who I’d approve going out and getting. He’s a game wrecker, perfect mindset for the locker room, is from the area, and combined with Hutch would lead to teams needing jumbo package offensive lines just to get passes off. He’s worth two 1sts and maybe then some. He’s also already signed through 2026, which would work with when all the contract extensions they’ve already signed get into the massive money. But it’s a pipe dream. The Raiders are terrible but won’t admit it so he’s stuck.

Those stats come out every year (more often about teams starting 0-2 or 1-2) and I don’t put much stock in them. Of course starting 0-3 is bad. But what matters more is that you have the talent to right the ship, and the Bengals are talented. Not to mention they are all in on winning now and have demonstrated a lack of interest in trading talent. They’ve pissed off half their receivers room in addition to Hendrickson, and are likely far from throwing in the towel on this season. If they give up now, they’re also giving up on Zac Taylor, Duke Tobin, Tee Higgins, and JaMarr Chase and are likely rebuilding their entire team over the course of multiple years while saddled with a (very good) QB (but) whose APY is $55 million. 95% of teams that start 0-3 suck. That’s why the stats are so grim. The Titans suck. The Jaguars probably suck. I don’t think the Bengals suck. They should have beaten the Chiefs a week ago. Our own 2021 squad shows that you can recover from worse than 0-3. If they’re 2-7 or 1-8 at the trade deadline, then sure that might change and they’ll probably offload some talent that they won’t be able to re-sign. But they wouldn’t even entertain a conversation right now, or at 0-4.

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Assistant Coach probably conditioned $100k on him being a success. UNLV can pay that in NIL to a starting QB, but only when they really need to. Probably not on any given grad transfer. Kid then had early success. Meanwhile, an SEC school like Ole Miss quietly offers him $500k to redshirt and transfer. Now kid says “I never got my $100k.” Nonsense like this will keep happening until the money-makers in the room (B1G and SEC) leave the NCAA and regulate themselves. And even then it might still happen to schools like UNLV, unless the powers that be don’t want it happening to UNLV out of their own self interests.

I don't think it's dirty. Davenport is trying to muscle Paris Johnson backwards to collapse the pocket. Johnson tries to break the arm (not literally) and for whatever reason, Davenport's elbow snaps before his grip/wrist does. Normally that move should just result in Davenport going face first into the turf, or if he's good, maintaining his balance and re-establishing his charge. Just a freak play. That tends to happen more to injury-prone players like Davenport.

I’m just saying I think the Lions are the better team. I also think water tends to find its level around this time and through the next few weeks. Weird stuff happens in the first few weeks, that we all look back on in week 15 and say “how did they beat them?!” Because teams like Cincinnati will go on a run and win 8 of their next 10, while teams like Washington will lose eight in a row. Not claiming either of those will happen, but they tend to. It’s a week to week league to some extent, but the better team should still win more often than not. There will never be a year with 16 teams at 9-8 and the other 16 at 8-9. Though that would be fun.

Call me crazy but I don’t think the sea chickens are very good. They’re 3-0, but have beat Bo Nix and the Broncos by 6, Jacoby Brissett and the Patriots by 3 in OT, and Skylar Thompson and our old friend Tim Boyle, where Miami only scored 3 points. The Lions are the best offense and best defense they’ll have seen yet. We should win.

You're both right. Holmes hits far more than he whiffs and I'm not about to complain about the overall job that he's done, but damn would it be nice to have some consistent production at the edge across from Hutch. Maybe it's all chess and he's trying to drive down the price of Hutch's extension. "Well, Mr. Agent, I would pay him $175 million over five years, but I read a certain message board and was told that pressures are not as effective as sacks!"

This is exactly their problem with him. It’s using a roster spot on a guy who they don’t trust on running plays and who is below replacement on special teams. So he’s only useful on 100% passing downs (i.e., 3/long and 4/medium, depending on the opponent). That is only about 1-5 snaps a game. He saw three snaps against Tampa for instance, the lowest snap count of anybody on the entire team when you include special teams contributions. If you have the roster spot to spare, sure, it doesn’t hurt, particularly if he’s as effective on those 1-5 snaps as he was last season. Which is why we might see him active against Seattle with spots opening up for Barnes and Davenport.

Eight. It becomes 10 if you make the postseason. The Lions have used three I believe: Emmanuel Moseley and Brodric Martin were on IR/DTR to start the season, then John Cominsky was put on it shortly after.

I’m also hoping we get Iffy back this week. If we don’t it means the injury has lingered longer than expected when they set the roster, because he could have been placed on IR if he was always going to miss at least four games.

Yes, but I don’t accept it as an excuse in year four. Next man up. We lost CJGJ and Houston for the season last year in week two and didn’t let it stop it from accomplishing our goals. Davenport was expected. No one was holding their breath that he was about to get through an entire season. Barnes hurts, but he’s an off-ball linebacker. I think they’ll slide Jack Campbell to Will and put Rodrigo at Sam. They’ve still got JRM behind them, and a host of depth that primarily plays special teams. Ragnow will hurt if he’s out for an extended period of time. We will see if they place him on IR, or if he’s actually week to week. It’s incredible that he posted the highest PFF score on the team while playing through that, and I wouldn’t put it past him to be back after the bye. Everyone else it sounds like is day to day. I expect a gruesome injury report tomorrow, but they can still beat this Seahawks team.

Back to Hutch getting double teamed every down with a rotating cast of clowns like Romeo Okwara and Charles Harris opposite him. Holmes might bring someone in to replace Davenport, but it won’t be Reddick. Doesn’t for the locker room or the scheme, and we won’t want to pay him long-term. Azeez Ojulari might fit the bill.

It's all just so subjective. The Personal Conduct Policy effectively puts Goodell in the shoes of judge, jury, and executioner, where he is expected to compare apples and oranges to assign game suspensions. Except instead of apples and oranges, it's comparing domestic violence and aggravated assault/collision causing injury amongst a bunch of millionaires who pretty much all have CTE. So instead of "fair" and "just" punishments being levied out - which is almost impossible to imagine anyway, it shouldn't be the job of the parent organization NFL to police their club's employees conduct when they're not at their job - it all comes down to making NFL owners seem like a group of people that gives a **** about anything other than lining their pockets. Spoiler alert, they don't. And so naturally, high publicity things like a video of Ray Rice knocking out his fiancée, or Deshaun Watson getting sued for dozens of sexual assault allegations, those get punished harshly. And when it's a smaller profile thing, like Rice driving away from the scene of an accident, it's swept under the rug. I've advocated before for abolishing the Personal Conduct Policy. Let individual teams devise manners to punish their individual players for off-the-field conduct. It will result in less suspensions, of course. The Steelers aren't suspending Cam Sutton eight games if they have their way. But let them answer for that. Some organizations will care more about doing right by the community, just like is already the case. And those that don't will be justifiably trashed in the public eye. But if I work for an employer, it's my employer who will decide whether to fire me if I get a DWI. Not a larger conglomerate organization that my employer works within.

Some analytics instead of work this morning. Since 2023 week one, including playoffs, the Lions have scored 152 points in the 1st quarter (25%), 190 points in the 2nd quarter (31%), 101 points in the 3rd quarter (17%), and 163 points in the 4th quarter (27%). That would seem to spell a 3rd quarter problem. But, they have led at the half in 17 of the 23 games in that stretch (74%). In 8 of those games (35%), they have led by more than 8 points at the half. They have a good tendency to start strong out of the gate. And they don't tend to lose that lead either. In those 17 games, they are 14-3. In the 8 games with two-possession leads (including yesterday), they are 7-1. The only loss they have suffered after taking an 9+ point lead into the half was in the NFC Championship Game. Oof. That is to say though, it's not like they are often playing from behind, desperately needing third quarter points, and are just making crazy comebacks in the 4th quarter to make up for it. I think it's their strategy (which is working more often than not) to slow the game down and control the pace in the second half after getting out to a 1st half lead, and a natural consequence of that is that you're going to score less. Furthermore, when they are not leading at the half, the stats change. In those 6 games, they have scored 26 points in the 1st quarter (22%), 10 points in the 2nd quarter (9%), 35 points in the 3rd quarter (30%), and 45 points in the 4th quarter (39%). Those are different games, and call for different strategy at the half.

We can complain about the offense if we want, it's a free country message board, but yesterday's offense was not the one that caused me anxiety like week one, or to yank hair out like week two. I think the Lions offense was playing chess yesterday. Whether you win 34-13 or 20-13, it's all one win in the standings. After the trick play put them up two scores heading into the half, they had scored a touchdown on three of their four first half drives. I think there was a conscious decision to play a little more conservatively and to trust the defense. Not to show too much of the playbook, to run the ball behind your tackles, to control TOP, and to not turn the ball over. They mostly succeeded, and ultimately they did succeed because they won the game. By the time it became a one-possession game again, there was less than 4:00 to go. The strategy changes again at that point, to just not giving the Cardinals the ball back. It's not like against the Rams where they were just constantly going three and out, they only went three and out once in the second half. Or the Bucs where they were shooting themselves in the foot in the red zone, they were 2/2 in the red zone. Now, ideally, that strategy still gets you points. Getting shut out in a half is never a good thing. And ideally, you've learned from last year that against better teams in bigger games, no lead is safe. But yesterday I really think if the defense was struggling to get stops, the attitude would have changed and they would have successfully moved the ball a little more aggressively.

I said the same thing when they went for it on 4th and medium with four minutes left. Mahomes is going to get the ball back no matter what, make it a two-point game and trust your defense to make a stop.

If true, I apologize. It's the only one I saw, because the Lion King account had retweeted it. I'm not here to fear monger!

Conversation starters: 1. Debut of the all black uniforms! 2. Why are we sharing Monday Night Football with Will Levis and Skylar Thompson?!? 3. Can we please - for the love of God - beat this stupid freakin' team that we play every freakin' year???

We are comparing two of the worst owners in football, but I think Khan would very much prefer to be hands off. Urban Meyer forced his hand with just how terrible he was.

vs. Setting: 09/30/2024 8:15pm EST on ABC Site: Ford Field in Detroit, MI Weather: Climate Controlled Opening Spread: Lions -4.5 All-Time Series Record: Seahawks lead, 13-5 Last Meeting: 09/17/2023, Seahawks won 37-31 in OT Seattle Seahawks (3-0) Head Coach: Mike Macdonald (1st Season: 3-0) Projected Starting QB: Geno Smith (12th Season: 33-36) Last Week: 24-3 W vs. Miami Dolphins Looking Ahead to Week #5: Sunday vs. New York Giants (1-2) Your Detroit Lions (2-1) Head Coach: Dan Campbell (4th Season: 26-27-1) Projected Starting QB: Jared Goff (9th Season: 68-51-1) Last Week: 20-13 W @ Arizona Cardinals (1-2) Looking Ahead to Week #5: BYE Elsewhere in the NFL Primetime: Cowboys @ Giants (TNF), Bills @ Ravens (SNF), Titans @ Dolphins (7:30pm MNF) 1:00pm: Saints @ Falcons, Vikings @ Packers, Bengals @ Panthers, Rams @ Bears, Jaguars @ Texans, Steelers @ Colts, Broncos @ Jets, Eagles @ Buccaneers 4:05/4:25pm: Commanders @ Cardinals, Patriots @ 49ers, Chiefs @ Chargers, Browns @ Raiders