Mr.TaterSalad

We all know in hindsight that the Verlander trade to the Astros by Al Avila was a complete dud. It was a trade that in the long-term lead to Avilia being hated by fans and losing his job as GM. The hate on the Verlander trade is not revisionist history either. Many people here and throughout the fanbase hated what Avila brought back or didn't get in return for Verlander as it happened. Specifically, people seemed to hate not getting their top prospect and a top 30 prospect overall in Kyle Tucker. Would you have been satisfied with the Verlander trade at the time if it were a straight up deal for Kyle Tucker? If you could get an organization's top positional prospect today, and you felt that player was going to develop into a Kyle Tucker equivalent player, would that be enough for Skubal in your mind? Granted, you don't always know what a player will develop into. You can think you're getting the next Kyle Tucker and instead you get the next Eric Munson. But assuming your Team President, GM, and scouting staff had enough confidence that the player they got in return would be of Tucker-like caliber, would that be enough for you?

Sherrone needs to get Nick Marsh. Marsh should not leave the State of Michigan. Pony up the Larry Ellison NIL money and go get him. He is the perfect compliment for Bryce.

Martin Mayhew also drafted a WR with essentially no achilles tendon left in tact in Ryan Broyles.

What a weird season in the NFL. Neither the Chiefs or Ravens will likely make the playoffs at this point. Baltimore just lost to Pittsburgh. Who would have thought two AFC Championship and Super Bowl contending teams at the beginning of the season would be out of the playoffs by Week 13.

Here is the Department of Defense Chief of Staff completey wasted during the middle of the day in an interview with alleged sexual trafficker Matt Gaetz of OAN. Only the very best people.

The Lions are also #2 all time for losses on a Sunday with 623. Only the Arizona/St.Louis Cardinals have more with over 700.

Every team in the league plays hard. There has to be something besides this. Maybe they play too intense or aggressively? Maybe they have a bad strength, training, and conditioning staff? Maybe it's For Field turf?

We needed that TD. Had we settled for a FG there you know that would have haunted us.

Amon-Ra St. Ebron.

WTF happened there? First, Goff throws a duck that wobbles. Then, it's still somehow catchable and it gets dropped. Then, Bates badly misses the FG.

Like I said above, Lions in a blowout all day.

A terrible throw. He had a full step on his defender. Goff needed to drop it in the bucket over the shoulder and wasn't even close.

3rd and 1, why are we not running it on this down and distance?

OFFSIDES!!!!!!! How do they miss two guys jumping like that? Where was our free play?

What kind of biased bull**** is this? Does Melissa Hortman's family get a townhall now too?

She didn't lie, the Supreme Court ****ed student debt cancellation over. The Higher Education Act of 1965 allows for this to be done but the Supreme Court screwed it all up.

I read these stats on a Cowboys blog so I trust they are legit. Since Week 9 and acquiring Quinnen Williams the Cowboys defensive line ranks # 1 in the NFL. Dallas run defense is #1 in the league and their pass rush is #3. We know how Jared Goff fares at times under duress and pressure as well. Goff has a grade of 38.9 when under pressure and that ranks fourth worst in the league. Dak Prescott’s offensive grade under pressure is 75.4 and that ranks second best in the league. Their defense and defensive front specifically is different and improved since Williams was acquired.

I appreciate your optimism and approach here, but the glass is half empty for me. Yes, this team has come back time and again under Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes when we've counted them out and left them for dead. That includes most recently against a bad Giants team. But there are big, key differences between this year's team and the 22, 23, and 24 teams. Most notably, they lost their identity that those teams had because their offensive line is pedestrian to begin with and is now banged up with injuries. The great and elite teams that not only make the playoffs, but often go far into them, have some kind of describable identity. The Chiefs had it with Mahomes and their high powered offense. The Bucs and Patriots had it with Brady and their smart, balanced offense. The Bengals had it when they Burrow, Chase, and Higgins first burst on the scene with an explosive offense. Hell, we had it last year with a bunch of bullies on the offensive line and our ability to run the ball down your throat and dictate the pace of play in game. This year, we have no identity, nothing that separates us from anyone else in our division, conference, or league overall. We're not bad because we still have enough talent on the field thanks to Brad Holmes and the front office. As well, we still have a good enough coach, that these guys love and believe in, to keep our heads above .500 football. But we dominate in exactly zero facets of the game right now. Sure, Gibbs alone looks dominate at times, as he did against The Giants. But even Gibbs has only had 3 games above 100 yards rushing overall and he hasn't been that explosive in pass catching either. This teams lack of an identity and not being truly elite at something hurts them. Being injured once again hurts them even more. You combine those with all the other factors like a regressing offensive line, a less explosive offense, lack of QB pressure, time to throw, etc. and I just don't see where the optimism comes from to not start counting this team out. I sure as hell hope you are right with a half full glass and I am wrong with my half empty glass. I sure hope they win tonight and get into the playoffs.

I am not drinking the koolaid any longer this season. My optimism for this season is pretty much gone at this point and this team simply doesn't pass the eye test. There are a number of factors that have me down. The biggest is just their subpar play overall and the loss of their core identity. This team controlled the line of scrimmage on offense and everything else flowed through that. Their ability to run the ball, grind opposing teams down, open up the passing game with play-action, control the clock, dictate the pace of play is all largely gone thanks to a weakened offensive line and injuries. Combine that with a lack of creativity in their offensive playcalling and you've seen this explosive offense take a step back this season. They also have other factors working against them too. For one, a defense that can't seem to get a stop when they need it. Their defense lacks getting any type of pressure on opposing QBs and they are allowing opposing QBs to have all day in the pocket, with plays developing downfield. I've also felt let down by some questionable decision making by Dan Campbell when deciding whether or not to go for it, take a FG, or punt it away. On top of all that, injuries have yet again become a factor for this team at multiple positions. This all has me feeling down and out about the Lions right now. I think tonight specifically, they lack the defense to stop the best passing offense in the league. They couldn't stop Jameis Winston and a crew of backup WRs as he threw for over 350 yards and 2 TDs. He got almost zero pressure all day in the pocket. If that's what Jameis can do, I shutter to think about what Dak, Lamb, and Pickens will do to us given how well they've been playing this season. I think we lost by 10 tonight with a score that is something like Cowboys 34-Lions 24. With that, I think our hope for the playoffs ends.

This was mentioned the other day on The Ticket during the Lions Recap. When you constantly play man coverage and you are expecting your DBs to hold coverage for this long, one on one, it's no wonder they get roasted by a bum like Jameis Winston. It's one reason among others why fans why a legit, second pash rushing option next to Aiden. It didn't have to be the $100 million prize of Trey Hendrickson, but someone, anyone, capable of getting more pressure on the QB. You can say that Alim McNeill should be that guy, and you wouldn't be wrong. But we didn't have McNeill for the first quarter of the season and were in need of someone even when he returned. That to me is a roster construction problem more than just a schematic one.

Coulda had this women as our President. She's literally been talking about reforming and/or breaking up big social media and tech companies for years now.

Eric Ebron is a free agent as well and we need a TE (sarcasm) . . . ducks!

Whatever you say Mein Fuhrer.

Karsch and Anderson seemed to speculate on their show today that St. Brown would not be playing this week. I think we're cooked if indeed that is true.

I think Marcus Davenport was supposed to be their new pass rushing specialist. But like many of the players Brad seems to like, he's often injured and rarely on the field. Brad has overdone it a bit taking risks on injury prone guys that he can get for cheaper or better draft value. Availability is a skill as much as talent is. At some point, guys like Davenport, Fraizer, Levi, Pashcal, have to be able to play consistently, otherwise, what was the point of wasting a draft pick, money, and a roster spot on them?