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Lions fans, it's time for the podcast you've been waiting for, the show where Kool-Aid runs blue, faces turn red, and rose colored glasses never go out of style. This is the Detroit Lions podcast. Hey everyone, this is Jeff Risen from the Detroit Lions podcast and Lions Wire. It's week fourteen, we got the Lions, we got the Packers coming to town, Thursday night, let's go. All right, doing this one, I had to scramble around a little bit tonight, it's Wednesday evening, we're about twenty seven hours from game time with the Lions hosting the Packers. I had to scramble around a little bit, Chris and I, of course looking to do a live show, I had to do some things, I'm actually, I need to thank them, the Disability Advocates of Kent County, I'm at their offices here at Somi, which is a special Olympics of West Michigan. All the houses that I very much believe in and spend a lot of time with, I want to thank them for letting me sit up and throw a P here so I can do this all, they're closed thankfully, but we're getting quite a snowstorm coming in and it's fun, we have football coming, we have big, big game coming tomorrow night. You might actually be watching this on Thursday, we're listening to it on Thursday on the audio product, which is great, the thing here, this is about as good of a place as I can get with that, hey, what's coming off of me, all sorts of things going on, but I'm excited for this one, it's Thursday night, the Lions are eleven and one, they've won ten games in a row, that includes a game in week nine over the Packers, Packers have not lost since their nine and three, they think they're going to win this game, they are fired up to show that they can belong with the Lions and the Vikings also who are ten and two, in the supremacy of the NFC North, we will see about that. But I waited to record this a little bit, I was going to do it earlier in the day, but I wanted to see the final injury report, because it honestly, it does sway my opinion about this game, and unfortunately it swayed the wrong way, Taylor Decker is not going to play in this game, the left tackle, that is a massive loss against the Packers, why? Part of it is the fact that they have not had the same run blocking with the unskipper replacing Taylor Decker, and that's a bit of an issue. The other thing is, unlike the Bears, which Decker missed last week, the Bears don't blitz a lot, the Packers do, not necessarily like your overload blitzes like you think of the Baltimore Ravens or Pittsburgh sewers or anything like that, but they do a lot where they will rush their edge and then the linebacker will loop around or they do a lot of twists and games and things like that. That's tougher for a guy like Skipper to pick up, he's not as athletic as Decker, and he's just not as proficient or experienced at it, and that's something that concerns me, because the Packers want to get a lot of pressure on Jared Goff with as little blitzing as they can do, but if they can start to generate a lot of pressure from that, it's not great. I do think that Jair Alexander being out for them, he is their best corner, that's certainly an asset for the Lions, a feather in the cap, but this is not a good game for Decker to be missing with the knee injury that he suffered, ironically enough, when Tanski from missed a block as an extra tackle against the Colts, they are leaving Benaisool at right tackle as they should, he's the best in football there, their run game is designed specifically for him and right guard, Kevin Zayler, to do what they do best together on that side, and there's no sense in disrupting that, so I applaud them for doing that, but you know, Dan Skipper will be the best Dan Skipper he can be, but that's not as good as what Taylor Decker is, and that could cost the Lions this week. The other injury that hurts a lot is DJ Reader being out, and this is one that I don't think a lot of us expected after he gave his post-game interviews in the win last Thursday against Chicago, he's a big dude, he's got a shoulder issue, and we thought it was going to be better, and it just wasn't, he wasn't able to practice all week, so he's out, and that is a massive loss because the Packers have been running the ball really well, and specifically running it right up the middle where DJ Reader is really well, they're going to replace them with Broderick Martin more than likely, might see some Miles Adams, Jonah Williams is much more of a kind of an outsider guy, he's going to fill the Josh Pascale role, Josh Pascale's out as well, Williams is sort of of that size, he's probably a little bit bigger, he sort of splits the difference between Pascale and Anza Rieke, who's also out with an injury suffered against Chicago, kind of injuries on the defensive front, so we're bringing in a lot of reinforcements that have never played together before, have anywhere between two and six practices as Detroit Lions, and they're all going to be out there and they are going to play, you're going to see Jonah Williams, you're going to see Miles Adams, you're going to see Jamal Adams, probably, he could actually be signed to the active roster, because not long before I started recording this, the Lions cut Lawrence Strickland, their undrafted rookie safety, who has not played on defense, he's only played on special teams, that's done for a reason, they've got practice quad-colleps that they need and they meet, they also need roster spots to bring in healthy bodies, somebody that offers more of a defensive impact than what Strickland does, my suspicion is that that will be Jamal Adams, please don't call him a safety, I've heard from a couple of people that he's bigger than David Long and Ezekiel Turner, he's probably pushing 235, he hasn't played as a cupboard safety in years, years, he's here to be a linebacker, he's here to be a Sam, through the grapevine on Tuesday afternoon, that he'd been working some backing up Trevor Nowoski as the Sam backer on the team, so that's probably where you're going to see Jamal Adams, by the way, he's at his best, rushing the passer, that's what he's always been best at as a safety, he also used to be a really good slobber knocker of an interior run defender for a safety, we'll see if that translates more with him being a newcomer and seeing how he fits in, but there's a lot of trepidation with, I say this diplomatically, with reader being out, the defensive line outside of Oley McNeil is not going to be as good at protecting the linebackers, Jack Campbell, Ezekiel Turner, David Long, who I thought played great against Chicago after being sort of rough the first week, I thought he'd let it look really good last week, they're going to get blocked easier than they did against Chicago, and the other thing is that the Green Bay's offensive line is better than what Chicago's was, and we don't like to give praise to the bankers here, but if they're 9-3 for a reason, they haven't lost since we beat them for a reason, that's going to be a tall order, and I think their run style with Josh Jacobs, the powerful kind of guy that he is inside, without reader, they're going to be able to double team Oley McNeil and probably still get the Jack Campbell with a second level, that's just problematic for the Lions chances. Look, I know it's at home, it's going to be a fun game, it's going to be a rock-as-crowd, go freaking crazy, let them know that they welcome them to Detroit in the way that we can, I want to hear Jared Gough chance, I want to hear a lot of noise when the Packers have the ball, but we have lost the matchup advantage of having a better run defense than their run offense with DJ Rear out of the game, I do believe that, and that's why, and I'll just, a spoiler alert, get it out of the way, I think the Packers are going to win this game, hope I'm wrong. Save Big with King Super's 12 Merry Days of Deals From December 4th through the 15th, you can clip a hot new deal each day on our app or website, and if you're a boost member, you can save even more, so don't miss out and be sure to check our app or website every day, from December 4th through the 15th, to clip each day's hot new deal. It's 12 Merry Days of Deals, a holly jolly way to save for the holidays at King Super's. Whether you're ordering wings for the game, whipping up a 7-layer dip, or ordering pizza, there's something about football that makes you want to eat, and this football season, Uber Eats has the best deals on game day food, no matter what you're craving, from two-for-one pizza to buy one get-one wings, Uber Eats will be dropping new deals each week all season long, Uber Eats, official on-demand delivery partner of the NFL, order now, terms and conditions apply, see out for details. But, between all the losses, not having ons, I know that they're not like impact players, but they're important players, and bringing all these new guys in, at some point, that damn is going to break, and I'm worried it's going to break on Thursday night against the Packers. Hope not, and even if it does, I do still think the Lions can win by outscoring the Packers in this game, and that's where the positive rub comes from. I'm not sure the Packers are going to be able to stop this offense, even without Decker being in there. The Sonic and Knuckles is going to be an issue for them. Now, their run defense has played a lot better lately. They have gotten stiffer. Interestingly, it was last week they played without Edger and Cooper. They're a really good rookie linebacker out of Texas A&M. By the way, the Lions liked him in the draft. I'm not enough to draft him, but they liked him as an evaluation. He's out, and they replace him, and they get bigger and tougher that way. And the way that the Lions offensive line has been playing, we're going to need Skipper. We're going to need Graham Glasgow to play better than he has. He was really good after the first drive against the Colts, my first couple of drives. I thought he rebounded and played great. Last week was another down week. He doesn't have the range in the zone, and the zone blocking principles that we need him to do to run as much zone as we're running. We have been running more zone run concepts lately, and hopefully we will get back to the idea of ground and pound a little bit more gap, a lot more duo. I think that will work very well. I think David Montgomery runs better. Let's see what comes out with that. But this is a game where I do think that the Lions are going to have to outscore the Packers. And again, will they? I hope so. I really hope so. But I'm going to, and so I got through this. And one of the reasons why Chris and I can't do this is because he's doing the live show after the game on Thursday, and he just doesn't have time with work. There is going to be a post game show. Y'all who listen a lot understand what that means. We don't lose when there's a post game show. So hopefully that carries over better than my prediction. I have not picked the Lions to lose a game since the Seattle game week four, and they won that game. So hopefully, hopefully this isn't a habit because this is still a very good football team. And that's, that's kind of where I want to go after the prediction here. Lions are still 11 and one number one team in the NFC. They are technically the number one team in the NFL. They have the number 32 waiver claim. Kansas City is also 11 and one. The Lions have played a tougher schedule, a higher degree of strength to schedule that gives them the number 32 overall pick in the end 20, 45 NFL draft. If you like that, go look at mock drafts this week. Dainburg, we're putting out today. I actually haven't looked at it yet. I will be reviewing that later. I will have my own Lions centric mock draft coming probably over the weekend. It's weird playing on Thursdays. I'm sort of out of schedule with my life and what happens in my my flow. I will be at Ford Field on Saturday watching my Ohio Bobcats. Hopefully there's one Ohio team that can win a conference. The Buckeyes sure sell cans. Yeah, go Bobcats beat Miami. We have never won the Mac title game. We have won bowl games. We have been to the Mac championship game, but we've not won it. So that's where I will be this Saturday. Last night I was at Ford Field watching high school football. So it's a fun time. Ford Field does great for events. You know, a few weeks ago, Chris and I were talking about stadiums and I hadn't been in Ford Field. I didn't get to any of the preseason games this year to the Lions and I don't go to regular season games. I prefer not to. It's a lot easier for me to work from my home office. Just aside from the fact that I live three hours away, it's a lot easier to just to manage things. I'm used to it, but I do try to get to at least one game a year. I haven't been yet. But going into Ford Field, like, come on. Man, I was probably a little harsh on Ford Field. Well, that's time. So far, for those of you who took that too hard, it's still a great venue. Bathrooms were fine. Facilities were good. I got to show you how to peek into the locker room where one of the teams was looking looking very nice. Like it's still still a great facility. It's aging a little bit when you compared to some of the other stadiums that are out there, but you know, Ford Field, it's got some good years left, didn't it? And hopefully we blow the top off cheering for the Lions. Chair Gough chance by the way, to break out a give credit to the Zeeland West Ducks school student section. They had the Jerry Gough chance going as they won the state title beating up Detroit King. And that game, that game is also giving me a little bit of hope about the Lions against the Packers because they run, well, they run a full house backfield and just ground and pound, but they did a lot of play action out of it. And I do think the Packers are vulnerable as some play action. This could be a good game for Sam Laporta. But back to the overall picture. The Lions can still lose this game and still get the number one seed. Yes, it would probably tie them with the Philadelphia Eagles who are playing some fantastic football right now. You will not hear a disparaging word about the Eagles from me. They look great right now. And I don't fear them, but I respect them. And what that game, if they play in the postseason to be in Ford Field, I don't want to go to Philly for that one. They can still make that happen, even if they lose this one. They get a great chance to rebound next week with a rested team 10 days off until they play the Buffalo Bills, who for my money are the best team in the AFC. They're better than the Chiefs. I know their record doesn't necessarily reflect that, but I think they are the better team right now. And I think a lot of people agree with that. They still have to play the Steelers. Steelers are in a dog fight. And for that division title, that's going to be, it's going to be a heck of a game. They can lose that game. Don't think they're losing to my him or New England, but, you know, we'll see. I'm not going back to college to be your friend. I'm going so I can get Uber one for students. It saves you on Uber and Uber Eats. I'm there for $0 delivery fee on cheeseburgers, up to 10% off smoothies and 6% Uber credits back on rides. Just to be clear, I'm there for savings, not whatever you think college is for. Get Uber one for students, a membership to save on Uber and Uber Eats. With deals this good, everyone wants to be a student, joined for just $4.99 a month. Savings may vary, eligibility and member terms apply. I've got a lot of grandbabies, like a lot a lot. And when it comes to finding a gift for each other, you know, it could add up. But this year, while I was making my way through Walmart, I realized I don't have to spend a lot to get the gifts they'll love. And OPI mini-mani sets, I'm going to do so much nail art. Oh, yeah, a Lego set. My own a wall of water bottle. Ooh, and that's just half of them. Shop great gifts they're sure to love for $25 and under at Walmart. Philadelphia though, they're good, man. They're good. But we are too. And don't forget that. Don't let one loss, if it happened, then why not even happen? Like the lions could very well win this game 35 to 20. And I would not be surprised. I wouldn't, I wouldn't bat an eye if that happened. That that's certainly in the realm of possibilities. I don't think they're going to win a game 20 to 17, which is what I picked for last week's score. They wound up winning by three. It was 23 to 20. So I almost got it. So close. Just glad we got that win. Glad that Matt Iberflooses an idiot. That the bears screwed up. Oh, Packers aren't going to do that. Bills aren't going to do that. Vikings probably not going to do that. That's that's three of the final five games on the schedule here. All of those are loseable. All of those are winnable. But again, I'm not super concerned about what happens around elsewhere, because this is a team, a lions team, and I've said it before, and I will say it now, can be any other team in any other venue, any week. I would almost expect them to. Maybe not in Philly, but we'll see how the, how the injuries are. And I think right now, there's a lot of consternation, like resignation that, Oh crap, we've got so many injuries, we just we're not going to be able to compete, we're not going to be able to keep going. Well, other teams have issues too. The lions just today lost cave on with mirror weather off their practice squad. Why? Because the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will not be playing with their top three safeties on Sunday. Buccaneers, by the way, beat the Eagles. They beat the lions. You better believe we better take them seriously if they get into the postseason. The way that Kirk Cousins is playing in Atlanta, I kind of think that the Buccaneers are going to win that division. So other teams have issues too. The Eagles, they're relatively healthy right now. We know if that's going to persist. We'll see. We will also see that teams are going to start figuring out a little bit more of let's focus on stopping to say Juan Barkley, let's make Jalen Hertz beat us more. He can, but it's sort of the same thing with Detroit. Like, okay, we're going to focus on stopping some of your Gibbs that we're not going to let David Montgomery get going. Okay. Chair Gus going to throw over the top to J-Mo. It's going to hit Sam LaPorda. Ammona, I was going to catch 11 passes for 141 yards and two touchdowns on your ass. Like that's, that's why the lions are such a good team. They have so many different ways to beat you. So even if they're not the number one seed coming out of the next two weeks, and there's a chance they, there's a chance they could lose both of these games. I don't think it will happen. I think they're going to go one in one. Still looking very good for the postseason. They're going to guide guys back. Kaminsky will be back. Anseloni will be back. You're going to get to the decker obviously will be back. You're going to get, you know, Rodriguez out for the year, which is unfortunate because I thought he was playing some very good football, but you know, Carlton Davis is going to play this week. He'd been injured. Like, there's still so much talent on this team. It'd be a great game for the safety tandem of Brian Branch and Kirby Joseph to, once again, freaking own the Packers. They're going to have to play really well against Buffalo too. Josh Allen is a different animal, but we'll get to the bills. I'm excited for this stretch run. I'm feeling really good about the lions. Again, they might lose one of these next games. It's okay. It's not it's not time to go, you know, jump in the snow naked and do weird things. Not panicking. Be all right. It's still a great football team. It is a very well coached football team at all levels, all disciplines. As much as I like to give Ben Johnson some crap, he's still a defensive. He's still a schematic genius. Not crazy about his play calling sequencing sometimes, but the way that he dials up to create Tony that he shows with his offense, I hate to be a defensive coordinator, trying to plan to play the lions. What do I do? Because you know, penase to all my throw pass. He might line it. He might take it snap and fall back. Who knows? Like, there's so much that they can do. It's me excited going. All the possibilities that they can do. So, Ben Johnson, Aaron Glenn, Dave Fipp on special teams, we're in such good coaching hands. Again, it's not the end of the world if they lose, but damn, it'd be a lot better if they won. And there's a chance they can win. So, I like to do this. If they played 100 times, think the lions would win. What do I say? I think I said they would win 54 of them. But I'm worried that tomorrow night will be one of the 46. Doesn't mean that I'm down on the team. Doesn't mean that I want them to lose. Now, there's a lot of people that, you know, oh, you've become the loser. Well, yeah, they're not going to win every game. You create if they did. And they can actually win every game. They could still go 16 at one. Again, I wouldn't be surprised at all by that. But just be prepared. Don't swing too far to the one side. Like, oh my God, we've got all these injuries. Now we've lost to the Packers. They're still in the title. The Vikings are going to tie us. We don't play them until last week. Like they could theoretically catch us because they have an easier schedule. Like it'll be okay. It really will. Hopefully, in about 27 hours, Chris is going on about a lion's win. We're celebrating being 12 and one, running away with the number one seed. By the way, that would clinch the playoffs a win tomorrow night. Clinches they play off birth week 14. Four more games to go. And the lions are already in the playoffs. Heck, there are plausible scenarios where they get in even if they lose. So excited about this team. I feel great about it. You know what? I'm going to cut it there. Let's go lions. Give me a Jared Gaussian. I don't even, as you all know, I only like it when it's at football games. Like, I don't want to hear it at Red Wing games. I don't want to hear it at high school basketball games. It's just weird. Give you that Jared Gauss. Let's go lions. Jeff Riston signing out. Let's bring it in here together. You've had enough of that shit.
Detroit Lions Podcast: Jeff Risdon's Week 12 Solo Project
The Detroit Lions barely squeaked out a win against the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving. Jeff Risdon of Lionswire gives us his take on that game before turning things over to the week 15 matchup with the Green Bay Packers.
With the Detroit Lions ever expanding injury report, will the Lions repeat their week 8 victory or will they suffer their second loss of the season? All that an more in this week's fix of Risdon's wisdom.
Detroit Lions Podcast Daily Lions Coverage
Join us every day for your Daily DLP for the latest, most relevant Detroit Lions news, rumors, analysis, and information, right here at Detroit Lions Podcast.
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