MichiganCardinal

And they might still be asked to go 7-0 or even 8-0 in the playoffs. I can’t imagine that’s ever been done.

Minnesota is a well coached team that will play the game well, limit their own mistakes, and strike like a cobra if you make any of your own. Detroit is the more talented team. If the Lions play a turnover free game I really like their chances. I think the defense will get burned a few times, but they will do enough a few times too, holding them to field goals and even a punt or two.

With career earnings over $2MM and having been tackled by next to no massive NFL defenders for it, I’d say he’s making out alright.

Ravens still have Derrick Henry in the game with 7 minutes left up 11 points, so I don’t think they ever had any intention of sitting starters.

I heard rumblings on Facebook of a large number of lower bowl tickets on the Vikings sideline being purchased earlier this week. Honestly I find it kind of funny. The drive from Minneapolis to Detroit is not a quick jaunt. The number of Vikings season ticket holders who were saying “man I could totally afford airfare (or 12 hours driving one-way), and a hotel, and taking Monday off work, if only tickets to the game were marginally less expensive!” is so incredibly insignificant in the context of a 65,000 person stadium. Unless they devised a mechanism to prevent it, at least half of those fans who purchased the tickets purchased the most tickets they could for $200 a piece, then turned around and are selling them for $800 a piece. Maybe a few sound friends and family in Michigan to either lodge with or to give the tickets to, but not a majority. The move is going to cost well over a million, and I would estimate it adds maybe a couple hundred Vikings fans to the equation who would have otherwise not been able to attend. The only real winner here is Ticketmaster.

Detroit 40 Minnesota 34 F/OT

Moseley’s salary accounts for about 1.1% of the cap. Not a bust, just a swing for the fences that missed. It’s not like he paid Jonah Jackson $51 million only to bench him midway through the season.

I thought Schwartz deserved another shot. He had a lot of that Dan Campbell energy to him, was a defensive genius, and his players loved playing for him... but was just a little too excited, a little too far gone. Like when he single handedly cost us a touchdown (in a game we lost by 3 in OT) by throwing a challenge flag on an automatically reviewed play during the year where that was not only an unsportsmanlike conduct foul, but also resulted in them not reviewing the play... Or when we would consistently be bottom five in the league in penalties because guys wanted to run through a wall, but lacked the discipline to do so effectively. If Glenn leaves next year and the Browns fire Stefanski, Schwartz would be a great dark horse candidate to return in the role of DC.

I feel bad for Robert Prince. Presumably a good guy and a good coach, who will go down as 0-1 all-time as a head coach, losing 47-7 to the Bucs, because the NFL during COVID didn't care that basically the entire Lions' interim coaching staff was exposed to COVID-19 (even though they postponed games for other teams during that same era).

I think it's really easy to just forget (1) how far this defense has come under Glenn, and (2) how good this defense was when the best 11, even the best 10, 9, or 8 players were out there this year. 2021, their defense was led by guys like 31-year-old Michael Brockers, the Okwaras, and Will Harris. It was bad... 2022, it really wasn't much better, but they gained traction with some of the young guys. 2023, they finally starting getting real contributions from the young guys, as well as with additions like Sutton and CJGJ (to a lesser extent). This year was the year where finally the young guys were well developed, you had the veteran additions like CDIII and Davenport, and all the pieces were in place for Glenn to make this a top tier defense in the league. And it was. This year, even after Hutch - who seemed poised to run away with DPOY - got knocked out, they went 12 quarters of football without allowing a touchdown. It has taken body blow after body blow to turn this into a defense that more resembles the 2022 squad, and yet even despite that, they've done enough to win 15/16 games so far this season (they did enough to win the Bucs game and the offense let them down). I don't want to lose either Glenn or Johnson, but I sincerely think losing Glenn would require the larger adjustment next season. He's the mastermind of what made this defense so good to start this year, and this defense is shaped in his vision. I worry that if we have to replace him with a guy with different vision and different scheme, there will be some guys who have been molded by Glenn into hard nosed physical square pegs being shoved into round holes. Whereas with Johnson, I think this offense is as much Campbell's identity as it is Johnson's.

Bears hiring Flores would kill two birds with one stone. Bears would suck for another three years, Vikings would take a step back.

Lol so they’ll hire Flores and he’ll fail. Got it.

Ohio State - Notre Dame National Championship makes me nauseous, so go Georgia I guess.

I’m sure he didn’t join to be a practice squad contributor…. But wasn’t good enough to be anything else.

It’s still so funny to me that Michigan beat this Ohio State team.

Right there with you. I was pretty upset when they gave him $6MM. Now, I think he’s worth twice that.

The Detroit Times is going to join Woodward Sports on my blocked list. This is not official. Their source is just that the Lions posted a picture of a black and neon Lion on Twitter with the caption “guess who’s back?” Which could definitely just mean Sunday Night Football. They were supposed to wear their throwbacks for this game. They would have to receive special permission from the NFL to change their configuration this late in the game. I’d bet they wear the throwbacks.

Probably depends on the next month. If Darnold takes the Vikings to the NFCCG, I think he’s probably justified in refusing to play on the tag. Someone will pay him. If they lose the next two, he’s got a lot less leverage. He looks just like Cousins in 2022 at that point.

I would agree that this is analysis, not reporting.

He only recorded two snaps because Glasgow was back.

It's an outdated stat based on an imperfect algorithm that considers completion percentage, yards per attempt, TDs per attempt, and interceptions. So it inherently favors gunslinger offenses who air it out downfield consistently, and disfavors dink and dunk offenses, who will pick you apart. The Lions offense is more the latter. It also disadvantages QBs with good run offenses. If you're consistently driving down the field and punching it in on the ground from the 1, your QBR will be worse.

They played on Thanksgiving in 2016 and 2017. The last time they played a game past 1:00pm though was in 2014, when they played in the 4:25pm slot. The last time they played in real primetime though was Thursday Night Football before Thursday Night Football was a thing. November 30, 2000.

The NFL re-seeds its bracket after the wildcard round, so the 1-seed plays the lowest remaining seed.

If the presumed favored teams win in the NFC on wildcard weekend (Philly, LA, and Minnesota or Detroit), Minnesota and Detroit will play again in the Divisional Round. Kind of an interesting dynamic that the winner very possibly will play back-to-back games against the loser.

The home three, you're probably looking at beating Minnesota twice and maybe Philly or Green Bay. The road three, you're probably looking at beating Tampa Bay, Minnesota, and maybe Philly or LA. This is obviously a really good team on the road. I don't think the drop off from the home three to the road three is all that significant.