The Josh Innes Show - Lions/Eagles

Episode Date: November 17, 2025

I come out of Sunday Night Football feeling certain ways. I feel no different about the Eagles. I feel a lot different about the Lions. The call at the end of the game was dreadful. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You know, as much as I love watching the Lions play, it turns out they're just not really all that good. That is not a team that's going to win the Super Bowl. And I don't think they're going to come close to winning the Super Bowl, actually. I like them. I like to watch them. They're fun. They ain't winning the Super Bowl. So after, look, that Eagles team, that Eagles defense is nasty.

The Eagles offense is a joke relative to how good their defense is. Like the fact that that was even a competitive football game last night tells you all you need to know about the mediocrity of the Eagles. the Eagles offense. Well, you can tell me that, hey, man, those lions, they came out scorching on defense. And sure, give them some credit, I guess. But it ain't like the Eagles offense has been a juggernaut all year. A lot of teams have slowed them down and held them to low point totals and kept in games because the Eagles offense is inept.

So I'm not going to sit there and blow the lion's defense because a team that's had offensive issues to the point that their star wide receiver blows the damn thing up. Like, I'm not going to sit there and blow the lions for that. Look, let's play a couple of commercials and we'll continue. So, yeah, that's like, I don't know, man. I thought the Eagles or the Lions, rather, were legit. I don't even, I don't think that the Eagles are legit because I don't think their offense is good enough. But what do I know?

Quarterbacks been to the Super Bowl twice, should have won both of those Super Bowls, and their defense is as nasty as you're going to get in the NFL. They made life miserable for Jared Goff. And there were things we already knew about. Jared Goff, but they really reveal themselves when you see games like this in prime time. Everybody's watching. You start to see shit like Jared Goff can't handle the pressure. In his defense, the offensive line was a joke.

But the president, I mean, how many balls got deflected last night? How many bad throws were there? That was just a special brand of shitty football from Jared Goff. And to me, that's about as bad as they can be offensively. Probably that in the Green Bay game earlier this year. And you look at those games and you go, I don't think that team can win. the whole damn thing. I like them. But then you get Dan Campbell. And Dan Campbell's an interesting guy because he's extremely likable and I dig him and he's kind of wacky and he's,

you could tell that guys love playing for me. You can see why they would love playing for him. Like I dig the guy. But at some point, like let me compare it to this. When we talk about five attempts on fourth down, none of them convert, right? You're watching this. You know the scene in 10 cup and 10 cup at the end where like all he's got to do is lay up, knock the ball on the green, put and he wins the U.S. Open. But Ten Cup can't do that. He's knocked the ball in the water the first three days of the tournament and he still has to try the fourth time to hit the ball over the water. He doesn't make it. It's fine. You drop, you lay up, you put, you go to a playoff, right? Or whatever it is, right? But he can't do it. So give me a ball. I can make that shot, Romeo.

Give me another ball, Romeo, and boom. And before you know it, he shoots like a 13 or whatever it is at the end of the movie and he loses the U.S. Open and probably cost himself billions of dollars and all that and you're watching a guy melt down and you're like huh this is interesting like we are witnessing this gentleman just melt down before our eyes and in that first half really the first quarter and a half of the game when they keep going for it on fourth down it felt like a 10 cup level meltdown like it felt like me a couple of weeks ago when I was sitting at at the bar watching the lions on Monday night and I just kept pumping money into the gambling account making bets I knew wouldn't hit just because I was pissed to put

more money in and more money in and more money in and I'm melting down and that's what that was watching Dan Campbell do that was a dude just melting down right before our eyes like there was no rhyme or reason like I get that that's your vibe like I get that you like to go for it on fourth down I get that that's who you are I get that that's what the team is and to a degree be who you are but I even said this after the game like what would have been the better play in that game given the way it was going was to play conservative and field position you didn't recognize this at any point during the game it took you till after the game that you lose that you're like you know what maybe the right move here is to play conservative play field position because your

your lash loroo uh attempts at football here and your decision making led to six direct points for the eagles and took three points off of the board for you because you wouldn't kick the short field goal and i'm well aware that that's not who you are your mo is we're going to dictate all this we're the offensive team. This is what we do. We go for it on fourth down. But that was a winnable game against a really good team. And whether you think it was the lion's defense that was great or just the inept Eagles offense, to matter which way you look at it. And the Eagles offense is totally flawed. That's why the receiver bitch is about it. That's why Sequin isn't the same guy he was last year. Like they are clearly not the offense they could, would or should be. Totally fine. But you got

to give the Lions defense credit to some degree because they held them to 16 points and kept them in the game despite the fact the coach did everything he possibly fucking could to be like yeah you know we're going to give it to you so essentially he gave them nine points in a game he gave them six took three points off the board for his own team in a game that you lost by seven what are we doing here like and after the game he's like you know the game really would have dictated it where maybe i should have done it more conservative that he actually didn't even say maybe i should have he goes that was the type of game where a more conservative approach probably is the winning strategy. So after the first couple of fourth down conversions fail, maybe after the failed fake punt,

none of that, at no point during that did you go, hey, maybe here's what I'm going to do this time. Maybe I'm just going to pump the brakes here and I'm going to maybe punt it here and play field position. And then the more inexplicable thing is they get to a point that they're down 16 to 6. They're in the fourth quarter. they're down 10 with like nine minutes to go they're down 10 and that's the moment that homeboy starts going you know what we're going to do we're going to punt now you're down 10 10 minutes to go in the game and you're like now's the time I'm going to decide to punt now they had punted other times before that but like that's the moment where you're like hey you're down 10 with 10 minutes to go

the Eagles for as bad as their offense can be they also have an offense that if you give them the ball with seven eight nine minutes to go they can eat eight nine minutes off the clock and you never get the ball back and that's the moment that you decide you know what we're punting and he did it twice they punted twice in the last 10 minutes of the game in a game that the guy went for it five times five times on fourth down they went for it but in the fourth quarter it's like you know what we're going to punt a couple of times down 10 and I really dig Dan Campbell but bro like what are we doing here but anyway so this is the first time I feel like like like I'm I really watch the lions and feel like that I just don't believe in them as a Super Bowl contender.

I just, I don't buy it at this point. Now, that could change, but I don't think their defense is as good as they played in that game. I think there was the combination of playing against an Eagles team that's not very good offensively, or at least sputters offensively, like, and the wind. I think there were a lot of factors. Like, I'm not going to look at what they did in that game and go, whoa, this is a Super Bowl caliber defense because I don't believe that. Now, my opinion can change, but that was the first time.

I watched them this year and had just this sick feeling about Detroit that they can't win it. Like they've lost some games and everybody loses games. Sometimes you have a bad game. Like they opened the season terribly against Green Bay, but then they bounce back, smoke the bears and everything was all fine. Like you'll find a way to lose some games. That's the way this thing goes. You're going to lose games. But this was the first time like you really saw a massive issue with what they do like they found a formula and granted not every team has the defensive line that the eagles have not every team is the eagles defensively like they are special up front and if they aren't special they go out and get guys that make them special that's what the eagles do and that's what how

he does so maybe it's not totally fair to say oh god the the the issues for the lions are deep and that game exposed it because that's one of the unique cases where you're facing one of the best lines in football but I don't know man like that was a time I felt like there is a way to take them down and defeat them and take them off of their game and put them in a real bad spot and that's how I felt about the lions after that maybe it can change I still like them but they're in a spot now where they're not even in the playoffs it's crazy to think that but they're third in their own division due to the fact they've lost to Green Bay and Green Bay has that tie going as well but man I I felt dreadful and feel dreadful

and here's the thing and I know you have your own problems in life but I have this bet the season long parlay that I've got with the Lions and it's 4,000 passing yards for Jared Gough 1,000 rushing yards for Jemir Gibbs 750 receiving yards for James 1,000 receiving for Amin Ra

and the Lions to make the playoffs and I wonder if they've given me an update on this I'm kind of curious if they've, like if they've given me a cash out. Last week I could have cashed out for $250. So there's no way it's $250 again. It was $100 bet. If it wins, it wins like eight something and pays out nine something.

So let me see here. I wanted to do this because I just wanted to get invested in the local team. And I felt the best way to do that is a season long parlay. Let's see, nothing available yet. So that's the one thing. that's not looking at well i mean it's still fine the lines to make the playoffs still in play but also i've got my season long wins total parlay going if you'd like an update so there's one team that's already hit and that was jacksonville over five and a half now mind you i bet all

of these down by like a game so so up next there i need detroit to find three more wins i need tampa to find three more wins and that's starting to look a little bit ify the texans out of nowhere from the depths have come back and gotten to five and five. So I just need the Texans to find three wins in their last seven games. If the Texans can find three wins in seven games, we're cooking. Because that would get them to eight. Pittsburgh also has to fight. Pittsburgh, I think, needs to get to two wins, right?

Because Pittsburgh now has six. So I need Pittsburgh to get to two more wins. I need the Texans to get three in their last seven. We've already got Jacksonville. I need Tampa to go three and four in their last six. The Lions to go three and four in their last seven. And the Chargers need to get two wins, I believe, is where they stand right now for that one to hit. That one's not worth nearly as much.

But still, and there you have it. But it's funny because, I don't know, man, watching the Lions last night, that was the worst I have felt about them all year. And it wasn't the biggest blowout they've been part of. It was a close game. And we haven't even talked about the fact that the refs completely hosed them at the end. Do I think they would have come back in one? Probably not because they had shown no signs that they could. But the one thing they did show is that they had the ability still to make a couple of big plays. And that's all their offense really was, was a couple of big Jemir Gibbs plays.

I mean, and a couple of big James plays. Like that was kind of the offense for the entire night. So could I have seen a scenario where they would have gotten the ball back and been able to kind of matriculate up the field? Probably not. Could I have seen a scenario where they got the ball back and Jameer Gibbs takes a screen pass for 60 yards and sets them up in the red zone? Yeah, that I could have seen. But it didn't happen, obviously.

That was a terrible call. Again, you were outplayed. The better team won the game. The team that deserved to win the game, won the game. I believe that. However, what I don't believe is that the call was right because it was wrong and it was bullshit. And really what you did, even if you had no rooting interest in the game, what you did

as you deprive the television audience that sat there for three hours of what was a pretty boring football game, you deprive them of a two-minute drill, drive situation with the game on the line, which is what people want. So you fucked everybody in that case. The refs botched that. It was terrible. It was a bad call. It was an embarrassing call.

And these people need to be held accountable for this. They need to publicly be reprimanded when they make dreadful calls. If anything, that was an OPI. If you don't want to call anything, that's fine. If you want to call OPI, okay, look, he pushed off. That's the reason why he was getting his arm held down is because he extended the arm and pushed off. It's terrible, but anyway, so coming out of that,

I feel the exact same as I felt about the Eagles. I don't believe in their offense. I believe a lot in their defense. And I feel different about the lions in that I feel about the same about the defense. Like, I don't think that's going to be the everyday occurrence, although you have to give credit to Shepard, Kelvin Shepard. Who's been spectacular for them replacing, what's his name?

I went to the Jets. I can't believe I'm drawing a blank on homeboy's name, Aaron Glenn. You know, you have to give them credit for replacing Aaron Glenn and doing well. And again, they deal with limitations on their defense with their roster, and he's still done a good job. But that's the worst I felt about that offense. And when you start to face these elite pass rushes, not just blitzing guys, but guys that are just crushing you up front

and giving no time to a quarterback who's not good under pressure, I feel a lot worse about the lions today. Or to come.