The Josh Innes Show - The Lions Suck

Episode Date: September 18, 2026

Is it possible that Dan Campbell gets fired this season? The Lions defense is putrid and their offensive numbers are a product of being down big the whole game. At first I thought the Bills defense was awful. But, after looking at the numbers, I may be wrong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right, just watched Thursday night football. The Lions defense is dreadful. But here's the thing. Here's the dirty little secret about the Buffalo Bills. Their defense blows too. Now, maybe that eventually changes. I don't know, but the first two weeks of the year, their defense has been awful.

Like, yeah, they scored 41 points, so that's nice. But their defense is awful. Like, let's look at the numbers really quick. They had to have given up 400 yards of offense. Now, granted, the Lions were in a situation where they were throwing the ball around all the second half because they were down 20 to nothing out of the shoot. I mean, golf threw for 327 and 4 touchdowns. Again, that is misleading because they were down 20 to nothing at one point.

So, like, you don't really take numbers like that seriously because you're down 20 to nothing. You're down big the whole game. And oh, by the way, when they were down by 10 and had a chance to do something early in the fourth quarter, what did they do? They went three and out. had to punt. So the bill's got the stop when they really needed the stop. And those numbers are a little bit exaggerated because the Lions put up 80 yards of offense on the last drive of the game when they were down 17 with two and a half minutes to go. Most teams wouldn't even have their starting

quarterback in the game down 17. So that's a stat patting situation. But all that said, I mean, I don't think the bill's defense is any good. I mean, you look at the overall numbers. Now, the Lions weren't able to run the ball at all. But part of that is because they were down 20. And they're also a one-man-man team. I mean, there's a two-man team. It's Amman-Ross, St. Brown, and it's Jamir Gibbs, and they're going to run Jamir Gibbs into the ground. Bill's defense gave up 355. You know, that's the thing. You know, I opened this by saying the bill's defense kind of blows. And look, I don't think it's great. But if you look at the fact that they were up, you know, 27 to 10 at halftime, so you're in a situation where Detroit's got to

throw the ball around a lot. 80 of those yards came on the last drive of the game because there was a loss on one of the plays, and they had to convert a fourth and 18 to even continue that drive. So if that doesn't happen, they end up giving up about 270 yards. So this whole time I'm sitting here watching this game feeling like Buffalo's defense sucks because they gave up 31 points. Yeah, they gave up 31 points. And that's not good by any means.

But they would have only given up about 270 yards relative to the 446 allowed by the Lions. And how many did they give up to the Saints last week? week in a game that they should have lost. We should be looking at an O and two football team right now if the referees didn't have their heads in their fucking asses and took the touchdown away from the Saints. All right, let's do this. Let's play a couple commercials and we'll continue. Where some see heroes and others see egos. Bloomberg sees the era of billionaire athletes. A fad to some, the future of money to others. We see crypto's trillion dollar swings. The end of jobs or the end of human struggle.

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Learn more. Scotia Bank. You're richer than you think. So you start thinking about the AFC and, again, it's one week into the year. Everything's an overreaction. I get that everything's an overreaction. But if you start looking around the AFC and you're a Texans fan and you're looking for some sort of glimmer of hope, it's also, just to give you the number, Tanner shucked through for 410 yards against the Lions Defense. The Lions defense this week, what gave up four, what did I say, 450-something-something yards? Last week they gave up 469 yards. I can't imagine there's a defense that, again, only two teams have played two games so far.

But I can't imagine that there's a defense in the league that's been close to that bad. I guess maybe Carolina. Maybe the Bears. I don't know what the Bears numbers were either, but they gave up 40 fucking points. So maybe. Point being is they are dreadful. And these are two teams that don't really play great defense, but I will kind of amend what I said after I look at the actual numbers.

My eyeballs were telling me that Buffalo's defense sucked. the numbers would tell you that that's not technically true. They didn't technically, they didn't suck. They weren't great, but again, you don't give up that last drive, which is a 17-point game. That is a drive in a 17-point game. It's over. There's 245 when that drive starts. Jared Goff shouldn't have even been in the game.

So they just patted their stats and Amin-Raw padded his stats and Tesla got a catch and good for them. But if they don't, you're talking about less than 300. yards offense for the lions. That's kind of another dirty little secret about the lions. If you're looking NFC big picture, the lions are in year six of Dan Campbell and Jared Gov. I'm watching the game tonight, and it's Al Michaels and Herb Street. And at the end of the game, they're like, you know, the Eagles, or the lions rather,

could have just packed this thing in, and they could have called it a night, but they didn't give up. I'm impressed by how they didn't quit. Bro, you're six years into a head coach and a quarterback, and you've got veterans all over the offense. You got the highest paid running back in the NFL. You got one of the best wide receivers in the game in Amin-Ross, St. Brown. You're a veteran-led team, at least on the offensive side.

There are no moral victories. Those do not exist. So I don't really need to hear about how the Lions went out and never quit. Guys, don't forget, the Lions never quit tonight. Who gives a shit? Three years ago, you're in the NFC Championship. Since then, you went to the first. playoffs and lost a playoff game. You've been, you've missed the playoffs, I believe, twice in that

stretch now. So, look, who would have thought we'd be saying this? But the reality is, Dan Campbell's on the hot seat. That's just like, I think it's not like every week as a, you know, like, do I think he's getting fired? If they don't make the playoffs this year, do I think Dan Campbell gets fired? No. If it's like one of those years where you're nine and eight and you miss the playoffs, probably not. But if the wheels come off, they're going to have to fire the defensive coordinator at some point because they're just dreadful. And you can tell me about how they're missing this player and this player. That's fine. They're awful defensively. And they weren't very good last year defensively. And they retained the defensive coordinator, Kelvin Shepherd. So they're

not very good. At some point, they were lucky to beat the Saints good for them. They got, I mean, they got walloped in this game. They were down 17 with two and a half minutes to go. I don't really give a shit that they cut it to 10 and it looked better in the scoreboard. And then at the end of the game and they have a chance to get it back maybe and make it look even closer. They commit a ridiculous face mass penalty. They do dumb shit. They're a team that does dumb shit. They seem undisciplined at times.

And all the little antics just aren't cute for them anymore. So I don't buy into the line. I mean, look, it's easy to say that after you give up 41 points. But I don't buy into the lions at all. The lions do nothing to impress me. So I think that they're a team that's peaked. They obviously peaked a couple years ago and they should have gone to the Super Bowl and didn't because they blew the, what was it, 24 to 7 lead or whatever it was,

that they blew to San Francisco. That was their chance. Then the next year, they went a bunch of games and get just pistol whipped by Jaden Daniels at home. And then since then, it's never been the same. And I don't think this is a very good team. Defensively, they're dreadful. And offensively, they're not as good as the statistics would tell you. Because mind you, if you go back to the beginning of the game,

when you start looking at the game still being kind of in the balance, when they fell down 20 to nothing. Look at what they did early in the game with their possessions. Three plays minus five yards punt. Four plays four yards punt. So their first quarter was negative one yard of offense. And then they go touchdown 70 yard drive, punt field goal. Now, second half, they scored a couple of touchdowns.

They moved the ball. But that also happens in a 17-point game. I mean, they were down by 17 to start. the half. They were down by 17 to start the fourth quarter and they were down by 17 with two and a half minutes to go and they inexplicably left the quarterback in to go throw for a bunch of yards to make it look like they were a lot closer than they were. That's the only reason I can assume a quarterback is still in the game with 245 to go. I don't believe that any other team in the NFL would have had their starting quarterback in the game in that situation. I don't believe that at all. But,

you know, it is what it is. Anywho. So that, that was. was that game tonight. And yeah, they are a, they are, they're not good. So the lions are going to be in a whole lot of trouble, especially when you look at what the bears are, when you look at what the, when you look at the fact the Vikings were able to do what they were able to do against Green Bay, the fact that Green Bay cancelling it, I think the Lions are a team that's in a whole hell of a lot of trouble right now. And I don't think that's an overstatement. I think, again, we've talked about how they're a team that's trended downward, downward, downward, downward, and that's not a lie.

They're a team that continues to trend downward, downward, downward. So anyway, so that was tonight's game. And let's see here, looking around the league at some of the other ones, some of the other games we got coming up. Decent. Just another thing, though.

To that point about, you know, teams who are kind of on the come-up and you can live with the idea that they had a moral victory, right? I can live with the idea that there was a moral victory around, I don't know, a moral victory with the Saints last week. And I'm not just saying that because I'm a Saints fan. I'm saying that because I buy that. I believe that a team that's got a second year quarterback, it's his first year as the full-time starter,

a coach that's in a second year. I believe that you can take moral victories. From what the Saints did last week, I think they're a team that you can circle a moral victory and go, okay, you know, that was solid. We can live with that. Where you can't live with it is when you're a team like the Lions and you've got a sixth year coach

and you've got a sixth year quarterback, a guy who's been in the league for over a decade, you can't look at those and take away a moral victory from that. It doesn't exist. There is no such thing as a moral victory when you've been in the league that long. And we talked about it last week. there aren't a lot of teams that can get away with the moral victory angle.

Like the Saints are a unique case where it's, you know, guy that's basically a first year starter now and a coach that's in a second year and you were down big on the road to start the year. You're turning the ball over a ton. You were left for dead. And then boom. You know, like that's a different animal. The lions aren't in that category.

And there aren't a ton of teams that are. You know, we've talked about it. I'm just looking at the list of games from this week. You got Carolina Atlanta. There are no moral victories. I guess Atlanta could be, but they're just a cluster fuck. Carolina, there are no moral victories. Cincinnati and Houston, no moral victories.

That game last week was C.J. Stroud turning the ball over late. That's not a moral victory. You've had that job for too long. The coaches had that position for too long. You've won the division and made the playoffs too oftened out in the playoffs. There are no moral victories. Tampa, there are no moral victories. Cleveland, there are no moral victories or any other sort of victories.

They're a cluster fug. Green Bay, no moral victories. Maybe the Jets have moral victories, but it's not like they have some sort of young quarterback that's in their slinging either. The Jets are just a cluster fuck. Minnesota, there are no moral victory. Chicago, you're not at a point where there are moral victories.

Saints, yes, Baltimore, no. I guess Tennessee could fall into the moral victory category, but keep in mind, their quarterback is a number one overall pick. And he sucks. So, you know, Eagles, obviously, there are no moral victories. New England, no moral victories. Pittsburgh, no moral victories. Your quarterback's fucking Aaron Rogers. Jacksonville, there are no moral victories. Denver. I guess the Raiders might fall into that category. I guess they could at this point. Chargers absolutely not. San Francisco absolutely not. Miami, probably not.

Arizona, no. Seattle. Like, most of these teams in the league right now do not have a window for moral victories. You can't take them. You can't have them. The Saints can't, the Lions cannot. and that's who they are. So when I hear the guys on TV telling me, guys, I mean, look, they never quit. I don't believe in that kind of shit in the NFL unless it's a very rare situation. And that would be the situation last week with the Saints.

Call me a Homer if you want. That's fine. But that's the situation I got out of that one. Like the Saints are going to go and get their dicks knocked off by Baltimore. And if they do that, there's no moral victory. They go toe to toe with Baltimore on the road. And, you know, they, They come up short again.

Maybe you say that's a moral victory. At some point throughout this season, those moral victories go away. It's the NFL. You're paid to do it. Moral victories don't exist for the most part. This isn't fucking high school. But anyway, the Lions, my prediction with the way things are trending for the Lions, I don't think Dan Campbell gets fired.

I don't think there's anything that can really happen this year unless they bottom out and they go 2 and 14, you know, like when that Texan year we've talked about where they were 2 and 0. It was kind of a fluky 2 and 0. and then they fell off a cliff and they fired the coach in the middle of the season. That could be one of these kind of things. If the wheels just come the fuck off, they could. I don't think that's going to happen.

And I don't think he gets fired at the end of this year if they're hovering around 500. I think he's got enough equity built up where that's not the case. But anyway, we will see.