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00:00Having you on, we do appreciate it. Dan Campbell just met with the media last time before this big game. What did he have to say?
00:10Yeah, he had his typical Friday performance. He came to the podium just almost jumping up and down, almost wrestling the microphone.
00:18He was so excited and eager to get to practice. It's red zone day. It's going to be a spirited practice for this team.
00:26He just emphasized the fact that this team now, for really three years, has been playing big games, playoff-like games.
00:33They always find a way to rise to the occasion. They've now won 11 of their last 12 primetime games under Dan Campbell.
00:41He said, we love the bright lights. We love the challenge of this, the chess match of this.
00:47He thinks for some teams that haven't been in these spots before, all of the attention and media and pressure can be overwhelming.
00:55He says for us, this is kind of our normal now. They just can't wait to get to Sunday.
01:01He calls it one of those all-out, come to the end of the line type of games.
01:05That feels like the best way to describe what we're all about to witness on Sunday night.
01:10What do you think is the special sauce with this coaching staff to get this team primed and ready to go each and every week?
01:16This has been an astounding year with all the injuries, but somehow they're able to get through it.
01:22Creativity. I think, obviously, we go to the psychological edge that Campbell and others like Aaron Glenn can provide them,
01:30but I think we'd be remiss not to mention how adept they are and how nimble they are in week-to-week to adjust to the opponent that they're playing
01:40and to adjust to their own personality. I thought Aaron Glenn was as real as we've ever heard him yesterday,
01:46talking about the reality for this defense now. They are not who they were. They can't do what they could earlier in the year.
01:53It's going to come down to their playmakers, the likes of Kirby Joseph and Brian Branch and a couple others,
02:00making a few takeaways, a few big plays per game to swing games in their favor.
02:05Of course, Ben Johnson is as creative as he gets on offense.
02:10I think a great testament to that is the way that this Lions offense with Ben Johnson has always had the upper hand in their matchups against Brian Flores.
02:20Against every other opponent over the past two seasons, the Vikings defense has held teams to about 17 points per game.
02:28Against the Lions, it's 30 points per game. And against all other quarterbacks, other than Jared Goff,
02:33they have held those quarterbacks to a passer rating of 83, one of the lowest marks in the NFL, against Jared Goff.
02:39It's like 118, 119. They just find ways to exploit whatever weaknesses exist in the other team's armor every single week.
02:48It's a great testament to those coordinators. It's why, and I say it maybe begrudgingly,
02:54that those guys are destined for head coaching jobs, likely next season.
02:59We spent a lot of time at the beginning of the show in the margins, so much so that we got into the officiating crew
03:06and the fact that this officiating crew has thrown more defensive pass interference flags than any other crew in the NFL.
03:12And the Vikings have benefited more from DPI calls than any team in the NFL.
03:18They got more yards on DPI calls than any other team in the National Football League.
03:22And we're debating, is this a thing, not a thing? And it feels like it could be.
03:25If this is a close game, those kinds of things could loom large.
03:30Yeah, I think it might even be a capital T thing. I like it truly.
03:34This is obviously a deficient Lyon secondary when you're missing your number one cornerback,
03:42who would take that Justin Jefferson assignment.
03:44Now, Amik Robertson will be the first to tell you he is more than ready for that challenge.
03:48And to me, Amik and Jefferson is the most fascinating matchup on Sunday night.
03:54These guys have a rivalry that dates back to their high school days.
03:57They're from the same area of Louisiana. They matched up in seven-on-seven tournaments back in the day.
04:03They played each other in college when Jefferson was at LSU and Amik was at Louisiana Tech.
04:09And when they matched up again in October when these two teams played, Amik told me this week,
04:16Jefferson is by far the receiver who has talked the most you-know-what to Amik this season.
04:23Those two go at it and go back and forth, and while obviously it's a physical mismatch in Jefferson's favor,
04:29Amik Robertson has showed over the past two games that he has the ability and obviously the spunk
04:35to play outside and to lock horns with some of these great receivers in this game.
04:40So I think that matchup is fascinating, but maybe the matchup that decides the game defensively for the Lions
04:48is on the other side. It's Tarion versus Addison, and you have to almost accept that Jefferson's going to get his.
04:54You have to conceive that, but if he's going to feast, then you have to find a way to starve Addison.
05:00So Tarion against Addison feels to me like a matchup that might decide this game.
05:06It's almost like, just don't get burned. We understand Justin Jefferson's going to get his yards,
05:11he's going to get his catches, but keep him in front of you. Don't let him get behind you
05:15and then turn a 15-yard gain into a 75-yard touchdown, and he's gotten massive yardage totals in his career
05:23against the Lions, but that's one way to do it. But the other way is, can they get a pass rush?
05:28And it's something that the Lions have lacked, obviously, since Hutchinson's been out,
05:33but the only way they've been able to dial it up is with the secondary, with guys like Brian Branch coming in,
05:38and now that Melo Fono is back, he's that heat-seeking missile as well.
05:42Can they get a pass rush against Sam Darnold?
05:45Yeah, Melo Fono is the name I was going to mention, too. We obviously saw the way that he excelled
05:50in that pass rushing role at the end of last season, and they have thrust him right back into this defense.
05:55I mean, he played almost 50, 60 snaps in his return against the Bears, and a pretty similarly heavy load last week.
06:02And the thing that I think separates Melo Fono is that he doesn't just have the speed and the instinct
06:09to get after the passer, but he has the length to go convert those pressures into sacks.
06:14And I think now, with possibly Anzalone back on Sunday, but even if not, Jalen Reeves may have been
06:21back in that linebacker core, they can find ways to utilize Melo Fono even more as that blitzing safety,
06:28and that's got to be a way that they find a way to generate pressure on Darnold, who, by the way,
06:34has been really great against pressure for most of the past two months.
06:39He was pretty vulnerable against the pass rush, against the blitz early on, but much like Jared Goff,
06:45he has morphed into this calm, composed quarterback in the face of pressure, so it's not as simple as getting in his face.
06:52You really have to bring him down, and to me, Melo Fono is a guy who can do that.
06:56And look, doesn't this feel like a game where Zedaria Smith has to make a play?
07:01This game is going to be swung by three or four plays one way or the other, and even if it's something as simple
07:08as a third down pressure that forces an incompletion or an interception, Zedaria Smith was brought here
07:15for these games and these moments, and he has to make an impact on Sunday night.
07:20All right, you mentioned it briefly. Do you think Anzalone plays?
07:26It's such a good question. I don't even know if I can venture a guess,
07:30because Anzalone, as late as yesterday, didn't seem to have an idea himself.
07:34He's still wrestling with the decision in his own head.
07:37He's talking through it with Dan Campbell and the medical personnel, trying to figure out, essentially,
07:42if it's worth the risk of playing on Sunday night, because if he gets hurt and then can't play,
07:47as he said in, say, the Super Bowl, is he going to be able to live with himself?
07:51Is he going to regret that? And if the arm can heal more in the next week or two,
07:56maybe it behooves him to give it one more week and potentially two more weeks of rest.
08:00So I think it's almost up to Anzalone. He will practice again today.
08:05I think if he knows that he can't make significant strides in his recovery by resting, then he'll play Sunday.
08:13There's a lot of different factors for him to consider.
08:17Jake Bates became an instant meme for lying on the ground and trying to stretch himself out against San Francisco.
08:25How has that been received in the locker room since?
08:28Yeah, it's definitely made the rounds, as it has on the Internet.
08:34I fully expect it to be NBC's lead on Sunday night.
08:40I think they should come into the coverage replaying the famous Jake Bates image.
08:45He's been good about it. He knows that it was inevitably going to go viral, and that was the result.
08:53By the way, guys, a couple of good nuggets for you.
08:56This has been talked about as the biggest regular season game ever, and there's a lot of numbers that back that up.
09:03It's the first time ever we've seen two teams in the regular season play with 13 wins each.
09:08First time since 1993, a season finale decides the one seed.
09:12It's the most combined wins in a regular season matchup ever, 28 wins.
09:18The previous high was 25 Giants-Patriots in 2007.
09:22There was also a game in 1926 between the Potville Maroons and the Frankfurt Yellow Jackets.
09:30Two real teams, real story.
09:32Do you know who won that game in the battle of the NFL's two first-place teams?
09:36It's all about the Maroons.
09:37The Yellow Jackets.
09:38Nobody. It was a 0-0 tie.
09:41Thank God none of us were here to watch that debacle between Frankfurt and Pottsville in 1926.
09:49You know, just walk into Pottsville.
09:50Everyone knows that.
09:52Cash the ticket had the over in that game, unfortunately.
09:55It did, yeah. It did not work out well for you.
09:57All right, your pick on this game. The Lions get it done.
10:02You know, I think they do.
10:03And I think it comes down to the Lions have the edge on offense, as I referenced, against Flores.
10:09And I think it's because Jared Goff and Frank Ragnow might be the best center quarterback combination in the NFL at diagnosing the defense.
10:17And while most teams against this Flores defense, which has the highest splits rate in the NFL,
10:22are overwhelmed by all of the exotic looks and chaos that they see, these guys aren't.
10:28They know how to sift through it to decipher the defense and to get into the right checks.
10:32And it's why they've had such success against this defense dating back to last season.
10:37I think that's the case again on Sunday night.
10:39And I think, you know, it's an old trope, but whoever has the ball wins this game.
10:43And I just something tells me Jared Goff and the Lions get the ball last and have a game-winning drive with, say, two minutes to go.
10:51Perchie, appreciate it as always.
10:53And we'll see you on TV what time Sunday?
10:5710 o'clock on Sunday, and we'll talk to you guys next week during the bye week.
11:02How about that?
11:03I like it.
11:04There you go.
11:05Take care.
11:06All right.
11:07See you, fellas.
11:08I'm now down the wormhole of Justin Jefferson versus Amik Robertson in high school.
11:14And he said their battles go back to high school.
11:16I like it.
11:17I like it.
11:18We'll get to some of that and your phone calls next here on Carson Anderson on 97.1.