Can the Lions continue their winning ways against the banged up Bills? | You Pod to Win the Game
Yahoo Sports Charles Robinson and Jori Epstein preview the Thanksgiving Day match up between the 7-3 Bills and the 4-6 Lions. Detroit has won three straight for the first time in five years, while the Buffalo’s superstar quarterback continue to deal with a gimpy elbow. Hear the full conversation on the You Pod to Win the Game podcast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
CHARLES ROBINSON: Let's get to the Thanksgiving Day games. The slate, I feel like it's probably one of the better Thanksgiving Day slates, only because the Lions, you're just like, it's a crap game, they're going to get beaten, or they're not going to be very competitive. They're coming off of three straight wins, and they feel like there's just a lot of confidence.
Do they have a shot against Buffalo? I don't know. But at the very least, you get Detroit on an up, a rare up, an up that's legitimate. They're scoring points, they have a three game winning streak, they're feeling really good about themselves.
And, I guess, if you were going to pick an element of the Lions that you would want to show up against the Bills, it would be the offense. Let's see a high-scoring offensive game. I think there's a chance this could actually be a pretty fun game.
JORI EPSTEIN: Yeah, it's a good question. I think another thing that I'm really looking at is this Lions defense and its ability to create turnovers has really been interesting. We saw them force three interceptions of Aaron Rodgers a few weeks ago, which I know it's not his best season. And then you've got Kerby Joseph and Aidan Hutchinson going off again last week against Daniel Jones.
And I have friends who are Giants fans being like, oh, no, it's the Lions, how are we playing against them like this. I'm like, no, this is not those Lions. They've got some really good young pieces.
And again, going back to those two players in particular, it's not just that they've got good players, it's that they're foundation and they're building blocks are really exciting and looking forward to. And, hey, Josh Allen struggled to play clean football in recent weeks. So you have a few turnovers, and this is a game, easily.
CHARLES ROBINSON: And Allen is still popping up with the elbow issue. I think he was limited today in practice, and so it feels like he's working through it. But the fact that it's still lingering is-- this is the get right time for Buffalo. If you're not healthy, you have to get guys healthy, you have to keep guys healthy. And whatever Allen is working through, this has to be one of those games where he continues to, I would almost even say-- I don't want to say rust the elbow, but--
JORI EPSTEIN: Right.
CHARLES ROBINSON: You don't want him out there throwing it 40 times-- if he's got a sore elbow, you'd want him throwing it 40 times a game. You don't want him running it a lot and exposing himself to that. The running game was pretty nice last week. This would be a good continuation of that, if they could somehow pull that off.
JORI EPSTEIN: And you got to realize they go from that to three straight AFC East games, and that's currently a division that's all making the playoffs. So it's not like you can just rest on your laurels, that you came in thinking you're the best team in the AFC East. So they've got two Thursday games if Buffalo does. Then they'll have a little mini bye, which I guess can help him get right, but that elbow is definitely a question.
CHARLES ROBINSON: I think it'll be interesting to see what the stadium is like. I really truly think Detroit fans, this three-game run is going to energized them. Thanksgiving Day game is usually a pretty popular game.
I'm not saying there's no chance that there's an upset here. I don't think it's going to happen. It would stun me. But it feels like a lot of things are lining up in a rare fashion for Detroit, where you've got a lot of-- it should be packed, it should be a pro-Lions crowd, even though the Bills fans just filled it up last weekend but.
Yeah, I give the Lions a shot. Normally, I wouldn't. But in this game, I do give them a shot.