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The Lions culture is changing during their 3-game win streak | You Pod To Win The Game

Yahoo Sports Senior NFL Writer Charles Robinson and NFL Writer Frank Schwab discuss the Detroit Lions win over the New York Giants, and talk about what has changed in Detroit during the Lions 3-game win streak.

Video Transcript

[AUDIO LOGO]

FRANK SCHWAB: The Detroit Lions, baby, the Detroit Lions win 31-18 over the New York Giants. For one, let's start with the Giants. We all knew that they were very much-- I don't want to say a fraud, but they were no 7-2 team. Well, this was-- it showed up today.

Barkley didn't get going, and they have no counterpunch. They just don't. I know Daniel Jones ended up with a bunch of yards at the end of the game. Their offense was terrible in this game. But the Lions have really kind of figured things out. What do you make of the Lions at this point, who, three weeks ago, I was like, oh, this team is-- they're going to fire their coach. They're going to go 2-15. They're awful.

Well, now they're not awful. All of a sudden, their season has kind of turned on a dime.

CHARLES ROBINSON: Well, I mean, it helps that Jamaal Williams is literally-- [LAUGHS] you get inside the red zone, you just give him the ball, and he's going to end up scoring. That dude's tough.

Here's the thing. Go back to the Miami game, right? that's a loss, 31-27, right? Which frankly, again, wasn't that close. But even scoreboard scouting, that's still, for what Miami is, you're still kind of like, dude, what the hell?

Green Bay, Chicago on the road, the Giants on the road-- now, they hadn't won a road game since 2020. Now they've won two in a row. They haven't stacked three wins in a row since 2017. They're starting to do things where you're like, that's uncharacteristic for how bad this franchise has been historically.

And I go back to watching Robert Saleh hitting you up and saying, I don't know, man, maybe we want to hold off on bailing Dan Campbell just because of the stuff I heard about Saleh and that defense and they're not responding. And then it clicks. And you're like, oh, wow, no actually, it just needed some more time.

This to me is emblematic of, something's different. Look, they're scoring points. Remember, Jared Goff is still your quarterback. And Jared Goff did not have a good game. Go look at the numbers. It wasn't like he had a good game. You still need a quarterback.

But you and I were laughing before the show started today because we're like, man, the Rams' pick that they sent to Detroit is going to be higher in the draft than Detroit's draft pick. Before the season started, we were like, if they win six games this year, it's a good, solid step forward for the franchise, considering what's going on there. I think that's within grasp right now, winning six games, no doubt.

FRANK SCHWAB: It should be. I mean, look, they-- I don't think they're going to beat the Bills on Thursday. But I--

CHARLES ROBINSON: Nah, come on. Let's not get crazy.

FRANK SCHWAB: A couple weeks ago, I was like, oh, my goodness, they're ruining Thanksgiving again. And now I'm like, hey, they're kind of frisky right now. I don't think they're going to win. But I think they keep it close, I really do. I think that this team--

CHARLES ROBINSON: Man, I don't know.

FRANK SCHWAB: --has just found some confidence that they just didn't have earlier in the season. I don't know. I think a lot of that maybe is Campbell. I got on him a few weeks ago. This team seemed to fold the tent a lot when things went bad. Well, now they're not. This was an impressive win.

Anything to say about the giants? I just think they are what they are. They're going to make the playoffs because they've already got seven wins in the bag. This is not a good team. Daniel Jones is not a great player. But they're still winning games. But I think we all knew that this kind of performance was clearly in the realm of possibilities just because they're not that great.

CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah, come on, look, if you hold Barkley to 1 and 1/2 yards a carry, especially if it's not a situation where, hey, he only got 7 carries-- I think in this game, he touched it 15 times for 22 yards.

FRANK SCHWAB: Yeah, 15 carries, 22.

CHARLES ROBINSON: That's--

FRANK SCHWAB: That's good defense because he'd been awesome before this. And everybody knows he's getting the ball. It's not like, oh, the Detroit Lions focused on stopping Saquon. You know what, everybody else does too. They just executed it well.

And this defense that we were laughing about a month ago, not too bad. Shut down the Packers, shut down the Giants for whatever that's worth, they ain't bad.

CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah, you see some of the young guys-- Aidan Hutchinson, another interception, fumble recovery in this one-- he's showing the signs that you've got to show when you're drafted where he was drafted. So I think Detroit, they're taking some steps forward. I think they're buying patience. I think they should be awarded some patience. The Giants, we've said all along, they've probably still got a lot of work to do. There's no question.