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September 23, 2025 14 mins

Colin Cowherd gives his instant reaction to the Lions on Monday Night Football. 

He argues that he hasn’t seen a team dominate the Ravens physically like the Lions (4:00), and explains why he’s so impressed by Dan Campbell’s ability to build a winning culture in Detroit (7:30). 

He highlights Jared Goff’s incredible 11-1 record in primetime games and a massive performance by the Lions D that sacked Lamar Jackson seven times (9:00), and argues that the top NFC teams have built better overall rosters than the QB-centric AFC (12:30).  

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. Today's show is brought to you by our
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(00:23):
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All right, it's official. Lions beat the Ravens thirty eight

(01:50):
to thirty. It did not feel like it was thirty
eight to thirty. It felt like it was forty eight
to twenty. Detroit was seven acts. Really mean, you watch
Baltimore and it made you just think less of Baltimore
as a franchise, Like I don't remember the last time
Baltimore at home got pushed around like that, especially by

(02:16):
an NFC team, just completely pushed around, so demoralizing. I mean,
if you take away three or four incredible Lamar Jackson plays,
He's an insane talent. This game was never really competitive.
I mean, at one point the Lions converted seven of
ten third and fourth downs, you know, I mean Lamar Jackson.

(02:39):
Not only did Detroit come in and take command early,
but then at halftime they got more dominant in the
second half. So that's just personnel. And you have to
be careful about first impressions because our first impression of
Detroit with new coordinators was the Hall of Fame game.
They were awful. Then the preseason you're like, oh, they're bad.

(03:00):
The opener at Green Bay and you're like, oh, Detroit,
this this isn't gonna work. They're gonna miss Ben Johnson.
But what they've done since then is they've really gotten
back to basics. With the game against the Bears and
the game against the Ravens. They're gonna run the football,
they're gonna pound it. And once again, if you looked
at the rosters tonight, I mean, obviously Goff and amor On,

(03:20):
Saint Brown and Hutchison the branch. Those are great, great players,
Jamior Gibbs. But one of the things Detroit has done
exceedingly well. You know, you when Sean McVay came to
the Rams, the coach turned around the franchise. You could
say Shanahan turned around the Niners, but he has a
losing record without McCaffrey. Really, Christian McCaffrey is the guy

(03:43):
that took Kyle Shanahan's ability to magically transform quarterbacks and
made it all work. I mean, McCaffrey really has taken
them that offense to a different level. When you look
at Detroit, it's their front office. I mean these rosters.
I mean last year they're falling apart physically. They had

(04:03):
to go heavy into the interior line in this draft,
and they're starting a rookie on the offensive line. Baltimore
was a little dinged up on the d line. But
you just look at that roster, man, they got good players.
I mean, they just have dudes all over that offense.
I mean, when you can have elite tackles in this sport,

(04:25):
you're one of four or five teams in this league
that have elite tackles at bow spots and that's the Lions,
and they put on a clinic tonight. I take all
these notes, and I was taking them in the first
half like it was going to be a really close finish.
But Detroit came in with an I mean they had
ninety eight and ninety six yard drives. Usually, if you

(04:46):
say you're gonna go on the road, you're gonna face
a really good franchise, a Pro Bowl quarterback, and you're
gonna be pinned deep multiple times in the game. That
is really an omen for a tough Monday night football game.
Detroit had ninety eight and ninety six yards scoring drives.
I mean it was crazy. And when they went forward

(05:08):
on fourth and two and gofits that big pass to
Omor on Saint Brown, of course they went for it.
That was an easy one. That just that's part of
their culture. I will say this for Dan Campbell. I
thought he had a kind of a goofy opening press conference.
But I've told this story several times. I was talking
to a general manager in the league who had hired
a couple of coaches, and he said, you're really hiring
a CEO if you can get a great schematic coach

(05:30):
like an Andy Reid or Kyle Shanahan. That's a bonus
what you want as a leader of men, what you want.
You know, if a guy is too much about schemes
and not about leadership, it's not going to work. That's
Mike McDaniel in Miami. It's great that Andy Reid can
do both, but you're hiring a leader of men and
that can build a culture. That's verbel That's Dan Campbell

(05:52):
and he has been steadfast, like he has never wavered
on this. They're going to go for it. They're going
to be super aggressive, they're going to be super physical.
They put a clinic. I mean that. That is the
most impressive game an NFC team has played in Baltimore
in five years, in almost the Lamar Jackson era. That
was a dominating performance. Yeah, I mean third quarter, Lamar

(06:16):
had that drive where he had three connections. Two of
them the Mark Andrews great throw to Mark Andrews in
the end zone, but then goff to amor On Saint
Brown answers, great throw and boom twenty one twenty one.
So every time Baltimore made something happen, the Ravens came
right back I want to look at a couple of
these numbers. By the way, for the record, the Ravens

(06:37):
are one and two for the second straight year. They're
gonna be fine. But the way they got manhandled tonight.
And you know, it's funny everybody talked about Lamar Jackson
being so good on Monday Night Football because he was.
What is interesting is how good Jared Goff has been
in primetime. He's the opposite of Kirk Cousins. Jared Goff

(06:58):
is eleven and one in primetime. And the first big
primetime game I remember about Jared Goff is he faced
Patrick Mahomes. I think it was going to be in
Mexico City. It got postponed, he got moved. They played
in the Coliseum pre Sofi obviously, and he outdueled Patrick Mahomes.
And that's the first one I really remember. He was good.

(07:18):
But you're like, wow, GoF gets on heaters, and when
he does, it's pretty special. I want to look at.
I want to look at right now. Here's the official stats.
Detroit had four hundred and twenty seven yards six point
six yards of play, twenty five first downs, perfect on
fourth down, dominated time of possession. I mean to go

(07:42):
on the road and have eight penalties, and when is
something else? I mean, now again, it wasn't like the
Ravens weren't good on third down. They were six of eleven,
but they allowed seven sacks and the Lions didn't allow
any What a performance. And think about the team has
been so dominant in the AFC for years, Kansas City.

(08:04):
I mean, right now I'm thinking about my Super Bowl bubble.
Do I put Detroit back in it? I mean again,
Hall of Fame game, preseason opener against Green Bay, they
just knew coordinators. They look awful. Johnny Morton tonight, I
don't know if you'll call a better game. I mean,
it was just and you know sometimes coordinators, offensive coordinators

(08:25):
say they want to run the ball, but they get
too clever, they get too cute. Even Sean McVay sometimes
can get a little bit cute. I mean Johnny Morton tonight,
he just kept going back to the run. I mean,
they didn't and it didn't. It didn't look like the
Ben Johnson Lions. There was no cute. I mean, anytime
there was a question what they were going to do,
I mean they did. They did have that double option

(08:47):
on fourth and one. They had one, which I think
they've run that about once a year the last several years.
It feels like maybe more. I don't watch every snap
for the Lions. That's just a great call. And if
you run it twice a year, you know it's it's
hard to defend, really clever. And every time I remember
Detroit running it, they've run it well. I think I've
seen them run at a couple different times. So but

(09:08):
they didn't outthink the room Detroit. It's like we're on
the road. I mean, how fast did the first half go?
Because of both teams were running. The first half just
flew by. It was really good football. Like I love football.
I like quick football. You can get me beginning to
end in three forty. That's good football. Sometimes these college
games go on forever because the team trails, they have

(09:31):
to throw to get back into it. They're not very
good at quarterback. The clockets stopping. It's awful. God, that
was an incredible performance. If you're a Lions fan, you
know you look at this league on a macro level.
As I was saying about Kansas City, look at how
Kansas City is just struggling to get their offensive line

(09:51):
right to get their running game right. You know what
I think we've seen and tonight is a stamp on it.
For about four years, because the afcgms did such a
good job to hit on quarterbacks Herbert Burrow, Lamar, Josh Allen.
They just kept hitting one after another after night. Even

(10:11):
the ones that haven't lived up to the billing, Trevor Lawrence,
you know, are still you know, better than average. And
so I felt like, Okay, the AFC hit on these quarterbacks,
then they had to pay all of them, and the
rosters aren't as good. You're watching the Lions roster tonight,
the Packers, despite losing to Cleveland, great roster. Philadelphia's roster

(10:32):
is the best in football, Seattle's roster, they've had back
to back to back good drafts, the Rams defensive roster.
So what happened is the AFC for about five years
with all these great quarterbacks. You're like, wow, there was
a gap AFC NFC. Then you have to pay all
the quarterbacks in the AFC. Okay, now the rosters aren't
as good. I mean, Buffalo's back into their defense, eh,

(10:53):
I mean Ravens defense tonight, especially in the box. I mean,
come on, they got pushed around. I mean, Kansas City's
defense is playing well, but their offense, the offensive line,
the run game, So now it feels like to me
it has swung back. I mean, I'm thinking, top of my
head of the teams in the top ten, Tampa's the
top ten team, Seattle is San Francisco is, Philadelphia is
Green Bay is. I think Detroit has to be. I mean,

(11:16):
Kansas City's not. I don't know what you do with
Baltimore after tonight. They're gonna be fine. They started one
and two last year. They're gonna be fine. But Denver
hasn't been as good as we thought. Baltimore's off to
one one and two start. Kansas City offensively is sputtering.
Feels like the NFC not saying that because I work
at Fox. It feels like the NFC has had this run.

(11:37):
And in the NFC you have really good quarterbacks on
reasonable deals. Sam Darnold brought pretty, Baker Mayfield, Jalen Hurts
is on a pretty team friendly deal. Dak isn't. But
a lot of the NFC quarterbacks who aren't considered superstars
their stars are on better team friendly deals like Darnald

(12:00):
and like Baker Well that allows you to have better rosters,
and my staff does such a great job. The NFC
is nine and two this season against the AFC, and
boy tonight was an exclamation point. That was not just
a win. That was physical domination. I mean they that

(12:20):
was bully ball. That was pushing the Ravens around man
Aiden Hutchison. They kind of limited Lamar as a runner
for the most part. And I like Derrick Henry for
the record, but since twenty nineteen, and this was an
Adrian Peterson issue. Since twenty nineteen, Derrick Henry tied for

(12:43):
the most fumbles in the league among the running backs.
And I know that it was a bad fumble deep
in their own territory. You know, feel like, oh, that
really hurt the team. That's not what the game was about.
That's not what the game was about. You gotta be
honest if you're a Ravens fan, this was not your
Detroit roster better than Baltimore roster. Detroit game plan better

(13:05):
than Baltimore game plan. So uh, it's official. Lions win
it thirty eight to thirty. It didn't feel like it
was thirty eight to thirty. It did not feel like that.
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Host

Colin Cowherd

Colin Cowherd

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