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The NFC North Championship: Just the Beginning for the Lions
Eric Vincent: Let me ask you a question real quick.
AJ Reilly: Yeah.
Eric Vincent: Kind of piggybacking off of that, what do you think the Detroit Lions floor would be? Do you think it's winning the division or winning a playoff game? if you had to pick between the two? It's the division to you?
AJ Reilly: Yeah.
Eric Vincent: So if they get into the wild card and get upset, how would you feel like, would you feel like they underachieve heading into the season?
AJ Reilly: No.
Eric Vincent: Or because again, if the floor is the NFC North Championship but they make the wild card, are you like
AJ Reilly: and get a playoff win?
Eric Vincent: Yeah, they get a playoff win that we don't expect. Like how would you feel about that? Would you feel like that's a disappointment to an extent cuz they didn't get the division or?
AJ Reilly: No, it's not gonna be a disappointment, but winning the NFC North Championship in my mind. Right. Okay. The wild card could end up screwing you. You win the division, you control your destiny. Right. That's where it starts for me. Right. Answer some questions real quick. I've got a little bit of an interruption.
Eric Vincent: Yeah. The only reason I say that is just because I feel like wild card teams and the teams that are sitting out here, winning the NFC North Championship to an extent can be a little bit different because we just saw Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buckers win the division, but they're clearly a fraudulent team, but teams that are getting into the Wild card as well, maybe a team like the Giants, you know, that are able to sneak up and upset the Vikings.
AJ Reilly: Sorry about that.
Eric Vincent: They have different expectations. No, it's cool. You get your intern, you know, had his questions. But yeah, I just feel like it's maybe to an extent a different standard of, what we're looking for in terms of where they finish. Because wild card teams can be, like I said, can be fluky, but then it gets soaked in the division. So it just depends on where your spots are.
AJ Reilly: But, uh, I agree with, I would, I agree with Dre. Sorry, I didn't mean to click that off again, but I agree with Dre. Okay. To the extent that there's that lack of controlling your destiny. Yeah. If you win the division. Yeah, you are controlling your destiny. Mm-hmm. right? You don't have to go, oh my gosh, I hope the Seattle Seahawks don't get help from the referees and win this game.
Right? No, you go, no, we've won the division. We're hosting a playoff game. What happens after that to me is kind of cake, right? Like, yeah, you want to perform. Well, be, if you, because of the playoffs, let me step back for a second. Winning a Super Bowl is incredibly difficult. Of course. And it takes a lot of luck, right?
So the Super Bowl, to me, yeah. That's the ultimate goal. And yeah, that's what we want to get to. But the playoffs too also have, that's all these unknowns as well, this randomness that's involved. Right. Okay. Okay. To me, a solid floor-level season next year is go out and be that team. Go out and be that team that wins the NFC North Championship that controls its destiny, that now people are like, you don't wanna go to Detroit in January and play in the playoffs.
The Destiny of the Detroit Lions: Can They Control Their Fate in the Upcoming Season?
Okay. Right. Anything can happen in the playoffs. Right. But let's be the team that controls the destiny during the regular season. That's where I'm at. Okay. I feel that's why I say the floor's an NFC North Championship, but, based on what you just said though, that's why I kind of feel like it would be a disappointment.
Eric Vincent: I don't want them to have to sneak in with a wild card. Uh, look great. I don't want them to be a division team like Tampa Bay where they look like trash all season but still fall in because of where they at. It's about getting hot at the right time of the end of the season. Of course. And that's what we saw them do.
But we also wanna clean up a few of those early games too, so they don't bite you in the behind at the end of the year.
AJ Reilly: So imagine if they had gone two and five through those first seven, they'd have been in the playoffs.
Eric Vincent: 10 and seven would be beautiful. Yes.
AJ Reilly: Imagine if they had gone three and four. Right?
Eric Vincent:Yep.
AJ Reilly: There's, there's a lot of what ifs. And I think to that point, it's “control the destiny”. Don't lose the games you're not supposed to lose.
Eric Vincent: Mm-hmm.
AJ Reilly: like the Seahawks game, like the Minnesota game in Minnesota.
Eric Vincent: No.
AJ Reilly: don't do that. Those two games right there are what cost the Detroit Lions the playoffs, not Seattle winning at the end of the season.
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