Colin Cowherd (3:31)
Yeah, I think the lesson last night and I don't care if you're a football coach, a CEO or a parent, operating in absolutes usually does not end well. Just think about that. Operating in absolutes. Dan Campbell. Now coaches like we always go for it on fourth down. And this morning, lion fans, oh, they feel great and it is great when you're 3, 13 and 1. But do you know the team since Dan Campbell arrived in the NFL that don't go for it on 4th down? Do you know who they are? The Chiefs, the Bills and the Niners. They protect leads. You're no longer the hunter, you're the hunted. You're now IBM. You're not a startup company. Dan Campbell can no longer be a pro wrestler living up to the gimmick. They lead the NFL in fourth down attempts and fourth down conversions. And you feel great this morning. But that's not who you are anymore. It's like when you're young, put your money in bitcoin. When you're old, put it in bonds. It's a different life. The Runway now. Your players are now in their prime. They're going to get very, very expensive. You're going to have to move off them. You're playing consistently with leads. In my lifetime, I don't ever remember a team winning the super bowl that had the all season label of man. They are risky. New England wasn't. Kansas City isn't. Buffalo isn't. That's not what wins championships. Last year against Dallas, by the way. Two point conversions, week 17, remember we kept going for those. It cost you the game and it cost you the playoff tiebreaker. So this eventually won't win. Kansas City, Buffalo and San Francisco. Since Dan Campbell came in the league, the three winningest teams don't go for it. They're protecting leads, protecting assets like right Now, Detroit should be buying insurance for this mansion they've built for all these beautiful assets they have. But they're just used to losing. The Tigers lose, the Pistons lose, the Lions lose. It's Loserville, and they've never been in this spot. But you are no longer the looking uphill at everybody else. You're looking down at everybody. You're leading these games. You need to ensure wins. Reckless is not going to. I mean, like that play when there's 43 seconds left and you go for it. Kick the field goal. Even analytics said kick the field goal. Good God. Just take the lead. Green Bay's got 43 seconds and no timeouts left. And they just stopped you on third and one. They couldn't do it on fourth and one. This thing. Jared Goff fel down. It was almost a disaster. Just take the lead again. When companies grow, when you're a startup company, you can take swings at stuff because you have nothing to lose. Detroit now has stuff to lose. Super Bowls, not games. Home field advantage. Here comes Philadelphia. Super Bowls. Minnesota is on your heels. You have a lot more to lose now. I don't believe in playing it safe. Playing it safe is Michigan against Penn State. Second half, never throwing the ball, not going for it when you can, for 43 seconds left, take the lead is not playing it safe. It's playing it reasonable. And everybody in life has to pivot again. Stuff I did at 20s I'm not doing once I have kids. Stuff I invested in when I was 20, I'm not doing now. I don't have the Runway to make that kind of money. Detroit's different now. They're looking down, they're not looking up. You gotta pivot. And they're a very good team, but they're so beat up defensively now. The margins are getting tight. The margins are getting very small in these games. They don't look like they did in October. And that means situational football will be king. That's why Andy Reid is winning Super Bowls. It's why Sean Payton has turned around the Broncos in year two with a rookie quarterback. He's winning those situational moments. And sometimes the winning isn't going forward. It's field position, it's punting. It's not beating yourself. So this morning, everybody feels good. But I just. To me, 43 seconds left. Going for it. Golf almost falls. What if there's a fumble? And then. I mean, seriously, when he fell, I'm thinking, oh, my God, this reminds me of Joe Posarczyk. The Giants and the Eagles 30 years ago in the NFL. You guys don't remember that if you're in your 20s and 30s. That was almost a disaster of epic performance proportions. Like, oh, my God, here's Dan Campbell after. I just felt like we needed to end it on offense, you know, and I did not want to get that ball back. And I believe we could get that. I believe we can convert. It's a hell of a call by Ben. You know, it just. I knew how I wanted to play this game. The team knew it, and. And everything in me told me that. Let's. Let's finish this. And so we did. I loved Dan Campbell's ethos and the way he built this startup, but they're not a startup. You know, they're. They're not first year after Blockbuster Netflix. They're like the king of streaming. Like, this is the best roster probably in football. They're setting records. I mean, last night is a prime example of what playoff football looks like. Detroit couldn't run the ball. They couldn't run the ball. They got into a tight game at home. That's a playoff game. And again, I just think this city has had so many losing teams that they don't realize now they're no longer the hunter, they are the hunted. And when they go to the playoffs, the pressure now mounts. You'll be a number one seed. It mounts. Teams are tight. Your defense isn't as good. You're beat up. No reason to be reckless. No reason to be. There's a big difference between taking smart, reasonable risk and reckless. But this morning, everybody feels great. Let's talk Green Bay. So I've said this a few times. The packers are the Lions last year. They're one year away. They're really, really close. Green Bay is excellent head coach, excellent quarterback, excellent skill people. Excellent. Jordan Love is. He just needs more seasoning. When he came out of Utah State, he was a project. Well, he's not a project anymore, but he's not quite there. You saw in the first half, he only had three completions. The last two years he started off, and he has to literally go into the Matt LaFleur school of quarterbacking. So he's only started 30 games. And to give you some idea of how few that is, Mac Jones has 45 starts, okay? He's got like 50% more starts. So, I mean, Jaden Reed almost got no looks last night. So Jordan Love is really, really good. So is the coach. So is the running back. So are the skilled people really good. But I feel like There's. There's steps in everything. You really see it in the NBA. Giannis was good, then he was great, then he was dominant. There's a title, then he gets older, then he gets aging, then he gets hurt. Like there's steps to all this stuff. San Francisco is a great example. Last five years, they felt like Detroit, that's the best roster probably in the NFL. And then all of a sudden it gets expensive and brittle, and all of a sudden it fall. So right now, Green Bay is a stock, and it is just going up, up, up. And I think it's one year away, maybe not. Maybe they shock the world. But Green Bay is 9 and 4, so they've lost to the Lions twice, the Eagles and The Vikings. They're 9 and 0 against everybody else. So they're losing to the right teams. And last night I thought, I'll be honest with you, when they got the interception. So they start the second half of the ball, they get a touchdown, and they get an interception and get another touchdown. I thought it was Green Bay's night, and we'll talk more about that. But they're close. They're really, really close. There's not a. There's not much about Green Bay I don't like. And here's their coach after told our team, I mean, we're going to have to earn the right to potentially come back here, and it's not going to be easy, and we got to put in the work and. But I'm confident in the resiliency of our group and that they're going to continue to fight and push each other to get better and stay connected, because I do think we have a pretty good football team. I'm watching those two teams last night with my wife, Anne, and she's from Detroit, and I'm like, what you're watching are two really, really good football teams. Top five team. Those are two top five teams in the league, and Detroit may be number one and Green Bay be number five. Whatever. Those are two top five teams. And I kept thinking, poor Chicago, poor Chicago Bears. I mean, you better get the right coach, because Green Bay is not. They don't have players in their prime yet. Jordan Love's not in his prime yet. All those receivers, tight ends, they're not in their prime yet. Detroit's players are just. Pen Sewell are just entering their prime. So Detroit's a year ahead in my opinion of what Green Bay is. But I kept thinking, boy, Chicago, you could add a Harbaugh. You whiffed on that. You Better get a rock star at coach because Green Bay for the next five years is super bowl category starting to meet next year and Detroit's there now. That was a really good product last night. JMAC people complain about officiating, get to that later. But that was, that was really good coaching. Quarterback play, intensity, there was drama, there's great skill. I thought Green Bay's defense, you know, like really slowing down the Detroit running train was something not many people have done that.
