T.J. Lang On Lions' Blowout Win Vs. Cowboys, Hutchinson Injury

WXYT-FM / 97.1 The Ticket

Former NFL Offensive Lineman T.J. Lang joins Jim and Jon to discuss the Lions' blowout win over the Cowboys and the impact Aidan Hutchinson's injury will have on the team moving forward.

Transcript

00:00So, TJ, you want to start with how great the win was or how detrimental the Hutchinson

00:04loss was?

00:05I mean, it's a big loss.

00:08And it's certainly a cloud over what should have been a great day, what was a great day,

00:14but it's just still a little bit of cloud over that, right?

00:16So I think we've got to start with that because I think that's the first thing on everybody's

00:20mind.

00:21I mean, it's the first thing you're looking at ESPN right now, right?

00:23Aiden Hutchinson.

00:24Injury, right?

00:25You know, and yeah, it's terrible.

00:30It was devastating at the moment and yesterday, you know, I felt terrible for Aiden, the person

00:38Aiden, in the year he was having.

00:41And who knows what this season could have turned out to be for him personally, right?

00:47We know how important he is for the team, but forget exactly him having a true breakout

00:52year, right?

00:53So you feel terrible that that got taken away from him.

00:58Of course it hurts.

00:59I think you're going to miss Aiden Hutchinson, the guy during the week, just as much if not

01:06more than you'll miss him on Sunday, you know, just his attitude in the building and the

01:10hard work and the passion and the, you know, having the C on his chest and being a guy

01:13that guys can look at, you know, when you start to get into these dark October days

01:18and everybody's sore and those are the guys you look at to draw some inspiration from,

01:22right?

01:24I think you're going to miss that certainly in the locker room, in the weight room at

01:25practice and in the, you know, mentality that he brings.

01:30And certainly you're going to miss what's been great production on Sundays.

01:36I tried to wake up this morning and look at it and say, okay, where do we really go from

01:41here?

01:42I mean, clearly this is a Super Bowl caliber team.

01:45I think we've seen that the last couple of weeks.

01:47We've seen it all season, but really the last couple of weeks, you're down both your starting

01:51defensive ends.

01:55I kind of heard you guys talking about it a little bit in the car this morning.

01:58I think if you're Brad Holmes, you got to try to find something there, right?

02:02Like there, that's, that's going to be a hole on this defense.

02:05Now you got to try to, you got to at least attempt, right?

02:09Maybe something doesn't happen.

02:10That doesn't mean they didn't try, but I think you gotta, you gotta try to at least make

02:14something happen because this team is so ready to win right now.

02:17You know what I mean?

02:18You can't just say, oh, we lost this one player.

02:21Season's over.

02:22You know, they don't have that attitude.

02:24Don't get me wrong, but I think that clearly now with, and especially with Davenport already

02:29being out for the season, those are two very important guys on your defense.

02:33I mean, look, look at the team you just played last night, missing both their starting defensive

02:38ends.

02:39You know, like that's potentially the impact that an injury like that to one of your guys

02:45can have.

02:46But the good news is I think the rest of the guys on the defense are so much better than

02:51what they've been in the past.

02:52And even after Aiden went out yesterday, you're looking at it and I don't want to diminish

02:57what Aiden brings to this team, but it didn't look all that different with them or with

03:01them, with them in the lineup or with them out of the lineup.

03:04I mean, they just, they were so relentless in beating the absolute hell out of the Cowboys.

03:10Even after Hutchinson went out.

03:11How much of that after he went out was just the ineptness of that offense, Dak Prescott.

03:19And I don't know, I don't want, I don't ever want to say that, that guys had mailed it

03:22in at that point, but there's a different level that it looked like they were playing

03:27with because the Lions, they absolutely beat it out of them, beat it out of them and let

03:32them know that there was absolutely no chance of coming back.

03:34And at that point it felt like Dallas was just going through the motions.

03:37Yeah, probably.

03:38And you end up in the game with four straight takeaways.

03:41You know what I mean?

03:42I'm back to back, back to back possessions.

03:45That's incredible.

03:46Of course, yeah, you have to give Aaron Glenn a ton of credit for the plan that he had,

03:49but you know, a Lee McNeil, a guy that's getting in there and getting multiple sacks and getting

03:55pressures and DJ reader pushing the pocket Josh Paschal, I thought was notice a very

04:00noticeable for maybe the first time in his career, a couple of good pass rushes and certainly

04:05a couple of good, really good run stops.

04:08So yeah, Dallas probably played one of their worst games they could possibly play.

04:14But your defense played arguably the best game that we've seen them play under Aaron

04:19Glenn.

04:21So look, I don't think those guys are going to hang their hat.

04:23And John, I was talking with Karsha in the hallway before, and it's you feel heartless

04:29almost at times, you know, because as a player, you're just like you're trained and you're

04:32tuned to where when guys get injured, you're just like, okay, yeah, like we somebody, somebody

04:38gets injured every year, right?

04:40Like, we got to move on.

04:42It sounds heartless.

04:43It sounds like you don't care about the guys in practice.

04:45What do we say?

04:46Move the drill?

04:47Right?

04:48Yeah, move it.

04:49Yeah, we don't got time to, you know, kind of wait up.

04:50And certainly they're going to be bummed and sad and disappointed that they're not going

04:53to have hutch.

04:54But that's not a locker room.

04:55That's going to let it linger.

04:56You know what I mean?

04:57There's going to be guys that maybe it wakes you up.

04:58Now.

04:59Okay, I got it.

05:00I relied on him to get the pressure, man.

05:01Like, I got to do something now.

05:03I got to pick up, you know, some of the slack.

05:05I got to start carrying a little bit more weight for this team.

05:08So it sounds it sounds it sounds really mean that sometimes, but no, but that's we've all

05:14been through.

05:15You lose key guys.

05:16I mean, we lost Jordy Nelson in a preseason game to a torn ACL one year.

05:21You know, we didn't it sucks.

05:23It's terrible.

05:24But you sit there and you say, okay, we got other guys that can step up.

05:27Like we got to move on because the rest of us got to go play.

05:29You can't just hang around.

05:30Oh, I don't want to get hurt because it sounds it sounds real.

05:36That's the way you're trained to react to injuries and you feel terrible for the person.

05:41But when it comes to the football aspect, guys get injured and it's get used to it.

05:47And it sounds terrible, but it just is what it is.

05:50Now, I think you look at the other side and you say, okay, hey, defense might take them

05:55a little while to, you know, fix this or figure it out.

05:58I heard you talking about, hey, might have to start pressuring a little bit more.

06:02Okay, so be it.

06:03Yeah.

06:04You know, the other part of it.

06:05Offense.

06:06Hey, just keep scoring points.

06:07Yeah.

06:08All right.

06:09So 40 every week.

06:10While our while our defense kind of recovers and figures everything out.

06:13Let's do our part.

06:14Let's just let's keep, you know, well, scoring touchdowns every single drive.

06:17I think about carry this for a while.

06:19The way the Lions play offense, they take the ball so your defense isn't on the field

06:24as much.

06:25So you can help hide a bad defense or a lesser defense.

06:28And then think about it, too.

06:29When you have a lead, doesn't that make it easier for you to get pressure because you

06:33can pin your ears back because you do play up a touchdown up 10 points or in the case

06:37of yesterday, you're up 30 points.

06:39It helps a defense if you can keep them off the field and give them a lead to play with.

06:44I think that's a great point.

06:45No doubt.

06:46Yeah.

06:47And that's what they've been doing.

06:48You know, I know it's a five game sample size, but early in the year when the offense was

06:53not fighting their way, right.

06:54Defense.

06:55Hey, I gotcha.

06:56Don't worry about it.

06:57Arizona.

06:58I mean, you didn't score the entire second half defense.

06:59OK, that's fine.

07:00We're not going to let them score.

07:01Seattle.

07:02Right.

07:03Defense slips a little bit.

07:04Couple big plays.

07:05Couple penalties.

07:06You know what?

07:07Four hundred yards of passing offenses.

07:09Don't worry about it, man.

07:10We're going to keep scoring.

07:11You know, we're going to keep this thing.

07:12That's what really good football teams do.

07:13So I know as much as the guys on defense are going to have to figure some things out and

07:17when find areas to pick up the slack, the guys on the offense have the same attitude,

07:21right?

07:22So as long as the defense is hurting a little bit, you know, we're down a couple of key

07:25players.

07:26Now, three key players with Barnes, Davenport, Hutchinson.

07:29We got to do our part.

07:30As long as we keep scoring points, as long as as long as we stay explosive, we're going

07:34to give them time to figure it out.

07:36And TJ, there wasn't any sulking, to your point, like they stayed foot on the gas after

07:40losing Hutchinson.

07:41And they got they got Minnesota this week.

07:42Right.

07:43And the Green Bay is looming.

07:44And the Texans on Sunday night football, like all of this is in the next four weeks worth

07:49of football games.

07:51And it was fast, man.

07:52It doesn't stop.

07:53That's why.

07:54That's kind of what I was getting at with the injury.

07:55Like you don't have time to let this sulk into Wednesday and Thursday.

07:59Like you got to move on.

08:00But you have to, especially when you when you just mentioned the test that you got coming

08:05up next Sunday.

08:06That's one of the hardest things about being the guy that was hurt.

08:07I don't know if you ever had any season enders or any length of time.

08:11I had two of them.

08:13And if it happens at practice, right, they move the drill and you can't think anything

08:16of it either side.

08:18But then when the team does move on and you're not a part of it, yeah, that's as a player,

08:24it's really hard to see because you're not out on the field.

08:26Yeah.

08:27And you don't you don't get a chance to be on all the all the fun stuff that happens

08:30inside jokes.

08:31You feel lonely.

08:32Yeah.

08:33Hell yeah, you do.

08:34You're rehabbing and you're rehabbing solo.

08:37Yeah.

08:38In large part versus being a part of the fun things that happen in the meeting, the fun

08:42things that happen on the practice field, the fun things that happen when you travel

08:46with the team and then the hotel, the games like I think that's one of the things that

08:49people, you know, kind of miss about like playing a professional sport is a hell of

08:55a lot of fun.

08:56Oh, yeah.

08:57And there are so many great moments that you miss when you are hurt.

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