Grown Man Tantrums in Ford Field

Anyone else going to miss the relentless political text messages and commercials that have been bombarding our lives for the last three plus months?

No? Us either. But looking back, we're pretty excited about who we voted for.

After this week, the Wings feel great again.

That's what's great about sports, it's a bipartisan commodity for everyone...and boy would we love it if you could share this newsletter with everyone (or just one person) you know.

Go ahead, hit the the forward button and type in a name, any name.

Great, now that we've bullied you into that, let's jump into the content.

Drug-Using Old Man Throws Three Interceptions & Tantrums In Loss to Playoff Contending Lions (2-6)

Detroit entered week nine on a five-game losing streak, having just traded a fan-favorite former top-10 pick and still dealing with a plethora of injuries.

Their opponent? Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. This game had all the makings for a get-right game for Green Bay, who was on a four-game losing streak of their own.

But in the multi-verse of madness that is the NFL, it would be Detroit's last-ranked defense that would steal the show, picking off Rodgers three times within the Lions' 25-yard line.

To add to the insanity, Rodgers had only thrown eight interceptions to the Lions in his entire career dating back to 2008 (24 games in total). The three he threw Sunday (tongue-twister): all to rookies.

Two of the picks came from 2022 third round draft pick out of Illinois, Kerby Joseph, who took advantage of a tipped ball in the endzone in the first. Then later in the third, Kerby made a fantastic read on the former MVP, picking Rodgers off just before the goal line on a deep ball from the Lions 22.

Despite the interceptions, Kerby's most diabolical play of the weekend came with his post-game Instagram caption.

Yes, that's real.

Aiden Hutchinson also participated in pick-a-palooza on the first play of the second quarter, snagging the first of his career on an errant fadeaway pass from Rodgers on Detroit's one-yard line.

In case you needed more new faces catching balls, we have great news for you. A second-year and rookie tight end were the beneficiaries of both Goff touchdown passes on Sunday.

Shane Zylstra, an undrafted-practice-squad-call-up out of Minnesota State in the second, and James Mitchell, the Lions 2022 fifth-round draft pick out of Virginia Tech, early in the fourth.

The game ended on the Lions 17-yard line, with Rodgers throwing four straight incompletions to a defense he is so used to dominating that it resulted in an old man tantrum.

Maybe his 'ayahuasca journey' this summer wasn't such a good idea, after all.

Up next: the Chicago Bears, Sunday 1pm at Soldier Field. Lastly, we'll just leave this here.

Wings (7-3-3) Inspired by Past Cup Winners, Take Seven of Eight Possible Points In Their Last Four Games

It was a special week for the Wings organization as we celebrated the 25th and 24th year anniversaries of the legendary back-to-back Stanley Cup Final sweeps in '97 and '98.

The two nights featured the likes of Yzerman, Lidstrom, Shanahan, Bowman, Vladdy, Larionov, Vernon, Osgood, Lapointe the Grind Line and many more.

What makes nights like this even more special is that the current Wings won both of the games succeeding these ceremonies and the 2022-23 team is off to their best start in 11 years.

After the shellacking they took from Buffalo on Halloween, the Wings have won three of their last four and taken points in every single game. These efforts have moved them to second in the Atlantic Division, tied with Toronto at 17 points, and 5 behind division leading Boston, who has 22.

Detroit's only loss this week came last night in a shootout at home to Montreal. Dylan Larkin missed a penalty shot and the final shootout attempt (which would have tied it) en route to Detroit's third OT loss of the year.

The effort, however, has been there all week. Last night, Montreal's goaltender Jake Allen stopped 41 of 43 shots and rightfully earned the #1 star of the game.

Notes from the week:

• Lucas Raymond, who had a slow start to the year, is all the way back. Scoring five goals in the last six games.

• Ville Husso continues to make his case as the Wings #1 goalie, ranking third in the NHL in save percentage (.941), second in goals against average (1.86), and tied for first in shutouts (2).

• The Wings have been plagued by injuries this year and they just lost Filip Zadina for 6-8 weeks after getting hit by a shot vs the Islanders.

• Also, forward Matt Luff is also out 6-8 weeks after taking a very scary hit from behind in last night's game vs Montreal.

• Sunday was the first time the Wings and Lions have both won on the same day since 2017.

• Mickey Redmond is a national treasure.

Next up:

Tigers Hire Assistant Pitching Coach from University of Iowa

You know it's the offseason when all we have for you is the hiring of an assistant pitching coach from a Big Ten University. But alas, here we are. Via Freep:

Iowa pitching coach Robin Lund has been hired as the assistant pitching coach, sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed to the Free Press. He will play a key role in the sports science and biomechanics aspects of the pitching department. The Tigers have not confirmed Lund's hire.

Science and biomechanics department? That sounds fun. According to the same Freep report Lund holds three degrees: A bachelor's in education from Whitworth College in 1995, master's in exercise science from Eastern Washington in 1997 and doctoral in exercise science from the University of Idaho in 2002.

Lund was a professor at Northern Iowa in their department of kinesiology when he volunteered help the softball team as a hitting coach. From there, Iowa hired him as their hitting coach, then after one year, they switched him over to the pitching coach.

Iowa's pitching staff ranked second nationally in hits per nine innings (6.9), third in strikeouts per nine innings (11.2) and fourth in ERA (3.72). (Via Freep).

Lund states he has a passion for baseball, science, and data.

Hinch and Harris alike have both noted they want to bring about change and "enhance the coaching staff." Word around the league is that under the old Avila guard, the Tigers were slow to adapt to the new, analytical, side of baseball.

Hopefully baseball's Bill Nye can bubble up some positive reactions out of the Tigers pitching staff next season.

Pistons (3-8) Find Footing Versus OKC After Suffering Two Divisional Beat-Downs

11 games into the season fans are seeing that the excitement around this Detroit Pistons team is going to have to come in ways other than winning.

While many of us secretly hoped that this extremely young team could defy all odds and push for play-in game, the reality is, they are still a ways away.

Alas, we must look for positives in other areas outside of the win column.

The Good: Cade Cunningham is showing shades of Rip Hamilton when it comes to his mid-range jump shot. Omari Sankofa II of the Free Press reports Cunningham is taking more than half of his shots from midrange and knocking them down at a 44% clip. Across the league, he’s third in midrange attempts with 51 according to NBA.com. Since the Hawks game, he’s hit 56.8% of his 37 midrange shots. It’s the best accuracy of any player with at least 30 attempts.

Jaden Ivey is speeding bullet, and taking 46% of his shots at the rim and making them at a 66% clip. He also dresses like a king.

Bojan is the man and is earning every bit of his $39.1 million dollar extension. He's currently averaging 20.2 point on 50% shooting and 48.6% from three.

The Bad: Killian Hayes. Who is turning out to look like one of Weaver's weakest draft picks. After a promising preseason, Hayes is now shooting 18.2% overall and a woeful 16.7% from three. This is after shooting 42.4% and 33.3% respectively. (Freep)

The Ugly: The Bench.

Detroit may have the worst bench in the NBA. It’s averaging 23.1 points per game — only the Brooklyn Nets’ second unit is producing fewer points. And it’s shooting 35.2% from the floor, the worst mark in the league. (Freep).

On the bench note, one bright spot has been Isaiah Livers, who is shooting over 40% from three.

Up next:

Shocking: 16-Point Underdog Michigan State (4-5) Upset #14 Illinois In Champaign

If we told you that Payton Thorne would throw an interception on the first play of the game, that State would only generate 294 yards of offense and Illinois would gain 441 yards of their own...would you believe us if we said MSU won?

Well, it happened.

Against all odds. On the road. After getting bullied by their arch-rival Michigan the week before and missing eight players due to suspension. Michigan State took town a top-25 opponent to add a twinkle of light to what has been a borderline embarrassing season.

After Thorne's interception, Illinois drove 39 yards to MSU's two, where the Spartan defense would hold strong and turn the Fighting Illini over on downs, sparking the inspired Saturday performance.

That fourth down goal line hold would be the first of five times MSU would stop Illinois on fourth down.

Via Freep: Thorne threw touchdowns to Tre Mosley and Jayden Reed and finished 19 of 29 for 182 yards passing. Jarek Broussard added an 11-yard touchdown run, while Jalen Berger ran for 81 yards on 15 carries and added three catches for 29 yards for the Spartans (4-5, 2-4 Big Ten).

Illinois’ defense had allowed just six touchdowns all season entering Saturday’s game.

This was Mel Tucker's fourth road win over a ranked Big Ten opponent, and the W keeps their bowl hopes alive. Teams need six wins in a season to become bowl eligible.

And before we move onto the team from Ann Arbor, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention one more thing about the tunnel incident. Tom Izzo speaks:

Up next: Rutgers, Saturday, 12pm at Spartan Stadium

After First Half 'Scare' #3 Michigan (9-0) Continues Their March Toward Greatness

The final score was a blowout. When it was all said and done undefeated Michigan stayed undefeated and trounced Rutgers in their own barn 52-17.

JJ McCarthy finished with two passing touchdowns and another one rushing. Blake Corum was is normal Heisman Trophy candidate self and had two touchdowns as well.

After enduring their first, first half, deficient of the year, the Wolverines took the locker room and returned in the second to pick off Rutgers three times and hold them scoreless for the rest of the game.

This was Rutgers 36th straight time losing to a ranked opponent.

But perhaps the biggest news of the day for Michigan fans came from other games around the country. #1 ranked Tennessee and #4 ranked Clemson both lost, helping bolster Michigan from #5 to #3 in the college football playoff rankings.

All roads leading to a second consecutive playoff birth most-likely means going 12-0, which will have to include a victory in the final week of the season on the road vs arch-rival Ohio State.

Up next: Nebraska, Saturday, 3:30pm at The Big House.

Until next week team.