Monday night was fun for the Detroit Lions. Not too much fun, but fun nonetheless. The Lions walked out with a 26-14 win and a 6-2 record heading into the bye. That's second place in the NFC. You must love it. 

I've got four winners and two losers that I must talk about. As a special Halloween treat, I've also got seven horror movie recommendations that I'll be including in this piece. Let's jump into it. 

Winner: Jahmyr Gibbs

Jahmyr Gibbs was masterful on Monday night. When was the last time you can remember the Detroit Lions unleashing a player becasue they knew the opposing team just couldn’t stop him. That’s what the Lions did Monday night. They just threw Gibbs out there over and over again and he bullied the Raiders defense. He walked out with 189 total yards and a touchdown. Fantasy nerds walked out with like 30 some odd points. Everyone is happy. 

Movie recommendation #1: Halloween 

Look, you can't not watch John Carpenter's masterpiece Halloween on Halloween. Just like you can't not watch (insert whatever Christmas movie you think is the best) on Christmas day. Halloween is just the perfect slasher movie. It's shot so well and it's so dark and gloomy. You must watch it. Even if you've seen it 100 times.

Loser: Josh Reynolds

This will be the only time that Josh Reynolds ever appears in this column. He was just a bit off on Monday night. The normally very steady Reynolds has a big play or two every game. In this one he had one catch for 13 yards. He immediately fumbled that catch. I won’t blame him too much. It was sort of an awkward catch and he never really had control of it. I wouldn’t worry too much about Reynolds after this one. 

Movie Recommendation #2: Hereditary  

This movie is absolutely insane. If you have not seen it before, buckle up. It's one of those rare horror movies that boasts an amazing acting performance. Toni Collette is masterful in this one and you won't be able to take your eyes off the screen. 

Winner: Alex Anzalone

I continue to be blown away by Anzalone’s performance this season. Like I mentioned in last night’s takeaways piece. I initially didn’t understand why the Lions brought him back. I was wrong. I was so wrong. To be fair, did anyone expect him to be playing at an elite level like this at 29-years-old? He had two sacks on Monday night and was essentially anywhere the ball was. 

Movie Recommendation #3: Ready or Not

This one kind of came and went during the pandemic era. It's a really fun movie though. The story is about a bride who can't truly enter her new family unless she can survive a night of that family trying to hunt her in a mansion. Check it put, it's fun. 

Loser: Clete Blakeman

I’m usually not a blame the refs guy. At least I try not to be. But, this was a very bad performance by him and his team. They had two picked up flags after stopping play for fouls and then not calling fouls. Then they wiped a horse collar flag off the board with one of the cheapest holding calls ever. This of course made the penalties offset. 

Then they called a fumble that they never actually saw happen and couldn't prove happened. They pretty much just took the Raiders word for it. Just bad stuff. 

Movie recommendation #4: Smile

I love a good elevated horror movie that's abotu real things. This movie is allegory for trauma and mental health and it's done so unbelievably well. If you go through these things, you walk out of the movie feeling heard. At leas that's how I felt. I really was able to feel this one. 

Winner: Amon-Ra St. Brown

This guy was sick on Monday night with flu like symptom’s? I don’t believe you. Despite St. Brown feeling sick, he drank a 2-liter of Vernors and went to work on Monday night. He grabbed six catches for 109 yards and was just his normal Sun God self. Imagine what he would have been if he were heathy. I can’t confirm that he drank Vernors, but just knowing that my mom use to give this to me when I was sick, there’s really just no other way he could have got himself healthy enough for this game without it. 

Movie recommendation #5: Barbarian 

You ever see a movie come along and you realize that you're one of the first people to know about it and you tell all your friends about it and then they go see it and love it. That's one of my favorite feelings. This movie came out of nowhere a couple years ago and wound up being a hit. I highly recommend it. It's even set in Detroit by the way. 

Winner: Riley Patterson

I’ve picked on Patterson a lot in the last couple weeks. Today I’m putting him in the winner’s column. Even though he missed a chip shot in the fourth quarter, he had a nice game that included a 52-yard field goal. It wasn’t the prettiest kick, but he got it over the cross bar. Patterson showed on Monday night that he can be trusted from distance as long as it’s not too much distance. Good game. 

Movie recommendation #6: Tales from the Hood 

I really loved this movie as a kid and recently I got the chance to see it on the big screen. It really holds up. In fact, this movie from 1995 was really ahead of it's time. If this movie would have come out today, it would receive a lot of the high praise that it missed out on in the 90's. Especially since it came out during a time when horror was going through a rough patch and people has kind of given up on the genre. 

Its’ time for the Lions to trade for a stud and make a run

Alright, the Detroit Lions just won a big Monday night outing against the Las Vegas Raiders and they will go to 6-2 for the first time since 2011. It's really easy to just sit back and say "that's it. They don't need anymore help." I get that. You love your team and that's an appropriate […]