The Good and the Bad From the Texans 26–23 Loss to the Lions

The Texans lost a hard-fought battle against the Detroit Lions 26-23 on Sunday Night Football. They had a 23-7 lead in the 3rd quarter however once again, The Texans failed to score on offense for the rest of the game. We saw a lot of good moments and some bad moments yesterday so let’s unpack everything we saw on the game against the Lions.

Good:

Run Defense

Texans knew going into last night’s game that if they were to stand any chance of beating the Lions, they would have to make stopping the run a huge priority. The Lions’ formula for success this year has been wearing teams down with their run game early and then beating them through the air using play-action and bootlegs. This means that the success of their passing game hinges in the dominance of the run game. Without the run, they couldn’t use play action or bootleg as effectively because defenses don’t have to respect the running game. The Texans were able to stop the run early which led to more pure passing plays where the Texans linebackers and safeties were able to drop into coverage. This led to Jared Goff throwing 5 interceptions. The strength of the Texans is their pass defense so the Lions throwing the ball as many times as they did played right into the Texans’ hands.

Secondary play

The Texans secondary showed out in a big way against the Lions, racking up 5 interceptions and holding Jared Goff to 15/30 passing. The secondary continues to be a big strength for the Texans with the continued standout play from Derek Stingley Jr and the rapid rise of Kamari Lassiter. This was a Lions offense that is second in the NFL in points per game and the Texans pass defense was able to keep them in check. The secondary continues to be the biggest strength of this team as slowing down the top passing offenses will go a long way for the Texans against the top teams. Because the Texans don’t give up over the top plays, it forces opposing offenses to grind out 10-12 play drives which leaves a lot of room for error.

The Bad:

Conservative Playcalling

The Texans continue to play conservatively in the second half of games and it has made them a more predictable team in the second half. The Texans struggled to run the ball all game yet Bobby Slowik kept on running it on first and second down. This puts a lot of pressure on CJ Stroud as he is continuously put in 3rd and long situations. This makes it tougher for the Texans to sustain drives and get into a rhythm as the opposing defense can better predict what is coming.

When you are up by a decent margin your main goal should be to keep the clock moving. If you keep running the ball with no success, it just leads to more 3 and outs. Sometimes some aggression is needed in those situations as it would keep drives moving by picking up first downs. A good play-caller should keep the defense guessing about what is about to come and routinely being conservative just makes your gameplan more predictable which has led to the Texans’ struggles in the second half of games.

The Interceptions

CJ Stroud was careless with the ball as he threw 2 interceptions, One of which was an end zone interception. The Texans were leading for the majority of the game but the Lions were always within striking distance. Turning the ball over just gave the Lions more opportunities to come back in the game. In fact, his second interception to Carlton Davis ended up being the turning point in the game as it caused a momentum shift in the Lions favor.

The Texans had the opportunity to go up 30-13 and go up by three scores but instead it caused a momentum shift which led to Detroit winning.

Situational Football

The Texans made some questionable decisions late in the game against the Lions. When the score was tied with 1:56 left, the Texans decided to kick a 58 yard field goal instead of going for it on 4th and 4. A 58 yard field goal is extremely hard to make and if you miss it the Lions don’t need many yards to kick their own field goal. Even if they had made it, the Lions still had plenty of time on the clock to tie or win the game. If they had went for it and got it, they could have ran the clock out and kicked a walk off field goal. The Texans had the same chance of converting the 4th and 4 as they did of making the 58 yard field goal so they should have taken the one that better guarantees them victory.

Also, we have seen the Texans take bad penalties on 3rd down. On multiple drives in the second half, the Texans have taken holding penalties on third down which leads to a 3rd down that is way out of reach. Drive killing penalties killed the Texans late in this game as it always kept the lions within striking distance