Tom Brady reveals best way for Texas to stop unstoppable Lions

The timing of the Texans organization to don Battle Red helmets for a showdown featuring first-place teams could not have been better. That’s because, even when the high-octane Lions don’t have the ball on Sunday, those helmets will serve as timely reminders of how Houston can stop unstoppable Detroit.

Tom Brady, who called last week’s 24-14 win at Green Bay, said Wednesday the Lions (7-1) remind him of Peyton Manning’s Colts offenses that dominated the league from 1999-2010. Brady squared off with Manning 12 times during that stretch, going 8-4 against Indianapolis. And those weeks, thanks to Bill Belichick, revealed the best way for Houston (6-3) to beat Detroit on Sunday Night Football (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC).

“Belichick would say, ‘Guys, listen.’ This would be a Wednesday meeting. ‘Understand this: They are going to move the ball on us,’” Brady told Colin Cowherd on Wednesday’s edition of The Herd. “’They are too good, they’ve got so many guys, they are going to go up and down – we need to play good red-area defense. And we’re going to work on red-area defense on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday because that’s going to decide the game.’”

Indeed, only one defense has contained the Lions in the red zone this year. It came in Detroit’s only loss, against the Buccaneers in Week 2, when Tampa Bay held Jared Goff’s unit to only one touchdown over seven trips inside the Bucs’ 20-yard line. Take away that loss and Detroit’s offense has scored 20 touchdowns on 26 red-zone possessions (76.9 percent). Brady said the Texans need to focus more on limiting points than limiting yards, but he also said Joe Mixon and the Houston offense can complement that philosophy as well.

“Offensively,” he said, “if we can control the game, we can run the ball and we can score points, we’re going to give ourselves the best chance to win.

“Offensively, the best defense against the Lions’ offense is to possess the football. You don’t want to make it a track meet against a team that can run it, they throw it to their tight end, to their receivers. When they get Jameson Williams back, they have the explosive receiver. And they go for it on fourth down so often. You’ve got to stop them for four downs, not just three, which is a really hard thing to do.”

In addition to Williams, Jared Goff has a host of weapons in Detroit’s efficient offense. One of those in Amon-Ra St. Brown. Goff has 30 straight completions when targeting St. Brown, dating to September.

But the Texans are also could return an explosive receiver, Nico Collins. The NFL’s leading receiver before his Week 5 hamstring injury, Collins has experienced no setbacks and looks ready to return to form. And with Tank Dell fresh off his 126-yard game last week, the Lions may want to listen to Brady, too.

For more information on the Lions and Texans, visit the Detroit and Houston team pages on ProFootballPost.com.