Thanks to their 26-23 win at Houston, the first game in the league-merger era in which a team won after trailing by 15 points and throwing five interceptions, the Lions’ heads just got bigger … along with their manes and fangs. Here’s what their roar sounds like now.
“The Lions come out of this game basically saying, ‘We might be unbeatable,’” said NFL insider Frank Schwab on the Yahoo’s Inside Coverage podcast. “’If you can’t beat us playing that game, you can’t beat us. We’re not going to play that bad again.’ I feel like their confidence is through the roof. They just played their worst game of the season.”
They won their worst game of the season, winning at Houston (6-4), a first-place team. The Lions are 8-1 after erasing a 16-point halftime deficit, with Jake Bates skinning the flag atop the left upright to convert a game-ending, 52-yard field goal.
As a result, quarterback Jared Goff saw his drinking hole as half full, not half empty.
“I honestly didn’t feel like I was playing all that bad,” said Goff, who became the first starting quarterback to win a road game with five interceptions since Tony Romo at Buffalo in 2007. “I was seeing things well. I was throwing it well. Had some unfortunate things there early but I’ve been through a whole lot worse than that. I’ve been to the bottom. Mentally, I’ve been to the bottom, and some unlucky plays aren’t going to throw me off my game.”
They didn’t, and Goff made his own luck late in the game. He led Detroit to points on all three of its fourth-quarter possessions, the walk-off kick as well as a 58-yarder from Bates. Goff was just 15 of 30 for 240 yards, but did throw touchdowns to Amon-Ra St. Brown and Sam LaPorta, along with the five interceptions.
“These weren’t ill-advised throws,” said head coach Dan Campbell. “It wasn’t our day, and so when it’s not your day and you can still win, that’s the sign of a good team.”
Indeed they are, and that good team is off to its best start since 1954, when the Lions also opened 8-1. And lost in Goff’s five interceptions was another fantastic effort by the defense, the Detroit defense. The Lions shut out Houston in the second half, starting the avalanche when Carlton Davis intercepted C.J. Stroud on the first snap of the third quarter. Davis picked off Stroud again less than five minutes later, an acrobatic catch in his own end zone.
But Houston was still in position to win the game at the two-minute warning. On third-and-4, Stroud fired in the direction of Xavier Hutchinson, who hit the brakes as the pass approached. Lions cornerback Terrion Arnold ran right into him but officials didn’t call pass interference. Ka’imi Fairbairn then missed a 58-yard field goal, giving Detroit a short field.
New pass rusher Za’Darius Smith is expected to make his debut when Detroit returns home for an interconference game with Jacksonville (2-8) next week. A win would give the Lions their best start in 90 years, since opening 10-0 in 1934 during the first year the franchise was known as the Detroit Lions. It launched as the Portsmouth Spartans in 1930.
Houston stays in state for a Monday night contest at Dallas.
For more information on the Lions and Texans, visit the Detroit and Houston team pages at ProFootballPost.com.
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