Sunday Night Football is back in Houston for the second time this season and this time it’s a primetime encounter between two of the best teams. After a heartbreaking loss to the San Francisco 49ers in last season’s NFC Championship, the Detroit Lions are on a mission to get back there and this time, win it all. The Houston Texans on the other hand have been an under the radar 6-3 team and it looks like they’ll be challenging in the AFC again. It’s a battle of two conferences in this edition of Sunday Night in Week 10 of the NFL.
Just how good are the Detroit Lions? They’re 7-1, best in the NFC and have stepped up in a difficult schedule in the first half of the season. Even after they lost Aidan Hutchinson against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 6, their star defensive player, Dan Campbell’s men took down the Vikings and Packers on the road along with a blowout win over the Titans sandwiched between them. I was at the watch party at Ford Field when the Lions played the Cowboys in Week 6 and it is just incredible to see what the football team means to these fans. The whole city is so collectively dedicated and all that hard work is paying off right in front of our eyes. This team has found a blueprint for winning and it’s not one that is blowing stats off the charts. Detroit is seventh in total yards a game at 369.6, sixth in rush yards a game at 152.6, and 15th in passing yards a game at 217 which are pretty average stats for a team that is 7-1 right now (ESPN). All these offensive stats are mediocre yet they’re first in points a game at 32.3 (ESPN). The Lions don’t rely on one player to do everything and the balance in their team is a key for success. Jared Goff, their quarterback, is 25th in the league in pass attempts at 158/211 but he has the highest completion percentage at 74.9% (ESPN). The Lions are clinical and they’re not a team which revolves around their QB which is so important. For the game against Houston, the Lions are also getting back receiver Jameson Williams from his two game suspension. Before his suspension, he was having a fantastic year and his deep threat complements so well with Amon-Ra St. Brown who finds little pockets of space underneath. Williams has done well in the WR2 spot this season and his return adds another dimension to this Detroit Lions team. This offense has done such a terrific job of putting points up when they need it and being efficient in those crucial offensive moments.
For the defense, it’s pretty much the same story. Detroit’s defense is sixth best in points allowed per game, are 22nd in total yards a game, 29th in passing yards a game, and seventh best in rush yards a game (ESPN). Similarly to the offense, these aren’t stats which translate to title winning but the defense has forced the third most giveaways in the league at 16 (ESPN). The theme of the Lions is making big plays in big moments and it shows they’re clutch when it really matters. Additionally, Detroit is best in the league at average kickoff return at 34.9 punt return at 16.6, and field goal percentage at a perfect 100% (ESPN). They’re strong in every area of the team and it’s so difficult to find a glaring weakness in the team. The Lions also added pass rusher Za’Darius Smith from the Cleveland Browns which gives them a strong replacement for Hutchinson and an experienced player who could take them all the way to New Orleans for the Super Bowl. The Lions are committed and are thriving currently through the first half of the regular season.
It’s been a solid season for the Houston Texans up to this point and they sit comfortably on top of the AFC South two games ahead of the second place Indianapolis Colts. Over the offseason, the Houston Texans made one of the best moves by trading for running back Joe Mixon from the Cincinnati Bengals. In the five full games Mixon has played this season, he’s eclipsed 100 rushing yards in all of them and is averaging 116.8 rush yards a game. He’s been healthy for five complete games this season and he’s also been averaging 23.4 carries a game. He’s a true workhorse for this team and he has the backfield all to himself. The Texans have suffered a couple injuries this season already including Nico Collins out for four games, Mixon out for three, and Stefon Diggs tearing his ACL recently and being out for the year. Luckily for Houston, Collins is on the verge of returning and it’ll be him and Tank Dell as the top wideouts for the remainder of this season. It was Collins and Dell together last season as well and they already have good chemistry with C.J Stroud. Houston has a difficult three games after their bye week as the face Miami, Kansas City, and Baltimore in big AFC Conference games which will prepare them for the playoffs. They need their offense to flourish like last season and need Stroud to hit that same gear.
The Texans defense is second best in total yards a game and third best in passing yards a game (ESPN). The secondary has done a nice job but they’ll be faced with the tough task of slowing down these Lions receivers. The Texans defense is 12th in rushing yards a game so they’ll need to step it up against this tough running back duo of Gibbs and Montgomery that the Lions have (ESPN). Detroit can run all over teams and they can wear teams out with their run heavy approach which means the Texans have to stay tough with their run defense or else they’ll get sucked in. Defensive end Will Anderson Jr. who has 7.5 sacks and is tied for fourth in the league needs to step up and give Goff problems (ESPN). The Lions don’t get uncomfortable easily so the Texans need to force the errors and cause turnovers by the Detroit offense.
My prediction for this game is that the Lions will win 30-24. I believe that we’ll see a heavy dosage of running in this game by both sides but the Lions will be just that little bit better in the passing game. Detroit’s safeties Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch have combined for 10 interceptions already and I think they’ll do a good job of stopping the Texans’ receivers. Additionally, Collins isn’t a guarantee to play in this game and even if he does, he might be limited. The Texans need all hands on deck against this skilled Lions team but in the end, they’ll come up short. You can watch this game on NBC and Peacock on 11/10/2024 from NRG Stadium at 8:20 PM EST.
It’s the top matchup of Week 10 in this inter-conference clash between the Lions and Texans on primetime. It could be a possible Super Bowl matchup but for now, it’s just a regular season game between two heavyweights of the NFL. Will the Houston Texans end the Lions six game winning streak or will the Detroit Lions keep rolling and extend their record to 8-1?