Lions film review: How the Texans frustrated the NFL's top-scoring offense
Allen Park — Regardless of the metric, the Detroit Lions entered Sunday night as one of the NFL’s top offensive teams, pacing the league in scoring after topping the 40-point threshold three times in the previous five games.
But for the first time since the first month of the season, the Houston Texans made the high-octane attack look fallible, flustering quarterback Jared Goff, stymying Detroit’s two-headed monster backfield, and forcing five interceptions, doubling Detroit’s turnover total on the season.
The Texans, to be clear, came into the matchup with established credentials. They ranked near the top of the league in yards per game, yards per play, pressure rate, and completion percentage against, where they’re first by a wide margin.
It’s unquestionably a well-coached unit. But so is Detroit’s offense, which has proved tough to slow for most opponents the past three years.
For this week’s film review, we’ll look at why Houston was able to have success because future opponents will certainly be looking to replicate the results through degrees of imitation.