The Lions look like a Super Bowl team and they proved that again with an incredible win over the Texans.
There's absolutely no way the Detroit Lions should have completed their incredible comeback against the Houston Texans on “Sunday Night Football”.
The odds were stacked against them when they were down 23-7 at halftime after quarterback Jared Goff threw three interceptions, and they were certainly against them when they entered the fourth quarter down 23-10 with Goff having thrown his fifth interception.
Most teams fade in that game. Some teams that are coached well put up a fight but ultimately falter, but win? Winning should not have been an option for the Lions on Sunday night. When Jake Bates' field goal barely squeaked by the left upright with the clocks hitting zeroes, though, winning was exactly what the Lions experienced.
They've been doing a lot of that lately as well, with seven wins in a row now.
The Lions are clearly the top team in the NFC and there's a really good argument that they're even better than the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, who are 9-0 after a last-second win of their own.
Here are three reasons why the Lions are currently the favorite to win Super Bowl LVIII.
The Lions can with if Jared Goff is “off”
You don't often see five-interception games in the NFL. The most ever in a game is eight, thrown by Chicago Cardinals quarterback Jim Hardy in 1950, but five is still an incredibly bad number for an NFL quarterback. It's also extremely rare for a quarterback to throw the ball to the other team as much as Goff did against the Texans and still win the game. The last time that happened was in 2012, when Matt Ryan threw five picks but the Atlanta Falcons still won.
Even a two-interception game from a quarterback usually spells doom for an offense, but the Lions were still somehow able to put up 345 yards of total offense. They were helped out a ton by the dynamic duo rushing attack of David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs, who rushed for 103 yards and a touchdown between them, but Goff still was able to throw two interceptions on the night. That included a nine-yard screen pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown early in the fourth quarter that brought Detroit within three. This was after Goff's five interceptions, mind you.
The fact that Goff was clearly having an off night but head coach Dan Campbell trusted him to keep flinging the ball tells you all you need to know about this Lions team and especially their explosive offense. They'll keep slinging it until the clock reads zero.
That will be an especially important trait in the playoffs when all 60 minutes (and sometimes more) count.
The Lions have a more-than-competent defense
Lost in the shuffle of all the takeaways the Texans forced is the fact that the Lions also caused two turnovers defensively. They picked off young, potential superstar quarterback C.J. Stroud twice, and those turnovers undoubtedly kept them in the game when they were down big.
Even without those turnovers, Detroit's second-half performance was absolutely stunning. Remember, the Texans went into halftime feeling themselves with 23 points. They ended the game with 23 points. Do the math there. The Lions' defense pitched a shutout in half two. Without those zero points given up, none of the other heroics would have matters.
Speaking of heroics, though, credit is due to General Manager Brad Holmes, who saw one of his offseason pickups step up in a big way against the Texans. Holmes brought cornerback Carlton Davis III in as a free agent this past offseason on a one-year, $14.5 million deal.
Davis picked off Stroud twice.
The Lions have a clutch kicker in Jake Bates
Having a kicker who can win a game is everything in the NFL playoffs, and the Lions have just that in Bates.
Bates was a member of the UFL's Michigan Panthers last season but made it onto the radar of NFL teams after nailing multiple 60-plus yarders in that league. Last season, at this time, he was a salesman for Acme Brick, a brick company in (ironically) Houston. This season, he's now a perfect 14-of-14 on field goals, and that included the 52-yard game-winner against the Texans and the incredible 58-yarder he booted in just minutes before to tie the game.
“I just don't deserve this. I was a soccer player growing up, I idolized football players in the NFL and all that stuff, and just to be here is surreal,” Bates said after the win, according to Sports Illustrated.
Everything is coming up Aces for the Lions right now, and Bates has been a big part of that. Sunday night's game-winner was his second of the season. He's clearly confident and he has a huge leg. In the playoffs, where three points is often the difference between winning and losing, the Lions have a huge weapon in Bates.
