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    • Football Gods finally pays the Detroit Lions back after many years
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    Football Gods finally pays the Detroit Lions back after many years

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    HOUSTON – They’ve won in a lot of ways this season, but they haven’t rushed a walk-off field goal yet. So why not?

    If Kansas City can stay undefeated by winning games where they have nothing to do with winning — the Chiefs stayed undefeated by blocking a potential game-winning field goal earlier in the day — why not the Detroit Lions?

    But to say they didn’t deserve Sunday night’s 26-23 win over the Houston Texans is to pretend that the football gods are keeping score. Well actually… it is, and they’ve had the Lions on the other side of these games for decades.

    So yeah, of course Jake Bates was going to kick a 52-yarder to beat the Texans as the clock expired. And of course, that field goal would come after he tied the game with a 58-yarder just minutes earlier.

    Fifty-eight?

    Yes, fifty-eight.

    The Lions now have a kicker. Together with an overflowing reserve of resilience. Teams don’t win if they give the ball away five times on the road. And teams don’t win if they struggle to do what they do best for a few quarters.

    The Lions couldn’t throw — at least not to their own receivers — and couldn’t run for much of Sunday night. But they did so when it was absolutely necessary, at no time more so than when they needed six yards to convert on a third down while driving to get into position for a game-winning field goal.

    Do you know where those 6 meters came from?

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    Jared Goff, who threw five interceptions. And Amon-Ra St. Brown, the receiver who was bracketed by a talented Houston secondary for most of the game.

    The Lions have playmakers and talent throughout their offense, but ultimately these two are the combination around which everything else revolves. The offensive line is obviously critical, and if it can’t do what it does so well, like it couldn’t against the Texans’ vulgar and formidable front, then we saw what happened.

    But as much as winning these types of matches requires physical strength and focus, and for a rethink of the plan that hadn’t worked, the group goes as its mind goes, and Goff and St. Brown are that mind, and they set out to battle. just enough.

    So yes, they needed 20 feet.

    Goff fell back. Amon-Ra St. Brown settled in the middle with his back to the defense, hesitated, then turned left again to continue his route.

    Goff saw him. Then hit him. First down. Game.

    Well, Bates had to make the field goal, but this is how the season is going. The hometown guy wouldn’t miss him: He’s from the Houston area.

    That he was even in a position to have a chance to win the game tells us a lot about this team, and this night, and what they had to survive to give him a chance.

    For most of the game, the Lions had no running game, no passing game, or not much of that. If Goff wasn’t hit or flushed, he felt the pocket collapse.

    His first two interceptions were batted balls near the line of scrimmage. Flukes, if you will.

    His third interception was a Hail Mary at the end of the first half. So we don’t count those either.

    How often does a quarterback throw three picks in a half and it’s not really his fault? Seldom.

    But the next two choices?

    Inexplicable, really, since they weren’t so much bad decisions as bad throws. Strange throws, especially the deep ball he wanted to throw to Jameson Williams, who ran from right to left along the left side, sailed to the right and ended up in the hands of Calen Bullock.

    Goff occasionally misses the field, but rarely this badly. As for his ball that was intended for Sam LaPorta two possessions earlier?

    It was even further from the goal line, and more expensive, as the Lions were near the red zone, had just picked off Stroud to open the half – one of Carlton Davis III’s two interceptions – and were desperate for were looking for momentum. Goff threw behind and over LaPorta’s head.

    Five interceptions?

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    That’s a big number and shocking for one of the most accurate passers in the NFL. Not to mention an elite decision maker. And to think he might have had six: Derek Stingley Jr. dropped a deep ball that Goff threw to Williams in the first half.

    He was also put under pressure there.

    Few quarterbacks look great under duress. And when an offense built to run and set up the pass can’t work, as the Lions couldn’t for much of the first three quarters, the quarterback feels the pressure even more.

    Six first-down plays failed to produce a win. One went for a loss. Start with so many second downs requiring ten yards or more, and the chances are fairly predictable, even for an offense that has been as productive as Detroit’s.

    But then there’s that will pool, right? That, dare I say, grit, if I may borrow Dan Campbell’s favorite word.

    Sometimes perseverance just means keeping trying and trying to find ways to find something that works, and not making things worse when things don’t work.

    Not much was working on Sunday evening. Then Jahmyr Gibbs got loose. And Goff found Sam LaPorta. And Jameson Williams made some of the toughest catches he’s made all season.

    And the line started to lock up and when it came time to win the game, Goff bought enough time to find St. Brown for the most important six yards of the night.

    So yeah, storm the field and celebrate. Even the best teams have to win ugly games. Ask Kansas City. And thank the football heavens.

    It took a long time.

    Contact Shawn Windsor: [email protected]. Follow him @shawnwindsor.

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