Which Houston Texans player is the biggest threat to spoil a Detroit Lions victory on Sunday night?
For the second straight week, the Detroit Lions are road favorites against a well-respected team. Last week, the Lions disposed of the then-6-2 Green Bay Packers in Lambeau. Now, they’ll face the head of the AFC South in the 6-3 Houston Texans. Not only is this game being played in Houston, but the Texans are wearing their new “Battle Red” uniforms on a primetime bout on “Sunday Night Football.”
Detroit is currently on a six-game winning streak, but it’s not going to be easy to move that to seven this week. The Texans are a solid football team, and they’re undefeated (4-0) on their home turf this season.
So today’s Question of the Day is:
Which Texans player could spoil a Lions victory?
My answer: Danielle Hunter.
Lions fans are more than familiar with Hunter from his day with the Minnesota Vikings. He’s been a thorn in the franchise’s side, tallying 13.0 career sacks in 14 games against the Lions.
With Taylor Decker out this week, it’s hard to know exactly how the Lions will proceed. Do they move Penei Sewell to left tackle, even though this was a midweek injury with little time to adjust? Or do they just slot Dan Skipper on Jared Goff’s blind side and hope for the best?
Normally, it’s Will Anderson Jr. lining up against the offense’s left tackle, but he has also been declared out with an injury. That means it’ll be up to Hunter to keep the Texans’ high-powered pass rush alive this week. Even though Hunter is usually over the right tackle, he’s played over a quarter of his snaps on the offense’s left side. So the Texans could theoretically just line him up wherever Skipper is and have a pretty significant mismatch in their favor.
While the Lions offense has had all the right answers for pressure and blitzes this season, the Texans may have the best pass rush of any team they’ve faced this year. And while they’ll miss Anderson this week, Hunter is the kind of player Detroit will have to game plan specifically for.
Which Texans player are you most concerned about this week? Scroll down to the comment section and give us your answer.
