The Detroit Lions and Houston Texans faced off Thursday morning for an iron-sharpens-iron practice. With both teams coming into 2025 with very high hopes, it was unsurprisingly a very competitive day for both squads.
I was focused on the Lions offense, while Al Karsten took notes on the defense. His post will come later in the day, but here are my observations from Detroit’s offense against a very competitive Texans defense.
Lions’ wide receivers battled impressive Texans secondary
The Houston Texans may arguably have the best secondary in football, so I was eager to see how Detroit’s star-studded receiver group would handle them. I came away very impressed with Detroit’s skill position players.
Don’t get me wrong: Derek Stingley got his. So did Kamari Lassiter. But more often than not, I thought Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams were both consistently finding open field. During the opening 7-on-7s, Jared Goff completed 4-of-6 passes for two touchdowns, and one of the incomplete passes was a pass to a wide-open Williams (beating Stingley) that he dropped.
Both St. Brown and Williams did a lot of their damage over the middle. St. Brown caught a 25-yard pass over the middle, then drew a pass interference on Stingley later in practice. Williams rebounded nicely during a series of second-and-long drills, with chunk plays over the middle with Stingley in coverage.
The play of practice happened during a full series that started at Detroit’s own 30-yard line. Facing a second-and-5, Goff uncorked a bomb to Williams, who had beaten Stingley and ran right past the single-high safety. Goff’s pass landed perfectly in Williams’ hands in the back of the end zone for a 36-yard touchdown… but unfortunately Lions officials let us know that their video of the play had shown Williams’ second foot was out of bounds. He still celebrated with fans as if it were a win. Oddly, the teams treated it as if it were complete, too. The drive ended there, despite the fact that it would’ve been third down.
The run game disappointed
I was hoping to see Detroit’s run game handle an interior defensive line that wasn’t too threatening this week, but Houston held up well. Detroit rarely got any push up the middle all day, which had David Montgomery visibly frustrated at one point in practice.
That said, Jahmyr Gibbs made some magic on his own. On back-to-back red zone plays, he had explosive runs where he utilized his speed to get outside of the Texans’ defense. On the first, he faked an inside move, kicked outside, and scored a 20-yard touchdown. The next play was very similar, picking up about 10-15 yards to move Detroit into a goal-to-go situation.
In terms of pass protection, it was a mixed bag. During one set of second-and-long drills, Will Anderson Jr. used his speed and freaky arm length to maneuver around Penei Sewell and strip the ball out of Jared Goff’s hands. Danielle Hunter also pulled off a nasty spin move to force a throw-away during a situational drill. However, outside of those plays, I thought Goff mostly had ample time to get rid of the football.
LaPorta shook off an early third-down drop and just absolutely dominated the final half of practice. He’s so slippery as a route-runner and is one of Goff’s most trusted targets. He had a key 23-yard pickup during a 40-yard touchdown drive, another 22-yard pickup during a situational drill, and a few other scattered catches throughout the day, including a third-and-8 conversion during the second-and-long drills.
Overall, evenly matched
My overall take from practice was how evenly matched the entire day was. The Lions would seemingly dominate one series, and the Texans would rebound with a great series of their own. For example:
- After Jameson Williams’ 36-yard touchdown that never was, the Texans’ defense responded with a red zone 11-on-11 three-and-out. The next set of red zone drills: Gibbs touchdown, big Gibbs run, St. Brown touchdown…. followed by a Texans interception.
- Additionally, when the Lions did their situational drill, Detroit quickly moved into the red zone, but the Texans swarmed in the red zone, forcing a game-tying field goal, instead of a win for the Lions offense.
Situational drill
At the end of practice, both teams converged for a shot at a game-winning drive. Here was the scenario:
Down 3 points, starting on their own 39-yard line with 1:04 remaining and two timeouts
Here’s how it played out for both teams:
Lions offense:
- Kalif Raymond drops a wide-open crossing route that he could have turned upfield for a 61-yard touchdown. Seriously.
- Amon-Ra St. Brown picks up 11 yards on an out route
- St. Brown makes a diving catch for 6 yards. [Lions use a timeout]
- Kalif Raymond with a short pickup to move the sticks [Graham Glasgow suffers injury, forcing Lions to use last timeout]
- Sam LaPorta crossing route for 22 yards
- SPIKE
- Pressure from Hunter forces a throwaway
- Williams is blanketed by Lassiter for an incomplete pass
- 36-yard field goal is GOOD
Texans offense:
- C.J. Stroud scrambles for 5 yards
- Jack Campbell with a beautiful pass breakup on a pass to RB Dare Ogunbowale
- Xavier Hutchinson’s whip route beats DJ Reed for a first down (12 yards)
- Hutchinson makes a sideline grab against Reed, but officials call him out of bounds
- Braxton Berrios 5-yard catch with Amik Robertson all over him
- Hutchinson drops a third-down conversion
- 56-yard field goal is GOOD
Notes:
- Kyle Allen was the QB2 today. He had a strong connection with Isaac TeSlaa, who was a problem for the Texans on Thursday. TeSlaa scored on back-to-back reps during 7-on-7 red zone drills. He also had a disgustingly good release on a later target during 11-on-11s, but because it was a corner route, it allowed the defender to catch up.
- Strong day from Tom Kennedy and Dominic Lovett with the 2s. Kennedy scored on a 28-yard bubble screen(!!) with Dan Skipper leading the way with a good block. And on a 70-yard touchdown drive, Lovett had two big plays: a crossing route that gained 15-20 yards on a beautiful ball from Hendon Hooker—converting a third-and-7. Then he was basically uncovered on a 15-yard touchdown.
- Jared Goff attempted a no-look throw that backfired in a big way. Looking right, he tried to hit a receiver in the back of the end zone running to the left. If Goff had looked, he would have seen Texans safety Calen Bullock just waiting for the ball to arrive for an easy interception.
- Kick returns were a struggle for both teams. The Texans were called for two holding penalties on about six attempts. Meanwhile, Grant Stuard put his very first return attempt on the ground… again. He continues to rep as the first team kick returner. With Sione Vaki leaving practice early, it was Jacob Saylors alongside him.
- Jake Bates was perfect on the day, with field goal makes of 33, 36, 44, and 51. All were straight down the middle.
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