In the locker room: After the win in Houston, the Lions are giving their defense all their love

HOUSTON, TEXAS – Nothing about what the Detroit Lions did in their 26-23 victory over the Houston Texans on Sunday Night Football was easy.

Jared Goff threw five interceptions and the offense struggled to find its rhythm on an uncharacteristically sloppy day. Despite continually being put in difficult situations, the defense kept things under control and gave the Lions plenty of time to break through.

“For our defense to play the way they played, I thought our defense played well to start; We just had a game here or there that hurt us,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said. “But you come out in the second half and it’s four punts, two picks and a missed field goal. Man, this is huge.

“We talked about it at halftime. We just had to get our takeaways. The defense did that and I knew we would wake up on offense. It was just a matter of time.”

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The Texans were blanked in the second half, totaling less than 300 net yards of offense. Senior cornerback Carlton Davis III had two interceptions in the third quarter and the team’s run defense looked as strong as ever in the win.

And for what it’s worth, Houston’s longest scoring drive of the day came from a 66-yarder, ending the half with a 23-7 lead at NRG Stadium. The Texans went two of four in the red zone and managed just 56 net yards on the ground and 192 net yards through the air.

Davis said he has a personal vendetta to have a big game in that building again. The cornerback said he was playing what he considered to be the worst game of his career in Houston this time last year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The cornerback was hit because he allowed two catches for 77 yards on three targets in the Week 9 game last year. It was his worst performance of the season overall by Pro Football Focus, and he didn’t forget that feeling.

Davis couldn’t hide his excitement about his play or that of the defense after the game. Davis had an interception on the first play of the second half and then grabbed his second throw a few minutes later with a throw into the end zone.

“To be honest, we had a pep talk before half-time. But for me personally, I played in this stadium last year when I was with the Bucs and I had a terrible game,” Davis said. “It was probably one of the worst games I’ve ever had here in my life. So when I come back here a year later, I think it was in the same time frame as last year. I give up a winning touchdown. And that was just heavy on my heart.

“I wanted to get revenge. And honestly, it’s never personal for me. But I felt that in my heart. And when we lost, I just said to myself, ‘Man, bro, we’ve got to have a chance.’ I’m not going to be sad for those guys twice.” They are a great team. Well trained guys. But at the same time, we are. And the emotions just took over. I thought, ‘I’ll still do a play, man.’ I can’t leave this stadium twice, two years in a row, and not say I’m a winner.”

For more from the locker room, see below:

Campbell, on the pass rush show: “So much has been done in our back end, our secondary. We asked a lot of them. Especially since Hutch went down. This was the game that really challenged our D-line. Here we said: You have to win. (Alim McNeill) Mac, you have to take over this game to some extent. We felt like we could succeed, and I felt like we did.

“We finished that running game. We were able to apply pressure, especially Mac, and that helped us. So these guys answered the bell.”

Lions quarterback Jared Goff on his win with five interceptions: “Honestly, I didn’t feel like I was playing that bad and I saw things well. I threw it well. I had some unfortunate things there at the beginning, but I’ve been through much worse. I was downstairs. Mentally I was at rock bottom. A few unfortunate plays won’t faze me.”

Texans HC DeMeco Ryans on Houston’s offensive woes: “We have to win in the first and second rounds. Too many negative plays on first and second down. We didn’t run the ball well. Just, what, does the football rush 56 yards? So we had no control over the situation when it came to directing the football and we did that well. If you don’t play well on first and second down, you end up on third and long and it’s hard to consistently win on third and long.”

Ryans on his great defense but falling short: “It’s obviously frustrating to play against this offense, a strong offense, and have the football taken away. We can stick to that: we take football. So we took the ball away, but it’s about team football and we didn’t play any supplementary football today. That’s what wins games when you play complementary football and today it didn’t work out for us.”

Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown on what the defensive performance meant: “Yeah, it was huge. They progressed well throughout the game. The defense played great. We put them in some tough situations with the interceptions and the things we had. But I think they fought hard the whole game. CD had two big picks. They had a bunch of stops on third down.”

Texas QB CJ Stroud explains what contributed to the second-half collapse: “Seems like it’s different every week. I feel like this game was getting on my nerves. I definitely have to make plays and throws. I can’t turn the ball over. So, yes, the blame is mine. In these moments I have to do better. It’s just about scoring in the red zone and letting the defense make the turnovers like they were, so you have to be able to reward them with points. That’s something we didn’t do. I feel like I’m the one to blame when it comes to this. Turn the ball over in the red zone.”

Goff on what prepared the Lions for moments like this: “We were tested. I think Dan did a great job of getting us into those difficult situations in practice. I think all the way back through training camp. So much situational work and creating pressure environments all in one – really it’s practice, but creating a pressure environment where the guys are asked to kind of rise up and see what they’re made of. He does it all the time. He does it every week and it has paid off.”

Lions K Jake Bates on his game-winning kick that was carried off the field: “I’ve never been picked up like that before. It was pretty cool to see the sideline embrace me. That was a cool moment.”

Bates on his thought process during these high-pressure moments: “Don’t change anything. Don’t make the moment bigger than it needs to be. We practice so much.”

Campbell on how he feels about his team after this performance: “I feel really good about our team. They haven’t done anything that would surprise me negatively. They are exactly what I imagined, the combat power they have in them, the ability to reload on the go. After our win in Green Bay and an opponent, a damn good opponent, who defended damn well and had the ball most of the time, we knew they would be ready to play. It says a lot. Like every week, we just have to focus on what’s right in front of us and I firmly believe that if we do that we’ll always have a really good chance.

“The chances are good that we can win every week. We’re in now. There are no byes. There is no nothing. We’re in the middle of it all. Head down and we’ll just keep plowing forward.”

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