Jake Bates, Lions end difficult phase 5-0 with wild comeback against Texans: “Just being here is surreal”

HOUSTON – For those in Detroit, this was a game that made you stare at the night sky and thank the football gods for smiling down on you. Or maybe ask her where it has been all these years.

This shouldn’t happen to the Detroit Lions. Won games that should have been lost. Narrowly escaping defeat instead of agonizing over it. Inflicting heartbreak instead of accepting it. This franchise has been the poster child for losses for so long, like the 26-23 comeback it delivered to the Houston Texans on Sunday night.

But the Lions as you once knew them are no more.

This feeling is systemic. It has now become deeply rooted in this group, and newcomers follow suit with the same conviction.

Jake Bates is one of them. Bates is from Tomball, Texas – about 30 miles northwest of his office Sunday evening. That Texas franchise took a look at him last summer before they parted ways, setting in motion the run he’s currently on. Many people know the backstory. Bates, a soccer player turned kicker who never attempted a field goal in college, joined the UFL and became the league’s top performing player. In crucial situations he regularly performs kicks of 50 or even 60.

Anyone who’s been with Bates in those nine months will tell you the kid’s got something. Frozen tundra in his veins. A faith that is at the center of his life. A calm, confident demeanor that you can easily stand behind. The Lions saw it in practice this week.

Situational football is everything for the Lions and coach Dan Campbell had his players prepared for what unfolded Sunday night. Allow Amon-Ra St. Brown to set the scene at Thursday’s practice in Allen Park, Michigan – a scene that foreshadowed what was to come.

“Six seconds left,” St. Brown told The Athletic. “We still had a break. I managed it in training in about two seconds. We called the timeout and Jake made it in practice with the wind like a 58-yarder or something crazy. We all celebrated.”

Fast forward to Sunday evening. On a third-and-6 from the Houston 48, with the score tied at 23 apiece following a 58-yarder by Bates early in the quarter, Goff tied St. Brown to tie the score at 11 with 1:33 left. These are the moments that Campbell preaches and emphasizes to his players in the fourth year of this operation. Successful situational football separates good teams from great ones, winners from losers.

Thursday’s practice went just as Campbell envisioned. It set up a 52-yard field goal by Jake Bates. The result was the same.

JAKE BATES WALKOFF. 😱

The Lions come back and win it! #OnePride pic.twitter.com/bzrqbTR4tc

– Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) November 11, 2024

“I just don’t deserve this,” Bates said. “Growing up, I was a soccer player. Growing up, I idolized football players in the NFL. Just being here is surreal. I’m still pinching myself.”

Alim McNeill was unable to see the end of the regulation. He sat on the defensive line bench with his head bowed, relying on the noise of the crowd to tell him whether the Lions had won or were heading to overtime. He was initially confused because he heard cheering. After all, it was a street game. What he didn’t realize, however, was that it was the traveling Lions fans in Honolulu Blue who drowned out the Texans fans when their team won in Houston.

“What killed me was that it got loud,” McNeill said of Bates’ kick. “And I thought, ‘Oh, shit, he missed it.’ But we had so many fans there that it sounded like (Texans fans) were cheering. I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ That was definitely crazy.”

Nothing went right for the Lions. Houston forced five turnovers — all interceptions — on Sunday against a team that took best care of the football. The Texans front received consistent pressure and penetration against one of the league’s best offensive lines, without their star pass rusher Will Anderson Jr. Their offense scored on five of their six possessions in the first half. Their young star quarterback was without two of his starting receivers and was en route to a 23-7 halftime lead at home against a team that just couldn’t handle it.

It was a near-perfect script for Houston. The Texans did everything they could to beat this team. Other than scoring the knockout.

“We have to learn how to play these types of games,” Stroud said after Sunday’s contest. The Lions have.

With a deficit of 16 in the locker room, Lions players say defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn — a Houston native and Pro Bowl corner for that franchise in his first season as a Texans — had words for them at halftime. It calmed them down and allowed them to engage in a game of football that had eluded them but was still within reach.

The work Glenn has done on defense this season, without star edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson and other key cogs, has been praised in Detroit. But moments like this illustrate why Glenn will one day have a new job running his own franchise.

“AG came up to us and he had a heartfelt message for us to just play our game and go out there and just lay it all on the line,” cornerback Carlton Davis said. “Because at this point we are losing the game and we have no choice but to try to win it. You’re already losing – give it everything you can. We did that. Eleven people went out there and did their job.”

This speech was particularly well received by Davis. He took matters into his own hands to get Detroit out of trouble. On the first drive out of the half, Davis timed his break perfectly on a pass intended for Tank Dell, just as his head coach told the broadcast that the defense needed a takeaway. It was Davis’ first interception as a Lion and the first interception by a Lions cornerback this season.

You got it, coach#DETvsHOU | 📺 NBC pic.twitter.com/d18Qdmh7xk

— Detroit Lions (@Lions) November 11, 2024

Two trips later another one. Stroud rolled to his right, had time to throw, and threw a deep ball to a wide-open Dell in the end zone. However, the ball came too late. It gave Davis time to undercut it and make a play.

Carlton closes 🙌#DETvsHOU | 📺 NBC pic.twitter.com/VIwuBpXb3h

— Detroit Lions (@Lions) November 11, 2024

Detroit played stout defense in the second half. This is where this all begins. The defense held Houston to 97 yards on 30 plays in the second half. It forced two turnovers and four punts, watched a field goal miss to left and didn’t allow a point. Ultimately, the defense won this football game.

“If we don’t play defensively, we won’t win the game,” Campbell said. “…Without the defense, five turnovers, it’s difficult. It’s hard to win this way. That’s where it really starts. …If the defense doesn’t play like that, we have no chance of coming back and winning. I can’t say enough about AG, man.”

It would all have been in vain if the crime hadn’t played its part. That wasn’t guaranteed on a night like this. A typically strong offensive line — albeit without starting left tackle Taylor Decker — couldn’t create rushing lanes for its backs. The game prompt left a lot to be desired. Jared Goff looked a little unsettled, and when he does, he likes to play hero. A tipped ball here, a Hail Mary chuck there, a misunderstanding elsewhere. His effort with five interceptions wasn’t as bad as the box score would suggest, but they were still plays that will knock you down.

However, these Lions have a way to get back up. They show us again and again.

A rushing touchdown by David Montgomery in the third quarter cut Houston’s lead to 23-13 after missing two points. For the Lions, being down 10 points felt like a blessing with so many things working against them. Actually more of an open door. At this point, the players felt a change. But their work wasn’t done yet.
A few possessions later, the Lions were able to put together another touchdown drive. A wide receiver screen from Goff to St. Brown made it a three-point game, 23-20, early in the fourth quarter. None of it was pretty. Everything it took.

Teams don’t often have a chance to win in games like this. Not done, they turn the ball over five times. And yet there was an unshakable confidence on the visitors’ sidelines. McNeill sensed it. So did the crowd. Chants of “Let’s go, Lions” rang loudly throughout NRG Stadium in the fourth quarter. Campbell attributed Houston’s false start to the Lions fans taking over. Things happened.

“When it was 20-23, I thought, ‘Oh yeah, we’re going to get this other stop here, that’s the key,'” McNeill said. “And that’s exactly what we did.”

The Lions have just completed a stretch of five games – four of which are away – which would tell us a lot about the team. They faced the Cowboys, Vikings, Titans, Packers and Texans in that order. They went a perfect 5-0. They continue to lead the NFC. They are seven wins in a row, building on a franchise history. They boast a sparkling 8-1 record for the first time since 1954. The train doesn’t stop for anyone.

Fans in this city, in this state, have been waiting for a team like this for decades. Now they have it.

“I feel really good about our team,” Campbell said. “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. …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. There’s a good chance we can win every week.”

Ladies and gentlemen, your Detroit Lions 2024.

(Top photo: Leslie Plaza Johnson / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)