One of the highlights of the NFL Week 2 preseason schedule is a battle between the Houston Texans and Detroit Lions. The host Texans are 4.5-point favorites with an over/under of 42.5 points.
The Lions are hoping that the second year of the Matt Patricia era goes better than the first. They’d also like this exhibition game to go better than last week’s game when they were blasted 31-3 by Patricia’s old team, the New England Patriots. It may have been a meaningless preseason game, but getting outgained 459-93 was beyond embarrassing for the Lions, especially at home.
The Texans are also coming off a loss in their first exhibition game, although they were a much more competitive in a 28-26 road loss to the Packers. Houston is also under a little less pressure to impress during the preseason after winning the AFC South last year. Of course, in such a competitive division, the Texans need to hit the ground running in Week 1, so they need to start moving in the right direction after losing a week ago.
Out of the Spider’s Webb
The Texans used an interesting tactic last week by allowing the versatile Joe Webb to play the entire game at quarterback. Starter Deshaun Watson should play at least one quarter this week, but with A.J. McCarron unavailable due to injury, it’ll be Webb getting a majority of the snaps again this week.
Webb had mixed results against the Packers, amassing 286 passing yards with a touchdown but also throwing two interceptions. The Texans also scored 16 of their 26 points in the fourth quarter when the third-stringers were in the game. However, between Watson and Webb, the Houston offense has a chance to have a good game against a Detroit defense that looked porous last week against New England’s backups.
Can We Get a Block?
The offensive line was by far Detroit’s biggest problem in a lopsided loss to the Patriots last week. The Lions allowed backup quarterbacks David Fales and Tom Savage to get sacked a combined nine times. In fact, Savage ended up in concussion protocol after the game, making him questionable to play Saturday against Houston.
Matt Stafford didn’t play in the opener, and the Lions might be wise to limit his action in the preseason unless they can get the issues with the offensive line sorted out. Even with Jadeveon Clowney holding out, if J.J. Watt plays for the Texans, things could get ugly for the Lions. At best, Stafford will only play a quarter, leaving the rest of the game to Fales, who was a pitiful 5 of 14 passing last week. Josh Johnson, who can at least run away from pressure, will likely see some action as well, but he might be limited after just signing with the team this week.
Not Good Enough
Surely, the Lions won’t be as bad this week as they were in their preseason opener. But that doesn’t mean it’ll be good enough to get a win. The Texans are in good shape heading into the second week of the preseason, and they should be able to handle a Detroit team that already looks to be in big trouble in 2019. Bet on the Texans to win and cover on Saturday night.
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