Right before the Detroit Lions‘ annual Thanksgiving matchup this season against the Buffalo Bills, the coaching staff made a crucial roster change that was hardly covered, especially on the national level: They elevated rookie James Houston from the practice squad.
Groundbreaking, right?
“[Lions linebackers coach Kelvin Sheppard] was like, ‘Houston, we got a problem,'” Houston recounted to reporters. “I was like, ‘I know we got a problem. Wassup?’ And he was like, ‘Get ready this week. Get ready to sack some Josh Allen.'”
And he did. The sixth-round pick out of Jackson State got to Allen twice on Thanksgiving, instantly validating his coaches’ decision. Detroit had three total sacks against the Bills that game, with Benito Jones adding one more.
They had two against Jacksonville the next week, including one by Houston. Then, in Sunday’s game against Minnesota, in which the Vikings had a chance to clinch the NFC North, the Lions denied them, handing them a 34-23 loss behind four sacks of quarterback Kirk Cousins. Houston was in on that, too, becoming the third Lions rookie in franchise history to record three sacks in three games, and he’s the 14th player in NFL history to log a sack in each of their first three NFL game — the first Lion to do so. Houston also established a club record for the most sacks through three career games, with four total.
Fellow rookie Aidan Hutchinson, who has seven sacks this season, was also in on the four-sack performance of Cousins. He got his second sack in three games and seventh on the season overall, becoming the first player in team history to log seven sacks, two interceptions and a fumble recovery in a season.
That’s two rookies leading the way for a Lions pass rush that has come on strong the past few games. Correlation does not always imply causation, but since Houston entered the lineup, Detroit has nearly doubled their sack rate per game. Through the first 10 games of the season, they were averaging just 1.7 sacks per game. They’ve averaged three in the past three.
The Lions have won five of their past six games, with their only loss being that aforementioned Thanksgiving game against Buffalo. They sit at 6-7 and second in the NFC North, firmly “in the hunt” if you’re so inclined to that postseason terminology.
“You have to try different things and see what sticks, and I think whenever it was that he changed whatever it was, I can’t put my thumb on it, but something in the last six weeks has changed,” said quarterback Jared Goff, who threw for 330 yards and three touchdowns on 37 pass attempts. “You can feel it. It’s different, and I said this after the game, like the work speaks to it, and the results speak to it.”
The difference for Detroit has been their defense. While the offense was busy averaging 35 points per game to start the season, the defense had been giving up 35.1. That’s not hyperbole — those were the actual stats four games through the year. But they’ve recently received contributions all over the defense, getting to the opposing quarterbacks using every level of the defense and players with every experience level, not just the rookies. Defensive tackle Isaiah Buggs had a sack against Minnesota, along with cornerback Jerry Jacobs.
“They are glue guys,” said Campbell about Buggs, in particular. “You’ve got to have guys like that on your team. You have to. If you don’t have enough of those guys, you won’t win in this league and you need a certain amount — you certainly need the guys that can give you some juice over the top and all those things as well.”
Over the past six games, the defense is letting up an average of 20.3 points per game. Meanwhile, the offense is scoring an average of 29.3 points per game. Justin Jefferson even broke a Vikings record with 213 receiving yards Sunday, but it wasn’t enough for Minnesota. Simple math tells us that if you’re scoring nine more points than you’re letting up, you’re going to win a lot of games.
The Detroit pass rush was certainly the difference against the Vikings, holding Minnesota to 40% on third down and two-for-four in the red zone. They were one-for-two in goal-to-go situations thanks to a giant push up front by the Lions that formed a brick wall, forcing Minnesota running back Dalvin Cook back on the goal line and into a fumble that was recovered by Detroit. It stopped what seemed to be a definite touchdown right before halftime with the Vikings getting the ball back to start the third quarter.
Instead, Minnesota ended up with no points and punted away their first possession of the second half.
The Vikings will now have to wait yet another week if they want to lock up the NFC North. The Lions, meanwhile, have put the league on notice.
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Carmen Vitali covers the NFC North for FOX Sports. Carmen had previous stops with The Draft Network and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. She spent six seasons with the Bucs, including 2020, which added the title of Super Bowl Champion (and boat-parade participant) to her résumé. You can follow Carmen on Twitter at @CarmieV.
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