But let\u2019s step out of our own perspective for a minute. I think it always helps to see an outsider\u2019s perspective on things. And while there were only a few Texans reporters on site in Allen Park\u2014and they were mainly focused on Houston\u2019s team\u2014I do think they can provide a more balanced overview of practice. So let\u2019s check out what Texans writers said about the Lions vs. Texans joint practices.<\/p>\n
If you want to read the full recaps from Texans writers, here are some sources to check out:<\/p>\n
Nico Collins was a problem<\/p>\n
I was wondering how the Lions\u2019 secondary would hold up against a non-Lions receiver this entire camp, and when Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle didn\u2019t practice much last week, it was a disappointing lost opportunity to see where the Lions\u2019 defensive backs stood. Unfortunately, it looks like Nico Collins, one of the best young receivers in this league, proved to be a handful.<\/p>\n
While the Lions\u2019 defense made plenty of plays against the Texans\u2019 offense, they never had an answer for Nico Collins, who often found himself open for big gains.<\/p>\n
Even Lions beat writer Colton Pouncy gave it up for Collins:<\/p>\n
So were the Texans\u2019 depth receivers<\/p>\n
Take this with a grain of salt, because Detroit\u2019s second-team secondary consists of roster bubble players like Erick Hallett, Nick Whiteside, Tyson Russell, and Loren Strickland, but it sounds like Detroit\u2019s second-team defense had their hands full with young, budding receivers like rookies Jaylin Noel, Jayden Higgins, and 2023 pick Xavier Hutchinson.<\/p>\n
Hutchinson, who is entering his third season with the Texans, is finally starting to emerge as a legitimate weapon.<\/p>\n
Rookie wide receiver Jaylin Noel is making his mark. The third-round draft pick from Iowa State made several big plays, including red-zone touchdown catches.<\/p>\n
Lions\u2019 defense was giving Texans offensive line problems, but Houston rebounded<\/p>\n
The Texans have a ton of moving parts on their offensive line and are still figuring out where each piece goes. But one thing was for certain: early on, Aidan Hutchinson was giving them problems.<\/p>\n
That said, it sounds like Tytus Howard was a bit of a problem for Hutchinson.<\/p>\n
OT Tytus Howard was outstanding. I had a great view of his battle with future All-Pro DE Aidan Hutchinson all day long. Rep after rep, Howard frustrated Hutchinson, not yielding against bull rush, staying with him on high speed rush and laterally sliding inside to slow the inside rush. It was all day. Hutch went to the other side to get some pressure using spin moves on rookie OT Aireontae Ersery a couple of times. But Tytus was excellent against one of the league\u2019s best young pass rushers, now 100% after breaking his leg against Dallas last year.<\/p>\n
Lions receivers impressed<\/p>\n
As I pointed out in my observations, the Lions\u2019 receiving corps did a pretty impressive job against one of the best secondaries in football, and Texans writers agreed.<\/p>\n
The Texans are expected to have one of the better secondaries in the league, but Lions receivers Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams made Houston work for it.<\/p>\n
While cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. made several plays against St. Brown, he also got beat when Williams split Stingley and safety M.J. Stewart for what looked like a touchdown pass from quarterback Jared Goff.<\/p>\n
St. Brown is one of the sharpest route runners in the NFL, and Jameson Williams is a dangerous deep threat. Williams got behind All-Pro cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. and safety M.J. Stewart for a long touchdown pass.<\/p>\n
It was mostly even, maybe a slight edge to the Lions<\/p>\n
We always try to determine who \u201cwon\u201d practice. Admittedly, it\u2019s a silly thing to try to do, as the real goal is to improve and get ready for the regular season. On top of that, it\u2019s very difficult to quantify an entire practice. Still, a few Texans writers called this a draw or slightly in Detroit\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n
The Texans weren\u2019t bad. They made improvements over the latter part of practice, which included getting into more of a rhythm on offense.<\/p>\n
But if we\u2019re grading who won, you\u2019d have to give it to the Lions, who had just a little more success on both offense and defense.<\/p>\n
I said it earlier, these two teams have a ton of respect for one another that showed in everything that transpired on those two fields today. For your Texans, it was a bit of a slow start, but by the second quarter, they\u2019d found their sea legs and played well against one of the best teams in the league as you\u2019d want, and expect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But let\u2019s step out of our own perspective for a minute. I think it always helps to see…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[449,153,23618,7452,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-311320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-detroit-lions-analysis","9":"tag-detroit-lions-news","10":"tag-detroit-lions-preseason","11":"tag-detroit-lions-training-camp","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115078406381494373","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}