HOUSTON – Detroit Lions star wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown has built a torrid streak of catching passes unmatched in the NFL.
Lions quarterback Jared Goff has been incredibly accurate, consistently delivering the football on rhythm.
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Their passing connection is on point heading into Sunday night’s primetime game against the Texans at NRG Stadium.
St. Brown has caught 30 consecutive passes thrown in his direction, which Next Gen Stats gives a 0.0001 percent chance of likelihood. He has scored in six consecutive games, tying a franchise record established by Herman Moore back in 1994.
Signed to a four-year, $120 million contract, St. Brown has caught 48 passes for 464 yards and six touchdowns after catching 27 passes for 257 yards and five touchdowns over the past five games with 18 first downs during that span.
He has 363 career catches for 4,052 yards and 27 touchdowns.
Goff has completed 82.8 percent of his throws with no interceptions since the third game of the season against the Arizona Cardinals.
The Lions are clicking on all cylinders to build a 7-1 record.
“Goff is obviously operating at a pretty efficient level,” Texans defensive coordinator Matt Burke said. “The offense is designed to get that ball out quick and St.Brown, operates really well in all of those underneath zones, like really good. Probably one of the better I’ve seen at understanding man vs. zone, when to sit down, when to keep taking it, where the soft spots are. Like he is very good at just finding those dead spots in your zone.
“Even if you’re mixing coverages, he’s just got a good feel. Obviously, the trust level between those two is really high, so I think it’s just a combination of all of that. The offensive scheme is kind of designed to operate efficiently. Goff is performing kind of in that system very well and then St.Brown just has a really good understanding of getting open versus both man and zone, so when you’re operating like that it’s been pretty clean for them. They’ve got a good connection for sure.”
Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson emphasized how decisive Goff is at finding the open man and throwing a strike. He doesn’t overcomplicate football.
“It feels like that’s what’s going on with Jared and St. Brown right now, their connection in particular,” Johnson said. “Jared as a whole, each pay is its own play. And he knows where to go with the football. He’s putting in in a good spot for our guys to not only catch it, but also run after the catch.”
The Texans allowed some deep touchdowns against New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who had three touchdowns and zero interceptions in a 21-13 win over the defending AFC South champions last week.
The Texans overall have been solid, allowing just 4.9 net yards per passing attempt for the top statistical mark in the NFL. They rank ninth with eight interceptions, led by three from rookie safety Calen Bullock, and have strong cornerback play from Derek Stingley Jr. and Kamari Lassiter. The Texans rank third in the NFL with 1,507 receiving yards allowed. The defense has become a lot steadier since a season-opening win over the Indianapolis Colts when the Texans were vulnerable to deep balls.
“Obviously we gave up some explosives early in the season,” Burke said. “I would say in general our red zone defense has to improve just overall. I would say our red zone numbers haven’t been where we want them. It’s something we’ve kind of been emphasizing over the last week or so. I would start there. Never want to get down there, but once we get in the red zone, I think we’ve got to just tighten up, in general run and pass down there. You know at the end of the day, our job is to keep scoring down so whatever we need to do to do that, we’re trying to address those things.”
Goff has passed for 1,840 yards, 14 touchdowns and four interceptions for a season-long pace of 3,910 yards, 30 touchdowns and nine interceptiojns. He’s completing 74.9 percent of his throws.
“With Goff, I think he’s very well-coached,” Burke said. “He does a great job of protecting the football. He’s not going to give you many opportunities to take the ball away. He’s very smart, makes great decisions with the ball. They’re an explosive offense, but what sticks out about him is when the explosive is not there, he does a great job of getting the ball to his check down so their team can continue to churn out positive yardage.
“So, it’s one thing that sticks out about their entire team. They don’t make many mistakes. They’re going to make you beat them and they play clean football. So, Goff has done a great job of getting completions no matter what the defense is. He just takes what’s given and he’s been doing a very good job of that, just keeping the offense on schedule.”
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Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com.
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