No matter what happens on Sunday night, the Detroit Lions will atop the NFC for another week. Even a loss to the Houston Texans would drop them to 7-2, where they hold the tiebreaker with the 7-2 Vikings (due to head-to-head victory) and the Eagles (conference record).
That being said, the Lions don’t want to have first place by tiebreaker or technicality. They want to outright earn it, and they’d do so if they can take down the Texans on “Sunday Night Football” in Houston.
Detroit comes in as 3.5-point road favorites, but it won’t be a cakewalk against the 6-3 Texans.