Lions struggle, turn ball over three times in ugly loss to Texans

DETROIT (WXYZ) — The Detroit Lions turned the ball over three times in a 41-25 loss to the Houston Texans on Thanksgiving afternoon. The Lions fall to 4-7 on the season.

Related: 'Pathetic,' and 'pretty standard.' Lions fans react to Thanksgiving day performance

The Lions were able to stop the Texans on their opening drive, one of the strongest performances of the game. On Detroit's first drive, they took it all the way across the field that ended with a touchdown run from Adrian Peterson.

Detroit also played some Thanksgiving trickery with a reverse flea-flicker from Matthew Stafford to T.J. Hockenson.

The Lions were able to stop the Texans' offense once again, but the first play of Detroit's drive, J.J. Watt jumped up and intercepted Stafford's pass from the line and took it back for a touchdown, but the extra point was missed, with the Lions keeping a 7-6 lead.

Detroit got the ball back, but turned it over again on the first play after Jonathan Williams fumbled on his first run. Houston then took a 13-7 lead on a DeShaun Watson pass to C.J. Prosise.

The Lions were driving down the field, but turned the ball over for the third straight series after Kerryon Johnson. They had turned the ball over in three of the last eight snaps, and the Texans had only had five takeaways in the season.

The craziness continued as on the first snap for Houston, they turned the ball over after a Prosise fumble that was ripped out by Jamie Collins. It was recovered by Jahlani Tavai.

Detroit re-took a 14-13 lead after Peterson ran it in for a touchdown on the Lions ensuing drive.

The lead changed once again on the Texans drive. They took it down the field on a drive that ended with a 33-yard pass from Watson to Duke Johnson.

Houston extended its lead to 23-14 just before halftime after a field goal from Ka'imi Fairbairn. That was the score going into halftime as the Lions couldn't get any points on the last drive of the half.

Detroit tried some more trickery in the second half with Jamal Agnew throwing a pass to Stafford. It was ruled incomplete and held up in a challenge, despite appearing like Stafford made the catch.

Matt Prater then made a field goal cutting the lead to 23-17.

As the game entered the fourth quarter, Houston went on a longer drive that ended with a 40-yard pass from Watson for a touchdown. The two-point conversion was good and Houston took a 34-17 lead with just over 12 minutes left to go in the game.

The Texans rout continued with Watson throwing a long touchdown pass on a trick play to take a 41-17 lead just two minutes later with just over 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Detroit finally got on the board with a Stafford touchdown pass to Sanu, who also caught the two-point conversion, cutting the score to 41-25 with over six minutes left.

The Lions then held the Texans and were able to partially block the punt which gave them good field position