Fantasy football projections, Week 8: Lions-Texans featuring Golden Tate, Lamar Miller, DeAndre Hopkins, more

The Week 8 matchup between the Detroit Lions and the Houston Texans features one team looking to build on a winning streak while the other looks to rebound from a loss. We’ve got the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.

Houston’s pass defense allows just 185 yards per game. That means Golden Tate and the rest of Detroit’s receivers are in for a challenging afternoon in Week 8. On the plus side, Tate appears to have woken up. In the last two weeks he has more than doubled his season-long receiving yardage totals. Fourteen catches for 258 yards and a touchdown in two games is pretty darn good. Hopefully that trend continues for fantasy owners. Teammate Marvin Jones has cooled off a little bit so the Lions will likely target Tate at least 10 times again this time around. Seeing 10 or more looks is usually a recipe for a solid fantasy effort. Tate should surpass his projections for the third straight week.

Whether or not he actually does depends on the play of quarterback Matthew Stafford. After scorching the Los Angeles Rams for four touchdown passes in Week 6, Washington limited Stafford to just one last week. Still, he led the Lions to the come-from-behind win by leading a 65-second final drive down the field for a touchdown. Houston plays opposing passing games tough, but with Stafford and company riding a three-game winning streak, his Week 8 totals just may surprise some of his fantasy owners.

Brock Osweiler’s first game in Denver since leaving for Houston left much desired for fantasy owners of all players on the Texans roster. That includes owners of wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins. Despite being targeted 12 times in Week 7, Hopkins caught just five passes for a mere 36 yards against the Broncos. He’s finished a game with more than 56 receiving yards just twice this season and has a single 100-yard game to his credit. A consistent running game and the arrival of Will Fuller, along with the shaky play of Osweiler have all contributed to Hopkins’ subpar season. He’s one of the most talented players in football but his days as an elite fantasy receiver might be over for the time being. The Lions rank in the bottom half of the league at defending the pass, but it’s hard to expect Hopkins to put up big numbers in Week 8. He’s just so far off his usual pace right now.

One player that has done a good job keeping pace for the Texans is running back Lamar Miller. He was averaging over 5 yards a carry in the game against the Broncos before having to exit with a shoulder injury. He came in and out of the game the rest of the way. Teammate Alfred Blue actually got more touches than Miller in Week 7. That said, Miller did manage to practice on Wednesday and should be good to go against a strong Lions run defense.