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HOUSTON -- Houstons Brock Osweiler has been so bad on the road this season that a fan started a Go Fund Me page in a comical attempt to raise money to buy out his $72 million contract.Criticism of Osweiler and his huge deal have increased with each Houston loss, and his latest lackluster performance in Mondays defeat at Denver spawned countless memes mocking the quarterback.The good news for Osweiler and the Texans is that they return to Houston this week where theyll look to improve to 5-0 at home when they host the Detroit Lions .Osweiler hasnt been great in Houstons four home wins, but he has been much better than on the road, with seven of his eight touchdown passes coming in those victories.Osweiler has struggled to get Houstons passing game going and the Texans rank 30th in the league with 204.3 yards passing a game despite having big-play receivers DeAndre Hopkins and rookie Will Fuller.Osweiler knows he needs to play better and eliminate mistakes, but also noted that a win on Sunday would leave the team in a pretty good spot at the midway point of the season.If we can put ourselves 5-3, 2-0 in the division, first place in the division going into the bye week, everything else is irrelevant, he said.Though Osweiler has taken much of the blame for Houstons offensive struggles this season, Hopkins was quick to point out that everyone on the offense needs to improve to turn things around.Anytime we lose a game, you cant point the fingers at the guy that everybody wants to point the finger at because its not just him, Hopkins said. Theres 10 other guys on the field that need to help him out, including myself.Theyll try to get back on track against a Detroit team that has won three in a row behind the late-game heroics of quarterback Matthew Stafford to improve to 4-3. Stafford is fourth in the NFL with 15 touchdowns and has thrown just four interceptions.Stafford deflected credit for the fourth-quarter comebacks to his teammates.More than anything, it says a lot about the guys around me and the team I have, he said. Ive been really privileged to play with a lot of really good players. In those situations, you just try to put the ball in position for those guys to go make plays, and Ive had guys around me that have made plays.Some things to know about the Detroit-Houston game.MILLERS HEALTH: Houston running back Lamar Miller has been limited in practice this week after taking a shot to his shoulder in the first quarter against Denver, but he is expected to play on Sunday. He has been one of the few bright spots on the offense this season and is fifth in the NFL with 581 yards rushing.SLAY LIKELY OUT: Detroits top cornerback Darius Slay will likely miss Sundays game because of a hamstring injury. Slay sat out the second half last week with the injury and hasnt practiced this week.If he cant go, it will put more pressure on cornerback Nevin Lawson to make plays. Lions coach Jim Caldwell said Lawson is playing a lot better than he did last season.Hes been steadily growing and last week he had a really, really good game, Caldwell said. Played extremely hard, played extremely well, so I like where hes trending.RUN DEFENSE WOES: Houston is looking to improve its run defense after allowing 190 yards rushing to Denver on Monday.While Houstons pass defense is among the best in the league, the Texans have had trouble against the run all season and rank 29th by allowing 135.4 yards rushing a game.We all have to do a better job, coach Bill OBrien said. Weve got to coach it better. Weve got to get off blocks better. Weve got to tackle better. At times, we stop it and it looks pretty good, but its too inconsistent. We have to do a much better job.HEALTHY CLOWNEY: Texans defensive end Jadeveon Clowney continues to play well in his first healthy season after missing significant time in his first two injury-plagued years in the NFL. Clowney has moved to defensive end after playing outside linebacker his first two seasons to fill in for J.J. Watt, who is out for the season with a back injury.The top overall pick in the 2014 draft has started each game and has 27 tackles and two sacks, and his eight tackles for losses are the most by an NFL defensive end this season. Hes improved each week as hes finally seen consistent playing time and has five tackles for losses in the past four games.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-NFL Cubs Jerseys 2020 . Cuban testified Thursday that he was upset when the companys CEO told him news that would reduce the value of his shares, for which hed paid $7.5 million. But he said he did nothing improper when he sold those shares over the next two days. Chicago Cubs Pro Shop . -- If Henry Burris has his way, he will be the starting quarterback to lead the Hamilton Tiger-Cats back to the Grey Cup next year. https://www.cheapcubs.com/ . Los Angeles star goalie survived those perilous gymnastics with no problem, and he eventually backstopped the Kings to a skid-snapping win. Quick stopped 27 shots in his return from a 24-game injury absence, Jeff Carter scored the tiebreaking goal with 7:55 to play, and the Kings snapped their five-game losing streak with a 3-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night. Stitched Cubs Jerseys . -- Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Alrdridge were again the go-to duo for the Trail Blazers against the Kings. Chicago Cubs Store . -- Canadian Andrew Wiggins got the ball on the wing, made a nifty spin move and then let go with a soft floater from about 10 feet that swished through the net in Allen Fieldhouse. Launched with plenty of fanfare three years ago, the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) has run into some rough weather this season. Financial constraints have forced the tournament to be reduced from five cities to three, and big name players who appeared in previous seasons have not participated this year. In an extensive interview with ESPN on the eve of the final, the founder of the league, former Indian doubles star Mahesh Bhupathi, concedes that this year has been challenging but believes the IPTL will bounce back strongly next season.Have the last three weeks been tough?Doing the production we do in multiple countries is hectic for the entire team. But we are used to it now, it is the third year so two more days to go so happy to be almost through.What has this season been like? Youve obviously had some well-documented challenges..It was just about getting through those challenges and making sure we get through the season. There were a lot of people close to the process who were trying to advise us to suspend season three and do it next year but in sport once you do that, it is difficult to bounce back. In general, we are just happy we kept it afloat. The quality of tennis has been amazing and the final will be great. We will bounce back next year.What were your biggest challenges at the start of the season? You had to remove one city at the start of the season for instance. The biggest problem we had was the owner who owned the Japanese Franchise ran into financial issues and he wasnt able to keep his commitments to us. Obviously for a two-year old league to deal with that kind of hole was difficult and unlike the other big leagues in India we didnt have the muscle power to get the bank guarantees and so on and so forth because we were still in the building phase.When we were about to get through those challenges and some of the current owners were happy to help us get through it, this whole November 8 thing happened (Government announcing demonetisation). Ticket sales have been really upsetting and embarrassing for us in India but it is what it is and like I said we hope to bounce back next year.What have you learned from this? Do you believe the league needs to go to a minimum number of cities for it to be credible?The learning has been that the players loved it, all of them were happy to come back and the ones we requested not to come were upset that they couldnt make it. We dont know the right answer to your question. Ideally from my perspective, the more cities, more matches, more content and more money.Obviously we have to keep in mind the players who have a long season. It is going to evolve. We have to sit down over the next two days and decide if we are going to do three cities in rotation or pick the three biggest markets and have the teams play there. We havent decided that yet.Obviously the IPTL would work a lot better if the star players played. You annouunced Roger Federer and Serena Williams would play and then they pulled out.dddddddddddd Was that a blow because there was an anticipation of these big names travelling to India and suddenly they werent coming?Just to be clear, they didnt pull out. We had to request them not to come. The revenues on this side werent matching the expenses. If we went ahead with it we would have dug ourselves in a big hole and they were very understanding about it. Obviously if Roger was here I am sure we would have probably sold out the stadium. When we announced ticket sales, 15 days into it with Roger and Serenas names on the ticket we sold about 18 Lakhs of tickets. So that wasnt the case, thats why we panicked.One of the things that is often said about the tennis circuit is that it is too long. So what can the IPTL add to an already packed calendar?I think it is the format. A few of the players have said it too that it is always the dream of an athlete to play in a team competition, to play for their team members and to play for the fans. Tennis is a very individual sport and we have created that concept that you belong to a team. If you see the highlights of any of our matches, the intensity from the bench is quite outstanding. I think thats what makes the players want to play and enjoy it. Thats half the battle won.There has been talk outside about payments to players not going through. Is that talk outside or are there real problems at the managerial level?Like I said, we had that challenge with one owner last year and we were in a financial hole. We ended up paying all the players probably seven month late last year and we paid them all with interest. Yes, there were late payments but my job having been a player and a colleague to most of them, they know that I am never going to stiff them and the fact that they all came back was testimony to that.How do you respond to criticism that sometimes these tournaments are a little bit of an exhibition, that what you are seeing out there is not really a fully intense competition that you would see on the circuit?That is an opinion. You will see in the final the intensity and how badly both the teams want to win. I think special events have a place in tennis. The Hopman cup has been there for 20 plus years, the world team cup in Dusseldorf was there for 15 years and tennis needs to evolve.The current format has no room for movement because of the way it is structured, it is owned half by the players and half by the tournaments so theres never going to be change. We are able to experiment a lot, by playing no lets, shorter points and shorter format. It is made for TV and content made for TV is what will sell over time.So you are confident that the IPTL will be back in 2017 bigger and better?I am feeling pretty good about it. ' ' '