Gambling Matchup Week 8 – Detroit Lions vs. Denver Broncos
The Tim Tebow era officially began in Denver last week, and they rode his fourth quarter performance to their second victory of the season. Meanwhile, the Lions couldn’t come back from their first half deficit against the Falcons, and fell for the second consecutive game.
Detroit v Denver
When: Sunday, 4:05 PM EST
Where: Sports Authority Field at Mile High, Denver, Colorado
TV: Fox
LINE: +3 (Denver), O/U 41.5
The concern in Detroit is the fact that often injured quarterback Matthew Stafford isn’t 100 percent following an ankle injury late in their game last week. There are doubts still as to whether or not he is going to play. Even with him, they will have a fight on their hands. If he were to miss the game, Denver may indeed be the favorite for this one seeing as the Lions will also be without their starting running back, Jahvid Best as well.
The Lions need to get healthy in a hurry. They are chasing the best team in football for their division crown, and they cannot afford to slip up in games such as this seeing as the Packers still have not lost at all.
Detroit already sports one of the worst rushing attacks in football. They average just over 90 yards per game on the ground, and most of that average was compiled when Best was on the field. That will surely drop with Maurice Morris and Keiland Williams carrying the load.
It’s the passing game that had been propelling this team to victories all year long. Mainly the Stafford to Calvin Johnson connection. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
What’s helpful from a Lions’ standpoint is that the Broncos field a below average defense in both departments. They rank in the bottom half of the NFL in both passing and rushing defense.
Denver’s offense will surely have a tough time this weekend. They have been a middling running team all year long, but you would figure they would start to get better in that area with Tebow in at quarterback. He could easily reach the 50-yard mark this week against this porous Lions run defense.
Tebow likely won’t fix many of the Broncos passing woes, especially this week seeing as the Lions have a top 10 passing defense. They also sit in the top ten in terms of points allowed per game. There is a chance this will be a long, drag out type of game.
Matt’ s Prediction: Lions 24 Broncos 13-If Safford makes it onto the field on Sunday, this will likely be a game the Lions can handle. Given the fact that the Broncos aren’t exactly a stellar defensive team, especially through the air. The Broncos just aren’t that good of a team to be honest. The one fact that they could exploit is an awful Lion run defense, but that likely will not be enough, as they will simply score too many points to overcome. It will be interesting to see how Tebow comes off his dramatic win a week ago.
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