Detroit Lions at Philadelphia Eagles NFL Betting Tips

Detroit Lions @ Philadelphia Eagles betting picks for Sunday 8th December’s NFL schedule. Weekend NFL betting tips for Sunday’s live games.

If the Playoffs were to start this weekend, the Lions and Eagles would have home field advantage in the Wild Card Round as the number 3 and number 4 seed respectively.

Both teams lead their division at this late stage of the season (Philadelphia is tied with Dallas atop the NFC East) but do not possess a good enough record to sit out the first week of the Post Season. 

The Lions took a big step towards winning the NFC North on Thanksgiving with a 40-10 drubbing of a Green Bay Packers team missing their offensive lynchpin; quarterback Aaron Rodgers. The game against Philadelphia is the Lions only remaining game against a team with a winning record which should ensure that they qualify comfortably for the post season as the Giants and Vikings who the Lions face in their final two games will be thinking about clinching the best available slot in next year’s draft by that point.

The Lions come into Week 14 with an offence that ranks second overall in the NFL in terms of yards produced per game and this is as much a product of Calvin Johnson as it is a result of the improved play of both Brandon Pettigrew and Kris Durham in recent weeks which has enabled the Lions offence to start humming as Johnson has been afforded slightly more space to rise up and make plays. In particular last week against the Packers, Stafford kept taking advantage of a favourable matchup between Johnson and Sam Shields, the overwhelmed cornerback. 

The Lions are in good shape heading into the final 4 weeks of the season as Reggie Bush looks like he has gotten over the worst of his injury woes and the offence is clicking. The Lions are a team that can light up the scoreboard and they have only scored in single digits once this season when they only managed to put 9 points on the board in their week 6 loss to the Packers at Lambeau Field. For much of the season the Lions have relied on their high power offence to win games for them as the defence has struggled to stop opponents from getting in the end zone.

The Lions have allowed opposing teams to score in double digits in every game this season, however thankfully their offence has been potent enough to offset this poor defensive performance. Despite struggling to limit teams scoring, the Lions have done a very good job in run prevention and rank 3rd in the league in rushing yards conceded per game with just 82.7. The key for the Lions if they are to pick up the win this Sunday is to match the offensive output of the Eagles as their defence is not likely to suddenly show up this late in the season, although their run prevention will be important against the read option runs the Eagles are sure to run on numerous occasions. 

The Eagles, much like the Lions can put points on the scoreboard. The Eagles have scored 300 points heading into Week 14 which ranks them 8th overall in the league (the Lions are 4th highest scoring offence in the league) and have scored 35 touchdowns. I covered much of what makes the Eagles potent as an offence in the primer for their matchup last Sunday with the Arizona Cardinals. 

One thing that should be noted is that the Michael Vick era in Philadelphia is well and truly over with the emergence of Nick Foles who since becoming starter in week 9 has shown coach Chip Kelly enough to be anointed “starter” with 19 touchdowns on the season, 0 interceptions, 1791 total yards and an extraordinary 125.2 quarterback rating. To top it all of, Foles is still only 24, 9 years younger than Michael Vick who has shown throughout his career that he is not durable enough to play all 16 games each season. Foles is on a team friendly contract as he was drafted after the last Collective Bargaining Agreement and he gives Chip Kelly a man to carry his expansive offence moving forward. 

I would recommend backing the Lions at 6/5 at Bet365 as the team come in off a galvanising victory over hated division rivals; the Packers. 

An interesting bet is the 181/100 offered by Bet365 in favour of 61 or more points being scored which is a very real possibility with these two offensive powerhouses.

Detroit Lions @ Philadelphia Eagles Betting Picks

Lions to win – click here to bet at 6/5 with Bet365

61 or more points to be scored – click here to bet at 181/100 with Bet365

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