Detroit Lions New Orleans Saints NFC Wild Card Betting Pick

Lions Saints Odds

The Point spread for this game is set at 10.5 points in favor of the home team New Orleans Saints. The total combined score for this match is set at 59.5 points. Find out what our expert’s betting pick is below.

I have found the best point spread for betting on the Saints -10.0 (-110) from TopBet.com

The best point spread for betting on the Lions +11.0 (-105) is at Betonline.com

Lions Saints Preview

Wild Card weekend is already upon us. Where did the season go? Well, for the Lions it went somewhere it hasn’t been in years… the playoffs. Let’s be realistic though, they’re one and done. The Saints are 8-0 at home this season so far, including a 31-17 defeat of the Lions in the Superdome in week 13. Of course this IS the playoffs and any given Sunday, and all those other terrible, terrible clichés. They also have Matt Stafford huckin’ the ball to good old Calvin Johnson, and that’s always dangerous.

We all know about the Saints offense…. It’s pretty fuckin’ dirty. When they don’t have Drew Brees bombing the ball out for a billion yards they can also run it, to the tune of 6th ranked rush offense in the league.  That puts their offense in ranks like these, 2nd in scoring, 1st in overall and pass yards, and 6th in rushing. Their leading rusher was Darren Sproles with just over 600 yards, so it seems that because teams are so afraid of the pass that just by being balanced the Saints can run the ball effectively with their stable of mediocre runningbacks.

The New Orleans defense also receives a great boost from their amazing offense. While they ranked 12th in scoring the Saints defense also put up pretty paltry numbers like 30th in passing and 24th overall yardage. The reason why I say the Sainst defense gets a boost from their offense is this, they ranked 13th in rushing defense. At first that may seem like a good stat but, first consider that opponents rushed for an average of 5 yards per carry against them. Their 6th placed rush offense only averaged 4.9 yards per carry. So it seems as if the Saints Offense condemns teams to abandon the run game. Another key stat I noticed, other teams with bad pass defenses like the packers and Patriots (32nd and 31st in pass D) are at the top of the interceptions list. So while teams are putting up yards through the air the takeaways negate the damage. The Saints were right at the bottom for interceptions with 9 though, just 1 interception above teams that stank like shit this season, the Colts and Vikings.

For the Lions this season has already been an immense success. From Matt Stafford’s emergence as a star (most other years he could win MVP with this year’s numbers) to finally making the playoffs. The Lions aren’t balanced on offense like the saints though. Jahvid Best who did not play after week 6 led the team in rushing. That is the most terrible of the terrible. He didn’t even have that many yards, just 390. Having the most physically gifted receiver in the NFL since Randy Moss kinda’ negates the rushing problem though. The Lions ranked 4th in scoring and pass yards, 5th in overall yards, and 29th in rushing yards.

The Lions defense has some top end talent, like Ndamukong Suh and Cliff Avril. Unfortunately for them they don’t have much depth, or talent spread over the unit. They were pretty dreadful this year ranking 23rd in scoring, overall yards and rush yards, with a 22nd ranking for pass yards. However, they were another team that masked a technically bad defense with turnovers, they were 5th in interceptions with 21 and 3rd in fumbles recovered with 13.

Lions Saints Betting Pick

Bottom line: The Lions are good enough to keep this game close, maybe even win if they get some lucky breaks. They should cover the large spread in front of them but, I think the Saints take the game they’re too good at home.