The last time the Lions entered a game favored to win, Matthew Stafford was quarterback and Matt Patricia was coach. That could change Sunday when they host the Commanders.
The Lions are currently listed as 2.5-point favorites over Washington. If the line holds, they will be favored at kickoff for the first time since Week 11 of the 2020 season when they were one-point road favorites against the Carolina Panthers and former XFL quarterback P.J. Walker. The Lions were torched 20-0 and Patricia was fired one game later, but we digress.
This is quite the betting swing. The Lions were originally listed as 1.5-point underdogs against the Commanders, back in July. Then they hung tough with a good Eagles team in a 38-35 loss in Week 1, while Carson Wentz and the Commanders needed a fourth-quarter rally to overcome the Jaguars. Vegas has apparently taken notice. So has the public.
"I try to tell these guys that all of that doesn’t matter," Dan Campbell said Wednesday. "It just doesn’t. You’re supposed to win this, you’re not supposed to win this, you’re favored here -- man, you’ve got to play good. We have to play better than we played last week. Our details have to be much more precise. The effort was fine, but man, the details and the discipline have to show up, because it doesn’t matter who you play. If you don’t do that, you’re not going to win. And if they do it better than we do, they’ll beat us.”
The Lions' 24-game streak as the betting underdog is the longest in the NFL, according to ESPN. The second-longest streak belongs to the Giants at 15 games, which is also set to end on Sunday with New York listed as 2.5-point favorites against -- you guessed it -- the Carolina Panthers.
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