INDIANAPOLIS COLTS AT DETROIT LIONS – NFL SPREAD PICK AND PREDICTION
Indianapolis Colts at Detroit Lions – NFL Spread Pick & Prediction
BetAnySports NFL Betting Lines: Colts (-105), Total 50
Can it be said that the Detroit Lions are making progress? If not for the propensity on the part of the Atlanta Falcons to beat themselves, they almost certainly wouldn’t have come away with a victory last weekend. But they did, and now Matt Patricia might be able to feel more secure, for a little while anyway.
The Lions, who now have three wins, will take on the Indianapolis Colts in a game starting at 1 PM ET on Sunday at Ford Field.
The Falcons had made the mistake of actually getting into the end zone too early against the Lions last week. They left enough time on the clock for Matthew Stafford to engineer the kind of last-minute drive for which he has become known. He’s done that 36 times, and in this instance he took the team 75 yards down the field without any timeouts.
As is often the case with Detroit, there was uneven production out of the ground game. Adrian Peterson had 29 yards, D’Andre Swift 27. And that was pretty much all she wrote. So does that mean in the end it’s all going to be about Stafford and his receivers, no matter what? It usually is.
With the Colts, there has obviously been a transition, as they hoped the addition of Philip Rivers was going to elevate what they could do in the AFC South. With a 4-2 record, they’re very much in the middle of the playoff picture, and it is essentially a two-team race in the division between them and the Titans.
Rivers was able to move the ball pretty well last time out, with 371 yards against the Bengals, and the Colts have had the luxury of a bye week to give them extra prep time.
All-Pro linebacker Darius Leonard has sat out the last couple of games with a groin injury, but he is expected back in the lineup here. And that is good news for the Colts’ defense, which has been a very pleasant surprise. But we must admit that we’re not 100% sure how good they are. Indy ranks sixth in the NFL in yards allowed per drive. But they haven’t exactly been airtight in the red zone.
Maybe this is an opening for the Lions; maybe it isn’t. But what is going to be critical to Patricia keeping his job and not becoming just another Bill Belichick assistant who fails in a head coaching position is its ability to offer some resistance on the defensive front. And as you look at the advanced metrics, they have been in the bottom five in the NFL in the categories of Adjusted Line Yards, Stuff Rate and Second Level Yards.
This doesn’t necessarily bode well against an Indy offense that is more committed to the run – and to its rookie, Jonathan Taylor – than the Lions are to Swift.
Are we looking at a wild one here? We think so. Running backs will be complementary pieces, but TY Hilton (Indy) and Kenny Golladay (Detroit) will get a lot of the attention and make the most plays. We’ll go OVER this total.
