Kansas City Chiefs at Detroit Lions (-7.5), Total 46 |
Kansas City was humiliated in the opening week by dropping a 41-7 contest to the Buffalo Bills as 3.5-point home favorites. The Chiefs were a 2010 playoff team and nobody at Arrowhead Stadium was expecting that type of result, especially their head coach.
“The entire organization, when you have a game like that, it’s embarrassed,” commented Chiefs head coach Todd Haley. “And it’s a good thing. It means you care, and it means something to you.”
The team also suffered a huge injury, losing Pro Bowl safety Eric Berry with a torn ACL, ending his season, and leaving a secondary exposed that held opponents to just 183.8 yards passing in the final five games in 2010.
It’s likely that the team will lean more heavily on its ground game in Week 2, as running back Jamaal Charles was held to just 56 yards due to getting just 10 carries. He will be going against a Lions defense that allowed just 56 rushing yards last week to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Charles led all league running backs with 6.4 yards per carry and gained 1,467 yards on the ground in 2010. Kansas City finished last year with a 3-0 mark when Charles carried the ball 20 or more times.
NFL betting players will find that Chiefs betting are 12-10 ATS as an underdog 6-2 ATS in non-conference action.
Detroit continues to impress the league in picking up a 27-20 road win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as one-point underdogs. The victory came after being the only team in the NFL with a 4-0 ATS and SU record during the preseason.
Third-year quarterback Matthew Stafford has really come into his own, completing 24 of 33 passes for 305 yards and three touchdowns in the opener. The main issue for him is health, as he’s played just 13 games in his first two seasons.
All of the success has carried over from last season, as the franchise has now won five consecutive games since the end of the 2010 campaign. It’s led to incredible excitement of possibly posting the first winning record since 2000.
Bettors will find that Lions betting are 17-13 ATS in the last two-plus seasons, but has not been a favorite of 7.5 to 10 points over that span.
