Lions Open as 3.5-Point Favorite against Saints
The Detroit Lions have opened as 3.5-point favorites against the New Orleans Saints, according to many popular sports books.
After losing in disappointing fashion to the Green Bay Packers on Thanksgiving, Detroit (8-3) is seeking to play their best football over the next month.
New Orleans (5-6) are coming off a disappointing 24-15 road loss to the Atlanta Falcons.
Multiple starters did not finish the game, as wideout Chris Olave was evaluated for a concussion and Rashid Shaheed is dealing with a thigh issue.
Offensive linemen Ryan Ramczyk and Erik McCoy were also banged up.
Dan Campbell expressed, after Detroit's 29-22 Thanksgiving loss, the team is not panicking.
Detroit's third-year head coach feels that if his young roster can clean up their errors and cease turning the football over at such a high rate, the team will get to it's winning ways.
"I don’t think our guys are on cruise control," said Campbell. "What I’m saying is, ‘Man, if you don’t play, it doesn’t matter who comes in there.' When they play a perfect game, if we don’t play our best when they’re playing a perfect game, things like that’ll happen.
"That’s what I’m talking about. Don’t assume anybody -- we were the same team when it all, last year we’re 4-7 and everybody thinks you’re (inferior) and you just start doing things right, start getting takeaways, you don’t turn it over and all of the sudden you’re a pretty formidable opponent," Campbell explained further. "So, the odds that we’re going to turn the ball over three times against every opponent we have left, the odds of winning are going to be pretty slim. But, I don’t see us doing that.”
