Detroit Lions: The Home Favorites Looking to Make History
Transcript
00:00 [MUSIC]
00:03 Sunday Night Football in Detroit.
00:06 It's actually two franchises with individuals currently on the roster
00:10 that know each other very, very well.
00:14 Storylines abound for Sunday Night Football.
00:18 We start with the numbers.
00:19 The Detroit Lions, a home favorite, laying three points against the LA Rams
00:24 with an over under of 51.5, the highest total of the weekend.
00:29 Those are the numbers.
00:31 Here are the storylines.
00:33 Let's start with the Lions franchise first and foremost,
00:36 winning their first divisional championship since the 1993 NFL season.
00:41 So this game, Donnie, will be the first playoff game the Lions have hosted
00:46 since January 1994, looking for their first playoff victory since January of 1992.
00:55 That was the 1991 NFL season, 32 years ago.
01:02 The atmosphere in the Motor City is going to be bonkers as they welcome back
01:06 storyline number two, Matthew Stafford, who spent the first 12 years of his NFL
01:12 career as the quarterback of the Lions after being drafted first overall in 2009.
01:19 The guy on the other side is Jared Goff, who played in a Super Bowl
01:23 under his former head coach, Sean McVay, who remains in LA.
01:28 Whatever storyline you like the most, it is there for you.
01:32 Sunday Night Football, this is what it's all about between the Lions and the Rams.
01:38 >> Yeah, that last win at the Pontiac Silverdome back in '91,
01:41 I believe, was against the Dallas Cowboys who they had smashed.
01:43 That was that Jimmy Johnson team that finally started to get their footing here,
01:46 making the playoffs in the next year.
01:48 The Dallas Cowboys actually won the Super Bowl.
01:50 So it's been a long time since Dallas, or excuse me, have the Detroit Lions
01:54 experienced a victory in the playoffs.
01:55 Maybe they'll get one here on Sunday night.
01:57 It's gonna be a great game all the way through.
01:59 But this is one of those where, when I saw the Lions opened up,
02:02 forget about any backtalk here, who's coming back, who took a rest, who took a bye.
02:06 I'm like, well, that looks like a little bit of a disrespectful line, to be honest,
02:08 with the Detroit Lions and how well they play at home.
02:11 Only a field goal, they're the home team here, they're the higher seed.
02:13 What actually gives?
02:14 But then again, you weigh into it some options.
02:17 How well the Rams have played down the stretch.
02:19 Matthew Stafford looking every bit as good as his younger years in Detroit.
02:23 And now you have a formidable two wide receiving duo here in Los Angeles,
02:27 with Puka Nuku and also Cooper Cup.
02:29 And maybe Puka Nuku had taken over as the lead dog, which sounds wild, but
02:33 he's been that good this season.
02:34 And Kyron Williams shot out of a cannon this year,
02:37 particularly in the season, coming off of an injury.
02:39 You have everything you need to succeed and win.
02:41 And also, the Rams are a dome team.
02:43 Where are they playing, Ben?
02:44 On the East Coast, or should we say the rust belt region up there?
02:47 Yeah, it's not outdoors.
02:48 It's gonna be in a dome.
02:49 We should get a pretty good track meet at this point.
02:51 Yeah, it's not Nebraska, it's not the Midwest.
02:53 We're going to rust belt here, just to be safe.
02:55 Nobody can argue with that at this point here.
02:57 But also, looking at both of these teams lining up,
03:00 is it going to be that bye week, Ben, that gives the Rams the favorite edge here?
03:04 Because I love Sean McVay, second best coach in the NFL,
03:07 calling plays only behind Kyle's Channing.
03:08 And for me, you know what he was doing last week.
03:11 He wasn't game prepping for the San Francisco 49ers.
03:13 He already had his eyes on what he thought the outcomes would be for
03:16 the following week, which means he was going after the Detroit secondary.
03:19 My very first wager, whether it's a player or a side this weekend,
03:24 was on Matthew Stafford at the Fandle Sportsbook to throw over one and
03:27 a half touchdown passes at a minus 112 price.
03:29 It's now up to minus 138, and I still love it here.
03:32 Stafford is gonna be on fire in the dome.
03:34 This game will get a lot of points here.
03:37 I don't know if I can call the upset though here with the Rams,
03:40 because as I said, Detroit is very good.
03:42 But if there's a team ready to pull the upset, it should be the Rams.
03:44 Rested versus a team that played this week and had a key injury at tight end,
03:48 could the Rams steal it?
03:49 Nothing more Matthew Stafford would like than coming home here as the conquering
03:53 ear for the opposing team.
03:54 [MUSIC]