The Seattle Seahawks are hosting the Detroit Lions tonight on Monday Night Football. The game is scheduled for an 8:30 p.m. start time and it will be televised nationally on ESPN. Currently the NFL Odds for the game have the Seahawks favored by right around double digits to pick up the victory.
Seattle has a great defense, the Seahawks are amazing at home but laying double digits in the NFL is tough to cover. The Lions come into the game at 0-3 and stinking of desperation, a loss here making them 0-4 all but ends their season.
Head coach Jim Caldwell took the Lions to the playoffs last year with an 11-5 record, but the offense and defense were both solid units. This year Matthew Stafford looks to be short-arming throws and missing targets, the defense is still trying to figure itself out without DeAndre Levy running the show from the linebacker spot. He won't play again tonight as he battles a hip injury. There might be some good news for the Lions defense as Marshawn Lynch has been ruled out for this game as well for Seattle.
Last week Thomas Rawls had a big game last week, spelling Lynch against the Bears while running for 104 yards. The Lions are allowing better than 100 yards per game on the ground to opponents this year, though they did slow the Broncos down, holding them to only 41 rushing yards last week. Seattle loves to run the football and they will look to continue that tonight.
The Calvin Johnson-Richard Sherman should be an excellent matchup as both are at the pinnacle of their positions. When Stafford finds Johnson on a consistent basis the Lions are a very solid offensive team that moves the football down the field. Yet through three games the offense has sputtered a bit, Detroit is averaging less than 19 points per game and it might have something to do with the running game, which has posted just 45 yards on average per game.
The Lions should have beaten San Diego to start the season, but fell flat in the fourth quarter. They still haven't been able to recover from that but tonight they have to put forth the best effort of the season. Russell Wilson and the Seahawks can really deflate an opponents' chances, but even Seattle has been mediocre at best this year offensively. The defense hasn't been playing the best either, but the return of Kam Chancellor last week helped solidify that in pitching a shutout over Chicago. Detroit is a better offensive team than a Jimmy Clausen-led Bears team, though. Double digits is tough in the NFL, especially when the Seahawks aren't playing like the team we've seen the past few seasons.
Free Pick: Lions and the points
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