{"id":17292,"date":"2011-08-26T21:01:24","date_gmt":"2011-08-27T02:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=17292"},"modified":"2011-08-26T21:01:24","modified_gmt":"2011-08-27T02:01:24","slug":"free-nfl-picks-new-england-patriots-at-detroit-lions-saturday-preseason-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/free-nfl-picks-new-england-patriots-at-detroit-lions-saturday-preseason-preview-17292\/","title":{"rendered":"Free NFL Picks: New England Patriots at Detroit Lions Saturday Preseason Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

New England Patriots at Detroit Lions<\/strong>
\n Saturday, 8\/27\/11, 8:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS<\/strong>
\n Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 New England -4<\/strong>
\n Current Betting Line:\u00a0 New England -3.5<\/strong>
\n Opening Total:\u00a0 44<\/strong>
\n Current Total:\u00a0 45<\/strong>
\n Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Lions<\/a>
Detroit Lions QB Matthew Stafford has been brilliant during the 2011 NFL preseason through two weeks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New England improved to 2-0 during preseason action with a 31-14 road victory last week over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.\u00a0 It was the first appearance of the year for most Patriots\u2019 starters, including quarterback Tom Brady.\u00a0 He played the first 30 minutes of action and led the team to a 28-0 halftime lead.\u00a0 Turning his attention to this week\u2019s contest, the reigning NFL MVP knows that the Lions are going to come after him.\u00a0 \u201cThey can get after the quarterback,\u201d Brady stated.\u00a0 \u201cSo, you\u2019re not going to be standing back there holding onto it for too long.\u201d\u00a0 The Patriots came away with a 45-24 win over the Lions during last Thanksgiving, as he finished 21-of-27 for 341 yards and his second career perfect passer rating of 158.3.\u00a0 New England is 16-16 ATS in preseason road games.<\/p>\n

The Patriots have come into the season angry after being knocked out of the playoffs by the New York Jets in 2010, as they posted a 14-2 record and entered the postseason as the AFC\u2019s No. 1 seed.\u00a0 New England showed its ability to run the football against Tampa Bay in Week 2, gaining 200 yards on 36 carries for a 5.6-yard average.\u00a0 Former LSU star Stevan Ridley led the team in rushing for a second consecutive week, gaining 84 yards on 14 carries.\u00a0 It must also be said that wide receiver Chad Ochocinco made some noise in his first appearance in a Patriots\u2019 uniform, catching an eight-yard touchdown pass from Brady.<\/p>\n

Detroit is also a perfect 2-0 through two weeks and makes up the other half of this week\u2019s only undefeated matchup in Week 3 of the NFL preseason.\u00a0 The Lions would obviously love to remain perfect before the regular-season opener, but fans don\u2019t have to go back too far in order to see how that works out.\u00a0 The team finished 4-0 in exhibition games in 2008, only to become the first team in NFL history to go 0-16.\u00a0 Professional handicappers are quick to point out that the Lions two wins have come against lower competition in the Cincinnati Bengals (34-3) and Cleveland Browns (30-28).\u00a0 Detroit is 7-3 ATS in preseason action.<\/p>\n

The Lions will realistically only go as far as quarterback Matthew Stafford is able to take them.\u00a0 Detroit is hoping the third-year starter can stay healthy for an entire season, something he\u2019s been unable to do since being drafted No. 1 overall in the 2009 NFL draft.\u00a0 \u201cWe don\u2019t go out there and say, \u2018Don\u2019t take a hit,\u201d said Schwartz.\u00a0 \u201cI think our quarterback play has been outstanding in the preseason.\u201d\u00a0 Stafford enters Saturday night having completed 12 of 17 passes for 156 yards and three touchdowns.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Lions due to their 2-0 ATS mark versus AFC East opponents, while the Patriots are 0-1 ATS as road favorites of 3.5 to 7 points.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on making a fortune this season and let the NFL handicappers at Maddux Sports go to work for you.\u00a0 Get a long-term package today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New England Patriots at Detroit Lions Saturday, 8\/27\/11, 8:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 New England -4 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 New England -3.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 44 Current Total:\u00a0 45 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker New England improved to 2-0 during preseason action with a 31-14 road victory last week over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[5317,542,616,125,398],"class_list":["post-17292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-chad-ochocinco","tag-detroit-lions","tag-matthew-stafford","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-tom-brady"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17293,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17292\/revisions\/17293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}