{"id":17475,"date":"2011-09-07T12:35:40","date_gmt":"2011-09-07T17:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=17475"},"modified":"2011-09-07T12:35:40","modified_gmt":"2011-09-07T17:35:40","slug":"nfl-betting-preview-detroit-lions-at-tampa-bay-buccaneers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfl-betting-preview-detroit-lions-at-tampa-bay-buccaneers-17475\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Betting Preview: Detroit Lions at Tampa Bay Buccaneers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Detroit Lions at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
\nSunday, 9\/11\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 FOX
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Tampa Bay -3
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Tampa Bay -1.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 40.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 41
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Detroit Lions were the only NFL team to finish the preseason with a 4-0 ATS mark<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Detroit is coming off a much-talked about preseason by finishing with a 4-0 SU and ATS mark, which included a 34-10 blowout win over the New England Patriots as 3.5-point home underdogs.\u00a0 Head coach Jim Schwartz is trying to temper expectations heading into the regular season opener.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t know when the playoffs start, but they don\u2019t start on Sept. 11,\u201d Schwartz stated.\u00a0 \u201cIf our eyes are on Tampa Bay then our eyes are on the right thing.\u201d\u00a0 Bettors will likely be drawn to backing this team during the season due to scoring 30 or more points in three of four exhibition contests.\u00a0 Detroit is 6-7 ATS on the road the last two years.<\/p>\n

The Lions are hoping quarterback Matthew Stafford can play the 2011 campaign without injury, as he\u2019s managed to play in just 13 games in his first two years.\u00a0 Detroit\u2019s No. 1 pick in the 2009 draft has completed 77.4 percent of his passes for 356 yards with five touchdowns and no interceptions during the preseason.\u00a0 It\u2019s an explosive offense with plenty of weapons, including tight end Brandon Pettigrew and wide receiver Calvin Johnson.\u00a0 On the other side of the ball, all discussions begin and end with defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, who earned Defensive Rookie of the Year honors a year ago.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay just missed a chance of making the NFL playoffs with a 10-6 record in coach Raheem Morris\u2019 second year and finished the preseason with a 2-2 SU and ATS record.\u00a0 The Buccaneers will be seeking revenge from a 23-20 loss against the Lions as 3.5-point home favorites last year.\u00a0 The defense was atrocious in the contest in allowing 181 rushing yards and 433 yards overall.\u00a0 Many draft picks have been spent on fixing up holes in the unit and it seems to have worked primarily during the exhibition season.\u00a0 Tampa Bay is 3-11 ATS at home the last two seasons.<\/p>\n

The Buccaneers managed to average just 1.6 sacks per game last year and selected three big-time players to help increase that total from the defensive line especially.\u00a0 Tampa Bay has racked up 14 sacks during four preseason games and Morris is encouraged about the defense\u2019s effort.\u00a0 \u201cThey look good,\u201d he commented.\u00a0 \u201cThose guys are fired up.\u201d\u00a0 Offensively, third-year quarterback Josh Freeman is coming in off a 25-touchdown, six interception campaign.\u00a0 He threw for 251 yards and a touchdown in last year\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Lions due to their 4-0 ATS mark as an underdog, while the Buccaneers are 1-4 ATS in Week 1.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the NFL handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Detroit Lions at Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday, 9\/11\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 FOX Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Tampa Bay -3 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Tampa Bay -1.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 40.5 Current Total:\u00a0 41 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Detroit is coming off a much-talked about preseason by finishing with a 4-0 SU and ATS mark, which included a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[2753,542,759,616,1411,1129,458],"class_list":["post-17475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-calvin-johnson","tag-detroit-lions","tag-josh-freeman","tag-matthew-stafford","tag-ndamukong-suh","tag-raheem-morris","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17475","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=17475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17476,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17475\/revisions\/17476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}