The Detroit Lions are coming off of impressive an victory in Tampa, while the KC Chiefs can only hope to improve after an embarrassing loss to Buffalo. Who should you select for your NFL picks this week as these two opposites meet.
The two teams meet Sunday at 1:00 PM ET at Ford
Field in Detroit in a Week 2 NFL showdown. The Lions (1-0 SU & ATS) opened
as a -7.5 point favorite on the NFL odds boards with the total at 44. You have to go back several
years to find the last time that Detroit was favored by more than touchdown in
a regular season game. The timeline is somewhere between Barry Sanders
retirement and Matt Millen’s departure.
The Chiefs (0-1 SU & 0-1 ATS) suffered the
worst opening-day defeat in franchise history getting blown out by the Bills
41-7. It wasn’t the type of loss that can be fixed by a minor tweak here or an
adjustment there. This was a disaster of Titanic proportions and there’s
not nearly enough time to address the myriad of problems not with the upstart
Lions waiting in the wings.
Chiefs crushed
Who are these guys?
Is it the team that beat the San Diego Chargers twice en
route to winning the 2010 AFC West? Or are they the guys who have been
outscored 71-14 in their past two home games?
On paper, Sunday’s game looked as lopsided as it
gets. Kansas City was playing at home against a Buffalo team that was 4-12 a
year ago and a last-place team at that.
However when it was all said and done, the Chiefs, who were -3.5
point NFL betting favorites, had been saddled with a beat down of historic
proportions. Sifting through the rubble the only thing that the general
manager, head coach and players could agree on was that they were unprepared.
Matt Cassel played like a career backup throwing
for 119 yards, one touchdown and an interception. He was also sacked twice and
his passer rating of 64.5 was the second worst of his career. Jamal Charles who
had 1,469 yards last season managed just 56 on 10 carries against a defense
that was last in the league against the run in 2010. In addition, the Chiefs
were second in the NFL with only six lost fumbles last year but had two against
Buffalo..
Sunday's 34-point loss to the Bills marked the
2nd-worst home defeat in Chiefs franchise history trailing only their 45-0 loss
to the Steelers in 1976.
Lions stay hot
The Lions scored on five of their first seven
possessions en route to an impressive 27-20 win in Tampa that wasn’t as close
as the final score would indicate. It was Detroit’s fifth straight
regular season victory dating back to the 2010 regular season and was its 6th
straight cover.
Detroit finished with 431 total yards with
Matthew Stafford getting the bulk of them. Stafford threw for 265 yards and two
touchdowns in the first-half and finished with 24 of 33 passes for 305
yards and three touchdowns. It was his second career 300-yard day in the NFL.
Two of his touchdown passes went to Calvin Johnson who made six grabs on the
day for 88 yards. Johnson also recovered an onside kick and was part of the
prevent defense on the final play of the game.
The running game still needs some work. The
Lions accumulated 126 yards led by Jahvid Best with 72 yards on 21 carries.
Defense dominates Bucs
The Lions held Bucs running back LeGarrette
Blount to 15 yards on five carries and that was without much of a contribution
from the NFL’s defensive rookie of the year Ndamukong Suh who made just
one tackle.
One week into the new NFL season and Kansas City
fans are demanding Haley’s head on a platter. The Lions meanwhile can’t print
those Super Bowl tickets fast enough.
Harvey’s Take: The Chiefs need to be careful. A loss like
Sunday’s is exactly the kind of defeat that can turn into two losses, three
losses or even a lost season. At the moment the Lions have no such problems and
in fact could turn out to be a pretty good football team. Take Detroit at -7
and the ‘under’ at 44 or higher.