The Detroit Lions will be back inside the comfy confines of Ford Field in Week 2, hosting Ben Johnson and the Chicago Bears in the home opener, and the folks over at FanDuel Sportsbook have set the opening betting line at Lions -4.5 points.
While this is the official opening line, it’s worth noting that the betting line before their Week 1 loss to the Packers was Lions -5.5 points. Now, that movement is surely reactionary, but is it Vegas reacting to the Lions’ performance? Or a reaction to how bets are rolling in?
While the outside perception of the Lions has shifted slightly, internally, they believe things are not as bad as they appeared in Week 1.
“We didn’t play good enough. We didn’t coach good enough, including me,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said following the Lions’ Week 1 loss to the Packers. “It’s tough to go in (to Week 1) and certainly not play close to your best game. And you hate starting the season out with a loss. And as bad as that is, it’s not as (bad as) it appears to be. […] We’re going to learn from it. We’ll clean it up. It gives us a nice barometer of where we’re at for Game 1, and that’s ok. It’s always about improving, no matter what. We’re going to take it, and we’re going to improve.”
Campbell would go on to add that he believes all their current problems are fixable and that they have the right people in place to make that happen.
“But like I told the team, ‘these (mental errors) are so correctable,’” Campbell continued. “Everything that showed up is so correctable. And we will hit it head-on. Our players are accountable, they’re ready. Nobody takes (the loss) worse than they do, that’s the good news: we got the right dudes.”
As for the Bears. They have been the darlings of the offseason after hiring the Lions’ former offensive coordinator as their new head coach. Johnson led an offensive resurgence in Detroit over the previous three seasons and was one of the hottest names in NFL coaching cycles over that time. His departure to a division rival has not sat well with Lions fans, and they’ll surely be pumped up, loud, and ready to welcome the former coach back to Detroit.
The Bears will host the Minnesota Vikings (-1.5 points) on “Monday Night Football” in Week 1, so Lions’ fans will have a chance to do some scouting on how Chicago has changed this past offseason.
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