The Detroit Lions (4-2) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5-1) will close out Week 7 with a “Monday Night Football” battle between two of the best teams in the NFC.
After two weeks on the road and their most recent a loss to the Chiefs, the Lions will be back in front of their home crowd in primetime, and will certainly want to head into their bye week with some positive momentum. The folks over at FanDuel Sportsbook certainly think the Lions can accomplish this, as they’ve set the opening betting line at Lions -5.5 points.
Both teams are dealing with significant injuries, and while the Lions’ holes in the secondary were exposed by Patrick Mahomes in Week 6, the Bucs have found a way to win behind the magic of Baker Mayfield.
On offense, the Bucs have been playing without multiple starting wide receivers: Mike Evans has been out for a few weeks now, Chris Godwin missed the first month of the season with injury, returned for one game only to be injured again, and rookie Emeka Egbuka was injured in Week 6. Starting running back Bucky Irving missed last week’s game, and the right side of their offensive line—right tackle Luke Goedeke and right guard Cody Mauch—is on injured reserve. On defense, starting defensive lineman Calijah Kancey is on injured reserve, while starting corner Zyon McCollum and his backup Benjamin Morrison missed Sunday’s game, leaving them to turn to former-Lion Kindle Vildor.
Yet, the Bucs have been riding high on the success of Mayfield, who has led the team to four last-minute come-from-behind victories. In Week 1, Mayfield drove the Bucs to a winning touchdown over the Falcons with just under a minute to play, then followed that up in Week 2 by leading the offense to a touchdown score against the Texans with just six seconds left. In Weeks 3 and 5, Mayfield got them in positions for walk-off field goals as time expired, against the Jets and Seahawks. They had a chance to pull off another comeback win in Week 4, but the Eagles’ defense stood strong and forced a final-minute turnover on downs. And most recently, in Week 6, no comeback was needed for the Bucs as they took advantage of an injured 49ers team and led almost the entire game on their way to their fifth victory on the season.
As for the Lions, they haven’t lost two games in a row since Week 8 of 2022, and they’ll likely be returning star defensive tackle Alim McNeill back to the active roster. Detroit is a resilient team that consistently bounces back from tough losses, and they’ll have a chance to do it again in front of a national audience in Week 7.
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