Lions vs. Titans Spread

Written by Jason Lowry

The Tennessee Titans don’t get much time to think about their most recent loss against the Jets last weekend, as they head to Detroit to play the winless Lions on Thanksgiving Day. Last week the Titans were stunned by the Jets at home 34-13, as their perfect season came to an end. As for the Lions they started strong against Tampa Bay, but still wound up losing 38-20. Now for those of you looking to do some NFL betting this Thursday, the oddsmakers have the Titans 11 point favorites on the road over the Lions.

Now against the Jets, the Titans just got out played on both sides of the football. The once dominating running attack has hit a slump over the last few weeks, as they the duo of LenDale White and Chris Johnson had just 45 yards, with White only carrying the football one time for a -1 yard. Now Collins didn’t make any mistakes throwing the football, as he completed 21 of 39 for 243 yards and a score, but was unable to make the big play, and his receivers didn’t help by dropping a number of passes. Now all should be good for the Titans this week, going up against the Lions who haven’t won a football game all season, but if they don’t find a way to get the running game going, it could be a lot tougher than they would like.

Now the Titans defense got shredded by Brett Favre and the New York Jets rushing attack, as Favre threw for 224 yards and 2 scores, while Thomas Jones and Leon Washington combined for 178 yards and 2 scores both from Washington. Now this is not a typical performance from this unit, as they normally make life miserable for every team the face, and the fact that they played so poorly at home has to have Titan fans wondering, if this team is good enough to go all the way. The key this week, is not losing to the Lions, as a loss to the Lions could really damage this teams confidence going into the final 4 games of the season.

Now the Lions started off great last week scoring 17 unanswered points to start the game, but that was about all this team did, as they let the Bucs respond with 35 unanswered points of their own, and eventually wound up trading field goals at the end of the game. The Lions only offensive touchdown came on a 71 yard drive where Duante Culpepper found Calvin Johnson from 15 yards out for a touchdown. Other than that it wasn’t pretty, Culpepper ended up with just 121 yards with 2 interceptions to that one touchdown, while Kevin Smith led the rushing attack with 86 yards on 16 carries. This week they go against a likely pissed off Titans team, that is going to want to make a statement, but if the Lions want to pull off the upset they have to jump out early again, and do a better job of scoring through the game.

The Lions defense also started off with a bang, as Daniel Bullocks took a 44 yard fumble to the house to put the Lions up 14-0, but it all went down hill from there, as Jeff Garcia wound up throwing for 165 yards and 2 scores, while Warrick Dunn added 90 yards and a score. Now the defense didn’t get much help in this one, as the offense had an interception returned for a score, and the special teams unit let Clifton Smith take a punt 70 yards back for a score. Even with the limited success the Titans have had running the last few weeks, there is no question they will come into Detroit and work the running game right off the bat, its just a matter of how this defense will respond.

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