Detroit Lions vs St. Louis Rams Point Spread Picks

Detroit comes off the gut-wrenching loss at home to Green Bay on the last play, blowing a 20-0 lead -- and any playoff hopes. The Lions are on a 5-11 spread run, 3-8 ATS on the road, along with a 6-2 run OVER the total with a suspect defense. Detroit is #28 in the NFL in points allowed at 26.3 points per game. St. Louis is off a pair of losses to two strong teams (Bengals, Cardinals), so playing the toothless Lions will be a reprieve. Coach Jeff Fisher fired offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti this week and replaced him with Rob Boras, who was a finalist for the job in the offseason. Expect the new Rams' offensive coordinator to go with an up-tempo game plan along with any trick plays to try and keep his new job -- or build a better resume for the offseason. The Rams are 6-0-1 ATS when following a double-digit loss at home. And the St. Louis defense is fine at #12 in points allowed and #11 against the pass with a fine young front line that can pressure the QB. When these teams clash the OVER is 4-1, so grab the home team to win the game in a battle with more points than oddsmakers anticipate. Take the St. Louis Rams on the moneyline and play the OVER.

When an NFL total is posted on the high side, as this one is at 46, often the matchup involves a pair of potent offensive teams. That certainly is the case on one side here as the Lions can find the end-zone. But, St. Louis has been offensively starved for years and averaged just 12.1 points per game a year ago. Dating back to the 2010-11 season, the Rams’ road offense has been even worse, scoring a grand total of 84 points in their last 10 road games, for 8.4 per contest. The highest output of any offense against them on the road a year ago was 34, so if you look at the numbers here this total just doesn't add up and is highly inflated. The Lions may be a scoring offense, but five of their last seven at home have fallen shy of the total. A,nd the Rams’ meager road offense has left them with a 35-16-1 mark to the UNDER in their last 52 games. Play on the UNDER.

Well something has to give in this one. The reigning team in futility the Detroit Lions, who recently broke the losing streak at 19, will be taking on the current contender the St. Louis Rams who have now lost 17 in a row. What is frightening to fans is that the Rams have now gone 2-25 in their last 27, while the Lions have gone 2-28. That is a combined mark of futility of 4-53. Now to the game. No matter how you slice it, or no matter who the opponent, the Rams certainly just can't move the chains. When they do, they turn the ball over, or something bad happens - a true trademark of a bad team. The Rams have failed to score 17 points in 17 of their last 23 games. The Lions aren't only a bad football team, the weapons they have on offense are all banged up. Daunte Culpepper (hamstring) and Calvin Johnson (knee) are both nursing injurys. Speaking of Culpepper - in his two starts since replacing Matthew Stafford, the Lions have averaged 10 points per game. This team has also shown a history of following a bad offensive performance with another. The Lions were shutout in their last game and history shows that when they score 13 points or less, the next week they come back and score an average of 15.6 points per game in their next game. Maybe the NFL should just start this game as if it was a 0-0 tie, with the first team to score getting the win, because there certainly isn't any interest in watching this one. The Lions have delivered five straight UNDERS off a bye week. In the end, these teams are just so bad that what we should expect is an ugly, low-scoring affair.