Getty Lions fans show their frustration in Detroit.
The Detroit Lions have made a habit of blowing double digit leads thus far this season, and as a result, they now have NFL oddsmakers scrambling to find a way to take advantage.
This week, the Lions show up as a fun NFL prop bet. The game? It’s a simple one. Will Detroit blow a 10 point lead or more? Perhaps surprisingly as betonline.ag shows, the team is actually not favored to do so at a -500 going into the week. That means the smart money is currently on the Lions not collapsing once again this particular week. There are currenrly 3/1 odds that the Lions manage to hold a major lead in the game.
From @betonline_ag
It’s no surprise to see Detroit favored to blow another big lead this season. They relinquished leads in every week but one so far this season, and it’s played a major role in them being 1-3 so far. Had the Lions simply been able to hold on to several big advantages in games, there’s a chance they could have been 4-0 at this point instead of near the league cellar and remaining a punchline.
Instead, the Lions now have a separate betting line dedicated to their inability to close.
Lions’ Struggles With Double Digit Leads
The Lions have been miserable at protecting leads under Matt Patricia dating back to 2019, and their inability to close has crept into 2020, making this particular betting line very relevant moving forward. It seems the Lions have been very comfortable coughing up large leads so far this season.
Earlier this season, the Lions made some NFL history as the only team to have blown 4 straight games in which they led by double digits. It’s a mark of futility that had not been challenged thus far in the league.
The Lions become the first team in NFL history to lose 4 straight games in which they had a double-digit lead, according to @EliasSports.
Detroit has lost 11 straight games, its most since losing 19 in a row from 2007-09, including the first-ever 0-16 season in league history.
Detroit has been close in games plenty the last few seasons including Week 1, 2 and 4, but close is no longer going to cut it for a coaching staff and team who’s top goal this season was to get the job done and apply the dagger, if you will. That was Detroit’s saying coming into the season designed to help them finish off winnable games in which they held a lead.
Coming into this season, entering a fourth quarter with a 17 point lead or more all but assured victory for a team in the last 14 years. That was the case until the Lions came along and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory during Week 1, something they’ve become accustomed to doing throughout their history.
As Warren Sharp pointed out, NFL teams had won an incredible 779 games since 2006 with such a commanding late lead. Detroit’s defeat was only one of less than a handful in that mark, which is a significantly gaudy number to consider that proves epic comebacks from massive deficits aren’t exactly the norm in the NFL whatsoever.
The Lions became just the 4th team since 2006 to blow a 17+ point lead entering the 4th quarter.
Teams had been 779-3 (99.6%) in that span.
Regardless, the Lions are all by themselves now as the NFL’s king of the 10 point or more collapse as the new odds show.
Importance of Second Half for Lions
If there was ever a few week stretch where the Lions had to win and shake off these past collapse doldrums, it’s now. Their schedule lightens up considerably, and the team will play some of the worst competition on their schedule in the coming weeks. That means the pressure is on in order to avoid more cataclysmic collapses such as the ones hinted to by the betting lines. If Detroit blows more big leads against these caliber of teams, they will be in bigger trouble moving forward and Matt Patricia is sure to be on an even hotter seat.
For right now, even being on this list is a significant black eye for the organization.
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