The Matt Patricia Era in Detroit began in an ugly way as the Lions struggled to a 6-10 record in 2018, and yet another fourth-place finish in the NFC North. It was a step back from the Lions 9-7 and a 2nd place finish in 2017, but it is a new coach, and the future could be bright given Patricia’s background with the New England Patriots. The six victories in 2018 were highlighted by wins over the Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots in week three along with a sweep of the Green Bay Packers for the second consecutive season. The Lions have room for improvement and the real question is how much longer will they keep quarterback Matthew Stafford before they look for his replacement? Let’s take a look at the 2018 Detroit Lions betting recap.
Stafford finished the season with 3,777 yards with 21 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. Rookie running back finished as the leading rusher with 641 yards on 118 carries and three scores before suffering a leg injury midway through the season. Johnson also added 32 catches for 213 yards and a touchdown. Trading Golden Tate at the deadline, pushed second-year player Kenny Golladay to the top of the receiving core as Golladay finished as the leading receiver with 70 catches for 1,063 yards and five touchdowns. Linebacker Jarrad Davis finished as the leading tackler for the Lions as he finished with 100 total tackles and 10 tackles for loss. The Lions real problem this season was that they couldn’t find consistency as they were competitive in every game, but couldn’t manage to be teams they should have been capable of beating in 2018. Detroit only had two back-to-back wins this season, following every win the Lions seemed destined to lose the next game.
Lions Against the Spread
The Detroit Lions finished the season 9-7 ATS. The Lions struggled at home in Ford Field against the spread with a 3-5 at home in 2018. Detroit went 5-3 on the road ATS. Their record didn’t show it at 6-10 but the Lions were able to perform well against the spread in 2018.
The Lions only had one game during this season where the Spread was over 10 points and that was a game against the Los Angeles Rams. That was one of the many tough games the Lions had during the season, and at home no less and they failed to cover the 10 point spread. It was a real struggle for Detroit at home against the spread where they only covered the spread three times against New England, Green Bay and Carolina.
Even though they covered the spread in nine games, they weren’t able to win nine games in 2018.
Lions Over/Under
The Lions over-under in 2018 was 6-10, down from their 2017 10-5-1 over-under. It has been up and down for the Lions in regards to the over-under the last three seasons as Detroit also had an over-under of 6-10 in 2016 as well. It seemed like a rebuilding season for the Lions with a new coach, but in 2019 they will have to improve as the NFC North had only one team in the playoffs in 2018 and all four teams could beat each other on any given Sunday. It seemed like an average year for the Lions.
The sad part about their 6-10 over-under was that only two of their six games that had over totals resulted in wins for the Lions. Those games were a 31-23 win over Green Bay and a 32-21 win at Miami in back-to-back weeks. In most cases, this season the Lions failed to beat teams they were projected to beat as the losses against inferior teams mounted throughout the 2018 season.
The Lions 1-3 start spelled a long way to go early on, but the Lions responded by winning two games in a row before dropping five of their next six games before finishing 3-4 in their last seven games. It wasn’t quite the year Lions fans were hoping for. Can they right the ship in 2019?
