This season has been the Detroit Lions’ time to roar. One of the few NFL teams to never have played in a Super Bowl, Detroit is now atop the NFC North with an 8-3 record. Of course, helping the Lions in their ascent to division prominence is the fact that in Green Bay, there is no longer someone named Favre or Rodgers playing quarterback.
Still, the Lions deserve credit for taking advantage of the ebb and flow of the NFL tides and making good on the preseason predictions and Michigan sports betting odds that had them the consensus pick in the NFC North.
This all especially stands out against the measuring stick of Detroit’s own history. BetMichigan.com — your source for Michigan sportsbook promos — went to Pro-Football-Reference.com to look at the rare seasons in which the Lions won 10 or more games dating back to 1990.
Detroit Lions’ 10-Win Seasons
Ten-Win Seasons a Rariity in Detroit
Since 1996, the Lions have won 10 or more regular-season games just twice. The last time the Lions won a playoff game was more than 30 years ago, following the 1991 season, when they finished 12-4. But then, after beating Dallas in the first playoff round, they were crushed in the NFC Championship game, 41-10, by Washington. The last time Detroit won an NFL Championship was in 1957 when Bobby Layne was the quarterback.
In 2022, the Lions gave hints of the team they have turned out to be this season by finishing 9-8, but still far behind the Packers for the NFC North title. They were edged out by 9-8 Seattle for a wild card berth.
Focusing on the campaign at hand, BetMichigan.com is mulling the Lions’ playoff chances, considering how the 8-3 Lions might fare through the rest of this season with six games left.
At ESPNBET Michigan, odds are posted for a team at least hitting or exceeding a certain win total. For the Lions, the odds begin with a prospective 12-plus win total and the odds are -115, meaning that the Lions are a favorite to hit 12 victories (a bettor has to wager $115 to win $100). To put that in perspective, Detroit has won 12 games exactly once in its NFL history and that was back during the halcyon 1991 season.
The odds of Detroit going where no Lions team ever has gone, meaning 13 regular-season wins, are +325 (the bettor is wagering $100 to win $325).
And as they say on the late-night infomercials, there’s more! If a bettor believes the Lions can run the regular-season table and win 14 games, the odds are +1600.
Dreaming of such a possibility, here’s the remaining Lions schedule: at New Orleans, at Chicago, home against Denver, at Minnesota, at Dallas, and home against Minnesota. Only two of those teams, the Cowboys and Broncos, are above .500 at the moment.
The Lions are favored in their next game Sunday at Michigan sports betting apps. ESPNBET has the Lions as 4.5-point favorites over New Orleans. Detroit should be favored in at least four, maybe five, other games (depending on the spread for the home game against the Broncos).
The reasonable calculation is that the Lions should finish with either 11 or 12 victories and for gamblers who think they can make an exact pick, ESPNBET is offering odds on that as well.
Odds for the Lions winning exactly 11 games are +225 (remember, if Detroit goes over the number, the wager loses). Odds for the Lions winning exactly 12 games are +200. The Lions’ Super Bowl odds are better than they have been in years.
What is for certain is that for long-suffering Lions fans, this is a more hopeful December than they’ve known in most years.
