After last season, when the Detroit Lions earned their first division title in 30 years and their first playoff victory since 1991, some fans, analysts and Michigan sportsbooks customers might have wondered if coach Dan Campbell's squad could maintain that level of success in the 2024-25 season.
The answer is a resounding yes.
The Lions improved to 9-1 on Sunday by trouncing the visiting Jacksonville Jaguars, 52-6, at Ford Field. That 46-point margin of victory was the largest in Lions franchise history.
This is the first time the Lions have started this well in 90 years. The very first season of the Detroit Lions, in 1934, came after the franchise spent its first four seasons as the Portsmouth Spartans in Portsmouth, Ohio. In '34, the Lions started 10-0 before losing their final three games. That streak included victories over long-gone NFL franchises such as the Brooklyn Dodgers and St. Louis Gunners.
At BetMichigan.com, the home of the best Michigan sports betting promos, we used Champs or Chumps to see how teams ended up after starting 9-1 since the 2019 NFL season. In that span, five teams have had that start.
Situation | Number of Teams | Percentage* |
Making The Playoffs | 5 | 100% |
Advanced Past Wild Card Round | 3 | 60% |
Winning Divisional Round | 3 | 60% |
Winning Conference Championship | 3 | 60% |
Winning Super Bowl | 0 | 0% |
*Rounded to nearest whole number
How hot are the Lions? They are the new Super Bowl favorite after the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs took their first loss on Sunday against the Buffalo Bills.
Detroit has +310 odds to win the franchise’s first Super Bowl, according to BetMGM Michigan Sportsbook. That’s ahead of the Chiefs (+450), the Bills (+725) and the Baltimore Ravens (+750). The Bills took down the Chiefs, 30-21. That left Kansas City at 9-1, the same as the Lions.
The NFL trend over the past five years is that a team winning nine of its first 10 games always makes the postseason – a perfect five out of five, according to ChampsorChumps.us data. Three of those teams reached the Super Bowl (something the Lions are trying to achieve for the first time) but none of them won it.
The Lions face another AFC South opponent this week, the Indianapolis Colts, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indy, for a 1 p.m. Eastern kickoff on Sunday. At Caesars Michigan Sportsbook, Detroit is a 7.5-point favorite. For the game against the Jaguars, Detroit was a 13-point favorite and covered quite easily.
Detroit sits alone atop the NFC North, a game ahead of the 8-2 Minnesota Vikings. The Lions have scored 336 points, an average of 33.6 per game. That’s the best scoring average in the NFL and the most total points; even the 11 teams that have played 11 games, one more than the Lions, can't boast that many points scored (Houston plays its 11th game tonight, against the Dallas Cowboys, but the Texans would have to put up 112 points to catch the Lions).
Keep track of the Detroit Lions Super Bowl odds all season with us at BetMichigan.com.
USA Today photo by Kimberly P. Mitchell
Author
Jim Tomlin writes and edits for BetMichigan.com. In 30 years as a journalist he has worked for publications such as the Tampa Bay Times, Saturday Tradition, Saturday Down South and FanRag. He now lends his sports and gambling expertise to BetMichigan among other websites.
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