Sports Betting Blog

Let the NFL Playoffs begin! After a long season that began tarnished by all the negotiation of the current collective bargaining agreement, we have finally made it to the win or go home stage. And there’s one crew who’s running strong towards the end of the stretch and that could very well put on one heck of a fight for the Super Bowl. But before we get too carried on with the phenomenal Drew Brees and the sharpened New Orleans Saints, these guys still have to beat the Detroit Lions.

For the first time in almost 60 years, the Detroit Lions kicked off the season with a 5-0 start. It’s quite a start for any team but for the Detroit Lions, this was as good as it gets. Let’s not forget that in one way or another, this is the team that first and only team to go 0-16 for the season, and after failing to make it to the Playoffs since the turn of the century. So, to put it into the right perspective, at 5-0, the Lions were starting to believe. Then, of course, things got a little rough for these guys. Right after that brilliant start, they fell into a 2-5 stretch that had them fighting till the end to save a spot in the wild card round. Last season, the Lions finished 6-10, winning 4 straight games. But just before that good run, the Lions had dropped 47 of it’s last 52 games, including an NFL-record 26 straight on the road.

So no matter where or how you look at this matchup, it’s getting pretty uphill for the Detroit Lions. As a matter of fact, and again, just to put this things into the right perspective, you might want to consider that the Lions walk into this matchup with one single playoff victory since blowing out Cleveland for the 1957 NFL title. And to make it worse, they’ll have to face the Saints in the Superdome, a field where the Saints have proven to be very difficult to beat.

Now, the Saints, on the other hand, have also been collecting NFL records, but the sort of records you’d be proud to hold. This season alone, the Saints have had their best season yet under the direction of head coach Sean Peyton and franchise quarterback, Drew Brees. And why not, they are on their way of making their 2009 Super Bowl winning season look like it was nothing, if they can only manage to keep up their momentum. At 13-3 for the season and 8-0 at home, the Saints are looking well.

On the one hand, Drew Brees alone has braked plentyof NFL offensive records. Just check out this numbers here: New Orleans gained 7,474 yards, 399 more than the 2002 St. Louis Rams for the new  NFL season. As if that was not enough, Brees blew away Dan Marino’s 27-year-old single-season record with 5,476 passing yards, closing up the final stretch over the Patriots’ Tom Brady, who also broke Marino’s record this season. Brees also completed a record breaking 468 passes including 46 for touchdowns, and finished with more than 300 yards in each of his last seven games, breaking a record that he already held.

Now, on their previous matchup, the Saints fully dominated the Lions from the start to sign a 31-17 win over Detroit at home on Dec. 4. Brees finished the night with 342 yards and three TDs. If you ask me, it’s the Saints all the way.

The New Orleans Saints still remember what it feels to be at the top of their game. At least they once again showed they have Super Bowl potential as the squad hold on to a comfortable lead to outplay the Detroit Lions 31-17 on Sunday Night. The man of the hour was none other than Drew Brees who finished the night with 342 yards for three touchdowns and no interceptions as he guided the Saints to their fourth straight win. Brees was on fire, he completed touchdown passes with a precision and accuracy that a Swiss watch maker would envy. Consider for a moment here that Breees connected scoring passes to Robert Meachem for 67 yards, a rifled 20-yard pass over the middle to Lance Moore, and a 6-yard pass to Darren Sproles. It was a splendid performance from a talented quarterback that now has the Saints with a 6 game winning streak at home.

Good things keep on happening at the New Orleans Saints camp. On the one side, the team has now improved to 9-2 for the season, and is currently 1^st in the NFC South, two games ahead of their closes rival the Atlanta Falcons. Not only that, but their main man, quarterback Drew Brees, has been playing like if there was no tomorrow and so far he has been breaking records all through the first twelve weeks of NFL football. His latest victim was the Detroit Lions squad, a team that had kicked off the season with a solid performance but that had recently been struggling greatly and has been suffering some losses because of their tendency to make mistakes in the worst possible moments.

The Detroit Lions relied heavily on their quarterback Matthew Stafford. He passed for 408 yards during the game, which was a solid performance but not enough to make it a game, and the Detroit Lions still lost the game. This is the Lions 5^th lost in their last 7 games. Considering that the Lions are now 7-5 for the season, it’s not a big surprise that despite their latest games, they still have a chance at the Playoffs but they better finish strong, otherwise their brilliant start could be useless. The Lions need to get their game together. They have been missing the beat on repeated occasions. Consider for a moment that just on this last game the Lions were caught in 11 penalties for 107 yards, including three offensive pass interference and a personal foul.

These mistakes made it impossible for the Lions to actually get back in the game, or even keep up with the Saints pace. Truth is that there is little they could do to keep up with the No. 1 offense in the league. Truth is that, the Lions had a great chance to get ahead of the Chicago Bears and the Atlanta Falcosn on the race for a NFC wild card spot. But then again, they were playing against the Saints and their almost perfect Drew Brees who reached his 4,031 yard for the season, becoming the first player in NFL history to pass the 4,000 yard mark in the first 12 games of the season.

Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints still know very well what it takes to win a Super Bowl ring. He has the motivation and the talent needed to guide the Saints pass the Detroit Lions on the Superdome. Brees is going for a fourth consecutive win, and he knows that the Lions, a team that was expected to be the biggest surprise of the season, is working in overdrive mode to try to salvage their dream season from been a complete disaster. He is well aware of the Lions current situation, but then again, Ndamukong Suh’s inhability to play football with the professionalism that the league expects, his disrespect for the game, could also jeopardize the Eagles chances into the Playoffs. At 7-4 the Detroit Lions have been able to turn their season around for good. But the Saints, and their 8-3 record for the season and their most recent boost could be a very big bone to chew on.

The Saints had no mercy on Monday Night Football when they tore apart the playoffs-hopeful New York Giants 49-24. Brees and the Saints offensive line pretty much defiled the Giants defense pushing them into allowing the second most yards in franchise history. The Lions on the other hand, are not really working things out too smoothly. They had a brilliant start, collecting a 5-0 run that had many fans and reporters looking their way early in the season. But ever since week 6 things have been very irregular, to say the least, with the Lions. It seems that the promising team is back to the same old habits that had them lingering among the weakest teams in the league. Detroit has lost four of its last six games since the 5-0 start and as if that was not enough, Suh has been suspended for two games for intentionally stomping on Evan Dietrich-Smith in the game that the squad lost 27-15 on Thanksgiving. Suh has shown no signs of remorse, and to make things worse this is his 5^th violation of on field rules in his first two years in the NFL.

After dropping that game the Lions got trapped in a three-way tie for the NFC’s two wild-cards spots available, but as of press time, it will be either the Chicago Bears or the Atlanta Falcons the two teams that would make the best out of a possible tiebreak situation. What the Lions should be extremely worried about is on the extraordinary performance that Drew Brees has shown when playing against the Lions. In 2008 while playing in Detroit Brees passed for 351 yards with two touchdowns for a 42-7 win. As if that wasn’t enough, the following  year, on September 13, 2009, as the Saints were working into their first ever Super Bowl, Brees threw for 358 yards and a career high 6 touchdowns against the Lions in a 45-27 victory.  

With Mark Ingram, Pierre Thomas and Darren Sproles with more than 400 yards this season, the Saints rushing game is looking quite strong and it is uncertain whether the Lions are going to have something to control the damage.

Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys have once again proved that they really don’t have the skill to put a game away. It’s not that the third time is the charm, but heck, let’s get this whole thing straight: for the second game this season, the 2-2 Dallas Cowboys have blown up a significant deficit in the second half of a game. And that is just unacceptable for a team with the fan base and the resources of the Dallas Cowboys.

It’s not that we want to take credit away from the Detroit Lions, let’s not forget there for a moment that against all odds, next to the Green Bay Packers, the Lions are the only team that still holds a perfect record this season. Now, on the other hand, it’s hard to make this all add up. The Dallas Cowboys had a 24-point advantage in the third quarter, and yet, after two bad moves by Tony Romo, and the Cowboys utter inability to close a game, the Lions pulled off one heck of a comeback and 34-30 win at Arlington, Texas.

Let’s try to put this Dallas Cowboys tragedy into the right perspective. At the beginning of the season, as if it was some sort of magical omen of what was to come, the Dallas Cowboys blew a 14-point fourth-quarter lead for the first time in franchise history as they were defeated 27-24 by the New York Jets. Just to clinch it into the record books, consider that this was the largest lead blown in a loss in franchise history. Dallas’ previous biggest blow-up happened when they held a 21-point lead against Washington on Nov. 28, 1965. The Cowboys led 21-0 in the second quarter on the way to a 34-31 loss.

It’s hard to assess these two separate performances from Tony Romo. Truth is that he was quite awful on Sunday, but despite dropping the games to the Jets and the Detroit Lions, he was quite spectacular on his two previous games, pulling off victories under pressure and with a broken rib. Now, forget the broken rib: this one was all Romo’s fault, and the fans are not going to let it go so easily. Romo threw two interceptions that ended up in touchdowns and if that wasn’t enough, with 4:13 left on the game, he threw his third interception that set up the Detroit Lions winning score.

Matthew Stratford guided the Detroit Lions completing 21 of 43 passes for 240 yards with 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. It wasn’t his finest game, but heck, this performance came just a week after turning a 20-point halftime deficit into an overtime win against the Minnesota Vikings.  Tony Romo, on the other hand, completed 34 of 47 passes for 3721 yards and three touchdowns. At the end, the Cowboys know very well what kind of man they have at the helm. He takes the risks. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it just doesn’t. Lately, it’s just been a disaster. Romo has been suffering in the second half of the games. This one alone he had three interceptions, exactly what was needed to wipe off the brilliant first two quarters he played against the Lions.