A battle of Bill Belichick disciples takes place when Matt Patricia and the Detroit Lions play Bill O’Brien and the Houston Texans. The two teams have been scrimmaging against each other this week in the Texas heat. It should lead to some fireworks on the field when the real tackling takes place.

NFL Point Spread and Betting Analysis

The Lions are coming off a pre-season Week 1 thrashing at the hands of the New England Patriots. Detroit registered just a field goal for offence with starting quarterback Matt Stafford sitting out while the Pats piled on 31 points.

Detroit is 1-4 straight up and against the spread in August games since Patricia became the team’s head coach. Patricia gained the job thanks to his time running the defence for Belichick in New England, but his own team’s defence has shown some holes in pre-season. The Lions have allowed 30 or more points in four of their five exhibition contests since Patricia came to town.

Houston narrowly failed to cover the spread as a 1-point road underdog against the Green Bay Packers last week. The Texans refused to put starting QB Deshaun Watson on the field even though they were dealing with quarterback depth concerns due to training camp injuries.

Bill O’Brien is still 11-9-1 against the number in pre-season games since he took over the job in Houston. The Texans went 3-1 straight up during the exhibition calendar last season.

Sports Interaction opened with the Lions getting 3.5 points but the line has moved up a full point since then.

Detroit Lions

Lions quarterback Matt Stafford has been plagued by nagging injuries over the past few campaigns. Patricia and his coaching staff are determined to keep their star offensive contributor healthy heading into the new season.

Stafford did not play in Week 1 of the pre-season and he’s been giving multiple days off from throwing during training camp. Don’t expect Stafford to play much this weekend. Bettors should prepare to see a lot of Tom Savage and David Fales under centre for Detroit.

Houston Texans

QB AJ McCarron was expected to do much of the heavy lifting in game action for Houston this month, but a thumb injury on his throwing hand has derailed that plan. The third string quarterback played every offensive snap last week against Green Bay because of McCarron’s injury. DeShaun Watson should see some limited action in the first half against the Lions.

LIONS

Away

13

TEXANS

Home

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