Sometimes the ugliest matchups can produce good wagering opportunities. That might be the case here but there’s no denying that this game isn’t exactly ‘must see TV’. The Detroit Lions are bad and have struggled bigtime with Matthew Stafford sidelined. They’ve lost 3 straight and 6 of 7 going 2-5 ATS in that stretch. They’re actually on a five game ATS losing streak–in their lone win during the past 7 weeks they beat the New York Giants 31-26 but failed to cover (barely) as -6 point home favorites. Head coach Matt Patricia should start polishing up his resume if he hasn’t done so already since it’s hard to envision a scenario in which he’ll be brought back next season.
As bad as Detroit is, however, the Redskins are worse. The Cincinnati Bengals might be winless at 0-10 but you can make a compelling case that the Redskins are more of a grease fire. At least Cincinnati is 4-6 ATS, marginally better than Washington’s 3-7 ATS. The Skins are as close to being winless as they could be–their only win came at Miami where they won by 1 as -6 favorites. They did manage to cover the season opener at Philadelphia but have covered only twice since. That gives them 9 losses SU in 10 games as well as 7 ATS losses in their last 9.
The Skins’ have essentially thrown in the towel on the year. They’ve also made the dubious decision to throw rookie quarterback Dwayne Haskins to the wolves behind a miserable offensive line. He’s appeared in 4 games this season but his lack of protection has led to him being sacked 14 times! He’s also got a 2 to 5 TD to INT ratio. Not that Washington’s offense was tearing it up without him. The Skins are dead last in scoring offense putting up a mere 12.5 PPG. What’s amazing is even with the bar set impossibly low they’ve managed to get worse over the course of the season. In their past 7 games they’ve failed to hit double digits on the scoreboard in 5 of them and they’re averaging a paltry 8.8 PPG in that stretch.
Detroit is nothing special but the Redskins are on another level of bad. They enter this game on a brutal 0-9 SU/2-7 ATS run at home. One thing that the Lions have done well in recent years is take care of business against bad teams. They’re on 10-4-1 ATS run against opponents under .500.
