FRIDAY NIGHT PRESEASON NFL: BUFFALO BILLS AT DETROIT LIONS

BY ADAM GREENE

Let’s hope you have nothing important to do on a Friday night as our second slate  of games in the opening week of preseason NFL football kicks off with a nationally televised contest between the 2020 AFC runner up Buffalo Bills and the completely new look and we’re not kidding Detroit Lions at Ford Field.

It will be the 2021 head coaching debut of Detroit’s Dan Campbell, who steps into a situation that hasn’t been good since Barry Sanders retired back in 1998. Nobody seems very excited about the Campbell hire, and I count myself among them, but all he has to do to prove us wrong is win.

Sean McDermott is on the other side of the NFL landscape. His team made it to the AFC Championship last year and has one of the most exciting quarterbacks in the league with a newly minted second contract, Josh Allen. All McDermott has got to do is not screw it up.

BUFFALO BILLS AT DETROIT LIONS (-1.5, O/U 37)

Location: Ford Field, Detroit, Mich.

Broadcast: NFL Network

Kickoff: Aug. 13, 7 p.m. EST

BUFFALO BILLS (0-0)

With just three preseason games, teams have to switch up their regular strategies. Whether they’ll still go by the old rules, playing starters a certain number of reps in what would have been Week 2 in the olden days remains to be seen. Personally, if I’m McDermott I wouldn’t let Allen anywhere near the field Friday night and be content to roll with Mitchell Trubisky, Jake Fromm and Davis Webb. I feel the same about their starting widouts, Stefon Diggs and Emmanuel Sanders. It’s just not worth the risk.

DETROIT LIONS (0-0)

The Lions do not have that luxury. As such Jared Goff will likely see his first NFL preseason action since 2016. His former head coach, Los Angeles Rams wunderkind Sean McVay famously sits his starters in the exhibition games, but Campbell has too much to implement and prove. I suspect we’ll see Goff and the Detroit starters for at least a quarter, if not more, before back ups Tim Boyle and David Blough take over.

THE PICK

If it feels like I’m cheating by only honing in on the QB rooms of both these teams to pick the winner, it’s because I am. The truth is, the Bills are loaded and deep and there’s a good chance their back ups could knock off Detroit’s starters in a head to head competition. When you’re talking about Trubisky, Fromm and Webb (all quality reserves) vs Boyle and Blough, it gets ugly quick. Frankly, there might not be a huge gap between Goff and Trubisky at this point. That’s not so much a dig at Goff, but more of appreciating that Trubisky not a bad QB at all. Bills 23, Lions 13

Last week

Straight up: 1-0

Against the spread: 1-0

Preseason

Straight up: 1-0

Against the spread: 1-0

The NFL season begins on Thursday, Sep. 9 and the Week 1 Schedule is already up and taking bets at BetOnline.AG.

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