Odds Lions Beat Saints in Week 13

The Detroit Lions will be looking to get back in the win column on Sunday against the New Orleans Saints. Detroit, which lost on Thanksgiving to the Green Bay Packers, hasn't lost two in a row since dropping five straight games from Weeks 3-8 in 2022.

The Lions’ road trip to New Orleans will mark Dan Campbell's first game against his former employer. Campbell served as the Saints’ tight ends coach and assistant head coach from 2016-2020.

New Orleans is led on the sidelines by fellow former Saints assistant coach Dennis Allen. Allen, whom Campbell coached with in New Orleans for five seasons, served as the organization's defensive coordinator prior to succeeding Sean Payton as head coach in 2022.

Allen and the Saints presently sit at 5-6 and in a tie for first place in the NFC South with the Atlanta Falcons. However, New Orleans has lost its last two contests – against the Vikings in Week 10 and the Falcons in Week 12. Additionally, up to this point, the Saints have been a .500 team at home (2-2).

In order for Detroit to get back on the right track in New Orleans, Jared Goff & Co. will need to do a much better job of protecting the football. Over the last two weeks, Goff has contributed to six of the team's seven total turnovers. He threw three interceptions in Week 11 against the Bears, and then followed that up with three fumbles in Week 12 against the Packers.

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The veteran signal-caller has a tough task ahead of him against a Saints team that has developed a knack for forcing turnovers.

In fact, New Orleans has produced the third-highest number of takeaways through the first 12 weeks of the season (20). And, 14 of those takeaways have been interceptions, the second-most forced interceptions in the NFL.

Luckily for Goff, though, he shouldn't be under as much constant duress as he has been the past few weeks. The reason why: the Saints have amassed the second-lowest number of sacks thus far this season (18).

It should lead to a cleaner day in the pocket from Goff, and allow him to be productive enough to lead the Lions to a victory in this Week 13 clash in New Orleans.

I also think Detroit has a solid chance of curtailing the production of the Saints’ 18th-ranked offense on Sunday.

New Orleans, led by Derek Carr under center, has averaged just 20.8 points a game. And, Carr has been far from super productive. He's thrown just 10 touchdowns in 11 games, and has amassed the ninth-lowest QBR (47.4).

With all that said, I believe the Lions have a 65 percent chance of rebounding from their loss to Green Bay and winning at the Caesars Superdome this weekend.