NFL Football Betting: Detroit Lions at Dallas Cowboys

The Detroit Lions are trying to fight their way into a playoff spot while the Dallas Cowboys are already set for the postseason. That’s the storyline as the two teams meet in Dallas on Monday Night Football. The Lions are 9-5 heading into this matchup and lead the Green Bay Packers by one game. The good news is that they’ve got their destiny in their own hands relative to the playoffs. Should they lose here they’d still be able to win the division by winning their final game of the season, at home against the Green Bay Packers. In fact, were they to win this game they’d *still* need to win next week’s game against the Packers–a loss would put them both at 10-6 and Green Bay would hold the tie breaker by virtue of winning both head to head meetings this season. The Lions are 6-1 at home this year and actually outplayed the Packers in an earlier loss at Lambeau Field.

The Dallas Cowboys’ motivation for this game is questionable. Their playoff seeding is already set and they’ll have home field advantage all throughout the playoffs. That will be the case even if they lose their next two games. This sets up all sorts of interesting scenarios. One is that they’ll start their former #1 quarterback Tony Romo for the remaining two games to protect their new starting quarterback Dak Prescott from injury. They also want to ‘showcase’ Romo in hopes they can trade him in the offseason. Simply put, he makes too much money to be a backup and with the success that Prescott has enjoyed this year the Cowboys have no other option but to cut him lose. Retirement could also be an option for Romo.

Then again, Prescott could start as could star running back Ezekiel Elliott. Head coach Jason Garrett has intimated that he doesn’t want the team to ‘let up’ down the stretch. That may be true, but on the other hand he doesn’t want to go into the playoffs with one of their star players injured either. Detroit needs the game more than Dallas and since there’s no clue how the Cowboys will play this we’ll take the points with the visitor.

BET DETROIT LIONS +6.5 OVER DALLAS COWBOYS