You have to love opening weekend of the NFL Playoffs.  What’s even better about the Wild Card playoffs this season, is that we get to open up the night cap game on Saturday with probably one of the best games of the weekends.  The Detroit Lions pulled off a shockingly impressive season, and head into the playoffs as the number 6 seed overall, but get to play one of the toughest teams in the NFL in week one.  They are up against a New Orleans Saints team who has shown quite a knack for putting up impressive performances on prime time television.  So what does a game between two high scoring teams like this mean?  It means that we could be looking at a shootout, and one exciting Saturday night football game here.

The New Orleans Saints finished the season with an incredibly impressive 13-3 record, which typically would be good to lock up at least a top two seed, but they were stuck in an NFC that has the 15-1 Green Bay Packers, and another surprising team in the 13-3 San Francisco 49ers.  The Saints have a record breaking quarterback in Drew Brees, and a team who knows how to win Super Bowls as we saw just a few years back.

Now for that Detroit Lions team.  It seems like it was just yesterday that this team was going through that incredibly tough 0-16 season.  They’ve come a long way since then, and it is in large part due to the combination of Matt Stafford, Calvin Johnson, and head coach Jim Schwartz.  The Lions know how to put points on the board, and their defense has been solid this season as well.  If the Lions are able to knock off the Saints this weekend, you can bet that they could cause some serious issues for any teams on the remainder of a potential Super Bowl run.

Odds and Sports Betting Line

Detroit Lions: +11

New Orleans Saints: -11

Free Prediction

I’m excited about this game.  It’s going to be a shootout, and I expect Stafford to do his best to keep pace with Brees and the Saints.  The Lions didn’t get to 10-6 and make the playoffs just to get sent home in the first round without putting up and type of a fight.  While I do think that the end result of this game will be close, I think that the Saints are going to win it because of the home field advantage and the experience.  I’ll take Drew Brees and his powerful offense to win it by ten here.

Prediction:  New Orleans Saints- 45 Detroit Lions- 35

Free Pick

This line started off a bit lower, and I’m shocked that it’s moving up so quickly.  The Lions are a strong team, and they look determined to make some noise in these playoffs.  I think that they won’t be able to knock off the Saints on the road, but that they will be able to cover this big spread.  I’m picking the Detroit Lions to cover the +11 here.

Pick:  Detroit Lions +11