NFL playoff opening odds: Lions big favorites over Buccaneers in divisional round

Opening odds for the Detroit Lions and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Divisional Round of the 2023-24 NFL playoffs.

The Detroit Lions will host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Divisional Round of the 2023-24 NFL playoffs. These two former NFC Central rivals will face off on Sunday, January 21 at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.

The folks over at DraftKings have set the opening betting line at Lions -6.5 points, with the moneyline settled at Lions -270 and the Bucs +220, with the over/under line set at 48.5 points.

It shouldn’t be overly surprising that Detroit is favored in this game. Not only are the Lions the higher seed after winning three more games than the Bucs during the regular season, but Detroit also beat the Bucs in Tampa Bay 20-6 back in Week 6. In that game, the Lions were without Jahmyr Gibbs, Brian Branch, and Jonah Jackson due to injury, David Montgomery was injured on his sixth carry, and Jameson Williams was just returning from his suspension and only played on 16 snaps.

In what has become a familiar scene for Detroit, this game quickly turned into the Jared Goff and Amon-Ra St. Brown show. Because the Lions were without both their starting running backs, Goff threw the ball 44 times, completing 30 for a whopping 353 passing yards, and two touchdowns. St. Brown caught 12 of those passes for 124 receiving yards and one touchdown.

This past week against the Rams, Goff and St. Brown connected seven times for 110 receiving yards, including the game-sealing reception against the Rams.

Meanwhile, Tampa Bay took care of business against the Philadelphia Eagles at home on Monday night, handling them for the majority of the game and winning 32-9. The Bucs have gone on a decent run of late and will be coming to Detroit with a boatload of confidence.