Can Lions Roar Back on MNF – October 30

The Detroit Lions would like to forget their Week 7 blowout loss and get back on track as they take on the Las Vegas Raiders tonight on Monday Night Football. The Lions still lead the NFC North Division with a 5-2 record. Minnesota is the Lions closest competition and the Vikings are just 4-4. Tonight, Detroit looks to rebound from its worst loss under head coach Dan Campbell.

The Lions allowed a season-high 503 yards of total offense to Baltimore last week. That shouldn’t happen tonight. The Raiders are one of the worst offenses in the NFL, averaging just 16 points per game. That ranks 30th in the league. Only the Patriots and Giants are worse. Four of the five Lions’ victories have come against teams at .500 or below. The Raiders come into tonight 3-4.

Lions Favored to Win

Detroit is a 7.5-point favorite to win tonight’s game. In addition to being 5-2 this season, the Lions are also 5-2 ATS. Under Campbell, the Lions have shown a penchant for keeping games close. They play hard and it shows against the number. In their last 17 games, the Lions are 14-3 ATS. In their last eight home games, they are 7-1 ATS.

The Raiders have struggled and are lucky to have three wins. Las Vegas has scored more than 20 points once and that was in a 21-17 win over the Patriots. Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is one of those quarterbacks that seemingly always gets hurt. He is listed as probable for tonight. Garoppolo suffered a back injury in that win over the Patriots in Week 6. 

Betting the Lions-Raiders Tonight

As always, our Sports Hub expert handicappers have run the numbers, checked the data, and read all the reports. There are half a dozen or so picks for tonight’s game in our database. That number will rise throughout the day. It’s interesting as there are more picks on the game total than the spread right now. 

Keep this in mind as you prepare to bet on Monday Night Football. The Raiders have not rushed for over 100 yards in any of their seven games this season. Detroit has the second-best run defense in the NFL. The Lions allow 76.3 rushing yards per game. They have only allowed one team to rush for more than 100 yards and that was Baltimore last week. If the Raiders are going to have any success against the Lions, they will need to run the ball somehow.

New Guy Tops the Board

We got a glimpse of Randall Dickleman last week. He’s back and his performance yesterday was the best on the board. Two Sports Hub experts were among the top-5, going a combined 7-1. There was a lot of volume at the top of yesterday’s leaderboard with three of the top-5 cappers making over 50 picks. Those three won 60 percent of those picks and you could have too! 

Here’s a look at yesterday’s top-5 cappers.

• Football & hockey: Randall Dickelman is making a name for himself here at Sports Hub. Yesterday, he went 9-5 on a combination of mainly NHL and NFL picks. In total, he ended up winning $469, tops for the day. Over the last three days, Randall has won 31 of 53 picks (58.49%) and has won $617. 
• Scott’s Picks: Scott made the most of his 15 picks yesterday. He went 9-6, mostly on NFL picks, and won $344! 
• Our experts: We have a number of exclusive Sports Hub handicappers here, in case you didn’t know that already. Evan Lewis and Ben Miller are two of them and they finished No. 3 and 4 on the board yesterday. Evan went 3-0, nailed the underdog Panthers to cover +3, and won $300. Ben went 4-1, hitting all of his NFL picks, for $285 winnings. 
• Knup Sports: These guys put in 23 picks yesterday and came out ahead $200. That gives them winnings of $528 over the last three days. They have a number of picks for events today, including the Lions-Raiders MNF game tonight. 

Lions-Raiders Heads Up a Strong Monday Schedule

For a Monday in October, this is one heckuva sports schedule. How about all four major North American sports in action on the same day? It’s a beautiful time of year with NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA action today. If only we had some college football. Don’t worry, MAC-tion kicks off on Halloween tomorrow night.

For now, here’s what we have on today’s schedule.

1. Game 3 World Series: The World Series shifts to Arizona for Game 3 tonight. The series is knotted at 1-1. Max Scherzer will pitch for Texas against Brandon Pfaadt for the Diamondbacks.

2. Monday Night Football: As we’ve discussed, the Detroit Lions play host to the Las Vegas Raiders to close out Week 8 in the NFL. It’s the first Monday night game in Detroit since 2018. The Lions don’t get many of those. Our database is up to a dozen picks for the game already.
3. NBA: There are 11 games on the schedule tonight. Miami at Milwaukee should be a good one as we get to see Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo tear it up again. The only thing better would be to see Flavor Flav perform the national anthem again!
4. NHL: It’s a big day in the NHL too with nine games on the schedule. Boston and Vegas remain the only two teams without a loss in regulation. Both teams play at home tonight.
5. Soccer: World soccer slows down a little after a big weekend. MLS does have two matches tonight. Orlando City SC plays Nashville SC and the Seattle Sounders take on FC Dallas. There is one match in La Liga and two in Serie A.  
6. Tennis: The second round of the Rolex Paris Masters is today on the ATP Tour. The WTA Finals and the Dow Tennis Classic both continue first round action today. Be sure to check our database for tennis picks, soccer picks, and picks for all of today’s events.

Trending for the Wrong Reasons

Here at Sports Hub, we like to identify some trending sports news. We believe it helps bettors and handicappers stay on top of what is happening in the sports world. You never know, one small tidbit of information someday may win you a bet that you would have otherwise lost. Having great information is a key to successful betting. 

Sometimes, the information or the trend isn’t always for good reasons. Sometimes, athletes and teams are among trending sports news for the wrong reasons. 

There are quite a few such items trending today. 

• Another Achilles tear: Minnesota Vikings QB Kirk Cousins tore an Achilles tendon yesterday and will miss the rest of the season. Cousins is the second big-name NFL starting quarterback to tear an Achilles tendon. Aaron Rodgers did it four plays into his first game as a New York Jet. Little known fact: the human Achilles tendon will, over time, reattach itself and heal on its own. It takes a long time and most will have surgery to speed up the process. Yes, the software makes me smart!

• 49ers trending in wrong direction: They were off to such a great start at 5-0. Now, the San Francisco 49ers have lost three straight. They lost yesterday to Cincinnati 31-17. Head coach Kyle Shanahan and the Niners are probably very glad that they have this coming week off. The 49ers have some tough games coming up. They will face the Jaguars after the bye, Tampa Bay, and then Seattle on Thanksgiving Day. It’s probably a good thing they don’t play the Lions that day.
• Pace University basketball: If you’ve never heard of Pace University, it’s okay. Pretty much no one has. It’s a Division II school in New York City, which made it easy for Pace to play St. John’s in an early exhibition game. It’s a rebuild for St. John’s which hired legendary coach Rick Pitino to turn things around. Keep turning…Pace won 63-59.
• Will Levis: Ah, finally something on the up and up. Remember all the hype over Levis before the 2023 NFL Draft? Yeah, well Levis didn’t go until Round 2 when he was selected by the Titans…who had drafted Malik Willis in the first round the year before. Well, Levis got his first NFL start yesterday and calmly put himself in the NFL record books. Since 1970, only one NFL QB has thrown for at least 225 yards, completed at least 65 percent of his passes, and thrown 4 touchdowns without an interception in his first NFL game. That one QB is Levis who was 19-of-29 for 238 yards and 4 TDs.

It was a great performance by Levis and it was a great performance by the handicappers here at Sports Hub. The top-5 cappers on our leaderboard over the past 30 days all have a winning percentage of at least 60 percent and all have winnings of $1000 or more. 

If you’ve ever thought about becoming a handicapper, Sports Hub provides cappers access to a software system that provides everything you need to make it a career. Learn more about it at Sports Hub. Come back tomorrow and see how your favorite handicappers did with today’s picks.