Straight Up Stats
With Detroit finishing 9-8 after losing in the playoffs last season, they followed a rather familiar pattern of being around .500 over the past 3 seasons. Their SU record during that time was 27-23, although they were just 9-15 on the road during that run. Since this game is listed as a pick-em play, there is no clear favorite here. As an away favorite, Detroit were 2-3 in the past 3 seasons, while also going 7-12 as an away underdog. Last season’s .500 record was disappointing for a Colts team that has gone 29-22 SU over the past 3 seasons. They had a solid 15-10 home record during that stretch, which was broken down in the following way: they were 14-7 as a home favorite, and 1-3 as the home underdog. I think the edge would need to go to the Colts here based on these stats.Point Spread Stats
Again, with this game listed as a pick play, you are essentially looking at no spread to be covered, but let’s still take a look at how both these teams have performed in that regard over the past 3 seasons. Detroit made a habit of playing close games last season, going 8-9-0 ATS, which took their 3-year record to 23-27-0. The Lions went 10-14-0 ATS when playing on the road during this time period. Indianapolis went 7-8-1 ATS in the 2016 season, which took their 3-year record to 27-22-1. As you can see by these stats, they dropped off a little in the covering department last season. At home, the Colts went 13-11-1 ATS over the past 3 seasons, which is not entirely convincing for a team that was good for 2 of those 3 years.OVER/UNDER Stats
The O/U for this game is set at 37 points. The Lions found themselves in a lot of tight defensive struggles last season, so no real surprise that they went 6-11 in the O/U. This is consistent for Detroit, as they have gone 20-30 O/U in the past 3 seasons, including going 6-18-0 on the road, which was the worst record in the league if you like playing the OVER.
The Colts have a high-powered offense, but still only went 9-7-0 O/U last season, taking them to 26-24-1 over the past 3 years. Perhaps a little surprisingly, it was the UNDER that prevailed more often than not when the Colts played at home, with the O/U record set at 9-16-0 since 2014.
