{"id":210445,"date":"2025-01-15T14:40:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T19:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=210445"},"modified":"2025-01-15T14:40:00","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T19:40:00","slug":"commanders-vs-lions-predictions-nfl-divisional-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/01\/15\/commanders-vs-lions-predictions-nfl-divisional-round\/","title":{"rendered":"Commanders vs. Lions Predictions – NFL Divisional Round"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NFL playoffs are in full swing, as the Divisional Round has arrived.\u00a0 Saturday night will see an exciting matchup between the Washington Commanders (12-5) and the Detroit Lions (15-2).\u00a0 The Commanders will travel to Ford Field after squeezing out a 23-20 win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a>.\u00a0 They were the only Wild Card team to win last weekend, and now face a much stiffer test in the No.1 seed Lions.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take a look at game predictions, best bet, and player props to look out for Commanders vs. Lions on January 18.<\/p>\n

NFL Divisional Round – Commanders vs. Lions Predictions<\/h2>\n

Betting Odds<\/h3>\n

Moneyline:\u00a0<\/strong>Commanders (+400) vs. Lions (-520)<\/p>\n

Spread:\u00a0<\/strong>Commanders (+9.5) vs. Lions (-9.5)<\/p>\n

Over\/Under:<\/strong> Over 55.5 (-105)\/Under 55.5 (-115)<\/p>\n

Game Prediction & Best Bet<\/h3>\n

Lions 30, Commanders 17<\/h4>\n

The Commanders have had a Cinderella story season, but their unexpected playoff run ends here.\u00a0 After a hard-fought win in Tampa Bay, the Commanders will be traveling on the road for the third consecutive week.\u00a0 Meanwhile, the Lions are well-rested, earning a first-round bye after-handedly beating the Vikings in Week 18 to win the NFC North.\u00a0 The future is bright in Washington with impending OROY Jayden Daniels, who threw for 268 yards and two touchdowns on Sunday night.\u00a0 However, outside of Daniels, I don’t think the Commanders have the firepower to compete in this matchup.<\/p>\n

Although Daniels’ mobility could cause some issues for the Lions, Aaron Glenn’s defense got healthy again down the stretch.\u00a0 In particular, the Commanders could have difficulty establishing the ground game against Detroit’s tough run defense. On the flip side, the Commanders rank 30th against the run, which star running-back Jahmyr Gibbs<\/a> should take full advantage of.\u00a0 Additionally, fellow RB David Montgomery is expected to return this week<\/a> from what was feared to be a season-ending knee injury.\u00a0 The Lions offense should be firing on all cylinders, and I don’t expect the Commanders’ defense to have an answer.\u00a0 While -9.5 is a large spread to cover, the Lions were 12-5 ATS this season and will look to establish a dominant lead early on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Under 55.5 (-115 on Fanduel<\/a>)<\/h4>\n

This is the largest projected total of all four games this weekend.\u00a0 While it’s no secret that both these teams can score, this is an astronomically high total to cover in the playoffs.\u00a0 The under hit in 5\/6 games over Wild Card weekend, with many teams sustaining long drives that churned the clock.\u00a0 While everyone will hope for a shootout, the Commanders only scored 23 points against a soft Buccaneers defense last week.\u00a0 In fact, not a single Wild Card game went over 45 points, let alone 55.\u00a0 Considering such a high total to clear and the script of playoff games, the likelihood that this goes under seems like a solid bet.<\/p>\n

Player Prop Bets<\/h3>\n

Jared Goff Under 32.5 Pass Attempts (-102)<\/h4>\n

Jared Goff has had a superb campaign, throwing for over 4,600 passing yards and 37 touchdowns during the regular season.\u00a0 Nonetheless, there were a lot of games where Goff didn’t have to throw the ball a ton.\u00a0 The Lions’ offense looks their best when they lean on their potent rushing attack, and I see this trend continuing on Saturday.\u00a0 Goff went under this line in almost 60% of games this season.\u00a0 The Commanders also allowed the second-fewest pass attempts per game this season (28.6), as Goff should be smart yet effective with the ball in his hands.<\/p>\n

Terry McLaurin Over 23.5 Longest Reception (-118)<\/h4>\n

If the Commanders are going to keep pace on Saturday, their game plan should run through their No.1 receiver.\u00a0 McLaurin finally has a serviceable QB throwing him the ball, which has paid dividends.\u00a0 McLaurin has been making big chunk plays all season, clearing this line in 8 games.\u00a0 He also recorded a 35-yard reception in the Wild Card round.\u00a0 The Lions’ secondary is undoubtedly their biggest weakness, allowing the most yards per game to opposing wide receivers this season.\u00a0 They also allowed the second-most 20+ yard receptions, at an average of 2.76 per game.\u00a0 With everything to play for on Saturday, I expect McLaurin to put in another strong performance.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Predictions and betting picks for the NFL Divisional Round matchup between the Washington Commanders vs. Detroit Lions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5329,"featured_media":210555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32539,32810],"tags":[7467,970,8996],"class_list":["post-210445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-betting","category-predictions","tag-detroit-lions-news","tag-nfl-playoffs","tag-washington-commanders-news"],"modified_by":"Will Koshover, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5329"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210445"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210556,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210445\/revisions\/210556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}