You might call this the “Somebody’s Gotta Win” bowl. Two winless teams each looking to right their ships. The Green Bay Packers, trying to make it look like Brett Favre made the right decision coming back for the 2006 season, and the Lions, whoare notoriously slow starters. I guess they prefer the excitement of trying to pull off miracles in the latter part of the season. Kind of like Favre in the good ‘ol days, when he’d spot the other team a touchdown and the first quarter before lighting up the jumbotron and the opposing defense.

But as I said, those were the old days.

The Lions were able to visit the endzone once against the Bears, but they also had a week of game experience under their belts when they faced the Bears. The Packers were fresh from the preseason when they had to face the 2006 NFC North Division Champs.

The Lions have a serviceable QB in Jon Kitna, and receivers that can go over the top of nearly everyone. Harris, Woodson and “The Mugger” Carroll shouldn’t be much of a deterrent to Kitna and Lions Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz. Then again, they’ve only been “so close, it’s stupid” to actually putting up enough points to win.

When I was a kid I tried to reason out the scores of games in advance for the teams I played on - our school beat school X by 20, school X lost to school Y by 10, so we should win by 10. Right? I’m trying to in this case, but I think it’s going to simply be a matter of who wants it more. And if Favre can play on turf. And if Martz’s offense finally starts to click against a weaker but learning defense. And if Ahman Green can figure out how to hold onto the ball before December. And if… ah, crap.

Nevermind.

Whatever the reasoning, oddsmakers are favoring the Lions by almost a touchdown.

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