Best Bets Thursday Night Football: Bills-Lions (Same Game Parlay, First TD Scorer, Player Props)

WE ARE SO BACK. 13 games on a Sunday. Who has it better than us?

Lions at Bills. First regular-season game in the new $2.2 billion Highmark Stadium. Prime Video. 8:15. Both teams 1-0 after they refused to play defense in Week 1. Buffalo escaped Houston 36-31. Detroit needed overtime and a failed two-point try to beat New Orleans 31-30. Now they get four days and a short week on the road.

Bills are a 4.5-point home favorite. Total sitting at 53.5 like somebody already decided this is going to look like the 48-42 game from 2024. Moneyline Buffalo around -225. Josh Allen just dropped 334 passing yards, two passing scores, two rushing scores, and a 96-yard winner. DJ Moore is in Buffalo now. James Cook is still James Cook. Joe Brady is in Year 1 as head coach and already has a road win in a house that used to haunt this franchise.

Detroit is coming in without Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch (both PUP). The offensive line is a short-week problem: Christian Mahogany and Blake Miller have been DNP, Juice Scruggs limited, Cade Mays already on IR. Jahmyr Gibbs just touched the ball 34 times and ran for 156 and two scores. Jared Goff still has Amon-Ra and Jameson. Dan Campbell is asking that group to fly east, play in a brand-new stadium full of people who have been waiting years for this building, and cover 4.5 after overtime. That is the spot.

This is the points game of the week because both defenses just gave up 30-plus and neither secondary is whole. Buffalo’s new place opens with fireworks or it opens with a hangover. There is no third option.

We give our pick for Bills–Lions, our same-game parlay, and two sneaky props to start the Thursday slate. No more Week 1 film-room cope. No more “it’s only one game.” One night. New stadium. The season is actually loud now.

Don’t take a single snap for granted because somehow we’re going to blink and it’ll be December and this building will already feel old.

Drop your favorite bet for Thursday in the comments. 🏈
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