NFL Thursday Night Football odds: Buffalo Bills vs Detroit Lions prediction & betting tips

Bills vs Lions Kickoff Time, Weather, How to Watch

Bills vs Lions kicks off Friday, September 18 at 1.15am BST and will be shown live on Sky Sports for UK viewers.

You definitely need to start thinking about the weather in Buffalo by about late-October but it looks good Thursday night after possible rain during the day: mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight, with temperatures in the mid-teens (celsius). Winds light and variable.

NFL Betting Odds, Point Spread, Trends

This is unquestionably one of the better Thursday Night Football games on the schedule because it could be a preview of Super Bowl 61 from Los Angeles on Valentine’s Day 2027. Detroit is the only NFC team yet to reach the big game but is a 15/2 fourth-favourite to win the conference. The offence is Super Bowl-ready, it will all come down to defence and maybe special teams.

Behind quarterback and 2024 NFL MVP Josh Allen, Buffalo has been an AFC powerhouse since 2019 but hasn’t been able to return to the Super Bowl since losing that historic fourth straight big game in 1993. Coming up short again last season cost head coach Sean McDermott his job. The Bills are 4/1 joint-favourites to capture the AFC.

The franchises have met 13 times in the regular season with Buffalo leading 8-4-1 and having taken the past five. They last met in 2024 when both were good enough to reach the Super Bowl, and it was a 48-42 Bills win in Detroit in just a fantastic game. Allen threw for 362 yards and two scores but was overshadowed by Lions QB Jared Goff, who is still there and thriving and had 494 yards and five TDs. Detroit had entered on a franchise-record 11-game winning streak.

NFL Player Odds and Props

Two of the NFL’s best running backs and two fantasy football stars are here in Detroit’s Jahymr Gibbs and Buffalo’s James Cook. I liked both to score in Week 1. Gibbs had two touchdowns but Cook didn’t find paydirt despite his squad scoring 36 points. Take both to score Thursday.

Detroit Lions

The Lions nearly had one of their great choke jobs ever Sunday but held on to beat New Orleans, 31-30 in overtime, when the Saints tried for two in the OT and failed. Detroit, which has now won three straight OT games, was up 21-0 fairly late in the third quarter. Tailback Jahymr Gibbs was the preseason favourite for NFL Offensive Player of the Year and he showed why with a career-high 29 carries for 156 yards and two touchdowns along with five catches for 30 yards. In doing so, Gibbs became only the sixth player in league history with at least 50 touchdowns scored through 50 career games. He also joined Billy Sims in 1980 as the only Lions players with 150-plus rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns in a season opener. But Gibbs might wear down with all that usage under first-year offensive coordinator Drew Petzing. Wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown also had two TDs. Guard Christian Mahogany left injured.

Buffalo Bills

The Bills pushed out their defensive-minded head coach in the offseason because they couldn’t get key stops when it matters. That unit wasn’t any better Sunday in a wild 36-31 win in Houston. Josh Allen started his campaign for perhaps another regular-season MVP by throwing for two scores and rushing for two. It extended Allen’s NFL record to seven games with at least 300 yards passing, two passing TDs and two rushing TDs. His 334 yards marked the first 300-yard passing game against that stellar Houston defence since 2024. Buffalo’s points were the most against the Texans since 2023. Offseason trade addition and wideout DJ Moore had five catches for 100 yards and a touchdown. Dalton Kincaid’s 130 receiving yards were the most by a Buffalo tight end since 1967. The Bills were expected to throw more downfield under new head coach and former offensive coordinator Joe Brady, and that was the case. There were eight lead changes, the second-most in an NFL Week 1 game all-time.

Bills vs Lions prediction

Our prediction: Buffalo Bills 30-27 Detroit Lions

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All odds and markets are correct as of the date of publication.