Lions vs. Steelers prediction: Detroit can hang with Pittsburgh’s lousy offense

Dave Tuley, senior reporter at VSiN.com, is in his fourth season with The Post’s Bettor’s Guide. His handicapping pieces appear in VSiN’s online magazine, Point Spread Weekly. 

Detroit Lions (+8.5) over PITTSBURGH STEELERS:

The Lions were on a bye last week, which was good as they certainly looked awful in their 44-6 loss to the Eagles on Halloween. Even though they’re the NFL’s lone winless team at 0-8, they’re 4-4 ATS and have been competitive at times (they should have beaten the Ravens — the Steelers’ AFC North rival — and they also covered versus the 49ers, Vikings and Rams). The fact the Steelers couldn’t put away the Bears — the Lions’ NFC North rival — certainly bodes well for Detroit here. I’m not worried about the Steelers scoring a ton of points (they average just 20.1 ppg), so Jared Goff and the Lions should be able to stick around and get the cover, just as in those other games. 

NEW YORK JETS (+13) over Buffalo Bills:

I don’t expect the Bills to play as badly as they did in their loss at Jacksonville, but there are a lot of reasons to think the Jets can hang with them. For one, the Bills don’t have a running game like the one the Colts used to score 45 versus the Jets last week. The Jets also have a good pass rush to pressure Josh Allen and force him into mistakes. Meanwhile, the Jets’ offense somehow has stepped up with Mike White (hey, I didn’t see it coming either). In addition, as bad as the Jets were last year and as good as the Bills were, Buffalo won just 27-17 and 18-10 in their 2020 meetings, so I envision similar results, with the Bills winning by 10 points or fewer. 

Last week: 2-0. Broncos (W). Titans (W). 

Season: 13-5.