Lions are Super Bowl favorites after trouncing Jaguars, Chiefs fall to Bills
As of Monday morning, the Detroit Lions are the favorites to win Super Bowl LIX.
No, you're not dreaming.
The Lions , coming off a smackdown of the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, currently have the best odds to win the big game in February, at +420, per FanDuel. They're followed by the Kansas City Chiefs (+500), Baltimore Ravens (+550), Buffalo Bills (+700) and Philadelphia Eagles (+900). DraftKings also has the Lions as favorites at +350 odds.
Detroit leapfrogged into the top spot over Kansas City, which was previously undefeated this season but fell on the road at Buffalo on Sunday. The Chiefs kept things relatively close and had a chance to get the ball back late with an opportunity to potentially take the lead, but a clutch touchdown run on fourth down from Buffalo's Josh Allen put the game out of reach with 2:17 remaining.
The Lions, meanwhile, set franchise records against the Jaguars. The 645 yards of offense they gained is a new team record, as is the plus-46 margin of victory. Quarterback Jared Goff posted 412 yards and four touchdowns on an 82.8% completion rate, good for a perfect passer rating of 158.3. Goff is the only QB in NFL history to have multiple games of 400 or more yards and a perfect passer rating, per Lions PR . The other time he accomplished this was in a win over the Minnesota Vikings in September 2018, when he was still a member of the Rams.
It's been a season of perseverance for Detroit, which has lost multiple defenders — Aidan Hutchinson, Marcus Davenport and Derrick Barnes, among many others — for extended periods. The latest significant injury came in the second quarter versus the Jaguars, when team captain and starting linebacker Alex Anzalone suffered a broken left forearm . He's expected to miss six to eight weeks.
But the Lions keep figuring out ways to make do without their key contributors. If they can keep it up and get some pieces back — the door has been left ajar for a late return from Hutchinson, and Anzalone's timeline has him back right before the playoffs — they've got as good of a shot as anyone to play for the franchise's first Super Bowl on Feb. 9 in New Orleans.
Scratch that: Currently, they've got the best shot of anyone.
