Sunday Night Football picks: Expert predictions for Lions-Steelers

The Detroit Lions are only three point underdogs to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, but the general consensus is that they have little chance in coming away victorious this week.

The picks for this week’s “Sunday Night Football” game are heavily favored towards Pittsburgh. Check it out.

National analysts:

ESPN: 0 of 10 picked Lions
SB Nation: 4 of 8 picked Lions
CBS Sports: 2 of 8 picked Lions
Pro Football Focus: 2 of 8 picked Lions
Sports Illustrated: 2 of 6 picked Lions

Total: 10 of 40 picked Lions (25.0%)

In every publication but ESPN, there are a few brave souls who picked the Lions as home underdogs, but for the most part, Pittsburgh is the popular pick.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be the usual bump in faith for the local experts. The Detroit media is identical in their belief that the Lions will suffer their third straight loss.

Local analysts:

MLive: 0 of 2 picked Lions
Freep: 1 of 4 picked Lions
Detroit News: 0 of 4 picked Lions
Detroit Jock City: 4 of 9 picked Lions
Pride of Detroit: 2 of 9 picked Lions

Total: 7 of 28 picked Lions (25.0%)

Interestingly, of the ten beat writers in Detroit, only one is picking the Lions: the Detroit Free Press’ Shawn Windsor. Along with Windsor, the only real optimism is coming from our friends at Detroit Jock City. Four of their staff members are picking Detroit to pull off the upset.

Kickoff is still several hours away, but we’ll see if the Lions can prove the doubter—both locally and nationally—wrong.