NFL Week 6 Lions vs. Packers: Detroit eyes first 5-game win streak vs. Green Bay in decades

The Detroit Lions don't play on Monday nights all that often but they do off a bye to close Week 6 as the Motor City Kitties visit NFC North rival Green Bay. Kickoff is at 8:15 p.m. ET from Lambeau Field with the Packers as 4.5-point favorites on the NFL odds and an over-under total of 47 points. Green Bay is -210 on the moneyline with Detroit at +182.

How snakebitten has the Lions franchise been since, oh, the 1950s? Detroit hasn't won a division title since 1993 and is one of four active teams to have never reached a Super Bowl and the only one in the NFC. The other three are the Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars and Cleveland Browns.

While Green Bay leads the NFC North and looks like it could be the NFC's best team in the early going, Detroit has an advantage Monday as it comes off the bye. That same scenario worked wonders last Monday when rested San Francisco blasted Cleveland, although the Niners were at home and the Lions obviously aren't. Detroit has won and covered six of its past seven after a bye.

The Lions can do something Monday they haven't done since the early 1950s: Win five straight games against the Packers. Detroit has just three wins in the state of Wisconsin since 1992 but has won there as an underdog the past two seasons in sweeping both years. It should be noted that three of those four overall wins came with Aaron Rodgers out/injured. He played only briefly in Week 17 last year, a 31-0 Lions road victory before leaving with injury. Rodgers missed both games in 2017.

Rodgers has recorded a 100-plus passer rating 12 times against Detroit, including each of the last three times he has faced them and stayed in the entire game.  The Packers have won 11 of the 12 games against the Lions when Rodgers had a passer rating of 100-plus. If we throw out last year's Week 17 brief appearance, Rodgers has thrown nine TDs and zero interceptions vs. Detroit in his past five at home in the series.

Green Bay hasn't been a good prime-time bet of late, however, covering just one of its past eight at night.