Buccaneers vs. Lions betting preview: Odds, picks, props, trends, injuries, weather and more for Week 7 Monday Night Football

I have been thoroughly enjoying all these early season Monday Night Football doubleheaders and hopefully it's something the NFL continues to do. Alas, tonight is the last scheduled one of the season. With all due respect to Texans-Seahawks at 10 ET, the marquee matchup is the first game at 7 ET on ABC and ESPN with the Buccaneers (5-1) visiting the Lions (4-2) in a potential NFC playoff preview. Detroit is -6 with a total of 52.5. There are many key players are missing from both sides. 

While I can't project seeding in the NFC, I do think there's a good chance these clubs meet for the second time in the past three postseasons behind MVP candidate quarterbacks Baker Mayfield (+320 for MVP) and Jared Goff (+1800). Both are former No. 1 overall picks who initially underachieved before thriving elsewhere. Sometimes all it takes is a change of scenery.

The SportsLine Projection Model forecasted Tampa Bay and Detroit as the top teams in the NFC in terms of season win total entering Week 7: Tampa Bay at 11.9 (best in the NFL) and Detroit at 11.0. The Bucs are currently +350 favorites to earn the NFC's top seed, while the Lions are +450. 

Tampa Bay has won straight four NFC South titles and should make it five as -450 favorites even if Atlanta and Carolina appear to be on the ascent. There's no doubt the Bucs are a good team but perhaps not 5-1 good considering their point differential of +14 -- the team has won every close game. For a point of comparison, Seattle is 4-2 with a +49 differential and Houston 2-3 with a differential of +47.

The NFC North might be the NFL's toughest division and the two-time division champion Lions are +135 behind first-place Green Bay (-110), which holds the current head-to-head tiebreaker thanks to a Week 1 home win. Neither Minnesota nor Chicago is a slouch, either. But the model ranked Detroit as its No. 1 overall team in the NFL entering Week 7 and as its favorite to win the NFC North at 47.7% (equates to +110) as well as the conference at 24.6% (+307) and Super Bowl at 14.7% (+580). 

We'll take you through every aspect of the Bucs vs. Lions game that you need to know before you lock in your bets, including SportsLine expert picks, props, trends, DFS, injury information and everything else that will help you know which plays are worth making for the primetime matchup.

Who wins Bucs vs. Lions in the Week 7 Monday night game, and what critical X-factor makes one side of the spread hit HARD? Join SportsLine right now to see everything you need to know to dominate your Monday Night Football bets, plus get expert picks, model sims, prop bets, DFS lineups, and more!