Lions @ 49ers tips, picks and prop bets: Brock Purdy and offence to dominate in NFC Championship
- George Dempsey
- 26 January 2024
The Detroit Lions face the tall order of a rare appearance in the NFC Championship game when they face the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday (2330 pm GMT).
The Detroit Lions will compete in the NFC Championship game for the first time since the 1991/1992 season when they take on the heavily favoured San Francisco 49ers.
Suggested bets
San Francisco 49ers over 29.5 points
Lions @ 49ers preview
San Fran made the Conference Championship the following year and have wracked up 10 appearances since we last saw Detroit. This will be their fourth in five years with the winner advancing to Super Bowl LVIII.
Despite being the higher seed in their two playoff wins to date, the Lions were expected to find life tough against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but passed another stern test.
They knocked off the Los Angeles Rams the previous week but both of those games came in the chilly confines of Ford Field.
They’ll have to take the show on the road this weekend to Levi’s Stadium where the 49ers, who went 12-5 in the regular season, are only 6-3 including the playoffs.
Brocky Purdy and co are favoured by a touchdown this week and as well as this Lions team has done, no one can say that they’re a good defence.
Christian McCaffrey paid out for us in the previous round and having led the NFL with 1,459 during the regular season, he should be able to get what he wants here.
Brandon Aiyuk is another major threat with 1,342 receiving yards up his belt this season and it’s worth noting he’s been targetted over 100 times by Purdy.
That averages out as six potential receptions per game and he’s pulling in over three-quarters of those passes, so it’s worth backing him to have a game against lesser opposition.
The Lions carry their own threat in that category with Amon-Ra St. Brown ranked second in the NFL with 119 catches for a total of 1,515 yards. Only three players have registered more touchdowns.
He’s the most likely point of attack for Jared Goff himself has thrown for the tidy sum of 4,575 in the NFL this season.
David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs have rushed for just shy of 2,000 combined yards but we still think they’ll come up short because the defence won’t get key stops.
