Lions vs. Bears 2013 picks and predictions: Most favoring Detroit to win

The Lions haven’t had a home playoff game in over 20 years, but they have an opportunity to take a significant step forward to leading the NFC North if they can beat the Bears on Sunday.

by Kenneth Arthur

Nov 8, 2013, 4:00 PM UTC

Gregory Shamus

Well, it could finally be happening. The Detroit Lions are in first place in the NFC North and if they can hold onto that lead, they will host their first playoff game since 1993. Now it's just a matter of traveling to Chicago and beating the Bears, which would give them two wins over Chicago this season and perhaps sole possession of the lead in the division, depending on how the Green Bay Packers do without Aaron Rodgers.

In other words, there is a very good chance that if they beat the Bears, the Lions will be in great position to win the North. But can they do that?

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Detroit is 66-96-5 all-time against Chicago and has lost nine of their last 11 meetings. With Josh McCown currently starting in place of Jay Cutler, it is the Lions best shot to control the division since 2002 realignment. Who are the experts picking to win as the Lions travel to face the Bears in Week 10?

Here at SBNation, four of six on the panel have picked Detroit to pull off the win and improve to 6-3, which would push the Bears down to 5-4 with seven games remaining. Things were even more heavily in favor of Detroit with CBS Sports, where seven of nine experts are going with the Lions straight up, and they all think that they’ll cover the 2.5-point spread.

Things are actually much closer at ESPN, where the experts are split on picking between Chicago or Detroit, perhaps favoring the Bears home-field advantage at Soldier Field. Over at Yahoo! Sports, two of three experts are going with the Lions.

No question that this will be one of the most watched games of the week, but can Detroit finally start to close out the unthinkable? Many experts seem to think so.