Saints look to march past Lions in primetime

The New Orleans Saints and their potent offense will be looking to roll past the Detroit Lions on Sunday night (8:20pm ET, NBC) as those teams square off at the Louisiana Superdome in the primetime matchup.

New Orleans had no trouble scoring on the New York Giants on Monday night, winning 49-24 at home behind a four-touchdown performance from Drew Brees.

Brees completed 24 of his 38 pass attempts for 363 yards through the air in that contest, with those four TD strikes and no interceptions. On the season Brees now has a QB Rating of 103.6 with 3,689 passing yards, 27 TDs, and 11 interceptions.

Jimmy Graham and Lance Moore each had a pair of touchdown receptions for New Orleans against the Giants, while Brees, Pierre Thomas, and Mark Ingram all ran for scores. Ingram picked up 80 yards on the ground on 13 carries on the night.

That victory improved New Orleans to 8-3 straight up, 5-0 at home, and 7-4 against the spread on the season, and they sit one game up on the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC South standings through 12 weeks. New Orleans is also just one game back of the San Francisco 49ers for the second-best record in the conference.

The Lions are 7-4 SU and 6-4-1 ATS on the season, and they're tied with the Chicago Bears for second place in the NFC North standings – four games back of the league-leading Green Bay Packers. Detroit started out the season 5-0, but since then they've managed to pick up losses in four of their past six matchups.

The Lions are coming off a 27-15 loss to the Packers on Thanksgiving, with Matthew Stafford going 32 of 45 for 276 yards passing with one touchdown strike and three interceptions. Stafford's QB Rating this season is 90.7, and he's thrown for 3,119 yards with 26 touchdowns and 13 interceptions through his 11 games.

Calvin Johnson was held to four catches for 49 yards against the Packers but did have one touchdown reception. Running back Kevin Smith left the game in the second quarter with an ankle injury, while defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh was ejected from the contest for stomping on a Green Bay player; he's suspended for Sunday night's game against the Saints.

The Saints and Lions last met in September 2009 in New Orleans, with the home side cruising to a 45-27 win as a 14-point favorite. The Saints also beat the Lions 42-7 in Detroit in December 2008, winning that contest as a 7-point road favorite.

The NFL's other two primetime matchups this week feature teams not in the playoff picture, with Philadelphia at Seattle on Thursday night (8:20pm ET, NFL Network), and San Diego at Jacksonville on Monday night (8:30pm ET, ESPN). The Jaguars are pegged as 3-point home underdogs against the Chargers in that last matchup.

Check out all the lines and totals for this week's NFL betting slate at Oddsmaker.