NFL Football Betting: New Orleans Saints at Carolina Panthers

Added on Oct 09, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

Sunday offers a NFC South matchup featuring one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL and a rookie signal caller that one day hopes to join those ranks. The New Orleans Saints with Drew Brees will head to Charlotte, North Carolina to take on the Carolina Panthers with rookie sensation Cam Newton.

New Orleans Saints at Carolina Panthers
October 9, 2011 10:00 AM Pacific

This game opened with New Orleans a -7 point road favorite and was quickly bet down to the current price of -6′. This could be a very dangerous ‘trap’ game for the Saints. They’ve never been as good ‘outdoors’ as they have indoors at their Superdome home field. This is also something of a ‘lookahead’ spot as they’ve got a road game against Tampa Bay on deck. Tampa Bay is currently tied with the Saints atop the division with matching 3-1 records and its possible New Orleans could overlook the upstart Panthers.

Objectively speaking, the Saints are a much better team than the Panthers in every phase of the game. That being said, Carolina has proven to be a very dangerous underdog and especially adept at pulling off the ‘back door cover’. Cam Newton is at his best in ‘garbage time’ when the Panthers go to a ‘no huddle’ offense and he has a chance to show off his impressive athleticism. The Saints’ defense is clearly down from recent years, and they could find themselves in a point trading battle with an opponent that will be playing loose and without pressure. This wouldn’t be the first time that the Saints have looked past the Panthers and found themselves in a much closer game. Carolina has covered three of the last four in the series. More significantly, the Saints have been a very poor road favorite posting a 3-7 ATS record in the last ten times they’ve been in that role.

This has the potential of being a big SU upset for a number of reasons. We won’t be surprised if the Panthers win this game outright, but getting almost a full touchdown we don’t even need that to occur. Look for Carolina to trade points with New Orleans all afternoon and cover the number.

Bet Carolina Panthers +6′ over New Orleans Saints