Wednesday, February 8th, 2012
The Atlanta Falcons will travel in a key NFC South match up with the undefeated New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football. Kick off time in New Orleans is scheduled for 8:30PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by ESPN. The LVSC NFL odds makers have set the opening point spread in this game and the New Orleans Saints opened as a 7 ½ point favorite with the over under coming in at 53. The early money from the NFL betting public has been home favorite money, as the New Orleans Saints are currently a 10-point favorite. The over under has seen early action towards the over, as the total is currently lined at 54 for the NFL betting public to play into. NFL money line gamblers can make a play on the favored New Orleans Saints at –525 with the road underdog Atlanta Falcons returning +370 to win straight up without the point spread a factor in the bet.
This is a big game for the Atlanta Falcons who are two games behind the New Orleans Saints in the NFC South. A loss to the Saints would move the Falcons full 3 games behind Saints in the division. Atlanta lost a big game last week to Dallas because there is a good chance they could be vying for a wild card spot with the Cowboys and would lose a key head to head tiebreaker. The Atlanta Falcons secondary has been torched this season. The team gave up over 290 yards passing to Carolina, Chicago and last week to Dallas. New England passed for 277 yards in their meeting. Atlanta gives up 11.2 yards per completion ranking in the bottom third of the league. Starting quarterback Matt Ryan is hitting on 62% of his passes with 11 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. The Falcons did not protect Ryan very well last week as the offensive line allowed 4 Dallas sacks last week. Lead running back Michael Turner is not producing good numbers with just 3.4 yards per carry in 118 carries on the season. Tight end Tony Gonzalez has just 1 touchdown catch in his past 4 games. The Falcons are coming off a 37-21 loss to Dallas last week giving up 414 total yards to the Cowboys. The Falcons secondary gave up big plays in the passing game as Tony Romo averaged 14.2 yards per completion. The New Orleans Saints are a perfect 6-0 on the season and is coming off one of the most impressive performances of the season overcoming a 24-3 deficit to beat the Miami Dolphins 46-34. The Saints did a great job with halftime adjustments allowing Miami just 1 first down in the first 28 minutes of the second half and outscoring the Dolphins 36-10. The Saints overcame 4 turnovers in victory. Drew Brees threw for 3 interceptions but recovered to hit on 22 of 38 for 298 yards and a touchdown pass. The Saints have scored 45 or more points in 4 of their games this season. The Saints defense has improved this season allowing teams to average just 4.1 yards per rush and 10.8 yards per completion this season. New defensive coordinator Greg Williams has turned the Saints from mediocre defense into an average one and that is all the explosive offense needs to be among the Super Bowl betting favorites.
Tony T’s Opinion: With the point production from these New Orleans Saints this season it will be very hard to bet against this team in a Monday Night game in the Superdome. I don’t think they can make the total high enough in this game and if this one makes my card I would look to go over the total.
For the Latest NFL Odds Please Visit our NFL Odds Page
NFL Trend: New Orleans Saints are 6-0 ATS this season
Tags: atlanta falcons versus new orleans saints nfl betting odds pick preview monday night football, nfl betting odds
