{"id":10339,"date":"2010-11-06T11:45:09","date_gmt":"2010-11-06T16:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=10339"},"modified":"2010-11-06T11:52:55","modified_gmt":"2010-11-06T16:52:55","slug":"free-pro-football-picks-new-orleans-saints-at-carolina-panthers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/free-pro-football-picks-new-orleans-saints-at-carolina-panthers-10339\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Pro Football Picks: New Orleans Saints at Carolina Panthers"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Orleans Saints at Carolina Panthers
\nSunday, 11\/7\/2010, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 FOX
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 New Orleans -6.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 New Orleans -6.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 41
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 40.5
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 New Orleans -290 \/ Carolina +240<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Saints<\/a>
New Orleans QB Drew Brees knows how important a victory can be heading into a bye week and will have his team ready on Sunday<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New Orleans has alternated wins and losses in its last six games and rides into Carolina with a 5-3 overall record.\u00a0 The Saints picked up a 20-10 Sunday Night Football victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re used to playing big games, prime-time against opponents like Pittsburgh,\u201d said quarterback Drew Brees.\u00a0 \u201cTo find a way to rally again, to have that same level of intensity and focus the following week is tough.\u201d\u00a0 Brees connected on 20 of 22 passes after halftime and tossed two fourth-quarter touchdowns to seal the deal.\u00a0 With a bye week on the horizon, New Orleans can ill-afford to slip up against a bad football team this week.\u00a0 The team is 3-5 ATS this season and 23-19 ATS over the past three years.\u00a0 In taking a look at the NFL lines page, the Saints are still respected by oddsmakers as a six-point road favorite.<\/p>\n

The Saints are well aware of its tough history with Sunday\u2019s opponent, as the club is just 3-6 against Carolina since Sean Payton\u2019s arrival in 2006.\u00a0 \u201cCarolina always plays us tough, despite whatever their record is,\u201d Brees stated.\u00a0 \u201cAny divisional game on the road is a huge game, especially going into a bye week.\u201d\u00a0 New Orleans will get some players back for its injured secondary, but it will definitely not help against the strength of their opponent this week, a formidable rushing attack.\u00a0 Starting cornerbacks Jabari Greer and Tracy Porter, who have missed the last two games, both practices for a third straight day on Friday.\u00a0 One player that will likely not return until after the bye week is running back Reggie Bush, with Payton downgrading him to doubtful.<\/p>\n

Carolina managed to gain just 201 yards in last Sunday\u2019s 20-10 loss to the St. Louis Rams and will now have to go against the third-best defense in the league that gives up just 287.3 yards per game.\u00a0 \u201cIf it was that easy to say it was one thing it would be easier to fix, but in our situation, it\u2019s a combination of things,\u201d said Fox.\u00a0 Quarterback Matt Moore will need to be able to open up things for the running game and he brings a 5-2 career record at home as a starter into Sunday\u2019s contest.\u00a0 He has been named the starter despite throwing three interceptions last week, raising his season total to 10 in five games.\u00a0 The team is 9-4 ATS versus division opponents and 9-1 ATS when revenging a loss.<\/p>\n

The Panthers formidable running game is heading south and star runner DeAngelo Williams is likely out again with a foot injury.\u00a0 Carolina desperately needs him to pull off the upset due to his 119.8 rushing yards per game against the Saints.\u00a0 The team leads the series, 17-4, while battling to a defeat in the Superdome earlier this year with rookie quarterback Jimmy Clausen playing in place of Moore.<\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested to find the Saints are 9-2 ATS in their last 11 road games versus a team with a losing home record, while the Panthers are 13-6-1 ATS as a home underdog of 3.5 to 10 points.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss another Sunday full of action and get NFL expert picks from your friends at Maddux Sports!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Orleans Saints at Carolina Panthers Sunday, 11\/7\/2010, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 FOX Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 New Orleans -6.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 New Orleans -6.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 41 Current Total:\u00a0 40.5 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 New Orleans -290 \/ Carolina +240 New Orleans has alternated wins and losses in its last six games and rides into Carolina […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":5409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[279,3715,1034,3330,3006,427,1047,3570],"class_list":["post-10339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-deangelo-williams","tag-drew-brees","tag-john-fox","tag-matt-moore","tag-new-orleans-saints","tag-reggie-bush","tag-sean-payton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10340,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10339\/revisions\/10340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}