{"id":11981,"date":"2010-12-30T03:30:23","date_gmt":"2010-12-30T08:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=11981"},"modified":"2010-12-31T12:52:52","modified_gmt":"2010-12-31T17:52:52","slug":"free-nfl-picks-saints-vs-buccaneers-betting-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/free-nfl-picks-saints-vs-buccaneers-betting-preview-11981\/","title":{"rendered":"Free NFL Picks: Saints Vs Buccaneers Betting Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New Orleans Saints, Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, LA
\nSunday, January 2, 2011, 1:00 pm EST, TV: FOX
\nOpening Line: Saints -8
\nCurrent Line: Saints -7.5
\nOpening Total: 48
\nCurrent Total: 47.5
\nMoney Line: Saints -350 \/ Bucs +290<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Saints
New Orleans QB Drew Brees is a Pro Bowler this year despite throwing 21 interceptions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9-6) have enjoyed a fine rebound season but will need a lot of help on Sunday, starting with a difficult road victory against the playoff-bound New Orleans Saints (11-4).\u00a0 The defending Super Bowl champion Saints (-7.5) qualified for the postseason with a 17-14 victory at Atlanta on Monday night and can still win the NFC West with a victory here and a loss by the Falcons at home to Carolina.<\/p>\n

The scenario is even more complicated for the Bucs, who handed New Orleans a 20-17 overtime loss at the Superdome during a three-game skid at the end of last season.\u00a0 Tampa Bay needs to have Green Bay and the New York Giants both lose while beating the Saints to get into the playoffs as the #6 seed in the NFC.\u00a0 New Orleans can do no worse than the #5 seed and will likely travel to either St. Louis or Seattle next week unless the team wins and Atlanta loses.<\/p>\n

The Saints have played only one home game since Week 11, going 2-3 against the spread in their last five overall despite a 4-1 straight-up mark during that stretch.\u00a0 The Buccaneers suffered a 31-6 home loss to New Orleans in Week 6 and own an 0-5 record against teams with winning records this year.\u00a0 They have been outscored 141-74 in those five games and hope to get to reigning Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees this time around.<\/p>\n

Brees was not sacked in the first meeting, throwing for 263 yards with three touchdowns and one interception.\u00a0 He earned a Pro Bowl nod for the NFC on Wednesday despite throwing the second-most picks in the NFL this season (21), including two in the fourth quarter against the Falcons on Monday.\u00a0 Brees has thrown at least one interception in 11 straight games.\u00a0 He could be without leading receiver Marques Colston, who underwent knee surgery on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay bounced back from a 23-20 overtime loss to Detroit with a 38-15 rout of the Seahawks at home last week behind second-year quarterback Josh Freeman\u2019s career-high five touchdown passes.\u00a0 Freeman completed 21 of 26 passes for 237 yards and no picks while rookie running back LeGarrette Blounted rushed for a career-high 164 yards on 18 carries.<\/p>\n

The Bucs are an impressive 6-0-1 ATS on the road this season, going 5-2 SU in those games.\u00a0 The UNDER has cashed in Tampa\u2019s last three away from home after going OVER in the previous three.\u00a0 The UNDER is also 4-0 in the last four meetings with the Saints after going 6-0 in the previous six games between the teams.<\/p>\n

Now that you have read this football betting preview featuring the Saints & Bucs, check out the NFL odds on this and all the games to compare the best lines at multiple sportsbooks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New Orleans Saints, Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, LA Sunday, January 2, 2011, 1:00 pm EST, TV: FOX Opening Line: Saints -8 Current Line: Saints -7.5 Opening Total: 48 Current Total: 47.5 Money Line: Saints -350 \/ Bucs +290 The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9-6) have enjoyed a fine rebound season but will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":5409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[2539,2508,427,1930,1922,4276,458],"class_list":["post-11981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-football-betting","tag-free-nfl-pick","tag-new-orleans-saints","tag-nfl-odds","tag-nfl-picks","tag-saints-buccaneers-preview","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11981","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\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11981"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12046,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11981\/revisions\/12046"}],"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=11981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}