{"id":17465,"date":"2011-09-06T12:15:24","date_gmt":"2011-09-06T17:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=17465"},"modified":"2011-09-06T12:07:35","modified_gmt":"2011-09-06T17:07:35","slug":"2011-nfl-predictions-new-orleans-saints-at-green-bay-packers-opening-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/2011-nfl-predictions-new-orleans-saints-at-green-bay-packers-opening-night-17465\/","title":{"rendered":"2011 NFL Predictions: New Orleans Saints at Green Bay Packers Opening Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Orleans Saints at Green Bay Packers<\/strong>
\n Thursday, 9\/8\/11, 8:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 NBC<\/strong>
\n Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Green Bay -5<\/strong>
\n Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Green Bay -4<\/strong>
\n Opening Total:\u00a0 46.5<\/strong>
\n Current Total:\u00a0 46<\/strong>
\n Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Packers<\/a>
Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers starts the season at home against the New Orleans Saints<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New Orleans has been in this situation before and head coach Sean Payton now has the security of knowing he\u2019ll be on the sidelines through the 2015 season.\u00a0 He just agreed to a contract extension and signals a possible new contract for quarterback Drew Brees over the course of the year.\u00a0 The Saints will be playing in the NFL\u2019s season opener for the third time in four years.\u00a0 \u201cThe challenges are going into a venue with added excitement because there is going to be recognition of last year\u2019s championship,\u201d\u00a0 Payton commented.\u00a0 \u201cWe have played in this.\u201d\u00a0 Last year, New Orleans captured a 14-9 home contest over the revenge-minded Minnesota Vikings in this same exact spot.\u00a0 New Orleans is 7-10 ATS on the road the last two years.<\/p>\n

The Saints certainly possess an explosive offense with Brees under center, ranking third in the league by averaging 26.9 points a contest since the 2006 season.\u00a0 New Orleans leads the NFL in passing yardage over the same span, averaging 290.6 yards per game.\u00a0 On the other side of the ball, the defense ranked fourth in the league in total defense a year ago.\u00a0 The squad finished the preseason with a 2-2 straight-up record and 2-2 ATS mark.<\/p>\n

Green Bay didn\u2019t get to enjoy its Super Bowl win like other teams of the past due to a lockout period, but the squad took a trip to the White House just a few weeks ago and will get showered with praise Thursday night at Lambeau Field.\u00a0 The Packers have a good chance of starting the year in the win column due to a 5-0 all-time record in prime-time season openers, winning four such games on Monday and one on Sunday night.\u00a0 Head coach Mike McCarthy has also enjoyed great success in September, entering with a 11-6 (.647) record, which is tied for the fifth-best winning percentage since the 2006 campaign.\u00a0 Green Bay is 10-5 ATS at home the past two years.<\/p>\n

The Packers offense finished the year ninth in total offense, averaging 358.1 yards a contest.\u00a0 Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers joined the league\u2019s elite at the position and finished in nearly every top 10 category for the second straight season.\u00a0 On the other side of the ball, the defense was second in the league by surrendering just 15.0 points a game, trailing only the Pittsburgh Steelers (14.5).\u00a0 Getting after the opposing signal-caller was key to that success, totaling 47 sacks.\u00a0 The team was also very successful in creating 32 takeaways, it\u2019s second consecutive season of creating 30-or-more turnovers.<\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested in backing the Saints due to their 5-1 ATS mark in Week 1, while the Packers are 2-5 ATS in their last seven Thursday contests.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the NFL handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Orleans Saints at Green Bay Packers Thursday, 9\/8\/11, 8:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 NBC Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Green Bay -5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Green Bay -4 Opening Total:\u00a0 46.5 Current Total:\u00a0 46 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker New Orleans has been in this situation before and head coach Sean Payton now has the security of knowing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":5440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[416,1034,1119,427],"class_list":["post-17465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-aaron-rodgers","tag-drew-brees","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-new-orleans-saints"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17465","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=17465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17466,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17465\/revisions\/17466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}