{"id":17928,"date":"2011-09-23T10:24:20","date_gmt":"2011-09-23T15:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=17928"},"modified":"2011-09-23T10:24:20","modified_gmt":"2011-09-23T15:24:20","slug":"nfl-predictions-week-3-houston-texans-at-new-orleans-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfl-predictions-week-3-houston-texans-at-new-orleans-saints-17928\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Predictions Week 3: Houston Texans at New Orleans Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"

Houston Texans at New Orleans Saints
\nSunday, 9\/25\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 New Orleans -5.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 New Orleans -4
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 52.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 53
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Cowboys<\/a>
New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees threw for 270 yards and three touchdowns last week against the Chicago Bears<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Houston has been one of the more impressive teams in the early going of the 2011 season, picking up consecutive wins to start the year against the Indianapolis Colts (34-7) and Miami Dolphins (23-13).\u00a0 It\u2019s nothing new for the franchise, as its one the opening two games for the third time in five years.\u00a0 One of the problems for head coach Gary Kubiak during his time in the Lone Star State is continuing to prolong winning streaks.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot more poise than last season,\u201d stated Kubiak this week.\u00a0 \u201cNobody\u2019s in here jumping around, high-fiving each other.\u201d\u00a0 The addition of Wade Phillips as the defensive coordinator has provided a major lift, as the unit is ranked first in the NFL.\u00a0 Houston is 8-8 ATS on the road the last two-plus seasons.<\/p>\n

The Texans have always been considered an explosive offense due to a passing game that features quarterback Matt Schaub and wide receiver Andre Johnson, but the running game continues to pick up major yards.\u00a0 Despite the lingering hamstring injury to Arian Foster, who led the league in rushing yards a year ago, backup Ben Tate has been able to rush for 103 and 116 yards in the first two weeks.\u00a0 Schaub has been incredibly efficient in completing 71.7 percent of his passes and has a 100.4 quarterback rating.<\/p>\n

New Orleans dropped the hammer in a 30-13 win over the Chicago Bears last week as 4.5-point home favorites, as the team desperately needed a win after dropping a 42-34 contest in the season opener to Green Bay.\u00a0 The Saints are familiar with the Texans due to facing each other in the preseason on Aug. 19, while also playing each other in exhibition play the previous three years.\u00a0 \u201cTo some degree there\u2019s familiarity with the personnel with some players that have been on that team in the last few years,\u201d commented Saints head coach Sean Payton.\u00a0 The defense played much better last week in giving up just 246 total yards and sacking Bears quarterback Jay Cutler six times.\u00a0 New Orleans is 18-20 ATS over the last two-plus seasons.<\/p>\n

The Saints are still led by talented quarterback Drew Brees, who threw for 270 yards and three touchdowns last week after going for over 400 yards in Week 1.\u00a0 He lost one of his main targets in Marques Colston, who will be out for a few more weeks with a broken collarbone, but connected with Devery Henderson three times for 103 yards.\u00a0 New Orleans defense will be tested in the trenches, but ranks seventh in allowing 81.5 yards per game through two weeks.<\/p>\n

Bettors will find that the Saints are 7-3 ATS in September, while the Texans are 1-6 ATS as an underdog.<\/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":"

Houston Texans at New Orleans Saints Sunday, 9\/25\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 New Orleans -5.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 New Orleans -4 Opening Total:\u00a0 52.5 Current Total:\u00a0 53 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Houston has been one of the more impressive teams in the early going of the 2011 season, picking up consecutive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":5410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[2871,5456,1034,1120,452,427],"class_list":["post-17928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-andre-johnson","tag-arian-foster","tag-drew-brees","tag-houston-texans","tag-matt-schaub","tag-new-orleans-saints"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17928","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=17928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17929,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17928\/revisions\/17929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}