{"id":18458,"date":"2011-10-08T17:56:21","date_gmt":"2011-10-08T22:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=18458"},"modified":"2011-10-08T17:56:21","modified_gmt":"2011-10-08T22:56:21","slug":"nfl-predictions-week-5-new-orleans-saints-vs-carolina-panthers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfl-predictions-week-5-new-orleans-saints-vs-carolina-panthers-18458\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Predictions Week 5: New Orleans Saints vs. Carolina Panthers"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Orleans Saints at Carolina Panthers
\nSunday, 10\/9\/11, 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 51.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 51
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Carolina Panthers QB Cam Newton has led the team to a 3-1 ATS record through four weeks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New Orleans enters off a 23-10 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars as nine-point road favorites and gets set for an NFC South matchup against Carolina.\u00a0 The Saints running game was the story last week in gaining 177 yards, which was their highest total since the middle of the 2010 season.\u00a0 Quarterback Drew Brees definitely can\u2019t be forgotten, connecting on 31-of-44 passes for 351 yards with a touchdown.\u00a0 Offensively, the team ranks second in the league in gaining 471.5 yards a game, while sitting fifth in scoring 31.8 points a contest.\u00a0 New Orleans is 3-0 ATS as a favorite of 3.5 to 9.5 points this season.<\/p>\n

The Saints were great defensively last week against the league\u2019s worst offense, allowing Panthers rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert to complete just 16 of 42 passes for 196 yards with a touchdown and interception.\u00a0 The stakes are certainly raised in this game in facing another rookie, as Cam Newton has taken the league by storm, leading the Panthers to 451.8 yards a game.\u00a0 New Orleans has tightened things up on the defensive end since facing Green Bay in the league\u2019s season-opening contest, coming into Week 5 ranked 15th in the league.<\/p>\n

Carolina is 1-3 on the season and everyone seems to be confident that the team is nowhere near where it was a year ago when finishing 2-14.\u00a0 The Panthers know they are up against some stiff competition in the division, as the other four teams are 7-0 in non-division games this year.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a heck of a challenge,\u201d commented first-year head coach Ron Rivera.\u00a0 \u201cOne of the big reasons why we drafted Newton is that we felt like we had to find a franchise quarterback.\u201d\u00a0 Carolina is 3-1 ATS on the year and 8-10 ATS at home over the last two-plus seasons.<\/p>\n

The Panthers have learned once again how valuable wide receiver Steve Smith can be when the team has a quarterback that can get him the football.\u00a0 He has three games of finishing with at least 150 yards receiving and could go over that number again when going against a Saints\u2019 secondary that is allowing 254 passing yards and two passing touchdowns a game.\u00a0 Offensively, the team is coming off a team-record 543 total yards and Newton is averaging 346.5 yards per game through the air, scoring on five passing touchdowns and running for four more.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Saints due to their 7-3 ATS mark in October, while the Panthers are 3-9 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":"

New Orleans Saints at Carolina Panthers Sunday, 10\/9\/11, 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 51.5 Current Total:\u00a0 51 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker New Orleans enters off a 23-10 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars as nine-point road favorites and gets set for an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":17237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[3365,279,1034,427],"class_list":["post-18458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-cam-newton","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-drew-brees","tag-new-orleans-saints"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18458","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=18458"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18459,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18458\/revisions\/18459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}