{"id":30024,"date":"2013-09-07T21:24:04","date_gmt":"2013-09-08T02:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=30024"},"modified":"2013-09-07T21:27:04","modified_gmt":"2013-09-08T02:27:04","slug":"nfl-week-1-picks-atlanta-falcons-vs-new-orleans-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfl-week-1-picks-atlanta-falcons-vs-new-orleans-saints-30024\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Week 1 Picks: Atlanta Falcons vs. New Orleans Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atlanta Falcons vs. New Orleans Saints
\nSunday, 9\/8\/13, 1:00 PM EST
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 New Orleans -3
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 New Orleans -3
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 53
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 54.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The New Orleans Saints are 13-4 ATS at home since 2011<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Atlanta went 13-3 and earned the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs last year, but it ended up blowing a 17-point lead in a 28-24 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the conference title game.\u00a0 The Falcons will be led by quarterback Matt Ryan offensively, as he finished with career highs of 32 touchdowns and 4,719 passing yards, but he may be without the services of No. 1 wide receiver Roddy White, who is dealing with an ankle injury.\u00a0 Atlanta is 5-6 ATS as an underdog the last two-plus seasons, with the UNDER going 7-4 in that situation.<\/p>\n

The Falcons earned a split in their two regular-season meetings with the Saints in 2012, but suffered a 31-27 loss as one-point road favorites on Nov. 11.\u00a0 Atlanta is 2-10 when taking on New Orleans head coach Sean Payton, which is important to consider when making your pro football picks, as he wasn\u2019t on the sidelines last year due to Bountygate.\u00a0 Defensively, the team has allowed Saints quarterback Drew Brees to throw for 26 touchdowns and get picked off just 11 times in those 12 contests.<\/p>\n

New Orleans is set to open up a season against Atlanta for the seventh time in series history, which is important to consider when looking over the pro football odds page.\u00a0 The Saints are definitely excited that Payton is back on the sidelines, as they still possess one of the more dynamic offenses in the NFL.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s important,\u201d commented Saints offensive linemen Zach Strief.\u00a0 The franchise is looking for a bounce-back season after going 7-9 and having its run of three straight playoff appearances end last year.\u00a0 New Orleans is 13-4 ATS over the last two-plus seasons, with the OVER going 11-6 in that situation.<\/p>\n

The Saints will need to improve in a big way on the defensive end, as they allowed a league-record 7,042 total yards in 2012.\u00a0 New Orleans is hoping former Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan can turn the unit around, but he\u2019ll be missing linebacker Jonathan Vilma, who has been placed on injured reserve.<\/p>\n

Sports bettors will likely back the Falcons due to their 9-4 ATS mark in their last 13 seasons openers.<\/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":"

Atlanta Falcons vs. New Orleans Saints Sunday, 9\/8\/13, 1:00 PM EST Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 New Orleans -3 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 New Orleans -3 Opening Total:\u00a0 53 Current Total:\u00a0 54.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Atlanta went 13-3 and earned the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs last year, but it ended up blowing a 17-point […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":29509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[123,427],"class_list":["post-30024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-new-orleans-saints"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30024","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=30024"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30026,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30024\/revisions\/30026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}