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Green Bay at New Orleans
With both teams in dire need of victories to remain in the thick of the NFC playoff picture, Green Bay invades the Big Easy tonight to take on the Saints at the Superdome.
Las Vegas Sports Consultants opened New Orleans (5-5 straight up, 6-4 against the spread) as a 2 ?-point favorite with a total of 51 ?. As of early this morning, most books had adjusted the Saints to two-point ?chalk? with the total in the 51-52 range. Bettors can take the Packers on the money line for a plus-120 return (risk $100 to win $120).
Green Bay (5-5 SU, 7-3 ATS) fell one-half game back of the NFC North co-leaders, Minnesota and Chicago, when both of those teams won Sunday. The Packers have covered the spread in five consecutive games, including last week?s 37-3 blowout win over Chicago as 3 ?-point home favorites.
Ryan Grant enjoyed his best game of the season against the Bears, rushing for 145 yards and one touchdown. Aaron Rodgers completed 23-of-30 passes for 227 yards and two TDs. The win snapped a two-game losing streak after Green Bay had dropped games at Tennessee and at Minnesota by four combined points.
Sean Payton?s team captured its first road win of the season last week, dropping Kansas City 30-20 as a six-point favorite. Drew Brees threw for 266 yards and one touchdown, while Pierre Thomas and Deuce McAllister had one rushing TD apiece. Thomas rushed for 88 yards on 16 carries.
Lance Moore was Brees? favorite target, hauling in eight receptions for 102 yards and a 47-yard scoring strike from the NFL?s passing yardage leader. Brees has connected on 66.8 percent of his throws for 3,251 yards with an 18/11 touchdown-interception ratio.
Moore has a team-high 52 catches for 609 yards and five touchdowns. He has answered the call when injuries have forced WR Marques Colston, TE Jeremy Shockey and RB Reggie Bush to miss multiple games apiece. Colston and Shockey are back now, but Bush was downgraded to ?doubtful? on Sunday.
Bush has missed three straight games since suffering a torn meniscus in a 30-7 loss at Carolina. Before going down with the injury, Bush was playing the best football of his career, scoring a pair of TDs against both the Raiders and Vikings.
Although the Packers are just 5-5 and Brett Favre has the Jets surging, the switch to Rodgers at QB has been a smooth transition. Even though he played several weeks with a painful shoulder injury, Rodgers maintains solid season numbers. The Cal product has completed 64.5 percent of his passes for 2,351 yards and a 15/6 TD-INT ratio.
Green Bay wide receiver Greg Jennings is having a Pro-Bowl type of year, making 48 catches for 865 yards and five touchdowns. Donald Driver has also been solid, bringing down 45 receptions for 572 yards and three TDs.
The difference between this year?s Packers and last is the ground attack (or lack therof this season). Grant is averaging only 3.9 yards per carry and last week was just his second 100-yard rushing effort.
New Orleans has won three of its four home games both SU and ATS, while Green Bay has lost three of its five road assignments. The Packers, who are 4-1 ATS on the road in 2008, are hoping to avoid their first three-game losing streak (SU, that is) on the road since 1995.
The Saints are back at home for the first time since a 34-3 win over Oakland way back on Oct. 12. Since then, they have played three road games, one game in London and had their open date.
The Packers have won seven of the last 10 meetings between these squads. Even better, they are 8-2 ATS in their last 10 games against the Saints.
--The ?over? is 8-2 in the last 10 head-to-head meetings between the Saints and Packers.
-The over is 11-1 on MNF this season.
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