New Orleans Saints vs. Atlanta Falcons Pick

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Game Overview

Fireworks should be flying on the NFL Network’s Thursday Night Football betting battle at the Georgia Dome, as the Atlanta Falcons play host to the high flying New Orleans Saints.

It’s not do or die time for the Saints, but it’s certainly getting close to that. The team already has six losses this year, and it doesn’t seem like much more than maybe one more could be afforded to still get into the playoffs. The only good news is that the battle for that last playoff spot is weak in the NFC, and the teams in front of the Saints are all doing what they can to shoot themselves in the foot at the moment. QB Drew Brees really looked like he had things rolling there for a few weeks until he ran into the San Francisco 49ers last week. In a game that proved to be a real problem for him, Brees tossed a pair of pick sixes and only got 21 points on the board in spite of the fact that his team had the ball for the mass majority of the game. In the team’s last five wins, it has scored at least 28 points in all five. In the last two losses, there are just a total of 35 points scored.

Atlanta isn’t winning games in the prettiest of fashions, but it is still winning games nonetheless. The squad might have a pair of wins since losing to these Saints three weeks ago, but the Falcons haven’t covered a number in almost a month. There is a real concern regarding the health of DB Asante Samuel and DB Dunta Robinson. Robinson has a head injury, while Samuel has a shoulder sprain. Both are considered questionable, but we have to remember that this is a game on a short week, and it could be tough for both. When these teams met the first time, with both Samuel and Robinson in the lineup, Brees still threw for 298 yards and three scores. The other major problem in that loss was that the ground game was MIA. RB Michael Turner had just 15 yards on 13 carries. In fact, since that point, Turner has rumbled the ball 41 times for just 78 yards, an average of 1.90 yards per carry.

Prediction

Remember that DB Brent Grimes is out for the year for the Falcons as well, and that would leave them on corners No. 4, 5, and 6 to try to defend Brees. It just isn’t a good recipe for success right now in the Peach State, and we think that the boys from the Bayou are going to come to town and put a hurting on the Falcons this week. New Orleans 38 – Atlanta 24