The road to the NFC Championship is looking more and more like it will be going through New Orleans. The Saints sit atop the conference standings with a gaudy 8-2 mark despite the hiccup of losing quarterback Drew Brees for a few weeks with a rib injury. The Saints try to keep their current seven-game winning streak going when they visit the Denver Broncos this Sunday.
Denver is coming off an upset of Miami, which had been red-hot entering last week’s contest before falling to the Broncos. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has hit the team, with all of the team’s quarterbacks exposed and therefore ineligible to play in this game. Can Denver find some way to be competitive? No matter what, there are plenty of opportunities for an NFL fan to do a little online betting with this one, so let’s take a closer look at the matchup.
| Game: New Orleans (8-2) at Denver (4-6) Location: Empower Field at Mile High Time: 4:05 PM ET Television: FOX |
NFL Betting Lines
| Team | Point Spread | Moneyline | Over/Under | Team Total |
| Saints | -15½ | -1400 | 36 | 24½ |
| Broncos | +15½ | +800 | 36 | 10 |
Moneyline: Saints -1400 | Broncos +800
Denver was already the underdog in this one against a hot Saints team that needs to win to stay on top in the NFC. But without Drew Lock or any of the other team’s quarterbacks able to suit up, this one is looking like it could get ugly very quickly. One has to wonder how easy it will be for New Orleans to play at full speed when the players know what the other team is going through. Either way, New Orleans isn’t losing this, though with these odds, you might think twice about doing your NFL betting on this one.
Pick: Saints to win
Point Spread: Saints -15½
The NFL odds are looking like college football odds for this one. Double-digit favorites are rare, much less one giving more than two touchdowns to the other team. But again, it’s unknown how Denver is going to field an offense. Guaranteed the Broncos coaches did not get much sleep preparing for this one. New Orleans won’t be taking any chances though, putting up as many points as it can against a tough Broncos defense.
Pick: Saints to cover
Over/Under: 36 points
How’s this for all those offense-starved NFL teams out there? In its 24-9 win over Atlanta last week, New Orleans matched its season low in scoring with those 24 points. The Saints are sixth in the league, averaging 29.5 points per game. So just an average day from New Orleans gets the score to within a touchdown of this total.
The question is Denver, which was already near the bottom of the league with an average of 20.6 points per game. Can the Broncos score without a player who plays primarily quarterback? Could we see Melvin Gordon III lined up in a lot of Wildcat formation? It will be interesting to see and to make NFL picks on, but it’s also hard to see these two teams combining for five scores.
Pick: Under 36
Prediction: Saints 28, Broncos 6
