Falcons vs. Saints Spread Prediction
NFC South rivals the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons will look to establish dominance within the division on Sunday when they meet at 1:00 p.m. ET. Will the Saints pull off the small upset over their hated foes?
Game Snapshot
467 New Orleans Saints at 468 Atlanta Falcons
1:00 p.m. ET, Sunday, September 16
Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, GA
Public Betting Trends
According to oddsmakers from online sports book BetNow.eu, the Falcons are 2-point favorites to beat the Saints. The total, meanwhile, sits at 53.5 points. As of this writing, 59% of the public betting tickets are on the Falcons to cover the point spread.
New Orleans Saints
Ted Ginn (knee) wasn’t listed on the Saints’ final injury report for Week 3 against the Falcons. G Andrus Peat and OT Terron Armstead were also removed from New Orleans’ injury report. Although Ginn appears healthy and will start on the outside, Cameron Meredith is expected to be active against the Falcons. Tre’Quan Smith notably started in Week 2 but still ran fewer routes (and logged fewer snaps) than Austin Carr. All could rotate around Michael Thomas.
Atlanta Falcons
Falcons coach Dan Quinn confirmed Julio Jones (calf) will play Week 3 against the Saints. Jones returned to practice Friday and was able to do “quite a bit,” according to Quinn. Despite missing the first two practices of the week with calf tightness, Julio’s Week 3 status was never in doubt. He wasn’t even listed on the team’s final injury report. Jones should be in for a big week against a Saints secondary that has allowed the fourth-most yards per game this season.
NFL Betting Trends
New Orleans
The Saints are 14-5 against the spread in their last 19 road games but are just 1-4 against the number in their last five games played overall.
Atlanta
The Falcons have covered in five of their last six home games and in eight of their last 11 games played in the month of September.
Prediction
We have yet to see the Saints play a complete game but I’m willing to bet that changes today. The Falcons are extremely banged-up defensively. They won’t have their starting middle linebacker (Deion Jones), their starting strong safety (Keanu Neal), one of their starting defensive ends (Takk McKinnely), and they also lost their starting left guard Andy Levitre to IR earlier this week. They got the win last week at home versus the Panthers but this Saints team is a different animal. Alvin Kamara could run all over this Atlanta defense today.
NFL Week 3 Prediction: New Orleans Saints ML