San Diego Chargers (3-4,) -3, 47 O/U vs. New Orleans Saints (3-4), +3, 47 O/U
Wembley Stadium, London, England, 1:00PM Eastern Sunday
by Jay Horne of Predictem.com
A pair of (3-4) teams will travel across seas to play in London, England come Sunday. The San Diego Chargers and the New Orleans Saints will play in front of 90,000 fans at Wembley Stadium. This will be the second game outside North America in the history of the NFL contributing to the always rising NFL fan base. Both teams are coming in off losses last week and will be trying to get a win in front on the London crowd. The Chargers and the Saints will both be trying to improve their season record to the .500 mark to 4-4 and possibly keep some playoff hopes alive.
The Saints come in after a 30-7 loss from the Carolina Panthers and looking forward to rebounding back to a win. New Orleans will have to play without tailback and special teams standout Reggie Bush. Bush had to undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left knee and will be out for 3-4 weeks. Duece McCallister will be the guy that gets the bulk of the carries in place of Bush. Fantasy nuts, Pierre Thomas may be worth a claim as well. QB Drew Brees leads the NFL in passing yards per game throwing for nearly 320 yards a game. Brees has been great this year nearly 70% passing attempts, racking up 2224 yards, with 12 TDs and 6 picks. The Saints hope Brees will continue to stay hot and put up some big numbers in front of the overseas fans.
San Diego also comes into the contest after a loss a week ago at the hands
of the Buffalo Bills by a score of 23-14. Chargers superstar LaDainian
Tomlinson has had an awful start this season hampered by a toe injury
that his limited his playing time. Tomlinson carried the ball only 14 times
last week, but will look to get a bigger work load this Sunday. The Chargers
QB Phillip Rivers leads the NFL in quarterback rating at a mark of 108.5.
Rivers has completed 63% on the year for nearly 1700 yards. Rivers has been
great and putting the ball in the endzone throwing for a NFL leading 16
touchdowns on the season. Chargers hope Rivers will continue to throw touchdowns
this Sunday so they can get back to a winning formula.
Vegas has opened the line favoring Chargers at -3. The odds for the Chargers are at -120 with even money on the Saints. The over/under total for the contest is holding steady at 47. Early betting action has nearly 2/3 the public betting on the Chargers ATS with almost 3/4 the public siding with the under total. Moneyline numbers have opened with San Diego -170 and New Orleans at +150.
The Saints offense is ranked #1 in the NFL in total offense averaging 402 yards per game. Surprisingly their offense is only ranked #9 in points averaging 25 points per game. New Orleans racks up more yards than any other team in the league and with a few more touchdowns they could also lead the NFL in scoring. The main problem that New Orleans has faced is stopping their opponents. While they accumulate as many yards as any team, they also give up nearly as many yards. The Saints defense ranks in the bottom half on the NFL giving up 331 yards per game and allowing nearly 24 points per contest. New Orleans would like to see improvement on the defensive side of the ball to help their high power offense.
The Chargers have given up 23 points per game this season while allowing 366 yards per game. While that is not impressive defensive numbers, their offense has picked up the slack. San Diego ranks #5 in the NFL in scoring at slightly above 27 points per game. San Diego ranks in the dead middle of the NFL in total yards on offense averaging around 327 yards per game. San Diegos defense will be in the spotlight as they go up against the potent New Orleans offense. The Chargers will need to play sound defense and hope Phillip Rivers continues to tack on to his league leading 16 passing touchdowns to foil the Saints.
Betting numbers Both teams are 4-3 this season ATS. New Orleans is 2-0 ATS against AFC teams this season while the Chargers are 0-1 ATS against NFC. New Orleans has went on the over total in 4 out of their last 6 games. San Diego is even at 3-3 in the over/under total. These two teams have not played each other in over 3 seasons, but San Diego has won the last 3 out of 4 games against New Orleans with 3 out those last 4 going with the over total. The last meeting between these two opponents QB Drew Brees led the Chargers to a 43-17 win over the Saints. Brees will be lining up behind center for the Saints this time around and hopes to be on the winning end again.
Jays Pick This game very likely will be a offensive shootout, take the over 47.