The rested, but possibly rusty, New Orleans Saints host an Arizona Cardinals team that is coming off the highest-scoring playoff game in NFL history on Saturday January 16th at the Superdome in New Orleans.
The New Orleans Saints (-305) are 7-point NFL odds favorites over the Arizona Cardinals (+245) and the over/under is 57.
Going in to this game the big question on every sports bettors mind is “can the Saints play up to the form that they demonstrated for most of the season?”
New Orleans had a bye last week, rested many of their starters the week before, and didn’t play very well in the week before that. So it’s been a month since New Orleans has played with the proper intensity and execution. Maybe even longer for that execution part.
The Arizona offense picked up 531 yards against Green Bay and all everyone is talking about is their passing attack, but Arizona found time to pull off some big running plays too.
Running back Beanie Wells led the way with 91 yards, including a big run for 42, as the Cardinals managed 156 yards rushing.
It’s not going to be easy for the Saints to stop this offense.
The Arizona defense gave up a lot of big plays last week. Somewhere Drew Brees is looking at game tape and wondering if someone switched the pre-season tapes as a joke.
But they also made some big plays including the forced fumble that got returned for the game-winning touchdown.
The Saints will come out ready to play, but their execution isn’t going to be top-level. They will miss a couple of chances for big plays early giving the Cardinals’ defense a free pass on some early break-downs.
But the Cardinals defense is going to be a lot more focused after being embarrassed in the win last week. They’re not going to make as many tackling errors as they did last week.
The Cardinals should jump out to an early lead before New Orleans starts to charge back. By the second half, New Orleans will have their execution back and the advantage of all of the rest that they’ve had will also start to show.
Arizona will be hard-pressed to defend the lead, but at +7 I fully expect them to at least cover.
