Remember when the Saints looked like fish out of water whenever they left the Big Easy? Me too. Not the case this year, as they are 6-1 straight up and against the spread on the road. They’ve also allowed just 13 ppg in their last five. Carolina, meanwhile, has been a lamb on the road (1-6) but a lion at home (5-1 SU, 4-2 vs the spread). One decent play inside the 10 at Cleveland late in last week’s game and there’d be a whole lot more people on the Panthers’ bandwagon for this one. As it is, the hunch here is that Cam Newton rebounds from a subpar game and keeps it close in front of the home crowd in an absolute must-win. Also, I don’t see the Saints’ string of sub-20-point defensive performances continuing.
The NFL Degenerate can be seen on Sundays at noon, pedaling his bike over the George Washington Bridge from Manhattan to Fort Lee, N.J., to get his bets down (and save the bridge toll). In 1987, he threw a television set out a window when a late-game safety in the Broncos-Patriots 1987 playoff game cost him the spread AND the over simultaneously.