John Warner previews this week’s NFL MNF matchup and gives out his favorite bets!
Monday Night’s Game wraps up one of the best weeks of professional football in recent memory. A half dozen games came down to a score in the final minute including multiple walk-off field goals! And as I write this, we just got to see a walk-off goal line stand by the Seahawks capping off an unbelievable slate in Week 2. We can only pray that Saints-Raiders will give us the same type of game. Both teams are coming off Week 1 wins, with the Raiders lapping the Panthers on the back of Josh Jacobs, and the Saints pantsing Tampa Bay.
The Raiders first game in Las Vegas will see the franchise celebrating stadium independence for the first time in a generation, and sadly won’t have anyone there to celebrate with them. Gruden is slowly putting together something with the Raiders here, however, I still think they have a backup starting at QB. They looked rough defensively against Carolina though, and this week promises to be a tougher challenge against Sean Payton. And if there’s ever a coach that will exploit your weakness over and over again it’s Payton. Vegas allowed 6.0 YPP against Carolina, and almost 8 YPA. That’s not going to cut it against a well-oiled machine-like New Orleans.
The Saints looked great defensively from start to finish against new-look Tampa Bay, forcing Brady into two picks, including one for a TD. If there is an area of concern, it has to be Brees, honestly. More and more we see Brees check it down, as the depth of his target gets closer and closer. Typically, if New Orleans wants to throw it deep, we’ll see a gadget play with Taysom Hill lined up at quarterback. We will see how this year plays out, but Brees only threw for 5.3 YPA on 30 attempts, I have a feeling it’s time he could be the piece that holds this team back this year.
We got bailed out big time with a split last week, with an outrageous cover from Cincinnati. This go around I’m expecting a lot of points on the board. Seems like there have been a lot of secondary breakdowns the first two weeks with no preseason. I’ll be looking for the Saints to do their thing, making it a track meet offensively, and flexing their quality on defense. We fire!
Monday Night Football Bets
Saints 1H TT Over 13.5 (-120) – 1u
Saints ML/Over 48.5 Parlay (+188) – .5x
Season Total: 3-4-1, -.70x
