Check out what the oddsmakers think about the Panthers this week
The Carolina Panthers are back in action this weekend against the New Orleans Saints. That means you can once again risk it all on the least predictable team in the most chaotic division in the NFL.
Divisional match ups are always so hard to predict, but that is usually due to familiarity between the teams. Much of the Panthers roster wasn’t in the NFC South last season, let alone two seasons ago. Combine that with a coaching staff whose NFC South experience is similarly limited and you get a Panthers team that hasn’t properly learned to hate the Saints yet.
Meanwhile, the Saints have had the closest thing an NFC South team gets to stability, a quality that often breeds overconfidence in this division. The oddsmakers clearly respect that by basically making this game a push, with the Saints having a slight edge. Take a look:
Week 1
Spread
Panthers: +3.5
Saints: -3.5
O/U
41.5
Moneyline
Panthers: +168
Saints: -200
Remember that home-field advantage is traditionally accounted for by spotting the home team—the Panthers, in this case—three points on the spread. That means the Packerss would be favored on a neutral field by a hair over one touchdown.
The above odds were current as of the writing of this post. You can take a look at—and place a bet on—live odds for this game and more here.