NFL - Saints v Patriots

1 December 2009

Preview By Tipster Jumbo (New Zealand)

NOTE: There will be one last day of NBA betting On Sunday my time which is Saturday in the States, so if you are keen check out the site then, there will be none tomorrow Sat my time and Friday Yours…..I also am waiting on the odds for the Ravens game to come out and will have to wait to post that later

I like that this is the Final game I will get to write about as it is huge for spectators and Punters alike…Good Luck with picking a winner in this one.

The Saints are looking for a 16-0 regular season but are about to face their toughest test yet – The Patriots the only team in NFL history to accomplish the feat that the Saints are trying to achieve. The Saints put their perfect record on the line Monday night against a New England Patriots club that nearly knocked off the league's other unbeaten side only two weeks ago.

The Saints have won their first 10 games, averaging 36.9 points behind QB Brees and an offense that's seen 12 different players score TD’s. The Challenge of staying Undefeated is not easy, their start is OK, but heres where it starts to get difficult, the middle gets rough and the end is almost impossible, The Patriots of 07 won their first 10 games by an average of 24.4 points, but that margin was cut to 10 over the final six weeks with three of those contests decided by only a field goal, the Saints began this season well and are now finding that the wins keep on coming ,but not as easy as they once were, Good news is that RB Reggie Bush expects to play Monday after sitting out last week's 38-7 win at Tampa Bay. The Saints' offense is great and will prove hard to stop as 10 sides have found out this season, RB’s Thomas and Bell have rushed for more than 500 yards each, while Bush has scored five TDs and is averaging 5.0 yards per carry. Brees has thrown touchdowns to nine different receivers including six scoring each to WR’s Colston and Meachem. The Saints have risen to the challenge in games at home this season especially against the better sides and this match has to be the biggest of 2010 for them for sure, the Fans will be out in force and should make a heck of noise and like minded people throughout the States and the World will be riverted to their seats watching this highly anticipated game.

The 07 Pats know how the Saints feel, they opened 10-0 while averaging 41.1ppg. They went on to achieve the NFL's only perfect 16-game regular season, but lost to the Giants 17-14 in really the only game that mattered, The Patriots have gotten over that and are looking great again despite losing to the Colts 2 Monday Nights ago, Brady is throwing for over 300 yards in each of his last five games while throwing 14 TD’s , Moss is still there and playing well but his coverage from other sides is allowing Welker to get going by catching a league-leading 79 passes despite sitting out two September games with a injury. In last week's 31-14 victory over the New York Jets, Welker caught 15 passes for 192 yards. We all know the Patriots are good but they might just have a point to prove here tonight after losing that game to the Colts, they let go of a 17 point lead to lose that game and to have another chance at a solid team who are yet to lose could be tailor made for them, for those who can’t remember this is where the Patriots beat St. Louis in 2002 for its first Super Bowl title.

The Patriots are 3-1 in their last 4 against the Saints, the last match between these two sides was in 2005 when the Patriots won at home 24-17, 3 of those 4 games were played at the Patriots Home, The last match between these two in New Orleans was in 98 in which the Patriots won 30-27, Total wise and 3 of the last 4 have resulted in over the set total. New England is 4-0 in its regular-season visits to the Superdome, and 8-3 against the Saints overall including victories in the last three meetings.

People like the Saints and you have to like them really, their matches are exciting and almost always turn into shootout affairs particularly this season, Many I hear say that the Saints are marching towards a Title and their results tend to agree with that notion, However I diasagree with that quite a lot, The Saints have come from un winnable positions in many of their games so far this season and on averages they allow 20 ppg on the season, that is what makes me doubt them, they allow to many points, the best sides can restrict other sides and score points, for me the Saints behind Bress and Bush are a great team on offence and in some games their defence has looked brilliant, but when you allow teams like the Rams to score over 20 points against you then I have to doubt your credentials, they can’t keep coming back from more than 10 down to win games and if they do that today they could find it a lot harder to come back from the death against this Patriots side for sure.

The Way the Saints are going they will be up for the Challenge that confronts them today, but they will need to play well, the Patriots are averaging 29ppg while the Saints are on average scoring 36 ppg, defence wise and the Pat’s are the better side allowing 16ppg compared to the 20ppg the Saints give away, I’ll also take into account that the Saints in their last 5 games have a negative turnover ratio in 3 of their last 45 games which they will need to fix against the Pats tonight if they want to win this match.

When the Patriots played the Colts a couple of weeks ago now and lost they would of learnt a few things about themselves, but most notably for me they would of learnt that their defence tends to fade in the later stages of their matches, the Saints on the other hand have shown coming back from deficits even big ones is nothing new to them and they can achieve that, so I’m taking 2 Final Bets on this game…I’m taking the Saints to win by 12 or less and for this Total to go over as the main bet, Great game to look forward to, lets hope it lives up to it’s billing….Good Luck.

I know I still have the NBA on Sunday to do and the Italy vs Samoa Rugby Union match, but as this is the last one that will still be up on Monday…Keep cool till after school Dudes and Dudetes…I hope your lies turn out as good as mine has…Later….From Simon AKA Jumbo.