Betting Preview for Monday Night Football

It will be an NFC South showdown on Monday night when Carolina hosts division leading New Orleans. At this present time (12/14), the NFL betting odds at 5Dimes is showing New Orleans as a 7.0-point favorite and there’s a total of 50.

This will be the first of 2 meetings this season between these division rivals. They will conclude their regular season schedules in New Orleans on 12/30. These teams played each other 3 times last season which included a playoff contest in New Orleans, and the Saints won on each of those occasions.

The Saints Come Marching In
The New Orleans Saints clinched the NFC South least week by virtue of a 28-14 win at Tampa Bay. That victory improved their record to an outstanding 11-2. The Saints are now 19-6 ATS (76%) in their last 25 away games and that includes 7-2 ATS when they closed as a favorite.

Slumping Panthers
The Carolina Panthers began the season by going 6-2 during their first 8 games. However, they’ve been in a tailspin ever since and enter this week having lost 5 games in a row while failing to cover during each of those defeats. Nevertheless, it must be noted that 4 of those 5 games took place on the road. Conversely, the Panthers are 10-1 in their last 11 home games. Their lone home loss during that time came 3 weeks ago against Seattle. They dropped that contest 30-27 with Seattle kicking a game winning field goal with no time left on the clock.

After appearing to be a playoff lock at the season’s midway point, Carolina finds itself on the outside looking in with a 6-7 season record. On a positive note, they’re just a half game behind the 6-6-1 Vikings who currently holds down the final NFC wildcard spot.

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Handicapping the Total
New Orleans has an an explosive offense which averages 34.1 points scored and 389.0 yards gained per game. Nonetheless, the Saints defense has been a dominant force of late, and they’ve held their last 5 opponents to 17 points or less. It then comes as no surprise that each of their previous 4 contests has stayed under the total and did so by an average of 14.1 points per game.

Carolina has gone over the total in each of their last 5 home games. Those 5 contests have averaged a combined 60.0 points scored per game. Putting those high scoring affairs into proper perspective, the average total in those 5 games was 46.9.

All 3 games played between these teams last season went over the total. There was a combined average of 52.0 points scored per game. As a matter of fact, 7 of the previous 8 games played in this head-to-head series have gone over the total.

NFL Betting System
There’s a very successful NFL betting angle that’s applicable to this game as it relates to the total. Any home team (Carolina) with a total of 40.5 or greater, playing in the last 4 weeks of regular season action, and their previous 2 games took place on the road, resulted in those contests going 57-20 (74%) under the total since 2014.

Ross Benjamin is a top sports analyst and one of the sports industry's most respected handicappers. Follow him on Twitter: @RossBenjamin1 or visit his website at RBWins.com