LAS VEGAS – The New Orleans Saints play just their second home game this season when they host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, Fox). While all three of the Saints' losses this season (both SU and ATS) have been on the road, they can extend their home winning streak to 10 games with a victory against the Bucs.
The Line: Saints -10, Total: 48.5
Line movement and notes: The Saints have actually been bet down to -10 after opening as 11-point favorites at the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook on Sunday. At the South Point, the total opened at 49.5 and is down to 48.5 there and at other shops around town. For updated spreads and totals from around Las Vegas, visit our live odds page.
Trends that matter: The Saints are 20-3-1 ATS in their last 24 games as home favorites. The Saints are 8-1 ATS in their last nine home games against NFC South opponents.
The Bucs are 2-8 ATS in their last 10 road games against NFC South opponents.
The UNDER is 9-2 in the last 11 meetings between these teams.
Saints come marching home: You can make the argument that no team in the NFL has relied more on their home field recently than the New Orleans Saints. Not even the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks have performed better than the Saints against the spread as home favorites.
Fortunately for the Saints, they get to play five of their next seven games at home as they try to get back over the .500 mark. While three of those opponents made the playoffs last year, they start the stretch with a familiar foe in the Buccaneers, who they have beaten five straight times, going 4-1 ATS.Glennon coming of age for Bucs: Everything has obviously not gone according to plan for new Tampa Bay head coach Lovie Smith, with his team losing three games in a row to start the season, capped by a devastating 56-14 setback at the Atlanta Falcons in front of a national TV audience. But the extra time the Bucs got to recover from that loss served them well last week, as they rebounded with a big road win against the Pittsburgh Steelers as 7.5-point underdogs, 27-24.
One of the key players in Smith’s original plan to reshape the team was veteran quarterback Josh McCown, who was brought in as a free agent to be the starter. Ironically, McCown suffered a thumb injury against the Falcons, giving second-year player Mike Glennon the chance to play again after starting 13 games last season as a rookie.
“You do judge quarterbacks on what they do late (in games), and he was at his best at the end, right up until the last throw,” Smith said of Glennon, who threw the game-winning touchdown pass to Vincent Jackson with seven seconds left to beat the Steelers. “When you're labeled the quarterback of the future, that's what you're supposed to do when you come out. The future was in front of us a little earlier than the initial plan, but you need to be ready at all times. How (Glennon) handled it right there at the end, having to make that final throw, kind of said it all.”
Injuries that matter: Visit here for all Week 5 NFL injuries.
Handicapping help: Buccaneers-Saints matchup analysis | Power Ratings | TB team page | NO team pageThe Linemakers' lean: This is a bad spot for the Bucs -- coming in off an emotional win to face an angry Saints team, and one that's covered the spread in the last three meetings at the Superdome. It's also the Bucs' third-straight road game. We'll gladly lay the 10 with New Orleans, the best home favorite in the league since 2011. We'll also ride the UNDER trend in this series. Saints -10 and UNDER 48 are the plays.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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