Analysis:Hopefully you got in when the gettin' was good here as this number has come down to as low as +6.5 from what I am seeing currently.
The best time to back an interim coach is in their first game - as we saw earlier this year with Dan Campbell and The Miami Dolphins. In steps Mike Mularkey for the recently fired Ken Whisenhunt. Milarkey has a good track record going back to his days in Buffalo, where he wa 11-and-5 ATS against .500 or worse opponents, and 4-and-0 ATS against those teams when they were coming off of a win.
.. which is what we have in The Saints. It is hard for me to lay a touchdown or more with a defense that is this susceptible. They have played a couple of pretty good games but even when they blew out The Colts, the defense still let Indy creep back into that game. Last week, they couldn't protect a two score lead twice in the game and let Eli Manning throw for 6-TD's and didn't pick him off once.
While it is hard to lay a touchdown or more with a very poor defense.. it is not hard to take the points with a very good defense, and that is what we have in Tennessee. The Titans have held four of their last six opponents to season low yardage totals.. and I expect Mularkey to focus in on this team strength today. I also expect the running game on offense to have success against a rush defense in New Orleans that ranks 5th worst in the NFL. This combination leads me to taking the points as this game should be tighter than a touchdown and The Titans may even win the game.
Finally, I don't mind the fact that Drew Brees went absolutely nuts last week.. as he is likely to come back down to Earth this week - and will have to do so against the number 2 rated pass defense in football.
Pick Made: Nov 6 2015 10:54AM PST