Saints open as 6.5-point favorites against the Panthers

The New Orleans Saints (7-8), saw a small two-game winning streak snapped last night as an injury-depleted Saints team lost to the Miami Dolphins.

The Saints’ opponent this week, the Carolina Panthers (5-10), now come to New Orleans and hope to extend the Saints woes.

New Orleans was originally favored to win last night, but a string of positive Covid tests landed over 20 different Saints players on the Covid list and knocked them out of the game. Rookie QB Ian Book made his first NFL start and was playing with teammates many Saints fans had never heard of who was forced into action due to the amount of positive Covid tests.

With the expectation that numerous key contributors on both sides of the ball should be returning this week from the Covid list, the Saints are 6.5-point home favorites against the Dolphins this week according to DraftKings Sportsbook.

The Carolina Panthers have had their own string of injuries (Christian McCaffrey is out for the year and hasn’t played much in 2021) and poor quarterback play (they are running a 2-QB system right now with Cam Newton and Sam Darnold both taking snaps). The Panthers beat the Saints convincingly back in Week 2, when the Saints were out numerous assistant coaches - again: Covid - so the Saints will hope to exact a bit of revenge Sunday afternoon.

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