Falcons vs. Saints prediction, odds, spread, injuries, trends for NFL Week 18
The Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints will face-off in a Week 18 showdown in the NFC South with the winner staying alive in the race for the division.
Whoever wins the game will be rooting for the Carolina Panthers to defeat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as they need that to happen in order to steal the division crown from the Bucs. The Saints will also have an outside shot at a wild card spot if they win, but the Falcons have been eliminated from wild card contention.
If you want to get my best bet for all 16 NFL Week 18 games, check out this week's edition of the "Road to 272 Bets".
In this article, I'm going to break down everything you need to know to bet on this rivalry matchup.
If you want to get in on the action, be sure to place your bets at DraftKings Sportsbook. For a limited time, if you click the link below to sign up for an account, you'll receive $150 in bonus bets when you place your first $5 wager.
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Falcons vs. Saints odds, spread, and total
Falcons vs. Saints betting trends
- Falcons are 4-11 ATS in their last 15 games
- The UNDER is 4-2 in the Falcons' last six games
- Falcons are 4-1 ATS in their last five games vs. Saints
- Falcons are 2-12 straight up in their last 14 road games
- The UNDER is 15-5 in the Saints' last 20 games
- The UNDER is 7-3 in the last 10 meetings between these two teams
Falcons vs. Saints injury reports
Atlanta Falcons injury report
- Taylor Heinicke - QB - Questionable
- Drew Dalman - C - Questionable
- Mike Hughes - CB - Questionable
New Orleans Saints injury report
- Alvin Kamara - RB - Questionable
- Kendre Miller - RB - Questionable
- Lonnie Johnson Jr. - CB - Questionable
- Isaiah Joskey - DE - Questionable
- Nephi Sewell - LB - Out
Falcons vs. Saints how to watch
- Date: Sunday, January 7
- Game Time: 1:00 pm et
- Venue: Caesars Superdome
- How to Watch (TV): CBS
- Atlanta Falcons Record: 7-9
- New Orleans Saints Record: 8-8
Falcons vs. Saints key players to watch
Atlanta Falcons
Bijan Robinson: The Falcons top pick has one more game left in his rookie campaign. He's had a solid rookie year, averaging 4.7 yards per carry while also racking up the fourth most receiving yards on the team with 384. He ran for 91 yards and a touchdown while adding in 32 receiving yards and a touchdown through the air the last time the Falcons played the Saints.
New Orleans Saints
Chris Olave: The Saints wide receiver had a massive game the last time these two teams met, hauling in seven receptions for 114 yards. If they want to win this game and give themselves a chance of making the playoffs, he has to have another strong performance on Sunday.
Falcons vs. Saints prediction and pick
You can accuse me of being a Falcons homer all you want, but I'm going down with the ship and I'm making them my upset pick of the week. If they win and the Buccaneers lose to the Panthers, they'll be NFC South champions.
Sure, the Falcons can be infuriating to bet on, but if we take our emotions and the "eye test" out of it, there are arguments that could be made they're the better overall team compared to the Saints. They outrank them in Net Yards per Play, +0.2 compared to -0.1, and they beat them in their Week 12 matchup by a score of 24-15. Their defense also outranks the Saints' defense by a few metrics like opponent success rate and opponent yards per play.
Even if you want to make the claim the Saints are the superior team, are they 3.5 points better? I don't think so.
There's value on Atlanta right now when nobody in the world believes in them. I'll take them to win this game outright in New Orleans.
Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
You can check out all of Iain's bets here!