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Tipico Sportsbook released its opening lines for Week 12’s games, and they aren’t favoring the New Orleans Saints to snap their three-game losing streak. The Saints are 4.5-point underdogs at home with the Buffalo Bills visiting the Caesars Superdome on Thanksgiving night. Take that with the over/under (46.5) and there’s an implied final total of Buffalo 26, New Orleans 21.
That would line up with the Saints’ recent history, in which they’ve really struggled to put points on the board until the opposing team has the game in hand. New Orleans has scored 53 of their 75 points over the last three games in the fourth quarter once their opponents stopped taking them seriously.
They can’t risk that approach against a good — but vulnerable — Bills team. Trevor Siemian imploded under pressure against the Philadelphia Eagles, but he played well enough to keep the Saints competitive in his first two starts. It became a different story once his supporting cast was whittled down by injuries to Alvin Kamara, Taysom Hill, Terron Armstead, and Ryan Ramczyk.
If just two of those players can return by Thursday the offense should get back on schedule — or as close as they’re getting at this point in the season. But the defense needs to be on top of their game against Josh Allen and his loaded receiving corps. It’s tough to see a path to victory if they give up as many points to Buffalo as they did Philadelphia. The offense just doesn’t have enough firepower to keep up.
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