NFL point spread: Arizona at Washington and Atlanta vs. New Orleans

The point spread and betting trends for NFL Week 7 continue with the games Arizona Cardinals vs. Washington Redskins and Atlanta Falcons vs. New Orleans Saints.

NFL point spread: Arizona at Washington and Atlanta vs. New Orleans For this football week point spread preview we have selected a couple of games which we are sure would please the bettor. Let's start with the Week 7 football game between the Arizona Cardinals (3-3) and the Washington Redskins (3-2). At the online betting company Bookmaker, the Redskins are favorite to win with odds -375 and the Cardinals are underdog at +315. The point spread on the Arizona Cardinals vs. the Washington Redskins is currently sitting at -8 points chalk the Redskins and the total is listed at 35.5 points. We believe that the point spread on this game is sitting a little too low, this is something you should consider.

Both Arizona and Washington are hurt by numerous player injuries, but it seems that the Cardinals are carrying a bigger load. Arizona quarterback Matt Leinart is out for the season to be replaced by Kurt Warner, who on the other side remains questionable for Week 7 with injured elbow and limited Wednesday practice. Coach Ken Whisenhunt has not given up on Warner yet, but if he is unable to play against the Redskins, the alternative will be the recently signed Tim Rattay or the even fresher Tim Hasselbeck from the Giants, who hasn't thrown a ball since he played with the Washington Redskins in 2003. However, letting in Tim Hasselbeck, better known as husband of Elisabeth Hasselbeck than a football player, and spent more time working on his media career than football, would be a last resort for Whisenhunt. Tim Rattay got some playtime last week after Warner was injured and went 12-of-24 with with three interceptions and two fumbles. Arizona is leading the NFC West offense and defense on stats, but with the quality of this division - it means nothing.

All this offensive mess will have to meet the 3rd ranked overall NFL defense (13.8 points allowed on average) of the Washington Redskins, who held up very nicely to the Packers last week. Although the Redskins are far from Super Bowl material, they should easily cover the -8 spread and more. The only problem could stem from the recent injuries of offensive tackles Todd Wade and Stephon Heyer, who missed Wednesday practice. Washington signed Kevin Sampson and Calvin Armstrong to replace them if necessary. Keep your eyes on the injury reports. The Redskins defense should be able to turn enough game for the injury-crippled offense to put a nice score on the board.

The second NFL Week 7 game we will look into is the match-up between the Atlanta Falcons (1-5) and the New Orleans Saints (1-4). And for the first time in a while the New Orleans Saints are actually listed as the favorite to win at Bookmaker with betting odds -400 and, of course, the Falcons are once again the underdog with odds +330. The point spread on the Atlanta Falcons vs. the New Orleans Saints game is favoring the Saints -8.5 points and the total is sitting at 42 points. We made our readers a bit richer last week, after pointing out that the spread on the Giants - Flacons game was only -4.5 points, but this week the bookmakers come out with a lesson learned at -8.5 chalk the Saints.

In Atlanta coach Bobby Petrino is giving the starting job to the quarterback Byron Leftwich, which won't result in much. The Falcons are running one of the wore offenses with 13.2 points per game on average and as Petrino put it: "I'm frustrated. Everybody is frustrated". There you have it. The defense is not as bad as the O, with 21.8 points on average allowed it ranks towards the middle of the league, but the D-line is even more frustrated watching the offense wasting any turnovers. Alge Crumpler and Roderick Coleman missed Wednesday practice with knee injuries.

The New Orleans Saints aren't a pretty picture, either, but the team is pumped up after the 28-17 away-victory against the Seattle Seahawks last week. Let's say that the Saints will be an "OK" team in Week 7 and this has proven to be all it takes against the Falcons. QB Drew Bee is doing good, he went 25-of-36 against Seattle for 246 passing yards. Reggie Bush was on fire last week with 97 rushing yards. Overall the Saints should be able to cover the -8.5 point spread against the Falcons this week. Atlanta is 1-5 against the spread in its last 6 games when playing New Orleans, but the total has gone UNDER in 5 of New Orleans's last 7 games at home.

Published on 10/17/2007