New Orleans at Green Bay

The 2011 NFL season gets underway with a good one as the New Orleans Saints take on last year's Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers at Lambeau. These are a pair of teams more noted for exciting offense than stifling defense, but the defenses both have something to say. Green Bay owned the #2 defense a year ago. allowing just 15.0 points per game and is now healthier. And the Saints didn't win the Super Bowl two years ago on offense alone. Last season they owned the 7th best defense (19.2 pokints per game). So while the focus of the media and average fan is on Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees, the fact that we have two of the top seven defenses going at it here gets lost in the shuffle. High-powered offenses often struggle early as they take more time to shake off the rust than do defenses. This year that is likely especially true given the lockout. When you get two high-powered QBs taking each other on, they often play more ball-control to keep each other’s offense off the field. New Orleans has posted a 9-3 mark to the UNDER in season game one over the last 12 years, and the Packers’ high-powered offense hasn't clicked in week one either recently, with a 6-1 mark to the UNDER in their last seven season openers. Take the UNDER in here.