New Orleans at New England

The Saints are a dog, but Coach Sean Payton gets his teams to play in preseason with a 20-14-3 spread mark. New Orleans has a fine QB rotation for August with Drew Brees, Luke McCown and Garrett Grayson. The offense was tops in the NFL in passing last year. New Orleans has new-looks on defense with rookie DT Sheldon Rankins (first round, #12, out of Louisville) and DT Nick Fairley. New Saints' LB Craig Robertson has stood out consistently throughout camp, drawing praise from coaches and teammates and drawing a lot of work with the first team, especially in sub packages. Thanks to Fairley and some swarming linebackers, the offense has had barely any success running the ball in practice. The Patriots are home, but have a big question mark at QB with young Jimmy Garoppolo having to start, with only rookie Jacoby Brissett behind him. They want to get Garoppolo experience, of course, but they have to be careful about injury as he will be quarterbacking the first four games of the regular season with Tom Brady's suspension. The Pats showed nothing in the preseason opener a year ago, also at home, in a 22-11 defeat to the Packers as a favorite. Garoppolo had no TDs with one pick as the offense had just 211 total yards. Play New Orleans and the UNDER.