Green Bay Packers v New Orleans Saints: Preview and Prediction for NFL Thursday Night Season Opener

September 8, 2011 By 12 Comments

Football is finally back, and there aren’t many matchups better than Thursday’s game between Green Bay and New Orleans.

The Saints will open up the season on Thursday night for the second consecutive year, having won last year’s 2010 NFC Championship game rematch over the Vikings in a low-scoring 14-9 affair.

This season’s matchup pits the past two Super Bowl champions against each other, and with the Vegas over/under set at 47 (all NFL Week 1 spreads and over-unders here), this figures to be a much higher-scoring game than the 2010 season opener.

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new orleans saints-green bay packers pick, prediction, preview, point spread, over-under, thursday night football

New Orleans Saints at Green Bay Packers Preview

  • Saints-Packers Date: Thursday, September 8th
  • Saints-Packers Time: 8:30 ET
  • Saints-Packers TV: NBC
  • Saints-Packers Announcers: Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth
  • Saints-Packers Point Spread: Packers -4
  • Saints-Packers Over-Under Odds: 47

Saints Offense v Packers Defense

The Saints enter the game with three important new additions on offense in center Olin Kreutz and running backs Darren Sproles and Mark Ingram. Kreutz, a six-time Pro Bowl selection and a 12-year veteran, should have a relatively seamless transition into one of the league’s best offenses.

new orleans saints-green bay packers pick, prediction, preview, point spread, over-under, thursday night football

Drew Brees takes snaps in practice from new center Olin Kreutz.

Drew Brees has the same receiving corps that he’s had in year’s past, but the big difference is he’ll be throwing his dump-off passes to Sproles rather than Reggie Bush. Ingram and Pierre Thomas will get the bulk of the carries on offense and, assuming both can stay healthy, should provide a respectable rushing attack for Sean Payton’s offense.

When the Saints’ offense is on the field, the question that needs to be answered by the Packers’ defense is how they will replace the name players they lost in the off-season. The first two levels of defense have the most question marks, and how they handle the Saints’ rushing and short passing game will go a long way in determining the outcome on Thursday.

DE Cullen Jenkins signed with the “Dream Team” Philadelphia Eagles, and his loss will be the the biggest void that Dom Capers’ defense will need to fill. Filling that spot in the 3-4 is Mike Neal, who is rehabbing from injury, but who Green Bay has been high on. The Packers also parted ways with linebackers Nick Barnett and Brandon Chillar, but they do bring back Clay Matthews, who finished second in the defensive player of the year voting last season.

clay-matthews-packers-saints-prediction-point-spread-preview

Packers Offense v Saints Defense

As for Green Bay’s offensive side of the ball, things are only looking upward from a year ago. Aaron Rodgers is back, having established himself as one of the best quarterbacks alive today, but this year he has even more weapons.

Jermichael Finley is back from injury and itching to get on the field, and he joins Rodgers’ other complent of receivers, plus new weapon Randall Cobb. This could be the big disadvantage in the game, as the Packers are known for their ability to gain yards after the catch, largely due to Rodgers’ pin-point accuracy, and this will force the New Orleans secondary to step-up and make plays. Yes, it is pre-season, but in their last three games the Saints have given up 20, 27 and 32 points, causing concern for Saints players and coaches.

Packers-Saints Prediction

Both offenses will have success Thursday night, but I think the Packers defense will be able to make more plays to stop drives than the New Orleans defense will. I think that the over/under of 47 could be fairly low, with both teams wanting to roll out their offensive weapons.

The Packers are a four-point favorite, but I think they’ll pull away late to win by double digits.

  • Packers-Saints Prediction: Packers 34, Saints 21
  • Packers-Saints Spread Pick: Packers -4
  • Packers-Saints Over-Under: Over

What do you think?

Who will win Thursday night's 2011 season opener between the Saints and Packers?

  • New Orleans Saints (46%, 186 Votes)
  • Green Bay Packers (54%, 219 Votes)

Total Voters: 405

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Filed Under: Game Previews, NFL Tagged With: clay matthews, Drew Brees, Green Bay Packers, new orleans saints, nfl 2011, packers-saints spread, saints-packers pick, saints-packers prediction, thursday night football
About Chris Callaway

Chris is a recent college grad living in La Crosse, Wisconsin, working primarily on-air while doing some writing as well. He is a part-owner of the Green Bay Packers, a Milwaukee Brewers die-hard, as well as a fan of the Wisconsin Badgers and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Follow him on twitter @ccallaway33 and listen to the "NFC North Report" with him and other MSF writers.

  • KLusFunk

    The Packers D will be fine, they had the money to re-sign those guys, they just knew they had adequate replacements. They played their best D at the end of the year, Barnett was out, Chillar was banged up. They will miss Cullen, but not as bad as people think, Mike Neal will have a great year. Like the article, short and to the point. My prediction, Packers 33-20.

  • DMD

    The Saints are very underated these days. They were 11-5, and they have gotten alot better. The Saints are very talented, and when it comes to hard opponents like the Packers, they'll show no mercy. Also, the Packers are very overated. They just won a super bowl. They are goin to have a long-lasting hangover, especially the way they won the super bowl. Drew Brees threw 22 interceptions and still made a pro bowl. He's goin to recover from those mistakes. Our defense is phenominal. Jonathan Vilma, Malcom Jennkins, Will Smith, Cameron Jordan, and many more will shut down the offense. Just watch guy that think Packers are goin to win. Saints are ready to kick some Packer ass.

  • BOSS SAINTS FAN

    Flat out I like the Packers,they are the only other team besides the Saints I don’t mind watching! But know this the Saints have a three headed monster in the rushing attack and the addition of Darren Sproles. Not to mention we are five deep at wide receiver! The Pack will be exposed in a spread offense. Too many loses in the defensive line guys.

  • drewlange

    Can both of these teams lose? Please?

  • http://twitter.com/ccallaway33 @ccallaway33

    What has the word been on Cameron Jordan? Is he really going to be that good? As far as I've heard he's projected to be a backup this season.

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  • Kyle Fitta

    I thought long and hard about this game. I understand the superbowl hangover aspect, but I don't think it has that much merit. Sometimes we underrate professional athletes and treat them as a popwarner team. In fact, a team has never lost the first game of the season since the start of it. The lowest margin of a cover was 3 points in 2 games, dating all the way to 2004. Greenbay won the superbowl on the road last year with their JV team as they had a lot of injuries. And if you can recall, they just made the playoffs barely as well, slipping in by winning out their last games to get into the playoffs.

    Aside from a nice win over the Falcons and the early win over the Steelers, the Saints wins don't impress me much from last year. Granted they went 11-5 but they really got their notice from beating up bad teams. The addition to Darren Sproles will help this team try to become more balance, but I think they'll still be a very west coast offense. I like Sproles, but is he the answer in turning around this poor running game? Eh, he's a hard-nose runner but he's no Adrian Peterson or something. The lost of Shockey will affect their team in more ways than one would think. Even with his glory days behind him, Shockey was an asset to this team via catching and blocking.

    On the other hand, I like Packer's spread offense vs. Saint's secondary, especially since Finlay is back. I also think Packers can get a solid amount of yards running the ball on them, to create a play-action factor as well.

    All and all, it's going to be a close one. Both teams are basically built the same exact way. However, I just see so many edges for the Packers. Both their players and coaching is better and the crowd is going to be red hot in Greenbay. I believe Packers will jump on top early, the Saints will morph a comeback, but when the dust finally settles, the Packers will clearly be the better team and win a small double digit win. 27-17.

  • Sam

    WHO DAT! SAINTS BY 3

  • Ken

    Dude..your f—g nuts! GB lost 6 games by a total of 17 points with their SECOND stringers! Your Aints got their butts kicked by a 7-9 Seattle team!! Now, you tell me who is over rated!LMFAO!!

  • charles

    packers and saints suck

  • Amanda

    No. :)

  • saints freak

    whoooo datts gonna whip up on dem cheese heads i garannntteeee