Betting and Odds For Saturday’s Game Against Carolina

In a rare Saturday night game, the Packers will host the 4-9 Carolina Panthers in a rematch of a tight game last year that came down to a (questionable) goal line stand by the Packers defense to deny Carolina a road upset. This year will feature a matchup between two teams that have seen a lot of change since the last time they laced them up against each other, but will no doubt be a lively affair.

Below is the betting lines for this weekend’s matchup- as a reminder, odds can change at any point before the game and are accurate at the time of publishing:

Spread: Packers are 8 point Favorites

Moneyline: Packers are -420 Favorites

Last week’s game against Detroit for Green Bay felt like a really tight affair throughout but the Packers had no problem putting up points against the Lions and I would expect this to continue. The Packers offense is currently ranked first (1st) in the league in offensive DVOA (for an explanation of DVOA check out Football Outsiders) and Aaron Rodgers has been playing in exceptional rare form, even for him. This is Packer’s offense that has only hit a couple of speedbumps this year and I would not expect them to have any trouble marching the ball up and down the field against the Panthers.

Carolina looks like it will be missing the invaluable services of all-world running back Christian McCaffery. McCaffrey, who signed a 4 year $64 million extension recently. He is one of the most explosive and dangerous players in the league when healthy so Mike Pettine and the defense can sleep a little easier knowing that McCaffery will be doubtful heading into Saturday.

Matt Brady is the offensive coordinator for Matt Rhule’s squad, having come off of a historic year coaching the LSU offense en route to a National Championship before he made the jump to the NFL this past offseason. While this Panthers team is a rebuild and has not won a lot of games this year, they have some good pieces in place that brighten the future for fans and team stakeholders alike. And while this may be a comfort to some, it won’t be this weekend.

I expect the Packers to win outright and beat the spread as well, taking them to 9-5-0 against the spread and 11-3-0 overall.

Over Under Total: 51.5 Points

While I did wax poetically on the Packer’s offense earlier, I do not foresee them hitting the over this time. December in Green Bay can lead to some hostile weather conditions that will absolutely lead to an advantage in the playoffs if they’re able to hang onto the #1 overall seed in the NFC.

As a fan, I would very much love to have all of the dome and southern teams have to travel through the Frozen Tundra but as a bettor, I do not think this will lead to the type of offensive fireworks we may have seen if the game was being played elsewhere. Thankfully there is little wind in the forecast but there is snow which will make hanging onto the ball tough.

Last Week- 2-1 | Season Total- 13-13 (50%)

——————