Odds boosts are exactly that: Promotions from sportsbooks where they move tin your favor on certain bets. Many of them are prop bets, hoping you’ll put a few dollars on someone to hit a home run or a certain team to score a certain number of goals and still win. Our job is to highlight some of those odds boosts and give you some NFL picks to bet on, assuming it’s smart to buy into what the sportsbooks are selling. We scour the internet trying to find the best odds boosts for you every day from every sport. Today, we examine the Week 5 Monday Night Football matchup between the New Orleans Saints and the Los Angeles Chargers.
What stands out about the NFL odds boosts for Monday night is the lack of wagers around Drew Brees. Instead, a lot of the focus has turned to Alvin Kamara and the versatility he has shown within the Saints offense this season. Keenan Allen soaks up most of the spotlight for the Chargers at the sportsbooks, though there is one combination wager with Justin Herbert and Brees that we will discuss. As always, these NFL bets are available on Awesemo’s newly-improved odds shopping tool, OddsShopper.
Ben Rasa's Bet of the Day Awesemo's sports betting expert Ben Rasa pours over the day's betting lines and breaks down the best bet of the day for you to build your sports betting card around.NFL Picks | Monday Night Football Odds Boosts
Alvin Kamara AND Keenan Allen Score Touchdown (+350 FanDuel)
These two are the main offensive weapons for both teams, so it makes a lot of sense for them to score tonight. Kamara scored two touchdowns in each of the Saints’ first three games and was limited to just one score last week against the Lions. He’s scored four rushing touchdowns and three receiving touchdowns during the season, but he hasn’t scored one of each since the opener against Tampa Bay. That’s a main reason why I didn’t suggest DraftKings’ +225 odds on Kamara to score a rushing and receiving touchdown tonight.
Allen is the main focal point of the Chargers’ passing attack, and his 48 targets are nearly double the next closest receiver on the roster. Austin Ekeler‘s injury puts even more of a spotlight on Los Angeles’ passing game because there won’t be a feature running back to carry the team on the ground. Allen has only caught one touchdown pass this season, but the Saints’ defense has struggled this season and ranks second-to-last with 11 receiving touchdowns against in four games. If the Chargers are going to attack New Orleans with Herbert’s arm, Allen will be at the receiving end of a lot of those throws and find his way into the end zone.
Emmanuel Sanders & Keenan Allen 129.5+ Combined Receiving Yards (+110 DraftKings)
Building off what we just said about Allen, this yardage prop should be much easier for him to hit. He’s had at least seven receptions in all three games Herbert has started for the Chargers and his 62 yards last week were the fewest he’s had with Herbert under center. The point being that Allen will see a lot of passes tonight against this Saints defense, so even if he doesn’t score, he should be racking up the yards.
Sanders is the wild card in this game because the Saints have been inconsistent with how many targets he receives in games. He had just three targets in the Week 2 loss to the Raiders, had five in the loss to Green Bay the following week then had six catches on nine targets last week in Detroit. Brees is known for spreading the ball around to his receivers, but if Sanders solidifies himself as the top option without Michael Thomas, he’ll put up yards. Sanders is averaging 15.2 yards per reception the last three weeks without Thomas, so even a few receptions will add plenty of yardage to this bet.
Drew Brees & Justin Herbert 5+ Combined Touchdowns (+100 PointsBet)
This game features two quarterbacks in two very different stages of their careers whose baseline for 2020 is still unknown. Brees has not looked like the quarterback he’s been the past decade or so, but he’s still producing with at least two touchdown passes in three of his four games this season. He’s still completing more than 71 percent of his passes and his passes have continued to be longer down the field as the season has progressed. He’s facing a Chargers defense that allowed five passing touchdowns last week to Tom Brady, so Brees should have plenty of chances to score tonight.
Herbert seemed to find his own footing last week against the Buccaneers when he threw for three touchdowns and and 290 yards in the loss. He’s been very efficient and effective as a passer with a 72 percent completion percentage, though he has thrown one interception in every start. But he’s facing a Saints defense that has allowed plenty of passing touchdowns and ranks 28th in the league in points against this season. Without Ekeler to stabilize the running game, there will be more expected of Herbert’s passing this week, and that means more chances to throw touchdown passes.
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