NFL Picks Week 5: Carolina Panthers and 3 Home Underdogs Guaranteed to Cover

Being a home underdog in the NFL has to be the biggest slap in the face. It is the odds makers way of saying that you aren't good enough to defend your home turf, even though there are 70,000 fans in the stands doing all they can to disrupt the other team's rhythm.

Of course, there are some matchups that just demand the road team be favored because they are that much better than the home team. But there are a few games in Week 5 in which the home team should not be the underdog, or at least shouldn't be as much of an underdog as they are.

Here are three home teams that will make the bookies look like fools this Sunday.

Philadelphia Eagles (-3) at Buffalo Bills

What have the Eagles done to inspire enough confidence to make them the favorites against a good Buffalo Bills team?

Sure, the Bills lost to the Bengals in Cincinnati last week. But the Eagles lost at home to the 49ers, which is a worse loss because they were winning that game by 20 points.

Michael Vick and DeSean Jackson are the only two offensive players showing any consistency this season. They are very good and are perfectly capable of carrying an offense, but no one else is supporting them.

The Bills are going to win this game outright because they are playing better right now.

New Orleans Saints (-7) at Carolina Panthers

I can understand making the Saints a favorite in this game, but seven points is too much to be giving them.

The Panthers are a better team than their record would indicate, and the offense looks like it will be a force all season long. Cam Newton has a stranglehold on the Rookie of the Year award right now, and Steve Smith loves having a quarterback who will throw him the ball.

Both of these teams can score a lot points in a short amount of time. This game is going to turn into a shootout, and any team can win in a game like that.

The Saints will likely win the game, but the Panthers will cover the seven-point spread.

Green Bay Packers (-6) at Atlanta Falcons

The Falcons are a resilient team. They don’t play a flashy style. They won’t wow you in any particular phase of the game, but when the clock ticks down to zero, more often than not, they are ahead on the scoreboard.

The Packers deserve to be favored in this game because they have been playing lights out on offense, and the Falcons are leaving a lot to be desired with their performance through the first four weeks of the season.

But they are playing at home, you have to give the Falcons a chance because they always seem to find a way to win in Atlanta.

One big key for the Falcons heading into this game is the emergence of rookie wide receiver Julio Jones, who has caught 17 passes for 242 yards in the last two weeks.