NFL Betting – Pack, Vikes Battle for North on SNF
By Zack Garrison in News
Updated: January 17, 2018 at 9:39 am ESTPublished:
Green Bay Packers (-2.5, 43.5 o/u) at Minnesota Vikings
The battle for the NFC North heats up in Week 2 as division frontrunners Green Bay (1-0 SU, 0-1 ATS) and Minnesota (1-0 SU, 1-0 ATS) tangle at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Sunday Night Football (8:30 PM Eastern).
Both teams are coming off Week 1 road wins; the Packers beat the Jaguars in Jacksonville 27-23, while the Vikings were spurred to a 25-16 win over Tennessee thanks to two defensive touchdowns.
Aaron Rodgers and the Pack had a sub-par 2015 by their standards. Top target Jordy Nelson missed the entire year with a knee injury and Rodgers’ other receivers just could not get open with any consistency. That led to the Vikings sneaking out a division title.
Nelson returned to the lineup in Week 1 but was clearly not at full speed. As expected, the Green Bay offense still has room to grow. Rodgers had 199 yards and two TDs against Jacksonville while Nelson hauled in six catches for 32 yards and a major.
Nelson’s return already opened up space in the slot for Randall Cobb, though. He added another six catches for 57 yards.
The slimmed down Eddie Lacy was decent in the run game, posting 61 yards on 14 carries (4.3 YPC).
The Packer defense was surprisingly effective, especially against the run. Part of that is due to the Jags missing RB Chris Ivory, but holding TJ Yeldon to just 39 total yards and less than two yards per carry is impressive, nonetheless.
The team also did a decent job against a potent Jacksonville passing game. They did surrender over 300 total yards through the air, but registered three sacks and a pick.
The secondary will have a much easier time this week against the Vikings. Minnesota will be adjusting to new QB Sam Bradford, who’s only had two weeks to learn the offense. He may be more of a threat than Shaun Hill was last week (18-33, 236 yards), but the Vikes don’t have a prolific passing attack at the best of times.
They will have to keep an eye on Stefon Diggs (seven receptions, 103 yards), of course. The second-year man looked dangerous, even with Hill under center.
One person who’d like to see the Green Bay D devote some resources to the passing game is Adrian Peterson. AP (19 carries, 31 yards, zero touchdowns) was never able to get going in Week 1 as the Titans stacked the box to stop the run.
Lucky for Minny, the defense was all-world, sacking Marcus Mariota three times and registering three takeaways, two of which they took to the house.
The Vikes’ defense may give Green Bay a stiff test on Sunday, but I see the Green Bay offense finding its stride as Nelson continues to improve. After all, Aaron Rodgers has owned this team, going 11-5 in his career with 34 touchdowns to just five interceptions. The Packers won’t just give away points like the Titans did.
At the end of the day, I don’t see a Bradford-led offense being able to keep up, even if “keep up” only means scoring 20 points.
Take the Packers as Green Bay runs its record to 6-1 in its last seven at Minny.
Pick: Packers -2.5.
Photo credit: Joe Bielawa, CC BY 2.0 [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.
Sports Writer
Zack is a tour guide whose favorite sports are football, baseball, and golf. He enjoys giving obnoxious commentary during games and hopes to some day write a book about sports. His favorite underdog victory was the Diamondbacks beating the Yankees in game 7 of the World Series.
