{"id":18158,"date":"2011-10-01T01:02:14","date_gmt":"2011-10-01T06:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=18158"},"modified":"2011-10-01T01:02:14","modified_gmt":"2011-10-01T06:02:14","slug":"week-4-nfl-picks-chiefs-vikings-still-looking-for-first-victory-of-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/week-4-nfl-picks-chiefs-vikings-still-looking-for-first-victory-of-2011-18158\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 4 NFL Picks: Chiefs, Vikings still looking for first victory of 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minnesota Vikings at Kansas City Chiefs
\nSunday, 10\/2\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 FOX
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Minnesota Pick’em
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Minnesota -2.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 40
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 39.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Vikings
Minnesota's Jared Allen returns to Kansas City and hopes to avoid another second-half collapse.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Minnesota Vikings and Kansas City Chiefs are both looking for their first victory of the season and will be trying to avoid an 0-4 start when they meet on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium.\u00a0 The Vikings have come much closer to earning their first win of the year but have blown double-digit halftime leads in all three of their games so far while the Chiefs are coming off their best effort of the season.<\/p>\n

Kansas City nearly upset AFC West rival San Diego last week but fell just short in a 20-17 loss.\u00a0 The Chiefs covered as 14.5-point underdogs, with Chargers safety Eric Weddle picking off quarterback Matt Cassel with 55 seconds remaining.\u00a0 Cassel had pulled his team to within a field goal with 4:58 left when he connected with tight end Leonard Pope on a 1-yard touchdown.<\/p>\n

That was the closest KC has come to a victory this year, as the team was blown out by a combined score of 89-10 in its previous two games.\u00a0 Meanwhile, Minnesota (-2.5, O\/U 39.5) has taken leads on all three of its opponents this season only to fall apart in the second half.<\/p>\n

The Vikings have outscored the opposition 54-7 in the first half and led each of their last two games by at least 17 points at halftime.\u00a0 The problem is, they have scored only six points in the second half this year.\u00a0 And that\u2019s a big problem.<\/p>\n

Minnesota QB Donovan McNabb has not exactly thrived with his new team, as he ranks 30th<\/sup> in the NFL in passing yards with 478.\u00a0 Cassel ranks second to last in the league with 428.\u00a0 The advantage McNabb has though is that he still has his top running back behind him in Adrian Peterson, who will be facing a Chiefs run defense surrendering 123 rushing yards per game.<\/p>\n

Cassel lost the services of the offense\u2019s most valuable player in a 48-3 loss at Detroit in Week 2 when RB Jamaal Charles went down with a torn ACL in his left knee.\u00a0 Reserves Dexter McCluster and Thomas Jones have tried to pick up the slack in Charles\u2019 absence, but the team is averaging just 3.0 yards per carry.<\/p>\n

Kansas City has won the last three home meetings with the Vikings along with three of the past four overall, although the teams have played just once since 2003.\u00a0 The OVER is 4-2 in the last six meetings and has cashed in two of three games for each team overall this year as well.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the NFL handicappers<\/a> at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Minnesota Vikings at Kansas City Chiefs Sunday, 10\/2\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 FOX Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Minnesota Pick’em Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Minnesota -2.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 40 Current Total:\u00a0 39.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker The Minnesota Vikings and Kansas City Chiefs are both looking for their first victory of the season and will be trying to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":4315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[303,73,1772,1930,1922,2757,2683],"class_list":["post-18158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-nfl-betting","tag-nfl-odds","tag-nfl-picks","tag-pro-football","tag-week-4"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18159,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18158\/revisions\/18159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}