{"id":18887,"date":"2011-10-25T15:17:28","date_gmt":"2011-10-25T20:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=18887"},"modified":"2011-10-25T15:17:28","modified_gmt":"2011-10-25T20:17:28","slug":"nfl-week-8-predictions-minnesota-vikings-vs-carolina-panthers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfl-week-8-predictions-minnesota-vikings-vs-carolina-panthers-18887\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Week 8 Predictions: Minnesota Vikings vs. Carolina Panthers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minnesota Vikings at Carolina Panthers
\nSunday, 10\/30\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 FOX
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Carolina -4
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Carolina -3
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 47
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 47.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Eagles<\/a>
Minnesota Vikings RB Adrian Peterson is a key player in Sunday's contest against the Carolina Panthers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Minnesota has dropped consecutive games since picking up its first victory of the year, including a 33-27 defeat against the Green Bay Packers as 10-point home underdogs last time out.\u00a0 The Vikings have been dealing with numerous personnel issues, led by the release of wide receiver Bernard Berrian and cornerback Chris Cook being charged with felony domestic assault.\u00a0 The locker room was just getting use to having rookie quarterback Christian Ponder take over the position from veteran Donovan McNabb.\u00a0 Minnesota is 5-11 ATS as an underdog the last two-plus seasons and the \u2018over\u2019 holds a slight 9-8 edge in that situation.<\/p>\n

The Vikings still possess one of the top rushing offenses in the league, as running back Adrian Peterson ran for 175 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries.\u00a0 Minnesota will have a chance to get things going on the ground, facing a Carolina team that allows 133.4 rushing yards per game.\u00a0 The last time these two played at Bank of America Stadium, the Vikings were handed a 26-7 loss as nine-point road favorites on Dec. 20, 2009.<\/p>\n

Carolina moved its record to 2-5 on the season with a 33-20 win over the Washington Redskins as 1.5-point home favorites, covering at home for the fourth-straight time this season.\u00a0 The Panthers came out of the break and scored three times, pleasing first-year head coach Ron Rivera with offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski\u2019s play-calling.\u00a0 \u201cHe felt that we could run the ball a little bit,\u201d stated Rivera after the game.\u00a0 \u201cOnce he got the rhythm of that, he was able to get going.\u201d\u00a0 Carolina is 2-0 ATS as a home favorite of a field goal or less, while the \u2018under\u2019 is 5-1 in that situation the last two-plus seasons.<\/p>\n

The Panthers have to be incredibly pleased in selecting quarterback Cam Newton with the first selection in this year\u2019s draft, watching him complete 18-of-23 passes for 256 yards and a touchdown.\u00a0 He has single-handedly resurrected the career of star wide receiver Steve Smith, who has gone for over 140 yards in four games this season.\u00a0 Carolina\u2019s running game has been building momentum over the past couple weeks, gaining 175 yards on 37 carries against the Redskins.\u00a0 On the other side of the ball, bettors shouldn\u2019t put too much weight in the squad holding Washington to under 100 yards rushing, as the opposition lost its starting running back and had to throw the ball for much of the game being down on the scoreboard.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Panthers due to their 8-1-1 ATS mark as a favorite of under a field goal, while the Vikings are 4-16-2 ATS as a road underdog of less than three points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Minnesota Vikings at Carolina Panthers Sunday, 10\/30\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 FOX Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Carolina -4 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Carolina -3 Opening Total:\u00a0 47 Current Total:\u00a0 47.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Minnesota has dropped consecutive games since picking up its first victory of the year, including a 33-27 defeat against the Green Bay Packers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":3949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[393,5377,3365,279,73],"class_list":["post-18887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-adrian-peterson","tag-bank-of-america-stadium","tag-cam-newton","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-minnesota-vikings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18887","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\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18887"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18888,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18887\/revisions\/18888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}