{"id":18999,"date":"2011-10-29T17:15:12","date_gmt":"2011-10-29T22:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=18999"},"modified":"2011-10-29T17:15:12","modified_gmt":"2011-10-29T22:15:12","slug":"nfl-picks-against-the-spread-week-8-minnesota-vikings-vs-carolina-panthers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfl-picks-against-the-spread-week-8-minnesota-vikings-vs-carolina-panthers-18999\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Picks Against the Spread Week 8: 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
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Carolina Panthers QB Cam Newton has met every expectation thus far in the NFL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Minnesota heads to Carolina to take on the Carolina Panthers and it will be a battle featuring rookie quarterbacks.\u00a0 The Vikings will be looking to snap a trend of the home team winning four consecutive games in the series.\u00a0 The team was handed a 26-7 loss the last time it played inside Bank of American Stadium as nine-point road favorites on Dec. 20, 2009.\u00a0 Quarterback Christian Ponder will be making his second start, facing a defense that ranks 12th in the NFL against the pass.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re hoping that he\u2019ll continue to gain confidence, get more comfortable with some things we\u2019re doing,\u201d commented Vikings coach Leslie Frazier about his signal-caller.\u00a0 Minnesota is 19-20 ATS over the last two-plus years, while the \u2018under\u2019 holds a slight 21-20 edge.<\/p>\n

The Vikings will likely lean heavily on running back Adrian Peterson, who is just 325 yards away from being the franchise\u2019s all-time leading rusher.\u00a0 He currently leads the NFL in rushing with 712 yards and eight touchdowns on 146 carries, going up against a fragile defense that surrenders 133.4 yards per game, but surprisingly enough gives up just 3.6 per carry.<\/p>\n

Carolina comes off its second win of the season and has covered both opportunities as home favorites this year.\u00a0 The Panthers out-gained the Redskins by 54 yards, posting a 33-20 win.\u00a0 Offensively, the team has responded to rookie quarterback Cam Newton, scoring 18 offensive touchdowns.\u00a0 That number is actually two more than the team scored the entire 2010 campaign.\u00a0 \u201cWe knew we had a franchise quarterback,\u201d commented Panthers head coach Ron Rivera.\u00a0 \u201cWe knew we had to find that guy, whether he was on the roster or not.\u201d\u00a0 Carolina is 5-2 ATS on the year and the \u2018over\u2019 is also 5-2 in those contests.<\/p>\n

The Panthers were known for a solid running game before Newton\u2019s arrival, but got off to a slow start in averaging just 84 yards rushing the first three weeks.\u00a0 That has certainly changed now, gaining 161 yards per contest over the last seven.\u00a0 Carolina will face a major challenge of blocking the Minnesota defensive line, especially Jared Allen, who comes in as the NFL\u2019s leader with 11.5 sacks.\u00a0 Wide receiver Steve Smith is someone to watch on Sunday, coming in with the most receiving yards in the league, averaging 21 yards a catch, which could be a force when facing a Vikings secondary that is depleted due to injury and suspension.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Vikings due to their 33-24 ATS mark following two or more consecutive losses, while the Panthers are just 10-10 ATS the last two-plus seasons.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the NFL handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/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 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Minnesota heads to Carolina to take on the Carolina Panthers and it will be a battle featuring rookie quarterbacks.\u00a0 The Vikings will be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":17237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[393,3365,279,3326,73,2034],"class_list":["post-18999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-adrian-peterson","tag-cam-newton","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-christian-ponder","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-steve-smith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18999","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=18999"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19001,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18999\/revisions\/19001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}