{"id":19697,"date":"2011-11-26T12:21:39","date_gmt":"2011-11-26T17:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=19697"},"modified":"2011-11-26T12:21:39","modified_gmt":"2011-11-26T17:21:39","slug":"nfl-week-12-picks-minnesota-vikings-vs-atlanta-falcons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfl-week-12-picks-minnesota-vikings-vs-atlanta-falcons-19697\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Week 12 Picks: Minnesota Vikings vs. Atlanta Falcons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minnesota Vikings at Atlanta Falcons
\nSunday, 11\/27\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 FOX
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Atlanta -9
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Atlanta -9
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 44
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 44
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Falcons<\/a>
Atlanta Falcons RB Michael Turner is second in rushing touchdowns in the NFL since the start of the 2008 season<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Minnesota is certainly going to be up against it in trying to snap its two-game losing streak, as star running back Adrian Peterson has been ruled out with an ankle injury.\u00a0 The Vikings will be aiming to avoid their first 2-9 start since the 1961 inaugural season.\u00a0 \u201cWe don\u2019t want to put him at risk. You know how valuable he is to our team and our franchise,\u201d commented Vikings head coach Leslie Frazier about Peterson.\u00a0 It will be a youthful offensive huddle for the team, led by rookie quarterback Christian Ponder and second-year runner Toby Gerhart.\u00a0 Minnesota is 2-0 ATS as an underdog of 3.5 to 9.5 points this year.<\/p>\n

The Vikings will have a hard time running the football without one of the best backs in the NFL, going against a Falcons\u2019 defense that\u2019s allowing just 85.4 yards per game on the ground.\u00a0 Minnesota is also a dismal 3-10 away from the Twin Cities since the start of the 2010 campaign.\u00a0 It\u2019s still important to note that the team holds a 15-9 edge in this all-time series, but dropped a 24-17 contest as 3.5-point home favorites in the last meeting on Dec. 21, 2008.<\/p>\n

Atlanta bounced back after its tough loss to the New Orleans Saints, walking away with a 23-17 win over the Tennessee Titans as 6.5-point home favorites.\u00a0 The Falcons have won three of their last four games, out-gaining opponents by triple-digits in the last three.\u00a0 \u201cWhen we get the ball in there close, we\u2019ve got to score touchdowns,\u201d stated Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s something we\u2019ll work on.\u201d\u00a0 The unit ranks 12th in the NFL when reaching the 20-yard line, coming away with six points 54.1 percent of the time.\u00a0 Atlanta is 18-9 ATS as a favorite the last two-plus years.<\/p>\n

The Falcons have registered a 7-2 record against NFC North foes since Mike Smith took over the sidelines.\u00a0 Atlanta will want to get the ball in the hands of running back Michael Turner, who is second in the NFL with 47 rushing touchdowns since the 2008 season, trailing only Peterson\u2019s 51 in that particular category.\u00a0 Ryan is starting to open things up in the passing game, posting consecutive 300-yard passing games for the first time in his young career.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Falcons due to their 12-4 ATS mark as a favorite of 3.5 to 10 points, while the Vikings are 2-9-1 ATS when facing winning teams.<\/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 Atlanta Falcons Sunday, 11\/27\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 FOX Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Atlanta -9 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Atlanta -9 Opening Total:\u00a0 44 Current Total:\u00a0 44 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Minnesota is certainly going to be up against it in trying to snap its two-game losing streak, as star running back Adrian Peterson […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":5439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[393,123,3326,5273,422,423,73],"class_list":["post-19697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-adrian-peterson","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-christian-ponder","tag-leslie-frazier","tag-matt-ryan","tag-michael-turner","tag-minnesota-vikings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19697","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=19697"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19698,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19697\/revisions\/19698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}