{"id":20281,"date":"2011-12-17T16:00:38","date_gmt":"2011-12-17T21:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=20281"},"modified":"2011-12-16T10:51:36","modified_gmt":"2011-12-16T15:51:36","slug":"nfl-picks-week-15-new-orleans-saints-vs-minnesota-vikings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfl-picks-week-15-new-orleans-saints-vs-minnesota-vikings-20281\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Picks Week 15: New Orleans Saints vs. Minnesota Vikings"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Orleans Saints at Minnesota Vikings
\nSunday, 12\/18\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 FOX
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 New Orleans -7
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 New Orleans -6.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 51
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 51.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Eagles<\/a>
Minnesota Vikings RB Adrian Peterson says he's about 85 percent for Sunday's game against the New Orleans Saints<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New Orleans will play its final regular-season road game Sunday in taking on the Minnesota Vikings and comes in on a five-game win streak, which includes a 22-17 victory over the Tennessee Titans as 3.5-point road favorites.\u00a0 The Saints have a two-game lead in the NFC South division and are also trying to secure the No. 2 spot in the NFC playoff picture.\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s some scoreboard watching because that two-seed would be important,\u201d stated Saints offensive tackle Zach Strief.\u00a0 New Orleans is 8-3 ATS as a favorite this year, but 0-2 ATS when laying 3.5 to 7 points on the road.<\/p>\n

The Saints will likely come out of this week with a victory if they avoid turning the ball over, as the franchise is 20-0 all-time under head coach Sean Payton when not committing a single miscue.\u00a0 New Orleans has a dismal 8-18 record against Minnesota, dropping its last four regular-season visits to Mall of America Field.\u00a0 Quarterback Drew Brees is the NFL\u2019s leader in passing yards, while also direction the No. 1 offense in the league in gaining 447.8 yards per game.\u00a0 On the defensive side of the ball, the unit is preparing to face running back Adrian Peterson, who has rushed for 209 yards on 44 carries in two games against Gregg Williams\u2019 defense.<\/p>\n

Minnesota aims to snap a five-game losing streak and also cover the spread in two consecutive games for the first time since Oct. 30.\u00a0 The Vikings were handed a 34-28 loss by the Detroit Lions last week as 10-point road underdogs, going \u2018over\u2019 the total in four of their last five games.\u00a0 All signs point to Peterson being back in the lineup after missing three games with an ankle injury.\u00a0 \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019m 100 percent, but I would say I\u2019m good enough to play,\u201d he stated in practice this week.\u00a0 Minnesota is 3-0 ATS as an underdog of 3.5 to 9.5 points this year.<\/p>\n

The Vikings will start rookie quarterback Christian Ponder if he show signs that he\u2019s able to endure a hip pointer injury that he suffered two weeks ago.\u00a0 Minnesota head coach Leslie Frazier has already made that announcement despite last week\u2019s brilliant performance by backup Joe Webb.\u00a0 On the defensive side of the ball, the secondary needs to make some type of play, allowing 2,035 passing yards and 20 touchdowns since their last interception.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Vikings due to their 8-3 ATS mark as a home underdog of 3.5 to 10 points, while the Saints are 3-11 ATS versus losing 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":"

New Orleans Saints at Minnesota Vikings Sunday, 12\/18\/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 FOX Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 New Orleans -7 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 New Orleans -6.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 51 Current Total:\u00a0 51.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker New Orleans will play its final regular-season road game Sunday in taking on the Minnesota Vikings and comes in on […]<\/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":[393,3326,1034,6146,73,427,3717],"class_list":["post-20281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-adrian-peterson","tag-christian-ponder","tag-drew-brees","tag-mall-of-america-field","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-new-orleans-saints","tag-nfc-south"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20281","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=20281"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20283,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20281\/revisions\/20283"}],"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=20281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}