{"id":29656,"date":"2013-08-16T13:12:13","date_gmt":"2013-08-16T18:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=29656"},"modified":"2013-08-16T13:12:13","modified_gmt":"2013-08-16T18:12:13","slug":"nfl-preseason-week-2-predictions-minnesota-vikings-vs-buffalo-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfl-preseason-week-2-predictions-minnesota-vikings-vs-buffalo-bills-29656\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Preseason Week 2 Predictions: Minnesota Vikings vs. Buffalo Bills"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Minnesota Vikings vs. Buffalo Bills<br \/>\nFriday, 8\/16\/13, 7:00PM EST, TV:\u00a0 N\/A<br \/>\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Buffalo -3<br \/>\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Buffalo -3.5<br \/>\nOpening Total:\u00a0 40<br \/>\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 43<br \/>\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_29493\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29493\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Christian-Ponder-vikings-2013.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-29493\" alt=\"The Minnesota Vikings will look to get more out of their first-team offense Friday\" src=\"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Christian-Ponder-vikings-2013-300x168.png\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Christian-Ponder-vikings-2013-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Christian-Ponder-vikings-2013.png 495w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-29493\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Minnesota Vikings will look to get more out of their first-team offense Friday<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Minnesota suffered a 27-13 defeat to the Houston Texans as one-point home favorites in its preseason opener last week, while going OVER the betting total of 35.5.\u00a0 The Vikings first-team offense was done after two snaps and 43 seconds of game clock, as head coach Leslie Frazier made a decision leading up to the game to play the unit in just one series.\u00a0 \u201cWe really need to look at some other guys and find out who\u2019s going to be able to help our football team,\u201d commented Frazier.\u00a0 Minnesota is expected to play quarterback Christian Ponder and Co. two-to-four series this time around.<\/p>\n<p>The Vikings will likely keep running back Adrian Peterson off the field for the entire 2013 NFL preseason, which must be considered when looking over the pro football odds page.\u00a0 Minnesota backup signal-caller Matt Cassel will look to continue to place pressure on Ponder to perform, as he completed 12 of 19 passes for 212 yards and a touchdown with an interception in the opener.\u00a0 Offensively, the team ranked 31st in passing a season ago, but hope the addition of wide receiver Greg Jennings will improve upon that number.<\/p>\n<p>Buffalo picked up an impressive 44-20 victory over the Indianapolis Colts as 4.5-point road underdogs last week, while going OVER the betting total of 36.5.\u00a0 The Bills have a youthful roster, with all but six points being scored by rookies at Lucas Oil Stadium.\u00a0 It\u2019s a surprising result due to the fact that a franchise that last made the playoffs in 1999 hasn\u2019t had much success with drafting players over the past decade.\u00a0 Buffalo will be led on the field by quarterback Kevin Kolb in this affair\u2014with last week\u2019s starter EJ Manuel taking over afterwards.<\/p>\n<p>The Bills are interested in extending the field with downfield passes, which could open up running lanes for running backs Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller.\u00a0 Buffalo will look to accomplish this feat without No. 1 wide receiver Stevie Johnson on the field, but the offense did roll up 451 yards and 27 first downs against the Colts.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m going to recommend that readers back the Vikings in this affair, as they\u2019ve finished with a .500 or better record 40 times in the team\u2019s 52 preseasons.<\/p>\n<p>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":"<p>Minnesota Vikings vs. Buffalo Bills Friday, 8\/16\/13, 7:00PM EST, TV:\u00a0 N\/A Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Buffalo -3 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Buffalo -3.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 40 Current Total:\u00a0 43 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Minnesota suffered a 27-13 defeat to the Houston Texans as one-point home favorites in its preseason opener last week, while going OVER the betting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":29493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[393,127,3326,5388,3005,541,73,31],"class_list":["post-29656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-adrian-peterson","tag-buffalo-bills","tag-christian-ponder","tag-ej-manuel","tag-kevin-kolb","tag-matt-cassel","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-nfl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29656","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=29656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29657,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29656\/revisions\/29657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}