{"id":9710,"date":"2010-10-24T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2010-10-24T17:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=9710"},"modified":"2010-10-23T14:03:23","modified_gmt":"2010-10-23T19:03:23","slug":"nfc-north-showdown-minnesota-vikings-at-green-bay-packers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfc-north-showdown-minnesota-vikings-at-green-bay-packers-9710\/","title":{"rendered":"NFC North Showdown: Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers
\nSunday, 10\/24\/2010, 8:20 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 NBC
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Green Bay -3
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Green Bay -2.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 44
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 44
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 Green Bay -140 \/ Minnesota +120<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Jared<\/a>
Minnesota Vikings DE Jared Allen tallied 7.5 sacks versus the Packers in last year's series<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Minnesota will play its second divisional game of the 2010 season this week and will face the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m a little bit reluctant to say I\u2019m excited to go back to Green Bay,\u201d said Vikings quarterback Brett Favre.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a challenge that hopefully we\u2019ll live up to.\u201d\u00a0 This will be the 99th game between the Vikings and Packers, with Green Bay holding a slim 49-48-1 advantage.\u00a0 The last 25 games in the series have been incredibly close in terms of scoring, with Minnesota posting 606 points compared to Green Bay\u2019s 590.\u00a0 The Vikings swept the series last year and has won three straight overall.\u00a0 If they pull off a victory in Sunday\u2019s contest, it will be the first time since 1992-93 that they\u2019ve won four consecutive games over their division rivals.\u00a0 Minnesota is 6-6-1 ATS versus division foes and the total is 7-6 Over\/Under in those contests.<\/p>\n

The Vikings picked up a huge 24-21 home victory over the Dallas Cowboys last week, a contest than many considered a \u201cdo-or-die\u201d game in this year\u2019s playoff picture.\u00a0 Minnesota\u2019s defense continues to be play incredible football and has given up just eight offensive touchdowns through the first five games.\u00a0 Opponents have scored just 74 offensive points versus the unit, which is the second-fewest in the NFL.\u00a0 Defensive end Jared Allen is likely the most important player in tonight\u2019s contest after picking up 7.5 sacks against Green Bay last year. On the flip side, Favre has been battling elbow tendinitis in his throwing shoulder, but has thrown for 351 yards and four touchdowns in his last six quarters of play.\u00a0 It remains to be seen if the current NFL investigation will unravel his focus, but it definitely has to be a concern for bettors.<\/p>\n

Green Bay is desperate to get back on track after dropping a 23-20 home contest to the Miami Dolphins last week and hopes to welcome back a few players to the lineup.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re getting hopefully two studs back this week on defense, three if you count Clay,\u201d quarterback Aaron Rodgers stated.\u00a0 \u201cWe need those guys back.\u00a0 We need to be at full force.\u201d\u00a0 The team has eight injured starters last Sunday, but will be missing running back Ryan Grant and tight end Jermichael Finley for the remainder of the season.\u00a0 This is the third straight year and fifth time in six seasons that the border rivals will square off in a prime-time matchup.\u00a0 The Packers have an 18-8 record against NFC North opponents under head coach Mike McCarthy, including a 10-3 mark at home.\u00a0 The squad is 15-13 ATS versus conference opponents and the total is 16-12 Over\/Under.<\/p>\n

The Packers are looking to start a new home winning streak after seeing its six-game run snapped by the Dolphins.\u00a0 Surprisingly enough, Green Bay has managed just an even 17-17-1 mark versus Minnesota at Lambeau Field in the series.\u00a0 The team is likely to get off to a good start due to scoring 44 points in the first quarter this year, but they have faded at the end by tallying just 24 points in the final frame.\u00a0 Expect the defense to play an enthusiastic football game, as the unit looks to continue the NFL\u2019s longest streak of holding opposing backs without a 100-yard rushing game.\u00a0 The streak is currently at 19 games and the squad is yielding an average of 112.3 yards per game on the ground, which ranks 21st in the league.<\/p>\n

Bettors may want to watch the line in this contest due to the Vikings 3-12-2 ATS mark in their last 17 games as an underdog of 0.5 to 3 points.\u00a0 Green Bay is 1-6 ATS as a favorite of 0.5 to 3 points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers Sunday, 10\/24\/2010, 8:20 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 NBC Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Green Bay -3 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Green Bay -2.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 44 Current Total:\u00a0 44 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 Green Bay -140 \/ Minnesota +120 Minnesota will play its second divisional game of the 2010 season this week and will face […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[416,248,1119,74,3608,3609,73,2589],"class_list":["post-9710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-aaron-rodgers","tag-brett-favre","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-jared-allen","tag-lambeau-field","tag-mike-mccarthy","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-nfc-north"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9710","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=9710"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9711,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9710\/revisions\/9711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}