NFL Betting: Detroit Lions at Minnesota Vikings

Added on Nov 11, 2012 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

The Detroit Lions are in last place in the NFC North but the team is finally heading in the right direction. They’ve won two straight and three of their last four and have covered four straight. Minnesota is headed in the opposite direction–they opened their season 3-1 SU and ATS but since then are 1-4 SU and against the number.

Detroit Lions at Minnesota Vikings
November 11, 2012 10:00 AM Pacific

Minnesota has struck us as a fraudulent team all season but in recent weeks they’ve started to show their true stripes. Quarterback Christian Ponder looked fairly competent early in the season but has regressed greatly in his most recent games. The team is now over reliant on Adrian Peterson and will have to be even more so here with the team’s other major playmaker Percy Harvin out of the lineup.

Lions could be hitting their stride but they’re also a team that never seems to do anything the easy way. Vikings are better than the Jacksonville team that the Lions decimated last weekend but this is a bad tactical matchup for Minnesota and particularly with Harvin out. Ponder can’t trade points with Stafford and in this matchup he’ll almost certainly be forced to. The Lions’ offense can strike quickly while the Vikings will have to grind out offense on the back of Peterson. That means that the Vikings will almost certainly trail during this game meaning that Ponder will have to throw the ball. Vikings still a bit overvalued off of their 4-1 start. Since then they’re 1-3 SU/ATS with all three losses by double digits. Even the game they won was more due to mistakes by Arizona than anything that the Vikings did right–the Cardinals gained 150 yards more than the Vikings but they threw the game away with a ‘pick 6′.

This is a revenge game from an earlier loss where Minnesota beat Detroit at Ford Field. Things have changed dramatically since then and laying less than a field goal we’ll gladly bet the better team. That’s Detroit and they should win by 10 or more here. Minnesota is going on our ‘play against’ list for the foreseeable future.

Bet Detroit Lions -2′ over Minnesota Vikings