NFL Betting Preview: Miami Dolphins at Minnesota Vikings

Added on Sep 18, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

The Minnesota Vikings should be well rested for their home opener, having last played ten days ago on the Thursday opener against the New Orleans Saints. Neither team looked particularly sharp in that contest, but the Saints emerged with the win/cover. Miami is playing their second straight road game having opened the season with a win/cover at Buffalo.

Miami Dolphins at Minnesota Vikings
September 19, 2010–10:00 AM Pacific

Brett Favre badly misses the downfield threat of Sidney Rice, but the Vikings should still have enough to take care of business in this game. From a tactical standpoint, this isn’t a very good matchup for the Dolphins. Miami is a tough, physical and well coached team but they’re at their worst trying to contain opponents with good team speed. The Vikings definitely have speed, and on the carpet of their home field it’ll be even more significant. The Dolphins didn’t exactly overwhelm Buffalo in Week 1–they led by only 3 in the final two minutes and got a late safety for the cover.

Tough scheduling spot for the Dolphins will be exacerbated by the rowdy home crowd and the fact that Favre has had over a week to work with his receivers to get more rhythm and continuity. Miami has been a very bad team in the month of September–they’re on a 4-12-2 ATS run in September (and would be 3-13-2 were it not for the late safety against Buffalo). Vikings have done well against the Dolphins in recent meetings–they’re 3-1 ATS in the last 4 meetings and are 3-0 SU/2-1 ATS at home. Miami got the cover at Buffalo but didn’t impress, and we think they’ll be outclassed here by a Vikings’ offense that just has too many weapons–and too much speed–for them to deal with.

Bet Minnesota -5 over Miami