NFL Preseason Betting Free Picks: Minnesota Vikings at San Francisco 49ers

Added on Aug 22, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

Week two of the NFL preseason continues on Sunday night as the San Francisco 49ers host the Minnesota Vikings. Both teams were winners in their opening preseason game—San Francisco had no trouble with the disinterested Indianapolis Colts, while Minnesota ripped the hapless St. Louis Rams. This game will be televised nationally in the US on NBC.

Minnesota Vikings at San Francisco 49ers
August 22—5:00 PM Pacific

The big storyline in this game is the return of ‘The Gunslinger’, Brett Favre, to the Minnesota Vikings lineup. Favre finally ended his annual retirement soap opera and committed to the team for what he says will be his final season. We’ll believe it when we see it. Favre’s return won’t have a huge impact on this game from a handicapping standpoint, but it definitely doesn’t hurt our position on the game. It may serve as something to motivate the team in what would otherwise be a meaningless contest.

According to Vikings’ head coach Brad Childress, Favre will start and play two or three offense series before turning it over to Tavaris Jackson. Jackson will play the rest of the half and possibly into the third with Sage Rosenfels taking it the rest of the way. For a preseason football game, that’s not a bad quarterback rotation. More importantly, Jackson and Rosenfels have demonstrated that they’re very comfortable and capable within the Vikings’ offense despite playing behind Favre last year and not seeing much action. Rosenfels ripped the Rams’ defense last week throwing for 310 yards on 23 of 34 passing and three touchdowns.

The Niners have a decent quarterback rotation themselves, with Alex Smith set to start before turning it over to David Carr and Nate Davis. Smith didn’t look particularly sharp in the opening game against Indy, so the priority this week is to get him at least one touchdown with the first team offense. The Niners will be passing the ball more during the preseason since they suddenly found themselves without the depth at running back they expected to have when Glen Coffee retired to pursue a religious ministry. Anthony Dixon will see most of the action at running back, and he looked very good last week running for over 100 yards. San Francisco should be fine for the regular season with Frank Gore, Brian Westbrook and Dixon carrying the load in their power running offense, but for the preseason they’re a little bit thin at the position.

Favre is reportedly the de facto offensive leader of the team in the locker room, and has little respect or faith in head coach Childress. He’s such a drama queen that he’ll want to come out with a strong performance, and will expect the Vikings to ‘circle’ this otherwise meaningless game because he’s back in the lineup. That’s actually good for our position, and we expect the Vikings to get the outright win in a high scoring game with both teams putting points on the board. Minnesota is on a 24-14 ATS run as a preseason underdog while San Francisco is only 23-28 ATS since 1990 as a favorite in August.

Bet Minnesota +3 over San Francisco
Bet Minnesota/San Francisco Over 35