Does It Matter Who Starts Under Center for Minnesota?
September 18, 2016
The Minnesota Vikings host the Green Bay Packers in Sunday Night Football during Week 2 of the NFL regular season. The Vikings are 1.5-point home dogs due to the uncertainty of who will start under center for the team.
The question of the week has been will Sam Bradford the recently acquired quarterback from the Philadelphia Eagles get his first start for the Vikings. Some still believe Minnesota will stick with Week 1 starter Shaun Hill. Even though it appeared, Bradford was given more snaps during the week with the first team.
Minnesota is one of the few teams in the NFL that does not rely so much on the passing performance of its quarterback. The Vikings offense centers on veteran running back Adrian Peterson and a steady quarterback who does not make mistakes.
In Minnesota’s Week 1, win over Tennessee. Hill performed well but by no means spectacular. Peterson could muster only 31 yards rushing making the Vikings offense nearly no-existent.
The defense stepped up in Week 1 with one interception return for a touchdown and one fumble recovery returned for six points.
Sportsbooks opened the game with the Packers as 2.5-point road favorites. Some action on Minnesota helped to bring that number down to its current Packers -1.5.
Many football pundits believe that Green Bay is overvalued. The Packers remain one of the top three favorites to hoist the Vince Lombardi trophy in February as Super Bowl LI champions. However, the Packers barely escaped Week 1 with a victory against Jacksonville by just 4 points.
One computer simulation game that has a Minnesota +2 has them winning 58% of the time. Another simulation system has Minnesota winning only 53% of the time.
What many are not seeing is that Minnesota will be looking to run all over the Packers defense and who starts under center should not matter.
The Packers had the No. 19 defense against the rush last season compared to the No. 6 ranked one against the pass. Last week the Packers defense was burned by Blake Bortles for 320 yards while the rush defense played well.
This is what makes betting on NFL games so exciting – expecting the unexpected and getting what you expected.
