The Minnesota Vikings will host the Jacksonville Jaguars to start up the 2012 season at Mall of America Field on Sunday September 9th at 1 PM ET.
Line makers at BetOnline Sportsbook have the Minnesota Vikings as 4.5 point favorites with a total of 38 for this one.
Minnesota will enter the season with a big question mark at running back. Adrian Peterson has spent the last six months in rehabilitation from knee reconstruction, and head coach Leslie Frazier says he’s on pace to meet his goal of playing in Week 1; however it really does not make sense to rush him so we are likely to see plenty of Toby Gerhart early on, which should not represent an unstoppable challenge for the Jags, considering how good their run defense was on 2011, allowing just over 100 yards per game rushing ranking 9th overall.
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The Jaguars however were pretty bad on the road last year. They were 1-7 on the road. They’ll enter 2012 with second-year quarterback Blaine Gabbert to whom they went out and got some weapons on offense by signing former Cowboys receiver Laurent Robinson and drafting Justin Blackmon with the 5th overall pick. They are also having uncertainty at this point with their running back situation as Maurice Jones-Drew is showing how disgruntled he is about his current deal by holding out on mandatory mini-camps.
Just by the fact that the Vikings will open at their own stadium should be enough to pull this one off. That and how bad the Jaguars are on the road should lead to believe that Minnesota is capable of beating the spread. Bet the Vikings to win at BetOnline!
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