The Minnesota Vikings may not be able to track down the New Orleans Saints in the race for the best record in the NFC, but they can earn a first-round playoff bye.
They’ll try to take the next step in reaching that goal when they visit Charlotte to take on the Carolina Panthers Sunday night (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC).
As of Friday morning online sportsbook BetJamaica.com is listing the Vikings as 9-point favorites for and the total is set at 42.5. Minnesota is also -450 on the moneyline while Carolina is +350.
With one more win or one more Green Bay loss, Minnesota (11-2 ) will claim its second straight NFC North Division title. But they still have some work to do before they can take Wild Card weekend off.
The Vikings suffered their second loss of this season on Sunday night a couple of weeks ago in Arizona, but bounced back last week to beat the Cincinnati Bengals 30-10 as 6-point home favorites.
After an 0-3 start to this season, Carolina improved to 4-5. But after losing 20-10 at New England last Sunday, although covering as 12.5-point road dogs, the Panthers have lost three of their last four games, scoring a total of 49 points over that span.
So while 5-8 Carolina isn’t quite dead yet in the NFC playoff race, realistically, it might as well be.
Thanks to the poor play and broken finger of Jake Delhomme, Carolina looks like it’s going with Matt Moore at quarterback for the rest of this season. In his two starts since taking over, vs. Tampa and New England, Moore has gone 29-for-50 passing for 358 yards with one TD and one INT.
While respectable, Carolina can and should try to run the ball; the Panthers rank fourth in the league this year in rushing at 150 YPG.
However, they’ll have to go up against Minnesota’s formidable front four, which has helped the Vikes rank fourth in the league vs. the run, allowing just 87 YPG.
Minnesota’s only two losses this season have come on the road, at Pittsburgh and at Arizona.
These two teams met in Week 3 of last season and the Vikings beat Carolina 20-10 as 3-point favorites at the Metrodome, holding the Panthers to just 47 yards rushing.
On the injury front, Vikings scatback Percy Harvin – who has been a potent weapon both out of the backfield and on kick returns this season, setting the Minnesota offense up with short fields on many occasions – is dealing with migraines and is listed as questionable for Sunday night’s game.
After going 2-6 straight up and 3-5 vs. the pointspreads last week, NFL home underdogs are now 27-47 SU this season and 36-38 ATS.
Even though Vikings games this season have averaged almost 49 points, Minnesota is 6-7 on the totals. Meanwhile, the totals are 5-8 in Panthers games, which have averaged 39 points.
Just before this season started, BetJamaica.com was listing Minnesota as a +140 favorite to win the NFC North, +500 to win the NFC and +1,200 to win its first-ever Super Bowl title. As of Friday morning BetJam was offering the Vikes at +225 to win the conference and at +500 to win the Super Bowl.
Carolina, meanwhile, opened at +220 to repeat as champs of the NFC South, +1,000 to win the NFC and +2,200 to win its first-ever Super Bowl title. As of Friday morning, the Panthers were +10,000 to win the conference and +20,000 to win the Super Bowl.
At the start of the season, BetJam set the Vikings’ regular season win total at 9 and the Panthers’ at 8.5.
