Online Football Betting

Sunday night’s matchup features the 2-3 Minnesota Vikings visiting the 3-3 Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. These two teams were the favorites to win the NFC North Division, however they’re both trailing the 4-2 Chicago Bears. The oddsmakers at Sportsbook.com have the Vikings (+2.5) as 2.5 point underdogs for Sunday’s matchup against the Packers at Green Bay. The over/under is set at 44.5 points.

Favre returns to Lambeau to face his former team for the 3rd time, having won the past two trips there. This time he has Randy Moss with him, who’s got to be more comfortable with the offense coming up on his 3rd game with his new team.

For the Packers, injuries have decimated this team. Outside linebacker Clay Matthews, who missed Green Bay’s last game because of an aggravated hamstring injury, practiced Wednesday and Thursday in a limited capacity and is on track to return to the starting lineup this weekend. Matthews, not-incidentally, is the league’s sacks leader with 8.5 on the year, and they could certainly use him back to pressure Favre into making some bad throws.

The Packers have the NFL’s longest active streak of holding opposing backs without a 100-yard rushing performance at 19 games. However, they rank 21st against the run, allowing an average of 112.3 yards per game, and they were shredded for a season-high 150 rushing yards in Sunday’s overtime loss to the Dolphins. The Packers’ front 7 will have their hands full trying to contain Adrian Peterson.

The Vikings will need to continue their domination of Aaron Rodgers in the backfield. In the past 3 games, the Vikings have sacked Rodgers a whopping 18 times – all Vikings victories. The last two contests held 14 of those sacks. Putting pressure on Rodgers is the only way the Vikings are going to slow down the Pack’s offense, aside from the Pack themselves that is. Green Bay has to work out their penalty issues, especially on 1st and 2nd downs, as that seems to be a recurring theme.

Here are some trends to consider:

All games in this series since 1992
MINNESOTA is 19-18 against the spread versus GREEN BAY since 1992
MINNESOTA is 19-18 straight up against GREEN BAY since 1992
21 of 35 games in this series have gone OVER THE TOTAL since 1992

Games over the last 3 seasons
GREEN BAY is 2-2 against the spread versus MINNESOTA over the last 3 seasons
MINNESOTA is 3-1 straight up against GREEN BAY over the last 3 seasons
4 of 4 games in this series have gone OVER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons

All games played at GREEN BAY since 1992
MINNESOTA is 11-8 against the spread versus GREEN BAY since 1992
GREEN BAY is 12-7 straight up against MINNESOTA since 1992
12 of 19 games in this series have gone OVER THE TOTAL since 1992

Games played at GREEN BAY over the last 3 seasons.
GREEN BAY is 1-1 against the spread versus MINNESOTA over the last 3 seasons
GREEN BAY is 1-1 straight up against MINNESOTA over the last 3 seasons
2 of 2 games in this series have gone OVER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons

The Chicago Bears are 3-0 and the only unbeaten team in the NFC. The Bears, Chiefs and Steelers are the only remaining undefeated teams in the league. I fail to recall anybody calling out these three teams as undefeated going into Week 4. The Bears travel to New Giants Stadium for a Sunday night matchup with the Giants, looking to keep their undefeated title intact after their win against the Packers this past Monday night.

The Packers certainly helped the Bears by contributing more penalties (18 for 152 yards) than points (17). That stat, taken with the Lions’ Calvin Johnson non-touchdown in Week 1, may be why oddsmakers have the Bears as 4 point dogs against a reeling Giants team.

The Giants are looking to right their ship in a hurry, and they want to forget about last week’s game against Tennessee, where they out-gained the Titans by 200 yards, but had 11 penalties and 3 turnovers. The Giants have 10 turnovers on the year so far. They will need to pressure Jay Cutler into making hurried throws, which will bring out the Cutler of last year if they succeed. The Giants best receiver, Mario Manningham, is listed on the Giants injury report with a concussion and that will be a problem for the Giants as well if he can’t go.

Chicago’s return game got a boost when they moved Hester back to returning kicks, and he reinforced that view with a punt return for a touchdown Monday night. If the Bears’ receivers can continue to improve, and more importantly, the O-line continues to give Cutler time to make good throws, the Bears will be a force to be reckoned with in the NFC this year.

Here are some matchup trends to consider:
NY GIANTS are 1-8 ATS when playing against a team with a winning record over the last 2 seasons

All games in this series since 1992
NY GIANTS is 4-2 against the spread versus CHICAGO since 1992
NY GIANTS is 4-3 straight up against CHICAGO since 1992
5 of 7 games in this series have gone OVER THE TOTAL since 1992

All games played at NY GIANTS since 1992
CHICAGO is 2-0 against the spread versus NY GIANTS since 1992
CHICAGO is 3-0 straight up against NY GIANTS since 1992
3 of 3 games in this series have gone OVER THE TOTAL since 1992