NFL football betting season as preseason action rolls on! We've got the full analysis and a side and totals play in Sunday’s Minnesota Vikings/San Francisco 49ers game. Make Oddsbay your home for the best NFL handicapping information all season long!
MINNESOTA VIKINGS AT SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS 5:00 PM PACIFIC
The big story in this game will be the return of Brett Favre to the Minnesota Vikings’ lineup, and while it doesn’t have an overwhelming impact on our handicap for this game it doesn’t hurt. In fact, it may provide a marginal benefit to the positions we’re taking in this game. Vikings’ coach Brad Childress has indicated that ‘The Gunslinger’ will start Sunday night’s game and play ’10 minutes or two series’. He’ll be followed by Tavaris Jackson followed by Sage Rosenfels, who was very impressive last week. Obviously in terms of the regular season this is Favre’s team, but that’s not a bad quarterback rotation for preseason competition. What Rosenfels’ performance last week demonstrated more than anything else is that the Vikings’ backups have a very good grasp of the team’s offense despite not getting much playing time in the past year.
No one ever said being an NFL coach was easy, but consider the headaches that the sideline principles in this game have dealt with this summer. Were it not bad enough that Brad Childress had to spend much of his summer in the backwaters of Mississippi trying to figure out if his diva quarterback was going to return for another year, apparently he’s got internal issues in the locker room as well. According to recent reports, Favre doesn’t like him and that’s spreading to the rest of the offense:
In short, even as Minnesota’s best hope to win a Super Bowl this season was rejoining the team, Childress was losing more ground with his team in the battle for respect. One of the biggest issues playing out behind the scenes in Minnesota is that many players, particularly on offense, have no respect for Childress. Among those players is Favre, who officially returned to the team Wednesday. According to multiple team sources, Favre’s disdain for Childress is deep.
“Brett thinks Childress has no clue about offense,” a Vikings player said.
Childress’ presence, not Favre’s ankle injury, was one of the biggest reasons Favre was hesitating about playing again, sources said. In early July, Favre had indicated to one player that he was likely to play. However, after Childress visited Favre on July 19, Favre’s desire to return declined.
“Brett just doesn’t trust him,” a player said.
Childress may have it easy compared to 49ers coach Mike Singletary. Singletary has done an impressive job pulling the Niners out of the competitive dumpster and rebuilding the team. So he’s sitting in the office this summer thinking all is well with his team’s power running game when 23 year old Glen Coffee comes into his office to tell him that he’s retiring from football to join the ministry. While some are suggesting that Coffee saw the ‘writing on the wall’ with the addition of the more rugged Anthony Dixon, it’s still not something that you expect to deal with as an NFL coach.
The good news is that for the regular season the Niners’ running game is in decent shape with Frank Gore, Dixon and the recent addition of veteran Brian Westbrook. For this game, however, Gore and Westbrook are expected to see minimal action. Dixon, who played his college ball at Mississippi State, is real good—last week he became only the fourth 49ers player since 1990 to rush for 100 yards in an exhibition. Still, without much depth behind him this week look for the Niners to throw the ball more. San Fran also has injury issues on the offensive line which obviously further hampers the rushing attack. Niners’ offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye has made the performance of starting QB Alex Smith a priority this week, and there’s at least a nominal battle for the backup role between veteran David Carr and Ball State rookie Nate Davis. It’s Carr’s job to lose, but Davis looked very good last week so both could be trying to make plays and improve their status.
Ultimately, we have to take the Vikings more polished offense and far superior quarterback rotation. Favre is such a drama queen that he’ll want to make an impact in his first preseason appearance, and both Jackson and Rosenfels can put points on the board as well. Niners won and covered their opening game against a Colts’ team that was just going through the motions, but they’re not historically a strong play as preseason NFL football betting favorites (23-28 ATS). We’re very bullish on the Niners in the regular season, but this sets up as a game that the Vikings should win outright with both teams putting a fair number of points on the board.
PLAY MINNESOTA +3 OVER SAN FRANCISCO
PLAY MINNESOTA/SAN FRANCISCO OVER 34’
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