2024 NFL odds: Vikings-Packers tilt is the pick, as Minnesota battles for 1 NFC seed

Last February, shortly after the dust settled for Super Bowl LVIII, the FOX Sports editorial team appointed Geoff Schwartz, Jason McIntyre and yours truly to pick the winning team. this Super Bowl of the year.

Geoff naturally and confidently went with the Kansas City Chiefs, J-Mac leaned on the San Francisco 49ers, and I dive a little deeper into the board poaching 20-1 odds on the Green Bay Packers and quarterback Jordan Love.

My understanding​​​​was simple: avoid Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson and pick a long shot in the NFC. The Packers seem to make the most sense after Detroit, Philadelphia and San Francisco, and I chose Cheese instead of the most popular trends in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles.

I never considered the Minnesota Vikings.

Whoops.

“Minnesota is one of the biggest improvers in the power rankings,” Betsperts content director and veteran NFL bettor. Andy Molitor he told FOX Sports.

“You had to start over at the most important position was such a question mark. And it was a question mark trending down. We had two data points on Sam Darnold and both were not good. He wasn’t even an NFL starter. quarterback and the Vikings plan to start rookie JJ McCarthy .

“They remind me a lot of last year’s San Francisco team. You look at the roster and all the weapons are there, and the defense is great, but nothing matters when the quarterback pulls. So you start from scratch and keep improving if a guy plays well and that’s exactly what happened with Minnesota.”

Fast forward to late December. Minnesota now controls its fate of the NFC’s No. 1 seed and the Packers are the next obstacle in the way. The old rivals will meet on Sunday in America’s game of the week.

You can watch live on FOX Sports and the FOX Sports App.

Las Vegas bookies opened Minnesota as a 1.5-point home favorite, but the venerable money pushed the line to a pick ’em (PK) in the market, with several shops sitting on Green Bay -1. It’s not every day that you see a football team with a 13-2 record as a betting underdog in its lineup.

“I basically rate them neutral,” Molitor said. “My number for this game is Minnesota -1/-1.5 and so on [Deep Dive co-host Drew Dinsick] and I talked about it, we realized that we don’t want to bet on the game.

“Best game of the week, and we’ll probably stay out.”

Discipline should always be applauded.

Personally, I think Minnesota is a different animal from the Death Star. I’ve watched a few games there and the home field advantage is still very small. Many of those fans drank vodka on the phone at sunrise and the energy was off the walls throughout the game.

You can’t feel yourself thinking about the third-down opposition.

“From now on, we’re going to need the Vikings to win,” one Las Vegas bookie told FOX Sports. “That means Green Bay is going to get paid. That’s the way we’ve gone this season. Body beat after body beat.

“We’ll definitely need it to stay ‘Under’ 48, too.”

Sam Panayotovich is a sports betting analyst for FOX Sports and BetQL Network. He previously worked for WGN Radio, NBC Sports and VSiN. Follow him on Twitter @sprout.

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