This coming Sunday, the Detroit Lions will look to rebound from their controversial loss to the Atlanta Falcons as they travel to Minnesota to take on the Vikings. With both the Lions and Vikings sitting at 2-1, coupled with the Green Bay Packers moving to 3-1 following their Thursday Night Football win over the Chicago Bears, this game is sure to be extremely important to the NFC North landscape.
According to the analysts at mytopsportsbooks.com, the Vikings would have been listed as 3 to 5 point favorites over the Lions if their starting quarterback, Sam Bradford was ready to go on Sunday. But, on Thursday, Vikings head coach announced that Bradford has been ruled out for their Week 4 game against the Lions and that backup Case Keenum will get the nod once again.
With Bradford being listed as “out” for Sunday’s game, Las Vegas has adjusted the point spread accordingly and currently has the Vikings listed as a 2-point favorite at home.
In Week 3, Keenum performed admirably as the Vikings destroyed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 34-17 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Keenum completed 25 of 33 passes for a whopping 369 yards and three touchdowns. More importantly, he did not turn the ball over at all as the Vikings controlled the game from the opening kickoff.
The Lions, on the other hand, came up just short in the final seconds against the Falcons as a Matthew Stafford to Golden Tate touchdown was taken off of the board following a review by the officials. Not only was the call on the field overturned but since the Lions did not have any timeouts remaining, a mandatory 10-second runoff was applied, which ended the game.
Though the Vikings are usually tough for the Lions to beat on the road, Detroit has managed to win two of the past three in Minnesota, including a 22-16 overtime win last season.
