The Minnesota Vikings are coming off of a resounding defeat in front of a national audience at Lambeau. They had little in the way of a response to the surgical offense that Aaron Rodgers led up and down the field. They are now faced with a short week, and have a much different challenge on hand. The Raiders come in with the fourth ranked rushing attack in the league, one with power and depth. With Darren McFadden still struggling to recover from a foot injury, it will be Michael Bush all day.
While Oakland has quite the potent ground attack, the Vikings are no slouch when it comes to defending the run. The Henderson brothers and Chad Greenway are a formidable linebacking corps, and with Jared Allen coming off the edge as well, Minny can cause havoc against the hard-hitting Raiders attack.
But we saw something out of Oakland that we have not seen in years. A quarterback with poise in the pocket who can hit their burning receivers down the field. Carson Palmer is starting to feel comfortable in Hue Jackson’s attack, and his ability to hit Denarius Moore on several shots down the field against the Chargers highlighted what the Raiders wished JaMarcus could have been.
Vikings pivot Christian Ponder is slowly coming into his own after taking the reins from McNabb a third of the way into the season. He does not have a downfield threat that he can rely on, but the mixture of Percy Harvin and tight ends Visanthe Shiancoe and Kyle Rudolph can work the underneath routes that he needs to complete to be successful. It is early in his career, but the Raiders’ weakest part of their defense is their secondary, so he might have an opportunity to hit a few plays down the field.
So who is going to win this game? The Raiders have had ten days to prepare for the trip north, while the Vikings have the short week to prepare to get smashed in the teeth by Michael Bush and the mauling Raiders offensive line. Oakland allows big numbers on the ground, but if they can keep AP bottled up in similar fashion to how they contained Arian Foster earlier in the season, then they should be able to escape with a victory.
While the Vikings have an ugly 2-7 record on the season, they are able to keep it close and as a result have a decent 5-4 record against the spread on the year. They have one of the best running backs in the world, a cast of impressive athletes on the defensive side of the ball, and should be motivated coming off of an embarrassing showing on Monday Night Football. But despite all of that, they simply have not had the time prepare for what is coming at them on Sunday morning.
The Raiders average better than 150 yards on the ground per game, and Michael Bush is fresh off of a club record for total yards from scrimmage. The Vikings will have a tough time taking the 6-foot-1, 245-pound back to the ground, as he will steamroll for chunks of yards. Then when the Vikings get lulled into a false sense of security and start stacking the box, Carson will step back and loft one down the field to one of his burners, Darius Heyward-Bey or Denarius Moore. (Jacoby Ford is out for the game.) Either of them can burn past the Vikings corners, who are now without All-Pro cornerback Antoine Winfield to add salt to their defensive wounds.
People often overlook the important of cornerbacks, seeing them as easily replaceable parts of a defense. But when it comes to a player like Winfield, who is a linebacker trapped in a corner’s body, one cannot understate his value. He plays in the nickel, corner and even stacks the box. He is one of the hardest hitting corners in the game, and would surely have wreaked havoc the Raiders. But now that he is gone for the year, the Vikings seem poised to get exposed on the outside, with Chris Cook also looking from the sidelines after he decided that domestic abuse was a good idea. It will be up to Asher Allen and Cedric Allen to stay in front of the fastest team in the league, and quite simply there is not chance of that happening.
The Raiders are just 1.5 point favourites in the game, so it had might as well be a pick ’em. Why it is so low is something that only Vegas truly understands, but considering the circumstances of the game, with the drastically different rest times afforded to the two teams, the odds seem stacked in favour of the visiting Raiders.
Carson, Michael Bush and co. are going to take it at the Vikings, and while AP may get his, the Vikings will struggle to do much of anything through the air as Ponder continues to learn the big time game. Take the Raiders and whatever points they give.
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Pick of the Week record: 5-2
