The Green Bay Packers’ struggles against the point spread continued on Sunday in week 10. A Packers team that game into week 11 with a 3-6 record against the spread sat right on it against the New York
Giants. Depending on the sportsbook, the Packers were favored by either 7 or 7.5 points, and their 27-20 victory was at best a push.
The Packers return home in week 12 after their brief road trip, finally getting set to play their second NFC North rivalry game of the season and their first since week 1. Up on the docket this week are the Minnesota Vikings, who lost 19-17 to the Chicago Bears on Sunday to fall to 4-6 on the season.
J.J. McCarthy’s first season as a starter has been a rough one aside from one impressive fourth quarter in the Vikings’ opening-week win over the Bears. Overall, he is completing less than 53 percent of his passes and has more interceptions (8) than touchdown passes (6). It’s certainly no surprise that the Packers are favored in this game, but McCarthy’s struggles are surely a reason for the size of the point spread.
According to FanDuel sportsbook, the Packers open up this week as 6.5-point favorites. If that line holds, it would be the sixth time they have been favored by 6.5 points all season, but they have yet to successfully cover a spread of that size in any of the previous five.
Despite the Packers’ struggles against the spread, the Vikings are not much better this season. They are 4-6, with each of their four covers coming in the four games they have won outright. However, Minnesota did pull off an upset victory over the Detroit Lions on the road three weeks ago, defeating the Lions 27-24 despite coming in as 9.5-point underdogs.
This week’s Packers-Vikings game also is expected to be on the lower-scoring side. FanDuel has the total points over/under line set at 42.5.
Las season, the Vikings swept the season series against the Packers, winning each of the two games by just two points. In both contests, the Packers allowed Minnesota to jump out to big leads before mounting second-half comebacks that fell just short. Green Bay will need to start faster than they did in either of those contests or in their most recent few games this season to cover this week’s spread of nearly a touchdown.
