Tag: NFC North Prediction

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NFC North Prediction | Minnesota Vikings | 9-5-2024

ASA’s NFC NORTH WIN TOTAL PROJECTION

NFC North Prediction – Minnesota Vikings – Under 7.5 Wins (-150)

The Vikings lost 6 of their final 9 games last season after losing QB Cousins for the season with an Achilles injury.  Two of their three wins after Cousins injury came by a FG and they were outgained (YPP) in 6 of their last 7 games. 

Now with Cousins moving on to Atlanta, Minnesota will rely on journeyman QB Sam Darnold, who has a career record of 21-35 as a starter.

Defensively, they were atrocious defending the pass, which is obviously key in today’s NFL, ranking dead last in opponent completion percentage at over 70%.  They didn’t do much to upgrade the defensive backfield as their depth chart looks the same as last season with the exception of CB Griffin, who is expected to start despite playing in only 3 games with Carolina last season and has been on the decline since 2019. 

The struggling secondary won’t get much help from the defensive line which ranks 30th heading into the season per PFF.  This team may have to score in bunches to win games this year and we just don’t see that happening with their QB situation. 

The schedule won’t do them any favors either.  The Vikes will be facing the 5th most difficult schedule and their early slate is brutal.  After facing the NY Giants on the road to start the season (should be a pick-em type game), Minnesota faces San Francisco, Houston, Green Bay, NY Jets, and Detroit in succession and they’ll be underdogs in each of those games. 

The Vikings won 7 games last season and we just don’t see an improvement this year.  Under is the call.   

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NFC North Prediction | Bears Win Total

NFC NORTH Prediction – Chicago Bears UNDER 7.5 TOTAL WINS – By ASA

NFL WIN TOTAL – UNDER 7.5 WINS CHICAGO BEARS -122

The oddsmakers have set the Bears O/U win total at more than twice their number of wins from a season ago when they went 3-14. Has Chicago gotten that much better in the offseason? They lost ten straight games to close the season in 2022 and had the worst average margin of victory at minus -8.1PPG. Six of the Bears losses a season ago were by a touchdown or more. Chicago had a negative Yards Per Play differential at minus -0.8YPPL as they averaged 5.3YPPL but allowed 6.1YPPL. The Bears weren’t good on either side of the football with a defense that was 32nd in DVOA rankings and 25th in offensive DVOA. Chicago ranked 32nd defensively against the pass and 30th in stopping the run. Offensively it was only slightly better than defensively with the 30th ranked passing offense and the 25th rated rushing offense. Teams were able to sustain drives against the Bears as they were last in the NFL in 3rd down conversion defense allowing opponents to successfully convert 49.02% of their 3rd downs. Chicago QB Justin Fields was 15th in QBR last season and made more plays with his feet than his arm as he rushed over 1,143 yards last season which was 7th most in the NFL. The Bears were 30th in the league in passing yards per game at just 130.5. We can’t overlook the fact that the Bears play a soft schedule this season, but our expectations are the Packers and Vikings will be better than most experts anticipate. That means winning games in the NFC North Division will be tougher than expected. Our NFC North Predicted wins for Chicago is a max of 7 wins.

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  • JUSTIN FIELDS – OVER 800.5 RUSHING YARDS -112 – You may want to shop for the best number on this O/U as we’ve seen totals as high as 825.5 rushing yards for Fields this season. Last season Fields rushed for over 1,100 yards and was 7th in the league in rushing yards. That’s not just QB’s either, but the entire league. To put that into perspective he had more rushing yards than: Christian McCaffrey, Aaron Jones, Najee Harris, Tony Pollard just to name a few marquee running backs in the NFL. Fields averaged 7.1-yards per rush and he’ll produce plenty of big plays with his feet again in 2023.

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