NFL Opening Day Lines: Minnesota vs. Cleveland

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The Minnesota Vikings travel to Cleveland on Sunday September 13th in a 1:00 P.M. (EST) game to open their 2009 NFL campaign. The Vikings are currently road favorites at -2.5 and the over/under is set at 39.5. The Cleveland Browns have opened the season at home the past five seasons winning only once back in 2004, beating Baltimore 20-3. In the same time span, Minnesota has played two season openers on the road winning them both.

The big question mark for this game will be who will be behind center for the Vikings. As of now there is no definite decision on whether retired QB Brett Favre will sign with Minnesota, but if he does you can rest assured the 2.5 point spread on this game will jump up.

Last season, the Vikings passing attack was almost nonexistent averaging just 185 yards per game. There is still a lot of doubt surrounding current starting QB Tavaris Jackson’s ability to lead this team to a championship, which is also fueling the Favre drama.

As for Cleveland, there is nothing but question marks. New head coach Eric Mangini takes over a team with one of the worse offenses in the league. Last season they averaged just 14.5 points per game and only 249 yards of total offense. Their defense was almost as bad as the Browns ended up ranked 26 out of 32 in total defense and 28th against the run. This all added up to a dismal 4-12 record in 2008.

Regardless of whether Brett Favre is Minnesota’s quarterback on opening day, the Vikings are clearly the better team and should win this game by simply showing up. As I mentioned, what Favre’s presence will effect is the current point spread and the over/under. This will have to be a wait and see game before making any definite predictions along those lines.

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