A division battle with plenty of history and stats of the past to look at as the Packers have held home field two years in a row in the NFC and the Vikings have been expected to compete for the division and more but failure to make the playoffs has them with a new coach. For the past two seasons head to head the two have split meetings both winning at home last year and both winning on the road the year before.
33.25 Points per game for the Packers vs. Minnesota the last two years. Rodgers is 16-10-1 for his career vs. Minnesota, however he is only 7-7 at Minnesota. He has a passer rating of 110.4 with 6,803 yards, 56 touchdowns and 7 interceptions in 27 games total, and on the road he has a passer rating of 111.0 with 3,627 yards, 29 touchdowns and 3 interceptions in 14 games. Rodgers didn’t play in the preseason and one might wonder if they will put up the same type of performance as they did week 1 last year putting up only 3 in a 38-3 loss to the Saints.
Cousins is 3-2 vs. the Packers at home for his career with a passer rating of 116.8 with 1,439 yards, 12 touchdowns and 2 interceptions in 5 games , 4-3-1 in total. The Vikings have scored 26.5 vs. Packers last two years. The stats are there to make a case for this game to go either way, but the curious thing is this is one of the highest bet games consensus in Vegas with over $200,000 wagered early and its 87% of the money on these Vikings to win as a +1 underdog, and 66% of 14K on the money line for the Vikings.
Knowing the likely hood of these two splitting the two games this year and the fact that Rodgers may be rusty, and the Vikings seem to win way more at home than in Green Bay coupled with the curiosity of all that “Pro” money in vegas there may be what will be an upset to the casual NFL fan and as you see the stats these two teams have a 50-50 even chance to win this matchup as they both know each other as well as one can know an opponent. My prediction 35-31 Vikings.