Week 1: Minnesota Vikings at Cleveland Browns
The Brett Favre post-retirement tour continues on Sunday in Cleveland as the former Packer and Jet begins his career as a Viking. And Favre has had plenty of success in season openers in his Hall of Fame career: His teams are 11-5.
Minnesota is a 4-point WagerWeb.com against the Browns.
This will be Favre’s 270th career game under center – a record that certainly will never be broken. The Vikes went 10-6 without him and won the NFC North last year but felt they needed an upgrade over Tarvaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels. However, Favre was just 1-4 in his final five starts with the Jets last year – although he blamed that on his torn biceps.
Still, Minnesota will be a run-first team behind reigning NFL rushing champion Adrian Peterson, who is coming off a 363-carry, 1,760-yard campaign for Minnesota, which is 9-4 in its last 13 season openers.
Peterson could have a huge day Sunday, considering Cleveland allowed a whopping 151.9 yards a game on the ground last year. When new coach Eric Mangini took over in Cleveland, he began cleaning house on the defensive side of the ball, bringing in four new starters with him from the Jets. The unit looked pretty solid during the preseason.
As for Cleveland’s starting QB, it will be Brady Quinn despite the fact that Mangini hasn’t officially said so yet. Quinn beat out Derek Anderson; he replaced an ineffective Anderson in Week 9 last year, only to be sidelined after three games by a broken finger.
Saying he wanted to keep a competitive advantage, Mangini this week refused to publicly announce his starter, but Quinn took snaps with the starting offense during the 30 minutes of practice open to the media on Friday.
Quinn will be the eighth different QB to open a season for the Browns since 1999, a span during which they’ve lost posted seven seasons of at least 10 losses. The Browns have lost four straight openers and are just 1-9 in the past 10.
Overall in this series, the Vikings have won three in a row and have a 9-3 lead. The last meeting was in 2005.
INJURY REPORT
VIKINGS: OUT: LB Erin Henderson (calf). QUESTIONABLE: WR Bernard Berrian (hamstring). PROBABLE: TE Jim Kleinsasser (hand). BROWNS: OUT: G Rex Hadnot (knee). DOUBTFUL: RB Cedric Peerman (thigh). QUESTIONABLE: LB David Bowens (knee), RB Jerome Harrison (knee), DT Shaun Rogers (foot), CB Eric Wright (knee). PROBABLE: LB Alex Hall (shoulder), TE Steve Heiden (knee).
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