The Vikings will head on the road to play against the Denver Broncos in Week 4 on Sunday. Minnesota is coming off a pair of consecutive victories at home. The Vikings are currently 7-6-0 all-time against the Broncos, including a mark of 3-3 in games played at Denver. We scoped the web to see what experts and analysts are predicting for the outcome of the Vikings' upcoming matchup in Denver.
______________________________________________________________________
The Broncos are home after two road victories and they've gone back to being Peyton Manning's offense. That matters. He looks so much more comfortable playing that way. Adrian Peterson got it going last week for Vikings, and he will need to come up big here. But I think the Denver defense, which has been really good so far this season, will come up big. Broncos take it.
Broncos 20, Vikings 15--Pete Prisco, CBS Sports
______________________________________________________________________
The Broncos will be returning from a Sunday night game in Detroit before this one. Peyton Manning, though, has beaten Minnesota coach Mike Zimmer in five of their six meetings, and assuming he's healthy, he gets the best of the Vikings here.
Broncos 31, Vikings 20--Ben Goessling, ESPN
______________________________________________________________________
In a listless loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Week 1, the Minnesota Vikings looked little like a team many pundits had labeled a dark-horse playoff contender entering the 2015 season.
Since then, however, the Vikings have consistently been building up steam, culminating in a 31-14 smackdown of the San Diego Chargers in Week 3.
Now comes a huge test for young quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and the rising Vikings—a trip West to face Peyton Manning and the undefeated Broncos in Denver.
Danny Cox of CBS Denver cautions that the Broncos had best not take the Vikings lightly:
The Denver Broncos are 3-0 and looking like a true Super Bowl contender, but they just don't have the same explosiveness as in past seasons. With that being said, they need to make sure that they don't take the visiting Minnesota Vikings lightly, or it could mean their first loss of the season.
This is going to be a much closer game than some would anticipate, but it's still one that the Denver Broncos can win if they play to their strengths. The key is going to be shutting down Adrian Peterson and it needs to be done by closing up the passing game of the Minnesota Vikings to have the defense concentrate on shutting down "All Day."
Our panel certainly isn't taking the streaking Vikings lightly. In fact, it took a flip of the coin for a team many pegged as the AFC representative in Super Bowl 50 to get the edge. At home, no less.
Broncos--Gary Davenport, Bleacher Report
______________________________________________________________________
Each Tuesday, WhatIfSports.com's NFL simulation engine generates predictions and box scores for every NFL game for the coming week. The highly sophisticated algorithms simulate every play of every game to produce each team's likelihood to win. Each matchup is simulated 501 times.
Average Score: Broncos 26, Vikings 20--WhatIfSports.com
______________________________________________________________________
FiveThirtyEight's 2015 NFL forecast uses an Elo-based model to calculate each team's chances of advancing to the playoffs and winning Super Bowl 50. Playoff probabilities are based on 20,000 simulations of the season and will update after each game.
Pre-game win probabilities: Vikings 23%, Fivethirtyeight.com
1 of 8 experts pick the Vikings, CBS Sports
1 of 8 experts pick the Vikings, FOX Sports
4 of 8 experts pick the Vikings, Bleacher Report
2 of 8 experts pick the Vikings, SB Nation
______________________________________________________________________
