Vikings-Packers Spread Moves By a Touchdown With Sean Mannion in for Kirk Cousins at QB

The Vikings are now two-touchdown underdogs at Lambeau Field in a game they need to keep their season alive.

The Vikings were already facing an extremely difficult task. 

With their season on the line, they're heading to Green Bay to take on the 12-3 Packers — owners of the NFL's best record — in freezing temperatures at Lambeau Field. That's a Packers team, led by MVP favorite Aaron Rodgers, that will be fired up to snap a two-game losing skid against the Vikings and keep hold of the No. 1 seed in the NFC. Oh, and the Vikings were already going to be without Adam Thielen, Danielle Hunter, Everson Griffen, Cameron Dantzler, Mason Cole, and Nick Vigil for this game.

Then Kirk Cousins went on the COVID list and a difficult task became a near-impossible one.

Sean Mannion will start at quarterback for the Vikings on Sunday night. Mannion will be making his third career start and his first in two years. The seventh-year backup has 0 touchdowns and five turnovers (3 INTs, 2 fumbles lost) in his regular-season career. Most of his NFL experience has come in preseason games with the Rams, Vikings, and Seahawks since the Oregon State product was drafted in 2015.

It's almost certainly not going to be pretty. And as a result of Cousins hitting the COVID list, the Packers have gone from 6.5-point favorites to 13.5-point favorites. Going from Cousins to Mannion is worth a touchdown swing in the spread, according to Vegas oddsmakers.

Starting Mannion at Lambeau Field is really going to test the 2021 Vikings' ability to make every game a one-score game. They still haven't lost by more than eight points this season, and only one of 15 games has been decided by a margin of more than eight (a 13-point win over the Seahawks back in September).

Cousins, despite being unvaccinated and thus at a higher risk to test positive, had managed to stay off the COVID list ever since his initial stint on it during training camp. But it was always a possibility, and now the Vikings will be without their quarterback for a game they need to win in order to keep their playoff hopes alive.

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