NFL Week 6 Picks: Last-Minute Expert Predictions from Around the Web | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

Final Verdict:  Maybe, given all that's happened to the Vikings this week, their hearts just weren't in this one.

Maybe the Carolina Panthers circled the wagons after last week's embarrassing loss in Arizona.

Maybe it was a little of both.

Whatever the reasons, this game was all Panthers, with Carolina quarterback Cam Newton playing his best game of the year in a 35-10 rout.

ESPN: Vikings (11-2)

CBS Sports: Vikings (7-1)

Fox Sports: Panthers (4-1)

USA Today: Vikings (6-1)

Bleacher Report: Vikings (8-4)

Overall: Vikings (33-12)

The Minnesota Vikings were a playoff team last year, but it took a switch at quarterback and a trip to London for the Vikings to get their first victory in 2013.

There may well be another change coming soon under center in the Twin Cities with the signing of Josh Freeman, but when the Vikings host the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, it will be Matt Cassel at quarterback for Minnesota.

This game took on an unbelievably sad tone on Friday, when, as Brent Schrotenboer of USA Today reported, the two-year-old son of Vikings running back Adrian Peterson died from injuries allegedly sustained at the hands of his mother's boyfriend.

Dave Campbell of the Associated Press (via MPRNews) reports that Peterson intends to play in Sunday's game.