Week 8 of the NFL season begins on Thursday night as the Minnesota Vikings look to close in on top spot in the NFC North when they host the Washington Redskins, for whom the next nine matches is already all about looking to next season.
The Vikings head into the showdown with a 5-2 record after a couple of big victories while the Redskins are 1-6 and no team makes the postseason from there, let alone one with the number of deficiencies they have.
Minnesota Vikings
A few weeks ago it was perceived that the Minnesota Vikings were going nowhere. They were a run based offense and Kirk Cousins couldn’t get anything going. Receivers were getting frustrated and it looked like it was all going to come crashing down after a relatively successful campaign last term. Three high scoring victories later though and the Vikings have their mojo back and are looking like the side which some thought would be Super Bowl contenders at the beginning of the season.
Cousins has been given a lot more play action passes to perform, which is when he is at his best, and all of a sudden their receivers are back to their best and this vibrant offense is operating at full power. When you have that combined with the strength they have on defence then you have a very strong football team even in what is arguably the toughest division in the NFL at present.
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Washington Redskins
It has all gone pear-shaped for the Washington Redskins. In truth they haven’t been competitive as a franchise for a while but it is all going wrong for them this year. Their issues might not have started with Trent Williams holding out for a new deal but that certainly hasn’t helped their cause, but in truth you can’t look at the Redskins right now and say that any of their units are strong enough and their 1-6 record really doesn’t lie on this occasion.
To be fair to the Redskins they did at least offer up a couple of competitive performances at the beginning of the campaign, but the longer the season has gone on the worse they have looked and in three of their last four matches they have failed to register more than seven points. The other game was against the Miami Dolphins which these days is akin to a bye. They only won that 17-16 as well.
Betting
It is hard not to see the Minnesota Vikings winning this match but double figure handicaps rarely interest me I have to say and it isn’t going to this time either. I’m tempted by the over in Minnesota points but Adam Thielen being out puts me off that so in the end I’ll go with the rushing yards of Dalvin Cook where the line looks a little on the low side at 90.5.
Cook is the leading rusher in the league after the first seven weeks of the season and he should enjoy himself against one of the weakest run defences in the league, especially if Minnesota run up a nice lead early on the match. Washington cough up 134.4 yards against the run on average this season and that might only be more here if Kirk Cousins gets the play action passing game working early doors. Whether that happens or not I expect Cook to have more than 90.5 yards in his legs against a defence that had to guts it out in tough conditions just four nights ago.
Tips
WON – Back D.Cook – Over 90.5 rushing yards for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfred
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