The penultimate week of the NFL season gets up and running on Christmas Day as two NFC rivals battle it out as the New Orleans Saints host the Minnesota Vikings in what should be an entertaining match to keep us occupied during the festivities.
The Saints need to win here to wrap up the NFC South title but they need to keep winning if they are to claim the number one seed in the Conference. Technically the Vikings are still in the hunt for the postseason but realistically too many results will need to go their way for them to make it.
New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints go into this match off the back of a defeat to the Kansas City Chiefs which has dealt their hopes of getting the number one seed a big blow. They now need to win out from here and hope that the Green Bay Packers slip up along the way if they are going to claim the first round bye in the postseason. There is nothing shameful in losing to the defending champions but there will be if they respond negatively to that here.
The Saints looked acceptable on offense against the Chiefs, although with Drew Brees back under center that was certainly to be expected, but their defence was exposed, although again when they were facing off against one of the best offenses in the entire league that was also expected. In the main though the Saints’ defence has been good enough to get the job done this season and if their offense stays at the party they should be expected to come through here.
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Minnesota Vikings
Consistency has been a real big issue for the Minnesota Vikings this season but despite that they were looking good for a run to the play-offs when they picked up five wins in six matches to sit 6-6 for the season. They have now lost their last two matches though to leave them needing snookers if their quest to extend their campaign. All they can do is win out from here and hope that it is good enough but it is looking unlikely that an 8-8 season will be good enough in the NFC.
The loss to the Chicago Bears last week looks particularly damaging where their defence was exposed which is not a good fit when you consider that the Saints’ offense is much more dynamic than the Bears one ever will be. If the Vikings are going to get anything out of this match their defence has to stand up and be counted. They then need someone like Dalvin Cook to have a day out and keep the Saints’ offense off the field.
Betting
If the Minnesota Vikings are going to win this match then you would think they are going to have to do a lot of it through the qualities of Dalvin Cook, one of the best runners in the game. He has a rushing yards line of 82.5 here which is a little on the low side when you consider that he has rushed for more than 100 yards in six of his last eight matches and in one of the ones he didn’t reach 100 in he still had this line covered.
Kirk Cousins is likely to have a tricky time of it in this match with the pass rush of the Saints particularly strong so you would think that the Vikings will attempt to utilise the run wherever possible, not just to keep the heat off Cousins but also to keep the New Orleans offense off the field. To be fair to the Saints they aren’t exactly terrible in the rush defence department but they coughed up over 200 yards on the ground to the Philadelphia Eagles a couple of weeks ago and Cook and exploit that. I like his over here.
Tips
Back D.Cook – Over 82.5 rushing yards for a 3/10 stake at 1.88 with 888sport
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