Week 8 of the NFL 2024 season gets underway as ever with the Thursday Night Football which on this occasion takes us to the SoFi Stadium for an all-NFC dust-up between the Los Angeles Rams and the Minnesota Vikings.
These two sides have started the season in different fashion with the Rams beginning 2-4 for the campaign while the Vikings are 5-1, although that loss came at the weekend so they will be out to get to winning ways here.
Los Angeles Rams
This clearly hasn’t been the start to the season that the Los Angeles Rams would have wanted with just two wins from their opening six games but the good thing from their point of view is that nobody has scooted too far clear in the NFC West, so if the Rams can sort things out and find some consistency then the division is still there for them. Los Angeles have won two of their three home matches this term, including their latest win over the Las Vegas Raiders at the weekend.
They have had to do it tough offensively in recent times with Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp both missing most of the season through injury. The latter is definitely expected to return for the TNF while the latter is being reported to be available as well. Were both to be available that would undoubtedly strengthen them massively on offense and then the question will be whether their defence can come to the party again and lead them to successive wins.
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Minnesota Vikings
I think we went into the season with the Minnesota Vikings potentially being a dangerous team this term but it all depended on whether Sam Darnold could get hold of the offense and play big time ball after the parting of ways with Kirk Cousins. If he could then Minnesota have everything needed for a big campaign but if he struggled like he has elsewhere in his career then there was a potential for them to be hit or miss. Fortunately for the Vikings, he has been very good and the results have followed.
The Vikings were 5-0 when they welcomed the Detroit Lions to Minnesota at the weekend but for the first time in this campaign their defence was opened up by the power that the Lions possess on offense, and Darnold and co couldn’t get the better of them. That defence now has to recover very quickly, on the road, against an offense which could be potentially just as powerful and that could be a tough ask. The Vikings might need to win this in a shootout, but having put 28 points or more on the board in four of their six matches that is entirely possible.
Betting
I like the idea of Matthew Stafford to have a big game here. There are two obvious reasons for that. The first is that he is certainly getting one of his key passing pieces back in Cooper Kupp and he could be getting the other too with Puka Nacua suddenly in the frame to play. The other reason is that the likely game state here is that Los Angeles Rams will be playing from behind and therefore in more passing down situations which should exaggerate the passing yards for Stafford.
The other clear game state here is that the Vikings defence ranks first against the run and in the last three matches have fallen apart a little against the pass so an offense which has the ability to be a real threat in the passing game really should be using that as their best source of success here. Stafford has a passing yards line of 244.5 and when you consider that Minnesota have surrendered 389, 244 and 280 yards through the air in the last three, this line has every chance of being covered especially should the Rams fall behind on the scoreboard.
Tips
Back M.Stafford – Over 244.5 passing yards for a 3/10 stake at 1.87 with Boylesports
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