Redskins vs Vikings: Week 8 NFL Picks Thursday Night Football
Redskins vs Vikings
Thursday, October 24 at 8:20 p.m. ET at U.S. Bank Stadium
Minnesota quarterback Kirk Cousins no longer has any reason to be sorry. Since apologizing to wide receiver Adam Thielen after a Week 4 loss in Chicago, Cousins has been on a tear.
In each of his last three games, he’s eclipsed 300 yards while completing over 70 percent of his passes. He’s also thrown a combined total of 10 touchdowns to one interception.
An aspect of Cousins’ streak is that he hasn’t depended too much on one wide receiver. In his last game, for example, four different Vikings caught at least four passes.
One of those four Vikings was not Adam Thielen. Thielen suffered a hamstring injury and he’s listed as ‚questionable‘ for Thursday’s contest.
Whichever Viking lines up in the slot — whether it’s Thielen or a teammate— promises to do well against Washington’s secondary.
Fabian Moreau is typically Washington’s slot corner while Justin Moreland has occupied the position when Moreau was injured. Both allow a passer rating of over 100 when targeted.
Josh Norman lines up on the outside and continues to perform catastrophically. While playing on 93.9 percent of snaps, he’s allowing a passer rating of 140.5 when healthy.
Much has been made of Quinton Dunbar’s efforts. The former undrafted free agent who played wide receiver at Florida has easily been Washington’s top cornerback.
However, he has benefited from a lot of easy match-ups, while he was torched by Philadelphia’s DeSean Jackson and New England’s Josh Gordon.
Like Jackson and Gordon, Vikings receiver Stefon Diggs is a legitimate deep threat and he tends to reward Cousins when he throws him the ball. Diggs leads the team in receptions and yards. He averages 18.7 yards per reception.
In sum, Thursday night presents a strong opportunity for Cousins to continue his hot streak against a defense that allows lesser quarterbacks like Chicago's Mitch Trubisky and New York's Daniel Jones to have solidly efficient performances.
Running back Dalvin Cook should help him out on the ground against a Redskin run defense that ranks in the bottom half in opposing YPC.
The Skins’ ability, or rather inability, to stop the run is important because Minnesota has the second-highest run percentage.
Cook is a prolific running back. He averages 5.5 YPC and a big part of his success comes from his ability to evade tackles and to use his speed to gain big chunks on the ground.
Minnesota’s ability to score a lot of points — a total of 108 in its past three games combined — speaks to its extreme competence as an offense.
On the other side, such competence cannot be attributed to a Redskin offense that has really struggled to get anything going.
In three of its past four games, Washington failed to reach a double-digit point total. The one exception came in Miami, where the Redskins mustered 17 points.
Its running game is paltry as the Skins lack any running backs who can do anything when they reach the second level.
Adrian Peterson is Washington’s top running back. He’s slogging through with 3.7 YPC while the breakaway or big-play ability extensively evident in Cook’s games is totally missing in his.
The passing game has also been one of the league’s worst particularly because the Skins have so little to offer at wide receiver.
Washington is a great opponent for Minnesota’s pass defense to bounce back against after it got involved in a shootout with the Lions. Detroit was the first team this season to score more than 20 points against Minnesota.
As a team, the Vikings are in a strong spot at home where they are 3-0 ATS so far this year and where they have beaten Atlanta, Oakland, and Philadelphia by 16-20 points.
The odds favor Minnesota by just over two touchdowns, which I find to be a fair number for a team that has the ability to put up a ton of points and that’s held five of its opponents under 20 points.
Regarding the total, the Viking offense will do most of the work to reach the game total of 41 points, while we only need a little bit from Washington’s offense. So for your parlay, include the „over."
Best Bet: Parlay: Vikings -15.5 and over 40 at +260 odds with Bookmaker
Redskins vs Vikings
Thursday, October 24 at 8:20 p.m. ET at U.S. Bank Stadium
Minnesota quarterback Kirk Cousins no longer has any reason to be sorry. Since apologizing to wide receiver Adam Thielen after a Week 4 loss in Chicago, Cousins has been on a tear.
In each of his last three games, he’s eclipsed 300 yards while completing over 70 percent of his passes. He’s also thrown a combined total of 10 touchdowns to one interception.
An aspect of Cousins’ streak is that he hasn’t depended too much on one wide receiver. In his last game, for example, four different Vikings caught at least four passes.
One of those four Vikings was not Adam Thielen. Thielen suffered a hamstring injury and he’s listed as ‚questionable‘ for Thursday’s contest.
Whichever Viking lines up in the slot — whether it’s Thielen or a teammate— promises to do well against Washington’s secondary.
Fabian Moreau is typically Washington’s slot corner while Justin Moreland has occupied the position when Moreau was injured. Both allow a passer rating of over 100 when targeted.
Josh Norman lines up on the outside and continues to perform catastrophically. While playing on 93.9 percent of snaps, he’s allowing a passer rating of 140.5 when healthy.
Much has been made of Quinton Dunbar’s efforts. The former undrafted free agent who played wide receiver at Florida has easily been Washington’s top cornerback.
However, he has benefited from a lot of easy match-ups, while he was torched by Philadelphia’s DeSean Jackson and New England’s Josh Gordon.
Like Jackson and Gordon, Vikings receiver Stefon Diggs is a legitimate deep threat and he tends to reward Cousins when he throws him the ball. Diggs leads the team in receptions and yards. He averages 18.7 yards per reception.
In sum, Thursday night presents a strong opportunity for Cousins to continue his hot streak against a defense that allows lesser quarterbacks like Chicago's Mitch Trubisky and New York's Daniel Jones to have solidly efficient performances.
Running back Dalvin Cook should help him out on the ground against a Redskin run defense that ranks in the bottom half in opposing YPC.
The Skins’ ability, or rather inability, to stop the run is important because Minnesota has the second-highest run percentage.
Cook is a prolific running back. He averages 5.5 YPC and a big part of his success comes from his ability to evade tackles and to use his speed to gain big chunks on the ground.
Minnesota’s ability to score a lot of points — a total of 108 in its past three games combined — speaks to its extreme competence as an offense.
On the other side, such competence cannot be attributed to a Redskin offense that has really struggled to get anything going.
In three of its past four games, Washington failed to reach a double-digit point total. The one exception came in Miami, where the Redskins mustered 17 points.
Its running game is paltry as the Skins lack any running backs who can do anything when they reach the second level.
Adrian Peterson is Washington’s top running back. He’s slogging through with 3.7 YPC while the breakaway or big-play ability extensively evident in Cook’s games is totally missing in his.
The passing game has also been one of the league’s worst particularly because the Skins have so little to offer at wide receiver.
Washington is a great opponent for Minnesota’s pass defense to bounce back against after it got involved in a shootout with the Lions. Detroit was the first team this season to score more than 20 points against Minnesota.
As a team, the Vikings are in a strong spot at home where they are 3-0 ATS so far this year and where they have beaten Atlanta, Oakland, and Philadelphia by 16-20 points.
The odds favor Minnesota by just over two touchdowns, which I find to be a fair number for a team that has the ability to put up a ton of points and that’s held five of its opponents under 20 points.
Regarding the total, the Viking offense will do most of the work to reach the game total of 41 points, while we only need a little bit from Washington’s offense. So for your parlay, include the „over."
Best Bet: Parlay: Vikings -15.5 and over 40 at +260 odds with Bookmaker
