Daily Newsletter: NFL Week 8 TNF Preview (Oct. 24 2024)
Week 8 begins on Thursday night with the Minnesota Vikings traveling to LA to face off with the Rams. Kick-off is set for 8:15 ET and will be broadcast exclusively on Prime Video.
Minnesota Vikings
The Vikings travel to SoFi Stadium to take on the Rams tonight, in what's expected to be a close contest. Despite a glaring difference in record – Minnesota is 5-1 compared to 2-4 for the Rams – the Vikings are listed as just short 2.5 point favorites. This is a potential let-down spot for the Vikings, who are coming off a tough, hard-fought game vs the Lions and are traveling on the short week. This has become a trendy topic the last week or so on social media, but teams that have faced the Lions the week prior are 0-4 ATS this season. Furthermore, over 85% of both ML and spread tickets have come in on the Vikings in this spot. Despite that overwhelming amount of bets, the line has trended towards the Rams.
It’s a tough spot for Sam Darnold here, who has been very splits-dependent this season. Similar to Baker Mayfield who I talked about on Monday – Darnold has excelled against one type of coverage this season. He’s carved up man-coverage – notably because he has Justin Jefferson on his team, but has struggled with zone coverage. Los Angeles is one of the more zone-heavy teams in the league, which points to this being an extremely tough spot for the Vikings offensively.
Los Angeles Rams
LA will reportedly receive a major boost tonight with both Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua returning from injury. Kupp, I believe, is set for a full go, but it remains to be seen how much Nacua will play. As I noted above, this is a great buy-low spot on the Rams who are at home, getting healthy and facing a team in a clear let-down spot. Minnesota will also be down a key LB in this spot, with Blake Cashman already ruled out for the game. This is a big deal against a team that wants to run the ball with Kyren Williams as much as they can – and will attack the middle of the field with their receivers. I’m expecting Matt Stafford to have a big game tonight with his receivers back, and would pick the Rams to upset the Vikings as well.
Written by Ben Hossler