Week 8 Thursday Matchup

Week 8 is upon us, and we need a big bounce back this week. We went 2-5 in our Best Bets last week. It was rough. Not going to lie. We should have known it was going to be a long weekend after last Thursdays Best Bet missed. I picked Courtland Sutton to have a big night and he did not even report a target in the game. Things barely got better from there on. But we are picking ourselves up, dusting ourselves off, and flipping the page to week 8. We have an interesting matchup between the Vikings and Rams tonight on Thursday Night Football. I’ve laid out the important team stats for the matchup, picked a Best Bet, and put together a Parlay. Let’s have ourselves a night.

First things first, the Best Bet.

Best Bet

Aaron Jones Rushing Yards o71.5 (-110) FanDuel

Vikings @ Rams

The 5-1 Vikings are traveling to Los Angeles to take on the 2-4 Rams. The Vikings are coming off of their first loss of the season to the Detroit Lions (Jamie’s Pick of the Week). They have been one of the biggest surprises this year as they got off to a 5-0 start. With Sam Darnold at the helm and a stout defense, they have been the cream of the crop so far. The Rams, on the other hand, have struggled to get things going. Injuries to Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua and a struggling defense has led to a tough start for the season.

The offense of the Vikings is 6th in the league in scoring. They are averaging 28 points per game. they are being led by Sam Darnold who has been having a career resurgence. So far, he has thrown for 1370 yards 12 TDs and 5 Ints. He is averaging 228 yards a game and is operating Kevin O’Connell’s offense incredibly efficiently relies heavily on his superstar wide receiver Justin Jefferson who has 33 receptions for 531 yds and 5 TDs. They rank 14th in pass yards per game with 214 yards per game. Their rushing attack is led by Aaron Jones who has 85 rushes for 443 yds and 2 TDs. they rank 17th in the league by averaging 119 yards per game. This team has been getting leads early on and holding on for wins. They have actually struggled a bit in the second half so if you are looking at team point totals, I would take a look at the over for first half and possibly the under for the second half points.

They are balanced by a stout defense led by DC Brian Flores. They are 6th in the league in points allowed by allowing 17.8 points per game. With the offense getting out to early leads, teams tend to rely on the pass and abandon the run against this defense. The numbers reflect that fact. They are the 2nd best rush defense only allowing 80 yards per game. However, they do let up a lot of pass yards and are 30thin the league by allowing 260 yards per game. Flores has been shutting down some of the best offenses in the league. His scheme i confusing opposing QBs and they like to take the ball away. They are +4 in turnover differential which is 7th in the league. Matthew Stafford is -108to throw an interception tonight. I would take a look at taking that bet as well. This Vikings defense will have to face a struggling Rams offense who are getting some of their key weapons back. This should be a great matchup for the Vikings.

The Rams offense, which used to be prolific, has been struggling. They are only managing 19 points per game which is 23rd in the league. Matthew Stafford has not looked like himself and only has 3 touchdowns on the year so far. They definitely score more through the run game as Kyren Williams has scored in almost every game this year. He currently has 8 touchdowns. The pass offense suffered from not having Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp since week 1. They get Kupp back tonight and you have to think he will help this offense move down the field. The pass offense is averaging 212 yards per game which is 15th. Despite the ability to score on the ground, the Rams do not run the ball too well. They are averaging 100 yards per game which is 26th in the league. They have a tough matchup with this Vikings defense that excels against the run and does not let up many points.

The Rams defense has not been good this year. They are letting up 25.7 points per game which is 25th in the league. They are slightly better against the pass than they are against the run. They are 18th in pass yards per game allowed by allowing 212 yards a game. On the ground, they rank 30th and are letting up 151 yards per game. With Aaron Jones and Justin Jefferson coming to town, they will have their hands full. I expect the Vikings to be able to move the ball however they want. They will most likely get up on the Rams early and then exploit the Rams bad rush defense to close out the game.

Best Bet Background

The Rams have one of the worst defenses in the league when it comes to letting up yards. The rush defense in particular is susceptible to big games. Aaron Jones is poised to have a great game tonight. He is coming off of a game where despite being “injured” he rushed for 93 yards and a touchdown. He has fully recovered from his injury. Including last week, he has eclipsed his yards total 4 out of the 6 games that he has played. The Vikings tend to play with a lead so they will eventually turn to Jones to start running the ball and running out the clock. This one is pretty straight forward. Aaron Jones will have a big night and should cash this bet.