Against the Spread Pick
Thursday Night Football here as the Minnesota Vikings will host the Washington Redskins. For a few reasons, there’s value on Washington. The Vikings have been hot recently, and now is the time to sell at the top of the market. Quietly, Washington’s defense has been playing really well since Jay Gruden got fired and Bill Callahan took over as interim coach. The unit looks rejuvenated, and they held Jimmy Garoppolo and the 49ers to just nine points last week. Kirk Cousins has been playing his best ball in years the past few weeks, but he’ll be without top receiver Adam Thielen in this one after Thielen went down with a hamstring injury in their win over the Lions. Both of these teams like to play with old-fashioned styles, which will limit the number of possessions in this game drastically. As such, a spread of over two touchdowns is inflated.
Over Under Pick
The under also makes a lot of sense here. Washington’s offensive struggles are well-documented, and they just failed to score a single point in their loss to the 49ers. Case Keenum isn’t cutting it under center, and they have one of the worst offensive lines in the league. Callahan has gone to an extremely old-school approach, and loves running it for three yards and a cloud of dust as much as possible. Minnesota is also a run-first team, which will be especially true here without Thielen. Cousins will regress some against an underrated Redskins defense, and the Vikings will be content to play ball control and run out the clock in this one.