Minnesota Vikings (6-2 SU, 5-3 ATS) vs. Washington Redskins (4-4 SU, 3-5 ATS)
NFL Week 10
Date/Time: Sunday, November 12, 2017 at 1:00 P.M. ET
Where: FedEx Field
TV: Fox
by Jerbeek, Expert Football Handicapper, Predictem.com
Point Spread: Min -1/Was +1
Over/Under Total: 42.5
The Minnesota Vikings head to Landover, Maryland Sunday to take on the Washington Redskins. The Vikings are currently in 1st place in the NFC North with a 2 game lead over the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers. The Redskins playoff chances appear to be dwindling and basically their only hope is the wild card route as they trail the Philadelphia Eagles by 3.5 games in the NFC East. Minnesota has won 4 straight games before last weeks bye and look to stay on track, they have done it with defense as they have only allowed an average of 14 points in those 4 wins. Washington is coming off a very impressive road win last week in Seattle where Kirk Cousins rallied his team for a late game winning touchdown after Seattle took a late lead.
Minnesota is led by QB Case Keenum who has been filling in admirably as a game manager after Sam Bradford had an early season injury. The Vikings have activated Teddy Bridgewater for week 10 but he is not expected to play. Bridgewater was the starting QB but has been out since the summer of 2016 after suffering a horrific broken leg in practice. Minnesota also lost their starting RB when Dalvin Cook was lost for the season in week 4 with an ACL injury. The rushing duties have went to Jerrick McKinnon and Latavius Murray since then who are not as explosive as Cook had been. The Vikings have a couple of big play WRs in Adam Thielen and Stephon Diggs and a reliable TE in Kyle Rudolph.
The Redskins are led by QB Kirk Cousins. Cousins has struggled a little bit this year because of the lack of big plays; however, the emergence of Josh Doctson may help that out. Doctson had a huge catch in the late drive against Seattle that brought the ball to the 1 yard line. Doctson is averaging 17.1 yards per catch and may be a key figure down the stretch as the Redskins try to make a late playoff push.
The Minnesota defense has been very tough all season as they have only 282 yards per game to their opponents. They allow only 3.5 yards per play rushing and 5.8 yards passing so the Redskins will have a really difficult time running the ball. The key to the Vikings winning is to play tough defense and hope that their offense can do just enough to survive. If Washington is going to have any success at all against the Viking defense it will need to come through the passing game.
The Redskins defense was a bend but dont break unit against Seattle as they gave up 432 yards but held the Seahawks to 14 points. On the season the Redskins have had trouble stopping opponents running game but with the Vikings that concern may be somewhat limited with the Vikings struggles trying to run the ball since Cooks injury.
On the injury front, the Redskins have several offensive lineman that are questionable for Sunday which will add to their offensive woes along with TE Vernon Davis and WRs Brian Quick and Jamison Crowder also being listed as questionable. The Vikings seem to be relatively healthy with their team going forward and could get a boost if Teddy Bridgewater is actually healthy and ready to play.
It should be noted that the Vikings hot streak has come with a pretty weak part of their schedule. The 4 game winning streak came against teams with offensive problems as they beat Cleveland, Baltimore, Green Bay (the game Aaron Rodgers was injured early) and Chicago. The Redskins should provide more offensive punch than any of those teams so it may force the Vikings to try to do a bit more on offense and I am not sure they are capable of that.
Jerbeeks Pick to Cover the Point Spread: The line on this game opened up with Minnesota favored by 2 points and has since dropped to Minnesota by 1. I agree with the line move as I expect Washington to win this game by a score of 24-17 so I will be taking the points. Another option is to take the Redskins on the money line since the 1 point is not likely to come into play and not have to lay the vigorish. My recommendation is to play the Washington Redskins plus the 1 point. – Bet this game for FREE by taking advantage of a 50% bonus up to $250 at one of the web’s oldest and most trusted betting sites: BOVADA
