The Thursday Night Football matchup in Week 8 of the 2024 NFL season features the Los Angeles Rams hosting the Minnesota Vikings at SoFi Stadium. We’ll be diving into all of the primetime games this season, and this one isn’t any different. With that in mind, keep reading for betting odds, picks and player props for this exciting showdown. Also, make sure you head over to the Week 8 NFL Betting Hub for a look at all of our NFL betting content.
MORE: Head to the Pro Picks page for best bets from all of our VSiN hosts and analysts!
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How To Watch Vikings vs. Rams
When: Thursday, October 24th at 8:15 pm ET
Where: SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California
Channel: Prime Video
Vikings vs. Rams Odds
Odds from DraftKings Sportsbook as of Tuesday, October 22nd. Make sure you look around for the best prices!
Moneyline: Vikings -166, Rams +140
Spread: Vikings -3 (-115), Rams +3 (-105)
Total: Over 48 (-112), Under 48 (-108)
Vikings vs. Rams Analysis
This is a game in which there will be a lot of public support for the road team. The Vikings are 5-1 on the season and have looked like one of the best teams in football, while the Rams are just 2-4 and barely held on against a miserable Raiders team last week. However, I can’t help but think that Los Angeles is going to find a way to keep this close, and I actually think the Rams have a good shot at winning outright. But with +3 out there at -105 odds, you might as well take the points.
It’s just a little hard to ignore the fact that the Vikings offense is visibly slipping. While Minnesota was near the top of the league in EPA per play in the early portion of the season, the team is 19th in the league in EPA per play (-0.006) over the last two weeks. And Sam Darnold, who was the talk of the league after Minnesota’s scorching start to the year, is now down to 23rd in PFF’s passing grade rankings. His 68.8 mark isn’t very good and the eye test matches up with the analytics.
On top of that, Los Angeles has been a little sharper defensively in recent weeks, and Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell used to work for Sean McVay. That said, McVay should be able to pass along some valuable notes to defensive coordinator Chris Shula.
Offensively, Los Angeles should get a big spark with the return of Cooper Kupp. That could help the passing game catch up to a top-10 rushing attack by EPA per play (-0.015).
Naturally, I’m a little worried about how a depleted Los Angeles offensive line will hold up against Brian Flores’ elite defense. But Matthew Stafford should be able to get the ball out quicker now that he’ll have a little more trust in his receiving group. And overall, I just trust him a lot more than I do Darnold, and that’s important in a game like this.
McVay is also 6-2 straight-up and 5-2-1 against the spread on Thursday nights in his career. That might seem meaningless, but getting prepared in short weeks is difficult. Clearly McVay knows how to do it.
Vikings vs. Rams Player Props
Cooper Kupp Over 67.5 Receiving Yards (-114)
Not only do I like Kupp’s presence to open up this offense, but I also think we’ll see some good numbers from him right away. McVay announced pretty quickly that he expects Kupp to play in this game, and he was a full participant in practice on Monday. So, Kupp was probably healthy enough to play against the Raiders, but the organization pushed him a week. Well, this is a guy that caught 14 passes for 110 yards in his first game of the year, and he drew 21 targets in that one. He then had four catches for 37 yards before getting injured in the second quarter against the Cardinals in Week 2. When Kupp is out there, Stafford peppers him with targets. It’s that simple. And this Vikings secondary was exposed a bit last week, making it pretty easy to imagine Kupp going crazy here.
Vikings vs. Rams Pick
I was pretty tempted to take the Rams on the moneyline here, but I decided to play it safe and take the points. And this will be one of my Week 8 NFL best bets (probably for 2 units). Minnesota was a wagon to start the season, but the wheels of that wagon have lost a couple of screws. This now looks like a beatable team, and we saw that in a home loss against the Lions. The Vikings secondary was a mess in that game, which is another reason to like Stafford and Co. to earn their third win of the year.
Bet: Rams +3 (-105)
