Late-season Monday Night Football brings an exciting matchup between two teams who will battle it out to win their respectful divisions. The Minnesota Vikings (8-3) come off their bye week to play the Seattle Seahawks (9-2). Whichever team loses will be looking to bounce back next week to keep their Wild Card position within their own control as well.
Minnesota Vikings
The Vikings are 3-7 when returning from a bye week over the last ten years but quarterback Kirk Cousins is looking to add a point to the win column. Kirk Cousins has thrown for 2,756 yards and 21 touchdowns this year, with 12 touchdowns in the last five games. He has completed 226 of 320 attempts for a 70.6 percent completion rate so far this year with only three interceptions.
The visiting team takes a hit as Adam Thielen will be inactive for yet another game, meaning he has missed over a month of crucial football due to a hamstring issue. The Pro-Bowl wideout has 27 catches, 391 receiving yards, and six touchdowns in eight games this season.
The pass-catching playmaker has been Stefon Diggs, who ranks seventh in the league with 880 yards. Another threat lately has been the red zone, hot-handed tight end, Kyle Rudolph, who has five touchdowns in the last five games.
The excitement for the team has come from running back, Dalvin Cook. Cook is one big, 159-yard game shy of being the current NFL’s leading rusher; he currently sits at 1,017 rushing yards. He is averaging 4.8 yards per carry on 214 rushing attempts with 11 touchdowns. Cook only had 55 yards on 13 carries the last time the teams met and is looking to making a bigger impact in a new run-first offense.
The Vikings’ defense is ranked fifth in points allowed per game at 18.6. Defensive ends Danielle Hunter (8.5 sacks) and Everson Griffin (seven sacks) will try to apply pressure as much as possible toward MVP candidate, Russell Wilson.
Seattle Seahawks
The Seahawks are hot and looking to win their fifth straight game. The Seahawks are possibly the toughest team to beat at home as the fans claim to have a “12th man” role on the field with their roaring crowd noise. Earthquake meters have been set off by their fans thanks to the thunderous cheering.
Russell Wilson possibly owns the prettiest deep ball ever thrown. Wilson has out-thrown Cousins with 2,937 yards through the air. He’s thrown 23 touchdowns, almost twice as many as Cousins, while both quarterbacks have only three interceptions. If Wilson can continue his current trend, you can bet he will be in the final MVP discussions.
Chris Carson and Rashaad Penny share the ground-pounding responsibility for the Seahawks. Carson has 208 rushing attempts for 879 yards and four touchdowns. Penny has 296 yards rushing on 50 attempts with two touchdowns. The Vikings also have to worry about Wilson as a running threat who adds 271 yards on the ground.
The receiving core of the Seahawks gets plenty of touches as Russell Wilson spreads the ball throughout the games. Tyler Lockett leads the team with 831 yards but rookie D.K. Metcalf is close behind with 630 yards on 25 fewer attempts.
Seattle has allowed 23.9 points per game and a surprising 370.3 yards per game which leaves them ranked 20th and 27th in the league, respectively. The Seahawks will have to play a big defensive game to slow down the Vikings.
Seattle is picked to win by three points and I think that’s solely based on the home field advantage. It will be a great matchup between the two teams and it may come down to whoever has the ball on the final drive. Both teams know how to play in cold weather conditions, so there’s no advantage there. Turnovers and mistakes will have the most impact on this game.
I’m picking the Seahawks to win with a Russell Wilson game-ending drive to get his team to 10-2 with a final score of 27-23.
