NFL Wild Card Weekend Best Prop Bet: Make More with Minny
The Game:
Minnesota Vikings at New Orleans Saints
The Play:
Minnesota Vikings OVER 20 Total Points for the Game (-120)
There are many reasons why I think this is the best pro bet for Wild Card Weekend: First off, the Minnesota Vikings won 10 games and averaged almost 26 points a game this season. Secondly, since the 2002-03 season, the Vikings have played the Saints 10 times and they have scored at least 20 points in nine of those affairs. This Vikings offense can be extremely dangerous when their best offensive player is in the lineup and running back Dalvin Cook is back against the Saints.
Cook has played in fourteen games this year and the Vikings have scored at least 20 points in 11 of them. The inverse is also true; in the two games he didn’t play, Minnesota failed to hit 20 points. Not only is Cook valuable in the ground game, he was also the team’s second leading receiver. He amassed more than 1,100 yards on the ground but added 53 receptions for more than 500 yards as well.
Minnesota is also sixth overall in total yards per game. Another major reason for that is the connection between Kirk Cousins (3,600 yards and 26 touchdowns on the season) and wide receiver Stefon Diggs. After a shaky start to the year, Diggs was once again productive, going for 1,130 yards receiving, six touchdowns, and averaging 18 yards per catch. Minnesota has also extreme confidence in their kicker Dan Bailey (yes, playoff confidence in a Vikings kicker). Bailey is 27 of 29 on field goals and is a perfect three for three from 50+ yards.
Moreover, whenever you face Drew Brees, especially in a dome, you know at any particular time you could be forced into a shootout; there is a good chance this might be the case come Sunday. Minnesota needs to get back to basics and in order to get their offense back on track they’ll feed Cook a ton on the ground and go play-action to Diggs off of it. Plus, the Saints aren’t exactly killers on defense; the Saints have played four teams this season that made the playoffs and have given up at least 27 points to all four (28 to Houston and Tennessee, 27 to Seattle and a whopping 48 to San Francisco).
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Harry Gagnon spent 14 years as a Vegas Sportsbook Supervisor and holds a Communications degree from SUNY-Oswego. You might know him better as part of the Degenerate Trifecta on the award nominated betting podcast “Against All odds with Cousin Sal” on the Ringer Podcast Network. Feel free to find him on Twitter (@AAOHarry) and tweet him a message if you want to talk casinos, sports, or just shoot the breeze about betting in general cause, hey, that’s what Twitter is for, right?