Betting: Will Vikings cover -3.5 vs. Steelers?
Ariel Epstein, Jared Quay and Pamela Maldonado break down their betting picks for the Thursday Night Football matchup between the Steelers and Vikings.
Video Transcript
ARIEL EPSTEIN: Welcome to the Yahoo Sports book. He's Jared Quay. She's Pamela Maldonado. I'm Ariel Epstein. I cannot believe it is already week 14 of the NFL season. We're kicking it off with Thursday Night Football. The Pittsburgh Steelers are road dogs at the Minnesota Vikings. Vikings playing 3 and 1/2, the total 44 and 1/2.
Jared, starting with you, where are you going with this Thursday night game?
JARED QUAY: I'm hurt by the Steelers because they just beat my Ravens last week. They're a good football team, but I got to go Vikings minus 3 and 1/2 here, all right? They played the afternoon game on Sunday. They fought a hard-fought battle. They're very beat up. And they have to get on a plane and travel to Minnesota to play a Thursday night game.
They don't give any type of recovery, hardly any time for practice and preparation. And both these teams are beat up. But I still think this Vikings team has a lot of offensive firepower. But still his team has a great defense, but I don't know if Big Ben and them are going to be able to score enough points to be able to keep up with the Vikings team. So I'm actually going to go the Vikings minus 3 and 1/2.
ARIEL EPSTEIN: Jared, we're on the same side. I'm laying the points with Minnesota, starting to think maybe this is a biased Ravens pick considering Pittsburgh did just win. However, it is tougher for the road dog on a short week going on the road and facing this Minnesota high flying offense, whether it's the running back Alexander Mattison or Dalvin Cook, the Steelers have really struggled this year against the run
Also, the Steelers and their quarterback Big Ben, not as successful since 2018 on the road. In prime time on the road, Big Ben 2 and 4 straight up. Kirk Cousins this year when he's at home, he's 3 and 2 straight up. His records were at 2 and 3 on the road this season. I'm laying the points with the Vikings. Pam, where are you going with the game?
PAMELA MALDONADO: Give me the Pittsburgh Steelers plus 3 and 1/2 at the Vikings. I don't need Big Ben to be superb. I just need Kirk Cousins to be subpar. So Pittsburgh is a new number one in quarterback pressure and against Kirk Cousins. You have linebacker TJ Watt who look back to his old self last week, 3 and 1/2 sacks against Baltimore.
Cousins under pressure, 5 and 1/2 yards per pass attempt. Cousins when kept clean, 8 and 1/2 yards per pass attempt. That differential ranks 36 of 39 qualifying quarterbacks. In the two games, where Kirk Cousins was sacked 3 times, 27-24 loss to the Bengals, 29-27 lost just last week to the "Winless Lions."
The Vikings offense, yeah, we already said that they're without the running back and Dalvin Cook, and now they could be without Adam Thielen dealing with an ankle injury. He is second in targets in yards, leads in receiving touchdowns. This is an easy pick for me, Steelers plus 3 and 1/2.
ARIEL EPSTEIN: You're going to have a winner most likely. Jared and I are both laying the points of Minnesota. Pam is taking the points with the Steelers. Thanks for joining us here on Yahoo Sports Book. Good luck with your bets this week.
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