The regular season has officially come to an end and Super Wild Card Weekend is right around the corner as the Minnesota Vikings will host the New York Giants on Sunday at 3:30 pm Central Standard Time. The Vikings are looking to keep their great season going with a win over the Giants. The only thing the Vikings are probably hoping for is to not have to rely on the leg of Greg Joseph yet again. For the betters out there, the money line is currently Vikings -165, Giants +140. The Vikings are favored in the spread with -3. My fellow Vikings beat reporters and I have put together our predictions for the game, and if you’re here looking to know who to bet for, maybe look elsewhere. We are Vikings beat reporters after all.
No matter all the prayers and hopes fans put into the air, the Vikings always find a way to win by one score, and I feel that this game will be no different. Justin Jefferson will have a very successful game against a banged-up Giants secondary like he did in Week 16. Kirk Cousins was bailed out of 2 interceptions in the first game against the Giants by penalties, but I have a feeling that Don Martindale will be on his DBs asses about not allowing penalties this week. I like Kirk Cousins this week, especially with TJ Hockenson, as the Giants have allowed a 115.0 rating to tight ends this season, which ranks 28th in the league.
As one of the Game Day Correspondents for NFCNorthReport, Nomi has a detailed Wild Card Prediction article with his own prediction as well as various factors that can go into the game on Sunday. If there is something that Nomi can predict here though, it’s that both teams will have 4+ sacks. Click
here to see Naomi’s article
Last week’s game against Chicago will start a good rhythm of not falling apart in the 3rd quarter. If the Vikings can play a complete game with a somewhat competent defense, they should win convincingly.
The three-point spread for this game tells us that Vegas sees these two teams as evenly matched on both sides of the ball. In the end, I’ll take the team with better offensive weapons to win it. The Vikings get another close win, 30-27 over the Giants.
Kirk and Jefferson’s connection seems stronger than ever. Kirk throws for over 250 yards and Jefferson obtains 10 receptions for over 100 yards in his first playoff appearance. The Giants try their hardest to keep up with the Vikings’ explosive offense but fall short. Duke Shelley and Patrick Peterson have stellar performances and shut down all hopes late in the 4th for any comeback for the Giants. It seemed as if Daniel Jones was back under the Joe Judge regime and has a horrific performance. With Daniel Jones’s surprisingly bad showing against a not-so-good Vikings pass defense, Saquan Barkley steals the show, rushes for over 100 yards, and almost carry’s the Giants to the upset win over the Vikings. But the Giants fall short by only a touchdown and the Vikings move on to face the 49ers in the NFC divisional round.
The Vikings will sneak out another close one as Jefferson goes for over 150 receiving yards and a touchdown in his first NFL playoff game.
The Vikings are able to find a balanced offensive attack and Daniel Jones turns the ball over multiple times in his playoff debut.
