NFL Monday Night Football Wild Card Betting
Every Super Wild Card Weekend game in the NFC is a regular season rematch with the Minnesota Vikings seeking to avenge a loss to the Los Angeles Rams that impacted their ability to win the NFC North thus dropping them to the No. 5 seed and sending them on the road. The last game of the opening round takes place on Monday night at 8 p.m. ET from SoFi Stadium on ABC. The Vikings lost out on the No. 1 seed with Sunday night’s loss to Detroit putting them back at the scene of their only non-Detroit setback. The Vikings lost 30-20 as a 2.5-point favorite.
A five-game winning streak allowed the Rams to win the NFC West for the second time in four years. With their fate sealed the club sat most of its starters in a loss to Seattle in the regular season finale. LA should be concerned about an inconsistent offense. After beating Buffalo, 44-42, in Week 16 the Rams totaled that many points in their next three games. However, an improved defense allowed them to win those games by surrendering fewer than 10 points in all three matchups. The Vikings were favored in the Week 8 contest and are laying 1.5-points on the early line in this contest.
NFL Wild Card Monday Night Football Betting Odds
Minnesota Vikings -1.5
Los Angeles Rams +1.5
Over/Under: 47
Money Line: Vikings -125, Rams +105
There is a rich playoff history between the clubs, but you have to go back to the 1970s to relive it. From 1974 to 1978 the teams played four times, including twice in the NFC Championship. Minnesota won three of those games advancing to the Super Bowl twice. The team’s last playoff meeting took place during the 1999 season with then St. Louis Rams winning 49-37 in the divisional round. The Rams went on to beat Tennessee in Super Bowl XXXIV for their first Super Bowl title.
It has to be disheartening for the Vikings to go 14-3 and not even get a home playoff game. They had a chance at securing the No. 1 seed but saw their nine-game winning streak ended by Detroit in Week 18. That was a bad game all the way around with the Vikings scoring a season-low point total while matching a season-high in points allowed. In their three losses the Vikings surrendered at least 30 points each time.
When the teams met in Week 8 there was a questionable no-call when Sam Darnold had his face-mask yanked. Not to say that play would have changed the outcome but it resulted in a safety giving the Rams a 30-20 victory. Much of LA’s success in that game was attributed to having Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp back in the lineup. The two missed a good portion of the early season returning to combine for 12 receptions and 157 yards in the win. Having them back also allowed the Rams to go on a heater in the second half of the season with nine wins in 11 games before the Week 18 setback.
Matthew Stafford has been in big games during his career winning a Super Bowl title in his first season with the Rams. He’s been solid this season completing nearly 66 percent of his passes for 3,762 yards and 20 touchdowns. while they haven’t put up huge numbers the LA offense is well balanced. Nacua led the team with 79 receptions and 990 yards despite missing six contests. Kupp had 67 catches for over 700 yards with a team-best seven TD grabs. Kyren Williams bolsters the run game with 1,299 yards and 14 scores.
Darnold is deserving of the Comeback Player of the Year award but he has to flush the outing against the Lions. He was just 18 of 41 for 166 yards and the Vikings failed to score a touchdown. The Vikings were 0 of 4 in the red zone and rank just 19th in red zone TD efficiency this season. The loss also put the Vikings back on the road for a second straight week and for the third time in the last month. They made a trip to the West Coast in Week 16 beating Seattle right before Christmas.
Despite his rough outing against the Lions Darnold threw for 4,319 yards and 35 TDs, the fifth-most in the NFL, this season. He was also sacked 48 times and the Rams like to get after the opposing QB. Stafford solved Minnesota’s aggressive defense in Week 8 with four TD passes and he’s thrived against blitzing teams in the past.
Monday Night Football Betting Schedule
Week 1 of the 2024 Monday Night Football season begins with a mega market matchup of the New York Jets at the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers are coming off their second NFC championship in five years, while the Jets are seeking their first playoff appearance since 2010. New York has new uniforms, retro-styled to their 1980s look, and an old quarterback in Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers was hurt in the first series of the first game of the Jets season in 2023 and will not attempt to come through for a team that has its entire future riding on him. But at age 40, there are legitimate concerns about Rodgers’ ability to stay healthy, let alone play at his former Hall of Fame level.
One QB that has plenty of future is 49ers signal caller Brock Purdy. Two years ago, Purdy was “Mr. Irrelevant” as the last player taken in the NFL Draft. Now, Purdy is the 49er starter and a proven winner who took San Francisco to an overtime lead in the Super Bowl before the defense failed to hold the Chiefs scoring the winning TD.
Week 3 offers an interesting Monday Night matchup when the Buffalo Bills host the Jacksonville Jaguars. In 2022, Trevor Lawrence and first-year head coach Doug Pederson scored a playoff win and were pronounced the team of the future in the AFC South. But the Jaguars were reading their press clippings too much in 2023 and took a step back, allowing CJ Stroud and the Houston Texans to sneak through the back door to take the division title. Thus, Jacksonville is on a redemption tour for 2024.
The Buffalo Bills were said to have had their Super Bowl window close after their 2022 divisional-round playoff loss to the visiting Cincinnati Bengals. But Buffalo rallied to rip the AFC East Division title away from the New York Jets last year and win a playoff game. Thus, the season was a great reminder that QB Josh Allen and the Bills are not to be written off, at least until someone else proves they are better in the AFC East.
Week 14 brings a potential Super Bowl matchup on Monday Night Football when the Dallas Cowboys host the Cincinnati Bengals. Cincinnati could not recover from the loss of Joe Burrow to injury during the stretch drive toward the 2023 NFL Playoffs. But Burrow is back, and so is optimism for an improved Bengals team.
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