Outkick Bets: Betting Steelers/Vikings

We are back to Thursday Night Football and it’s a unique matchup. The Steelers and Vikings are surprisingly in the .500 neighborhood and both for different reasons and probably feel pretty differently about it. Let’s see what we got.

First thing is first, most of the team’s season-long statistics are kind of moot for tonight’s game, at least as far as the spread is concerned. I cannot fell comfortable playing the spread tonight. The Vikings have seven losses and all 7 of them have been by one possession. In their five wins, a very similar story because four of their five wins have been within a score. They play so many tight games and it goes back to the fact that Kirk Cousins is a near-career .500 QB ATS.

That leaves me the total and I am going to take the over. It’s sitting at 43.5 right now as of this typing, and I’ll get that half-point back to 43. Cousins has thrown for 300-yards in 5 games this season and is on a current streak of 5-straight 2-TD games. Speaking of 5, that’s how many consecutive games the Vikes have gone over 43 points in a game. Minnesota helps that by having a terrible defense. They are 25th in points allowed, 29th in rushing allowed and 30th in total yards. Big Ben may not be as good as he once was, but he’s still capable. He’s thrown for at least one touchdown in 7 straight games and last week he found Diontae Johnson a couple of times in the endzone. The Pittsburgh defense isn’t exactly other-worldly either. They are 21st in points allowed and they’ve gone over 43 in a game twice in their last three times out.