Should they be, though?
Hoping to snap their two-game losing streak, the Minnesota Vikings will host the Indianapolis Colts at U.S. Bank Stadium this week in a game that has been flexed into the Sunday Night Football prime time slot. As Week 9 in the NFL gets underway, the purple have been installed as pretty sizeable favorites.
According to our friends at FanDuel, the Vikings are currently sitting as a 6.5-point favorite over the Colts.
The Colts are coming off of a pretty heartbreaking loss to their division rivals from Houston, losing 23-20 after having what looked to be a potentially game-winning scoop-and-score touchdown taken off the board in the closing moments. That puts them firmly in second place in the AFC South behind Houston, but the Colts have already been swept by the Texans this season.
Minnesota is coming off of back-to-back rough losses, falling at home to Detroit by a score of 31-29 after failing to execute late in the game, and following that up with a 30-20 loss to the Rams on Thursday Night Football. They’ve gotten a bit of a mini-bye, which they used to finally bring back star tight end T.J. Hockenson after his knee injury from last season. Unfortunately, they also had to place their outstanding left tackle, Christian Darrisaw, on injured reserve with a similar injury that will end his 2024 season.
The Vikings will need a victory to keep pace in the NFC North. Detroit now sits at 6-1 while Green Bay is now 6-2, with the Packers being the only team in the division that has not taken their bye week yet. The Vikings are still ahead of the Chicago Bears in the NFC North race thanks to the right arm of Jayden Daniels, but only by a game as Chicago has a 4-3 mark.
The quarterback situation for the Colts is interesting as well. The Colts have been rolling with second-year quarterback Anthony Richardson when he’s healthy, but for the majority of Sunday’s game against Houston he was awful. They have longtime veteran Joe Flacco serving as Richardson’s backup, and the Colts’ offense functioned quite well under Flacco’s leadership. It will be worth watching to see how Indianapolis handles that and whether it might affect the betting line.
The Vikings are as big a favorite as they’ve been in any game this season heading into this one, folks. Does that make you feel better about their chances on Sunday Night Football. . .or worse?
