Bucs vs. Vikings: Last-Minute Gambling Guide for Thursday Night Football Contest

The Minnesota Vikings (5-2) are hosting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2-4) in a Week 8 NFC showdown on Thursday Night Football.

It’s a game that could go either way, as the Bucs are better than their record indicates and have suffered numerous tough losses—especially against the New Orleans Saints this past Sunday.

Both teams are on a short rest, having played 1 p.m. ET games during Week 7, and that could mean more of the same for TNF. While this may be bad news for casual NFL fans, bettors are salivating to get a piece of the action—especially those following the trends.

Let’s take a look at where to watch this matchup and then get right into how you should bet it.

Where: Mall of America Field, Minneapolis

When: Thursday, October 25 at 8:20 p.m. ET

Watch: NFL Network

Live Stream: NFL.com

Point Spread: Vikings -6.5 (via ScoresAndOdds.com)

Lay the points and take the underdog here.

While home teams are generally a wiser play during the Thursday night affair, the dogs have generally kept things close. On some books, Tampa can be found for plus-seven, a great number to get if you are betting the point spread.

Minnesota is good this year, but the Bucs aren’t terrible and have the run defense to stop Adrian Peterson—especially after the Vikings ran him into the ground to pull out a Week 7 win vs. the Arizona Cardinals (23 carries, 153 yards, one touchdown).

By laying the points, you are basically trusting Christian Ponder to cover a seven-point spread, something we aren’t comfortable doing.

One important trend to note here is the Bucs are 11-0-1 against the spread in their last 12 road games. That information should seal the deal on which side to bet.

Over/Under: 42 (via ScoresAndOdds.com)

Under is undoubtedly the play.

Thursday Night Football is extremely taxing on players and coaches, as travel, short rest and limited preparation time makes it difficult to score points and favors defenses.

While occasionally a game will go over, it takes some fluke plays and luck—as evidenced by Tennessee’s Week 6 victory over Pittsburgh.

We don’t expect this to be a barnburner, and it projects to be something around a 17-14 or 21-17 finish.