NFC Championship Game 2018: Live Stream, Odds Guide for Vikings vs. Eagles

Little separates the Minnesota Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles in Sunday's NFC Championship Game. 

Strong defenses, quarterbacks fans wouldn't expect to advance this far, hard-nosed head coaches and enough similarities overall that oddsmakers out of Las Vegas won't stray too far from field-goal range on the official lines showcase how close Sunday's late affair should be. 

As expected coming out of the strong NFC, both teams didn't win their respective games in the divisional round by more than five points. Sunday could be more of the same with the chance to play for a Lombardi Trophy at stake, making the job quite difficult for fans who might want to play the odds. 

Game: Minnesota Vikings at Philadelphia Eagles

Date and Time: Sunday, January 21, 6:40 p.m. ET

TV/Live Stream: Fox, Fox Sports Go

Odds: Minnesota (-3.5) O/U 38

A small line and over/under doesn't come as a surprise here. 

The Vikings only allowed 15.8 points per game during the regular season, then hit the playoffs and held a Drew Brees-led New Orleans Saints team under the 30-point mark in the memorable 29-24 victory. The Eagles weren't far behind at 18.4 points allowed ahead of shuttering Matt Ryan and the Atlanta Falcons in a 15-10 win. 

Interestingly enough, there aren't many reliable odds trends to look at here. According to OddsShark, the Vikings are 9-3 against the spread over their last 12 games—the Eagles are 10-4 over 14. The biggest takeaway from trends is both teams have had totals go under the majority of the time as of late. 

The under wouldn't necessarily come as a surprise, especially with key players embracing the defensive nature of this one. 

"As a defensive player, when you have the No. 1 defense coming in, statistically, obviously we know going into this game, whoever's defense plays better is going to win this game," Eagles defensive tackle Fletcher Cox said, according to ESPN.com's Jordan Raanan. "We've been preparing. We won't change nothing that we do. Everybody will go out and be themselves."

Cox's Eagles haven't had problems defensively as of late, especially not after limiting Ryan to 210 yards and a score on a 22-of-36 line—and 101 of those yards went to a league-best player in Julio Jones. The problems have come offensively without Carson Wentz, as the unit has had to swap out what looked like an MVP contender for Nick Foles. Since taking over, he's thrown five touchdown passes over four games, playoffs included, yet four of those came in a game against a three-win New York Giants team. 

The talk coming out of Philadelphia, at least, centers on Foles being more confident than he was right after he took over for Wentz, as captured by Eliot Shorr-Parks of NJ.com: 

But the Vikings defense has plenty of confidence as well after holding Brees to three touchdowns and picking him off twice. Perhaps more importantly, the Vikings stood tall against the run, holding New Orleans to 80 yards on a 3.3 per-carry average, bumping Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram to non-factor status. 

The Vikings also don't have any worries about the man under center. Case Keenum has started most of the year, completing 67.6 percent of his passes with 22 touchdowns against just seven interceptions. 

Granted, the Vikings don't have a Julio Jones to combat the Philadelphia defense, but Keenum himself went through a stretch of six multiple-touchdown performances over seven games, including against strong teams like the Falcons and Detroit Lions, so it's not like he's a lame duck going into the encounter. 

Would-be bettors will notice oddsmakers have consistently sided with Keenum's Vikings on the road here. Foles might actually be as confident as some of the reports hint, but those asked wouldn't say anything to the contrary. 

The point about the Vikings shutting down a pair of star Saints rushers is perhaps the biggest takeaway here. Eagles backs like LeGarrette Blount and Jay Ajayi accustomed to sledgehammering their way through a defense and making the passing game simplistic won't be able to against these Vikings, and Keenum is poised enough to control the pace of the game. 

It's only fitting, though, based on how this season has unfolded, that this game surprises in at least one way. Look for a defensive-minded affair on paper to strike the over thanks to defenses putting up points of their own after capitalizing on mistakes. This is still a quarterback's league, so bettors would be wise to side with oddsmakers on this one as the healthier Vikings keep rolling. 

Prediction: Vikings 30, Eagles 20

Stats courtesy of NFL.com. Odds according to OddsShark.