Thursday night’s game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Arizona Cardinals, in Arizona, is one of the more highly anticipated Thursday night games so far this NFL season. The kickoff game for Week #14 looks like it will be a close one, although the Vegas book makers have listed the Cardinals as 9 point favorites. Let’s take a quick look at the game, and the fantasy impact that we should be taking away from this.
The 9 point edge that Arizona has cannot be overlooked. It’s pretty obvious that the experts believe that the Cardinals will win big, and a lot of that will come from the vast superiority that Arizona quarterback Carson Palmer has over Minnesota’s Terry Bridgewater. If you look at the records of the two teams, you could be a little misled about where this edge has come from, though. The Cardinals only have 2 more wins than the Vikings. But the Arizona unit has taken down far bigger teams than Minnesota has, and they’ve been better at producing points. It’s no secret that they Cardinals are a better team, but it doesn’t seem like they are 9 point favorites until you take these extra considerations into account.
Nothing Like a Thursday Night throw down to Get Things Started
Also remember that this game has a 46.5 point over/under. It’s expected to be pretty high scoring, and with the bigger number of points going to the Cardinals, they need to come from somewhere. The Arizona passing game has been strong with Palmer at QB. His biggest targets this year have been WR Larry Fitzgerald and WR John Brown. Fitzgerald has a huge edge over Brown, but depending on what your roster needs are and what your remaining salary can handle, both should see lots of passes this game. Brown had 6 catches last week and 113 yards, giving him a slight edge over Fitzgerald’s 55 yards on 8 catches. And thanks to the fact that Fitzgerald was limited in practice on Tuesday, Brown could actually be the better value here.
The Arizona running back core led by Chris Johnson isn’t seeing a ton of yards this season, so there’s not really much to be gained from going with one of these players, other than Johnson himself. He has 814 yards this season, averaging just over 70 yards per game. He’s a solid pick, but there are others playing on Sunday that are likely to have more yards if you are playing in a daily fantasy football league and have more leeway. Still, with his 3 touchdowns this season and Minnesota’s improving defense, Johnson may get more carries, and more touchdown chances, than normal.
Minnesota’s QB Terry Bridgewater has had a fair amount of struggles this year, and should be avoided for fantasy purposes as a result of this. He’s capable of playing well, he’s just very spotty and it’s not easy to predict which side of his game we will see on any given day. If you don’t want to spend money on a QB like Carson Palmer, just wait until a Sunday game for your quarterback.
The real gem of the Vikings this year has been RB Adrian Peterson. He has 1,182 yards in rushing this year and 8 touchdowns. He’s a far better choice than Chris Johnson for this game if you want an RB from Thursday night’s game. He has a decent chance of 100 plus rushing yards this game, especially because Bridgewater will be likely to rely on him more than usual.
The top fantasy pick of this game has to be Carson Palmer. He’s having a stellar season, and against a team like the Vikings, there’s no reason to think he will not have at least an average game on Thursday.
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