Yahoo Sports NFL analyst Nate Tice and Yahoo Sports NFL writer Charles McDonald look at one of the key matchups in Sunday night’s affair and reveal their picks for who will win. Hear the full conversation on “Football 301” – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
What’s your prediction for this game?
Um, I think the Vikings win.
I think they, they, they close out the game and what a season.
get the number one seed.
Your rookie quarterback who you thought was going to run, run the offense for you all season, ends up getting hurt and you’re one game away from the #1 seed at the end of a 15-2 season.
That’s crazy.
I just don’t like the idea of this line secondary against Jefferson and Addison.
I mean, it’s not just that the lines are.
These guys are playing out of their freaking minds right now.
Justin Jefferson’s on a different planet.
I mean the catch he had against the Packers that didn’t get wouldn’t count.
Yes, he snatched it behind his head in stride catches you’ll ever see in your life and we already forgot about it.
But he makes it look so easy.
Like just snatched it behind his head, tucked it, turned up the.
I was like, What the hell planet are you from?
So yeah, I think I think the Vikings win this.
In the 4 minute drill that the Vikings iced the game, or they threw the ball 3 times with Arnold, which is also a huge thing.
That’s how much they trust Arnold right now.
Like, yeah, we’ll chuck it with you.
Justin Jefferson is a football genius, not only top of his athletic gifts and hand-eye coordination, everything, he is a savant as a route runner and understanding how to play the position.
He’s running the over route and there’s a corner trailing him, and the guy did a good job actually on it.
And he comes down on the over route, his, his stems downwards to stay friendly to the quarterback.
What that is doing is you’re preventing an undercut.
And I have seen Pro Bowl, all pro receivers never do that in their career, and you, you, they get away with it because of other reasons.
But for Jefferson to in the heat of that moment on a huge play that really I would say if I was looking at how that play was breaking down, 85% of the time, that’s an incomplete pass to me.
But because he stemmed downwards and made himself QB friendly, it turned into like a 67 yard game.
Then they got to 3rd manageable and they got the 1st down.
And I was like, God, you just do everything right.
Good blocker, good in the red zone, good underneath, good on the sidelines, good from the slot, good deep, like what can’t you do?
He’s freaking awesome, so I’m also gonna go with the Vikings.
But God, the Lions need this, they need that deep breath for that bye week.
I mean, both teams would love this, especially in the AFC, but.
I, I am gonna go with the Vikings, they’re a hot team right now, but I do think this is gonna be a very exciting game, but obviously, and I think both offenses are going to bring it.
