Merry Xmas to all!
I will relate to each and every comment posted and was left without my attention later on. I read each and everyone of them and am grateful for the time and effort put in order to keep the conversation alive.
Now, to the game we have at our hands this festive late afternoon.
The Saints and the Vikings have interesting history between them. Especially in the last 4 games since September 11th 2017 thru January 5th 2020. I mean the most recent and consecutive history. The Vikings beat the Saints in two playoff games winning once in OT (the most recent in January this (2020) year) and another one too on the last play of the game. The Saints won both regular season games and have done it by double digit margins.
Will the history repeat itself? Is history relevant at all in this particular instance?
Let's break this one down to the bits.
The line is the saints -6.5 as we speak and it has dropped from the saints -7 in last hour or so. The public is on the Saints. The public support shows on both merits: ML and ATS and translates to each 7 dollars out of 10 being on the Saints.
The line too is very generous towards the Saints as team totals prop shows no less than 9 points margin in the favor of the host team. While the Vikings TT stands at 20.5, the Saints TT is at 29.5. That is leaving the middling folks the whole 2.5 points to play with.
Form wise the Saints should be better than the last game after Brees playing second game after coming back from the injury.
ATS wise - the Saints refused to cover the line twice in a row while the Vikings failed to that 5 times in a row.
Do we have any indication the Vikings will fight for the slimmest of the chances they have to make the playoffs? No.
Do we have an indication the Saints are motivated enough to really believe the Packers will drop the last two games so the Saints will get their playoff goal? Not sure at all.
What about the totals? Well, the totals line has been dropping whole day and is now at 50.5. And all that while the public is supporting the over massively.
So what? Will we see a defensive battle on a Xmas afternoon game? Yes. That is what I believe. At least for the first half.
Under 25.5 First Half
Vikings +6.5
Stay tunes for the half time to see if there will be any value in the second half picks.
Please remember - those are a 0-0 and not 19-4-1 picks. The past doesn't count anywhere besides our pockets where we are set OK. So., the record doesn't guarantee wins so play it modestly and once you places the wager - be happy and make everyone around you happy no matter what will be the outcome!