Our Official Prediction for Vikings at Chargers
The Indianapolis Colts flogged the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, and the Chargers will hope to get right against the Minnesota Vikings at home on Thursday Night Football. Accordingly, our staff has score predictions for the event.
It’s a short week for the Vikings, and our writers scrambled to get final predictions submitted, with a showdown against the Chargers on the way.
Last week, the group picked the Philadelphia Eagles to take down the purple team, an accurate forecast.
Here’s the verdict for Week 8.
VikingsTerritory Prediction: Chargers-Vikings
This one was hotly contested.
Score Prediction from Our Writers
The panel understood the decision-making from a health perspective, but starting Carson Wentz for a fifth consecutive game sank Minnesota in the court of public opinion. No one trusts him.
So, most of our staff tabbed Los Angeles for a primetime win.
Dustin Baker: LAC Wins, 27-24
Sean Borman: LAC Wins, 31-30
Janik Eckardt: LAC Wins, 21-16
Josh Frey: LAC Wins, 20-15
Henrique Gucciardi: MIN Wins, 17-13
Wesley Johnson: LAC Wins, 23-20
Kyle Joudry: MIN Wins, 33-27
Adam New: LAC Wins, 28-20
Tony Schultz: MIN Wins, 20-17
Ted Schwerzler: MIN Wins, 24-21
Ali Siddiqui: LAC Wins, 24-20
Cole Smith: LAC Wins, 21-20
In Week 7, Kyle Joudry, our frontrunner prognosicator this season, most accurately predicted the outcome of Vikings-Eagles. Joudry picked Philadelphia to prevail by six and … that happened.
Standings for the Group
We also track season-long accuracy from our writers to give readers the skinny on who to trust.
Kyle Joudry: 5-1
Sean Borman: 4-2
Janik Eckardt: 4-2
Adam New: 4-2
Ted Schwerzler: 4-2
Ali Siddiqui: 4-2
Dustin Baker: 3-3
Henrique Gucciardi: 3-3
Cole Smith: 3-3
Josh Frey: 2-4
Wes Johnson: 2-4
Joudry continues to lead the back and notably picked a Minnesota win in Week 8, even when his counterparts mostly disagreed. Perhaps Joudry will be right and most of the others will be wrong.
Prediction from a Collective Voice
Going against the grain by choosing the other team for the second consecutive week, our writers collectively believes that the Chargers will topple Kevin O’Connell and Co. by a score of 23-21.
And that forecast isn’t too far off the point spread. Vegas believes Los Angeles will score the dub 24-20.
The Pick per Other Media
SI.com’s Will Ragatz rolled with Los Angeles, 26-23: “A few things worry me about the Vikings heading into this one. They’ve got some injury concerns that we’ll know more about closer to game time. Wentz seems to be prone to making a few boneheaded decisions every week. And Herbert, who shredded Brian Flores’ defense in 2023, has an outstanding group of pass-catchers that could help him put up big numbers again. It’ll be close, but this feels like another rough odd-numbered year for Kevin O’Connell (2023 was a mess, too).”
“With that said, the Vikings could certainly win this game if they can muster a solid performance on a short week. Above all else, they need to find a way to not lose the turnover battle for a fourth straight game. They’ve lost it 2-0 in each of their last three games.”
CBS Sports‘ John Breech also picked Los Angeles by a score of 31-24: “Every time I visit California, I’m always ready for bed at 7:30 p.m. PT. I can’t explain why and it makes no sense, but it always happens. Based on that, the Vikings will be getting sleepy around the third quarter, so that’s the time we should fully expect the Chargers to start taking over.”
“Last year, the Vikings also had to fly out to Los Angeles for a Thursday night game and guess what happened? They got sleepy in the second half, so I think I might be onto something with my sleepy theory. In the 2024 game, the 5-1 Vikings were favored by three over the Rams and they ended up losing 30-20 after getting outscored 16-6 in the second half. The other thing about the Vikings is that their QB room is banged up right now.”
Minnesota has a long, long drought in the making, failing to win a primetime Thursday night game on the road in about 50 years. The last victory was in 1978.
“During Minnesota’s game in Week 7, I think I saw Carson Wentz holding his ribs at one point and he also seemed to be favoring his shoulder. I’m not a doctor, so I can’t sit here and diagnose anything, but that guy is definitely dealing with something, and now, he’s going to have to play on three days’ rest. And if he doesn’t play, then J.J. McCarthy and his injured ankle will have to play. There’s no good option for the Vikings,” Breech continued.
“The bottom line here is that I won’t be picking against my time zone trend or my sleepiness theory, so I have to roll with the Chargers.”
Minnesota has a 7.0% of reaching the playoffs, according to DVOA.
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