Cowboys favored to beat Vikings in Minneapolis this week
Say what? Yes, the Dallas Cowboys are 2-point favorites over the Minnesota Vikings for their Week 11 showdown at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
The Vikings are fresh off a thrilling win at Buffalo to get them to 8-1 while the Cowboys suffered a deflating overtime loss to the Packers in head coach Mike McCarthy's return to Lambeau Field.
Typically, the home team is awarded 3 points in the odds, so if this game were being played at Jerry World in Dallas then the Cowboys would probably be a 5-point favorite.
Dallas is 6-3. They went 4-1 with Cooper Rush at quarterback and are 2-2 with Dak Prescott under center. As lucky as the Vikings were Sunday to pull out a victory, they did it in Buffalo and held a potent Bills offense to six points in the second half.
Josh Allen threw two bad interceptions in the end zone and then fumbled the snap for the incredible Vikings touchdown with under a minute to go in the fourth quarter, but Vikings defenders still had to make the plays. And that's what the Vikings have done all season.
Minnesota is +8 in turnover margin, ranking second in the NFL behind the Eagles (+15). Dallas is fourth at +6.
What's more shocking about Dallas being favored is that they're hyped defense was manhandled by the Packers. Green Bay ran the ball down Dallas' throat all day, racking up 207 yards. Green Bay elected to throw the ball with two-time reigning MVP Aaron Rodgers only 20 times, and if rookie Christian Watson can go for 100+ yards and three touchdowns how is Dallas going to stop Justin Jefferson in Minnesota?
We'll see if the odds change as the week goes along, but it's very clear that Vegas still hasn't fully bought the hype around the Vikings.
Related: Justin Jefferson amazed by own catch, now thinking Super Bowl
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.