NFL 2025 Week 8 Thursday Night Football Review: Chargers Romp in Blowout Win Over Vikings

   

Los Angeles Chargers 37,  Minnesota Vikings 10 

When I predict the right team, but expect a close game and it turns out to be a  blowout, like this one, it still feels like I got it wrong. 

Sure enough, my expectations were for a tough game. In fact, it seemed likely that it would only be decided in the fourth quarter.

Now in my defense, at least I did mention how inconsistent both of these teams can be. The Chargers looked like titans earlier this season, beating the Chiefs in the opener and racing out to an impressive 3-0 start. Then they seemed to collapse.

Likewise, the Vikings also looked quite impressive at times this season, and seemed like a struggled, sub .500 team at other points in the season.

Still, I will admit to just not seeing this particular game going so decisively in favor of one of these teams or the other. In fact, it seemed to me that both of these teams had so many issues to work out, so many vulnerabilities, that the other team would likely exploit those enough to prevent either team from running away with it.

So much for what I figured, eh? 

Turns out that the Chargers made short work of the Vikings. Justin Herbert was hot on this night. He completed 18 of 25 passes for 227 yards and three touchdowns, although he also had one INT. Los Angeles was on fire on offense, as they had a total of 419 yards and 29 first downs while holding onto the ball for over 39 minutes.

The Chargers also dominated on the other side of the ball, as well. They held the Vikings to just 12 first downs and a total of 164 total yards of offense, and a mere 34 yards on the ground. Clearly, the Vikings simply could not get anything going on this night against the Chargers solid defensive effort.

With the win, the Chargers improve to 5-3 and at least can keep pace with the first place Broncos and the Chiefs in the tight AFC West. 

Meanwhile, the Vikings fall to 3-4 Now, they are the team that has dropped three of their last four games, and appear to be having serious problems at this point in the season. 

My pick: Accurate