Week Eight of the 2025-26 NFL season begins with a Thursday Night Football matchup between the 3-3 Minnesota Vikings and the 4-3 Los Angeles Chargers. Both of these teams are looking to bounce back from incredibly disappointing losses on Sunday to the Philadelphia Eagles and the Indianapolis Colts, respectively.

The Vikes already have clarity at their most important position. ESPN's Adam Schefter announced that quarterback Carson Wentz will once again be the starter this week, which means former first-round pick J.J. McCarthy will miss his fifth straight game.

"Earlier this morning, we did put J.J. McCarthy through an on-field workout just to see if he had a chance to make it this week," said Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell on Tuesday. "J.J., the medical staff, myself, we're all encouraged about where he's at and the progress he's making, but he's just not there. And if this was a Sunday game, maybe it would be a little bit of a different story, and we could push it throughout the week and see where he's at toward the end of the week... Carson will start, Max (Brosmer) will be the backup, and J.J. will be available in the case of emergency as the third."

Wentz, who has been playing in the NFL for almost a decade, sounds up to the challenge of having a quick turnaround from Sunday to Thursday.

“Yeah, it's just a grind. It's a physical grind. It's a mental grind,” Wentz said during a press conference yesterday. “I don't think anybody goes from playing one game on Sunday to Thursday and actually feels good. It's just, how good can you get yourself feeling, quite frankly. So, I’m feeling fine. Like I said, it is a grind to get there, and it is still Tuesday. Thankfully, it's a Thursday evening game, so you're using every minute you have to recover, to get yourself mentally and physically ready to roll.”

On the other side, the Los Angeles Chargers and head coach Jim Harbaugh will also have to have a short memory as they aim to shake off a 14-point loss to the Colts and get back in the win column.

“When they schedule the games, that's where we turn our focus,” Harbaugh told reporters. “It's a one-week league. All your attention, all your focus goes to that game that you're playing. It's a big game because it's the next game. And, I see that across the league, and I see that with our guys.”

A huge point of emphasis for LA will be limiting mental mistakes. The Chargers have turned the ball over seven times in their last four games after only recording three giveaways in the first three weeks of the season. Quarterback Justin Herbert said that there are a lot of self-inflicted wounds the offense needs to clean up.

“They're (the Minnesota Vikings) a really good opponent,” Herbert said. “We have to do our best to limit turnovers, convert on third down, and score points in the red zone. As long as we're able to do that, we play pretty good football. So we just got to get back to doing that.”

Prediction for Minnesota Vikings @ Los Angeles Chargers (-3)

In a matchup where quarterback play will be a massive role in how things shake out, LA gets the nod over Minnesota because the Vikes are 23rd in opponent passer rating allowed, while the Bolts rank third in that category.

Prediction: Chargers 24 - 22 Vikings

How to watch Minnesota Vikings @ Los Angeles Chargers (-3)

Vikings @ Chargers starts at 8:15 p.m. EDT at SoFi Field. You can watch it on Amazon Prime Video, Fox, or stream it via NFL+ or the Hulu app.

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