NFL Week 8 Picks
It’s going to be a wild week of sports as the 2019-20 NBA season gets underway, the NFL and NHL are in full swing, the World Series will commence and there are a slew of big college football games on the board.
Let’s take a look at the best bets in a week where we have a huge menu to choose from:
Washington Redskins at Minnesota Vikings
Odds: Vikings -15.5 at PointsBet
Date: Thursday, October 24th
It’ll be a reunion of sorts on Thursday when Case Keenum and the Washington Redskins faceoff with Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings. Of course, both quarterbacks are former lead passers for the team they’ll be facing.
Cousins will want some revenge against a franchise that never really wanted to keep him. The good news is that we know Cousins plays well against teams that are below .500 and the one-win Redskins are surely that. He’s been red-hot in the month of October, completing 75.6% of his passes while throwing 10 touchdowns compared to just one interception.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4eeCUIaz7U
Meanwhile, the Redskins have been a complete embarrassment as they’re fresh off a shutout loss at home to the San Francisco 49ers. The Redskins one win on the year came against the winless Miami Dolphins, who failed to make a two-point conversion to win the game.
This has blowout written all over it for the start of our NFL Week 8 Picks edition. As long as the Vikings don’t let Adrian Peterson get loose (they shouldn’t as they have the league’s seventh-ranked run defense), then this game should be a blowout.
NFL Week 8 Picks: Vikings -15.5
Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Tennessee Titans
Odds: Titans -2.5 at PointsBet
Date: Sunday, October 27th
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers return off of their bye week to face the Tennessee Titans, who picked up a very close win last week. The Titans looked like they lost twice on the last minute but replay reviews overturned to Los Angeles Chargers touchdowns and the Titans hung on.
I’m expecting a better effort from Tennessee this week as this is a team that should get on a bit of a roll. The main flaw on this team was that they really didn’t offer much of a threat passing the ball. That’s changed (for now) with Ryan Tannehill taking over for Marcus Mariota under center. Through a game and a half, Tannehill has completed 36-of-45 passes (80%) and he’s coming off a 312-yard passing game. If the Titans defense continue to be stingy – they’re allowing just 14.0 points per game over their last six – they should get the win here.
The Bucs have lost three of their last four games and are just 2-4 on the season. They beat the Carolina Panthers when Cam Newton was injured and they shocked the Los Angeles Rams. Other than that, they’ve been worked – especially their defense. They’re giving up 35.0 points per game over their last four contests. That’s not very good.
NFL Week 8 Picks: Titans -2.5
Green Bay Packers at Kansas City Chiefs
Odds: Packers -4.5 at PointsBet
Date: Sunday, October 27th
The Green Bay Packers will visit the Kansas City Chiefs for Sunday Night Football in a matchup that will be somewhat muted. The Aaron Rodgers-Patrick Mahomes showdown would have been awesome but instead, we’ll see Matt Moore for the Chiefs as Mahomes is down with a knee injury.
The Chiefs did pick up a big win over the Denver Broncos last Thursday and will have 10 days to prepare Moore for this start, but this doesn’t look like a good matchup for him. The Packers defense is somewhat vulnerable to the run but their pass defense has been strong. The Chiefs offensive line has been a mess this season and the Chiefs running game is ranked 25th this season, averaging a paltry 82.3 yards per game.
Green Bay is really starting to click offensively as they’ve won three in a row and beating some decent teams in the process (Dallas, Detroit and Oakland). They’ve scored an average of 33.0 points per game in those contests. Rodgers is coming off a 429-yard, six-touchdown performance, suggesting that whatever issues they had in the early goings have been sorted out.
I’m looking for the Packers to go on the road and cover in this spot as the Chiefs didn’t look good with Mahomes the last few weeks. I don’t think they’ll suddenly look better without him.
NFL Week 8 Picks: Packers -4.5
Other Things To Watch This Week
Washington Nationals at Houston Astros – The World Series gets underway on Tuesday as the Houston Astros host the Washington Nationals for Game 1. The first pitcher’s matchup should be a gem as we’ll see Max Scherzer go up against Gerrit Cole. The Astros are a massive -200 favorite for Game 1.
No. 9 Auburn at No. 2 LSU – We’ve got a few Top 25 matchups this week, one of which will be the Auburn-LSU showdown. LSU is a sizable 11-point favorite in this game as they are led by Heisman Trophy frontrunner, Joe Burrow. Can they turn aside a Top 10 SEC team, though?
No. 8 Notre Dame at No. 19 Michigan – It’s last call for Jim Harbaugh at Michigan. He needs to start earning the signature wins or he might not have his job much longer. He had his team on the right track at Penn State last week but they came up just short. He’ll be squarely on the hot seat if his Wolverines can’t beat Notre Dame. The Wolverines are a small one-point favorite.
See you same time next week when we start off the week with our Best Bets Of The Week!
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