Week 8 NFL Predictions

Our Week 8 NFL Predictions are ready for prime time.  We have officially reached the midpoint of the 2020 season in this bizarre year that includes a pandemic, no fans, cancelled and postponed games.   But the show must go on and the commish will look to stay hot this week with the following plays.

Titans -5.5 over Cincinnati –

The Tennessee Titans are, quietly, one of the best teams in the AFC and continue to be undervalued compared to the likes of the Chiefs, Ravens and Steelers and yet still have similar credentials.  The weak link is the defense but Cinci does not seem capable of taking advantage of this team with a banged up Mixon and despite the promise of Burrow, he’s still a rookie.  The Titans are pissed this week after Gostkowski missed the tying field goal against the Steelers and it seems like a perfect spot to open up a can of whoop ass on the Bengals.  A bit of a wild card with the Titans finally going on the road after more than a month but it shouldn’t matter much.  This line is going to 7 so get on it now.

Patriots + 4 over Buffalo

If the Patriots don’t win this game, their season is basically over.  They come into Buffalo at 2-4 and a horrible taste in their mouth after getting blown out by the 49ers at home.  So a perfect bounce back scenario for the Pats against a team that historically has struggled to win any game against this team.  Cam Newton is not good, granted.  But this just feels like one of those games that will be a brawl till the end and if the Bills happen to win the game it won’t be by much.  These are similarly ranked defenses in the bottom half of the league and I understand Buffalo’s offense is a step above New England, but records don’t matter in this one, history does.  Bellichick will find a way to stay in this one and four points is more than enough fo give the commish comfort.

Seattle – 3 over San Francisco

The Seattle offense can’t be stopped.  Period.  And now here comes SF off a nice win over the Pats and are overvalued in this spot with more than their share of injuries.  I’m not sure they have a single healthy running back for this game.   And if Debo can’t go there’s a real problem for this offense this week as they can’t run every single play through Kittle.  Meanwhile, the knock on Seattle is that they can’t stop anyone.  And this is true.  But they can go punch for punch with anyone in the league and they will be the last one standing in this one, no doubt.

Pittsburgh + 4 over Baltimore

I’ve been riding the Steelers every week and I’m not jumping off now.  This is my favorite game of the year in the AFC and this week should not disappoint.  But this is always a field goal game and I usually take the dog and this Sunday is setting up perfectly for me getting 4.  Granted, the Steeler’s have not faced a defense like this yet this year.  But Baltimore’s failure to put the Eagles away a few weeks ago is a bit a preview for me in that the Steeler’s will absolutely be able to hang around in this game till the end.  The Baltimore secondary is their soft spot and Ben has the skills and quick release to pick them apart with JuJu and Claypool.

Browns/Raiders over 50.5.

Here come some high powered offenses in Vegas at Cleveland (I have them ranked 9th and 14th respectively) and their defenses are atrocious with Vegas the second worst in the entire league.  The weather looks good for Sunday in Cleveland and that means the Browns will not have a problem, again, scoring at least 31 points.  And we all know that Cleveland’s front four is solid but outside of Denzel Ward, there are serious issues on the back end and they have not had success stopping good passing offense, which is exactly what the Raiders are bringing to the table this week.  Hammer this over and watch it come in by the third quarter.