NFL Week 8 Betting Picks: Take the Bears, Saints and Rams at Home

The Chicago Bears (2-4), New Orleans Saints (3-4) and St. Louis Rams (3-3) all got off to rough starts in 2015, combining for just one win through the first three weeks of the season.

That lone victory was earned in Week 1 by St. Louis over the two-time defending NFC champion Seattle Seahawks 34-31 in overtime. The Rams proceeded to lose their next two games but have since rebounded to win two of three.

This week, St. Louis hosts the struggling San Francisco 49ers (2-5), who have gone 3-10 against the spread in their last 13 games. Defensively, the Rams will be able to shut down San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick just like they did Josh McCown of the Cleveland Browns in a 24-6 home win last week.

St. Louis covered the spread easily as a six-point favorite versus Cleveland and will do so again here despite being 8.5-point chalk against the 49ers at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark.

New Orleans has won two in a row straight up and ATS following a 27-21 road victory against the Indianapolis Colts last Sunday as a 5.5-point underdog. The Saints started the year 0-3 and will welcome the NFC East-leading New York Giants to the Superdome on Sunday as three-point favorites.

The Giants have dropped the last two road meetings in the series badly, losing by an average of 23 points in New Orleans. New York has also gone 1-3 SU and ATS in the past four meetings overall.

Chicago is coming off a bye week and will be primed to get its first divisional win under first-year head coach John Fox. The Bears nearly won their first NFC North game for Fox before the bye but fell 37-34 to the Detroit Lions in overtime on the road, although they did still manage to cover the spread as 3.5-point underdogs.

Chicago will host the Minnesota Vikings (4-2) on Sunday, and the home team has won each of the last six meetings, according to the Odds Shark NFL Database.

The Vikings are also just 2-6 SU and ATS in their next game after winning as an underdog, which is exactly what they did last week in a 28-19 victory at Detroit.