Week 8 NFL Picks: Latest Betting Odds, Vegas Spreads and Projections

Week 7 is officially in the books, which means it is already time to turn our attention toward Week 8 in the NFL.

If we take an early look at the odds for Week 8, only five of the games have point spreads of three points or less, as of Monday afternoon on Odds Shark. That means bettors will have to choose between upsets and chalk, which is never an easy proposition.

With that in mind, here is a look at the latest betting odds (via Odds Shark) before we look at some projected winners for a couple of particularly difficult Week 8 games.

Matchup	Point Spread	Predicted Winner Against Spread
San Diego Chargers at Denver Broncos	DEN -7.5	Broncos
Detroit Lions at Atlanta Falcons (in London)	DET -3.5	Lions
Seattle Seahawks at Carolina Panthers	SEA -4.5	Seahawks
Baltimore Ravens at Cincinnati Bengals	CIN -3	Bengals
Miami Dolphins at Jacksonville Jaguars	MIA -5	Dolphins
St. Louis Rams at Kansas City Chiefs	KC -6.5	Chiefs
Chicago Bears at New England Patriots	NE -7.5	Patriots
Buffalo Bills at New York Jets	NY -3	Bills
Minnesota Vikings at Tampa Bay Buccaneers	TB -3	Vikings
Houston Texans at Tennessee Titans	no line on Monday	Texans
Philadelphia Eagles at Arizona Cardinals	AZ -2.5	Eagles
Oakland Raiders at Cleveland Browns	CLE -7	Browns
Indianapolis Colts at Pittsburgh Steelers	no line on Monday	Colts
Green Bay Packers at New Orleans Saints	NO -1	Packers
Washington at Dallas Cowboys	DAL -10	Cowboys

Projected Winners for Difficult Games

Philadelphia Eagles at Arizona Cardinals

Michael Perez/Associated Press

The Philadelphia Eagles kept winning to start the season, but they never really looked dominant while they were doing it.

They squeaked past the St. Louis Rams, had to come from behind against the Jacksonville Jaguars, lost to the San Francisco 49ers and barely beat Washington. The defense struggled on numerous occasions, and the offense couldn’t do anything against the 49ers. However, it all came together in the last game when Philadelphia beat the New York Giants 27-0.

Ben Margot/Associated Press

LeSean McCoy finally broke out with 149 rushing yards, and the defense completely destroyed Eli Manning and company.

Now the Eagles are fresh off a bye week and ready to roll into Arizona with plenty of momentum. As for the Cardinals, their strength is the rush defense (first in the league at 72.5 yards per game), so fantasy owners may want to think twice if they are relying on McCoy. 

The Cardinals defense will keep this one close and will benefit from the noise and home-field advantage when the Eagles offense is running some of its no-huddle plays. Interestingly, Mark Gunnels of Football Insiders thinks the Cardinals are better than the Eagles:

However, the thought here is that the Arizona offense won’t put up enough points against the newly resurgent Philadelphia defense to keep up with the Eagles. Arizona is 21st in the league with 225.5 passing yards per game and 26th in the league with 91.8 rushing yards per game as of Monday afternoon.

Even if the Cardinals defense contains the Eagles offense for most of the game, Carson Palmer and the offense won’t score enough points to win this one. 

Prediction: Eagles 27, Cardinals 14

San Diego Chargers at Denver Broncos

It would be easy to look at this game on paper and automatically pick Peyton Manning at home, but the San Diego Chargers are one of the few teams in the league that could slow him down.

San Diego is actually third in the NFL against the pass (209.6 yards per game) and has the pieces to at least keep Demaryius Thomas, Julius Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders and Wes Welker from completely exploding. The Chargers are also formidable against the run (106.9 yards per game), so Denver’s offense will be challenged on Thursday night.

San Diego’s defense played well in a 24-17 loss to the Denver Broncos in last season’s playoffs, and the team will need a similar effort to come away with a win in this critical AFC West matchup. 

Jack Dempsey/Associated Press

Still, Denver is clicking on all cylinders, and it’s not just Manning. Demaryius Thomas has posted a combined 521 receiving yards and five touchdowns the past three games and will be a nightmare for a San Diego secondary that also has to worry about Welker, Sanders and Julius Thomas.

Demaryius was more than willing to give the credit to his quarterback recently, though, via Lindsay H. Jones of USA Today:

"

I don't know how long he's going to play and how the rest of the season is going to play out, but I feel like he has a lot left where he can go out and throw (touchdowns). I can't put a number on it. But the way he is playing, I feel like he can just go out and average three, four or five touchdowns a game. Hopefully, because that's good, it's good for the offense, good for the team, and I hope a couple of those go my way.

"

San Diego will score some points behind Philip Rivers and a formidable passing attack (270.7 yards per game) against Denver’s mediocre secondary (242.5 yards per game), but the Broncos have just too many weapons.

What’s more, the Broncos are at home on a short week and rested most of their key players in the fourth quarter of a blowout win against the San Francisco 49ers.

Denver and its well-rested stars will do enough to outlast Rivers and company on Thursday night. 

Prediction: Broncos 28, Chargers 17

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