NFL Week 9 Picks: Early Predictions for Every Game

With the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys set to close out Week 8 on Monday Night Football, the second half of the season is already upon us.

That means that it's time for the contenders to begin separating themselves from the pretenders.

The first eight weeks of the season have provided fans with plenty of intrigue. For instance, almost no one expected the aforementioned Cowboys to be one of the top teams in the league at this point. By the same token, very few expected the New Orleans Saints to be under .500 at this point in the season either.

Here's a look at the entire slate as the league heads into the second half of the year, along with a prediction for every game.

THU, OCT 30	TIME (ET)	TV	Pick
SUN, NOV 2	TIME (ET)	TV
MON, NOV 3	TIME (ET)	TV
New Orleans at Carolina	8:25 PM	NFL	Carolina
Tampa Bay at Cleveland	1:00 PM	FOX	Cleveland
Arizona at Dallas	1:00 PM	FOX	Dallas
Philadelphia at Houston	1:00 PM	FOX	Houston
NY Jets at Kansas City	1:00 PM	CBS	Kansas City
Jacksonville at Cincinnati	1:00 PM	CBS	Cincinnati
San Diego at Miami	1:00 PM	CBS	San Diego
Washington at Minnesota	1:00 PM	FOX	Minnesota
St. Louis at San Francisco	4:05 PM	FOX	San Francisco
Denver at New England	4:25 PM	CBS	Denver
Oakland at Seattle	4:25 PM	CBS	Seattle
Baltimore at Pittsburgh	8:30 PM	NBC	Baltimore
Indianapolis at NY Giants	8:30 PM	ESPN	Indianapolis

Marquee Matchups

New Orleans Saints at Carolina Panthers

USA TODAY Sports

Thursday Night Football has generally failed to generate the most exciting football on a weekly basis, but it does play host to an important NFC South matchup this week. The beleaguered division doesn't have a single team with a winning record, but the winner of the Thursday night game between the Saints and Panthers will be in the driver's seat heading into the latter half of the season. 

The Saints finally showed signs of life against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football. Behind a strong effort from rookie Brandin Cooks, New Orleans pulled off the upset in front of a Superdome crowd. 

The Panthers, however, will enter this game on the heels of a disappointing loss on the road to the Seattle Seahawks. 

That shouldn't make them the underdog, though. The Panthers hold the advantage in this one for a few reasons.

First, the Panthers may receive a big boost to their running game with Ron Rivera looking to this game as a potential return date for DeAngelo Williams. The Panthers have dealt with injuries at the position all year long and will be monitoring it very closely, via ESPN:

"

This is kind of like Jonathan [Stewart] a couple of weeks ago, sitting there saying, 'How close are we, how close are we?'... We could put him out there and say, 'Well, we were 95 percent close,' and all of a sudden something bad happens and now you're back to 65 percent. DeAngelo is the same way. We're being very smart with this, very calculated.

"

As ESPN Stats & Info notes, the injuries to the running backs have forced Cam Newton to be the Panthers' No. 1 option in the run game:

With Williams potentially back in the saddle and the Saints still winless on the road, it's hard to pick against the home team here. 

Prediction: Carolina 21, New Orleans 17

Denver Broncos at New England Patriots

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

This matchup may not be in one of the prime-time slots, but make no mistake. This is the game that everyone will have an eye on. 

Whether it's fair or not, Broncos vs. Patriots means Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning. And even though both are aging into their late 30s, both have continued to play excellent football. Field Yates of ESPN put both signal-caller's efficiency into context with this tweet: 

This game could also turn out to have playoff implications involved as well. A win for the 6-2 Patriots would give them the inside track on the No. 1 seed in the AFC. A loss, and it just becomes that much more difficult to catch the Broncos for that guaranteed home-field advantage. 

Home-field advantage could play a huge factor in this one. The Broncos have not won a game in Foxborough since Jake Plummer was the quarterback in 2006. 

If there's a team that can break that drought, it's this Broncos team, though. They are far and away the top team according to Football Outsider's DVOA metric this year. The Patriots, meanwhile, are coming off of an impressive win over Chicago, but they still look just better than average when it comes to the metric. 

Prediction: Denver 38, New England 34

Baltimore Ravens at Pittsburgh Steelers

The race to win the AFC North has already been a peculiar one with plenty of twists and turns already this year. On Sunday Night Football, the race will have the opportunity to get a little more crazy as the Ravens travel to Heinz Field to take on Pittsburgh. 

The Steelers have been the epitome of a high-variance team throughout the season. Two weeks after getting blown out by the Browns on the road, the Steelers have returned to Pittsburgh to collect a win against the Houston Texans and a dynamic win over Andrew Luck and the Colts, in which Ben Roethlisberger threw for 522 yards and six touchdowns.

However, a large part of that was excellent pass protection and no rush from the Colts defense, as noted by Scott Kacsmar of Football Outsiders.

Baltimore will enter the game with the confidence that it already beat its AFC North rival by 20 points in Week 2, but the Ravens will need to overcome losing a heartbreaker to the Bengals, 27-24. 

The Ravens' issues in that loss were almost entirely on the offensive side of the football, though. The defense did its job by bottling up Giovani Bernard and limiting Andy Dalton to no touchdowns with an interception on the day. 

However, Joe Flacco completed just 50 percent of his passes as the Ravens compiled just 294 yards of total offense. 

The dirty little secret about the 2014 Steelers is that the defense is not that good. While Antonio Brown and Le'Veon Bell have combined to make the offense a dynamic unit, the defense is 26th in overall DVOA. That will come back to haunt the Steelers as they lose a shootout against a Baltimore offense that will get back on track. 

Prediction: Baltimore 31, Pittsburgh 27