Week 9 NFL Picks: Full Lines, Best Odds, Spread Advice and Predictions

The NFL exists in an odd dimension heading into Week 9.

This dimension might see a team with a losing record make the postseason out of the AFC South. It sees the Denver Broncos undefeated despite Peyton Manning, and it has the Oakland Raiders, Minnesota Vikings and St. Louis Rams sitting with winning records and perhaps in the running to sneak into the postseason. 

So no, oddsmakers in Las Vegas don't have an easy job. Neither do bettors, who have to decide on quite a difficult slate this week. Below, let's run down the entire list of games and odds and project how things will shake out.

NFL Week 9 Odds

Game	Spread	O/U	Predicted Winner
Cleveland at Cincinnati	CIN -11.5	46	CIN 24-17
Miami at Buffalo	BUF -3	44.5	MIA 23-20
Green Bay at Carolina	GB -1	46	CAR 27-24
St. Louis at Minnesota	MIN -2.5	39.5	MIN 17-14
Washington at New England	NE -14.5	52	NE 30-24
Tennessee at New Orleans	NL	--	NO 27-20
Jacksonville at N.Y. Jets	NL	--	NYJ 23-17
Oakland at Pittsburgh	PIT -4.5	47.5	OAK 20-17
Atlanta at San Francisco	ATL -5.5	45	ATL 34-20
N.Y. Giants at Tampa Bay	NYG -1	47.5	NYG 33-24
Denver at Indianapolis	DEN -2.5	45	DEN 27-14
Philadelphia at Dallas	PHI -2.5	44.5	PHI 24-20
Chicago at San Diego	SD -3.5	49	SD 21-20

Odds courtesy of Odds Shark.   

Best Early-Week Odds 

Oakland at Pittsburgh (-4.5)

Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

Those aforementioned Raiders have quite an interesting matchup this weekend against the Pittsburgh Steelers. 

In fact, those Steelers are one of the more interesting teams around as well, thanks to a wicked case of the injury bug. Ben Roethlisberger returned this past weekend, but his team still took a dive at the hands of the Cincinnati Bengals to move to 4-4 and lost star back Le'Veon Bell for the season in the process, according to Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports.

Oakland, on the other hand, slapped together its second consecutive win with a shocking 34-20 dismissal of the New York Jets just one week removed from taking down the San Diego Chargers on the road.

What's changed with the Raiders this year? Maturity, mostly. Derek Carr's completing 65.5 percent of his passes with 15 touchdowns to three interceptions. Lead back Latavius Murray averages 4.6 yards per carry, and four players have three receiving touchdowns.

The defense, which will fluster Big Ben for most of the day, has a leader in future Hall of Famer Charles Woodson, who already has five interceptions to his name. That unit can force the Steelers into a one-dimensional attack, win the turnover battle and score a win late, making this one of the week's best upset picks.

Prediction: Raiders 20, Steelers 17

Atlanta (-5.5) at San Francisco

This was a great over bet before the big news. 

The big news, as in, the San Francisco 49ers will bench quarterback Colin Kaepernick in favor of backup Blaine Gabbert, according to ESPN.com's Adam Schefter.

As in, the Gabbert who has completed 53.2 percent of his passes as a pro with more interceptions than touchdowns and never averaged more than 5.98 yards per completion in a season.

Either way, this one was going to be ugly in favor of the Atlanta Falcons, as it almost seems as if the San Francisco front office is going all-in on a tank job for the No. 1 pick.

The Falcons enter this one off an overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and hit the road, but it doesn't change the outlook much. A Matt Ryan-led offense against a defense allowing an average of 280 passing yards, 123.8 rushing yards and 25.9 points per game speaks for itself.

San Francisco doesn't have the talent to run with Julio Jones on the outside, nor does its defensive unit have the physicality to stop breakout star Devonta Freeman, who has 709 yards and nine scores already.

There's a reason the 49ers lost their last two by a combined total of 47-9 while allowing a runner to gash the defense for 122 yards or more. Look for Atlanta to do the same.

Prediction: Falcons 34, 49ers 20

N.Y. Giants (-1) at Tampa Bay

Despite Tampa Bay's ability to pull off the aforementioned upset, this isn't a time to ride with the Buccaneers. 

Eli Manning would be the reason. The New York Giants signal-caller continues to chug along under the radar, completing 66 percent of his passes with 17 scores to four picks. Last week he came up short in a 52-49 shootout with the New Orleans Saints but tossed six touchdowns with no picks.

The scary part? Manning said in a conference call after the game that the team could have done better, via Daniel Popper of the New York Daily News.

"We knew we were gonna have to be productive offensively, and as good as we were, we could have been better," Manning said. "We left some plays out there on the field, left some possessions where we had three-and-outs and could have even been more productive."

Now Manning gets to pick apart a defense that surrenders an average of 28.4 points per game. Rookie Jameis Winston continues to improve, and Doug Martin (612 yards, three scores) keeps running like it's three years ago, but this is a defense that let up 42 points in Tennessee's only win of the season and more than 30 points to Jacksonville (2-5) and Washington (3-4).

Manning won't have any problems putting up gaudy numbers again, crafting one of the week's best over plays. 

Prediction: Giants 33, Buccaneers 24

Stats courtesy of NFL.com and accurate as of November 3. All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus.