NFL Picks Week 8: Texans and Giants Highlight Favorites to Avoid Against Spread

Ugly.

That is best way to describe majority of Week 8's schedule.

Without the Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears, Atlanta Falcons, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New York Jets and Oakland Raiders on their bye week, we have a shortage of winning football teams.

This doesn't bode well for bettors, but does bode well for linesmakers.

Here are a few heavy favorites to avoid against the spread this week.

Giants - 10 vs. Dolphins

There is no doubt that the New York Giants are a better football team than the Miami Dolphins, but they do have trouble covering big spreads.

To make matters worse, the Giants are coming off a bye week.

This team is notorious for being streaky and any break in momentum has the potential to derail them. In their last six attempts, the Giants 1-5 when favored by 7.5-10 points.

The Dolphins are awful this year, though. They've covered only one spread and they're starting Matt Moore at quarterback.

Big Blue could certainly come out and simply demolish this team, but it is far from a trustworthy play.

Texans -9.5 vs. Jaguars

There isn't much to say about Jacksonville's 12-7 triumph over the Baltimore Ravens on Monday Night Football.

Maurice Jones-Drew went over 100 yards, but averaged only 3.5 yards per carry. Blaine Gabbert completed less than 50 percent of his passes and threw for less than 100 yards.

It was the Jaguars defense that won the game as it held the Ravens' Ray Rice to only 28 yards on eight carries.

The Texans have been far from consistent this year. If Jaguars can play defense like that against the Ravens, then there is a good chance they can battle with Houston too.

Much like the Giants game, the Texans could explode but I don't trust them.

Titans -9.5 vs. Colts

There is absolutely no reason to go anywhere near this game.

The two teams are a combined 4-9 against the spread this year, but the two lines the Colts covered were at 10 and 10.5 points.

The only two lines the Titans have covered were as underdogs.

Enough said.

Wouldn't be shocked if this game was a push.