NFL Picks Week 8: St. Louis Rams and More Teams That Will Keep on Losing

Some struggling NFL teams have the talent to turn things around in any given week, as the Chiefs did after their awful start. Then, there are these clubs:

St. Louis Rams (vs. New Orleans)

If the St. Louis Rams had their full roster to send against the Saints, there would have been a slight chance of a competitive game at the Edward Jones Dome. With the injury-ravaged Rams of real life, though, there’s no reason to bother hoping.

No team has an easy time stopping Drew Brees, but the Rams have so many injured defensive backs that they’d struggle against some college QBs. On the other side of the ball, a second week without Sam Bradford under center will be a second week (and seventh overall) without a win.

Washington Redskins (at Buffalo)

After a surprising start, the Skins have dropped three of their last four, and Buffalo has not been a good team against which to get healthy this season. The Bills won’t have as much of a home-field advantage as usual (this game will be at Toronto’s Rodgers Centre), but they’re still too good a team for this version of the Redskins to defeat.

John Beck was far from the biggest problem in last week’s loss at Carolina, but he’s still not a good solution at quarterback. For an offense with few weapons (and fewer still, thanks to the Santana Moss injury), a subpar QB isn’t going to get the job done.

Indianapolis Colts (at Tennessee)

It’s hard to have much hope for Indy coming off of last week’s 62-7 debacle in New Orleans. Not every opponent can exploit a defense like the Saints, but few defenses will provide such good opportunities.

With no ground game, the Colts have little chance to take the heat off the defense. While Curtis Painter and Pierre Garcon have had their moments, it hasn’t been nearly enough to make Indianapolis a competitive team, and it won’t be enough to win on the road against a solid Titans squad.