NFL Week 8; NFC Showdowns

It's week 8 of the NFL season and the final London game kicks off 15 hours of the game closing out with the Packers hopefully getting murdered by the Bills in the Sunday Night Football game.

The Vikings and Cardinals highlights the early games while the 49ers take on their divisional rival Rams in the best of the late games.

A quick look at the London games and then into the usual 4 picks for the weekend.

GAMES ARE AN HOUR EARLIER TODAY, 5PM AND 805 FOR THE LATE GAMES.

Broncos +1.5 vs. Jaguars at Wembley (Total of 40.5)

This probably won't be the most exciting game of the day with neither team able to regularly put up points this season. The Broncos have been especially disappointing with the pre-season buzz where a lot seemed to think they were capable of a Super Bowl run, the fools.

In fairness, a lot of that opinion was on the back of a very solid defense and that half of the deal has proven correct. Unfortunately for Broncos fans, the offense has been terrible whether it's Russell ‘cringe' Wilson or others at QB. Courtland Sutton is the de facto 1, with Jerry Jeudy out of favour and possibly on the trade block with the deadline coming this Tuesday. The run-game isn't exactly set in stone either with Latavius Murray taking carries from Melvin Gordon who their idiot head coach doesn't seem to like. I do like Greg Dulcich coming off IR at TE.

The Jaguars aren't consistent either with Trevor Lawrence still not a top starter in my eyes. He's been a lot better this year, but still too frequently over-throws his receivers in key moments. He has formed a decent connection with Christian Kirk and the two Jones' have done a decent enough job. Travis Etienne has the full faith of the team though after they traded away James Robinson in the week, could mean a little for JaMycal Hasty in, I assume, the RB2 role for them now.

It's expected to be low scoring and it's hard to argue against it, obviously for all the Brits and others going to the game I hope it's better than it seems.

I won't be touching the spread or total, but I'd lean to the Broncos and Over, Travis Etienne o19.5 rec. yards, my one bet on this.

Best Spread

Patriots -2.5 @ Jets

Some tough lines this week but I'll plump for the game at the Metlife and the 5-2 Jets losing to their divisional rivals for the 13th time in a row.

The Patriots were embarrassed by the Bears on Monday night as Bill Belichick looks to overtake Hallas as the 2nd “winningest” coach in NFL history. He owns the Jets since being at the Patriots, and frankly, that coupled with them not losing two games in a row is a lot of my handicap for this game.

They'll run the ball a lot whether it's Mac Jones (announced starter) or rookie Bailey Zappe under centre, it should be a lot of Rhamondre Stevenson, who seems to have the 1a now and Damien Harris on the ground. Devante Parker put up some yards finally and Jacobi Meyers found the endzone last week but the passing game is 2nd fiddle for them.

The Jets have done very well this year but lost Breece Hall for the season, the rookie was the strong fave for the OROY award so it's a hard loss for them to overcome. It means Michael Carter will probably get most of the touches in the backfield with James Robinson only coming in this week. Corey Davis is out of the passing attack and Zach Wilson really hasn't shown he's a NFL ready QB in his time so far.

Pats should win, and do it comfortably.

Best Total

Dolphins v Lions UNDER 51.5

Fairly easy one for me here, the highest total of the week is in Detroit and I don't think it deserves to be.

The Dolphins have only put up more than 21 points once this year and while the Lions defense started the year terribly it looked a little better last week. The Dolphins D has been very good as well this year so I don't think either team will hit 25 points in this one.

The Lions do seem like they're back to full strength with D'Andre Swift and Amon-Ra St. Brown both back in the line-up today, so they might be able to put up points, but I'm betting on both teams being stinky here.

Best TD Scorer

I'll put up a single scorer and someone I think will get multiple TDs here. We'll start with Derrick Henry scoring 2 or more. You won't get rich with it at 10/3 at Skybet and PaddyPower, but I think it will happen against a team he's had multiple scores and over 200 yards against in the last three games they've played. They're starting rookie Malik Willis tonight who is mobile as well which should help Henry in both RPO plays and just amount of carries. The Texans are poop.

Single scorer? I like Dont'a Foreman to find the endzone for the Panthers. They're playing a Falcons team without their top 4 cornerbacks so even with PJ Walker at QB they should be able to move the ball well. It may mean they throw TDs, but it will mean they have more chance of getting DPI in the endzone and some one yard carries for Foreman. Chuba Hubbard is missing out so there's not much competition for him in the backfield and I think he's actually a pretty decent back. He's above evens everywhere with 5/4 the best at the main books.

Best Player Prop

Kenny Pickett o1.5 interceptions at 17/10 or so.

He's thrown 2 TDs and 7 interceptions in just 2 full games, and 2 half games this year. The offensive line is poor and he apparently isn't very accurate, he's now coming up against one of the best all round teams in the league who will get pressure and have a ball-hawking defense. They'll likely be trailing and as he seems to be in “F-it” mode for most of the game he'll lob the ball up there.

Good luck if you're following, if you're at Wembley today, enjoy the day out and the Green Man pub after the game.

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