After a brutal start for my picks in Week 8 action, the clouds cleared and the sun shone down on most of my picks. I started the week 0-2 after the Jags and Bucs both blew leads, but I went 10-3 the rest of the way to stay in first place in both my Pick ‘Em pools and even took home my fourth weekly W in eight weeks. Not bulletproof, but that’s pretty solid.
| Nick W | Nick L | Nick T | ATS W | ATS L | ATS P | O/U W | O/U L | O/U P | Christen W | Christen L | Christen T | Rids W | Rids L | Rids T |
| 10 | 5 | 0 | 6 | 9 | 0 | 7 | 8 | 0 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 10 | 0 |
| Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous |
| 67 | 40 | 1 | 57 | 49 | 2 | 47 | 59 | 2 | 60 | 46 | 1 | 60 | 47 | 1 |
| Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall |
| 77 | 45 | 1 | 63 | 58 | 2 | 54 | 67 | 2 | 68 | 53 | 1 | 65 | 57 | 1 |
Most importantly, it was nice to get a W back within my own household even though I lost ground ATS and vs the Over/Under. Christen and Ridley had tied and won the previous two weeks with 10 wins in each, but they came back to earth in Week 8, going 8-7 and 5-10 respectively. In fairness to both of them, Christen would be tied for 10th in my bigger league of all football podcasters and Rids would be tied for 15th. So, they’d both be in the top half of the league.
Week 8 came to a close with an Ohio state rivalry game that wound up being pretty disappointing. Yeah, I picked the Bengals and they got rolled, so that wasn’t ideal for my picks but it didn’t affect the outcome of my positioning. I was just disappointed that the game was so one-sided. Browns fans, on the other hand, I’m sure were thrilled to pick up a big-time win over a cross-state and division rival.
The Ja’Marr chase injury proved to be a much bigger deal for the Bengals than I, and seemingly a lot of others, expected. It was as if they had lost their identity and credit to the Browns defense for forcing them to have to do that soul searching on the field. They sacked Joey Burrow 5 times, including a sack fumble near the end of the first in what was a close game at the time.
CIicy missed a FG after a sack fumble of their own and the Browns capitalized on that to tack on another 3 points before the half. It was only 11-0, but nothing was going right for the Bengals. When Jacoby Brissett led the Browns down the field on the first possession of the second half and scrambled in for the TD himself, that was the dagger.
Cincy got some garbage time scores to help out some desperate fantasy owners, but it was an all Cleveland type of night. Their stars played like it with Nick Chubb running for 101 yards and 2 TDs, and Amaric Cooper had 131 yards receiving with a TD, and Myles Garret had 1.5 sacks, 4 QB hits, and I believe he tipped the pass that was intercepted. At 3-5 now, the Browns are still alive.
Sunday night was a beauty as the Bills beat the Packers 27-17 in Buffalo. I have already covered this game at length, so I won’t get into it again. I will just say that it was a cruise control win for Buffalo and Go Bills!
I didn’t get to see a lot of the afternoon games but I still managed a nice 3-1 mark thanks to wins by Seattle beating the Giants 27-13, the Commanders last minute 17-16 win over the Colts, and the Titans 17-10 win over the lowly Texans.
Even though I know the 49ers own the Rams in the regular season, I still thought LA would have a good chance coming out of the bye week with all the injuries to the 49ers. They had a chance there. They scored first and even were up 14-10 at the half before the implosion. Christian McCaffrey did it all, rushing, catching, and throwing for a TD and that could be the usage formula going forward.
The Eagles improved to 7-0 on the season with a dominant win over their interstate rivals, 35-13 over the Steelers. Pittsburgh could do nothing to stop A.J. Brown who hauled in 3 TDs, just in the first half. They are pretty scary.
It wasn’t competitive and neither was the 24-0 thrashing the Saints gave the Raiders. I almost took NO in what I thought would be a close game, but yikes. Las Vegas is in murky territory right now and something is going to have to change. All eyes are on their head coach who got a playoff team who improved talent-wise and is currently driving them into the ground.
New England cooled the Jets off a bit, 22-17, as Mac Jones got a full game under center and New York tried to figure out the post Breece Hall part of their season. The Pats have won 13 in a row now over the NYJ so this one wasn’t really in question for me, but the Jets run success did dip a lot and Zach Wilson was forced to throw. New England knows that’s the recipe as they have done it to him repeatedly.
Dallas gave up a surprising amount of points but still thumped the Bears 49-29. Tony Pollard made his case to be the guy, even when Zeke returns thanks to 131 yards and 3 TDs rushing ont he day. The Bears didn’t even do that bad against a very good defense, but they couldn’t slow the onslaught.
The Minnesota Vikings continue to make their case as one of the elite teams in football as they improved to 6-1, coming off their bye week, with a 34-26 win over the Cardinals. They have certainly improved in some areas but I’m not ready to annoint them yet. All their wins are against losing teams, except the Dolphins who they beat while Miami was starting their 3rd string QB. The cards are predictably schizo and even with Hopkins back, they have to figure out who they are.
Speaking of the Dolphins, there were right in the Lions’ den in Detroit, down 21-7. The Lions looked hungry and rested coming out of their by week and jumped out to a lead. But, as has been the case all season, their defense has been really bad. The Fins figure out what they needed to do and did it, similar to the Baltimore comeback, with Tua having a great game and Hill and Waddle toasting the defense. It was a fantastic game to watch for everyone but Lions fans.
The other crazy game of the week was the Falcons 37-34 overtime win over the Panthers. Once the scoring started, these teams traded the lead back and forth all the way down to the bell. DJ Moore scored the game tying TD with 12 seconds left but took his helmet off on the field and was hit with a 15-yard penalty that resulted in the missed extra point and forced OT. It was high drama as ATL won the coin toss in overtime but then threw an interception but, not be outdone, Carolina missed what would have been the game winning kick again! The Falcons just barely found a way to pull it off.
Denver pulled off a little comebacker against Jacksonville in London, 21-17, with both teams looking jet-lagged a bit. Russell Wilson still hasn’t looked good, but he did make the big throw late and had a key scramble where he looked more like his past years. Trevor Lawrence is still struggling in year 2, but Travis Etienne Jr. is balling out in his, putting up 156 yards and a TD at Wembley Stadium.
It was an interesting Week 8 but with only 12 teams owning winning records, the Power Rankings didn’t really fluctuate much.
| 1. Eagles 7-0 (=) |
| 2. Bills 6-1 (=) |
| 3. Chiefs 5-2 (=) |
| 4. Cowboys 6-2 (=) |
| 5. Vikings 6-1 (+1) |
| 6. Giants 6-2 (-1) |
| 7. Titans 5-2 (+3) |
| 8. Dolphins 5-3 (=) |
| 9. Seahawks 5-3 (+2) |
| 10. Ravens 5-3 (+2) |
| 11. Jets 5-3 (-4) |
| 12. Chargers 4-3 (+1) |
| 13. Bengals 4-4 (-4) |
| 14. Falcons 4-4 (+2) |
| 15. 49ers 4-4 (+2) |
| 16. Commanders 4-4 (+) |
| 17. Patriots 4-4 (+2) |
| 18. Rams 3-4 (=) |
| 14. Colts 3-4-1 (-5) |
| 20. Buccaneers 3-5 (-5) |
| 21. Cardinals 3-5 (-1) |
| 22. Saints 3-5 (+3) |
| 23. Browns 3-5 (+4) |
| 24. Packers 3-5 (-2) |
| 25. Broncos 3-5 (+4) |
| 26. Bears 3-5 (-3) |
| 27. Jaguars 2-6 (+1) |
| 28. Steelers 2-6 (-2) |
| 29. Raiders 2-5 (-5) |
| 30. Panthers 2-6 (=) |
| 31. Texans 1-5-1 (=) |
| 32. Lions 1-6 (=) |
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