Super Contest pick-5: Go ahead, try to pick five winners in NFL week 8…

30 October 2020

Thanks to Covid-19, Fridays have taken on extra significance as the day one checks and see the havoc the pandemic has wreaked with the weekend’s NFL schedule. This week, two games looking most rife for action – Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers, “Los Angeles” Chargers at Denver Broncos –are on the chopping block, thereby seriously reducing the number of viable games left to fill our My Bookie Super Contest pick-5 cards.

So we may be stretching the boundaries of logic with some of these – or, truth be told, abandoning it altogether for a few – but geez, this week, you guess is as good as ours. For week 8, we’re going with…

Las Vegas Raiders +2½ at Cleveland Browns. If the Browns defense is capable of allowing 34 points to the Cincinnati Bengals, how much might be surrendered to a very fast Raiders passing offense…?

Miami Dolphins +3½ vs Los Angeles Rams. See, this one’s instinct more than logic; NFLbets is betting on the combination of the Rams going West-to-East again and the surprise factor of Tua Tagovailoa’s pro debut.

Chicago Bears +5 vs New Orleans Saints. The team’s current 3-game SU win streak says it all about the 2020 New Orleans Saints: Three wins of 6 points or fewer against three marginal teams (Detroit Lions, “Los Angeles” Chargers, Carolina Panthers). Though the Bears looked terrible against the Rams and have a short week for this game, the Saints can’t put anyone away.

Baltimore Ravens -4 vs Pittsburgh Steelers. Again, the Steelers may be the top team in the AFC, but a) they’re not *that* far superior to the 5-1 SU/4+2 ATS Ravens – close shave against the Eagles in week 6 notwithstanding – coming off a bye week. The NFL’s last undefeated side falls this week.

Pick #5: You choose. On four Super Contest cards, NFLbets filled the fifth slot four different ways. Choose, if you will from among Seattle Seahawks -3 vs San Francisco 49ers (a counterintuitive pick if you believe the 49ers are for real again); Buffalo Bills -4 at New England Patriots (the definitive sign that the Pats are done for 2020); Philadelphia Eagles -9½ at Dallas Cowboys (though visualizing Philly beating anyone by double digits, even the pathetic Cowboys, is difficult); and Cincinnati Bengals +6 vs Tennessee Titans (a much better pick for a teaser bet)…

– written by Os Davis