NFL Picks Week 8: Trusting the untrustable bottom half of the NFC North

All our Week 8 straight up picks, including the Lions' first W.

Week 7 provided the NFL with a few valuable lessons. The Cincinnati Bengals are, in fact, for real. The Kansas City Chiefs, despite the hype train that built tremendous speed over the course of three straight deep postseason runs and a Super Bowl, are not.

Cincinnati dismantled the Baltimore Ravens to claim the top spot in the AFC North. Kansas City retained its place at the bottom of the AFC West in an embarrassing loss to the Tennessee Titans in which Mike Vrabel’s team barely had to show up in the second half.

Elsewhere, the New England Patriots raised expectations that certainly won’t be dashed horribly by reducing the New York Jets to a thin paste. The New York Giants extended Joe Judge’s shelf life by another week by handling the Carolina Panthers. Tom Brady did bad, bad things to the Chicago Bears.

Let’s see what we’ve got coming up in a chalk-y looking Week 7. Winners in bold, all odds via Tipico:

Carolina Panthers at Atlanta Falcons (-160)
Miami Dolphins at Buffalo Bills (-1000)
San Francisco 49ers at Chicago Bears (+165)
Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Browns (-200)
Philadelphia Eagles at Detroit Lions (+145)
Tennessee Titans (+105) at Indianapolis Colts
Cincinnati Bengals (-540) at New York Jets
Los Angeles Rams (-1100) at Houston Texans
New England Patriots at Los Angeles Chargers (-220)
Jacksonville Jaguars at Seattle Seahawks (-180)
Washington Football Team at Denver Broncos (-175)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-240) at New Orleans Saints

If Dak Prescott plays:

Dallas Cowboys (+110) at Minnesota Vikings

If Dak Prescott sits:

Dallas Cowboys at Minnesota Vikings (-135)

New York Giants at Kansas City Chiefs (-475)

I got to 9-4 last week despite foolishly picking the Dolphins. Let’s see what happens this week when I foolishly pick the Lions!