NFL Week 8 game picks: Seahawks > Texans; Cowboys stay hot Published: Oct 26, 2017 at 04:14 AM Elliot Harrison It's already Week 8. No more me sing around for various clubs acro s the NFL. Time to shift into Save The Season Mode! ... Or at least Get It Together Mode. This is especially true in the NFC. Take, for instance, the , who have lost three in a row and could lose their confidence for the balance of the season if they fall to the . Or the Bucs, whose defense hasn't been able to stop anybody. They play the , whose offense completely disappeared last Sunday. That's merely the NFC South. The were supposed to compete in the NFC North, but a lo s to the would make it four lo ses in their last five games. If the lose any more players -- much le s, games -- they're done. ( ) So don't let the Elie Okobo Jersey fact that it's not a double-digit week -- or that there are no undefeated squads running away with the division -- obscure how important Week 8 is. Now, over to the other conference ... has their ever been a wr/rb duo that received/ rushed 1500+ each?? If not bell and Brown bein the first September 9th (@FuturesB3ST) Without looking, I know Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin pulled it off in 1995. After looking, found out they also did it four years earlier. Barry Sanders and Herman Moore reached that plateau in 1995, as well. Edge James and Marvin Harrison did in 1999. Gue sing you watched those during triceps extensions ... But yeah, loved those "Fantastic Finishes." Marrone interview yesterday, praising defense and #11 on Power Rankings! Like Xmas for fans! Chris Rizzo (@ChrisRizzo1116) With Donovin Darius as Santa ... The Jags are off this week, as are the . The play up in Seattle, which might be the coolest matchup of the weekend. Rookie against that defense? Three hours of quality content. Pick is below. Your take? Always welcome. is the place. Now, let's get to it! Minnesota Vikings 23, Cleveland Browns 10 On paper, this is a bad matchup for the ' offense. Minnesota has allowed 20-plus points once all season, and that came in 's first start. All of the Vikes' prior opponents field better offenses than Hue Jackson's. First of all, who is the quarterback? Of the three -- , and -- the middle guy has been the best. Kind of like "The Two Towers," which, as any smart person knows, is the premier offering from Peter Jackson. If gets going again, Cleveland might be another this week. The are 0-7 for the second straight season. The last team to pull that off was the 1993-94 , coached by David Shula. Ah, the days of David Klingler and Erik Wilhelm ... Atlanta Falcons 23, New York Jets 21 Who wants to pick the right now? Doing it out of respect to , but won't be the least bit surprised if Atlanta drops its fourth straight. That'd stick the with a vs. the AFC Grant Hill Jersey East. In order to win, the must avoid the giveaways. Much of their surprising start to this season relied on 's accuracy, with the 38-year-old journeyman making the right plays at precisely the right time. The ... well ... precise occurred last week in a tie game , when McCown's ill-fated pa s to was , giving the the football with 39 seconds to go, deep in New York territory. On the season, McCown has a 69.2 completion percentage, with 10 touchdown pa ses, seven interceptions and a 91.5 pa ser rating. Ryan? 66.5/7/6/89.3. McCown > Ryan? Say it ain't so. Ryan's numbers are obviously WAY down from the first six games of his 2016 MVP campaign. His pa s-yards-per-game figure has slipped from 345.8 to 265.0. That's 80 yards! His pa ser rating's down 28.6 points. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 28, Carolina Panthers 26 The are up, down, up, down, right, select. The are bad. Wait, I think I just typed a "Twisted Metal: Black" cheat code in Carolina's sentence up there. OK, the Bucs have started putting some points on the board, scoring 60 over the past two games. They've also produced more than 400 yards of offense in four straight. Unfortunately, when drives bog down, they settle for field goal mi ses. Not last week, though, as newcomer hit both his FGs -- including one from 50 yards out. Much praise was sung for following . Since then, he's faltered badly. Over the last two games, he's thrown one touchdown against five interceptions, while posting a 51.0 pa ser rating. Philadelphia Eagles 33, San Francisco 49ers 13 I wanted to write . Which, you may or may not recall, was the score of that famous game at the Vet where the Joe Montana-led Niners came back from a 28-17 fourth-quarter deficit. Montana got pummeled that day. On that really cruddy Vet turf, which felt like concrete with your Aunt's rug from 1953 draped over it. (You know, when the rug has had so many Hot Wheels run over it that the material is paper thin in spots. Yea, the Vet was worse, with spots that looked like dried-up, green Silly Putty.) At least will get faceplanted in the well-kept surface they sport at the Linc. The ' offense will fly (again). Those guys are sporting a 50.5 percent conversion rate on third down, best in the league. And their time of po se sion is 33:43, second in the league. When and company get into the red zone, they come out succe sful 65.2 percent of the time, good for third in the league. New Orleans Saints 34, Chicago Bears 21 Bad matchup for the upstart . Mitch Trubisky won't be able to go all Bob Griese in this game, throwing like five pa ses all day. The have proven over the era that, more often than not, they will put points up in bunches in the Superdome. With No. 9 under center, they've scored 30-plus points at home times. So, unle s Chicago slows the game down by giving 50 touches, this contest will mark a major learning se sion for Trubisky. New Orleans' defense will give the kid a tough time. Over the last four games the have allowed a scant 17 points per, while giving up an average of just 161 pa sing yards each time out. They've also forced 10 turnovers in that span -- and the three defensive touchdowns didn't hurt. New England Patriots 30, Los Angeles Chargers 24 What a cool matchup this game is. The haven't won in New England since 2005, when outdueled in a game that seems like forever ago. Tim Dwight had a 30-yard touchdown reception. Remember him? He played for both franchises, and was mentioned prominently in the book "Patriot Reign" as someone Bill Belichick noticed from afar. Wonder what Belichick thinks of , who plays such a different style of game than his own quarterback. While we're at it, how about that time ? Meanwhile, is anyone talking about as Steve Nash Jersey an MVP candidate? Talk about being taken for granted ... Brady is averaging 315.4 yards per game, . He is also sporting a 15:2 TD-to-INT ratio and a robust 108.4 pa ser rating. Oakland Raiders 26, Buffalo Bills 20 Maybe the toughest game of the week to call. The came to life and will be playing on 10 days' rest. The , who have survived a couple of recent close affairs, are surprisingly tied with the atop the AFC East in the lo s column. This game is huge for both Oakland and Buffalo. A win for the vaults them right back into the thick of the AFC West race, especially with the and the and . If the win, they'll be 5-2 for the first time since 2011, when got hurt and then the team tanked. Buffalo hasn't been 6-2 (or better) since 1993. That was their last season. The ' 17-season playoff drought is now the longest in all the major American sports. The Seattle Mariners are at 16, having not made the postseason since Ichiro's rookie season of 2001. in his prime? Cincinnati Bengals 30, Indianapolis Colts 22 The will rely on . The will lean on . Advantage: Cincy. The didn't show their true colors defensively . That group has been solid all season. Taking a deep dive, Cincinnati's defense remains , and . Prior to the lo s at Heinz, Paul Guenther's unit had only given up over 300 yards of offense in one game: an overtime lo s to . If the are to win, they run the football more effectively. The 3.6 yards-per-carry mark isn't exactly spreading fear around the league. The offense as a whole is really struggling, while the defense is not strong enough to mitigate those shortcomings. The offense is tied for , ranks and . Yeesh. Seattle Seahawks 28, Houston Texans 25 Originally had this game . That's because I thought Tony Romo might sign with the , with both defenses looking fantastic. Little did I know that not only would , but that would "Tecmo SuperBowl" the crap out of the NFL as Houston's rookie QB. Oh, and now Tony Romo is . Yet, here we are, with what is, perhaps, still Week 8's most fun game taking place between two teams that rarely play one another. The uni matchup will be ugly. The scoring won't be as low as people expect. Seattle's offense is due, while Watson is a thrilling watch. What's interesting about his game is how much better he's performed , in spite of his . His completion percentage is 10 points higher inside the pocket (64.4) than outside (54.1), while his TD-to-INT ratio Mikal Bridges Jersey is really out of whack: Watson has to sed 14 touchdowns against three interceptions in the cup, with one touchdown and two picks outside. Cool stuff. #OROY Dallas Cowboys 24, Washington Redskins 20 This is always a fun matchup. The swept this series last year. , ' failures in the red zone became a talking point on sports radio, while used his legs and moxie to deliver a win. came on , when the racked up over 500 yards of offense but once again couldn't pay off drives. How Cousins fares versus the young Dallas secondary could determine the outcome, but methinks the will lean on for at least 25 carries Sunday. Since Week 4, the Dallas offense has sprung to life, scoring 14 touchdowns while averaging 449.7 yards per game and 6.5 yards per play. All those figures are tops in the league in that span. Pittsburgh Steelers 23, Detroit Lions 20 You never know with this Pittsburgh team. The are the NFC version of the , even if they don't carry an equal talent level. Detroit has proven once again that it is an unknown commodity, capable of beating "good" teams before laying an egg when you least expect it (SEE: , at least in the first half). Pittsburgh should run right at the Detroit front, making a key figure in this matchup. The and have played a handful of wild ones in Detroit, most notably the Jerome Bettis from 1998. I have the 1983 game between these two, a faceoff of true legends at quarterback: Eric Hipple and Cliff Stoudt. If you look at Kenny's room in (still Michael Keaton's best movie, if you ask me), you'll see a Hipple poster on the wall. You're welcome. Kelly Oubre Jr. Jersey Also for your (relevant) information: and rank in the top five in yards from scrimmage this season. That's Barry Sanders and Herman Moore stuff right there. Kind of. Kansas City Chiefs 17, Denver Broncos 13 The retake command of the AFC West, not allowing the (or or , for that matter) to close the gap. has won his last three starts versus the "No Fly Zone," with efficient (if not spectacular) performances. The MVP candidate has thrown for over 200 yards and a touchdown in each game, with 244 being the high-water mark. Smith's handiwork out of the pocket in those matchups was palpable, with 81 yards and a touchdown on the ground. Meanwhile, Denver's offense has forgotten its craft the last couple of weeks, scoring a grand total of 10 points . Can turn it around? Will Smith stay with and in the MVP race? Only three quarterbacks have led the NFL in completion percentage, yards per attempt and pa ser rating after Week 7 over the last 40 seasons: Kurt Warner (who did it in 1999 and 2001), Joe Montana (1989) and (this season). Warner and Montana won the MVP award and took their teams to the in each of those years. THURSDAY NIGHT'S GAME Miami Dolphins 23, Baltimore Ravens 16 The battle of . We might see a 10-yard throw sometime midway through the second quarter. Actually, the showed vital signs in that department last week. Although, when I tried to compare 's numbers to 's on the interwebs, an offer for a free Amazon gift card popped up. I had to do a survey about laundry detergent or something. Apparently, even the internet doesn't want you to know the Cutler truth. You might remember this matchup last year, when the picked three times while . Back to Moore: As a starter over the course of his NFL career, he's 15-13 with a 40:22 TD-to-INT ratio and an 88.2 pa ser rating. Not bad. 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