Doc Brown is just crushing these locks this season. It’s not too late to jump aboard and start making some coin by using his picks as a guideline. When you’re at 79 percent on locks for the season, that’s a near guarantee. Plus, the rest of the picks have been extremely strong.
[Reminder: The Week 8 Pick ’em Pool winner gets an official NFL football]
Below are Doc’s picks for the week, along with some analysis.
(ATS = Against the Spread, SU = Straight Up)
The Doc’s lock for the week is the Chargers and the points. San Diego tends to play Denver very closely and they’re getting a lot points for what should be a fairly tight game. Even if they fall behind by two scores, they have the kind of offense that can move the ball to come back for a backdoor cover. Doc has some concerns about San Diego’s secondary being banged up against the Broncos’ passing game, but there is another factor involved: the Broncos probably won’t be quite as fired up as they were Sunday night when they were breaking records. It’s a let-down game for Denver and a bounceback game for San Diego.
Other games Doc feels strongly about are the Bears +6 at New England and the Jags +6 against the Dolphins. Chicago has been, oddly, much better on the road than at home this season. They also just got their butt whooped and faced a lot of criticism. This is when teams rally and bring out their top game. Doc thinks they will. Doc also likes the Jags against the Dolphins. Jacksonville’s defense has held their last three opponents to 17 points or less and should be able to do the same against Miami. Plus, the Jags’ running game finally got off last week and should help them score this week.
Two other notes: Doc was inclined to take the Bills against the Jets. They have a much better record and look like a better team. But when marginal teams are road favorites in divisional games, it’s a bad formula, and therefore a trap game. The Doc also took the Texans but is worried about that as a trap game for the same reason — it’s a marginal team with a shaky QB being favored on the road in a divisional game. Always worry about those.
The Week 7 winner of the LBS Pick ‘Em pool was “AJ GreenBacks.” As last week’s winner, he won the right to be a guest picker this week. AJ GreenBacks’ picks for Week 8 are below:
