Week 7 in the NFL wasn’t particularly memorable. Looking at the schedule and opening lines for Week 8 doesn’t inspire much confidence things will be a whole lot better.
Once again, bye weeks and one-sided matchups have produced a group of games that, at least on paper, looks like it could be a bit boring. Making Sunday look even worse is the fact that the best game of the week is actually “Thursday Night Football” when the 6-1 Green Bay Packers travel to Arizona to take on a 7-0 Cardinals team. Perhaps no one could have seen at the beginning of the season that the Cardinals would be favorites to open the week against Aaron Rodgers and Co.
Sunday, though, gets a little dicey with a ghoulish Halloween offering that has three more games with spreads of 10 points or higher. The number could grow to four depending on what kind of action bookmakers take on Monday’s game between Kansas City and the New York Giants in which the Chiefs opened as 9.5-point favorites. That, of course, doesn’t include must-miss matchups like Philadelphia at Detroit, Carolina at Atlanta, San Francisco at Chicago or Washington at Denver.
Yikes.
But that’s why the sports gods invented things like betting, pick ’em pools and fantasy football. And before you dive into your weekly research, here are the opening lines for Week 8 from DraftKings Sportsbook.
THURSDAY, OCT. 28
Green Bay Packers at (-3.5) Arizona Cardinals, 53.5
SUNDAY, OCT. 31
(-10) Cincinnati Bengals at New York Jets, 43.5
(-14.5) Los Angeles Rams at Houston Texans, 46
Miami Dolphins at (-13.5) Buffalo Bills, 49.5
(-3.5) Philadelphia Eagles at Detroit Lions, 47.5
Pittsburgh Steelers at (-3) Cleveland Browns, 43.5
Carolina Panthers at (-3) Atlanta Falcons, 47
Tennessee Titans at (-1) Indianapolis Colts, 49.5
(-3.5) San Francisco 49ers at Chicago Bears, 43.5
New England Patriots at (-5.5) Los Angeles Chargers, 48
Jacksonville Jaguars at (-3.5) Seattle Seahawks, 43.5
Washington Football at (-3) Denver Broncos, 43.5
(-4.5) Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New Orleans Saints, 51
(-2) Dallas Cowboys at Minnesota Vikings, 53
MONDAY, NOV. 1
New York Giants at (-9.5) Kansas City Chiefs, 52.5
