Football Picks - Week 8: I'm reserving Friday for football posts for the rest of the season. Just in case this bores you.

• New England +2.5 at Buffalo Patriots cover. Bills beat the spread. [[correction 11/3/02 - it should be obvious that I meant to pick the Bills to beat the spread. I am admitting this even though it makes me wrong. I will use this occurance in the future to prove just how honest I am.]] The Pats are sliding and Bledsoe would just love to put the nail in the coffin. Bills should cruise at home.


• Minnesota +7.5 at Tampa Bay Vikings beat the spread. Minnesota looked alive last week, but the Bears don't quite have the Bucs defense. Still even if the Bucs shut 'em out they'll probably only win 6-0.


• Baltimore +7.5 at Atlanta Falcons cover. As much as my heart tells me I am sick of Vick. My head says the Lewis-deprived Ravens don't stand a chance.


• Philadelphia -6.5 at Chicago Eagles cover. They should win by at least a TD.


• Pittsburgh -3 at Cleveland Steelers cover. Pittsburgh is a great team just hitting it's stride.


• Dallas +3 at Detroit Lions cover. Cowboys have nothing to play for. Yikes. Did I just pick the Lions? I feel faint.


• Cincinnati +3 at Houston Texans cover. The coach of the Bengals has guaranteed a victory. Now, let's stop and think about that. He's trying to motivate his players by guaranteeing a victory against an expansion team with a human blocking dummy as a quarterback. If you truly believe you are a good team and want to motivate your players, guarantee a victory against the Packers or Steelers. Guaranteeing a win against the Texans is like saying "Yeah, we totally suck, but not totally totally." Meanwhile, the Texans are thinking "They couldn't beat a JV High School team, but they guarantee they will beat us? Let's kill 'em!" The strategy needs work, is all I'm saying.


• Tennessee +3.5 at Indianapolis Titans beat the spread. The Colts annoyed me by losing last week. This week they may annoy me by winning, but I'm hoping it's only by a field goal.


• New York Jets +7.5 at San Diego Chargers cover. This strikes me as a no-brainer. The only way this fails is if the Chargers are winning by like 21 at half time and then fall asleep while the Jets snag a couple of cheap TDs and only lose by 7.


• San Francisco +3 at Oakland Raiders cover. Ooh, this is a nasty one. Oakland is not playing it's best, but they are certainly a great team. I'll give them the nod at home, against arch-rivals, and hope as a veteran team they will respond to their current crisis.


• St. Louis -3 at Arizona Rams cover. Five losses followed by 2 wins and a bye. Last week I noticed that many teams are beginning to approach their pre-season expectations. I'm betting the Rams are coming into form.


• Washington +3 at Seattle Redskins beat the spread. Similar to last week's 'Skins/Colts game - a meeting of two underachievers. Last week, I picked the Colts and the 'Skins won. This week I'll pick the 'Skins. You see, I got a pretty complicated system going here.


• Jacksonville +3 at New York Giants Giants cover. Giants only perform well every ten plays or so. Still, that should be enough against the Jags and their spit drenched coach.


• Miami +4.5 at Green Bay Packers cover. The line on this game dropped from 5.5 down to anywhere from 3.5 (MGM/Mirage) to 4.5(Caesars/Hilton) after doubt was expressed over the status of Brett Fraverver. Even if he doesn't play the full game, the Fins still need Ray Lucas to get himself sorted out, Chris Carter to integrate properly, and a 72 degree temperature at game time for them to succeed. Not likely.