NFL Week 8 Survivor Pool Picks, Advice, and Strategy
NFL betting analyst Nick Galaida breaks down Week 8 Survivor Pool strategy, previewing the safest picks of the week as well as possible upsets.
NFL Week 8 Survivor Strategy and Picks
Traditionally, survivor pools require participants to simply pick the winner of one NFL game straight up each week. The challenging part of eliminator tournaments is that you can only use a team once during the season. In 2022, this means that you will need to select 18 of the 32 teams to finish the regular season, so there will be weeks during which you will not be able to have an elite roster at your disposal.
Each week in this article, we discuss red flags to try to avoid when selecting your eliminator team of the week. As a general rule, it is best to avoid six contexts when considering options for a survivor league:
1. Intra-division games
2. Primetime games
3. Away teams with poor defenses
4. Non-elite teams playing on a short week
5. Non-elite teams with a rest disadvantage
6. Teams who are playing an opponent off of their bye week
Trust this team in Week 8: Philadelphia Eagles
As the calendar prepares to flip to November, the Philadelphia Eagles remain the only team in the National Football League without a loss. Philadelphia enters play in Week 8 with three road victories, three home victories, two wins against division opponents, five wins within the conference, and the best point differential in the NFC. Far from a cakewalk, the Eagles’ early season schedule has featured the Minnesota Vikings, Dallas Cowboys, as well as competitive teams such as Jacksonville Jaguars and Arizona Cardinals. Still, the Eagles rank 3rd in offensive EPA/play and 4th in defensive EPA/play. In this spot, they are coming off of a bye week to face a Pittsburgh Steelers team that has scored only 33 points across their last three games, and has only two victories on the year. The Steelers rank 28th in EPA/play offensively and 22nd in EPA/play defensively. There are few, if any, data points indicating that the Eagles are in trouble this weekend.
Week 8 Fade: Dallas Cowboys
Week 1 Fade: Indianapolis Colts (Result: Tied 20-20 against the Houston Texans)
Week 2 Fade: Green Bay Packers (Result: Packers defeated Bears 27-10)
Week 3 Fade: Buffalo Bills (Result: Bills lost to Dolphins 21-19)
Week 4 Fade: Los Angeles Chargers (Result: Chargers defeated Texans 34-24)
Week 5 Fade: Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Result: Buccaneers defeated Falcons 21-15)
Week 6 Fade: Green Bay Packers (Result: Packers lost to Jets 27-10)
Week 7 Fade: Los Angeles Chargers (Result: Chargers lost to Seahawks 37-23)
In the first seven weeks of the season, four of the teams that we have recommended fading in this article have failed to win – and each team was favored by at least a touchdown at the time of publishing. In Week 8, we recommend that bettors tread carefully with the Dallas Cowboys.
Admittedly, there are only three heavy favorites this Sunday, and all three are well-deserving of being favored by greater than a touchdown. Nevertheless, the Cowboys are the riskiest of the three presumptive winners. Last week, Dak Prescott returned to the field for the first time since Week 1, and he showed quite a bit of rust. Facing one of the worst secondary units in the entire league, Prescott threw for only 207 yards and one touchdown. Nearly halfway into the third quarter, Dallas was trailing on the scoreboard, before Ezekiel Elliott found paydirt to give them a 10-6 lead. The contest remained close until the closing minutes, until Elliott scored with 2:46 remaining in the fourth quarter to give Dallas a 17-6 lead. Another touchdown with less than two minutes later resulted in a final score that was extremely misleading, considering how tightly-contested the affair had been all afternoon.
The Chicago Bears are playing on a short week after battling the New England Patriots in Foxborough on Monday Night Football. Chicago is also the inferior team from a talent perspective in this matchup, and by a wide margin. Still, “(player-popup #justin-fields)Justin Fields”:/players/justin-fields-2861635’ ability to make plays with both his arm and his legs makes him a difficult matchup in any situation. If Chicago’s defense can play reasonably well, this is a game that could be closer than anticipated.
Image Credit: Imagn