Week 8 provided us with a “bye” week in your survivor pools.  There were no upsets of the most heavily favored teams and if you went with one of the most common picks, you advanced with the rest of your brethren. In the Yahoo pool, 99.75% of entries advanced. This week can be a whole other ball game. 

As we get into the latter weeks of the season, the teams to choose from start to dwindle and here in week 9, there are only three teams favored by 7 or more points.  One of them is the 49ers who we used in week 7, and another is the Bills who are favored at home over the Redskins. The third are the Cowboys who we’ve also taken.  If you recall when I picked San Francisco, I wrote that the Bills were my other choice and whoever didn’t get picked would probably be the choice for week 9.  Let’s see where we end up.

Dallas rides into NY after their bye week and a demolition of the Eagles in week 7 as 7 point favorites over the Giants.  They bounced back after a terrible loss to the Jets in week 6 which eliminated a fair percentage of people in these pools.  Did Dallas really put it together against the Eagles or did Philly just stink up the place?  Having been there in person, it was more a Philly stink bomb, but the Cowboys must be confident going into this week rested and prepared.  The Giants and Danny Dimes continue to try to find their way.  They covered the spread with a late TD, but it wasn’t really that close.  The Giants haven’t even had the lead in any of their previous four games. Detroit had its way with the Giants’ secondary and Dak should be able to put up some numbers with Cooper and Gallup on the receiving end.  It’s an intra-divisional game and on the road, so not a slam dunk but the Cowboys should come away with this one. 

The 49ers are on the road against Arizona on Thursday night.  One of the reasons I took the 49ers two weeks ago was that this game goes against a lot of the things we stay away from: Thursday, intra-divisional, and on the road.  Of course with the shellacking they put on the Panthers, the 49ers are looking like they are unbeatable.  The Cardinals went into New Orleans and were outclassed by the returning Drew Brees.  Their 3 game winning streak came against the Bengals, Giants, and Falcons.  Back to reality.  If you still have the 49ers, you can take them here or save them for week 12 when they play the Cardinals at home.

The Bills are coming off a loss to a desperate Eagles team.  The weather played a factor as the windy conditions did not help the passing and kicking games.  The Eagles ran all over them and had over 200 yards rushing.  The Redskins will have trouble against the Bills defense if Case Keenum, who was still in the concussion protocol on Wednesday, is out.  Their only hope to keep the game close will be to run Adrian Peterson into the ground as Dwayne Haskins doesn’t appear ready to handle the starting role.  We’ll keep an eye on the status of Keenum, but the Bills should handle the Redskins.  Is this the slam dunk it seemed two weeks ago? No, but they are the biggest favorites of the week and will be a popular pick this week. 

Can we pivot to any other games?  The anti Dolphin pick this week would be the Jets.  Can we trust the Jets to go into Miami and take down the fish?  The Jets would leapfrog the Dolphins in draft pick positioning with a loss, but will Miami “let” them?  If the Jets were playing better, this would be a great place to take them and use a crappy team to get you to week 10.  I’m not taking that chance. Want to trust your pool to Adam Gase? 

Green Bay goes into LA to take on the Chargers and are 3 point favorites.  Aaron Rodgers has them on a roll and the Chargers have looked awful finding ways to lose each week.  They’re on the road and have to travel to the west coast, but they should garner some consideration. 

My pick?  Buffalo.  We knew this was going to be a tough week and the Bills are the logical choice here.  Is it clear cut?  No, but we’re going to have to get used to this going forward.  I think you can use SF and Dallas with confidence as pivots, but since I’ve used both, Buffalo is the choice.  Good luck and hopefully you’ll be back reading next week.