NFL picks 2019, Week 8: The Chiefs’ first test without Patrick Mahomes is Green Bay, no big deal

The Kansas City Chiefs were supposed to score at least 30 points every week in 2019. There were reasons to be concerned that the defense would struggle like it did in 2018, but the offense was never in doubt. Now it is.

Patrick Mahomes suffered an ankle injury in the first game of the season, re-aggravated it in Week 5, and then tweaked it yet again the week after that. He could at least play through that injury, though. Mahomes isn’t going to play through the dislocated knee he suffered in Week 7.

While Mahomes is out a few weeks, the Chiefs will be relying on Matt Moore to lead the way. And our team isn’t convinced that it’s going to work out well for Kansas City, at least not this week against the 6-1 Green Bay Packers.

Only one person on our panel (it me) picked the Chiefs to beat the visiting Packers in a Sunday Night Football matchup.

That was par for the course in Week 8. There’s just one game that has our experts split.

The Buccaneers and Titans are mysteries

Tampa Bay’s only wins so far have come against the Panthers and the Rams — two teams with winning records. One of the Buccaneers’ losses was to the Giants, who are currently 2-5. Quarterback Jameis Winston has four games in 2019 with a passer rating over 100 and two with a rating below 50.

So it says a lot that Tennessee is even more confusing than Tampa Bay.

The Titans opened the year with a 43-13 drubbing of the Browns, then struggled to do much offensively after that. Marcus Mariota was benched during a 16-0 loss to the Broncos, and — voila — the Ryan Tannehill-led Titans had their first 400-yard day of the year in a 23-20 win against the Chargers.

Can Tannehill keep it up? Which Winston will make an appearance Sunday?

Our panel is understandably 50-50 on a game between a pair of teams that have been a Jekyll and Hyde act in 2019.

Meet the Good Dog of Week 8: Bailey

Bailey has lived with Sam, Kim, and Shaylyn Eggleston in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan since she was just six weeks old and was born July 4, 2009. Bailey loves spending time outdoors, hanging out with Sam, and cuddling in bed at night. Her absolute favorite pastime is having her belly rubbed.

Bailey has had a couple of health scares in her life, but she’s proven that you can’t keep a good dog down and is as spry and energetic as ever. She even puts up with two-year-old beagle Toby, despite she and Sam agreeing that he is annoying.

Bailey was absolutely thrilled to find out she was going to be doing picks this week. She made her picks by having a blue bowl and a red bowl in front of her with a piece of kibble placed in each. The red bowl represented the home team of each game, and the blue bowl represented the visitors. Whichever bowl she ate out of first was her pick, and she was pretty happy that she also got to then eat the loser kibble as well.

Bailey’s choices of San Francisco, Green Bay, New Orleans, and Buffalo were all very convincing as she not only ate the kibble, but sniffed around the bowl before eating from the other bowl.

She didn’t seem too broken up about picking against Sam’s Los Angeles Chargers, and wasn’t swayed when he explained that she may want to reconsider her picks of Cincinnati and Cleveland. She’s apparently a fan of Ohio, and especially of the Dawg Pound.

Week 8 picks

Here are all of our Week 8 predictions with the caveat that picks are subject to change until Friday. Injuries and the upcoming trade deadline could convince an expert or two to swap teams before the weekend.

Our guest this week from the NFL blogs is Bernd Buchmasser, the manager at Pats Pulpit, home of the still undefeated Patriots.