NFL Week 8 Top Matchups: Odds for Broncos-Chiefs, Cowboys-Redskins
Six teams will be off on byes in Week 8 of the NFL season, and nearly half of the 13 games scheduled have point spreads of seven points or higher at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
One of those looks to be a marquee divisional matchup though on Monday Night Football, as the AFC West-leading Kansas City Chiefs (5-2) look to avoid suffering their third consecutive loss as they take on the Denver Broncos (3-3).
The Chiefs are listed as 7.5-point home favorites and certainly looked like the most well-rounded team in the league heading into their Week 5 meeting with the Pittsburgh Steelers. But after losing to the Steelers for the third straight time and then falling to the Oakland Raiders (3-4) with no time remaining in last week’s Thursday Night Football game, Kansas City is poised to rebound.
The loss to the Raiders was the team’s first in primetime this season after starting out 3-0, including two impressive wins on the road.
The Broncos are in a similar funk, scoring only one touchdown (albeit in garbage time) since the first quarter of a 16-10 win over the Raiders in Week 4. They have also dropped two straight, getting outscored 44-10 by the New York Giants and Los Angeles Chargers, who did not have a victory between them through the first four weeks.
Their losing streak may continue here, with the Chiefs winning the past three meetings both straight up and against the spread, according to the OddsShark NFL Database.
Prior to that game, on Sunday afternoon the Washington Redskins (3-3) will host the Dallas Cowboys (3-3) in an intriguing NFC East battle that could leave the loser out of the playoff hunt.
The Cowboys finally played like a desperate team last week in a 40-10 rout of the San Francisco 49ers, as running back Ezekiel Elliott rushed for a season-high 147 yards on 26 carries with two touchdowns and also scored on a 72-yard reception.
Elliott will get to play at least one more game before serving his six-game suspension as he continues to fight it, something that should not be underestimated when betting on Dallas games right now. The Cowboys are the defending division champions and have little margin for error the rest of the way as they make another push for the postseason.
Meanwhile, the Redskins are 15-6 ATS in the previous 21 meetings and coming off a 34-24 loss versus the NFC East-leading Philadelphia Eagles on Monday Night Football. Washington has lost four of five SU and ATS to divisional opponents at home, two of which have come against Dallas, and sit as 2.5-point home underdogs for Monday.
