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NFL Week 8 Survivor Pool Picks: Cowboys Are Top Prediction, Falcons, Jaguars Options This Week

By Peter Dewey, Ben Heisler, Donnavan Smoot, Iain MacMillan, Reed Wallach

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott.
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott. / Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
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Week 8 of the NFL season is upon us, and if you’ve made it this far in your Survivor Pool with all of the upsets this season, you deserve a ton of credit. 

BetSided’s Reed Wallach just keeps on winning in Survivor, as he’s not only won the BetSided pool, but he still hasn’t lost this season through seven weeks. Admittedly, last week was not a good one for our editors, as Reed was the only one to pick correctly. 

Maybe we all should just be tailing his picks? It makes sense. 

Still, our team is here to give you their favorite Survivor selection for Week 8, and every week the rest of the season as the year goes on. 

Let’s recap last week’s picks and then break down the Week 8 selections: 

NFL Week 7 Survivor Pool Pick Results

  • Reed Wallach: Las Vegas Raiders (W)
  • Iain MacMillan: Tampa Bay Buccaneers (L)
  • Ben Heisler: New England Patriots (L)
  • Donnavan Smoot: New England Patriots (L)
  • Peter Dewey: New England Patriots (L)
  • Joe Summers: Tampa Bay Buccaneers (L)

NFL Week 8 Survivor Pool Picks

Dallas Cowboys

The Chicago Bears got an impressive 33-14 win at New England on Monday Night Football, but they should come back down to Earth in short order on the road against the Dallas Cowboys. 

While the Dallas offense wasn't exactly humming in Dak Prescott's return, scoring 24 points despite generating five turnovers, this team is far superior to Chicago. The Cowboys defense has been incredible this season behind the fine play of Micah Parsons, first in EPA/Play, and should overwhelm Justin Fields and the Bears offense.

Dallas should cruise on Sunday at home. – Reed Wallach

Atlanta Falcons

With limited options available in Survivor this week, it might be time to buck up and take the Atlanta Falcons to beat the Carolina Panthers. 

As crazy as it sounds, the Falcons are the fourth biggest favorite of the week behind the Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles and Buffalo Bills. An advantage of taking them now, is that you can get a bad team out of the way for the rest of the season, and save some of the better teams that you haven't used. 

The disadvantage of taking the Falcons is that, well, they're the Falcons. With that being said, the Panthers organization has thrown in the towel by trading Christian McCaffrey. Don't let last week's upset win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers fool you, the Panthers are a bad team and are rightfully underdogs on the road in Atlanta. 

If you can stomach it, you'll come out on the other side feeling like a genius. Unless the Falcons lose. Then you'll feel like the biggest moron on the planet. All I'm saying is, don't overlook the Dirty Birds as an option this week. – Iain MacMillan

I know it’s weird trusting the Falcons after they just got dog-walked by the Cincinnati Bengals. However, that was understandable. Atlanta didn’t have its best cornerback and had to defend Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd. Don’t get too down on them. And don’t get too high on the Panthers. 

Carolina used the “nobody believes in us” mentality to a tee and pulled off the upset at home against the Buccaneers. This is still a team with P.J. Walker at quarterback, decent running backs and just one receiving threat. I think we see the Falcons come back up and remember how to run the ball, while the Panthers finally sink into what they’ll be for the rest of the season – No. 1 draft pick contenders.  – Donnavan Smoot

Last week, everyone (including yours truly) said it was the week to back the Bucs or the Patriots, and we saw how that ended up working out.

Instead, I'll roll the dice and back a Falcons team returning home after a beatdown from Cincinnati, particularly in the first half giving up 28 points to a locked in Joe Burrow.

P.J. Walker, despite the upset of Tampa Bay at home is not Burrow, and the Falcons' secondary should show up vs. one of the most anemic offenses in the NFL that won't catch anyone by surprise.

Atlanta still ranks ninth in total Offense DVOA this season at Football Outsiders, including fourth in Rush DVOA against a Carolina squad that was dead-last a week ago, but moved up to 30th after their 21-3 win over Tampa.

They'll get it right this week, while the Panthers spend the week celebrating their biggest win of the season. --Ben Heisler

Jacksonville Jaguars

Does it matter who is under center for the Denver Broncos in Week 8? Russell Wilson and Brett Rypien both can’t lead this offense to touchdowns, and now the Broncos are back in a standalone spot in London on Sunday. 

The Jaguars are 4-4 in their games in London in franchise history, and they’ve at least been able to move the ball this season. Sure, Denver has arguably the best defense in the league, but the Broncos’ offense continues to cost them game after game. 

This is a bit of a riskier pick, but how could anyone have confidence left in Denver this season? – Peter Dewey

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

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