Week 8 NFL picks against the spread

The San Francisco 49ers are in London this week to face the Jacksonville Jaguars, and they are currently a 17 point favorite. Each week, I put together a few thoughts on why the 49ers can cover the spread that week. I'm back again to do that, but I thought long and hard about it this time around.

The 49ers are clearly better than the Jaguars, but as we saw last week against the Tennessee Titans, garbage time can swing the easy cover. The 49ers were dominating the Titans, but two late touchdowns after the 49ers started bringing in some backups ended the game at 31-17.

In considering the spread of this game, that's my first concern. Ideally, the 49ers will jump out to a big lead and get their backups in sometime in the second half. The 49ers backups are talented enough that I think they could hold off the Jaguars starters, but garbage time is called that for a reason.

My second concern is the idea of this being some kind of trap game. The 49ers are facing a winless Jaguars team that is going nowhere fast. Aside from the cliche of "any given Sunday", my biggest concern is simply the 49ers coming out slow. I think we'd all be shocked by a loss, but would you be surprised if the 49ers came out not entirely focused? The team faces several significant challenges the rest of their regular season schedule, but this game provides its own unique kind of challenge. Can the 49ers come out focused and determined and put away the Jaguars early, rather than making this anything remotely interesting?

Here are the rest of the Week 8 picks, once against with James from Cover32 Raiders. We both managed an 8-7 record last week. I am slooooowly working my way back toward the .500 mark, and it's going to be awhile.