NFL picks against the spread, Week 9: SuperContest picks, all picks

Welcome back to another week of San Francisco 49ers football, and welcome back to my continued poor efforts at picking games against the spread. Much like our beloved 49ers, my skills at picking games against the spread in 2017 have been pretty disastrous.

The 49ers are back home in Week 9 facing the Arizona Cardinals, and are slim underdogs at +2.5. A home team usually gets roughly three points for home field advantage, so this line is saying the Cardinals would be favored by approximately 3.5 points in Arizona. The line opened at a point, and has moved up since the beginning of the week. I have them in the SuperContest at +2.

For the fourth straight season, I am back for the Westgate SuperContest. SB Nation's partners over at Odds Shark are sponsoring my entry again. The contest requires selecting 5 games each week and picking them against the spread. This year's contest is expected to have over 2,700 participants, which is a new record for the SuperContest. SB Nation is represented by myself, Matt Ufford, and Jason Kirk, and there are folks from all over the blogosphere involved. I went 2-3, as I continue to struggle. There is a running leaderboard here, but you can check how I’m doing against my Odds Shark teammates here. You can follow my standings under the name "Fooch.”

Here are my Week 9 SuperContest picks:

Rams (-3.5) over GIANTS
SAINTS (-7) over Buccaneers
49ERS (+2) over Cardinals
Colts (+13) over TEXANS
COWBOYS (+1) over Chiefs

Yep, I’m going back to the well with the 49ers. I am a fan of taking home underdogs, and if the 49ers are going to win a game, it’s going to be this week against Arizona or next week against the New York Giants. The Cardinals are sending out Drew Stanton in place of an injured Carson Palmer. I don’t like seeing C.J. Beathard going out there without Pierre Garçon, but the return of Reuben Foster will be a boost for the defense. I think we see win number one this week.

Here are all my picks for Week 9. I finished last week 7-6. That brings my season total to to 50-67-3. Could have been worse.

JETS vs. Bills (-3): Jets - WIN
EAGLES vs. Broncos (+8.5): Eagles
GIANTS vs. Rams (-3.5): Rams
SAINTS vs. Buccaneers (+7): Saints
JAGUARS vs. Bengals (+5): Jaguars
PANTHERS vs. Falcons (+1): Falcons
TEXANS vs. Colts (+13): Colts
TITANS vs. Ravens (+5): Ravens
49ERS vs. Cardinals (-2): 49ers
SEAHAWKS vs. Washington (+7): Seahawks
COWBOYS vs. Chiefs (-1): Cowboys
DOLPHINS vs. Raiders (-3): Dolphins
PACKERS vs. Lions (-2.5): Packers