Clash of the Cappers – 2016 Week 8

By Josh Mansilla (@Manzilla36)

Throughout the 2016 NFL season, NFL handicapper Josh Mansilla will be providing his weekly plays, along with a brief write-up on how he sees the games playing out. We’ll track his picks alongside those of our other capper, Dan Urda, to see who best assisted our readers throughout the season. Dan’s picks for Week 8 will be found in the podcast later this week.

Season Records

Josh Mansilla: 5-2

Dan Urda: 14-23

Falcons -2.5

Nice win last week with the Broncos getting it done easily over the Texans. Brock Osweiler is simply not a good quarterback and the Broncos are a great team to bet on when it comes to holding a two score lead and preventing a back door cover, as their defense thrives in obvious passing situations.

This week we are going with the Atlanta Falcons as 2.5-point favorites over the Green Bay Packers. The reasoning for going with the Falcons here this week is similar to why we took Denver last week. Right now, we have the Falcons entering play on a two-game losing streak after a red hot 4-1 start to their season. They are first place in their division by only a half a game after looking like clear favorites in the NFC South with Carolina out of the picture with a 1-5 start.

Last year, the Falcons started 6-1 before losing their next 6 games and missing out on the playoffs. This has to be stuck in their head and will provide extra motivation coming into this game trying to avoid dropping to .500.

Meanwhile, something has been up in Green Bay as their offense is ranked 27th in the league in total offense coming into this week. We took them two weeks ago and they got dominated at home by Dallas. The Packers are very thin at the running back position, and last week they were starting wide receivers behind Rodgers (Cobb and Montgomery). The Packers also have several injuries in their secondary. All this plus the fact that Aaron Rodgers just doesn’t look as sharp as he has in recent years.

I look for the Falcons to bounce back from their two game losing streak and have a dominant performance here at home. Last time the Falcons played Green Bay, Julio Jones had a stat line of 11/259/1 and I look for him to have another HUGE day on Sunday, especially against a banged up Packers secondary. I recommend taking Ryan and Jones in DFS leagues as well.

(Also strong leans on Denver -5.5 vs San Diego and Detroit +2.5 vs Houston)

Survivor Pick

For survivor, we are going with the Minnesota Vikings. I hate taking road teams in a survivor pool, but we are almost halfway through the season and this week doesn’t offer us many other options. I like that Minnesota got their first loss of the season last week and I look for them to bounce back strong this week with their top-ranked defense. After all, they are playing the Bears and I can not even tell you who will be under center for them (editor’s note: Jay Cutler is back, but based on his performance earlier this season, that’s not necessarily a good thing). This will be a popular pick, along with the Jets, but I actually think the Jets could allow the Browns to grab their first win of the season this week.

Good luck.