Week 4 NFL Picks: Eagles Over 49ers and 3 Other Upsets to Chase

Week four of the 2014 NFL season is here again with Thursday night’s action, which means now is a good time to take a look at this week’s schedule and see who might earn an upset. Last week we took a look at four potential upsets and got two of them right (Bears and Chiefs), while the Vikings actually played the Saints relatively close and the Broncos narrowly lost to the Seahawks in overtime.

Those were clearly four strong upsets to chase if you were making NFL bets last week, and we’ve got another solid batch to work with heading into week four:

Raiders over Dolphins (Line: MIA -4.5)

Miami is in such a bad way that their head coach actually considered benching quarterback Ryan Tannehill going into this game. That seems like it would have been a rash decision, especially since nothing is going right for the Fins. This looks like a matchup for them to get over their issues on paper, and is probably why they’re favored. However, Oakland will want to get their first win at some point and few games give them a better chance than this one at home.

Eagles over 49ers (Line: SF -5.5)

San Francisco has dropped two straight and hasn’t won at home yet, so they welcome the undefeated Eagles to town as they try to get to 2-2. The Niners have a good defense and a balanced offense on paper, while Philly’s defense really can’t stop anyone. That understandably has San Fran has the favorites on their own field, but what if this Niners team just really isn’t that good? They’ve looked pretty average the last two weeks, and something needs to be said about that fact that the Eagles are 3-0. After scoring 30+ points in every game so far, why should we believe the Eagles are suddenly going to stop doing that in week four?

Titans over Colts (Line: IND -7.5)

Indy is another team looking for their first home win, as their only victory came in a blowout over the hapless Jaguars a week ago. The Colts are probably the better team here, but Tennessee did look good in week one and has the #2 pass defense in the entire league. This is also a divisional game, so the line is a bit too favorable for the Colts here.

Upset to Chase – Jaguars over Chargers (Line: SD -13.5)

Last week it was the Vikings over the Saints. That made little sense, but in the end it actually did and Minnesota was within reach the entire game. Jacksonville could be the same here against San Diego. Everyone thinks the Chargers will destroy the Jags, but Blake Bortles gets the start and he’s better than Chad Henne. If he actually is, he could give the Chargers a game and maybe even pull out a win. It’s not likely, but they could at least cover the spread.