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It’s Week 8, and Notre Dame remains in our projected College Football Playoff. We have the Irish taking on Alabama in the Capital One Orange Bowl, while the matchup between Clemson and Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl stays the same. Michigan, Oregon and Oklahoma are part of the New Year’s Day Six heading into the third week of October. MORE: Do upsets hurt Playoff contenders? Here are our projections for every bowl game, with a familiar national championship game....

5-Star Players Aaron Rodgers, QB, Packers. Rodgers owners may be worried about the injuries in his receiving corps, but he fared pretty well last week with three TD passes and may have found another versatile weapon in Jarrett Boykin. Even if James Jones doesn’t return this week, Rodgers will be fine; the Vikings are allowing the sixth-most fantasy points per game (FPPG) to QBs. Rodgers will find his points....

The good news is there are a bunch of games that we still can get right. Unfortunately, there’s also a lot more to get wrong. Here is your fearless forecast for Week 8 — as usual, for entertainment purposes only. (Game lines courtesy of Bovada.) MORE: Watch the NFL live and on-demand with fuboTV (7-day free trial) Week 8 NFL picks against the spread (All times ET) NFC Game of the Week: New Orleans Saints at Minnesota Vikings (pick ’em)...

The first thing we notice is the presence of the standard QB-pass catcher stack. This week features no game stacks, which is a bit of a surprise, but we also see the importance of volume (opportunities = money), fading stars in favor of high-upside No. 2’s, and making at least one contrarian pick. Again, hitting on all those types of players isn’t easy, but if you’re just hoping to get in the money and not necessarily achieve perfection, then you can pull it off with less risk....

Check back for live weather updates during our Sunday morning start/sit chat. Rainy Conditions Possible: These games have at least a 30 percent chance of rain. Buccaneers at Seahawks (38 percent chance of rain) The rainy weather shouldn't have too much of a negative impact on the Seahawks, who can always pound the rock with Marshawn Lynch if necessary. Russell Wilson may not be asked to take many risks, but that isn't different from what we see anyway....

Jones is just the latest in a string of Falcons disasters. Matt Ryan is left with a hobbled Roddy White and Steven Jackson as key skill position players. Tony Gonzalez is healthy, but it’s a far cry from the offense that carried Atlanta to the NFC championship game last year. But in crisis there can be opportunity. Harry Douglas has a chance to step up and claim a big role in the Falcons offense....

The Arsenal manager believes players arriving at the tournament on the back of a good run of form are most likely to continue that level of performance onto the international scene. Juve playmaker Pogba could yet help his side win the Coppa Italia to add to their fifth consecutive league title, while Griezmann’s Atletico Madrid will contest the Champions League final against city rivals Real 13 days before the competition start....

Loic Remy started in place of Diego Costa for Chelsea who was not fit to start the match while Arsene Wenger chose to play Theo Walcott as centre-forward ahead of Olivier Giroud. The game started at a slow tempo and the two teams were involved in a midfield battle with Chelsea sitting back and Arsenal finding it difficult to find their passing game going. Arsenal finally managed to break the deadlock in the 24th minute after Mesut Ozil who was playing on the left found Theo Walcott....

Wenger and Ferguson were fierce rivals for many years as Arsenal and United battled for Premier League supremacy in Wenger’s first decade of a 22-year reign in charge. However, the tension between the two has since eased, and Ferguson greeted Wenger on the touchline before kick-off before presenting him with a glass momento alongside current United manager Jose Mourinho. Mourinho has also had his spats with Wenger, most famously decribing the Frenchman as a “specialist in failure” for his inability to win the Premier League since 2003/04....

Despite concerns about a thigh injury while Sanchez was away on international duty with Chile, the attacker played 90 minutes at Old Trafford on Saturday. Wenger was surprised by what the 27-year-old produced so soon after returning from Chile duty. “I chose him because Alexis is a guy who can take people on and I knew that would be a quality that would work,” he said. “He is good on the counter-attack, good in short spaces as well....

Wenger, whose team have been eliminated at the last-16 stage for the past six seasons, said the competition was more open this year, citing Manchester City’s 3-1 defeat of Barcelona in the last round of fixtures as an example. “When you play at home against a big team, you want to win. It sends a statement out,” the Frenchman told a news conference. “I think we are ready to compete....

It kicked off Thursday night with arguably the best Thursday of college football in, like, ever. Baylor started slow, then routed Oklahoma and Oregon started slow, finished fast, but still came up short, 26-20, against Stanford. To cap off the weekend, LSU goes to Tuscaloosa to take on the top-ranked Crimson Tide on Saturday night. Check out which teams our 10-person panel sided with this week. ( All times ET ) MORE: Best Thursday night games of all-time | Bowl projections...

James Conner and Jonathan Taylor landed on the COVID list late in the lead-up to Week 12, and while it’s possible that either could be out of action in Week 13, we currently have both of them included in our rankings. If either does end up getting stuck on the list for another week, Nyheim Hines (@ Texans) will rise to the RB2 range while Benny Snell (vs. Washington) and Jordan Wilkins (@ Texans) will have high-end flex value....

Fortunately, there are enough good quarterbacks that you should be able to field a decent option. In addition to all the worthwhile players drafted as backups, guys like Alex Smith (@ Redskins), Case Keenum (vs. Raiders), and even Nick Foles (@ Bucs) are viable plays this week and possibly available on your waiver wire. We are also not giving up on the Week 1 busts, which include Prescott, Matt Ryan, Ben Roethlisberger, Jimmy Garoppolo, and Deshaun Watson....