Back-to-back posts of football picks? Must be Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. The only holiday where the NFL takes center stage. The point in the season where we're finally done with byes, the stretch run begins, and we start seeing the graphic with the playoff picture at the end of every game (I saw it for the first time on Monday night).
Playoff races that feature a lot of teams, for two very different reasons. In the AFC, it seems like nobody wants to lose to New England and Pittsburgh in the playoffs. In the NFC, meanwhile everybody except the Giants and 49ers thinks they have a chance at playing in January. It's going to be an interesting final month to say the least.
Vikings (8-2) at Lions (6-4): Minnesota-Our first Thanksgiving game is probably the best of the three. The Vikings are currently the No. 2 seed in the NFC, while the Lions have the same record as the Falcons, who currently own the second wild card. Making this game doubly important is the fact that Detroit needs to win it if they have any hope of winning the division. Minnesota has just been too good this season, though. America hasn't seen the Vikings much, and they'll want to put on a show for the national audience.
Chargers (4-6) at Cowboys (5-5): Dallas-Thanksgiving game No. 2 features a Cowboys team that has looked lost without its best player. The Chargers, meanwhile, are 4-2 since their 0-4 start and, like seemingly everyone else in the AFC (except for Cleveland), have jumped into the playoff race. The thing that intrigues me about this game the most, though, will be Tony Romo doing the Cowboys game. Also, kudos to the NFL and CBS for finally allowing an AFC team to play on Thanksgiving again!
Giants (2-8) at Redskins (4-6): Washington-Just when everyone came to terms with the fact that the Giants were in contention for the No. 1 pick, they find a way to screw that up, too, by randomly beating Kansas City. Now they head to Washington for the Thanksgiving night game that's much less attractive in reality than it was when the schedule first came out. Washington came out of a brutal stretch (Seattle, Minnesota, New Orleans) pretty much unscathed. And you know they'll be pumped up for a rivalry game on Thanksgiving night.
Buccaneers (4-6) at Falcons (6-4): Atlanta-That might've been the biggest win of the season on Monday night. Atlanta won in Seattle to move into playoff position. It means nothing, though, if they can't back it up with a home win over the Bucs. Tampa Bay has won two straight. But the Falcons aren't the Jets or Dolphins.
Browns (0-10) at Bengals (4-6): Cincinnati-Cleveland is winless at Thanksgiving for the second straight year. Although, the Battle of Ohio looks like one of their best remaining chances to put a "1" in the win column. The Bengals would prefer to not see that happen, though. Especially not in their stadium.
Titans (6-4) at Colts (3-7): Tennessee-Tennessee has had 10 days to recover from that Thursday night demolition in Pittsburgh that dropped them from the AFC South lead into a wild card spot. It doesn't look like Jacksonville's going to provide them with much help on the division front, so they need to win all of the games they're supposed to heading into that Week 17 matchup with the Jaguars. A game against the Colts certainly qualifies as one the Titans should win.
Bills (5-5) at Chiefs (6-4): Kansas City-Somehow the Chiefs still lead the AFC West by two games and the Bills are still tied for a wild card spot. This despite the fact that Kansas City has lost four out of five and Buffalo has dropped three straight, including utter embarrassments by the Saints and Chargers in their last two games. One of them has to finally not lose this week! The Chiefs, who somehow managed not to score a touchdown against the Giants, have at least been competitive in their losses, so they get the nod.
Dolphins (4-6) at Patriots (8-2): New England-Five of New England's remaining six games are within the division, which means the Patriots' road to yet another AFC East title and first-round bye seems pretty straight. If this was last year's Dolphins team, I'd say they stood a decent chance of actually pulling the upset here. But these Dolphins simply don't know how to score. And you need to score--a lot--in order to beat Tom Brady.
Panthers (7-3) at Jets (4-6): Carolina-Carolina's gotta feel pretty frustrated. The Saints keep winning, so they haven't been able to gain any ground in the division. And their wild-card lead is only one game over three teams. Their next two games are against New Orleans and Minnesota, so the Panthers will get their chance to take care of their own business. But none of that will matter if they don't beat the Jets.
Bears (3-7) at Eagles (9-1): Philadelphia-Even without a kicker the Eagles just kept flying high. Philadelphia probably won't go 15-1 (not with three straight road games, including a two-week West Coast trip coming up), but they have very few flaws. The Bears, on the other hand, have a lot of flaws (yet they beat the Steelers). Philly should become the first team in the league with 10 wins and move that much closer to a playoff spot.
Seahawks (6-4) at 49ers (1-9): Seattle-Monday night's loss to Atlanta was a big blow to the Seahawks' playoff chances. They're currently on the outside looking in with three straight games against first-place teams coming up after this one. Which means their margin for error against San Francisco is zero. If the Seahawks don't take care of business in Santa Clara, it's a virtual certainty that they'll be watching the playoffs from home.
Broncos (3-7) at Raiders (4-6): Oakland-Talk about a team spiraling downward. The Broncos lost to the Giants, and that was just the beginning. Denver's dropped six straight, benched its quarterback, and now fired its offensive coordinator. As for the Raiders, their problems have been on defense, so that's the side of the ball where they made a change. Something's gotta give as these two AFC West rivals square off. The Raiders are less of a mess right now, so they get the nod.
Saints (8-2) at Rams (7-3): New Orleans-The Rams lost to the Vikings last week, now they play another division leader they're fighting for playoff seeding. This one should be fun, too. Because both teams know how to score. This could very easily be a preview of a game we'll see in January. Although, if they do meet again, it'll likely be in New Orleans. Because I see Drew Brees and Co. winning their ninth in a row.
Jaguars (7-3) at Cardinals (4-6): Jacksonville-Is Jacksonville really 7-3? And leading its division? And a road favorite? What's going on in the NFL this season?! Meanwhile, Arizona has been struggling. They play well at home, so I think it'll be close. But I also think the Jaguars go into the desert, make it five straight and stay in front of the Titans in the AFC South.
Packers (5-5) at Steelers (8-2): Pittsburgh-I've done a lot of complaining about the random interconference matchups that have been featured on Sunday Night Football this season. No such complaints about Packers-Steelers, two of the marquee franchises in football. Of course, this matchup would've been a lot more marquee if not for the Aaron Rodgers injury. Green Bay is simply a different team without him. And they're certainly not good enough to compete with Pittsburgh right now.
Texans (4-6) at Ravens (5-5): Baltimore-Baltimore is one of the most confounding teams in all of football. The Ravens have five wins this season...and three shutouts! But they're just 2-5 when they actually allow points. Yet they're sitting in playoff position as they get ready for a Monday night matchup with the Texans. They haven't been above .500 since they were 3-2 after that win in Oakland. That should change this week. They'll be 6-5.
GREY CUP--Argonauts vs. Stampeders: Calgary-As usual, the bonus Grey Cup pick. And this is an easy one. Calgary was the best team in the CFL all season, and they came out of the much stronger Western Division. Toronto, meanwhile, was just 9-9, which was still good enough for first place in the weaker East. I don't think this one will be particularly close. The Stampeders win their first Grey Cup since 2014.
Last Week: 7-7
Overall: 95-65
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