The Lions let me down yet again last week, but the Patriots easily covered the 9 point spread in Buffalo, while the Jets won an absolute thriller over the Chiefs to give me a 2-1 record on the week and bring my season record against the spread to 12-16-1. After an absolutely awful start to the season I’m inching closer to ending the season at .500, which has been my goal after the horrible start.
I’ll be using SportsInteraction.com for all of the spreads and predictions below. You can see our full Sports Interaction review here. I only have 2 plays this week.
Oakland Raiders @ Kansas City Chiefs
Oakland +4- Kansas City -4
The Chiefs are simply nowhere near the team they were that started the season 5-0 and were widely considered the top team in the NFL at that time. Since then the Chiefs have gone an abysmal 1-6 and that includes awful losses to the lowly Giants, Bills and Jets, coming out of their week 10 bye. This team has simply forgotten how to win.
Oakland, on the other hand, seems to have turned the corner for the positive. They are 3-1 in their last 4 games with the only loss coming to the Pats. Albeit the wins weren’t over power houses in any means, but they were wins nonetheless and the Raiders now find themselves right there with the Chiefs and Chargers battling for the division win in the AFC West.
Don’t let the 6-6 record fool you with the Chiefs. At this point in time they are one of the worst teams in the league. That team that took the league by storm out of the gate is a distant memory. I expect the Raiders to be able to put up points on this Chiefs defense with relative ease and with Alex Smith and Kareem Hunt both looking very average of late, I don’t think the Chiefs will be able to keep pace.
Play: Raiders +4
Washington Redskins @ LA Chargers
Washington +6- Los Angeles -6
The other team in that AFC West battle is the LA Chargers who have won 3 straight games and really look to be rising to the top of this division. The Chargers are the best team in that division in my opinion. The Chargers 3 game winning streak has not included any big wins, but they are getting the job done when necessary and even in losses to top teams like the Eagles and Patriots this season, the Chargers have been able to keep the games close.
Philip Rivers and Keenan Allen seem to have rekindled the chemistry from two years ago and have become a lethal combination over the past 3 games, with Allen breaking the 100 receiving yard mark in each game. The Redskins are ranked #5 DVOA against opposing #1 WR’s, so this might have to be a Melvin Gordon game, but he’s also been playing well of late and should be able to take advantage if the path to victory is on the ground against this Redskins defense.
The Redskins simply don’t have the weapons to put up many points on this talented Chargers defense that gave up under 300 total yards in both their last two games and has been forcing an inordinate amount of turnovers as well.
I could see the Chargers running away with this one.
Play: Chargers -6
Tagged With : NFL betting • NFL Picks • NFL Week 14
