Clear and partly cloudy is the forecast for all National Football League game sites today. While the weather is mild, the race to the 14 postseason slots is heating up.
Three teams have clinched a playoff date beginning with the Buffalo Bills who are the only team to lock in their division title. The Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs currently lead the NFC North and AFC West respectively, and while assured a playoff berth still have their division races to secure.
The Chiefs could do that tonight, when they host the second place Los Angeles Chargers. The Lions, who put a seemingly insurmountable distance between them and the Green Bay Packers with their Thursday night victory, still have the Minnesota Vikings in range to catch them. The Vikings have lost two games this season and host the Atlanta Falcons today. The Lions have the best record in football with a 12-1 mark.
Four teams have been eliminated from playoff possibilities; that list includes the New England Patriots, Jacksonville Jaguars, Las Vegas Raiders and New York Giants. This weekend, a few more teams will join the eliminated group.
Each year the question is raised whether some teams are willing to surrender the end of their campaign schedule while focusing on a higher draft pick. There are three teams with only two wins this season, the Jaguars, Raiders and Giants. Are they more concerned with ending the season with the worst record than adding to their win total?
While from an organizational standpoint that quest for a high draft choice seems reasonable, in real life I have never seen it played out on the field. Players and coaches are more concerned about keeping their jobs than what draft number they will earn with their record. There is also a competitive edge in athletes at this level that just doesn't lend to them being a boxer willing to take a dive for his career.
The more common occurrence late in a season is that a team that needs a win to earn a playoff spot has a lot of trouble beating a team with nothing left to play for other than affecting the postseason by messing up their opponents' prospects.
Then we have the advantageous situation where one team is in prime playoff pursuit and meeting a team already with a postseason date clinched. We get that today, when the Buffalo Bills, following their division clinching win over the San Francisco 49ers, meet another NFC West opponent, the Los Angeles Rams.
The Rams need wins to stay in the hunt in the competitive NFC West race, currently a logjam with a high probability that no team from the NFC West is going to earn a Wild Card berth. In addition to the Rams and 49ers, included in this division are the Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks, who will battle today at State Farm Stadium.
While the Rams need wins, and the Bills are off their division clinching victory constitutes our top pick of the week. The public is on the opposite side. Their most-bet game of the week is the Buffalo Bills (-3½) over the Los Angeles Rams, followed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-6½) over the Las Vegas Raiders and Miami Dolphins (-6) over the New York Jets.
The Qoxhi selections for Week 14 are now posted on this site, and if a Bullet Play develops in the final hour leading up to the day’s first kickoff, that game will be added to the list of recommendations by 9:45 a.m. Pacific Time.