NFL Picks, 2012 Season, Week 12

The New England Patriots scored a convincing win last weekend against Indianapolis, but it ended up being a costly one.

Star tight end Rob Gronkowski could miss a month or more with a broken arm suffered while blocking on an extra point late in the game.

Richard Hill, assistant editor for Pats Pulpit, acknowledges that Gronk is a tough loss to swallow, but adds that the team may be primed for another deep playoff run nonetheless.

Aaron Hernandez and three other lesser known tight ends will have to step up in his absence. And all three phases of the game will have to adjust and play better.

Nonetheless, the schedule plays out favorably for clinching a playoff spot, with two contests against Miami and single games against New York Jets and Jacksonville on the slate. A first-round bye, however, might be a tough get.

“It won’t be easy,” Hill says. “They’ll need the Ravens to either drop two games (likely) and beat the Broncos (possible, but it’s at Mile High), or they’ll need the Broncos to stumble along the way (not likely).”

Hill provided some longer thoughts that we’ve turned into its own post. He also joined us as our guest blogger for this Thanksgiving weekend’s slate of games.

Week 11 realistically saw a great week of picks across the board, but Andy’s 10-4 picks were far and away the worst of the week, finishing two games back of Derek Arnold from the Russell Street Report—who’s pick of Chicago on Monday night kept him from matching Tony’s 13-1 mark. The only game Tony missed was the Jets drubbing of the Rams, a game that Andy and Tony discussed as potentially going that way earlier in the week over lunch (you’re going to have to just trust us on that one, we really did discuss it).

That puts some distance between first and second place for the season:

Best of luck to you all and enjoy your long holiday break—here are our picks for the week:

Game of the Week: San Francisco @ New Orleans – A few good options this week, including the Sunday night tilt between the Packers and the Giants, a game that may have playoff ramifications that no one predicted coming into the season (the fact that, although unlikely, both teams could conceivably miss them altogether). But the most intriguing game to us is possibly the best team in the NFC (despite having “only” a 7-2-1 record) facing one of the hottest teams in the league in the Saints. While they don’t have the longest winning streak in the league (Green Bay and Denver at 5 wins), or even their division (Tampa Bay at 4 wins), the Saints have recovered from an 0-4 start to reach 5-5, with wins over the Bucs and the previously unbeaten Falcons along the way, and no one seems to want to face the potential of them squeaking in the playoffs.

Game of the Weak: Carolina @ Philadelphia – The age old question for game of the week, is the matchup of two bad opponents (Carolina/Philly, Tennessee/Jacksonville) worst than the probably squash game (Denver/Kansas City). This week, given that it’s Monday night, we give the nod to a game that I can’t imagine anyone outside of the two featured cities tuning in for, once again making ESPN’s decision to overpay for Monday Night Football inexplicable. But hey, at least we have about 7 more articles from ProFootballTalk speculating that Jon Gruden will be coaching one of these teams next year to look forward to. Honorable mention: Baltimore @ San Diego. Could this be the game that finally gets Norv Turner fired? The only thing that may save his incompetence is the incompetence of AJ Smith.