NFL Picks 2013: Week 16

Week 15 was a head scratcher.

Minnesota dominating against Philadelphia? Dallas blowing a 147 point halftime lead against Green Bay? Cincinnati laying an egg in its opportunity to claim the AFC’s second seed after New England laid an egg in its opportunity to claim the number one seed from Denver after the Broncos laid an egg against San Diego?

A lot of teams had chances to provide some clarity to the playoff situation in week 15 and a lot of teams dropped the ball. And it showed in our picks for the week. Rich capitalized. The rest of us put up pretty bad weeks.

Here are the standings heading into week 16:

Well, there aren’t a ton of great games on the schedule for the second to last week of the season, but there are a couple solid tilts. And there are a lot of match-ups that, once again, could shed some light on who we will be watching as the calendar turns.

Here’s who we think wins:

Game of the Week: New Orleans at Carolina – Two weeks ago we featured this NFC South match-up when it was in the Superdome. The Saints won handily that time around, giving themselves a chance to control their own destiny in the division. They dropped the ball on that fate last week against St. Louis, however, and the Panthers have another chance to stake a claim to the division title. One would guess the game in Charlotte will be closer than the one two weeks ago.

Game of the Weak: Cleveland at New York Jets – We considered a couple games for this honor. Tampa at St. Louis also seemed to warrant consideration. But the Rams and Bucs each have a few solid wins in recent weeks, whereas the Jets and Browns have seemed more stuck in neutral. I like the direction Cleveland is heading. They haven’t been an easy out this season, but they’re still a ways away. New York is up one week and down the next. And they really need a couple offensive skill players. Good grief, are they ugly on offense some weeks.

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