Week 12 wasn’t a great week for me picking games, but I still managed to stay on the positive side of the ledger with 9 correct and 7 wrong. The record for the season stands at 110 right and 66 wrong. Here are the choices for week 13:

Philadelphia at Seattle – neither of these teams is going to the playoffs, but the Eagles may be playing to save coach Andy Reid’s job. Although the Seahawks are tough at home, Philly has more talent and will pull out a win.

Tennessee at Buffalo – the Titans are 2 games out of their division lead but with Houston down to their 3rd string QB, they are legitimate contenders. Chris Johnson finally looks like he’s on track, and I see Tennessee battling to a hard-fought win over the fading Bills.

New York Jets at Washington – the Jets won the game they had to win last week, and are much better talent-wise than the Redskins. It won’t be easy, but the Jets will win.

Kansas City at Chicago – both of these teams are playing with backup QBs, so any further success they have will be because of their defense. The Bears have the edge there, plus the home field which is huge for them. The Bears win.

Cincinnati at Pittsburgh – the Bengals have a tough defense and rookie QB Andy Dalton has played well, but this is the time of year the Steelers get serious. Pittsburgh wins to stay even with the Ravens in the AFC North.

Atlanta at Houston – the Texans have to try to stay afloat with their third string QB, but Atlanta’s defense is too much of a challenge. The Falcons win on the road.

Denver at Minnesota – Tim Tebow doesn’t really do anything amazing, but he also doesn’t turn the ball over, and allows the running game, which he is a big part of, to keep drives alive to help his defense stay rested. That formula will work again to beat the Vikings.

Carolina at Tampa Bay – Tampa has been disappointing, but this is a home game against a division rival so they’ll find a way to tough out a win.

Indianapolis at New England – when Peyton Manning was playing, these teams played some classic games. Without him, it’ll be over by halftime. The Patriots win in a rout.

Oakland at Miami – both teams have respectable defenses and I expect it to be a low scoring game, but Carson Palmer is getting comfortable in his new surroundings and will make enough plays to give the Raiders the win.

Baltimore at Cleveland – the Ravens are supposed to be one of the AFC’s top contenders and lead the AFC North, but this is the type of game they’ve been blowing all year. I just can’t see an upset here, though, since the season is reaching the point where the top teams have to win to secure the best possible playoff seeding. The Ravens win.

Green Bay at New York Giants – the Packers are solid, and don’t appear to be losing any focus despite basically have their division locked up. The Giants are once again doing their Jeckyl/Hyde act. Green Bay stays unbeaten with a win that pushes the Giants almost out of playoff contention.

Dallas at Arizona – the Cowboys have worked themselves into position to take control of the NFC East race and can’t afford to stumble here. It’ll be close but Dallas wins.

St. Louis at San Francisco – this is a bad matchup between the Rams’ pathetic offense and the tough Niner defense. Looking to get back on track after losing on Thanksgiving night, San Francisco wins easily.

Detroit at New Orleans – the Lions will be missing their top defensive player Ndamukong Suh, against the team they need him for the most. Because it’s at home in their dome, the Saints win easily.

San Diego at Jacksonville – this game is a Monday night clunker. The Jaguars just fired their coach, and the Chargers probably will also very soon. San Diego has underachieved badly but has too much talent to lose here. The Chargers, who started the year 4-1 and are now 4-7, snap their long losing streak with a win.

The playoff hopes of the Buffalo Bills for this season were all but ended by the 28-24 loss to the New York Jets on Sunday, and that’s a major disappointment to their fans, who had high hopes after the team started 5-2. After 4 straight losses and devastating injuries to a number of key players on a roster that didn’t have a whole lot of talent to begin with, the Bills now have to use the final 5 games to figure out which players are going to be part of the team going forward into next season. With Fred Jackson out for the year, they’ll find out whether C.J. Spiller can carry the load at running back, or if he is just a novelty, Reggie Bush type of player. They have to decide whether Stevie Johnson is worth investing big dollars in. He is a good enough player, but his selfish antics and penchant for dropping balls in the most critical situations are things that don’t appear to be getting better. He is the Bills’ version of DeSean Jackson, a talented receiver for the Eagles who is a major distraction for that team. GM Buddy Nix should step in at this point and suspend Johnson for next week’s game, since his selfish touchdown display and drops at the end of the game practically single-handedly cost the Bills the game on Sunday. He should then be told to spend the time he spends dreaming up ridiculous celebrations on catching extra passes after practice to improve his game, and that he has the final 4 games to prove that he deserves to be signed to a new contract for next season. After 3 straight awful games, the Bills’ offense at least returned to respectability, against a good Jet defense. There were plenty of positives to build on the rest of the season – the play of 2 players whose development has solidified them as major factors going forward, David Nelson and tight end Scott Chandler. The beleaguered offensive line played a decent game, other than having some penalty problems. Guys like Kraig Urbik, Chad Rinehart, Erik Pears and stellar rookie Chris Hairston will be getting valuable experience the rest of the way. Johnson, for the second time this year, had pretty good success against Derrelle Revis, the guy who supposedly blankets all the great receivers. On talent alone, he is worth keeping for the future, but he needs to be given a wake-up call attitude-wise, which is why I think a suspension would be a good idea.

On defense, the Bills have been bad all year, even when they were winning. They played well in routs against the Chiefs and Redskins, but in all other games have not been able to stop anybody consistently. Their third down defense has been really bad, and they have not been able to make stops at crucial times in close games. The Bengals, Giants and Jets all drove downfield at will when the game was on the line and picked up wins. That being said, there were signs of improvement from the defense in Sunday’s game. Although they buckled and gave up touchdowns at the end of both halves, with both TDs looking like they were the result of blown coverages, overall the new players in the secondary, Aaron Williams, DaNorris Searcy and Justin Rogers, all made plays on the ball and had decent coverage on receivers at times. The linebackers looked a little more active than usual, and even disrupted some passes. They’ve clearly moved on from Leodis McKelvin, who likely won’t be back next year. Again, the experience players like Williams, Rogers and Searcy get the rest of the year will help them going into next season. The biggest negative with the defense is the lack of a pass rush. The play of the youngsters in the secondary is even more impressive considering the lack of pressure on the opposing QB. Somehow, the coaching staff has to accelerate the development of players like Marcell Dareus, Alex Carrington and Torell Troup (who wasn’t even active Sunday) on the defensive line, and figure out how to manufacture some pressure from their stable of young linebackers.

After picking 8 winners out of 14 games played last weekend, my season prediction record stands at 101 correct and 59 wrong. Here are the week 12 picks, starting with 3 very interesting Thanksgiving Day games:

Green Bay at Detroit – the Lions usually treat this game like it’s their Super Bowl, and have righted themselves after a brief slump. I believe they will shock the football world and upset the Packers.

Miami at Dallas –  the Dolphins are riding high with 3 straight wins, and should stay competitive, but the Cowboys are the better team and won’t blow an opportunity to stay on top of the NFC East. Dallas wins at home.

San Francisco at Baltimore – the battle of the Harbaugh brothers should be a real slugfest. John’s Ravens have one of the NFL’s toughest defenses, but Jim’s 49ers have quietly played some stingy D all year also in compiling a 9-1 record. The Ravens have been terribly inconsistent all year, but I think their experience edge over the young Niners will carry them to the win.

Buffalo at New York Jets – the playoff hopes of the loser of this game will be effectively over. The Jets have not been the world-beaters they proclaimed themselves, but they have the Bills’ number lately, and Buffalo is in the midst of an epic collapse that they appear to not know how to get out of. The Jets win easily.

Minnesota at Atlanta – this should be a one-sided win for the Falcons on their home field, especially if Adrian Peterson is still hobbled from an injury suffered last week.

Carolina at Indianapolis – Cam Newton’s play has leveled off since early in the year, and I believe the Colts need to put it together and win a game to placate their disappointed fan base. The Colts win their first game of the year in a high-scoring game.

Houston at Jacksonville – Matt Leinart, a high draft pick bust in Arizona, gets an opportunity to revive his career as he takes over at QB for the Texans in place of the injured Matt Schaub. The Texans will win this game because of the play of their defense, which will stymie the Jaguars as Leinart finds his way.

Cleveland at Cincinnati – the Bengals have been sent back to Earth after consecutive losses to the Steelers and Ravens, but they still have a shot at the playoffs and are a much better team than the Browns, and will win on their home field.

Arizona at St. Louis – two teams playing out the string, and a very tough game to handicap since both are inconsistent. I’ll go with the Rams at home.

Tampa Bay at Tennessee – this has been a disappointing season for the Bucs, who especially haven’t done well on the road. The Titans keep their playoff hopes alive with a big win.

Washington at Seattle – the Seahawks are coming off a win, while the Redskins lost an overtime heartbreaker to Dallas. While the ‘Skins are still playing hard, they don’t have the horses to win this game. Seattle wins handily.

Chicago at Oakland – this is a game with serious playoff implications for both teams. The Bears’ defense will be the difference as they control the Raider offense and nail down a hard-fought low scoring game.

New England at Philadelphia – the Patriots, as they always do, are peaking at the right time. They’ll win this game to put the final nail in the coffin of the Eagles’ playoff hopes.

Denver at San Diego – the Tebow magic ends here. The Chargers are too good of a team to continue playing the sloppy football they’ve played this year, and they’ll put together a solid effort and win.

Pittsburgh at Kansas City – the Steeler defense against Chief QB Tyler Palko is a complete mismatch.  Pittsburgh wins handily.

New York Giants at New Orleans – if the Giants can win at New England, they can win here. The Saints are considered a Super Bowl contender, but their defense can’t stand up to the physical Giants’ running game. I’ll pick New York to win and stay tied for their division lead.